History Main / RatStomp

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' also has an archetypal "clearing out rats" quest during the ThievesGuild questline, but it's not possible to do it before a number of other quests have been finished. Interestingly, you also fight a man named Hamelyn who's been expermenting on the rats, and he can actually be a little tough if you aren't prepared. Also, exterminating pests will only be a cover for the ''real'' task...[[note]]putting rat poison in the mead so the brewery fails [[TheInspectorIsComing the health inspection]].[[/note]]

* Played straight in Facebook game ''VideoGame/{{Mousehunt}}''. Though ''everything'' you fight is a mouse, the three weakest mice (White, Brown and Grey) the player encounters in the tutorial are based off regular varieties of real-life mice/rats while everything else is a NinjaPirateZombieRobot.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' gives you this quest very late in the game in a subversion of the trope. At this point in the story you've beaten entire armies of goons, but here you are, stomping mice in a basement. It's also notable in that it is one of VERY few tasks in the game that aren't story related, and very laden with winks and nods to the trope as a whole.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate3'' gives you this quest very late in the game in a subversion of the trope. At this point in the story you've beaten entire armies of goons, but here you are, stomping mice in a basement. It's also notable in that it is one of VERY few tasks in the game that aren't story related, and very laden with winks and nods to the trope as a whole.

* Rookie adventurers in ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' are often advised to start out clearing the sewers of giant rats.

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[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Roleplay]]

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[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

Subtrope of MassMonsterSlaughterSidequest. Not to be confused with GoombaStomp.

->"''Giant rats? It's like the start of every bad adventure tale my grandfather used to tell.''"
-->--'''Ser Gilmore''', ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''

* While rats can spawn in [[StarterTown Ragni]] and can thus be fought early on in ''VideoGame/{{Wynncraft}}'', there are no early-game quests bidding the player to slay a bunch of them.

If you're still getting these sorts of quests when you're famous and powerful, it's time to start yelling "DudeWheresMyRespect"

* Played straight in Facebook game ''VideoGame/{{Mousehunt}}''. Though ''everything'' you fight is a mouse, the three weakest mice (White, Brown and Grey) the player encounters in the tutorial are based off regular varieties of real-life mice/rats while everything else is a NinjaPirateZombieRobot

* Inverted (!) with ''[[{{VideoGame/Hades}} Hades]]'', as giant mutant rats are among the last and therefore most powerful enemies you face. Additionally, it's a Justified inversion because the entire game involves escaping from the Greek underworld; the presence of living, rather than undead things at the end indicates that you're very close to escaping. The trope itself is lampshaded in Achilles's codex, which asserts that gigantic vermin excel at "being slain in great droves by would-be heroes setting forth to prove themselves, all in the name of Experience."
* Toyed with all over the place in ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerII'': [[RatMen The Skaven]] are a common StarterVillain early foe for many faction starts, and true to the trope their early units are weak: However, they have serious MagikarpPower thanks to an array of plagues, mad science, and ninja, and are your final foes in the Vortex Campaign. [[spoiler: In fact, the entire plot was orchestrated by the Skaven!]] In addition, they are a playable race in their own right, and depending on the faction chosen you may also fight them in the mid-game as well. Hence, the trope can be played straight, inverted or averted depending on the faction.
* ''VideoGame/TheLastSovereign'': Parodied in the first chapter. Tal, the Chosen makes much ado about how many rats he's killed. How many? "Like a bunch." He's still at level one when you get him. And then in Stineford, the party can offer their services to a local barman whose cellar is full of rats. Of course, by that point, most of the party's levels are in the double digits (and they can kill said rats in a single hit from pretty much any attack, even a ''physical'' attack from one of the party's {{Squishy Wizard}}s), but he lets them at it anyway. Within said cellar are four different corpses all succumbed to rats.

* Subverted in most [=RPGs=] created by ''Creator/FromSoftware'', particularly ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}''. Rats can be seen early on, but it isn't you who stomp rats, [[RussianReversal it's the rats who stomp you]]. Not only are they [[RodentsOfUnusualSize larger than you]], they are also poisonous and [[ZergRush can swarm you]]. ''VideoGame/DarkSouls2'' has one boss, the Royal Rat Authority, which is a roughly human-sized rat, surrounded by dozens of other large rats, forcing you to pick hi out of the crowd to attack him.

* Subverted in most RPG created by ''Creator/FromSoftware'', particularly ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', rats can be seen early on, but it isn't you who stomp rats, [[RussianReversal it's the rats who stomp you]]. Not only they are [[RodentsOfUnusualSize twice larger than you]], they are also poisonous and [[ZergRush can swarm you]].

* ''VideoGame/ArmoryAndMachine'': The ''second'' area of the game that features rats as enemies, with the boss being the Rat King. These rats however are no pushover, as they ''all'' come with an dangerous attack that, if not interrupted by Stun, deals a ''whopping'' 300 or 400 damage at a point where you have 600 HP maximum.

* ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'' plays a bit with this. In computing terms, a R.A.T. (short for Remote Access Trojan) is a type of malware virus, and [=BoxxyQuest=] takes place in a fantasy-ized version of the Internet. So naturally the tutorial dungeon is filled with R.A.T.s shaped like rats that have poisonous bites.

* In ''Series/ChinesePaladin 2'', one of the earlier mainline quests involve getting rid of a rat infestation. You pick up your first summon there, a giant rat-spirit who has earth-element attacks and can also steal stuff.

* ''VideoGame/{{Drakensang}}'' features a brewery full of rats. This is, however, not a low-level quest. Hilariously lampshaded later when the main characters ask to a Inn Keeper if he can obtain his trust by killing the rats in his cellar, making him angry at you. Then is double subverted when you find out that he does have giant rats in his cellar.

* ''VideoGame/EveOnline'', even being a WideOpenSandbox, is not immune, except the rats are low level NPC pirates in spaceships...which the players call "rats", and the act of cruising for [=NPCs=] in asteroid belts "ratting". And not just because of the Fun With Abbreviations to be had with pi''RAT''e... player pirates don't get called that.

** Your first task in ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' is to head over to Vault 15 and see if they've got a spare water chip. As it happens, Vault 15 is now a bomb shelter full of mutant rats, and of course you start in the area outside Vault 13, also full of rats.

** It gets parodied in ''Icewind Dale 2'', when you encounter another group of low level adventurers who were given the exact same quest and chose to solve it by tossing a cat into the room with the rats.

* The first storyline quest you'll get in ''Videogame/MightAndMagic'' ''VII'' is to clear the castle you just won of bats, Goblins and, yes, rats.

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has a quest that gives you a bounty on rat tails. In keeping with Sigil's utter bizzarness, it is on ''Cranium'' rats, who become increasingly deadly sorcerers when in the presence of more of their kind.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' had a subversion; you don't fight rats until around halfway through the game. Even then still, at first they're not a challenge, but once you've shrunk down the rats are about 12 foot, and bust out boxing moves..
* While ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' indeed has some quests dealing with rats, they are never a challenge - even first level quests deal with wolves, panthers, bears, giant owl-bear hybrids or humanoid bandits. The only ones that come close are a couple concerning giant ''undead bats''. A more standard example of this trope would be the Kobolds, who are a race of mining rat-people that populate the early Human player maps.

* Toyed with all over the place in ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerII'': [[RatMen The Skaven]] are a common StarterVillain early foe for many faction starts, and true to the trope their early units are weak: However, they have serious MagikarpPower thanks to an array of plagues, mad science and ninja, and are your final foes in the Vortex Campaign. [[spoiler: In fact, the entire plot was orchestrated by the Skaven!]] In addition, they are a playable race in their own right, and depending on the faction chosen you may also fight them in the mid-game as well. Hence, the trope can be played straight, inverted or averted depending on the faction.

** Your first task in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' is to head over to Vault 15 and see if they've got a spare water chip. As it happens, Vault 15 is now a bomb shelter full of mutant rats, and of course you start in the area outside Vault 13, also full of rats.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'''s Trapper Town has a serious rat problem.

** And then, in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', one of the first quests you can obtain involves testing out a rat repellent. It involves hitting rats with a stick. That makes their heads explode. Before that the Radroaches you fight during the escape from Vault 101 also count.
** One of your very first tasks upon venturing out into the Commonwealth after escaping Vault 111 in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' is going to Concord. Along the way, you find the Red Rocket station near Sanctuary, which is home to [[PostApocalypticDog Dogmeat]], who helps you fight off a bunch of Mole Rats that have burrowed out from the cave under the station.

* Inverted (!) with ''[[{{VideoGame/Hades}} Hades]]'', as giant mutant rats are among the last and therefore most powerful enemies you face. Additionally, it's a Justified inversion because the entire game involves escaping from the Greek underworld; the presence of living, rather than undead things at the end indicates that you're very close to escaping.

[[AC: Video Games]]

[[AC: Anime & Manga]]
* Rookie adventurers in ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' are often advised to start out clearing the sewers of giant rats.

[[AC: Fan Works]]
* Played straight and averted in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World''. In Gothmarik Citadel, rats are some of the opponents in there. But because the four are [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]] and won't kill anything, John simply immobilizes them with warm ice timed to melt in a few hours.

[[AC: Tabletop RPG]]
* Any time you start out on lower levels in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', you will be killing rats. Just like [[YouAllMeetInAnInn starting in a tavern]]. More recently, goblins are becoming the staple of low-level adventurers, but they're not a big step up.
** However, [[https://i.imgur.com/w7xm40n.png rats can be genuinely dangerous for non-adventurers.]]
* ''[[TabletopGame/SavageWorlds Evernight]]'', true to its [[ClicheStorm stereo]][[AffectionateParody typical]] [[StandardFantasySetting fantasy RPG]] roots, has one of the very first quests: kill the rats under the tavern.

[[AC: Webcomic]]

* Subverted in ''WebComic/YokokasQuest''; Mao takes on a quest to drive out 'some kind of vermin', but the vermin in question turn out to be giant poisonous [[MixAndMatchCritter snake-centipedes]], rather than the rats he was expecting.

A common early quest in many [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]], particularly of the Western, tabletop-derived variety. Rats may be [[RodentsOfUnusualSize of unusual size]], or substituted with some similarly non-threatening and easily killed critter (the Eastern equivalent is typically one or more slimes), and indeed the basement may well be a different room entirely (possibly the NoobCave). This may even be part of the game's combat tutorial. Whatever the specifics, there's an area filled with small squishy things that need squishing. Get to it.

* Toyed with all over the place in ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerII'': [[RatMen The Skaven]] are a common StarterVillain early foe for many faction starts, and true to the trope their early units are weak: However, they have serious MagikarpPower thanks to an array of plagues, mad science and ninja, and are your final foes in the Vortex Campaign. [[spoiler: In fact, the entire plot was orchestrated by the Skaven!]]. In addition, they are a playable race in their own right, and depending on the faction chosen you may also fight them in the mid-game as well. Hence, the trope can be played straight, inverted or averted depending on the faction.

* While ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' indeed has some quests dealing with rats, they are never a challenge - even first level quests deal with wolves, panthers, bears, giant owl-bear hybrids or humanoid bandits. The only ones that come close are a couple concerning giant ''undead bats'' A more standard example of this trope would be the Kobolds, who are a race of mining rat-people that populate the early Human player maps.