Hedgehag

The Hedgehag is a Monster in CrossCode. It can be encountered in Autumn's Rise.

Appearance
The Hedgehag is a small, four-legged creature with dark grey skin and a back covered in brown spines.

Combat
Once engaged in combat, Hedgehags will attempt to follow and swarm Lea. They can only use a spinning dash attack that deals damage on contact, which is led by a brief period of spinning in place during which the Hedgehags take reduced damage. They are able to jump in a similar way as Lea in case they need to pursue a target at an higher altitude. Perfect Guarding one of their attacks will briefly stun them and cause them to take increased damage.

Strategies
Hedgehags are the first and weakest enemies encountered in Autumn's Rise. While one or two Hedgehags can be easily pinned down and dispatched with Melee attacks, their main danger lies in large groups, where Hedgehags at the back of the group can stay hidden from your attacks and attack through the crowd. For this reason, hit and run tactics may be useful in these cases. Use area-of-effect combat arts or some melee on a group of Hedgehags when it is safe to do so, then dodge or run away, getting some distace, and repeat. Alternatively, just keep the distance and shoot them without ever getting close. In some places, it is also possible to lead Hedgehags into following you across water, and then hit them with Balls in mid-jump, knocking them into the water and damaging them.

When paired with other enemies, Hedgehags should be dealt with first, as they require no special tactics to defeat and their aggressive following will often lead them in front of the other enemies. This same good following ability makes them an excellent choice to lead between groups of foes when trying to obtain a high combat ranking.

Avoid trying to parry their attacks, as the timing is very precise, making the effort rarely worth it.

Locations

 * Autumn's Rise
 * Entrance: x2
 * Pathway 1: x6 respawning + x2 quest-related battle
 * ???: x3
 * Quiet Passage 1: x6
 * Quiet Passage 2: x7
 * Hedgehag's Den: x17
 * Pathway 2: x8
 * Pathway 3: x8
 * Off Road 1: x8
 * Off Road 2: x4
 * Obelisk Lake: x6
 * Pathway 4: x3
 * Pathway 5: x2
 * Old Observatory: x2

Trivia

 * The Hedgehag was introduced along with Autumn's Rise in the first version of the Demo. It has appeared in all subsequent versions of the game except the Shortened Demo.