The Rabbit

## Overview

The Rabbit is the game's second boss fight, coming after the fight against The Stalker. The battle takes place in The Basement.

## Boss Encounter (The Basement)

The Rabbit only has two basic phases that repeat and increase in speed as the player progresses, with its attacks following a hide-and-seek style of gameplay.

### Initiation

To initiate the boss fight, flip the light switch toward the back left of the room. You may want to familiarize yourself with the room's layout and the location of the lightswitch before you begin, as later phases will require you to run through the room in the dark.

### Phase 1 - Hiding

During The Rabbit's hiding phase, he will spawn in one of several random locations throughout the room, either standing, crouching, or proning depending on the hiding spot. A brief audio cue will play in the form of The Rabbit giggling, which should narrow down the general direction he's hiding in. The Rabbit must be found and interacted with before the timer runs out, or else he will kill the player.

### Phase 2 - Seeking

During the seeking phase, The Rabbit will spawn at the furthest possible spawn location from the player and begin charging toward them. In order to survive the attack, the player must close their eyes after they hear The Rabbit's laughter, but before it catches and kills them. This audio cue will play when The Rabbit is a short distance from the player, though the window of time to react becomes shorter and shorter as the attacks get quick

### Passive Attacks

* The Rabbit can occasionally shut off the lights in the basement, forcing the player to either play in the dark or return to the light switch in the back corner of the room.
* Standing under a light for too long will cause it to flicker and permanently burn out. This attack can be avoided by stepping away from the light source once the flickering sound is heard.

### Nightmare Mode

The Rabbit's attack patterns are mostly the same in Nightmare Mode, with a few exceptions.

* There are several new hiding locations, such as inside the vent and at the top of the basement stairs.
* Lights are much quicker to permanently burn out.
* In addition to the lights intermittently being shut off, a radio in the previously locked storage room will begin playing at random times, drowning out possible audio cues.
* After the first four attacks, the order of attacks will become completely randomized, allowing The Rabbit to hide or seek multiple times in a row.

## Trivia

* The name Baxby is a combination of the name Baxter and the restaurant Zaxby's. I do not know why.
* The Rabbit is the only recurring boss fight in each iteration of the game.
* The Rabbit was the second boss to be designed, shortly after The Stalker.
* The Rabbit was first featured in the game's Basement Demo, which was comprised solely of the boss fight against The Rabbit.
* The Rabbit went through a number of design changes throughout the game's development. In the 2018 version of the Basement Demo, the boss fight was made up of two separate characters, where The Stalker was faced during the seeking phases and a stuffed rabbit was faced during the hiding phases. Another redesign briefly saw The Rabbit as a large, non-anthropomorphized bunny with half its skeleton exposed. This iteration only lasted for a few days before the modern design was chosen.
* Between the first and second demos, The Rabbit had its clothing updated to be significantly puffier.
* The Rabbit's design was loosely designed after the Adult Easter Bunny costume from Rubie's Costume Company. Other inspirations included the The Dog from Duck Season, as well as Robbie the Rabbit from the Silent Hill series.
* Despite The Shadowman stating that The Rabbit's seeking phase can only be survived by closing your eyes until he leaves, the duration the player's eyes are held closed does not actually matter, as attack ends as soon as the player closes their eyes.