Does anyone understand the Black Cat's mechanics?

[Mharr]

I've been trying to keep the bloody thing alive, but it seems to randomly wander off and disappear forever if you use the 'wrong' exits to get around, which has forced a whole lot of load / save rollbacks.

If you keep the gate between Fort Joy Ghetto and the Magisters locked, it does seem content to wait for you at the foot of the ladder to the south, but I'm not sure how reliable that is.

[TheOne]

There's a guard in the gate to the magisters area of fort joy, that will snipe the cat down with an arrow if you pass by him

[Tally]

If I forget about it when I escape Fort Joy, it usually comes back when I go back to the Ghetto and run around for a bit, maybe on the beach too.

[Tally]

And yeah, as the guy above said, if you didn't clear out the magisters they could kill it.

[Angelous Wang]

You can effectivly trap the cat, if you go down from Lucins staute and don't open the short cut into the dungion and go back up the ladder, the cat cann't follow and is stuck in that area.

So then you can just complete fort joy via one of the other methods and once eveerything is safe go and un-trap it.

That said nothing ever kills the cat other than that one archer outside the main gate. So just keeo him away from that guy and you are fine.

[armymdic]

I made the cat a priority. I was already planning on killing all the magisters there, so I went straight underground, saved the boy, took the boat, got the permanent summon, then went back to do all the quests and wipe out everyone.

[Ocsabat]

Avoid source hounds. If you see one or you know where they are, go around them. Once I figured that out, keeping the cat alive was a breeze.

[Olaf 'Don' Scholz]

Originally posted by Angelous Wang:

You can effectivly trap the cat, if you go down from Lucins staute and don't open the short cut into the dungion and go back up the ladder, the cat cann't follow and is stuck in that area.

So then you can just complete fort joy via one of the other methods and once eveerything is safe go and un-trap it.

That said nothing ever kills the cat other than that one archer outside the main gate. So just keeo him away from that guy and you are fine.

Wrong. Random poison on the ground can also kill the cat

[Mharr]

I have the passphrase for the resistance magisters' boat, but there's never been anyone at the docks. I think I might have murdered them in the battle for the fort.

[Ocsabat]

Originally posted by Angelous Wang:

You can effectivly trap the cat, if you go down from Lucins staute and don't open the short cut into the dungion and go back up the ladder, the cat cann't follow and is stuck in that area.

So then you can just complete fort joy via one of the other methods and once eveerything is safe go and un-trap it.

That said nothing ever kills the cat other than that one archer outside the main gate. So just keeo him away from that guy and you are fine.

I've had the cat killed by a magister wandering around Fort Joy with a source hound.

[MurmUrren]

The cat in all my saves(i play one solo and one with my brother) the cat randomly dissappears but then it appears randomly and i never had any problem with the cat becoming a summon.

[Freshmaker]

My cat never got shot by the archer but still got lost somewhere. My first playthrough he just appeared again when i escaped so I figured that would happen again, but my second playthrough he's just gone.

[General Malaise]

It sometimes doesn't fast travel with you, but will still be where you left it

[Mharr]

It's not quite that simple, sometimes it'll wait somewhere for ages then suddenly show up a couple of scenes away at the doorway you were heading towards. It seems to have some limited ability to move while you're on a different map, I assume it's disappearing by getting stuck in that mode somehow.

armymdic has the right idea, get it clear of Fort Joy as quickly as humanly possible.

[Shisha Sheesh]

Lol. I didn't know that it was that hard to keep the cat alive. I got the skill for summoning the cat without even intending it.

[Radd]

When you escape Fort Joy the cat becomes a summoning skill. It's able to jump pretty far and change position with the summoner. It's a good skill to pick up for mobility in combat.

You are able to heal the cat with normal healing spells and scrolls while in Fort Joy to keep it alive the entire time.