Kowakujo: Nekomancer

The Nekomancer

The Nekomancer is the wonder weapon of Kowakujo and of no other map: a nekomata, the many-tailed cat yokai of Japanese folklore, that talks and fights in the player’s hands. Its in-game description promises spirit bolts, caustic hairballs and fatal boops on the snoot. It costs 950 Essence in the Mystery Box, or nothing through a quest, and the main quest cannot be done without it.

Spirit bolts

The main fire, automatic: a magic ball that flies fast and far and hurts even the Oni in high rounds. Zombies killed by it turn into harmless cats that look like the Nekomancer. 20 shots a magazine, 40 once Pack-a-Punched.

Hairball

The charged shot: a ball of acid that explodes among the zombies and leaves a damaging pool on the ground.

Claws

The melee attack, a swipe of the paw.

The Maneki-Neko

The free Nekomancer needs the Maneki-Neko, a tactical wonder weapon built from three parts, each of them at one of three possible places:

Maneki-neko figure

On a crate in the Gatehouse, or on one of two barrels in the Kitchens.

Furin

The wind chime: above the passage to the red flag in the Staging Area, above the Warden 308 in the Training Area, or above the door of the half-sunken house in the Stables.

Karakuri

The wooden man: on the floor of the Storage Rooms, on the PhD Flopper floor, on a desk of the Storage Rooms, or by a wicker vase in the Workshop.

The bench is in the Workshop, next to Vulture Aid. Thrown, the toy makes a small circle the zombies, the Hellhounds and the Oni will not enter, but they end up throwing pieces of flesh at whoever stands inside. A second quest upgrades it to the Maneki-Bomb, a golden dome that also stops projectiles: a white powder behind the Ghostly Rifleman Trap of the Central Courtyard, matches and a piece of charcoal in the Kitchens, all brought back to the bench. The Maneki-Bomb then costs 1,500 Salvage.

Freeing the cat, step by step

Open the Pack-a-Punch. At the Tenshu Entrance, a nekomata now begs to be freed from its cage, which hangs in the back left corner seen from the cherry tree.
With PhD Flopper, dive to prone under the cage to drop it, pick it up and throw it into any lava. The cage melts, the cat runs away, and a Fissure opens in the Flower Garden, the Central Courtyard, the Staging Area or the Training Area.
Build the Maneki-Neko if it is not done yet.
Once the Fissure has closed, kill a zombie at a doorway of that area: glowing red paw prints appear. Walk a few steps in their direction and kill again, until the prints go round in a circle.
Throw the Maneki-Neko into the circle while the lava flows. The cat jumps out of the lava, an Abomination swallows it: kill the Abomination.
Next round, the cat sleeps somewhere in the Kitchens or the Training Area, among creaking floorboards. Reach it without stepping on them and without sprinting (Death Perception shows them), and pick it up.
Carry it to the World Seed next to the Pack-a-Punch. The Seed traps the cat and sends out red pulses: melee the Seed between the pulses until it lets go, then pick up the Nekomancer.