Flamin' Hillkat

The Flamin' Hillkat is an organic enemy in CrossWorlds. It is found in Autumn's Rise.

Appearance
The Flamin' Hillkat is a small, brown-furred creature looking out from a hole in the ground. It wears bright red headphones, to distinguish it from its weaker counterpart, the Rockin' Hillkat, which wears green headphones. It will stay in one place, headbanging to music, until engaged in combat.

Combat
The Flamin' Hillkat will try to fight from a distance and will burrow when approached, when the line between it and its target is obstructed and sometimes after attacks. It attacks by throwing a rock directly at its target, but it can sometimes charge up, flashing red, for a different attack. It is possible to stun a Hillkat by hitting it with a charged Ball while it is charging, or to get close, so it interrupts the charge to burrow and escape. If the Hillkat finishes to charge, ti will burrow and emerge below its target with a powerful uppercut. Getting hit too many times too quickly may result in burn, which causes a lot of extra damage.

They are completely immune to knockback and are often able to escape stun-lock situations.

Strategies
Do not bother going for melee, instead focus on ranged combat. Most of the times, simply moving while far away and shooting willbe enough, but, as it is difficult to damage Hillkats during typical gameplay, it will often be beneficial to wait until they charge their attack, stun them, then attack with melee or Combat Arts while they are stunned. When hit, even with a normal Ball, they dive underground, making it possible to greatly reduce the ranged attacks they can deal. Fighting large groups of Hillkats is difficult, as a charged Ball is needed to stun, and the other Hillkat's ranged attacks can disrupt your charging. In these circumstances, hitting the Hillkats with Combat Arts when they charge their attack and then dashing away from the resulting attack may be the best way to whittle down their numbers. It can also be noted that Flamin' Hillkats are weak to the Cold element, allowing higher damage to be dealt to them at the risk of being weak to their normal attack.

When fighting Hillkats and Hedgehags together, it is recommended to kill the Hedgehags first, as they attack you directly, leaving them much more open to quick destruction than the evasive Hillkats. Hillkats and Bovines can be a deadly combination, due to their respective time-consuming defeat strategies. If you aren't at a sufficient level to deal with either of them quickly, it may be necessary to lose the Bovines, which are slower and have no ranged abilities, by fleeing or jumping to an island. The two can then be dealt with much easier individually. If this is impossible, lead the Bovine to stun itself, and aggress the Hillkat during the following respite period.

Locations

 * Autumn's Rise
 * Pathway 4: x6
 * Pathway 5: x6 respawning, plus x6 as part of the Bull Rush sidequest (4 in round 3 and 2 in round 4)
 * Pathway 6: x2
 * Pathway 7: X8
 * End of Autumn's Rise: x2
 * Old Observatory: x2
 * Inside Observatory: x5 fought as part of Enemy Rush challenge (2 in round 13, 1 in round 17, 2 in round 19)

Development Notes
The Flamin' Hillkat 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.