Rockin' Hillkat

The Green Meerkat is a monster in CrossCode. It is found in Autumn's Rise.

Appearance

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

Combat

The Meerkat 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 Meerkat 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. They can drop down cliffs, but are unable to climb or jump.

Strategies

As it is difficult to damage Meerkats 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 Meerkats is difficult, as a charged Ball is needed to stun, and the other Meerkat's ranged attacks can disrupt your charging. In these circumstances, hitting the Meerkats 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 Meerkats and Hedgehogs together, it is recommended to kill the Hedgehogs first, as they attack you directly, leaving them much more open to quick destruction than the evasive Meerkats. Meerkats and Bulls 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 Bulls, 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 Bull to stun itself, and aggress the Meerkat during the following respite period.

Rewards

When defeated, a Green Meerkat awards 42 Credits, along with XP related to your current level. They also have a chance to drop Sandwiches or Headphone Scraps.

Locations

21 respawning Green Meerkats can be found throughout Autumn's Rise. An additional eight are fought during the Enemy Rush challenge: four in Round 8, two in Round 11, one in Round 13 and one in Round 17.

Development Notes

The Green Meerkat 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.