Mad Bovine

The Mad Bovine is an organic enemy in CrossWorlds. They can be encountered in Autumn's Rise.

Appearance
The Mad Bovine is a large, four-legged creature with prominent bull horns. It is mainly covered in shaggy brown fur, except for its head area, which has thick armored plates colored gray with red markings.

Combat
During combat, the Mad Bovine slowly follows Lea around, taking care to always face her. It has two attacks that it uses. The first is a ground stomp that can be used with no warning; it generates a powerful short-range shockwave that can damage the player even if they are on a higher ledge. Its second attack is a charge, and is made clear by it pawing the ground beforehand. It charges in a straight line until it either hits the player for substantial damage, or runs slightly past them. If the Bovine runs into an obstacle while charging, it will be knocked out and immobile for a substantial period of time. The front of the Bovine is heavily armored and takes minimal damage, while VRP's do less damage to it than to other enemies, even when attacking it in the back. Both of the Mad Bovine's attacks disrupt shields.

Strategies
The Mad Bovine is nearly invulnerable to damage from the front, and since it turns to face Lea, typical attacking is of little use against them. The principal strategy to fight them involves standing in front of a wall and Dashing away from their charge attack, causing them to hit the wall and be knocked out. The player is then free to use Melee attacks to deal them substantial damage from behind. It is also feasible, particularly for low-level players, to lead them to charge into water, removing 25% of their health each time. Be sure to keep your distance from non-stunned Bovines, as their stomp attack can be used with next to no warning.

Having a party member is very helpful against Bovines, as they can only face one person at a time, leaving the other free to attack them from behind even when they are not stunned.

Due to the special strategies required to defeat them, facing Bovines with other enemies can be a challenging task. For inexperienced players, the best option will be to run; the slower Bovine will quickly fall behind and lose aggression. Alternative strategies are to quickly kill the Bovine with Combat Arts that bypass defense, or lead it to stun itself and concentrate on the other enemies while it is stunned. For multiple Bovines, try to separate them using their charge attack, so that you can deal damage to one before the other has the chance to reach you and use its stomp attack.

Locations

 * Autumn's Rise
 * Pathway 3: x1
 * Off Road 2: x1
 * Obelisk Lake: x3
 * Inside Observatory: x5 fought as part of the Enemy Rush challenge (3 in round 9, 1 in round 11 and 1 in round 17)

Development Notes
The Mad Bovine 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.