Hi there, I'm kumo. I have 150+ hours in Mashmak co-op Extreme, and #2 Colossal Target Kills in NA. I've killed this guy many times and I'm here to teach you how to do it too!



Hellcat takes only 3 minutes to kill, and has some of the best / consistent loot, but one catch is that you can only enter the dungeon in co-op Extreme, or the new PvE Mashmak (Hard).



First, you'll need a Restricted Zone Key III that is randomly dropped by mobs or obtained from the Marketplace, and a Locator Beacon III that can be purchased for 3600 Matrix Credits.





You'll need to equip the key into the Locator Beacon III, bring the beacon as an airdrop, and drop it into a match to enter the dungeon. Beware! Other teams that drop Locator Beacon III will enter the same dungeon instance as you. For this reason, I'd suggest that you start off in PvE Mashmak before moving onto co-op Extreme, though the rewards are better there in general.

This map shows the two possible entrances to Hellcat, one north and one south.

You cannot kill Hellcat without modular weapons and ammo.
You cannot kill Hellcat without modular weapons and ammo.
It's imperative that everyone brings a weapon set and plenty of ammo (at least an Ammo II drop with 80+ magazines). The weapon level doesn't matter too much, Level 2 or 3 should be plenty.

Definitely you'll need a healer striker until you're super confident in the fight, but apart from that, Strikers & even weapon choice does not matter too much.

I will say that if your flyers aren't confident in dodging stuff, they should not be flying and just doing the fight from cover, or they will die or make the fight a lot harder by taking a ton of damage.

If you don't have enough Matrix Credits for ammo, then I recommend buying Squad Extraction Beacons from the Matrix Selections store that you can sell for 28.8k Matrix Credits which will fund your Mashing.



You can also bring a Decoy Beacon which will make the fight a little bit easier. The Hellcat will sometimes attack the Decoy instead of your party.

Here is an example of a typical loadout I bring.




Weapon Recommendations

• I used to bring a Heavy Sniper for this fight, but the rate of fire nerf reduced its DPS pretty hard, so I would avoid this.
  
• Charged Blaster does a *lot* of damage, but the weakness is the reload speed. It's a solid choice, and good for strikers that have their own kit they can switch to while its reloading. You don't need a lock-on to fire this, and the range is quite farther than you'd think. If you find yourself having trouble with dodging everything, bringing a diffuser haze with this as a healer would probably help a lot.
  
• Double Howitzer / Double Twin Rocket Launcher is probably the best all-around choice. These deal a massive amount of DPS and have fast reload speed. You can also fire them without a lock-on.

Striker Recommendations

• Luminae / Pinaka are must bring unless you are super comfortable with the fight.
  
• Stego has really high DPS and is also super tanky.
  
• Welkin have very solid utility with his shield that absorbs energy damage, and box that can also protect allies. He can spin to destroy the bubble shield.
  
• Inferno has the highest damage in the game and he attacks from range, so he's a solid choice.
  
• Honestly like I said, any mech works. Flyers flying around can be dangerous lol.
  
• Example of an easy team would be: Luminae, Inferno, Stego

Now that you've got your loadout sorted, we can take on this guy!



It's really important to fight this guy from behind cover. Hiding behind cover will nullify most of its attacks. I recommend simply using the shelter that you spawn in as cover and fighting from inside it for most of the fight, peeking out to get shots in. If someone brings a decoy beacon, you can drop it somewhere near the middle and it'll take some of the heat off of your team. Do not attempt to melee it.



This fight is a DPS race since you only have 4 minutes to kill Hellcat, so you need to make sure you're doing damage most of the time unless you're taking cover from an attack or healing someone. If you're sitting there doing nothing, that's not good.

If someone dies in the middle of the fight, you can bring them back with a beacon inside of the arena.

There are only a couple of attacks you need to watch out for...

Laser Fan
This attack is cool looking, but it's pretty harmless unless you're standing close to it.








Missile Barrage
If you stand inside the shelter, this attack is basically harmless as the shelter blocks most of it. If you're flying out in the open, you can dodge forward or laterally and it's pretty easy to dodge most of the missiles. It's good practice for dodging Falcon missile barrage :)




Shield Bubble
Hellcat will shoot out drones from its sides and trap someone in a bubble. You can technically evade this, but it can be tricky to time it properly. The bubble does do a small amount of damage over time, and functions as a Welkin shield basically. You cannot heal someone inside of it, but Hellcat can target someone inside of it.



The most dangerous thing is if someone is caught out in the open in this thing and cannot take cover from an attack. If this happens, your team should call it out and focus fire the barrier. It takes 3 Heavy Sniper shots to kill, so it has around 100k HP.

Laser Barrage
This is Hellcat's most dangerous attack and signature move. This is what deletes people from the arena in the blink of an eye if they're not paying attention. Hellcat will telegraph this move by charging his lasers. If Hellcat is turned away, this telegraph may not be visible, so you can help your team by making sure to call out that this attack is happening.


It's crucial to dodge this, or to use a defensive cooldown like Stego Haze, or Welkin Shield on a heavier mech where it's harder to dodge it. If you're on a light mech, you can spam dodge left/right and avoid most / all of it. He can and will switch targets mid-barrage so I make sure to just always dodge / hide even if it's not targeting me. I think if you're behind cover he either doesn't target you as much or it does significantly less damage, so take advantage of the shelter and take cover from this.

Annnd that's pretty much it for Phase One. Just make sure that you're attacking all the time if you're not dodging or taking cover. Everyone needs to be doing damage, including the healer.

Once you hit 2:20 left on the clock, you will enter Phase Two of the boss fight. Hellcat will spawn a smaller mech that does its own attacks. For the most part, you should just ignore this second mech and keep attacking the main body. You're doing okay as long as you can kill the main boss with at least 1:00 left on the timer.

Phase Two attacks... These will come from the mini-mech simultaneously. Just stay inside the shelter to avoid most of it.

Penetrating Laser Barrage
This is basically Hellcat's laser barrage, except it does a little bit less damage, but it is penetrating! Meaning it will go through walls so there's no more taking shelter against this. You must dodge this, or tank it with cooldowns. The healer should be on top of keeping people topped up.




Curved Laser Beams
No picture of this, but basically there will be tracking laser beams emanating from the mini-mech. These do a ton of damage and you can avoid them by taking cover or standing far away from it. If you're inside the shelter, this is basically harmless.

Melee Combo
If you stand close to the mini-mech, it may choose to pull out swords and perform a melee combo. This is a really deadly attack and whoever it's targeting needs to spam dodge immediately. It can 100 -> 0 someone. The healer should immediately heal whoever is targeted by this to help them survive this.



That's it for the fight! Usually one minute is more than enough time to kill the mini-mech. After the main body goes down, the mini-mech is for the most part pretty manageable. I usually just stand on the roof of the shelther once the main body is dead, since cover matters less.

Here's a video of the full fight for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLgL2a7IeoU

Feel free to ask questions in the comments! I'll do my best to answer them.

• Don't drop your Locator Beacon at the start of the match. Everyone is looking at the map in the beginning and you might just hunted down immediately if someone spawns near you.
  
• There are two entrances to Hellcat now, so it's less predictable to figure out who is entering the dungeon.
  
• You can play the game with your map open. You can do Hellcat entirely with your map open which will help you watch for invaders since another team needs to drop a key to enter Hellcat.
  
• Turn on Damage Numbers and Compass in the Accessibility settings.
  
• There's plenty of other cover in the Arena, you can take shelter behind other buildings besides the shelter.