Flamin' Hillkat

Flamin' Hillkat
Location	Autumn's Rise
Level	10
Type	Organic
Subtype	Headbanging Mammal
Stats
Max HP	Unknown
Attack	Unknown
Defence	Unknown
Focus	Unknown
Resistance	None
Rewards
EXP	45
Credits	Unknown
Drops
None

The Flamin' Hillkat is a Monster in CrossCode. It is found in Autumn's Rise.

Flamin' Hillkat
This sub-species of the Rockin' Hillkat wears red headphones instead of green ones. It also shows a more aggressive behavior towards aggressors by throwing flaming stones at them instead of normal ones. Contrary to popular belief the music it's listening to is smooth jazz.
-Monster Fibula reports

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 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, which appear to be fireballs and deal Heat-elemental damage, 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. 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.