Naughty Foxy

[Tea]

I was wondering, is there any way for you to beat the fox in the game without running away yourself? I've tried a few times, but if I stay and fight, the patrol is always killed.

Leonard

[Leonard]

It is possible, but rather difficult and beating the Fox requires understanding of some mechanics that are never properly explained in game. Here's what I think is the best way to beat him:

There are two major choices regarding this battle: The cat You send back and the skill You choose.

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to force Fox to retreat if You send Duskpaw back. Badgerpaw and Kestrelpaw have nice damage output with their dual strike, but Fox's intimidating aura is just too much in the long run. I think Kestrelpaw is a better choice, but I know one of thetesters managed to beat the Fox with Badgerpaw (and that was before Fox got nerfed).

The small gimmick with having Kestrelpaw participate in this battle is him having breathing troubles during first few turns. It's possible to alleviate this handicap in one of the two ways:

- Intended: If You received any herb training from Blackheart, You can pick up coltsfoot from conveniently placed patch in the thicket that You are trapped in. Using it on Kestrelpaw will remove the status effect, letting him participate right from the start.
- It's a bug, but it works. If you walk around in the enclosed thicket, his breathing problems will go away after two dozens of steps or so.

Kestrelpaw is useful mostly because of his two skills: Hamstring and Cheap Shot. Hamstring greatly reduces agility, and somewhat reduces accuracy and evasion. Keeping Fox hamstrung all the time is preferred - it guarantees that You'll move first, and that Your attacks will never miss. It will also occasionally cause Fox to miss.

Cheap Shot is a stun. Since it's a 4v1 battle, every turn that Fox misses means 4 free actions for You. Cheap Shot stuns for 1-2 turns. If You land it before the Fox has a turn, he will lose his current action (which is why Hamstring is so strong).


Second important choice is picking a skill. You get one guaranteed skill point, and You can in theory get another one by training with Nettlepaw on two different occasions - but the event is bugged, so You don't get the skill for the second training.

Eviscerate - has highest base damage (85 - by comparison, standard attack has 20 and Nettlepaw's Triple Strike has 60) of all the skills if enemy is immobilized. The trick is that stuns, knockdowns and hamstring counts as immobilization. As long as Fox is Hamstrung, Snowpaw can deal respective damage using this skill.

Deep Cut - After using once it keeps damaging Fox for the whole battle. The battle usually lasts a while, so damage builds up.

Counter Attack is nice in theory, since it nullifies Fox's attack - the problem is, Snowpaw doesn't have any skills yet to build up his aggro.

First Aid Lick - A targetted, cheap heal is always useful, and it gives a lot of aggro - useful for spreading heat around.



As for the battle - Courageous Roar needs to be on the party at all times. Fox's fear will destroy the patrol otherwise. Fox always uses his fear on 3rd turn, and every four turns after that. It's preferable to use Duskpaw as the main tank, making sure he has the highest aggro with Heroic Assault all the time, though Nettlepaw can take a few hits if necessary.

Nettlepaw should focus on spamming Triple Strike - preferably in Clawdancer's Stance. That extra energy is really useful.

Kestrelpaw should hamstring Fox whenever the effect runs out, and try to stun him if Fox is Hamstrung and Kestrelpaw has any energy to spare.

Duskpaw can die once during the battle - he will get a special buff and some extra energy if that happens, so don't hestitate to let him soak up as much damage as possible. Occasional use of Adrenaline Rush is useful to prolong his life. If You manage to spread the aggro around, so everyone gets damaged a bit, Second Wind is really worth its energy cost. The amount of hp healed depends on Bravery of user and targets, so be sure you have bravery buff on everyone before using it.

Once Fox gets low on health, Nettlepaw should switch to Finishing Strike (in offensive stance) - it deals some percent of missing health, so once Fox is somewhat damaged, she can pull around 200 damage with it. This is key to finishing the battle.

To force the fox to retreat, he needs to be at 40% hp or lower - since he starts with 2500hp, this means dealing a total of 1500 damage. Finishing Strike really helps here, once the fox gets lower.

Alternate strategy, which I got from tester, is sending Kestrelpaw back, picking Defensive Battle Cry as skill (First Aid Lick would also work, I think). Main goal of Snowpaw is just to keep the buff up, and use Duskpaw as a healbot with Second Wind. Badgerpaw here serves mostly to feed energy to Duskpaw and occasionally to Nettlepaw, using her Moral Support skill. Apparently this works, too. Feint can be useful, too, but confusion is somewhat unreliable.

Well, that's what I've gathered. If anyone has any other advice or strategy on how to get the best ending, I'd be curious to see it.

[Meowmocha]

Leonard, I just want you to know that the fox is probably the game ultimate source of ragequits.

Seriously, even with all these tips, I still die. And it seems like once I get the fox low on health so I can use Finishing Strike, the fox kills her. And then I die because she's my main attack dealer at that point.

[Leonard]

I'm aware that a lot of the players found the battle overwhelming and just too hard (this doesn't only apply to the Fox battle, I've got reports that the battle with Rogues was too much for some people). Fox is again getting nerfed slightly in the upcoming version, both directly (lower stats, slightly weaker fear) and indirectly (slight buffs to player's cats at this point, a few more skills to choose from, energy game is more relaxed).

Fox is supposed to feel intimidating and very strong, but I want the battle to be winnable without too much effort and constant reloading.

Next boss battles will be more forgiving, while I still hope to keep in challenge for the players and incorporate interesting battle mechanics.

[Meowmocha]

The rogue battle was challenging, but I managed to get through that one, But it seemed that no matter how many times I tried, I ended dying no matter what.
And then I decided to cheat and use the debug menu to give myself new skills, and add levels to my party members. Why ragequit when you can ragecheat?
And the next time I went through the game, I decided to have some fun by getting my entire party to insane levels, then killing the fox.

[jxdemchyeo]

YAY I defeated the fox and kittypet's only skill was double strike (I forgot to learn more lol)... it was probably changed but i feel great

[waveclaw]

Ooo! Cool! That helped meh a lot!

[silversplash]

like Leonard said, what i did was keep duskpaw as main tank and alternated between attacking, healing (adrenaline rush), and the courage buff. since nettleclaw is kind of the main damage dealer, make sure to keep her on moderate health and use finishing blow a bit after you get the chance to flee.