Video Game / MouseHunt (2008)

The logo.

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

The game is set in a fantasy kingdom called Gnawnia. The players are Hunters hired by the King of Gnawnia to find and trap the mice that infest his kingdom. As they progress through the levels, they 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 players arm their trap and bait it with cheese and then sounds the "Hunter's Horn" every 15 minutes. Every time the players sound the horn they are taken on a hunt and have a possibility of catching a mouse. For each mouse the players catch, they get a unique reward, which is a certain amount of points and gold.

As of August 2020, MouseHunt has 836 different breeds of mice. Some of them, when caught, will drop loot, which will be essential as players progress through the game. In addition to these, there are 169 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.

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Tropes used for this game:

• 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.
  • The Strawberry Hotcakes Mouse, who uses chili sauce. A FLOOD OF HOT SAUCE.
• Achilles' Heel: 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, Icewing...
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The Big Bad Burroughs mouse and the Big Bad Behemoth Burroughs mouse.
  • Calamity Carl, a recurring character that sometimes plans events. His events always go awry, usually because of mice, and in the end he has to enlist the help of Mousehunters.
  • The description of the Mush Monster mouse mostly consists of alliteration with 'm'.
• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Zokor, an ancient city full of advanced magic and technology hidden at the end of the complex and ever-changing Labyrinth.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The M400 prototype was bestowed with artificial intelligence to allow it to research mice behaviors. As expected with this trope, it went horribly wrong and thought it was an unique breed of mice, cloning itself shortly afterwards.

• All Your Powers Combined: The Empyrean Empress mouse has the powers of all eight raw energies in the Floating Islands. However, this also means that Traps that are effective against those particular types^note Physical, Tactical, Shadow, Hydro, Arcane, Forgotten, Law, Draconic are all Very Effective against her — not that she'll be easy either way.
• Almighty Janitor: The Hapless mouse reveal their true form as the Ascended Elder mouse, the final boss of the Furoma Rift. They may still continue sweeping the floors of the pagoda but they possess unimaginable power.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: The Hapless Mouse is one of the weakest mice in not just Furoma but the game itself, looked down upon and shunned by the Dojo for rejecting their masters' agenda. Their Rift counterpart in the Ascended Elder on the other hand is the strongest mouse in the Furoma Rift, having found greater spiritual purpose and wholeness from menial work and self-sacrifice, surpassing even the Supreme Sensei.
• Always Accurate Attack: The Ultimate Charm will catch the next mouse you encounter without fail. This even includes mice with immunity that needs to be overridden, such as Warmonger before 12 Theurgy Warden mice have been caught. The only mouse it can't capture is Zurreal the Eternal, since you need to equip a different, specific charm to even attract him.
• An Ice Mouse: Two-thirds of the Winter mice in the Seasonal Garden have some control over ice.
  • The Iceberg has an army of ice-themed mice, including Icewing, Lady Coldsnap, Iceblade and Water Wielder.
• Another Dimension: The Acolyte Realm.
  • Upon catching Carmine the Apothecary, you are transported to a 'twisted' dimension.
  • You get to explore part of the 'twisted' dimension, known as the Rift, when it opens up in Gnawnia. It is full of Rift versions of regular Meadow mice that are really hard to catch without a Rift power type trap.
  • The rift has since opened up in the Burroughs, Whisker Woods, Furoma, Bristle Woods, and Valour regions.
• 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.
• Art Evolution: Most of the Art has evolved over time since Mousehunt first started. Compare the old Grey◊, Brown◊, and Steel◊ mouse to the newer Grey◊, Brown◊, and Steel◊.
• 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.
• Atlantis: The Sunken City. It is still thriving underwater due to advanced technologies and is overrun by mice. It serves as the starting point for dives that explore the Rodentia Ocean.
• Awesome, but Impractical: In-universe, the Ultra MegaMouser MechaBot Trap.
  "Unfortunately, due to its massive size, the Ultra MegaMouser MechaBot Trap isn't terribly effective against most mice. Mice are swift and hard to track, and the Ultra MegaMouser MechaBot Trap is slow and ponderous. Still, against other super-robots, it's pretty swell! "
• Back Tracking: Some of the Library Assignments, especially the Zurreal Trap Research Assignment and the M400 Assignments.
  • Treasure Maps also force the player to do this for a reward.
• Badass Cape:
  • Many mice in the Marching Flame the Desert Warrior, Flame Warrior and Crimson Titan, Theurgy Warden and Warmonger.
  • The Eclipse mouse, Nightmancer mouse, Thunderlord mouse, Absolute Acolyte mouse, Spice Reaper mouse, Inferna The Engulfed, and Queen Quesada.
• Bears Are Bad News: The Bear Mouse, the Polar Bear Mouse and the Red Coat Bear Mouse.
• Beast of Battle: The Gargantuamouse.
• Blob Monster: The Gelatinous Octahedron Mouse, being an expy of the Gelatinous Cube.
  • The Ooze Mouse and the Sentient Slime Mouse.
• Blow You Away: The Zephyr mouse, Winter Mage mouse as well as the Wind Wanderer mice of Moussu Picchu.
• Big Eater: The Student of the Cheese Belt.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Abominable Snow Mouse, and the Yeti Mouse.
• Body to Jewel: Many mice in the Fungal Cavern can do this, including the Gemorpher and Crystal Golem mice.
• 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.
  • Many kits containing useful cheese, crafting or special items pertaining to specific areas can also be purchased, speeding up progress for donators.
• Caped Mecha: The Sandtail Sentinel trap.
• 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.
• The Casanova: The Romeo mouse.
• Character Select Forcing: Zurreal the Eternal can only be caught with Zurreal's Folly and no other trap, and can only be attracted if you equip the Scholar Charm. You can fortunately use any standard cheese or base to attract and capture him.
• Cheap Gold Coins: Your first trap base, which is nothing more than a piece of wood, costs 300 gold pieces. That same piece of wood with a target painted on it costs 1,225 gold pieces. (For comparison, catching a Com Mon will net you at least 100 gold pieces.) This trope is lampshaded by a fan comic and by the description of Fool's Gold, which unlike in real life, is a rarer, location-specific alternate currency:
  This incredible nugget looks an awful lot like gold. Thankfully, however, it is not such a commonplace metal. In fact, this tiny nugget is extremely rare and is therefore very valuable. Scientifically known as Pyrite, it is referred to as "Fool's Gold" because more than once someone has traded in a handful of the stuff for a single wedge of cheese thinking it was mere regular gold.
  There is no shortage of shop keepers around when Fool's Gold might accidentally trade hands and provide them with an early retirement.
• Chess Motifs: Zugzwang's tower and associated traps.
• Chest Monster: The Dimensional Chest Trap and the Mimic Mouse.
• Citadel City: Zokor is protected by the Labyrinth, a massive sprawling maze that keeps intruders out.
• Clark'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."
• Clockwork Creature: Some of the Crystal Library mice like the Pocketwatch Mouse as well as the Clockwork Timespinner Mouse.
• Clockworks Area: The Bristle Woods Rift allows you to explore the Acolyte Tower, a massive tower with chambers full of clockwork gears and cogs.
  • The Tactical Island (and the Tactical Castle) of the Floating Islands are essentially giant gears and mechanisms built on top of floating rocks.
• Colour Coded Armies/Colorful Theme Naming: The three tribes of mice, Elub, Nerg and Derr are Blue, Green and Red respectively. Somewhat fittingly, Elub are wise, Nerg are tactical, and Derr are aggressive.
• 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.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted with the Warmonger and Absolute Acolyte. They can be caught early using the Ultimate Charm despite being invincible before completing their respective tasks to weaken them. Zurreal The Eternal however plays this one straight as he not only requires one specific trap to be caught at all, but also requires a specific charm equipped to even be attracted, preventing the use of the Ultimate Charm.
• 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 III 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.
  • Similar to skins, journal themes spruce up the borders of your hunting journal display and nothing more.
• Crystal Landscape: The Fungal Cavern, more specifically the Flowstone Falls and Subterra Silence sub-areas.
• Cthulhumanoid: The Old One and the Urchin King.
• Cyborg: The mice in the Burroughs region were modified into the rift versions in the Burroughs Rift.
• Dark World: Appears to be what the newer "Rift Plane" locations are supposed to be. Many of the new mice you encounter in those areas are recognizable as twisted versions of the Com Mons you caught in your early days...
• 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!
• Determinator: The Mythweaver is extremely tenacious. Even after having his plan to rewrite the history of Gnawnia via the Book of Lore gets foiled by the Hunters, he immediately hatches another plan to rewrite the Tale of the Bountiful Beanstalk. As such, he's the only non-event Arc Villain of two separate plots.
• Draconic Humanoid: The storm dragon mice are these, apart from Ful'Mina which is more of an eastern dragon.
• Dragon Hoard: The Dragon mouse closely protects its treasure kept inside a dragon's chest. It contains a map piece to the Seasonal Garden, a trap part along with assorted Tribal Isles loot.
  • Ful'mina the Mountain Queen drops a wide variety of loot that she collected throughout the kingdom.
• Earn Your Fun: Since the game is an arms race between the Hunters and the Mice, this is a frequent element of gameplay.
  • The common rule of MouseHunt is as followed: the new region will offer better traps but require components gathered from that region, which means you have to farm for them using your inferior traps first. After finishing that region, you have newer trap and prepare to move to the next region and the cycle repeat.
  • 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.
  • More recently, the Phantasmic Oasis Trap, Clockwork Portal Trap, and Grand Arcanum Trap, which between them cost roughly 10 million gold just for the upgrade parts, not including the time cost of assembling the blueprints, or the money and time to get the traps which they are upgraded from.
  • 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.
  • Ronza has sold kits which allow existing Monstrobots, Sphynx Wraths, Oasis Water Node or Phantasmic Oasis traps, Temporal Turbine traps, and Storm Wrought Ballista traps to be upgraded into their chrome counterparts with even better stats. They cost 12,500,000, 12,000,000, 11,250,000, 39,999,999, and 12,000,000 gold respectively.
  • With the release of the Sunken City, the School of Sharks trap was released. It costs a whopping 29,000,000 gold to obtain. Its upgraded version, the Chrome School of Sharks, costs an additional 32,000,000 million to purchase, making it the single most expensive item to get ingame (excluding the Marketplace).
  • The Labyrinth/Zokor introduces one of the best bases in the game, the Minotaur Base. It also brings several powerful forgotten, arcane and shadow traps; the Infinite Labyrinth trap, the Event Horizon trap and the Temporal Turbine trap. The rarity and difficulty in obtaining their required trap loot has caused their marketplace value to reach sky-high values.
  • The Floating Islands introduce the Adorned Empyrean Refractor Base, and several powerful Law (S.T.I.N.G AND S.T.I.N.G.E.R), Forgotten (Thought Manipulator and Thought Obliterator), Arcane (Circlet of Seeking and Circlet of Pursuing), and Tactical (Sleeping Stone and Slumbering Boulder) traps. Both the base and the upgraded versions require Paragon loot to purchase, and the upgraded versions also required Adorned Empyrean Jewels, which have a small chance of being found in treasure trove loots obtained at the end of islands, or as loot from the Empyrean Empress. Have fun.
  • The Bristle Woods Rift brings the best rift trap and base, the Timesplit Dissonance Weapon and Clockwork base. They cost 36,400,000 and 8,400,000 gold respectively and require the rare Timesplit Runes to purchase them.
• 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.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: The Samurai mouse and its rift counterpart, the Militant Samurai mouse.
• Evil Counterpart: The mice found in the Twisted Garden to those in the Living Garden.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Acolyte Tower in the Acolyte Realm as well as its rift counterpart in the Bristle Woods Rift.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: You hunt for mice in this game.
• Expy: The Elf Mouse and the Birthday Mouse. They're the same mouse dragging the same sack of gifts in a different outfit. Heck, even their descriptions are the same (at least before the devs changed both).
  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.
• Failure Is the Only Option: You will never be able to catch the Icewing on your first descent through the Iceberg as she will always escape, leaving you to face her commander.
• Fanservice: The Romeo mouse.
  • Fan Disservice: The Romeno mouse.
• Fantastic Flora: The Living Garden and its twisted counterpart.
• Fantastic Nuke: Artillery Strike Launch box, which can be used in Fiery Warpath to instantly clear the current wave.
• Fate Worse than Death: Several traps cause mice to suffer very horrifying fates, but may keep them alive in some twisted way:
  • The Thought Obliterator erases/traps a mouse's mind and personality before they wander into a portal that presumably erases their existence.
  • The Infinite Labyrinth Trap transports a mouse into an eternal, infinitely-shifting labyrinth, forever doomed to wander for eternity.
  • The Temporal Turbine links with the mind of a mouse and implants an utopia into it, while astral-projecting the mouse's soul into space, never to return.
• 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/Shatterpoint Tap: The Master of the Cheese Claw.
• Fisher King: It is stated that "the Seasonal Garden and the Tower answer to (the Chess Master mouse's) whims, changing with his mercurial moods", although in the game, both locations actually follow consistent patterns all the time.
• Fishmice: The Silth mouse and the various mermaid mice. Mice that look like actual fish are aplenty in the Rodentia Ocean when exploring from the Sunken City.
• Flaming Sword: The Warmonger mouse is equipped with one.
• Flavor Text: Everything includes it, regardless of how insignificant it is.
• Floating Continent: The Floating Islands consists of randomly generated islands of 8 different power types that you can explore, all high above the surface. There are also harder variants called High Altitude Islands.
• Flunky Boss: The Warmonger and Artillery Commander of the Marching Flame are immune to capture until a certain number of their Theurgy Wardens have been captured (12 for Warmonger, 5 for Artillery Commander).
• Frankenstein's Monster: The Monster mouse, created by Dr. F. Romage.
  • There's even an upgraded version of the Monster mouse, the Monstrous Abomination mouse, a boss in the Burroughs Rift.
• Fun with Acronyms: The "Arcane Capturing Rod Of Never Yielding Mystery", also known as the A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.
  • The Furoma Rift update introduced the "Mysteriously unYielding Null-Onyx Rampart of Cascading Amperes", also known as the M.Y.N.O.R.C.A.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Some mice have four fingers, others have five. But most only have three toes and a dewclaw on their feet.
• From Nobody to Nightmare:
  • General Drheller. Formerly a White Mouse, now a terrifying General in Icewing's army.
  • The Mythweaver was once a simple Bookborn made by Zurreal that consumed way more knowledge than its master expected, realizing that it was merely a servant to a tyrannical leader. Then he discovered the Folklore Forest and a Reality-Writing Book containing Gnawnia's history...
• Funny Animal: Many of the mice.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The mice in Claw Shot City and the Gnawnian Express are outlaws known for stealing, pillaging, and raiding. However, they cannot do so as hunters in both locations are safe from having their cheese stolen, gold pillaged, or points taken.
• Geometric Magic: The Ice Maiden trap is covered in a complicated pattern of runes.
  • The Nightmancer mouse has an aura made of circular runes.
• Giant Spider: The Monstrous Black Widow, the boss of the Whisker Woods Rift.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Mystic Queen mouse, the 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.
  • Both the White mouse and the Mutated White mouse have rift versions which are much harder to catch.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All. There are over seven 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 Twisted Garden mice, especially Twisted Carmine.
  • The Treant Queen, the protector of the Whisker Woods Rift.
  • The Nightshade Nanny and Nightshade Fungalmancer mice.
• The Grim Reaper: The Reaper mouse and the Harbinger of Death mouse. Also, the Reaper's Perch, although the reaper in that trap is actually a robot.
• Guide Dang It!: The more complicated recipes. Fortunately, there's a MouseHunt wiki.
  • There isn't any in-game clue that the Molten Shrapnel base and Enraged Rhinobot even exist. The Molten Shrapnel was found out only when a Developer had armed it, allowing players to see the (then) new base and attempt to figure out the recipe.
  • The more higher ranked areas such as the Labyrinth have complicated mechanics that are difficult to get used to.
• Harping on About Harpies: The Harpy Mouse. And yes, you're going to be harping on them.
  • The Harpy Mouse's rift counterpart, the Winged Harpy.
• Hazmat Suit: The Lab Technician, Hazmat and Biohazard Mice wears one.
• A Head at Each End: The Monster Tail mouse from the Polluted series.
• 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.
  • Carmine the Apothecary made these to cure the citizens of the Muridae Market from an unknown disease in the past.
• The High Queen: Queen Quesada rules over Queso Canyon.
• The Horde: The Marching Flame mice from Fiery Warpath. They devastated the Sandtail Desert Region until the player manage to catch their boss, the Warmonger mouse.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Artillery Commander mouse drops an Artillery Strike Launch box. This was supposed to be used in the Marching Flame's attack on Muridae Market, but you can use it on them to wipe out one of their own waves.
• Holiday Mode: 2009 brought the start of regular holiday events, some of which change the background of the page and the Mousehunt shield for a more festive theme. Event mice (Elf, Hollowhead, Cupid, etc.) are only available in their events (The Great Winter Hunt, Lunar New Year, Valentine's, Mousehunt's Birthday the Spring Egg Hunt and Halloween) once a year.
  • 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!
• Humongous Mecha: The Sandstorm Monstrobot.
  • Of course, it's only humongous by mice standards. On the other hand, the Limited Edition Ultra MegaMouser MechaBot Trap◊ takes this up to eleven, being humongous by human standards. It doesn't make a very good mousetrap though, due to the ridiculous size difference. Its primary use is to attract and combat another Humongous Mecha made by the Force Fighter Five mice during the Fifth Birthday Event.
• Hungry Jungle: The Jungle of Dread with its monstrous denizens.
• 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: The strongest traps of the different power types require the player to work hard to obtain them.
  • And Ronza has brought in the Chrome upgrades for some of these traps, resulting in even stronger variants.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Sandtail Sentinel. Less powerful than the Sandstorm MonstroBot, but considerably easier to get.
• Item Crafting
• It's Up to You: Nothing stands in the way of disaster for Gnawnia but you, brave MouseHunter! Or at least, that's what you're told at the Fiery Warpath.
• Joke Character: In this case, Joke Element. The Parental power type is only effective against Terrible Twos mice and nothing else. The game developers even mentioned that it would never be returning — even the upgrade to the one Parental trap (Nannybot) loses said power type.
• Kill It with Fire: The Heat Bath trap.
• Kill It with Water: Any Mouse vulnerable to the Hydro element, which tend to take the form of water-based traps. Hilariously, the stated reason why Icewing's Invasion mice are vulnerable to it is "who likes being wet when it's cold?".
• 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 immune to this — 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 III. In the depths below lie the Serpent Monster mouse, the Ancient of the Deep and the Tritus mouse.
• 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.
  • 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 Whisker Woods Rift, the alternate dimension version of the Whisker Woods.
• Luck-Based Mission: Although the entire games essentially operates as one, the devs do a good job at balancing out catch rates to make them fair. However, the King's Gauntlet, Iceberg, Zugzwang's Tower (subverted once you get the side-specific traps) and archeology sidequest all qualify. The Gauntlet may give you a dry streak of potions (required to advance) when you're at a high tier, thus ruining your run. The Iceberg may give you a bunch of Brutes and Zealots, making it impossible to progress and may even send you a few dozen feet in reverse. The archeology sidequest may have you hunt a bunch of mice with either really low appearance rates, very high power, or both. Woe to the hunter who has to hunt down a Boss Rush's worth of mice and find half a dozen mice with a less than 1% encounter rate.
  • Some areas depend on randomly generated sub-areas that can affect your progress. For example, when you hit an intersection in The Labyrinth, up to 3 hallway doors are randomly generated. As some ideal door options might be left out, this can impede your progress towards a desired destination unless you use special items to help you out.
  • The Valour Rift is ultimately luck-dependent, as your encounter rate of the Terrified Adventurer mouse can make or break runs. Capturing it gives you double the steps compared to all the other mice in the tower, and with the String Stepping augment it quadruples it. And as you go higher up the tower, its encounter rate decreases...
• The Magic Versus Technology War: Zugzwang's tower has the Mystic mice battling against the Technic mice in a never-ending game of chess.
• Magical Library: The Crystal Library. There're even very long bookshelves that stretch across the ceilings.◊ Apparently, it's also much Bigger on the Inside. (Which would be justified, since it's magical.
• Magic Meteor: One of these crashed into Varmint Valley in the Fort Rox expansion, giving rise to weremice and attracting mages who covet their new powers.
• Magitek: Zurreal's throne and some of his minions are machines powered by magic.
• Magma Mouse: The Magma Carrier mouse.
  • The Molten Midas mouse is made of molten gold and treasure.
• Making a Splash: The Champion mouse.
  • The Water Wielder mouse, which also can turn the water into ice.
  • The Oasis Water Node trap and its upgrade, the Phantasmic Oasis trap. The oasis is a sentient mass of water.
  • The Hovering Hydro mice of the Floating Islands control clouds and water as well.
• 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.
  • If this page◊ from Plankrun's Journal indicates, the Acolyte also has a Master behind the scenes.
• Marathon Level: The King's Gauntlet. It's possible to rush through it in a couple days, but the only truly reliable way to get through is to get a massive amount of potions before you begin advancing.
  • Its Rift equivalent, the Valour Rift, takes this up to eleven. This time, the tower is endless, with the 8 floors repeating and getting longer each cycle. Naturally, the higher you go, the more loot you'll obtain so the goal is to get as high up as possible each run.
    • The Ultimate Umbra runs of the Valour Rift is essentially the Hard Mode, with more valuable loot but also the caveat of having mice push you backwards if you miss them. One of the rewards is the best base in the game by far, the Prestige Base. However, its stats scale according to the highest floor you reached in Ultimate Umbra runs, so you'll have to Earn Your Fun by spending tons of resources, gold and your best charms in order to give your Prestige Base the best stats possible.
• Mascot Mook: The White Mouse. While most of the other mice got a redesign thanks to Art Evolution, the White Mouse has always stayed the same.
• Mayincatec: Moussu Picchu is based on the ancient Incan city of Macchu Picchu, but with mice that control the weather.
• Meaningful Name : The Elub, Nerg and Derr wear blue, green and red respectively.
• Mecha-Mice: Some mice in Zurreal's Breed are purely technological constructs or are infused with magic to bypass the special security of the Crystal Library.
  • The train raiders of the Gnawnian Express Station also build mechanical steampunk mice to rob the train.
  • The M400 was built by the Digby scientists to study mice before it went horribly wrong.
  • The Scrap Metal Monster mice of the Toxic Spill were created by an unknown entity to preserve it.
• 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, the Gargantuamouse, Icewing's Generals, Whisker Woods Rift leaders and the District Leaders of Zokor.
• 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.
• Mobile Maze: The Labyrinth is a maze consisting of randomly generated doors that lead to hallways of 5 different types and 3 different lengths, so every run will be different except for the start. You can use Shuffler's Cubes to obtain a new choice of doors to suit your run.
• Mole Mice: The Mole mouse (its Rift version, the Mighty Mole mouse) and the Mutated Mole mouse resemble Mole Men than actual moles.
• 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+...
• Man-Eating Plant: The Venus Mouse Traps and its 3 upgrades.
• Muck Monster: The gargantuan Mutated Behemoth mouse, the cause of the Toxic Spill.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Magmatic Golem and Sanguinarian mice.
  • Most of the mice of Canterra Quarry have 4 arms as well.
• Multi-Melee Master:
  • The Master of the Cheese Fang and its rift version, the Master of the Chi Fang.
  • The Paladin Weapon Master of Zokor also wields multiple weapons, including a sword larger than itself.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The Hinge of Eternity, one of the components used to make the Ancient Box Trap.
  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.
• Mushroom Mouse: The Spore mouse, Shroom mouse and its twisted counterpart, the Fungal Spore mouse.
  • The Fungal Fodder group of mice in the Fungal Cavern.
• The Musketeer: Cavalier Mice.
• Mutagenic Goo: The Toxic Spill caused the mice in the area to develop mutant powers.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Balack the Banished, Hare Razer, Mousevina von Vermin, Monstrous Abomination mouse, Huntereater mouse and the Harbinger of Death mouse.
• Necromancer:
  • Necromancer Mice on Tier 7 of the King's Gauntlet are responsible for the Fiend Mice on the same floor.
  • The Acolyte Mouse's lore description states that they brought necromancy to the Kingdom, and are responsible for all the undead in the Catacombs.
• 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 Villain: 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.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: The S.L.A.C. II's description has a notice saying that the slinging process itself does not harm the mouse.
• Nuclear Mutant: Many of the mice at the Toxic Spill. In particular, the Telekinetic Mutant Mouse, described as a superheroine:
  The high toxins in the area have bestowed toxic telekinetic abilities to this mouse. Able to telekinetically move and shift everything that has been affected by pollution, she uses her new-found power to protect herself and her mutated allies. Crafting herself a suit out of contaminated safety rubber and sealant, she takes to the contaminated area as a superheroine to fight for the mice of this new wasteland!
• Old Master: Dojo Sensei and its rift counterpart, Supreme Sensei.
• 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 very tough to get on a regular basis...
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dragon mice and Brimstone mice.
  • The 6 storm dragon mice of Moussu Picchu.
• Our Elves Are Different: Elf mice, as well as Elven Princess mice.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghost mice, Spectre mice, Enslaved Spirit mice, Revenant mice, Shackled Servant mice and Hired Eidolon mice.
• Our Goblins Are Different: Goblin and Crazed Goblin mice.
• Our Liches Are Different: Lich and Timeless Lich mice, as well as the Elub, Derr and Nerg Lich mice.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: The Mermouse, Koimaid, Mermousette, Octomermaid and Mershark mice.
• Our Sirens Are Different: The Siren mouse and the Coral mouse.
  The Siren mouse sings a song that welcomes hunters to a grim, watery fate. Never have jagged, sharp rocks sounded so good!
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vampire and Count Vampire mice, as well as Mousevina von Vermin.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Lycan and Lycanoid mice.
  • The release of Fort Rox brought a whole slew of weremice due to the magical effects of the Magic Meteor. Interestingly, one of these (the Battering Ram mouse) hates and is repelled by Moon and Crescent cheese, due to seeing their glow as a pale imitation of actual moonlight.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Zombie, Ravenous Zombie, Gluttonous Zombie, Phase Zombie and Tech Ravenous Zombie mice.
• Outlaw Town: The mice in Claw Shot City can only be caught with traps of the Law power type. Most of them even belong in gangs.
• Physical, Mystical, Technological: Zokor's three main districts and leaders have this theme. The Fealty District is the Physical with melee focused warriors, and their leader is the Paladin Weapon Master. The Scholar District is the Mystical with scholars and their summons, and their leader is the Soul Binder. The Tech District is the Technological with constructs and scientists, and their leader is the Manaforge Smith.
• Pineapple Surprise: Using a Remote Detonator Base to catch a Bomb Squad category mouse in the iceberg will cause their bombs to prematurely explode and propel you forwards into the iceberg.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Many of the more difficult mice to catch would fall under this, being small but yet able to overcome your best traps with ease.
• Plant Person: The Vinetail mouse and many of the Living/Twisted Garden mice.
• Playing with Fire:
  • Many of the Marching Flame units tend to use fire-based attacks, especially the Mages.
  • The Ignis, Firebreather and Twisted Hotcakes mouse.
  • The Spice Mice of Queso Canyon and also Queen Quesada.
• Poisonous Person: The Sludge, Sludge Swimmer, Toxic Warrior and Outbreak Assassin Mouse.
• Polluted Wasteland: The Toxic Spill.
• Power Crystal: The Rift Crystal, Raw Rift Crystal, Mystic Crystal and Crystal Crucible. All these can be made into powerful traps and bases.
• Power Fist: Princess Fist uses a pair of these.
• Power Glows: The entire point of the Ancient Box Trap, which is covered in glowing pieces to lure in the power-hungry Acolyte mouse.

• 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".
• Psycho Prototype: The M400 prototype is this, turning against humanity to join the mice.
• Psychopathic Manchild: The Terrible Twos mouse.
• Pun: Some of the cheese names, like Rockforth (roquefort) which is used to attract the Rockstar mouse, and Terre Ricotta (Terre, Terracotta and Ricotta).
• 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 Men: Several of the more humanoid mice are essentially humans with rat heads, claws, and feet.
• 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.
• Reality-Writing Book: The Book of Lore found on the Table of Contents holds the entire history of Gnawnia, and writing on it will change the course of history. The Mythweaver's initial goal is to use it to rewrite reality such that the mice are the glorious heroes and the hunters are the evil invaders.
• Red Baron: Many boss mice have these as their names, like Balack The Banished, Zurreal The Eternal, and Ful'mina, The Mountain Queen.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Grubling Mouse◊ and the Nugget Mouse◊.
• Rock Monster: The Granite, Shard Centurion, Subterranean, Boulder Biter, Meteorite Golem and the colossal Goliath Field mouse.
  • The Fungal Cavern is inhabited with many rock and crystal mice.
  • The Quarry Quarries mice from Queso Canyon are composed mostly of these.
• Rock of Limitless Water: The Oasis Bead. Although, technically speaking, it draws water to it, not create water...
• Rule of Funny: The Romeo mouse has a set of abs that can form into letters of the alphabet.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: The Chessmaster Mouse.
  • The Droid Archmagus trap consists of a droid in said outfit.
• Sand Worm: The Big Bad Burroughs mouse, and its smaller brother the Itty-Bitty Burroughs mouse.
  • They have cybernetically enhanced rift versions in the Burroughs Rift.
• 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.
  • The Huntereater mouse, a massive scorpion with crystals growing on its back and stinger.
• 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).
• Sea Monster: Plenty live in the Rodentia Ocean, including the Squeaken, Leviathan, Carnivore, Serpent Monster, Coral Dragon, Ancient of the Deep and Tritus mice.
• Sentai: The Mouse Force Five, who can even make a Combining Mecha Super FighterBot MegaSupreme (which is Awesome, but Impractical).
• Serious Business: Millions in gold and official titles are available to anyone who can... help the Kingdom of Gnawnia with its mouse problem.
• Set Bonus: Equipping a rift trap, base and charm allow you to access the Riftwalker set bonus which grants you extra power bonus and luck depending on how many you arm.
  • With the purchase of the Riftstalker Codex in the Bristle Woods Rift, the Riftstalker set bonus is unlocked which give double the bonuses of the previous set.
• Shark Mouse: The Derpshark and Mershark mice.
• Shock and Awe: The Gladiator, Spring Familiar, Nightfire, Excitable Electric and Master of the Chi Claw mice.
  • The storm dragon mice of Moussu Picchu.
• Shout-Out: Check the page.
• Shifting Sand Land: Derr Dunes and the Sandtail Desert, which includes the Sand Dunes.
• Sinister Scythe: The Reaper, Harbinger of Death, Harvester, Sir Fleekio, and Spice Reaper wield one.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: Averted for the Siren mouse, which has legs.
• Smart People Play Chess: Zugzwang's tower has a Chess theme, and clues scattered around the game strongly suggest that Zugzwang is a very knowledgeable person.
• Snake People: The Gorgon Mouse, Serpentine Mouse, and Tentacle mouse.
• 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.
  • The gems embedded in Sand Colossus mice are these.
  • The Carrion Medium Mouse's soul is kept in the quartz crystal of the staff it is wielding.
• 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.
  • The Droid Archmagus trap also wields a spellbook to conjure up runes that power its spell.
• Spider People: The Black Widow, Spider, Clockwork Timespinner and Monstrous Black Widow mice.
• Sticky Bomb: The Stickybomber Mouse.
• Stock Animal Diet: All the mice eat cheese, and practically nothing else.
• Strong Enemies, Low Rewards:
  • Vampire Mice in the Mousoleum have high power stat for their area and can steal a lot of gold if you fail to catch them. If caught, they give much less gold and points than most other Mousoleum mice. The developers stated that this was intentional so that Hunters would consider them unappealing to catch.
  • Caravan Guard Mice in the Fiery Warpath are either resistant to or immune to all trap types. If you fail to catch them, they will reinforce the mice waves by adding one of each type. If you do manage to catch them, they give a very measly 900 gold and points each compared to the several thousand that every other mouse gives.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The Explosive base, Birthday Candle Kaboom and Rook Crumble charm.
  • The Bomb Squad mice of Icewing's army.
• Swarm of Rats: The Swarm of Pygmy mice is comprised of several small yet ravenous mice in a swarm.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Each trap has a Power Type (e.g. Physical, Tactical, Shadow, Hydro), and each and every single mouse has its own set of strengths and weaknesses to the different Power Types. Mice are grouped into various groups, which do tend to share strengths and weaknesses, but there can be pretty wide variations even within these groups.
• Taken for Granite: The Gorgon trap and the ACRoNYM are able to do this to unlucky mice, the former only temporary. The Gorgon Mouse and the Timeslither Pythoness Mouse, obviously, can also do this to hunters (or at least the description says so).
• Taking You with Me: Balack the Banished did this to his banishers.
  He allowed the Elders to banish him, but he corrupted their enchantment along the way, pulling his attackers into the cove with him to be his servants for the rest of eternity.
• Technicolor Fire: The blue fire on the arrow of the Crimson Ranger.
• Temporary Online Content: Most limited edition traps, bases and blueprints are only sold once, after which they never appear again.
• Threatening Shark: The Rune Shark trap, the School of Sharks trap, and the Chrome School of Sharks trap.
• Time Master:
  • Many mice in the Bristle Woods Rift have this ability, such as the Timelost Thaumaturge, Timeless Lich, Chronomaster and the Absolute Acolyte.
  • Also the Chrono mouse from the regular Bristle Woods, although some speculate that he's actually a Time Police of sorts and is appearance is due to overuse of the Clockapult of Time or the regular sounding of Hunters' Horns every 15 minutes.
• Token Heroic Orc: Most mice are annoying pests at best and evil conquerors or eldritch entities at worst, but a minority are or become good-hearted:
  • The Hope mouse, an altruistic mouse that only wants to help humans and mice alike. So selfless are they, that the King has decreed that any and all such mice caught in a trap are to be "dusted off and sent on their way".
  • Once Greedy Al is redeemed with the Wrapped Gift Trap, he thanks you for renewing his hope in the season. The trap then turns into the Gifting Trap where Al himself hands out gifts to mice that get "caught" in it.
• Too Awesome to Use: Ultimate Luck Charms, Ultimate Power Charms and Ultimate Lucky Power Charms. Each one is almost equivalent to having a second trap equipped.
  • And with the second Living Garden update, introduces the Ultimate Charm that costs at least 1 million gold each. It catches all mice, period. It has a small possibility of not being used up after a catch though.
• Took a Level in Badass: General Drheller was a White Mouse who got encouragement from Icewing. He's now a General in her army.
  • The indigenous mice of the Meadow in Gnawnia were the weakest mice in the game. That, however, cannot be said about their Rift counterparts that were introduced in the Gnawnian Rift.
• This Is a Drill: The Drillbot and Chrome Drillbot traps, and General Drheller.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Some mice are attracted to only one kind of cheese.
• Train Job: The Gnawnian Express Station requires hunters to board a train to fend off waves of mice attempting to rob the train of its supplies.
• Training from Hell/The Spartan Way: 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."
• Treasure Room: The Sand Dollar Sea Bars, Pearl Patches and Sunken Treasures found when diving in the Sunken City are entire sections of the sea filled with treasure, guarded by aquatic mice.
  • The Labyrinth has treasury hallways which can lead to the Treasure Room or Treasure Vault in Zokor.
  • The Hidden Treasury rooms in the Bristle Woods Rift give extra gold drops and provide the only source of Rift Wealth charms.
• Tribal Face Paint: The mice of the three tribes of the Tribal Isles.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: The Null Gauntlet dropped by the Menace of the Rift allows the player to use special charms that allow the looting of crafting items for even more powerful charms.
• 20 Bear Asses: The gameplay mechanic that's played frequently, such as the Tribal Isles.
• Under the Sea: The Sunken City allows hunters to collect oxygen in order to dive into the Rodentia Ocean, exploring randomly-generated underwater zones.
• Underwater City: The Sunken City as well as the Mermouse Den.
• Underwater Ruins: The Lost Ruins, filled with tentacle-bearded mice.
• 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.
• Vampire Vords: Mousevina von Vermin's description.
• Videogame Caring Potential: There are many traps that are "non-lethal". Made as a nod to a player-created group that advocated non-lethal ways of catching mice, these just make a hunter feel good (or not feel bad) for sparing the mouse they caught.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: Most traps will kill the mice they catch:
  • An example with the Onyx Mallet:
    The Onyx Mallet Trap represents the latest and greatest achievement in pulverizing technology. Unequaled in the making of such items as puree of mouse, mouse tartar and, the ever popular Mouse Paste, the Onyx Mallet is quickly becoming a favorite among those discerning individuals who insist on receiving their mice flat. Simply place the cheese below the mallet, set the arm to the ready position, and listen for the splat.
  • Several of the most powerful traps give mice a horrifying Fate Worse than Death, often to And I Must Scream levels. The Thought Obliterator erases a mouse's memory and personality, the Infinite Labyrinth dooms them to wander an endlessly-shifting labyrinth, the Temporal Turbine puts them into a Lotus-Eater Machine before separating their soul and flinging it into space, etc.
• Villain Team-Up: This page◊ from Plankrun's Journal documents a coordinated attack by the Master of the Dojo, Balack the Banished, Acolyte, Gargantuamouse, Dragon, Icewing and even the Eclipse mouse!
• Walking Armory:
  • The Master of the Cheese Fang mouse carries a whole stash of weapons on his back.
  • The Paladin Weapon Master is shown with a Wall of Weapons' worth of weaponry around him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Due to the nature of the game, it's almost always never revealed what actually happened to all the mice you catch.
• Wild Card Excuse: Glitchpaw Mice.
• The Wild West: Varmint Valley and its inhabitants.
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Funnily enough, averted. MouseHunt developer Dave Vanderburg explains:
  When it comes to portraying how a mouse is caught, we do our best to aim for cartoon-style, over-the-top thematics. By having the means of capturing a mouse be so absurdly ridiculous it has an affect of breaking a suspension of disbelief, or otherwise communicate to the audience that what they're watching is entirely fictional and not possible in reality. A similar affect is seen is a variety of popularized cartoons: from the Wiley Coyote having an anvil dropped on his head, to Daffy Duck's bill spinning around after being slapped.
  MouseHunt as a game is full of these types of over-the-top thematics right from the beginning. The absurdity of the 500lbs Spiked Crusher; the Trebuchet making claims of keeping a mouse airborne for seven miles; all the way to obviousness of the Mouse Death Bot.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Carmine the Apothecary. After she found a source of limitless power in the Living Garden, she began to abuse it.
• Wizard Beard: The Chessmaster, the Mystic King, the Dark Magi, Ancient Scribe and the Soul Binder.
  • The Droid Archmagus trap possesses one too.
• Wutai: Furoma. Comes with a gigantic pagoda home to Ninja mice, Samurai mice, Kung Fu mice and others.
  • The Furoma Rift amps this trope up to eleven.
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: The Scrooge mouse
  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.
  • Spring Egg Hunt, not Easter.
  • The term Lunar New Year is used instead of Chinese New Year.
  • Great Gnawnian Games, not the Olympic Games.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The Soul Binder mouse, the leader of the Scholar district in Zokor, enslaves the souls of his closest and most powerful assistants.
• You Will Be Spared: Part of Greedy Al's note of thanks in the Great Winter Hunt event for 2012.
• Zerg Rush:
  • Skeleton Mice in the Catacombs. Their description says that they "are often used by their superiors as fodder during large scale attacks". 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 are "Zombie Invasion" events.

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