Overview
Zaratana is a gigantic asteroid-looking kaiju cat who invades your home hub as one of the two House Bosses in Act 2. She first appears in a cutscene after you complete The Moon for the first time, and you have 7 days to prepare before she attacks. Despite her massive size, she only occupies 4 tiles on the grid. Her defining mechanic revolves around rocks and levitation: at the end of each round she performs a massive roar that levitates all rocks on the field, which then fling toward any enemy that ends movement in line with them.
Key Mechanics
Trample and Ram
Zaratana frequently attempts to ram into your party with Trample before performing an attack. Her 4-tile body means she covers significant ground when charging, and getting caught in her path deals heavy damage.
Levitating Rocks
At the end of each round, Zaratana roars and applies the Levitation effect to all rocks on the board. These levitated rocks automatically fling toward any enemy that ends their movement in a line with them. Avoid ending your turn in a straight line with any rock on the field. Managing rock positions is just as important as managing Zaratana herself.
Rock Counters
The Eat Rock ability is the strongest counter to Zaratana: each use deals 5 damage to her directly while granting the user +5 Shield and +1 Strength, effectively turning her own rocks against her. The Butcher ability can instantly eliminate all rocks in a single turn, completely neutralizing her round-end Levitation mechanic.
Preparation
As with all house bosses, bring retired cats with the best level and ability loadouts you have. If any of your cats have Eat Rock or Butcher, they should be in this fight. Classes with high survivability (Tank, Cleric) and sustain are strongly recommended alongside reliable damage dealers. You have 7 days after the cutscene to prepare, so use that time to level up your retired cats.
Strategy
1. Spread your cats wide to minimise multi-target hits from Trample charges.
2. Never end your turn in a straight line with a rock on the field. Reposition to diagonal or offset angles before ending movement.
3. Use Eat Rock to turn her own mechanic against her (5 damage to Zaratana plus +5 Shield and +1 Strength per use). If unavailable, use Butcher to clear all rocks at once.
4. Focus damage during her repositioning windows between major attacks. Use stuns or slows if available to interrupt charged attacks.
Drops and Progression
Zaratana drops the Black Shard, a transformable quest weapon that grows stronger with each kill it earns. After absorbing 20 enemies, it becomes the Glowing Black Shard, which can instantly eliminate The Coven when used during that boss encounter. After both Zaratana and Pyrophina are defeated individually, the Pyrophina vs Zaratana encounter triggers, where the two kaiju fight each other and the survivor joins you as an ally.