Mousehunt

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
The logo.

Mousehunt is a popular Facebook application developed by HitGrab, Inc. and was officially released to the general public on 7 March 2008. Players (Mousehunters), catch mice with a variety of traps in order to earn Experience Points and virtual gold.

The player is set in a fantasy kingdom called Gnawnia. The player is a Hunter hired by the King of Gnawnia to find and trap the mice that infest his kingdom. As s/he progresses through the levels, s/he will unlock new hunting locations, rise in rank, and acquire gold and materials to build new traps and buy or craft more exotic cheese.

Mousehunt is a passive game. The player (Hunter) arms his or her trap and baits it with cheese and then sounds the "Hunters Horn" every 15 minutes. Every time the player sounds the horn he is taken on a hunt and has a possibility of catching a mouse. For each mouse the player catches, he gets a unique reward, which is a certain amount of points and gold.

As of February 2012, MouseHunt has 302 different breeds of mice. Some of them, when caught, will drop loot, which will be essential as players progress through the game. Along with this, there are 60 Special Event/Rare Mice, some of which are released for a short period during occasional events. These mice might drop a special kind of cheese, called Super|Brie+ (SB+), cash prizes, and many other in-game prizes.

Not to be confused with the movie Mousehunt or the Hasbro board game Mouse Trap.

Tropes used in Mousehunt include:
  • 0% Approval Rating: Balack, the previous leader of the three tribes (Elub, Nerg and Derr) when they were once united. He was so cruel and ruthless that the elders decided to banish his spirit into a lonely, dark underground cavern forevah! Unfortunately, that didn't turn out too well...
  • Abnormal Ammo: The Christmas Cracker Trap. It uses various Christmas items as ammo.

Candy canes, reindeer antlers and Christmas lights all make great projectiles! Just stuff them in a giant cannon, pull the string, and voila!

    • The Snow Barrage. It uses snow as ammo.

Mice who make this mistake and underestimate the power of this bazooka's 3-snowball-per-second firing rate will very quickly find themselves buried in a pile of their own yellow snow.

  • Achilles' Heel: The Dragon mouse can be caught only by the Ice Maiden.
    • Zurreal the Eternal can only be caught by the trap Zurreal's Folly.
  • Action Girl: The Samurai, Master of the Cheese Claw, Buccaneer, Champion, Slayer, Guardian, Derr Chieftain, Technic Queen...
  • Alliteration: The Big Bad Burroughs mouse.
    • Calamity Carl
  • All Trolls Are Different: Troll mice.
  • And I Must Scream: The Gorgon trap will petrify mice into living statues—but the effect wears off after a few hours.
    • The ACRONYM also qualifies. It has the ability to erase mouse from existence.
  • An Ice Mouse: Two-thirds of the Winter mice in the Seasonal Garden have some control over ice.
  • Another Dimension: The Acolyte Realm.
  • Anticlimax Boss: Certain mice are easy to catch and yield enormous rewards of points and gold, but getting into position to catch them is very difficult and requires a lot of time and expensive cheese.
  • Anti-Magic: Zurreal's Folly, which drains the magical energy out of an area.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: Magic Essence, the 'stuff' which gives SuperBrie+ its attraction, can be used to make anything from cheese to weapons.
  • Arrows on Fire: The Desert Archer and Crimson Ranger.
  • Ascended Meme: On 2010's April Fools' Day, MouseHunt revealed an "Invisible" type trap, as well as a mouse known as the "Stealth Mouse", both of which were initially invisible. When the pictures were decrypted, people found silhouettes of an orb-on-a-pedestal trap and a swirl of energy respectively. Now, there is a mouse named the Stealth Mouse, the silhouetted trap was revealed as the Gorgon trap, and the silhouette of the mouse was that of the Eclipse Mouse.
    • After plenty of years of jokingly asking for it, Ronza brought the Limited Edition Chrome Tacky Glue Trap.
  • Back Tracking: Some of the Library Assignments, especially the Zurreal Trap Research Assignment.
  • Badass Cape: The Desert Warrior, Flame Warrior and Crimson Titan, Theurgy Warden and Warmonger.
  • Beast of Battle: The Gargantuamouse.
  • Big Eater: The Student of the Cheese Belt.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Aboninable Snow Mouse, and the Yeti Mouse.
  • Brawn Hilda: The Technic Queen.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory: Super|Brie+ . Not only does it attract more mice, its byproducts Magic Essence and stale Super|Brie+ are used in crafting some of the better weapons. It can be won in-game or bought from other players, but the most reliable way to acquire some is to donate to the developers.
  • Caped Mecha: The Sandtail Sentinel.
  • Cartoon Cheese: Averted. Except for special or obviously magical types, the in-game cheese looks like the real-world type on which it is based, and there is no "generic" cheese.
  • Casanova: The Romeo mouse.
  • Chess Motifs: Zugzwang's tower and associated traps.
  • Chest Monster: The Dimensional Chest Trap.
  • Clarke's Third Law: The description for charmbits, the stuff that makes up charms.

"Some say they are impossibly small nanites, while others state that they are condensed magic, experts suggest it is likely a combination of them both."

  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The three tribes of mice, Elub, Nerg and Derr are Blue, Green and Red respectively.
  • Com Mons: The white, grey and brown mice. Very common in the earlier areas of the game, and the amount of gold they give is next to nothing.
  • Cool Chair: The chairs of the tribe Chieftains and the Kings in Zugzwang's Tower. Zurreal the Eternal has a "walking throne".
  • Cool Ship: The S.S. Huntington II and Ronza's airship.
  • Cosmetic Award: The rank shields to an extent, and the newly-introduced King's Crowns. There was also a Bonus Mice Caught shield but it was discontinued with the upgrade to MouseHunt 3.0.
    • Catch every mouse? Own every trap/base/collectible? You get a check mark on your profile.
    • Trap Skins were introduced in 2010. They have no effect on stats and simply change the appearance of the weapon.
  • Death Course: The Double Diamond Adventure gives this to a mouse that takes the bait. What better way to kill a mouse then making them ride down a spikes-and-mine-filled slope on an nuclear explosive sled? And if they survive after all that, they can have their aches literally melt away in the hot tub... of lava!
  • Earn Your Fun: Since the game is an arms race between the Hunter and the Mice, this is a frequent element of gameplay.
    • The best traps (the Sandstorm Monstrobot, the Sphynx Wrath, and the Oasis Water Node in particular) require a lot of time, effort, and luck to acquire.
    • The mice which yield the best loot can be caught only by assembling complex types of cheese or progressing through a lengthy dungeon first.
    • Certain areas, such as the Iceberg, are easier with traps which cannot be acquired before the first run, so the Hunter has to struggle through an unaided playthrough first.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: The Digby scientists fear the Onyx stone and the ACRONYM could bring this about. The Acolyte Mouse also tried it once.
  • Energy Ball: The Technic Queen, Master Of the Dojo, Black Mage, Balack the Banished, Summer Mage, Harvester, and Icewing.
  • Enthralling Siren: The Siren mouse.

The Siren mouse sings a song that welcomes hunters to a grim, watery fate. Never have jagged, sharp rocks sounded so good!

This greedy little mouse managed to infiltrate Hit Grab HQ by disguising himself as one of the developers. Capturing this mouse will return the stolen code to Hit Grab, and you'll be rewarded with a special Hit Grab gift! This mouse is available around Mousehunt's Birthday.
This greedy little mouse managed to infiltrate Santa's workshop by disguising himself as one of Santa's elves. Capturing this mouse will return the presents to Santa, but don't worry, he'll be sure to let you keep one! This mouse is available around Christmas.

  • Experience Points: Interesting use of it. The 'levels' are called ranks. "Rank Percentage" is gained to "rank up", mostly from catching mice, and there is a significant amount of time between moving up from one rank to another. While each mouse has a certain amount of points, it is NOT directly proportional to the amount of "rank percentage" earned. "Rank percentage" also cannot be lost.
  • Fan Service: The Romeo mouse.
  • Featureless Protagonist: The gender of the player character is based in the gender of the connected Facebook account. Nothing else is known about the character however.
  • Finger-Poke of Doom: The Master of the Cheese Claw.

With the slightest touch, they can concentrate enough force to destroy any obstacle.

  • Fishmouse: The Silth Mouse and the Mermouse.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The "Arcane Capturing Rod Of Never Yielding Mystery", also known as the A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. It's pretty much a Superpower Lottery, what with the ability to impale mice, petrify them, or erase them from existence!
  • For Massive Damage: The Acolyte mouse is supposed to be caught by the Ancient Box Trap. Other traps such as the A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. can catch it but they have a very low catch rate on the Acolyte mouse.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: Some mice have four fingers, others have five. But most only have three toes and a dewclaw on their feet.
  • Funny Animal: Many of the mice.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Mystic Queen mouse, Chess Master, and the Sphynx Wrath trap.
  • The Goomba: White mice. They look weak, they are weak, and they are always encountered in the starting areas of the game. It even has an Underground Monkey variant of it, the Mutated White mouse.
  • Gotta Catch Em All. There are over three hundred different types of mice in the game, not including the rare/special event mice. Happy hunting!
  • Green Thumb: The Vinetail Mouse and the Tanglefoot mouse.
  • The Grim Reaper: The Reaper mouse. Also, the Reaper's Perch, although the reaper in that trap is actually a robot.
  • Guide Dang It: The more complicated cheese recipes. Fortunately there's a MouseHunt wiki page.
    • There isn't any in-game clue that the Molten Shrapnel base and Enraged Rhinobot even exist.
  • Healing Potion: The potion in the description of the Alchemist mouse.

The Alchemist mouse of the Elub tribe uses scarce and secretive ingredients from the ocean to create an elixir of life which possesses grand healing properties.

  • Hermetic Magic/Geometric Magic: The Ice Maiden trap is covered in a complicated pattern of runes.
  • Holiday Mode: In December 2009 & 2010 there was a temporary holiday-themed area released (the Festive Comet) and the MouseHunt shield at the top of the display was edited for a Yuletide look. Certain Special mice (Elf, Hollowhead, Cupid, etc.) are only available around the date of their associated holiday.
    • On 2010's April Fools' Day, the developers released a news post, telling Mousehunters, among other things, that they have created a Mouse Generator. The mice are given supposedly random names made of numbers and alphabets. They are, however, links to a Rickroll and a Muppet version of the Bohemian Rhapsody. They also claimed to have made an "Invisible" power-type mouse, known as the "Stealth mouse", with a picture of the "Invisible"-power trap that could catch them. Using a program, somebody found a rather glitchy-looking mouse in silhouette form from the Stealth mouse. And now the joke is an ascended joke—the Stealth mouse and the decrypted silhouette are both present and catchable in the King's Gauntlet!
  • Hot Chick with a Sword: The Mystic Queen.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Sandstorm Monstrobot.
  • The Horde: The Marching Flame.
  • If You Die, I Call Your Stuff: If you threaten to quit on the forums, at least one other hunter will invoke this trope and ask for your gold and/or your SB+ .
  • Infinity+1 Sword: Limited Edition traps, especially the Partybot and Chrome Drillbot. These tend to have high power and extremely high luck, making it easier to catch mice as well as obtain loot.
    • The Sandstorm Monstrobot currently stands for strongest trap, however, the player is going to have to work extremely hard to be able to obtain it.
  • Item Crafting
  • It's Up to You: Nothing stands in the way of disaster for Gnawnia but you, brave MouseHunter!
  • Just for Pun: Some of the cheese names, like Rockforth (roquefort) which is used to attract the Rockstar mouse.
  • Kill It with Fire: The Heat Bath trap.
  • Killer Gorilla: The Primal Mouse.
  • Killer Robot: The Deathbot, Drillbot and Rhinobot series of traps (as well as the Sandstorm Monstrobot) definitely qualify.
  • Kill Streak: Happens in the Fiery Warpath. Defeating many of the same type of mouse in a row will cause more of them to retreat. Unfortunately, the Warmonger is Dangerously Genre Savvy—once you get a streak of 7 or more he will send out a Gargantuamouse who will end your streak regardless of whether you catch it or not.
  • Kraken and Leviathan: The Squeaken Mouse and the Leviathan Mouse, both of which are found on the S.S. Huntington II.
  • Lady of War: The Mystic Queen mouse.

The Mystic Queen is a silent, cold-blooded killer, connected to her King and the rest of the team by mind link. Her moves are smooth, even calm, but one blow from her silent sword is enough to split one of the Technic King's war machines in two. Unlike all other members of the Mystic Team, the Queen needs no defender. With the ability to throw, spin and manipulate her sword using only her mind, she is the determining factor in many battles.

    • Also, the Zephyr mouse.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Dracano. Home to the one of the strongest mice, the Dragon mouse. (It should be noted that Hunters themselves are immune to environmental effects). A limited-edition, high-luck base (the Magma Base) is formed from lava extracted from Dracano and is exactly what you would expect.
  • The Lost Woods: The Forbidden Grove. There's even a portal that draws Hunters into another world every now and then...
  • The Magic Versus Technology War: Zugzwang's tower has the Mystic mice battling against the Technic mice in a never-ending game of chess.
  • Magitek: Zurreal's throne and some of his minions are machines powered by magic.
  • Making a Splash: The Champion mouse.
    • The Oasis Water Node trap. The oasis is a sentient mass of water.
  • The Man Behind the Man: The Dojo Sensei acts as this to the Master of The Dojo, the Big Bad of Furoma. Formerly hiding in the shadows, these extremely powerful Old Masters teach and instruct the Master of the Dojos.
  • Mascot Mook: Arguably, the White Mouse.
  • Meaningful Name : The Elub, Nerg and Derr wear blue, green and red respectively.
  • Metal Slime: Rare mice, most notably the Black Widow mouse, Mobster mouse, and Leprechaun mouse. Even with Super|Brie+ they are hard to attract, let alone catch.
    • The Nugget mouse may also count as well—it appears as often as a Shelder, another very rare mouse. It also drops quite costly or rare loot such as the Drillbot parts, which can be assembled into the Digby Drillbot (costs slightly more than 400,000 gold to buy from a Trapsmith) and either used or returned for a refund of 70,000 gold.
  • Miko: Sacred Shrine mice.
  • Mini Boss: Several- the Masters of the Cheese Belt/Claw/Fang, the Elub/Nerg/Derr Liches, and the Gargantuamouse.
  • Mister Big: The Nerg Chieftain Mouse is the smallest mouse in the Nerg Tribe. And he's harder to catch than the rest of the tribe, too.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Pretty much all of the mice based off other animals, such as the Eagle Owl mouse, the Spider mouse, the Flying mouse, etc.
  • Mouse Chess: Zugzwang's Tower.
  • Mook Maker: The Caravan Guard mouse. If you fail to catch one, it will allow more reinforcements to arrive. There are no weapons effective against it, making it hard to catch. Players can reduce their appearances via usage of Super|Brie+...
  • Multi Melee Master: The Master of the Cheese Fang.
  • The Musketeer: Cavalier Mice.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Balack the Banished, Hare Razer, Mousevina von Vermin.
  • Ninja Log: According to their description, the Stealth mice like to leave one behind after pilfering a trap.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Zombot Unipire Mouse, natch.
  • Noob Cave: The Meadow. Mice there are unable to steal points or gold and the common, easy-to-catch ones are abundant.
  • Not So Harmless: They're just mice—except that most of the higher ranks have every intention of taking over the kingdom and possibly enslaving or slaughtering the inhabitants.
  • Olympus Mons: "Boss" mice, such as the Master of the Dojo, Dojo Sensei, Acolyte, Silth, Big Bad Burroughs, Balack the Banished, Dragon mice, The Chessmaster, and the Warmonger give a TON of points and gold should you be able to catch them. Of course, being bosses, they are incredibly tough to get on a regular basis...
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Dragon mice and Brimstone mice.
  • Our Elves Are Different: Elf mice, as well as Elven Princess mice.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghost mice and Spectre mice.
  • Our Goblins Are Wickeder: Goblin mice.
  • Our Liches Are Different: Lich mice.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: The Mermouse.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Vampire mice.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Lycan mice.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Zombie mice, Ravenous Zombie mice.
  • Playing with Fire: Many of the Marching Flame units tend to use fire-based attacks, especially the Mages.
    • Also, the Ignis and Firebreather mouse.
  • Power Glows: The entire point of the Ancient Box Trap, which is covered in glowing pieces to lure in the power-hungry Acolyte mouse.
  • Power-Up Letdown: The Rhinobot, whose Fan Nickname is "Failbot".
  • Prophetic Names: Zugzwang, a name of a wizard in Mousehunt, is actually a term in chess to mean "a situation in which a player is limited to moves that cost pieces or have a damaging positional effect".
  • Psychopathic Manchild: The Terrible Twos mouse.
  • Punny Name: The Missile Toe Mouse. No wonder "he couldn't understand why anyone would kiss while their toes are subject to laser guided missile attacks"...
  • Random Number God: Plays a HUGE factor when catching mice. You might be able to catch an Acolyte Mouse with a tacky glue trap, or fail to catch a White mouse with a Chrome Drillbot, one of the best traps in the game.
    • Also known as "Devs Hate U" (DHU) factor, when it favours the mice instead of you.
  • Rat Stomp: Played straight. While every enemy in the game is a mouse, the three weakest mice (White, Grey and Brown) that you encounter in the tutorial are the most similar to real-life mice and rats.
  • Rock of Limitless Water
  • Rule of Funny: The Romeo mouse has a set of abs that can form into letters of the alphabet.
  • Sirens Are Mermaids: Averted for the Siren mouse, which has legs.
  • Robe and Wizard Hat: The Chessmaster Mouse
    • To a lesser extent, the Mystic King. He has no wizard hat, but cool nevertheless.
  • Sand Worm: The Big Bad Burroughs mouse, and its smaller brother the Itty-Bitty Burroughs mouse.
  • Saving Christmas: The gimmick of the annual Great Winter Hunts is that the mice will ruin Gnawnia's Christmas expy if not caught.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: The Sentinel mouse.
  • Scary Scorpions: The Chitinous Mouse, found in the Jungle of Dread. Scary indeed.
  • Schizo-Tech: While Gnawnia itself seems to be locked in Medieval Stasis, there is a 21st-century laboratory in Burroughs, a sailing ship of 16th-century design in Rodentia, a 19th-century dirigible (Ronza's flying ship), a Wutai pagoda in Furoma, and the Tribal Isles whose inhabitants seem to make everything from Bamboo Technology.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The gameplay mechanic in Fiery Warpath, where the Hunter can intimidate members of each mouse class into running away (by running up a streak of catches in that same class).
  • Serious Business: Millions in gold and titles up to the rank of Grand Duke/Grand Duchess are available to anyone who can... help the Kingdom of Gnawnia with its mouse problem.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: There are Mousehunt groups dedicated to this, such as the Mousehunt Century Club, where players catch 100 of each type of mouse.
  • Shout-Out: The Master of the Dojo mouse looks like what you'd get if Super Saiyan Goku wore Akuma's bead necklace and then got turned into a mouse.
    • The Twisted Fiend mouse is based off Gollum/Smeagol from The The Lord of the Rings, in terms of appearance, the fish in its hand (which Gollum smacked against a rock), and the description mentioning something about his "precious".
    • One of the Festive Gifts in 2010 was "an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love." If you use the "Look Again" command, they become diamonds. ("Larry's on a horse."!) Both are references to a famous and eminently quotable commercial for Old Spice.
    • The Egg Painter mouse is based off Mike Hiscott, a MouseHunt artist who drew all the eggs for Spring Egg Hunt 2011..
    • A book in the trap Zurreal's Folly is called "How To Tame Your Dragon. Next to it is another book called "Let The Hunt Begin", a Mousehunt fanfic.
    • The Nibbler and Crown Collector mouse are tributes to the now-defunct "The Nibbler" Mousehunt newsletter and the Mousehunt Century Club respectively.
    • The 2012 Valentine's Day "Forever Alone" mouse is a nod to a popular meme.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Derr Dunes and the Sandtail Desert.
  • Smart People Play Chess: It is suggested that Zugzwang is a very knowledgeable person, and his tower has a Chess theme.
  • Soul Jar: The Sphynx Crystal.

This particular item is believed to contain the spirit of one of the most feared creatures believed only to be legend.

  • Spell Book: The Spellbook base. However, you can't even open the book, let alone cast spells from it.

Magic this strong can only be bound by a powerful wizard, and even then, it strives for release. Luckily for you, the spells trapped within this book will try to lure in mice in to break the binding... put a trap on it, and you're in business.

They lie in the conduit, waiting to explode upon contact with a Rook mouse in Zugzwang's Tower.

  • Sure Why Not: When the devs asked the players for ideas, there was a resounding scream for a new cheese. By the time the day was over, there was a new cheese given out by the King. Followed rather soon by a whole new region that revolved around the new cheese.
    • Fans were not happy with the Rhinobot as it was strong, but its luck paled in comparison to many Limited Edition physical traps and was therefore a lot less useful. Enter the Enraged Rhinobot!
  • Taken for Granite: The Gorgon trap and the ACRONYM are able to do this to unlucky mice, the former only temporary, the latter permanent. The Gorgon Mouse, obviously, can also do this to hunters (or at least the description says so).
  • Technicolor Fire: The blue fire on the arrow of the Crimson Ranger.
  • Too Awesome to Use: SUPER|brie+ can be this if it is only received from daily Loyalty Chests.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Some mice are attracted to only one kind of cheese.
  • Training from Hell: How scouts are trained in the Marching Flame army.

"Training scouts in the art of hand-to-hand combat is a bit unique in the Marching Flame, though. Rather than spending months on the training grounds, they throw them directly into the first wave of the battle. If they survive, maybe they'll be promoted to something more. If not, there will always be another to step up in its place."

  • Twenty Bear Asses: The gameplay mechanic in some areas, especially Tribal Isles.
  • Unfortunate Implications: The mice are intelligent beings, and you're killing them by the dozen, just because they're a "nuisance"?
  • Unwinnable by Design: Consciously averted: the player cannot be trapped or harmed by anything in the game, and even if temporarily locked (by a lack of gold to buy cheese, or by being transported to the Acolyte Realm) it is always possible to get out again.
  • Up to Eleven: Just when you thought that the Dragon Mouse was that powerful, along comes the Gargantuamouse, courtesy of the Marching Flame.

"There are two things known for certain about the Gargantuamouse. The first is that it is the only known predator of the Dragon Mouse. The second is that only a Warmonger has ever managed to harness its power. If the battle is not going well, a Warmonger will not hesitate to unleash these Draconic beasts."

Hunters from past and present agree that this small hinge is clearly the most epic way to attach two objects, allowing limited, yet awesome, rotation around a fixed axis.

Bah, humbug! When the Scrooge Mouse leaves his house, he dampens the Christmas spirit in a wide radius around him. His few hobbies include destroying snowmen with his cane, muttering irritably to himself and kicking over Present Mice to watch their legs flail. The other mice read a story in which a human of similar comportment got his comeuppance from a team of wily ghosts, but so far no spirits have answered their classified ad.

    • The 3 ghosts (1 2 3) were finally released on 17 December 2010, about a year after the Scrooge mouse was released.
  • You Mean "Xmas": The Great Winter Hunt and Spring Egg Hunt.
  • Zerg Rush: Skeleton Mice in the Catacombs. Their description says that they "are often used by their superiors as fodder during large scale attacks". And true enough, if one of these appear, more of them are likely to come in the next few hunts. They give low amounts of gold and points as compared to the other mice in the catacombs.
    • They probably got annoying enough to the point that an "Antiskele Charm" was created. Like its name suggests, equip it and no skeleton mice will appear.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: Not exactly, but there's a recent "Zombie Invasion" event.
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