Rockin' Hillkat

Rockin' Hillkat
Location	Autumn's Rise
Level	5
Type	Organic
Subtype	Headbanging Mammal
Stats
Max HP	Unknown
Attack	Unknown
Defence	Unknown
Focus	Unknown
Resistance	None
Rewards
EXP	43
Credits	Unknown
Drops
None

The Rockin' Hillkat is a Monster in CrossCode. They can be encountered in Autumn's Rise.

Rockin' Hillkat
This happy meerkat spends half of its life below ground where it listens to music on its headphones. It can burrow tunnels so fast that it can use them both to attack predators and escape from them. When threatened it will throw stones and use a fierce uppercut. Before doing so it will charge up for a short while. Use this window and stun it by throwing a charged ball at it.
-Monster Fibula reports

Appearance

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

Combat

The Hillkat is a very quick in combat, and dives under the ground to pop up in a new location when approached or aggressed. Its basic attack is to throw small projectiles, most likely stones, at the player. It will occasionally charge for a more powerful attack, shown by it turning red. In this attack, it dashes at the player underground and jumps up at them from beneath, hitting them for high damage.

It is possible to stun a Hillkat by hitting it with a charged Ball while it is charging its special attack. Due to their speed and evasiveness, it is nearly impossible to hit one with multiple consecutive Balls or with any melee, unless it is charging or stunned. They are completely immune to knockback, and are often able to escape stunlock situations.

Strategies

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.

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 1: x1

???: x7

Quiet Passage 1: x3

Pathway 2: x1

Pathway 3: x4

Off Road 1: x2 respawning, plus 2 fought as part of the Digging for Data sidequest

Off Road 2: x5

Obelisk Lake: x3

Pathway 4: x2

Development Notes

The Rockin' 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.