Hearts of Darkness (Merciless)

Hearts of Darkness (Merciless) is one of the 7 Continuation Stages that the player can access after beating An Elder Secret (Merciless), the only stage in Growing Strange. Completing this stage yields an Elder Catfruit Seed, or at a 1% chance, an Elder Catfruit.
==Battleground==
*1 Dark Otter spawns after 6.67 seconds200f.
*1 Tackey spawns after 23.33 seconds700f.
*When the base reaches 99% HP:
**1 Doge Dark (10%) spawns as the boss.
**1 Razorback spawns.
**1 Tackey spawns.
**6 Shadow Boxer Ks spawn, delay 10~13.33 seconds300f~400f.
**5 Dark Otters spawn, delay 10~16.67 seconds300f~500f.
**1 Shadow Boxer K spawns.
**1 Doge Dark (800%) spawns.
**1 Tackey spawns.
==Strategy==
If you plan on completing this stage whenever it comes up, having Bombercat is a must. Other anti-Black units such as Pizza Cat or Cyberpunk can also help.
Additionally, you will want something that can deal good damage, as pure crowd-control can only get you so far in this stage; as for the Tackeys, you can either lure everyone else close to your base by isolating your first bunch of units, stall them near the base while the Tackeys approach and then kill Razorback as soon as possible, or you can take advantage of the stage's width to "tank" the pushback caused by the Tackeys and kill Razorback afterwards. Once Razorback is dead, you have basically won.
==Walkthrough==
==Trivia==
*The English name of this stage could be referencing a number of different things of the same or similar name, the most famous being the 1899 novel Heart of Darkness.
*Hearts of Darkness's Japanese name, Taiko no Kuro Rensei (太古の黒連星, "Ancient Black Binary Star"), may be a reference to Kuroi Sanrensei (黒い三連星, "Black Triple Binary Stars"), the Japanese name of the Black Tri-Stars from Mobile Suit Gundam.
*Prior to Version 8.0, Razorback was buffed to 150% instead of 100%, there were a total of 11 Shadow Boxer Ks instead of 7, and the boss fight included a third Tackey that spawned 33.33 seconds after the first 2.
==Reference==
*https://battlecats-db.com/stage/s01162-01ex03.html
Category:Catfruit Stages
Category:Continuation Stages