Black Cat

For the similarly named monster, see the page black cat.

There are some vague or non-exact figures and information on this page. Some spading is required. Most of the cat's abilities need spading/confirmation.

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Familiar number: 93
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Black Cat
What a cute kitty! What could possibly go wrong, with her at your side?

Is adorable

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Ability: Reduces stat gains, takes away MP, removes buffs, forces you to attack with your weapon instead of using skills, blocks combat items, randomly destroys dropped items.

Throne/Bjorn: All Attributes -10, sometimes steals your HP and Meat.

Hatchling: black kitten

Familiar-Specific Equipment: N/A

	Ultimate Cage Match	Scavenger Hunt	Obstacle Course	Hide and Seek

Mumming Trunk Abilities:

+15% Meat Drop	4-5 MP	+4 Muscle statgain	+15% Item Drop	+4 Mysticality statgain	8-10 HP	+2 Moxie statgain
		Staggers*			Deals damage & 10% Delevel*
*Hover for details

Cannot breathe underwater

Combat Messages

• At the beginning of combat:

  <name> brushes against your ankles, purring loudly.

  (Strips you of all of your buffs.)

• During combat:

  <name> jumps onto the keyboard and causes you to accidentally hit the Attack button instead of using that skill.

  (Forces you to attack with your weapon instead of using the selected skill.)

  Just as you're about to use that item, <name> bats it out of your hand, and you have to spend the next couple of minutes fishing it out from underneath a couch. It's as adorable as it is annoying.

  (Forces you to keep the selected item and take no action during that round of combat.)

• At the end of combat:

  You reach down to pick up an <item> off of the ground, but <name> playfully bats it out of your reach and into a nearby sewer grating.

  (The item is lost; this effect can trigger for each dropped item.)

  <name> spins in circles chasing her tail. It's adorable, but sort of distracting.

  (Reduces your stat gain by 50%.)

  <name> purrs loudly, and you reach down to pet her. She starts as a spark leaps from your finger to the tip of her ear.

  You lose some Mana Points.

  (The MP loss will only trigger if you have greater than 10 MP.)

• Enthroned in the Crown of Thrones:

  <name> leaps down from her throne and claws your face. Then she grabs some of your Meat and throws it away.

  You lose 30-40 hit points.

  You lose 20-30 Meat.

• Bjornified in the Buddy Bjorn:

  <name> uses your back as a scratching post, and follows up with a swipe at your meat pouch.

  You lose 30-40 hit points.

  You lose 20-30 Meat.

• With lucky Tam O'Shanter equipped:

  <name> wrestles with the Tam O'Shanter. How adorable!

• With miniature gravy-covered maypole equipped:

  <name> leaps to the top of the maypole and slides all the way down, leaving deep gouges in the wood.

• With wax lips equipped:

  <name> regards the wax lips with a deliberate lack of interest.

Arena Messages

• <name> just sits there grooming herself.

Notes

• Like the O.A.F., this is a familiar that only has abilities which negatively affect the player.
• A 100% Bad Moon black cat run will permanently unlock the Bad Moon sign. Beware, as a single combat adventure spent without it will disallow the perma-unlock. This includes special holiday combat adventures.
  • Unlike the trophies (Amateur Tour Guide and Professional Tour Guide), you must use the black cat for all combats after freeing the king to qualify for the permanent unlock.
• Has a 50%(?) chance of blocking skills. Some things, like Pickpocket, Chefstaff jiggles, and Pasta Guardian summoning, are not considered skills. They have their own buttons in the regular interface and do not have an MP cost in the combat action bar.
• Has a 50% chance of preventing item use. When using Ambidextrous Funkslinging, either both items are blocked (with only one message) or neither is blocked.
• All the effects (Item knocking, Stat Gain Reductions, and MP loss) can occur in the same combat.
• The debuffing function only removes true buffs (effects which can be shrugged off). This includes TT/Sa/AT buffs, Cartography effects, and the Crimbo 2018 Carols. It will not remove any other effects.
• The stat gain reduction (the "tail chasing" message) reduces stats gained by 50%, and occurs 50% of the time.
• Quest items and items gained through Pickpocket cannot be affected by the random item loss effect.
• Jick has stated that weight does not impact the cat's negative effects.
• The cat can bat away ultra-rare items.

Strategy

Doing a non-BM 100% black cat meme run? Some suggestions:

• Anyone can cheese a softcore black cat run by hiding it in a tiny costume wardrobe. Do it hardcore instead!
• Make sure your basic attacks remain nonlethal! Half of all skill/spell casts will turn into basic attacks, and accidentally killing a monster you were trying to banisher/sniff/copy/YR/backup/etc can be devastating. If you are careful, the monster will survive these lovetaps and you will have another chance to attempt to use the skill. (You can finish the monster off with a spell once you're actually ready to kill it.)
  • Keep your (buffed) muscle low, since melee weapons (which include your fists) base their damage off of your muscle. Playing a non-muscle class makes this much simpler. Try to prioritize sources of leveling that don't include muscle substats; for example, if using the Model Train Set, use the Brain and/or Groin Silo, but NOT the Viewing Platform. (If you have volcano charter or PR access, however, their simple Base Stat Limiters mean that you needn't bother trying to reign in your base muscle.) Also avoid equipment and effects with substantial +muscle enchantments.
    • If you must take a muscle class, you will need to instead keep a ranged weapon equipped much of the time. When a melee weapon is required (e.g. while Cyrpt-Slaying or fire extinguishing), the conspiracy charter or FR stat limiters may help reduce your base mus down to 100. Also, note that the war frat outfit requires 70 mox to equip, so there is a limit to how much you can hobble your base mox.
  • Avoid +elemental damage. June cleaver and designer sweatpants are dangerous to charge, so be mindful of where you can and can't afford to use them.
  • Run as much +ML as possible. Enlarging your opponents gives you more skill-failure leeway, but surviving the result will also require buffing your HP, DA, and DR. Start combat with Weaksauce so that they're slightly shrinking as you're repeatedly trying to push your important skills through.
• Combat item usage can also fail, but is not replaced by an attack, so is much safer. For mechanics with semi-interchangeable sources, ration the combat items sources. For example, with banishers, first try to use a skill (e.g. Snokebomb). If that fails several times, and you are in danger of accidentally killing the monster, *then* resort to Louder Than Bomb. For YRs, hold a backup yellow rocket. For free kills, keep some shadow bricks.
• Lean into indirect item acquisition mechanics (which the cat cannot bat away). If you are looking to pickpocket, remember that +ML also comes with an increasingly steep penalty to effective init. (The effective penalty reaches -200% at +100 ML, with another -5% for each extra +1 ML above that.)
• Provide cover for the buffs that you don't want the cat to shrug (phat loot, polka) by running extra, otherwise-unnecessary buffs. Ones that qualify are the basic TT/Sa/AT buffs and Carol of the Hells/Thrills (don't use Bulls). Mafia moods make this relatively easy to maintain.

History

• The existence of this familiar was leaked two days before being implemented — on August 2, 2008, — when the Hall of Records showed Black-Cat friendly ascensions, of which there were none at the time.

References

• "What could possibly go wrong?" is the catchphrase of gaming mascot cat Bubsy.
• Many of the cat's behaviors mirror those of real-world cats. Others (such as the maypole message) reference stereotypical cat behaviors in cartoons. Tail-chasing, however, is more of a canine behavior.
• Superstitious individuals may view black cats as unlucky, which is the very premise of this familiar's nature.
• Cats are known to become hostile, for reasons known only to themselves, very suddenly. This can startle or even injure someone the cat was friendly toward just the moment prior. For this reason, some people consider cats to be evil. This also is the basis for the Crown/Bjorn messages.