  We study the LHC phenomenology of an Axion Like Particle (ALP) that couples
only derivatively with the top quark at tree level. We inspect the radiatively
induced couplings with the SM fermions and (gauge) bosons and the associated
production and decay mechanisms of the ALP. We focus on the most challenging
mass window that remains open for a top-philic ALP, i.e., the range between
tens and hundreds of GeV. Not only ALP production processes but also virtual
ALP contributions to final states with top quarks are considered in detail. We
show how searches through resonant production, such as ALP production in
association with a $t\bar t$ pair, are complementary to precision measurements
of $t \bar t$ and $t\bar t t \bar t$ final states, the latter being competitive
or even more powerful for a top-philic ALP in this mass window. Finally, we
explore the scenario where the top-philic ALP acts as a mediator to a
dark-matter sector, resulting in missing energy signatures at the LHC. We find
that the LHC constraints from $t \bar t$, $t\bar t t \bar t$ and ALP + jet
production, together with those from $t \bar t$ + ALP production, can already
exclude a large fraction of the parameter space leading to the correct relic
abundance.
