Overview
Maisie is a miniboss encountered mid-chapter in The Alley who represents the Tank class. She always starts the battle accompanied by 5 kittens and carries a permanent Body Guard buff. Maisie's fight is unusual because her kittens are the real targets, and her entire kit revolves around protecting them. She will always prioritise buffing her kittens over attacking your cats directly.
Key Mechanics
Body Guard
When one of her kittens is targeted, Maisie's Body Guard activates and she swaps spaces with the targeted kitten, intercepting the hit. This makes it very difficult to damage kittens with single-target attacks because Maisie will absorb the blow every time.
Lick
Maisie heals an adjacent kitten and grants it +1 Strength. If left unchecked, the kittens gradually become threatening damage dealers in their own right.
Defeat Condition
Maisie cries out whenever one of her kittens is downed. When all five kittens are killed, Maisie meows dejectedly and flees the battle. You do not need to kill Maisie directly to win.
Strategy
The key to beating Maisie is bypassing her Body Guard. Area-of-effect attacks hit kittens without triggering the swap, so AoE abilities are your best tool. Trample also works because it damages kittens as an incidental effect rather than targeting them directly.
Do not waste single-target attacks on kittens unless you want Maisie to absorb them. Instead, use abilities like Spin, Shockwave, or any AoE spell to damage multiple kittens at once. Focus on clearing all five kittens as quickly as possible, since Maisie's Lick buff makes them progressively stronger if you let the fight drag on.
Since Maisie flees once all kittens are down, you do not need to deal with her full HP pool at all. This makes the fight quick if you bring the right tools, or frustrating if you rely entirely on single-target damage.