Hell-Rat

Hell-rats are found in Evil Dave's basement in Edgeville and can only be accessed after starting the Evil Dave subquest in Recipe for Disaster. Hell-rats are caught by having your cat chase and catch them, just like normal rats. After a cat or kitten manages to kill a couple of Hell-rats, it will become a hellcat or hell-kitten. The cat may be changed back to normal by feeding it milk or by talking to Dave's mother.

When successfully caught, the rats always drop ashes and a random spice. The spice will have 1 to 4 doses and may be red, yellow, orange, or brown. These spices may be mixed with stews to create spicy stews. You cannot pick up other people’s spices.

During the quest, Evil Dave claims that he is trying to raise a demon army and had tried to start off small with imps. However, Evil Dave ended up with Hell-Rats, which were supposed to be the lowest form of demons.

Catching Hell-rats will earn credit toward the cat training medal. A Hell-rat can be added to the rat pole upon being caught, but will not look any different from a regular rat.

Each type of cat has a different chance of successfully catching a hell-rat. These rates are the same as the catch rates for normal rats. Hell-rat catches also count for the Cat training medal.

Hell-Rats can be chased by cats, and each type of cat has a different catch rate:

• Kitten - 10%
• Normal - 50%
• Overgrown - 0% (cannot chase rats, but can fight behemoths)
• Wily - 50% + separate 12.5% to 50% roll, depending on activity level
• Lazy - 33% + separate 12.5% to 100% roll, depending on activity level (Note: It is not possible for lazy cats to reach maximum activity level, as they will turn back into wily cats before reaching it.)

Hellcats share the same catch rates as regular cats, depending on their type.

Hell-Rats have a bigger variant, the Hell-Rat Behemoth, which will give you a 4-dose spice when successfully killed. There are 4 Hell-Rat Behemoths around the room, each protecting a different spice, use the respective curtain to obtain the desired spice. Your cat will be killing it for you. It is strongly suggested to bring any sort of fish to heal your cat during the fight, even though wily cats generally should be able to survive on their own.

Note that if your cat dies during the fight, you will lose it. A way to save your cat when fearing his death is to run away from the fight. The cat will then follow you again, losing the fight however, and therefore forfeiting the loot.

It does not matter which type of fish you give your cat during the fight, since they all heal the same amount of health. Karambwanji are convenient as they are stackable.

Note that when catching Hell-Rats before talking to Doris to find out that the hell-rats stole her spices, the rats will only drop ashes, but no spice.