Polled: Where did you catch your Black Widow?

Only 15 hunters responded. Maybe it's too rare, or the traffic to this poll is not yet there. I may re-run this poll again in the near future.. Meanwhile.. Town of Gnawnia : 0 (0%) Harbour : 6 (40%) Mountain : 6 (40%) Lab : 0 (0%) Mousoleum : 2 (13%) Digby : 1 (6%)

Polled: Did you buy the Trebuchet or the Rocketine first?

Thanks to the 125 hunters that answered the poll, we have the following numbers.. Trebuchet : 106 (84%) Rocketine : 11 (8%) Skipped both, waited for the Swiss Army : 3 (2%) Adopted, bought both : 5 (4%)

Introduction and Overview to Mousehunt

[Jester: Best Introduction and Overview of the whole Mouse Hunt ever!.. Thanks to Tess Ofner!] Hello Mousehunters :o) For anyone wanting to figure out how this game works, I've written a basic summary of where you can travel, what you need to be able to travel, what mice drop what maps etc. Object of the game: buy cheese, bait traps (updated as you get more mice and gold), catch mice, make gold, travel to new areas as your experience level goes up, make friends and have fun! Oh, there are also a stack of groups you can join that give useful info and help out new players. Such as the NVMRC (non violent mousehunt removal charity), Mouse Hunters Guild, Adopt a Novice/Apprentice, The Sacred Order of the Mouseman, (NDBL) MouseHunt Newbie and Begging Deterrent League, Mouse Hunt Guide Group and many others, sorry guys I know there are others but can't think of all of them. Ok, so I've trawled the boards, got advice from others and played the game and put together this guide which will hopefully help out some new players. It is not a complete guide meaning there is a lot of other information out there that may be useful to you, I just tried to summarise the most of it to make it a little easier to navigate your way through. Hope its helpful :o). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You start off NOVICE and can only hunt in Gnawnia town and the meadow. It costs 50 gold to travel to the meadow but does not cost anything to travel to Gnawnia town. In Town you can access the Cheeseshoppe and the Trapsmith where you can stock up on all types of cheese (other than Radioactive Blue cheese), and upgrade your traps (traps require a certain point value so as your experience level goes up, you are able to buy better traps – click on Trapsmith to see how much each trap costs and to see what points are required for each). If traveling to other areas (i.e. Meadow, Harbour, Mountains, Lab or Mousoleum) you need to stock up on cheese as you cannot purchase cheese or traps there. In Town, you can also access the Marketplace where you can buy and sell maps and SB+. You may catch more than one map piece or key (which you can sell here), but you must have at least 2 of an item to sell it (i.e. you cannot sell a map piece if you only have one – you need it for yourself to access that area). Note: Beware of purchasing keys/maps that you will not be able to use until you reach a certain level. You then move up to APPRENTICE (hold the cursor over your status bar and it'll tell you what percentage you're at) and can hunt in the Harbour. It cost 1000 gold to travel to the Harbour. There you can catch more pirate, burglar and zombie mice (although you can also get them in Town). You can also catch Black Widow mice here that drop SuperBrie+ (SB+) and Radioactive Brie (RB). But… mice will also steal gold, cheese and points from you if you don't catch them. Then you move up to JOURNEYMAN and can hunt in the Mountains. It costs 4500 to travel to the mountains. There you need to catch the Ninja mouse that will drop a lab map piece (bear in mind that not every ninja has a map – this is the same for any loot dropping mice). You also have a better chance of catching Black Widow mice here though - I think. Once you've made MASTER, you will be allowed to travel to the Burroughs region where you can hunt in the lab, picking up radioactive blue cheese potions from various mice which turns 30 SB+ (no cost) or 5 regular Brie (at a cost of 300 p/p) into Radioactive Blue Cheese (you need this to hunt in the Mousoleum). It costs 19500 to travel to the lab. You will also need to get a key to Digby which will be dropped by a Dwarf mouse and a tattered cloth map to the Mousoleum which will be dropped by a Zombie mouse. In the lab, you won't get white, brown or grey mice, but you will catch both mutated white and mutated grey mice (worth 500 gold each – or there about). Mice here also drop lab research worth either 500, 750 or 1000 points. After a while you will make MASTER, you will then be allowed into Digby (assuming you've got a key). It does not cost anything to travel to Digby from any location. Once there, you can purchase a portal trap (at this stage either Ambrosial or Sinister) from the Digby Trapsmith (the portal traps, Forcefield trap and Drillbot are only available for purchase from the Digby Trapsmith) that will allow you to catch various ghostly mice in the Mousoleum - you may catch other mice the Mousoleum (bat mice, zombies etc), but not ghostly mice unless you have a portal trap. Some mice in Digby also drop Radioactive Blue cheese. Here you can catch various mice (but not ghostly mice or mutated mice) as well as Mole mice (Mole mice seem to be most active in the Meadow and both Towns). In Digby, you can access the Marketplace where you can buy and sell maps and SB+. You can also access the Digby Cheeseshoppe and Trapsmith. In the Cheeseshoppe you can only purchase cheddar for 20 gold p/p and refund for 10 gold p/p. In the Trapsmith you can buy portal traps (which you’ll need for the Mousoleum), the Drillbot and Deathbot (slightly cheaper than in Gnawnia shop) and the Forcefield trap as well as the stone base (more expensive than in Gnawnia). If you have picked up the tattered cloth and have a stock of Radioactive Blue cheese, you can now travel to the Mousoleum where you can catch ghostly mice that drop Brie Alchemy potions which turns Swiss cheese into Brie – at a cost, and Greater Brie Alchemy potions (dropped by the Vampire in the Mousoleum) which turn swiss (115pp to 16 pieces), marble (120pp to 12 pieces) & cheddar (125pp to 8 pieces) cheeses into Brie. It costs 5500 gold to travel to the Mousoleum. You can only bait your trap with Radioactive Blue cheese here (if you want to catch any mice that is lol). So you need to collect as many potions as you can from the lab and have lots of SB+ or regular Brie to convert before you travel here. These ghostly mice are worth a ton in points and cheese. They include the Vampire mice, Mummy mice, Ghost mice and the Ravenous Zombie mice. Be warned: the mice here are VERY hungry – you’ll get more red boxes than catches, but it seems to be worth it given the huge point and gold value of the mice you do catch. Stick it out and you’ll come out on top! At some stage you will make GRANDMASTER and then LEGENDARY and after that HERO (who knows what comes next – no ones made it that far yet lol) With the new update, it seems that at some stage you will also be able get a new potion which allows you to hunt every 5 minutes (not sure which mice will drop this or where, but I'd think that Mousoleum mice will drop this). Also there looks to be a new area for Grandmasters, perhaps with Mousoleum mice dropping a new map piece? SHORT SUMMARY: Start in Town and Meadow. Move to Harbour. Move to Mountains – catch Ninja with Lab map. Move to Lab – catch Dwarf with Digby key, Zombie with Tattered Cloth map and collect Radioactive blue cheese potions. Move to Digby – buy a portal trap. Move to Mousoleum and catch bigger and better mice!

Jester's Cheese Sweet Spot Strategy

I think I've found the sweet spot for the number of cheese of each type I should be bringing into the tough-mice areas. Tough mice areas are where mice can steal your cheese/gold/score when they raid your trap. These are areas accessible to hunters above the Novice class. Sweet spot for cheese? This means the amount of cheese that you as the hunter carries into that area and experience the minimal frequency of cheese theft in your hunt duration there. Note I said cheese theft. You will still experience score-theft, but the King's rewards frequently puts this back. You will still experience gold-theft, but lesser when you go in broke. Broke? Read my Cheese-Bank Tag. Your gold-theft usually increases as you gain success catching mice as your pot increases. If you go into the area (e.g. mountain) broke, your first 20-40k of gold is almost untouched. It starts getting bad closer to 60k, but by then, you would be close to returning to the town to reload your cheese. Back to the sweet spot. I've arrived to these numbers by trying out 50/80/100/150 pieces of cheese for each type and the number so far works for me (note the caveats) at the harbour, the mountain and the Lab. I'm still new to the Mousoleum, but I suspect that the numbers are about the same. Without being too mathematical, I've factored in the stolen rate of the cheese and the gold, and the travel fare for the area. I've found that these cheese sweet spot numbers hold well for me. Brie : 90 Swiss : 80 Marble : 80 Cheddar : used as bank I've not reached the point where I own a Drillbot yet, but I suspect that having a stronger mousetrap in a relatively weaker area (like harbour) will benefit your cheese-theft ratio.

DeathBot (Chrome Edition) Limited

Ronza's Traveling Shoppe is currently moored at the Town of Gnawnia and has the following in stock for a limited time only.

DeathBot (Chrome Edition) ( 2800 power )
Cost: 512,800 gold
Power Type: Physical
Power Bonus: 20%
Accuracy Bonus: 15%
Luck: 30
Cheese Effect: Very Negative
This limited edition version of the classic DeathBot features shiny chrome-plated panels, with a lot o' bling. The motors have been tweaked a little to bring more power to the chain gun and saw blade, the laser power has been increased by 5 kilowatts, and the missile guidance system has been improved using the newest in mouse-seeking technology.

mhabbr : cdb, chromebot

Greater Brie Alchemy Potion

Nowadays not a very common drop. Costs have also changed since the early days - Now every conversion is free. That is, 0/pc.

The Greater Brie Alchemy Potion has the following conversions.

115/pc One potion converts 16 Swiss to 16 Brie.
120/pc One potion converts 12 Marble to 12 Brie.
125/pc One potion converts 8 Cheddar to 8 Brie.

Dropped by a Vampire Mouse at the Mousoleum.
Dropped by Abominable Snow mice and Elf mice during Christmas.

Ronza's Traveling Shoppe

A new visitor to Gnawnia! Ronza's traveling blimp is currently (Aug14th 2008) moored just outside the Town and is open to everyone. Ronza stops in from time to time, bringing MouseHunters new and fancy trap components from other parts of the world. Little is known about her origins, and she never stays very long. The King allows Ronza to make port near the castle, to sell her goods. Perhaps the more she visits, the more we will find out about her...

Begging for gold

Begging is typically frowned on in Mouse Hunt. New players will find that the general Mouse Hunt community is friendly and eager to help. But not beggars. There are many avenues to earn an extra piece of gold or a slice of super brie+. You can:
  1. Join a group (e.g. NVMRC, Mouse Hunt Guild, Adopt a Novice/Apprentice)
  2. Participate in contests
  3. Start something fun (then ask for gold - technically begging, but definitely less frowned on)
And when you have made it past your hump, help a new novice.

Cheese Shoppe at Digby

In case you missed this, Cheddar costs 20g in Digby compared to 10g in the Town of Gnawnia. Refund value is still at 10g. Maybe this was a hint - some mousehunters have reported interesting catches with Cheddar in these areas. (have read posts about moles and widows)

Leprechaun Mouse

Mutated Grey Mouse

Mutated White Mouse

Black Widow Mouse

The new Black Widow mouse has been revealed and can be found in various places, with a higher frequency in the Town of Gnawnia. Some at the Mountains too. And oh - it can drop Super Brie !

Black Widow Mouse

bad bad spoiler... again, thanks Joanna!

Hero Rank

Congrats to Jennifer Rewers for attaining the Hero Rank on 6th Aug 2008. I missed her points but it was around 4.4 million at the crossover from Legendary.

Brie Alchemy Potion

There is another type of potion dropped in the Lab besides the Radioactive one. This is the Brie Alchemy Potion.

The Brie Alchemy gives one of the following upgrades to your cheese:
  • 150/pc. One potion converts 10 cheddar into 10 brie
  • 100/pc. One potion converts 15 marble into 15 brie
  • 50/pc. One potion converts 20 Swiss into 20 brie

Vampire Mouse

[contributed by Jason Knott]

Mobster Mouse

Mole Mouse

Explosive Base vs Swiss Army Trap

A very good question posed by a Mouse Hunt Apprentice about purchasing the Explosive Base before the Swiss Army Trap. Should you buy the Exp base first, since it becomes affordable before the Swiss Army? There has been some discussion in the boards, but typically not very conclusive. I assume that at this point, you are already using a Trebuchet/Target (or stone) and have been hunting at the harbour with mixed results.. Here's where my unscientific observation comes in.. If you are active in group hunts and luck is on your side, you could be generating between to 8-10k gold profit at the harbour daily. That's profit after replenishing your used cheese and travel fare to the harbour. If this is how your game is turning out, wait out for the Swiss Army. You are only about a week away from owning this. Use the Swiss/target trap combi thereafter. Marble should be sufficient, with the occasional swap to Swiss cheese. If you are not that active (some of us have offline lives) or your luck needs a wash (lots of red logs in your game) then you might consider getting the Explosive base first. But you must use the Trebuchet to offset the Cheese Effect. Again Marble is sufficient, but you may find yourself swapping up to Swiss Cheese more often as you tend to have more going stale. If luck is totally against you, and you need to sit in the Town/Meadow to recoup some gold, remember to switch back to the Target or Stone base - or else you will have a very high stale rate.

Cheese to Use in the Mousoleum

Radioactive brie is the most effective cheese for luring mice in the Mousoleum. To make radioactive brie, you need to get dropped potions from the mice in the Lab. Conversion: One potion converts 30 Super Brie to 30 Radioactive Blue, no cost One potion converts 5 Brie to 5 Radioactive Blue, but costs 300 gold per piece of cheese, so for one potion, 1500g [thanks Joanna] Normal Brie can be used but with poorer results.

The Mousoleum

Dave Vanderburg wrote on Jul 28, 2008 at 7:14 PM A new piece of map, written on an ancient tattered cloth has been rumored to of been discovered in the Burroughs region. Hunters lucky enough to come across this illusive drop will unlock a new and highly exciting hunting location. This new location known as the 'Mousoleum' completes the triangle of Master hunting locations. The Mousoleum is engineered as the actual hunting location for masters while the Laboratory and Town of Digby play support roles as hunters will undoubtedly discover they require supplies from both locations in order to maximize their success in the Mousoleum. Although the tattered cloth may be a bit of a challenge to collect - fear not. The extra time spent hunting for it will allow you to further stockpile Mousoleum hunting supplies to maximize your profits once you do find a cloth. For those of you long past the accomplishment of Master MouseHunter, we're sure you'll enjoy upcoming yet to be released hunting locations that will prove to be a challenge worthy of such experienced MouseHunters!

The Trapsmith in Burroughs, Digby

[Jester's note : some layout cleanup done to below] Garry John Riechert (Australia) replied to Peter's post on Jul 14, 2008 at 10:06 AM I dont think its taboo, but not all the info is there to give. But what do you know it cuts and pastes very nicely. THE TRAPSMITHS OF BURROUGHS BASES WEAPONS HELP Stone Base ( 150 power ) Power Bonus: 10% Accuracy Bonus: n/a Luck: n/a baseCost: 6,793 gold Points Required: 5,000 Cheese Effect: Positive The added weight of a stone base increases the stability of your weapon. ----- Sinister Portal ( 1025 power ) Power Type: Shadow Power Bonus: 5% Accuracy Bonus: n/a Luck: n/a weaponCost: 140,600 gold Points Required: 182,000 Cheese Effect: Negative Using technology developed in the Burroughs' Laboratory, this one-way portal into outer space waits at the end of a high-speed conveyor belt for an unsuspecting mouse. ----- Ambrosial Portal ( 1025 power ) Power Type: Shadow Power Bonus: n/a Accuracy Bonus: 5% Luck: n/a weaponCost: 140,600 gold Points Required: 182,000 Cheese Effect: No Effect Proof that technology developed in the Burroughs' Laboratory can be used in a more 'gentle' manner, this portal has opened a one-way entrance into a cheesey paradise. ----- Mouse DeathBot ( 2400 power ) Power Type: Physical Power Bonus: 15% Accuracy Bonus: 10% Luck: 2 weaponCost: 243,580 gold Points Required: 91,000 Cheese Effect: Negative Although origins of this high-tech robot are unknown, its ability to destroy mice is well known. The DeathBot comes equipped with a high speed chain gun, two rapid fire laser guns, an extending saw blade arm and nine mouse-seeking missiles. Even the quickest, cleverest mouse stands little chance against this adversary. ----- Digby DrillBot ( 3200 power ) Power Type: Physical Power Bonus: 18% Accuracy Bonus: n/a Luck: 5 weaponCost: 404,340 gold Points Required: 409,500 Cheese Effect: No Effect The scientists of Digby used their knowledge of tunnel digging technology to create the ultimate mouse adversary. Using its two massive high-speed drills this titan can easily destroy any mouse put in its path.

Trebuchet vs Rocketine #2

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Richard's post on Jul 20, 2008 at 12:36 AM Whereas the Treb tries to balance several trap aspects of power, luck, and cheese effect, the Rocketine goes for maximum power at the cost of luck and cheese effect. As a result, the Treb is somewhat weaker than I think you should really want for that stage of the game. The Treb/Stone improves the power but gets little additional benefit from the Stone base's Positive cheese effect. The Rocketine/Stone gets a bigger power increase due to the Stone base's power bonus, which compounds the Rocketine's main strength. Further, the Stone base's Positive cheese effect addresses the Rocketine's main weakness. The result is a trap that still has no luck but is almost as powerful as the Trebuchet/Explosive. From the Rocketine/Stone, players can make the choice of the Explosive base for the only trap combination below Swiss Army to be over 1000 power (not my preference), or save for the Swiss Army while still having over 900 power. If they go the former route, they get a lot of power but must deal with the worst cheese effect in the game by using Brie or SB+, which is fine because you are basically maximizing both power and attraction - not possible with the Treb. If they go the latter route, they can quickly get the Swiss Army because they delay the purchase of the Explosive base. With the Trebuchet, because it is slightly underpowered, you can only make this choice if your hunts turn out lucky. If you go to the Harbour and have poor luck, you'll need the Explosive base upgrade sooner. I think it is the option to maximize both power and attraction as well as the strategic choice of Swiss Army or Explosive first that makes the Rocketine worth considering. Most hunters also point out the cheese effect of the Rocketine, which I think is a bogus argument. The Rocketine/Stone has the same cheese effect as the Swiss Army/Explosive or the DeathBot/Target and better than the DeathBot/Explosive. All 3 of those setups are commonly adopted by the same hunters who denounce the Rocketine for its cheese effect. More importantly, I think the best hunters don't let spoiled cheese become the central factor in their trap strategy.

Cheese Bank

Jester Nim wrote on Jul 24, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Just crossed over the apprentice bar yesterday and hurried over to the Harbour armed with a treb/stone with lotsa cheese of every type. Boy, was I pillaged by fierce mice.. 30 swiss were stolen (excl eaten and stale) within my first 3 hours!
Tip Title : Banking Facility for your Gold One of the tough things ex-novices learn at the harbour is that mice can steal anything from you. But not everything! Yes, they can steal your score and your gold and your cheese. But NOT ALL your cheese. Only the cheese type that you have baited. That means if you have baited marble cheese and a burglar/pirate mouse comes happily along, it can only take the extra cheese from this type. The other cheese types are untouched. How does this help you? When you are stocking up cheese in Gnawnia, you're probably going to buy a sizeable quantity of every type because the bus fare to the harbour is 1000 gold. I won't comment yet on the quantity to buy because I'm still testing some numbers. However, you're probably going to realize that cheddar is pretty useless as bait for the harbour. You will therefore USE CHEDDAR as your ZERO-TAX BANKING FACILITY. Yes folks, buy what you need of all other types of cheese to enable hunting action. The remaining of your gold pieces, buy cheddar. Leave only enough for your bus fare (1000 gold). You are now READY to go to the harbour. If the mice really do clean you out of cheese and earned gold, you can still return to town free and refund your bank of cheddar. NEVER BAIT YOUR BANK (cheddar) ! Cheers,

Monster Mouse

[contributed by Joanna Joss]

Ravenous Zombie Mouse

The Ravenous Zombie Mouse Thanks Liam!
6:00pm I checked my trap and found that I had caught a mouse! I caught a 4 oz. Ravenous Zombie mouse from the Mousoleum worth 5,397 points and 5,404 gold. stronger attraction rate with rb made with sb+ than made with just normal brie

Mummy Mouse

[contributed by Joanna Joss]

Bat Mouse


[contributed by Joanna Joss]

Ghost Mouse


[contributed by Joanna Joss]

Burglar Mouse

Zombie Mouse

[Thanks, Liam!]
I sounded the Hunter's Horn. I was successful in my hunt! I caught a 8 oz. Zombie mouse from the mountain worth 2700 points and 2753 gold that was my first but it was the best attraction of it the mountain is better for them than gnawnia

Pirate Mouse

Ninja Mouse

Diamond Mouse

Gold Mouse

Bionic Mouse

Granite Mouse

Steel Mouse

Mountain vs Harbour

[Jester's note: The context of this discussion was over which place gave better yield. Only applies to those that have attained Journeyman or above. If you are still an Apprentice, you are stuck at the harbour] Julian Potvin-Bernal (University of Ottawa) wrote on Jul 3, 2008 at 7:13 AM I recently moved to the Mountain expecting great things, but no such luck. Aside from a map ninja I've caught nothing great and my revenues are not very big. I was doing better in the Harbor where there are Pirates and Burglars! Can someone explain what is so good about the Mountain? It seems like the Harbour has a better mouse list. Jadey Allen Hansen replied to Julian's post on Jul 3, 2008 at 9:02 AM Well Julian, I don't know what your using as bait and trap, but for me I am using Swiss Army trap/ Swiss Cheese/ Exploding base and I am in the mountains. In the harbour I was catching lots of brown/grey/white mice along with the occasional pirate and ninja every once in awhile I would catch a gold or diamond, or other type of mouse, but I would say close to 40% of mice were brown/white/grey. In the mountains, I am catching a lot less brown/white/grey, and a lot more of the gold/granite/diamond/steel plus I am getting zombies more often and ninjas more often. Now, this is not to say I don't still catch the brown/white/grey variety, because I do... just not quite as often. My last log for the mountain showed (and this is hunting with the above mentioned settings) Wed. Jul. 2, 2008 3:56am: A log of mice I've caught in the last 1 day 13 hours: 6 White mice, 8 Grey mice, 6 Brown mice, 24 Dwarf mice, 13 Steel mice, 14 Granite mice, 6 Bionic mice, 9 Gold mice, 9 Diamond mice, 1 Zombie mouse, and 3 Ninja mice. Total points: 43,282 Total gold: 52,590 This is about 15,000 higher gold than I was getting in the harbour, and about 15,000 higher points as well. What are your results for the harbour that are so much better than the mountain? I would really like to know as I already have my map, and if it is worth moving back to the harbour I would do that. Saving for my deathbot you know. Sincerely, Jadey

Group Hunting or Hunting Party

Alexander Emmanouilidis (Greece) wrote on Jun 18, 2008 at 4:29 AM I have some questions about group hunting. 1) Its said that hunting in groups gives you better results. Thas is only when you are on-linwe? Your friends can not use your turns when you are away? 2) You only hunt in groups when you are online and you are ready to hunt? I mean if I am ready to hunt and someone of my gorup sounds the horn I hunt with him and loose my turn with better results or even if I am not ready to hunt and one of my group sounds the horn I hunt with him? 3) Is it better to wait for all your group to get ready to hunt or as soon as you get the horn you should hunt? 4)Does it make a difrence if I am the one that sounds the horn or someone else coserning the results I will have? Please feel free to add any other advice you think I may find usefull! Terence Wong (University of Toronto) replied to Alexander's post on Jun 18, 2008 at 7:07 AM Hi Alexander, I`ve only been trying the group hunting thing for about one or two weeks , and I find you can catch alot more mice. I`ll provide a brief intro to what I understand about it, and then try to answer your questions and add any of my experiences if they haven`t been covered. 1. When you hunt in groups with the hunters horn, you will only benefit from your group members horning if you have been active within the last 60 minutes. So yes, you will only get better results if you are ``online`` (i.e. active within the last 60 min). 2. In addition to the hourly check; you can get an extra turn every 15 minutes to blow the horn. However, you can only blow the horn if ``are ready`` (at least 15 minutes since your last hunter`s horn hunt) and you will only join someone else`s hunt if you ``are ready``. So, if you are ready and someone blows the horn, it`s that that you don`t lose your turn; basically, you and your groupmate took your turn together. 3. You don`t really need to wait for all your group to be ready because many people have many multiple friends that can blow the horn for them. If you wait for some people, then other members will probably placed into the ``waiting to hunt`` status after one of their other friend have blown the horn. 4. I don`t know if there`s any difference between who blows the horn. Right now, I have about 140 friends in my group that are spread out throughout the various locations. Although, you won`t be joining people`s hunt in other locations, you can still get alot of extra points (if that`s what you`re looking for) if you have friends in other places. As long as they are ``ready to hunt`` you`ll get an extra 10 points. When I press the horn, I range from 65-185 points with an average of about 105 I would say. Of course, it`s great to have people in the same location because you can help your friends initiate the hunt, and when you`re too busy to check back for your hunter`s horn or going afk soon, you know you`ll get a couple extra hunts by joining in on your friend`s hunter`s horn. Good luck and happy hunting! Garry John Riechert (Australia) replied to Alexander's post on Jun 18, 2008 at 7:56 AM Two pennies worth. A/ Group hunting should garantee more hunts - nothing else. More hunts gives you greater chance of catching more mice - whether you catch is only dependent on your trap power and your cheese and where you hunt and your luck. Any other results in relation to other factors, would seem to perceived rather than real. B/ When you log on, be sure you blow the horn straight away; if you have a good hunting group this may be the only hornblow you get points on until you are offline for another hour. C/ Because of the staggered nature of when people go on and offline there is no point in waiting for more hunters - in this time theyll beat you to the horn anyways. D/Sounding the horn and being online are key elements of moving up rank, so its in your interest to try to sound the horn. E/The bigger the group the better chance of a larger number of hunts - but remember your huntbuddies must be in the same location as you. You can always use your buddies for other fb apps. The maximum number of hunts is 120 in 24 hours, good obsessive hunters with good groups get 80+ hunts in a day. good hunting ~^..^

Trebuchet vs Rocketine

Chris Rindero wroteon Jun 26, 2008 at 7:05 PM Newbie question I am currently trapping with the Stone Base and Mary. I can now afford the Treb and Rock. Any suggestions? Should I upgrade and to which one? Stay in the Meadow with it or stay in town? Or stay as is, switching baits and between town and the meadow. Hardcore newb looking for suggestion/advice. Thanks everyone. Safe hunting, Stopher Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Chris's post on Jun 26, 2008 at 7:57 PM Rocketine is underrated, but both are good choices with very similar success in the long run. Personally, I think the extra power of the Rocketine should be given more credit. At that level, you really need all the power you can get, especially now that the Harbour is so much more difficult than it used to be. Remember that the Stone base has a power bonus, which amplifies the difference in power. Or look at it this way: The Rocketine with Stone base has overall power of 928. The Treb with Explosive base has overall power of 963. That means if you go the route of the Rocketine, you can delay buying the Explosive base until you already have the Swiss Army trap. This is a good thing, because the Explosive base would make your cheese effect even worse, and the Swiss Army is a much more significant upgrade than the Explosive base. If you go the way of the Treb, you will have a much easier time with the cheese, but you'll need the Explosive base to boost your power unless you manage to save gold for the Swiss Army.

Entering the Mousoleum

Zombie mice from the Laboratory may carry the Tattered Mousoleum Cloth for access to the Mouseleum

Entering Digby

Dwarf mice in the Laboratory may carry the key to Digby.

Entering the Burroughs Lab

To enter the Burroughs Laboratory, you will need to be of the Master Level and will need to hold the Burroughs Laboratory Map Piece. The Ninja Mouse from the Mountain may drop the Map Piece.

Cheese Effect Explained

Miriam MacLaren (St. Catharines / Niagara, ON) wrote on Jun 28, 2008 at 12:20 PM Please? Jadey Allen Hansen replied to Miriam's post on Jun 28, 2008 at 12:27 PM Very Positive = Cheese will not go stale very often, and you will not have to replace it with a new piece hence saving you money on cheese. Very Negative = Cheese will go stale more often and you will have to replace it with a new piece, hence costing you valuable gold. Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Miriam's post on Jun 28, 2008 at 5:31 PM Cheese can only go stale if you fail to attract a mouse. So you have 2 ways to deal with negative cheese effect: 1 - balance with positive cheese effect from the weapon or base 2 - increase your attraction accuracy with better cheese or trap accuracy bonus

Dwarf Mouse

Brown Mouse

Sell Off Old Traps?

Annie Jin (China) wrote on Jun 27, 2008 at 9:25 PM Im still a novice and I dont no wether or not i should sell my old traps or if i need it l8er in the other hunting areas. Can sum1 help me? LeeAnn Montemayor (San Antonio, TX) wrote on Jun 27, 2008 at 9:49 PM I haven't needed any of the cheaper pieces...i'm up to the swiss army trap, but i alternate between a stone base and an explosive base...but that's just me. i have heard tell that you need the bot (the highest trap) for the lab, but it has negative cheese effect...so you might want to alternate between other pieces when you are not in the lab...i personally think it's personal preference. selling the old pieces helps when you're new to get a little bit of quick cash...so that's what i did....hope that helped, i'm kind of a rambler :) Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Annie's post on Jun 27, 2008 at 9:59 PM I would suggest keeping at least the Target base, the Stone base, the Explosive base, your highest level weapon, and one weapon with high luck (Mary O'Nette or Swiss Army). If you don't need the gold immediately, you should not sell your old components. You get very little gold for them from the trapsmith, and the upcoming marketplace feature might allow you to sell them to other players for a little better. The Target base has a 20% accuracy bonus, which becomes very useful at the high levels when you have the Swiss Army or Deathbot. I exclusively use the Target base and the Explosive base. I never use the Stone base, although some top hunters do that. My reasoning is that the Stone base optimizes for the wrong problem: staleness of cheese. For the most advanced hunters, the problem is lost opportunities, not lost cheese. That means you want to maximize either your ability to attract mice (accuracy bonus) or your ability to catch them (power). The Stone base does neither. It is an excellent base for intermediate level hunters, but I don't think it is the best choice for the top hunters.

Personal Privacy Advice

Paul Pigozzo (London, ON) wrote on Jun 7, 2008 at 10:07 AM I have said to be an advocate of safety on the net (my wife calls me paranoid but whatever) But I thought I would just suggest something to everyone who has been doing the add lists. Facebook offers the way to block whole groups of people through the Privacy>>Account profile option (top right of the facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?view=profile)) my suggestion is make a group called mouse hunt (or for any application) and then go through and use the customize option from the drop down box and block that group from viewing the details of your profile....not that I don't trust everyone on here, I just don't want you looking at my info. (please BUMP this if you think i am right in my suggestion) Happy Hunting!
my suggestion) Happy Hunting! Renata Baptista (UMiami) replied to Rebekah's post on Jun 8, 2008 at 12:32 PM On your friends page (click above where it says "Friends") go to "Make a New List" on the right hand side. Add everyone who is from Mousehunt or that you do not want to view your profile, name this this list something you will remember i.e. "Mousehunt". Then click the link that Paul has provided. On this page where each of the drop down menus are (Basic Info, Personal Info, etc.) click "Customize". Where it says "Except these people" type in "Mousehunt" or whatever you named your list. Then simply click okay and repeat for all the information you want hidden (including "Contact Information") ** Note this feature does not work for the drop down menu "Profile".** Ta da all done! Kristine Pamplin (Australia) replied to Renata's post on Jun 10, 2008 at 4:56 AM I have different lists for different games I play, besides my "real life" friends. As I add friends on here, I put them into their category. I have: Mouse Hunt Mob Wars Knight Hood Mafia Wars Dope Wars On the privacy page, I have "Only Friends" clicked for all items displayed. The problem with what you have described to do on here, is that IF you click on "Except" (say Mouse hunt group) it means only friends can see this EXCEPT mouse hunt, which to me, means that the mouse hunt group CAN see it? This is what is says when you hit customise: Who Can See This? Friends Friends of Friends My friends and their friends can see this. Only Friends - Only friends can see this. - THIS IS WHAT I HAVE Networks All Networks can see this. All of My Networks Some of My Networks... None of My Networks - THIS IS WHAT I HAVE Australia Except These People

Hunting with Friends

Yannis Panagiotopoulos (Greece) wrote on Jun 30, 2008 at 6:28 AM Why all hunters want to hunt as a huge group?? What is the advantage?? Reply to Yannis Townsend Duong (Stanford) wrote on Jun 30, 2008 at 6:50 AM You get up to 4 horn hunts per hour which must be initiated by a player sounding the hunter's horn. If that hunter's horn is not sounded exactly when your 15 minute timer is done, then you will not have the maximum frequency of hunts. When you are hunting with a large group in the same location, there is a higher chance that someone in your group will sound the horn close to your 15 minute timer even if you do not sound the horn yourself. This keeps your number of hunts high. When you become idle in MouseHunt, you continue to stay included in these hunts started by your group until 60 minutes of no new activity in MouseHunt. You also get more points up to 250 when you sound the horn if many others in your group are in the same location and have already met their 15 minute waiting time. Finally, some players send random gold and SB+ to their friends. If you are not friends, you can't receive this.

Walkthroughs #5

Garry John Riechert (Australia) wrote on Jun 20, 2008 at 9:45 AM Advice to newbies (any one with less than the Swiss army trap and hunting in the meadows or town). There seems to be a little confusion how the hunt happens. Heres the walk through. Lets keep things in Gnawnia.(Meadow,Town,Harbour,Mountains) action1/ You set your trap, baited with cheese. *pants heavily* action2/ Depending on the type of cheese you will attract or not attract a mouse.(this is dependent on your cheese, your accuracy value and now possibly your location) -If you fail to attract then there is a chance your cheese will go stale, is independent of everything except your trap which has an effect on your cheese.(If it goes stale you lose the cost of your cheese.) *bugger I'm going to get that cheese shoppe charlatan* -If you attract a mouse you move to the next action. action3/ Forget the cheese its gone. Your mouse has taken the bait, be it 10goldCheddar or 450goldSbrie. This is the cost of catching a mouse. - Your luck is tested, if you are lucky, you catch the mouse no questions asked.*OMG I caught a Zombie with Glue and Target base* -If you are not lucky, the power of your trap is compared with the power of the mouse with a random roll to mix things up. If you prove stronger you catch your mouse.*smug look of satisfaction* If you prove weaker you miss your mouse who is now dining on a 10goldCheddar or 450goldSbrie.*lips smacking* If you prove weaker in the Harbour or the Mountains by too great a margin, the mouse waits for the hunter and steals more cheese or gold or says 'boo' and takes away some courage(points). *I can't take it no more I'm going to the meadow for rehab!* 200gold and Sbrie at over150gold is a waste of gold if you fall under these criteria. You have a low powered trap (Anything under Swiss) or if you hunt in the Meadow or Town. ::::::::::: :::::::::::: It is because the majority of the mice you do catch won't cover the cost of the cheese you used. :::::::::::::::::::::: You'll do better using Swiss and Marble, you won't attract as many mice but you'll collect gold quicker which means you can upgrade to the next trap quicker and thats how you can steam ahead. Once you get the Swiss army trap and/or are in the Mountains or Harbour more factors get involved so you might have a new opinion. Do not confuse cheese attraction with the chance of catching a mouse. The more you hunt the more chance you have of getting ahead. Although there is some correlation between what cheese you use and what types of mice the cheese attracts.

The Town of Digby

Townsend Duong (Stanford) wrote on Jul 11, 2008 at 7:23 PM There's a new town in the Burroughs region called The Town of Digby. The entrance is the drill sticking up out of the ground near the maze outside the Laboratory. To go to Digby, you must first have the map piece to the Burroughs Laboratory. Go hunt in the Lab when you meet the requirements, and the Key to the Town of Digby will be found as loot when you catch some Dwarf mice in the Lab. As with the map Ninja, not all Lab Dwarf mice will give you the key as loot. You can catch the Dwarf with pretty much any cheese, but I'd recommend Brie. I ended up catching the one with the key using Radioactive Blue, however. Once you have found the key, you will be able to travel to Digby for free. You may travel between the towns of Digby and Gnawnia freely without any cost. It will cost 19500 gold once again to go back to the Laboratory. Digby currently has a trapsmith with the Stone base, the Mouse DeathBot, and 3 new traps: Sinister Portal, Ambrosial Portal, and Digby DrillBot. The cheese shoppe carries only Cheddar, which they sell for 20 gold but refund for only the standard 10 gold. A wide variety of mice are available for hunting in Digby, including the Gold and Diamond mice that were previously not to be found in the Burroughs region and the White/Grey/Brown mice that used to be found in the Lab.

Checking your completion status

Caryn K (New York, NY) wrote on Jul 5, 2008 at 10:50 PM Why don't I see the % of where I am to the next level? Laurie Martin (Toronto, ON) replied to Caryn's post on Jul 6, 2008 at 5:14 AM Caryn, you must "hover" your mouse right over the red/green progress bar, which is located by the little coloured badge which indicates your rank. Try moving it slightly to the right side of the bar and waiting for a minute, it will show you a percentage of how far you are to the next rank/ level. Cheers.

The Harbour

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Andy's post on Jul 2, 2008 at 5:26 AM The Harbour is a good place for catching the higher value mice a bit more often than in the Town or Meadow. It takes longer to reach Journeyman status if you don't go to the Harbour, but you can skip it entirely if that's what you want. There are many ways to play this game, and no 1 best trap, cheese, or strategy. On top of that, much of the game is just luck. You also have the community of hunters. A lot of the fun is in the discussion boards. Keep checking for games within the game because many hunters like to create contests and challenges for prizes.

Burglar Mouse at the Harbour

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Louis's post on Jul 2, 2008 at 4:39 AM Louis, the Burglar mouse was introduced after Demi originally wrote this walk-through, and the Harbour subsequently became more risky. As a result, some hunters delay going to the Harbour until they have a more powerful trap than the Treb/Stone originally recommended. Maybe the Rocketine will be more popular now with its greater power. After all, the Rocketine/Stone is almost as powerful as the Treb/Explosive and costs about half as much gold. You can protect some of your gold by using it all to buy cheese before going to the Harbour, but that will only last until you start to earn gold from your catches. The Burglar mouse seems to be the most dangerous, so changing your cheese might be a way to reduce his appearances. This is probably too early to be using Brie anyway. Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Louis's post on Jul 2, 2008 at 5:08 AM It's definitely a risk vs reward choice to go hunt in the Harbour. It always was, but the Pirate mouse used to be the main concern. The Burglar mouse can swipe as much as 3000 points and is fairly common in the Harbour. You should worry most about gaining gold so that you will be able to upgrade. You only need to keep enough points to meet the requirements for the next trap component (I'd recommend Swiss Army in your case). Stolen points don't take away experience toward the next hunter level, so you won't be set back in terms of advancing in the game. Also, offset your point losses by sounding the horn yourself as much as possible. Once you go to the Mountain, virtually every mouse can steal from you, but the vast majority of mice are Dwarf or better, so every catch is valuable. You might have 1000 points stolen on one hunt and then have that erased on the next hunt by catching a 5 oz Diamond mouse worth 1195 points.

Walkthroughs #4

Townsend Duong (Stanford) wrote on Jun 26, 2008 at 11:52 PM Some new concepts that have come out since this walk-through was originally written. Restrictions on travel: Due to the dangers of mice in certain areas beyond the city walls, the King has decided to restrict travel in such a way that hunters must reach certain experience level requirements to go to some locations. Currently, all hunters may travel to the Meadow or the Town of Gnawnia without restriction. Only hunters who have reached at least the status of Apprentice may travel to the Harbour. Hunters must be at least Journeyman rank to travel to the Mountain. Only hunters with the title of Master or above may travel to the Burroughs Laboratory. The requirements are listed on the map screen with the color-coded shield. Maps, Burroughs Region, Laboratory Location: The game has introduced the possibility of finding map pieces as dropped loot from caught mice. These map pieces may reveal new locations in the MouseHunt world, and they might be relatively rare. It is possible to obtain more than one of the same map piece. Although there is currently no use for the extra pieces, it is believed that hunters will soon be able to transfer these maps to other hunters, opening up the possibility of selling extra map pieces. Currently, the only known new map piece is the map to the Burroughs Laboratory. The Burroughs is a new "region" in MouseHunt, and the Laboratory is for now the only "location" where hunters can travel and hunt within the Burroughs. The Burroughs region and the Laboratory location will not appear on your map until you find the map piece. To obtain the Burroughs Laboratory map piece, hunters must reach Journeyman rank, travel to the Mountain, catch a Ninja mouse in the Mountain, and receive the map piece from the Ninja mouse. Not all Ninja mice in the Mountain drop the map piece, and only Ninja mice in the Mountain will drop the map piece. Potions: The game has introduced the possibility to use potions to modify your cheese. This is described in the How To Play manual. Potions might be found from mice as loot. They will appear on the Inventory screen under the Potions tab, and the description and instructions will be shown there. To use a potion, select the option in your Inventory screen and confirm the action. Currently, there are 2 known potions, and they are both found in the Burroughs Laboratory and are received by catching mice who might drop the potions as loot. The Brie alchemy potion converts Cheddar, Marble, or Swiss cheese into Brie cheese. The Radioactive blue cheese curd potion converts Brie cheese or SUPER|brie+ into Radioactive blue cheese. The costs and quantities depend on the cheese used for the conversion. Lab Research: Some mice will drop Lab Research as loot when you catch them. The Lab Research is worth points, which are added to your score. There is currently no other known use for the Lab Research.

The Lab

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Elodia's post on Jun 21, 2008 at 12:20 PM The Lab is a new location in the new region of Burroughs. To be able to see this on your map, you have to catch a Ninja mouse in the Mountain location who might drop the Burroughs Laboratory map piece as loot. This requires a lot of patience because first you have to reach Journeyman level before you are allowed to go to the Mountain. Then you have to catch the very rare Ninja mouse. Finally, not all of the Ninja mice caught in the Mountain will give you the map piece. To be able to travel to the Lab, you must have reached at least the Master level. It costs 19500 gold to travel to the Lab.

Cheese Advice #1

Semira Jenkins (Bristol) wrote on Jun 16, 2008 at 2:43 PM whats the best cheese to stock up on other then sb?Reply to Semira Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Semira's post on Jun 16, 2008 at 2:52 PM Use the cheapest cheese that will give you an acceptable attraction rate but is also appropriate for your trap power. It is a waste of gold to use expensive Brie if Swiss attracts mice frequently enough for you, but also if your trap is too weak to catch most of the mice that you attract. I would recommend using Marble and Cheddar until you get 500-lb Crusher or Mary O'Nette, then use primarily Marble. Once you get Treb or Rocketine, switch to a mix of Swiss and Marble. When you have the Swiss Army trap, switch to all Swiss cheese. It is probably not worth using Brie until you are in the Mountain. SB+ has some strategic benefits besides the attraction rate, but it's probably not worth using it as bait until you have the Deathbot or at least the Swiss Army trap in the Mountain. Really you can get excellent attraction rates with Swiss cheese, and this saves a lot of gold, especially in places where mice steal cheese from you. Also keep in mind that your accuracy improves attraction rate as well. If you are using the Target base, you might not need to use a higher quality cheese. Good hunting! Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Townsend's post on Jun 16, 2008 at 3:05 PM Until you buy your Deathbot, you should be balancing the need for better cheese with the need to save gold for the long term goal. If you find yourself with lots of extra gold, it can be tempting to spend your extra gold on better cheese, but it will help more to save that gold for your next upgrade. All other things being equal, better cheese tends to improve your average points per hunt, but it also tends to decrease your average gold profit per hunt. Until you get the Deathbot, gold should be the priority of the two. You should still be earning enough points as you go along through catches, horn blows, and King's rewards to meet requirements for upgrading traps.

Apprentice at the Harbour

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Bok's post on Jun 16, 2008 at 1:10 AM Bok, First of all, thanks for remembering me! I see you are hunting in the Meadow with your Mary/Stone setup. The problem with the Meadow is that it is supposed to be full of mostly White/Grey/Brown mice. Since Demi and I never spent much time in the Meadow, we're not first-hand experts on it. Until you reach Apprentice level, you will only be allowed to travel to Town and the Meadow. When you get to Apprentice level, the game will allow you to go to the Harbour. The Mary O'Nette is probably too weak to do well in the Harbour now. You should probably stay in Town until you can buy the Trebuchet or Rocketine. There is a good variety of mice in Town, and you will probably catch a better mix. Since the Harbour has become so risky, many hunters are now choosing to hunt in Town until they get their Swiss Army trap. If you are going to be in Town, you should be able to use a mix of Marble and Swiss cheese. In the Meadow, you should probably use Marble only because the mice are so low value as you realized. However, as I am writing this, I am running a giveaway contest for hunters in the Meadow of all levels (but mostly Novice hunters will take part). It's another opportunity for you to earn some extra gold if you want to stay in the Meadow and hunt White mice. Good hunting!

The Horn

Colleen Morrow (Waterloo) wrote on Jun 11, 2008 at 9:09 AM Okay, I apologize if my questions have been answered but it's a REALLY long thread... Two quick questions If you can sound the hunter's horn every 15 minutes, why am I not getting the thing popping up? Do you have to do it within a certain amount of time? I haven't seen it in way over an hour. And second, what's a trap check? Thanks in advance :D Callie Hussein Lawrence (OKCU) replied to Colleen's post on Jun 11, 2008 at 10:05 AM 1: If you've got friend playing in the same locaiton as you do (ie: Town, Harbour, etc) they might beat you to sounding the horn. It happens, don't fret. 2: A trap check is beautiful- once an hour, a mouse will be sent to your trap without the horn being sounded by anyone. It's a nice addition, because this means that while you're not logged on (like over-night) you can still catch mice!

Stolen Cheese

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Nafees's post on Jun 7, 2008 at 5:41 PM Mice in Town can't steal your cheese. Mice can only steal cheese, gold and points in the Harbour, Mountain, or Laboratory. Mice in those locations might steal from you if your trap fails to catch them. That is why it is risky to go to those locations if your trap is not powerful enough. It is true that attracting more mice will probably result in getting things stolen from you more often, but that is because you have more opportunities to catch mice. Cheese effect changes the chances of your cheese going stale. If your trap does not attract any mice, then the cheese has a chance to go stale and be lost anyway. If your trap attracts a mouse, then that cheese has no chance to go stale. Positive cheese effect decreases the chance of cheese going stale. Negative cheese effect increases it. You can see your trap's overall cheese effect rating on the inventory screen.

Stolen Cheese

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Nafees's post on Jun 7, 2008 at 5:41 PM Mice in Town can't steal your cheese. Mice can only steal cheese, gold and points in the Harbour, Mountain, or Laboratory. Mice in those locations might steal from you if your trap fails to catch them. That is why it is risky to go to those locations if your trap is not powerful enough. It is true that attracting more mice will probably result in getting things stolen from you more often, but that is because you have more opportunities to catch mice. Cheese effect changes the chances of your cheese going stale. If your trap does not attract any mice, then the cheese has a chance to go stale and be lost anyway. If your trap attracts a mouse, then that cheese has no chance to go stale. Positive cheese effect decreases the chance of cheese going stale. Negative cheese effect increases it. You can see your trap's overall cheese effect rating on the inventory screen.

Trap Upgrades #3

Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Nafees's post on Jun 7, 2008 at 4:50 PM This walk-through was written by Demi based on her experience going through the early parts of the game. However, she blazed through those early parts of the game because she's the Voodoo priestess of trap curse removal. Other hunters may not have such good luck. More importantly, there have been several updates to the game since that time, the most significant being the restrictions on travel and the addition of the Burglar mouse. The Harbour is more dangerous now than it was back then, and I get the impression that the Pirate mice that made it so worthwhile have been harder to find/catch lately. To answer your questions, Q. Should I keep using Explosive base or Stone base with Trebuchet??? Explosive base. You paid a lot for it, and it gives you a good boost. With the Trebuchet, you can afford to take a slight hit in the cheese effect. Q. What Cheese should i use with those combinations in Town??? Swiss with both combinations Q. Should I dare to travel back to Harbor now or should i wait for upgrade? Stay in Town. I think your trap is strong enough to go to the Harbour, but you will take a lot of beatings before coming out ahead. Might as well play it safe in the Town until you get the Swiss Army trap. Good hunting! :-)

Trap Upgrades #2

Rachel Townsend wrote on May 18, 2008 at 4:45 AM ok, I have some questions... should i upgrade to stone base, or mary first? should I stay in the meadow for now, or move once I'm able to upgrade? If so, to where? Townsend Duong (Stanford) replied to Rachel's post on May 18, 2008 at 9:50 AM Looks like you have already moved on beyond that, so this answer won't really apply to you anymore. Most hunters will categorize the weapons into these levels: 1: Tacky Glue or High Tension Steel Spring 2: 500-lb Spiked Crusher or Mary O'Nette 3: Mouse Trebuchet or Mouse Rocketine 4: Swiss Army Mouse Trap 5: Mouse Deathbot Generally, there is very little benefit to owning all weapons within the same level, so the question is really whether to upgrade your trap's weapon to the next level or the base when you meet the requirements for both. You always get a bigger benefit by improving the weapon first. Some people choose the Explosive base before the Swiss Army trap or before the Deathbot. That's okay. You'll have to raise a lot of money to buy either of those weapon upgrades, so improving the base might help you get there. As for what to do when you have Mary and Stone, some people stay in the Town/Meadow, and others have good luck in the Harbour. I would not recommend going to the Mountain until you have the Swiss Army trap. Since you have the Treb/Stone now, I'd suggest going to the Harbour.

Cheese Rescue

Townsend Duong (Stanford) wrote on May 17, 2008 at 10:31 PM bump! Okay, so I just got an answer to a question I've had for a while. Here's the situation. Being concerned about your fellow hunters, you check the friends page to see if they are running low on cheese while they are not in MH. Oh dear, someone has run out of bait! They can't take part in any hunts or catch any mice! Can you rescue them by sending SB+? Well, we know that the trap doesn't automatically switch to new bait (although we've requested that), but what if your buddy had been using SB+ as bait when they ran out? I saw that 2 of my friends were out of cheese and were recently active. What's more, they did not have any SB+, so it's possible they were using it as bait when they ran out. So I sent them both some SB+ and reloaded the friends page to see if their traps automatically baited themselves with the cheese. No luck! :( I checked with one of them (Cody) and found out that the trap was indeed using SB+ when it ran out. Oh well, you can't rescue your fellow hunter after they run out of cheese, but your concern is still deeply appreciated, and you'll still save them a trip back to town when they eventually come back to MH and bait their trap. Next time, send them the cheese *before* they run out.

Trap Upgrades #1

Demi Demdem (New Zealand) on May 14, 2008 at 1:43 AM thanks for bumping the thread (and thanks townsend too!).. glad you are finding it useful.. so here is the next thing.. the break down of trap upgrades and WHY we do what we do.. ************* TRAP UPGRADES ************* I had planned to move from my treb/stone to the explosive and then to the swiss.. however, I went to the harbour feeling quite nervous and new about the whole thing, 88 pieces of swiss cheese to my name and caught 7 pirates in 18 hours.. The harbour tends to give you revenue of about 20k per day.. so even though i had that initial lucky pirate streak, it only actually took about 2 days to save for my swiss that way.. Then with the extra power of the swiss (remember that traps and bases tend to double the power of the previous, but the traps have more power than the bases so it was a much much bigger upgrade).. i had my explosive trap within 24 hours at the harour. Stayed until i would have enough to buy supplies and travel costs in town, and i went to the mountains where the revenue is about 50k per day, and had my deathbot within about 4 1/2 days. With all of the equal level traps (like treb/rocket) there is obviously a choice and some of it is personal preference. Personally with my choices i went tacky glue (not spring), mary (not crusher) and treb (not rocket).. all of those worked brilliantly and i had my deathbot within 12 days of playing the game. ****Okay, enough of your silly rant demi.. tell me what i need to know**** these are the things you need to consider when buying a trap.. 1) Accuracy - your chance of catching a mouse.. eg brie (90%) + trap bonuses 2) luck - your random chance draw - mary is the only trap really renowned for her luck! 3) Power - your power vs mouse power + roll = winner.. 4) power bonus - work out how much the power bonus is.. *****Calculated example ****** Crusher - power = 200, power bonus = 10% Mary = 250, power bonus = 0% assuming you have the wooden target base and you are considering which weapon to upgrade.. (75 power for stone + 0% power bonus) Crush/target would be 275 power + 10% bonus = 303ish total power Mary/target would be 325 + 0% bonus = 325 total power And in the case of Mary vs Crusher.. 20ish power + 5 luck is obviously a better choice.. ***** The eternal question ***** TREB OR ROCKET ***** This has got to be the most common thread (other than the begging threads).. Assuming you have the stone base: Power = 150 Power Bonus = 10 % Accuracy = 0% Luck = 0 Cheese Effect = Positive.. With the Treb (600 power, 2% power bonus, 1% accuracy, 1 luck and cheese effect = very positive) And the Rocket (650 power, 6% bonus power, 0% accuracy, 0 luck and cheese effect = very negative) Treb/stone = 750 + 12% power bonus = 840 power, 1% accuracy, 1 luck and very very positive cheese effect Rocket/stone = 800 + 16% power bonus = 928 power, 0% accuracy, 0 luck and negative cheese effect So, you are probably upgrading from Mary/stone (440 power including power bonus).. With either option you are basically doubling your power.. just under that with the treb and just over that with the rocketine.. either way that is a huge upgrade.. and you though you were catching mice before..!! To work out which is better, you need to work out what is it that catches mice? Accuracy attracts them, power catches them, luck is just an extra chance draw and cheese effect means that you don't lose cheese all the time.. Accordingly it is up to you to make your choice.. One more thing to consider is the effect of your next upgrade (either your explosive trap or your swiss army - if you go for the explosive when you have the rocketine, you may find you lose a lot of cheese with a very very negative cheese effect and if you are losing cheese, you aren't catching mice.. Personally I went from stone/treb/swiss/explosive/deathbot.. and even offer a money back guarantee on hunting that way lolz :p but there you are.. you have the information now and what you need to base your decision on.. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ enjoy.. demi :p

The Cheese Bank

Garry John Riechert (Australia) wrote on May 13, 2008 at 7:04 PM If you go to the harbour or mountains, change all your gold into cheese. When you do you should have 80+ cheese, but if you had 500+ that is no real matter because you can always refund any cheese back into gold at 100%. Better to wait a little in town to get the gold to get more cheese than to waste 4500gold going back because you ran out of cheese. Normally when you first go to the harbour/moutains you are tight for gold so travelling back and forth just to buy cheese seems counterproductive.

Walkthroughs #3

Demi Demdem (New Zealand) replied to Jen's post on May 12, 2008 at 7:49 PM <3 oh and an update for people who want to know what order to buy things in.. ************* wooden base - tacky glue - target base - mary - stone base - treb - swiss - explosive - deathbot ************* In this order you should be getting a new trap and/or base every 24 hours until you save for the swiss, which in the harbour is up to 48 hours, but took me 36, then another 24 hours for the explosive, then to the mountains to save for your deathbot - about 4-5 days max. obviously this is just my opinion, worked fantastically for me, you can go treb instead of rocket, and/or explosive before swiss (or after deathbot). ***Amount of cheese you should take travelling.. *** to the harbour - about 80-100 swiss cheese (or higher) to the mountains 100+ swiss cheese (or higher). Once in the mountains, use your profits to buy super brie - saves a lot on the travel costs.. (and i never went to the meadow) ***Travelling*** I recommend to harbour once you have the treb/stone set up And the mountains once you have your swiss/explosive, but you can go there with the swiss/stone. ***If you are having a bad day*** stick it out, don't go running with your tail between your legs, sometimes you have a bad day, get over it, the next day will be better. When your luck turns you don't want to be making half the money you could be back in town because the mean mice scared you. ******Important****** If you: 1) go to the harbour/mountains with the appropriate traps as recommended 2) take that amount of cheese with you to the harbour/mountains When it runs out, IF you have not made more than your monies worth back, then i will personally send you gold/brie to compensate.. hows that.. a money back guarantee! dem ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Traps' Cheese Effect

Townsend Duong (Stanford) on May 12, 2008 at 7:56 AM I noticed the questions about cheese effect are coming up a lot lately, so I'm adding that info here. Thanks to Fuqi and Giorgio for answering this recently. I can't say much original about this, so you deserve credit. Each turn that your trap does not attract a mouse, there is a chance that the cheese will go stale and be useless for catching mice. There will be a message telling you that the cheese is either fresh enough to keep using, or that your cheese went stale and you needed to throw it away and replace it. Your trap changes the odds of cheese going stale by its "Cheese Effect". Positive cheese effect helps you by decreasing the chances of staleness. Negative cheese effect hurts you by increasing it. The best cheese effect you can have is "Extremely Positive" with Mary/Wood, Treb/Wood, or Treb/Stone. The worst cheese effect you can have is "Extremely Negative" with Rocketine/Explosive. Since cheese can only go stale if your trap fails to attract mice, you can compensate for a negative cheese effect by using better cheese. If your trap has an accuracy bonus, that helps to attract mice and so also helps compensate for negative cheese effect. If you bait your trap with SuperBrie+, you will almost always attract a mouse, so cheese effect is virtually irrelevant. Fuqi Koh (Singapore) on May 12, 2008 at 12:06 PM Something extra that I remember being asked: Catching mice is entirely dependent on your trap power, and has nothing to do with prior catches of any mice type. You do not gain experience each time you catch a mouse. Therefore more power = better chances of catching mice. Additionally: Attracting a mouse and catching a mouse are 2 different steps. Your chances of attracting a mouse to your trap depends on your cheese and additional accuracy % given by your trap setup.

Walkthroughs #2

Demi Demdem (New Zealand) on May 9, 2008 at 7:17 PM Hunting parties Having more people in your hunting party helps in two ways.. 1) If you sound the horn, you get more points for everyone of your friends that is hunting in that area who is online at the time 2) If you leave the application open when you are afk, then they can sound the horn on your behalf, increasing the number of potential traps per hour from the standard 1, to the potential of 5 (1 trap check and 4 sounding of the horn). If you decide to sleep - and clearly you are not a real addict if you do :p hehe, then leaving the application open and having other people hunt for your is a great idea (or if you have to go to work or something), but you need to make sure you have stocked up on cheese! Marius Eriksen wrote on May 10, 2008 at 12:55 PM 3) With the treb/stone plus at least 80 or so swiss cheese you can head to the harbour. With this set up you will yield about 20k per day so your swiss army trap will not be far away. Some people prefer the explosive base first, that is fine too. Hmm... I doubt it with 20k, but 10k is absolutely within reach. I got explosive base and trebuchet and I have earned 7,7k so far after 22~ hours.

Walkthroughs #1

Demi Demdem (New Zealand) wrote on May 6, 2008 at 9:19 PM After realising I had just typed the same thing about 4 times in a row.. here goes... from my limited experience.. Starting off: 1) buy a base - try wooden 2) but a trap - i recommend the tacky glue for accuracy 3) buy some cheese - i recommend starting with marble Catching mice: From here, you will receive 1 trap check per hour, and every 15 minutes the (horn) pops up at the top of your screen and you can sound it. Friends: 1) You or anyone in your hunting party (your hunting party are your friends who have the application and are hunting in the same location eg, town, meadow harbour or the mountains) can sound the hunters horn. 2) Whoever sounds the horn receives bonus points for every friend who is online at the time and hunting in that location. Catching mice2: 1) Because, try as we might, we can not be at the computer 24/7, add friends from the mousehunt application and increase your hunting circle. 2) Leave the application open when you are afk from the keyboard but make sure you stock up on plenty of cheese first - with up to 5 catches per hour you can run out pretty fast - but also make a lot of gold and points. Accuracy vs Power vs Luck 1) Accuracy is the chance to attract a mouse to your trap 2) Your Power vs Mouse power in (I think) a random roll based on probability, determines who wins 3) Luck gives you a small chance to catch a mouse regardless of its type. Trap/base upgrades: 1) You should be able to get a new trap and/or base upgrade every 24 hours until you end up with the treb/stone base (or rocket/stone if you prefer). 2) Always keep your cheese stocked up. 3) With the treb/stone plus at least 80 or so swiss cheese you can head to the harbour. With this set up you will yield about 20k per day so your swiss army trap will not be far away. Some people prefer the explosive base first, that is fine too. 4) Once you have the swiss/explosive set up, head to the mountains with lots of cheese - at least swiss by this point, perhaps even some super brie for a 40-55k per day gold return to save for your death bot. Super brie: you can obtain super brie one of two ways 1) donating real money to the developers 2) buying it from other players Super Brie has a 99.9% accuracy (chance to attract a mouse to your trap), however you still need the power (trap/base) to catch the mouse. The advantage of Super brie is that in places with more vicious mice, they can not steal it in bulk (nasty mice can steal not only the 1 piece of cheese but up to about another 7 too). I'm still a novice!!: And you will be until your points get to 67000. that is the hard cap upgrade. Tariff: If you are buying super brie, you need to be aware that you *should* have more points than the person you are buying from. If you have less points, you will be charges up to a 50% tariff so the person you are buying from ends up with less cash :/ Begging: 1) Don't do it, we don't like it and it is a real pain. If you really need some money/brie, talk to your friends, most people like helping each other out. 2) Alternatively, please find a creative way of asking/earning the money, people appreciate that. 3) Watch the forums for give aways and hand outs. ****Note: How you personally choose to go about things is obviously up to you, these are ideas and suggestions and if you have queries please feel free to ask on the forums or send me a message.****

Grey Mouse

White Mouse