Starting Out
Welcome to mousehunt!
As a new mousehunter ranked Novice, you start in the Meadow and are given the choice to use one of two traps:
These two traps are fairly similar. If you want more power, go for the High-Tension Spring. If you want more attraction, then go for the Tacky Glue Trap. Power means when a mouse is attracted to your trap, you are more likely to catch it (to read more about power visit the mechanics page). Attraction simply means that more mice will come to your trap giving you more chances to catch mice but it will be harder to catch them.
So let's go over the basics:
You will notice there are 4 squares. They are, from left to right, where the base, weapon, charm and cheese go. Above them you show see four aspects of your trap. From left to right these are the trap's Power, Luck, Attraction Bonus and Cheese Effect.
Now the base, the charm and the trap (currently the wooden base and tack glue trap or high-tension spring) contribute to these four statistics (power, luck, attraction, cheese effect).
You will also notice a small icon next to the word 'Power' indicating what the power type is. You don't need to worry about this now. You also don't need to worry about charms now.
Power
The more power, the more likely you will catch a mouse. The power and the power bonus stats of your base and weapon combine to make this stat.
Luck
The more luck, the more likely a mouse will drop loot AND the more likely it is to catch more difficult mice. So overall, what affects the catch rate of a mouse is both your power and you luck.
Attraction Bonus
This bonus is added to the attraction rate of the cheese you are currently using in a certain formula. The formula (if you don't like math, don't bother to read) is:
Total Attraction = Cheese Attraction rate + (100 - Cheese Attraction rate)*((Attraction Bonus of weapon + Attraction Bonus of base + Attraction Bonus of charm)/100)
For example, with the Tacky Glue Trap, Wooden base and Marble cheese.
Total Attraction = 65 + (100 - 65)*((40 + 0 + 0)/100) = 79%
Keep in mind that the Attraction Bonus is only a bonus to the attraction rate of the cheese. The Total Attraction rate itself is what will be used to decide whether you will attract a mouse. So in the example above, this hunter has a 79% chance of attracting a mouse.
Cheese Effect
There are 13 different cheese effects:
Basically, the fresher your cheese effect is (the fresher effects are down the list), the less likely your cheese will go stale if you fail to attract a mouse.
Effectiveness
You should notice that below all of this there is text showing the effectiveness of your trap. The better your effectiveness, the more likely you will catch mice.
All in all, a hunt (from either sounding your horn or from an hourly trap check) comes down to these factors.
First, whether you will attract a mouse is calculated. If you do attract a mouse, the chance of catching it is calculated. If you don't attract one, then the chance of your cheese going stale will be calculated.
Now the base, the charm and the trap (currently the wooden base and tack glue trap or high-tension spring) contribute to these four statistics (power, luck, attraction, cheese effect).
You will also notice a small icon next to the word 'Power' indicating what the power type is. You don't need to worry about this now. You also don't need to worry about charms now.
Power
The more power, the more likely you will catch a mouse. The power and the power bonus stats of your base and weapon combine to make this stat.
Luck
The more luck, the more likely a mouse will drop loot AND the more likely it is to catch more difficult mice. So overall, what affects the catch rate of a mouse is both your power and you luck.
Attraction Bonus
This bonus is added to the attraction rate of the cheese you are currently using in a certain formula. The formula (if you don't like math, don't bother to read) is:
Total Attraction = Cheese Attraction rate + (100 - Cheese Attraction rate)*((Attraction Bonus of weapon + Attraction Bonus of base + Attraction Bonus of charm)/100)
For example, with the Tacky Glue Trap, Wooden base and Marble cheese.
Total Attraction = 65 + (100 - 65)*((40 + 0 + 0)/100) = 79%
Keep in mind that the Attraction Bonus is only a bonus to the attraction rate of the cheese. The Total Attraction rate itself is what will be used to decide whether you will attract a mouse. So in the example above, this hunter has a 79% chance of attracting a mouse.
Cheese Effect
There are 13 different cheese effects:
- Über Stale (-6)
- Ultimately Stale (-5)
- Insanely Stale (-4)
- Extremely Stale (-3)
- Very Stale (-2)
- Stale (-1)
- No Effect (+0)
- Fresh (+1)
- Very Fresh (+2)
- Extremely Fresh (+3)
- Insanely Fresh (+4)
- Ultimately Fresh (+5)
- Über Fresh (+6)
Basically, the fresher your cheese effect is (the fresher effects are down the list), the less likely your cheese will go stale if you fail to attract a mouse.
Effectiveness
You should notice that below all of this there is text showing the effectiveness of your trap. The better your effectiveness, the more likely you will catch mice.
All in all, a hunt (from either sounding your horn or from an hourly trap check) comes down to these factors.
First, whether you will attract a mouse is calculated. If you do attract a mouse, the chance of catching it is calculated. If you don't attract one, then the chance of your cheese going stale will be calculated.
Once your trap has been chosen, sound the horn to initiate a hunt. In the very early stages of the game, hunts are available only a few minutes apart. As you progress, the time between hunts increases until it reaches 15 minutes, and it stays at this constant for the rest of the game. Whenever you catch a mouse, you will rewarded with a certain amount of POINTS and GOLD. Gold is used for purchasing better traps, bases and cheese. Points are required to equip better traps and better bases, and also accumulate until you advance a rank. If you don't have enough points for a trap even if you have enough gold, you cannot buy it and cannot equip the trap until you meet the point requirement.
Time to be a bit less formal.
The Wooden Base is the very first base you receive at the start of the game and like traps, you have to have a base equipped at all times. The stats of the wooden base aren't impressive at all and once you buy the next base you can say goodbye to this base, since every base in all of Mousehunt is better than this base. Unless you want you trap to have the retro look which isn't a good idea. All images of traps and bases will be linked to the respective page for further information.
Time to be a bit less formal.
The Wooden Base is the very first base you receive at the start of the game and like traps, you have to have a base equipped at all times. The stats of the wooden base aren't impressive at all and once you buy the next base you can say goodbye to this base, since every base in all of Mousehunt is better than this base. Unless you want you trap to have the retro look which isn't a good idea. All images of traps and bases will be linked to the respective page for further information.
Wooden Base
Power: 35
Power Bonus: 0%
Attraction Bonus: 0%
Luck: 0
Cheese Effect: Very Fresh
Power Bonus: 0%
Attraction Bonus: 0%
Luck: 0
Cheese Effect: Very Fresh
Larry the Friendly Knight (he is quite friendly and seems to follow you everywhere) will give you 25 marble cheese to start your first hunt.
Keep sounding the horn to initiate more hunts and catch more varieties of mice. You may notice that every hour, you will automatically go on an extra hunt. (Note: this hourly trap check can be at x:00, x:15, x:30 or x:45). Each mouse you catch is recorded in the mouse tab. All the same kind of mice will be worth the same amount of gold and points regardless of their weight (e.g. all white mice 70 points and 100 gold). Every time you run out of cheese simply purchase more marble or cheddar from the cheese shoppe in batches of 50. Marble cheese is more expensive than cheddar but it will attract more mouse simply meaning, you will have more chances to catch mice. Cheddar cheese is only 10 gold, the cheapest cheese in the game, but its attraction rate is quite horrible.
Once you have accumulated 650 points and 1,225 gold (collect slightly more gold just in case you have ran out of cheese), you are ready to purchase a new base to add to your trap.
Wooden Base with Target
Power: 75
Power Bonus: 0%
Attraction Bonus: 20%
Luck: 0
Cheese Effect: No Effect
Power Bonus: 0%
Attraction Bonus: 20%
Luck: 0
Cheese Effect: No Effect
This base may not seem like much of a power upgrade, but its main reason to use is because of its high attraction bonus (tied highest in all the bases!). Even some of the high-ranked hunters use this base for its Attraction Bonus. Using this base will greatly increase the amount of mice coming to your trap and increase gold returns.
Once you have gathered enough points to rank up from novice to recruit, click the 'Travel' button on the menu. You should see what looks like a map of the Meadow. Up the top of this map you should see a 'Gnawnia' tab and within that two locations. The Meadow and the Town of Gnawnia. Click the town of Gnawnia, click 'Hunt Here' and follow me to the town (Town of Gnawnia).