Mangy

The Mangy is a diseased cat enemy found in The Alley, The Desert, and The Lab. With 7 Hit Points and a PoisonShot lobbed attack at range 3, it is one of the few early-game enemies that applies a persistent status effect — each hit inflicts Poison 1, which continues dealing damage between turns. It has a blind spot at range 1, making adjacent cats completely immune to its attack.

The Mangy's most dangerous trait is its damage response: each time it takes a hit, it may spawn one of several minion types — Maggots, Fleas, or Pooters. Multi-hit abilities give it more spawn-trigger opportunities per round, so a cat landing a 4-hit combo on a Mangy might generate up to four spawn chances. The recommended counter is deliberate: favor high-damage single-hit strikes over multi-hit attacks to minimize the number of triggering events per round.

When fighting multiple Mangys, simultaneous burst kills prevent a cascade of minion spawns. Champions have 14 HP and deal 6 damage per shot. The Mummified Mangy, found in later chapters, is a more durable variant with additional mechanics layered on the same poisoning and summoning base.