FAQ
Here is a list of the most frequently asked questions (hence the name FAQ).
Contents
Loot
Q. For the last three days or so I haven't had a mouse drop any loot. I have been catching plenty of mice in both the Harbour and the Mountain, but haven't got any loot.
A. You still "collect earnings" from the gold that mice drop. Each time you catch a mouse a die-roll takes place to determine if the mouse is to drop loot based on what type of mouse was caught and in what location. Each player has the same odds of receiving loot for catching the same mouse in the same location. It all comes down to the luck of the roll!
Q. There are a number of us who have been killing Zombies left and right for some time with no luck getting the cloth map, while others have enough for a tent! I understand the need for the luck factor, but it's getting ridiculous!
A. Not all Zombies carry the cloth and it does come down to luck being the deciding factor in catching one that has a cloth.
Hoarding Radioactive Blue Cheese Curd Potions while waiting for a tattered cloth will prove to be a worthwhile strategy however.
Q: I am in the Mountain, I do not see any more locations - what is next?
A: To progress past the Mountain you will need to collect maps and other items unlocking further locations. For detailed information see Location Quick Reference.
Trading
Q. How can I buy SUPER|Brie+ through trading?
A. Hover over your Friends tab; there should be a 'Trade SUPER|Brie+' option. Click on that. Here you will find the Marketplace board. You can post your requests for SUPER|Brie+ with your trade link and sellers of SUPER|Brie+ can trade with you directly. Here is the link.
Q. Where is my Trade Link?
A. Hover over your Friends tab, there should be a 'Trade SUPER|Brie+' option, click on that. Your unique trade link is just above the Marketplace Board - it looks like this: http://apps.facebook.com/mousehunt/traderequest.php?snuid=xxxxxxxx.
Q. How do I sell my SUPER|Brie+ through trading?
A. There are a couple of ways do to this:
- Hover over your Friends tab, there should be a 'Trade SUPER|Brie+' option, click on that. You can type the name of the person you wish to sell to in the Send A Request Box, this will take you to the scoreboard, where you can click on their name to see their MH profile, then click on Send Trade Request (on the left of their profile page).
- You can also go directly to the trade screen if you have their unique trade link, just click on this and it will take you to the trade screen. At the Send A Request box, double check that the name on the Offer to Sell line is the person you want to trade with, enter the amount of cheese you wish to sell in the Pieces of Cheese, enter the price PER PIECE of cheese in the Price per piece. REMEMBER -- the King takes 10% tax from the trade, So if you are selling 10 pieces for 600 per piece you will receive 5400 gold. Click on the Send button; your cheese is automatically taken from your inventory. This will send a request to the person, who can either accept or cancel the request. You can also cancel the request. If the request is canceled by either person, your cheese is returned to your inventory.
Q. Where can I trade/sell my spare maps and potions?
A. SUPER|Brie+ is the only item that can be traded between players.
Q. I keep getting unsolicited trade requests - can I block them?
A. No, not at the moment. You can have a max of 3 trades received though, so once you have 3 just don't delete them.
Shops
Q. I am hunting in the Laboratory. When I click on the Trapsmith, I see some traps that I don't see when I return to the Town of Gnawnia to purchase them, such as the Sinister Portal. I have the total points and gold required to purchase it, but when I return to the town to purchase, it is not on the list of traps. Am I missing something?
A. You need to go to Digby to buy these traps. To get to Digby you need to catch a Dwarf Mouse with a key in the Lab.
Hunting/Logs
Q. I have a large hunting group so why do I only get 250 points max when I blow the horn?
A. You may only bring up to 25 friends with you who are ready to hunt and in the same area as you, hence you can never achieve more than 250 bonus points for sounding the horn.
Q. I was away for the weekend and just got home now. Why does my log show no trap checks since 9 AM yesterday?
A. You only get trap checks for the first 24 hours after your last activity.
Q. Why do I keep getting red boxes in the Mousoleum/Training Grounds/Dojo etc.? It must be a bug -- no one can be this unlucky!
A. Welcome to the major leagues! These areas are tough going and you need to be well prepared when you enter. You will be greatly rewarded for your efforts, however.
Q. Why are the timestamps in the Hunter's Journal showing as "tomorrow"? It used to show the correct time but now it doesn't. An example of the problem here.
A. This issue is beyond MouseHunt's control. MouseHunt uses a Facebook-controlled tag that converts the time for us. Players are advised to re-login, but there does not appear to be any solution to the problem at the moment. This issue does not affect gameplay in any other way.
Q. Does changing my trap or base really increase my chance of catching mice?
A. This is a very popular strategy, and it's older than MouseHunt itself: if you're going to play a game based on luck, then maybe changing things around will help your luck. It's like changing slot machines at a casino. The developers themselves have said that this has no bearing on your luck. The fact that it has seemingly helped people is, like anything else in this game, a function of good luck and coincidence. As a matter of fact, switching to a weaker base or trap (such as swapping out a NVMRC Forcefield Trap for a Swiss Army Mouse Trap while hunting in the Lab) will hurt your ability to catch mice significantly.
Q. Shall I buy the Mouse Deathbot or NVMRC Forcefield Trap?
A. If you have a Party Hat, it would be better to buy the Mouse Deathbot and craft the PartyBot. If not, NVMRC Forcefield Trap is generally considered to be the better option. For detailed analysis see NVMRC Forcefield Trap or Mouse DeathBot?.
Q. Shall I buy the Ambrosial Portal or Sinister Portal?
A. Sinister Portal is generally considered to be the better option as there is usually no problem attracting mice in the Moz with RB but catching them is not easy. For detailed analysis see Sinister Portal or Ambrosial Portal - Which Should I Get?. There is no real difference between the two traps, however, so just pick the trap that you think is the prettiest!
Crafting
Q. When I'm crafting with all the right ingredients, why do I only get the message "Nothing interesting happens."?
A. Ensure you are using the correct quantities of each ingredient and try again.
Q. I crafted three pieces of cheese, so why does it only show two in my inventory?
A. There is an issue where you go on a hunt with three Glutter (for example), but you actually get four hunts so you end up "owing" a Glutter. The next time you craft Glutter, it takes back the one you owe, so you only get two pieces.
Forums
Q. Why does searching in the discussion boards always give no results?
A. The search function doesn't work. The forums/message boards are not MouseHunt/HitGrab programs/software, but are in fact Facebook's and are very limited in their capabilities. To obtain a comprehensive search of the forum/message boards try searching in Google using the keywords you're interested in and include site:http://www.facebook.com to limit to pages contained on facebook. You can also look at your posts from the drop down menu. There is also a handy tool that sets all of this up for you at this site.
Donations/Offers/Prize Mice
Q. I just made a donation to this game, so why didn't I receive the cheese?
A. Please use the donation support Contact Form.
Q. I've completed offers, so why haven't I received the promised SUPER|Brie+?
A. The offers are not run by MouseHunt/HitGrab, and the SUPER|Brie+ doesn't come directly from the game.
Anyone having problems with receiving SUPER|brie+ should fill out the proper contact form accessible via a link at the bottom of the donate page.
Please be sure to follow the correct instructions for what method you used (PayPal, MobillCash, Offer). This form will encapsulate information important to help you get it sorted out. Unfortunately there is nothing the Devs can do to help you get the rewards from offers.
Before completing offers, you may wish to take into consideration several things.
Q. I caught a prize mouse (yay me) - how do I claim my prize?
A. You should get a green banner at the top of your page pretty soon - follow the instructions on there - and congrats :)
MH Toolbar
Q. Why do none of my searches get counted even after trying all manner of words?
A. Some possible solutions:
- Check that you are searching using the correct search site. Only searches on Yahoo get counted towards the 9 searches a day. Wikipedia, Amazon, EBay searches will not count towards the total. Example here
- Log out of Facebook, clear your browser's cache, restart the browser, log back into MouseHunt. (Common solution for many problems)
- Install and use the toolbar on an alternate web browser. For example use Firefox if you are currently using Internet Explorer, or vice versa.
- Reinstall the toolbar.
Q. Why don't my searches always get counted? I searched 10 times before it even counted 1 search!
A. Some possible solutions:
- Install and use the toolbar on an alternate web browser. For example: use Firefox if you are currently using Internet Explorer, or vice versa.
- Make sure you are searching different terms. Search words that are the same as, or very similar to previous searches might not get counted.
- This description and solution is somewhat technical as it deals with IP Addresses
- Your IP address is changing too frequently for the toolbar to recognize you as a unique individual. For example, your IP address could read 121.6.118.200 one moment, and 121.6.118.213 the next, and 121.6.118.186 the next and so on.
- If this is the case, the toolbar only recognizes one of them, which explains why your searches occasionally get counted. You can check if you have this problem using this site. Once there, refresh every few seconds. If the IP address keeps changing, you could possibly be facing the problem mentioned earlier.
- The solution to this is to get a fixed IP address. An easy way is to use a proxy server as provided by your local ISP, or an anonymous one off the Internet. Proxy Server settings are typically found in the Network Settings section of the browser options. Please be aware that information sent through proxies are not secure, more so anonymous proxies.
- If you are connected using a router, try bypassing the router and connecting directly onto the Internet as your router could be interfering with the link.
Q. Why does the Hunter's Horn on the toolbar shows as ready even though it isn't?
A. The toolbar occasionally checks back with the MouseHunt servers on the status of your account. If it was unable to get a response, it defaults to a ready horn.
Q. The toolbar does not accurately list my profile information. Why is the cheese/gold/points value wrong?
A. The toolbar occasionally checks back with the MouseHunt servers on the status of your account. Thus it might be a while before it updates the correct values. Do not worry as you have not lost any cheese/gold/points.
Q. I've made 15 searches today, why does it only show 3 pieces of SUPER|brie+? Aren't we supposed to get 1 SUPER|brie+ for every 3 searches?
A. The daily limit is 3 SUPER|brie+, so it will only count your first 9 searches.
Q. My family shares a computer but only one person's data is shown in the toolbar, so only that person can get SUPER|brie+ from doing searches. How can I change this?
A. You can refresh the toolbar by clicking the logo, then going to layout manager and clicking restore defaults once or twice. The toolbar should then show login. Click the button and it should show your account stats.
Tournaments
Q: How do I find a team?
A: Please post on the Meet & Greet board for teams/team members. Posts on any other boards may be deleted without warning, as they can clutter up the boards.
Q: I had a notification that I had an invite to join a Hunting Party, but I can't find it.
A: On your Camp page, under the Friends tab, click on Hunting Party, you should be able to see any invites there, if there are no invites it could be that the person who invited you has canceled the invite.
Q: Does every member pay the hunting fee to join a tourney?
A: No - just the captain.
Q: I don't like my team name, can I change it?
A: You can only change the name if you are the captain and if you are not currently in a tourney.
Q: Can I leave a tourney then re-enter it?
A: Yes - but you have to pay the fee again, and upon re-entering all your points from your previous time in that tourney will be lost.
Q: I keep getting errors when trying to create a party name, is it a bug?
A: You must fill in the mandate, use no symbols or punctuation except for -hyphens- and 'single quotes' or 'apostrophes' in either the party name or the mandate. Do not end mandates with a period(.).
If you are still getting errors then the team name may have already been taken or deemed inappropriate by word filters.
Q: Can I swap team members and add new ones in the middle of a tourney?
A: No. You cannot invite other hunters to join your party while you are in an active tournament.
Q: If I'm the Captain and I leave my Hunting Party, what happens to my party and the points we've accumulated?
A: Once you start a party and thus become it's Captain, you retain the name and points which that party has accumulated. So if you've hunted in say 10 tournaments any earned a million party points, even if you leave your party (only as a Captain), when you come back and bring new people aboard, your cumulative points will not restart at 0 and you will still be able to view the list of all the tournaments your hunted in on the scoreboard. That's why HitGrab HQ used the words "active" and "inactive" to describe your party's state.
Q: I joined a tourney but I can't see the HUD (Heads Up Display)?
A: Check the tournament start time on the Tournament page, it may not have started yet. Your HUD will not show until it actually starts.
Q: A new tournament has started (or is about to start) and my Captain is offline and I want to participate, what can I do?
A: The only thing you can do is leave your Hunting Party and form a new one, or wait for your Captain to come back and enter your Party in the tournament.
Q: I sounded the Party Horn, but it only took me on a hunt, I thought it took my whole Party hunting?
A: You can only take other members of your party on a hunt if they have been active in the past hour, are ready to hunt and have no Kings Reward waiting.
Q: Player pictures in the hunter group profile are all different sizes?
A: Unfortunately there isn't much HitGrab can do about this without either cropping the image or distorting it. Facebook imposes a width on images but doesn't impose a height and as such peoples profile are inconsistently sized. As such, the hunter boxes on the party profile page are going to stay as is for now.
Q: Where can I see the Tournament Scoreboard?
A: Under the LORE tab - but you can only see it if you have taken part in the Tourney.
Q: Why is my Party not showing on the tournament scoreboard?
A: The tournament scoreboard only shows the top 100 Parties.
Q. Why isn't the Tournament Scoreboard showing the current score we have?
A. The Tournament Scoreboard updates every 15 minutes so you have to wait a few minutes to check the rankings.
Q: My party HUD (Heads Up Display) says that only one member is online when I can see the other member of my party also online?
A: The Tourney HUD refreshes every 15 minutes, it will catch up.
Q: Can you explain how the multiplier works? When does it go up?
A: It goes up slighty with each catch, a bit like the rank progress bar, but it also goes down with a miss. So if 2 of your team catch and 2 miss it will probably not move at all. Each level takes longer to progress than the last - the cap is x10. If you hover over the bar it will say how far into the level you are. If your whole group is inactive for 1 hour it resets to 1.
Q: The timer for the Party Horn is not moving.
A: The timer is not 'real time' - you need to refresh your page to check how long until your next hunt.
Q: Why didn't the mouse from my trap check get added to our Party Score?
A: Trap checks do not count towards Hunting Party scores.
Q. It says here that my total party points are XXXXX, so why is it lower than the score it shows on the hunting group bar?
A. Total party points accumulate, so they include scores from previous tournaments in addition to the one your party is currently hunting in.
Q: My captain left the tourney half way through, without consulting the rest of the party, can I report him?
Q: My captain booted me out of the Hunting Party for no reason, is there anything I can do?
A: No, sorry. While things like this are not very nice they are not reportable - you can always make your own Party, or find a more trustworthy captain.
Q: Have you thought of keep track of a statistic that shows how much points each individual member has contributed to the total? I think that would be useful to know who is doing the "best" within the actual team!
A: We want to encourage teamwork and not individual prowess, so we've decided not to include that info in tournament play. There is no I in team.
Q: How do the Parties at the top of the scoreboard get such high scores?
A: Dedication, lack of sleep and teamwork! A common strategy used by top teams is to use Super|Brie+ to attract more mice.
Q: Are there any prizes for winning?
A: All members in the top 3 teams at the end of a tournament each get a Champion's Chest. Additionally, the first place winners receive 5 Tournament Tokens. The 2nd and 3rd places get 4 tokens. The top 50 teams get 2 tokens, and the top 100 teams get 1 token.
Other
Q. How do I fix my problem with the King's Rewards? I can't see the image or I'm typing the correct code but it says it's incorrect.
A. First - try logging out of Facebook, then clear your cache/private data, then log in again. If that doesn't work click on the 'Open Image in a new window' copy the page link then start a new topic in any of the boards, Tech, Tavern etc, name the post 'Can you please Tell me my Code', copy the link into the post and some kind hunter will come in and post your code.
Q. I have a problem with MouseHunt displaying images, buttons missing, layout misaligned, no trap checks, horn etc etc. How can I fix it?
A. Before looking too deeply for answers to your problem to start with, please initially clear the caches in your browser. This will ensure that you have the latest files, images and scripts stored locally in your browser cache. If you still have a problem afterwards then look below for further specific answers on what may causing your problem, or post to the Tech Support and Help Discussions area of the MouseHunt forum if no answer appears in this FAQ. Firefox users should also check to see if any add-ons are interfering with MouseHunt (text-to-image is one such add-on that causes significant problems).
This page at WikiHow explains how to clear your browser's cache.
Q. I've added this application, but it doesn't appear on my application list so each time I have to search for MouseHunt, select application then click on join the hunt. Is there any way to add this application to my list?
A. When you are in the MouseHunt app an icon should appear on your application bar at the bottom of your page - it will be to the right hand side of any other apps you have book marked and it will have a green cross on it. Just click on it and it will book mark MouseHunt - so it will always be on your application bar at the bottom of the page.
Q. I got my Master title a couple of hours ago and since then I have caught mice, sounded the horn, received the King's rewards etc. The graph shows as 0% completed. Are there a certain number of points you need to make the graph move? I know I have at least 3000.
A. Each level becomes harder than the last; your bar will begin to move eventually.
Q. So I've seen topics where people say they're 98.41% or 99.29% apprentice/master/etc, where do you get the percentages from? I can only see the xx% in my little status thing?
A. Hover your mouse pointer over the bar below the Rank, and a tool tip will appear with your percentage to two decimal places.
Q. So I caught a Bionic Mouse, and when I look at the "Research" window, it now has the picture of the mouse, but when I look at my own research results, it says catch count = 0. What's happening?
A. How long ago was your catch? Depending on what stat area you're looking at it can take 1 - 36 hours for it to update.
Q. I know Facebook won't allow gold for invites, but many other apps are giving gold for friends who actually add applications from your invite. Why can't I get some gold for this?
A. This is a violation of the Facebook terms of service; any applications still rewarding players for invites may be subject to removal from FB. Any sort of incentive for inviting your friends is where the violation lies, regardless of when the user receives the incentive.
Q. I am currently listed as "A Shrouded Figure" in the rankings, as are several of my friends. I don't remember doing anything funny to my privacy settings which would have caused this, and neither do my friends, but we must have done something. I'd rather just be listed with my name. Is there a way to fix this?
A. MouseHunt knows what your name is by asking Facebook. If Facebook fails to respond to this electronic request within a certain time, MouseHunt displays "A Shrouded Figure". This can either be because you have high privacy settings, or because there was a glitch - with MouseHunt, Facebook, or the communication between them. If it's not your privacy settings, then check again a few hours later - it will usually be cured by then.
Q. Where can I get a Chrome Deathbot that some people on my hunters list have?
A. Chrome Deathbot was a limited edition trap available only available to buy during the reward weekend in August 2008.
Q. Where can I get a Snow Barrage that some people have on my hunters list?
A. Snow Barrage was a limited edition trap available only to buy for a few days in December 2008.
Q. Occasionally when I'm clicking I get a blue banner at the top of my screen, above the scroll but below the big yellow 'welcome to MouseHunt'.
It goes pretty quick but it says:
If this message remains onscreen, your javascript may be disabled - Try refreshing the page.
Can I fix that?
A. This is the intended behaviour. The <noscript> tag does not work in Facebook so we make the warning message appear at the top and then use JavaScript to hide the message. If a user does not have JavaScript the message will never go away and therefore serve its purpose. The speed of your connection/browser determines how fast the message goes away.
Q. I sent gold to one of my friends (I'm nice like that) ;). It charged me 10% tariff but we are not that far off each other in points. I have 102427 my friend has 102607. Why did it happen?
A. Once the receiver has more points than the sender, a 10% tariff is charged.
Questions not covered
If you have a technical/gameplay issue that has not been covered here, please check the Scroll at the top of the MouseHunt page to see if the Developers are already aware of it.
Also check the Help and Tech Support pages in the Forum to see if anyone else is having the same issues.
Remember, when posting in the Tech Support forum to give your post an appropriate title (things like "Help", and "Dev Please Come Here" or "Bug" are not very helpful).
Try to answer the following questions within your post:
- What happened that was unexpected, and what was your expected result?
- Where in the game did the bug occur (Camp, Trapsmith, Cheese Shoppe, etc.)?
- When did you experience the anomaly (please provide your time zone)?
- How can the bug be replicated?
Finally, you can try The MouseHunt Search (third-party tool) that crawls across the Nibbler, the MH guide, the MH Wiki, discussion boards, and much more!
