Monkey Paw: What to Do?

The Monkey Paw is one of the most polarizing events in Mewgenics. It offers four extraordinary rewards (world-shaking strength, free mutations, a legendary item, or powerful new abilities), but each wish attaches a permanent disorder that can either define a build or ruin it. This guide walks through how the paw actually works, what every wish really delivers, and how to pick the right one for the cat in front of you.

How the Monkey Paw Event Works

During exploration, your cat can stumble across a strange disembodied hand with its fingers raised. This is the Monkey Paw, a direct reference to W.W. Jacobs' 1902 short story about a cursed artifact that grants wishes in the worst possible way. The paw only appears four times per save (MonkeyPaw1 through MonkeyPaw4), and each encounter shows one fewer raised finger until the paw is spent and retired from the event pool entirely.

Examining the paw triggers an Intelligence stat check. A common success produces flavor text and nothing else; only a rare success causes the cat to actually touch the hand, fold one finger down, and open the wish menu. That makes the examine option a gamble of its own: low-INT cats usually just stare at the paw and move on, while your highest-INT cat is the only reliable way to reach the wishes at all. Choosing Leave always exits safely with no effect, so there is no penalty for walking away from an encounter that does not fit your plans.

Every Wish Explained

The Monkey Paw Wish menu presents four options. Each one grants exactly what it promises, along with a specific heritable disorder that spells out the cost in plain text. Unlike a truly hidden penalty, you can read the disorder before confirming, but you cannot undo the choice once made.

Strength beyond your wildest dreams (Gargantuan)

Reward: +10 Strength and +5 Constitution. The cat swells to monstrous size.

Cost: Grants the Gargantuan disorder: -10 Speed and permanent immobility in combat. Whatever tile the cat spawns on is where it stays for the rest of the battle.

The stat swing is massive, and a stationary cat with +10 STR and +5 CON hits like an artillery piece. The problem is everything else: no repositioning, no dodging area damage, no collecting pickups, no chasing fleeing enemies. Any melee cat is disabled by this wish. Ranged, spellcaster, and summoner builds can still contribute if the rest of the party protects their fixed position.

Take this if: The cat is already a long-range specialist whose kit never needed to move anyway, or you have tanky allies willing to form a wall around it every fight.

Enhanced genes to become the perfect cat (Tainted Genes)

Reward: Grants the Tainted Genes disorder, which gives the cat a free random mutation at the end of every battle.

Cost: If the cat is ever downed, its corpse is destroyed. No revive, no resurrect, no Necrophage, no breeding the body after it dies.

This is the highest-ceiling wish in the event. A Tainted Genes cat becomes a mutation factory, generating more breeding material in a few zones than a normal roster sees in an entire run. The catch is absolute: death is final. No revival mechanic in the game can recover a Tainted Genes corpse, so every fight is a commitment to either win cleanly or lose the cat forever.

Take this if: You are playing toward long-term breeding goals and can commit to protecting one fragile cat with armor, healing, and careful positioning. This is the pick for players who enjoy managing risk.

An immensely powerful item (Sensory Overload)

Reward: A powerful item materializes and the cat immediately equips it, discarding every other piece of gear to do so.

Cost: Grants a Sensory Overload disorder matching the granted item's slot (Weapon, Head, Face, Neck, or Trinket). The cat is permanently locked out of every other equipment slot for the rest of the run.

The reward is a single legendary piece of gear. The cost is four empty slots and the build-in-waiting they represented. Whether this is a good trade depends entirely on what slot rolls. A weapon-slot roll can anchor a damage build around one powerful gun or fist weapon. A trinket roll can lean into whatever passive the trinket provides. Head, Face, and Neck rolls tend to be weaker since those slots usually support the kit rather than define it. Because you see the item before confirming, always read what the paw gave you before accepting.

Take this if: The rolled item is genuinely exceptional and fits the cat's class. If the item is mediocre or lands in a slot the cat was not going to use seriously, skip the wish; you are trading four slots for one.

Learn unfathomably powerful abilities (Brain Dead)

Reward: Grants the Brain Dead disorder: double stats on every level up and +1 reroll when leveling. The cat is also immediately leveled up twice on the spot.

Cost: -10 Intelligence and -5 Charisma, baked into the Brain Dead disorder and passed on to any offspring.

For any cat that does not depend on Intelligence or Charisma, this wish is overwhelmingly strong. Two free levels up front plus doubled gains on every future level produces a cat that massively outscales its siblings by the endgame. The disorder is heritable, which means a Brain Dead cat you breed from produces kittens with the same level-up snowball. The INT and CHA penalty barely matters on melee bruisers, physical-damage classes, and summoners whose minions carry the load. It is the Monkey Paw's most lopsided deal in the player's favor.

Take this if: The cat is not an INT-scaling caster or a Charisma-dependent merchant-runner. For most physical builds, Brain Dead is effectively pure upside.

Quick Tier List

1. Abilities (Brain Dead) : On any non-caster, effectively a free disorder. Two level-ups plus doubled future level gains is the single best outcome the paw offers to most cats.
2. Genes (Tainted Genes) : Highest long-term ceiling if you can keep the cat alive. Unmatched for breeding-focused runs.
3. Strength (Gargantuan) : Niche but real on cats who were already stationary ranged/summoner specialists. Catastrophic on anything else.
4. Items (Sensory Overload) : The coin flip of the four. Read the rolled item carefully: a great weapon can carry a build, but four locked slots is a steep price for anything less.

Should You Accept a Deal at All?

You can always walk away. Both Leave and a failed Intelligence check end the encounter with zero consequences, and because the paw only appears four times per save, skipping an encounter you do not like simply preserves a later wish for a better cat. If none of the offered disorders fit the cat in front of you, walking away is a perfectly valid and often correct choice.

When a wish does fit (Brain Dead on a melee bruiser, Tainted Genes on a future breeder, a great item roll on a class that can lean on it), commit. The Monkey Paw's upside is real and can genuinely carry a run. Just go in knowing exactly which disorder you are signing up for, because the paw always collects.