Monkey Paw

The Monkey Paw is a special deal-type event where your cat encounters a mysterious disembodied hand with raised fingers. Inspired by W.W. Jacobs' classic short story of the same name, the event tempts players with seemingly incredible offers — but every wish comes with a hidden, often devastating cost that can upend an entire run.

How It Works

The Monkey Paw appears as a multi-stage encounter during exploration. Your cat discovers a strange hand with fingers raised in the air. Choosing to examine it triggers the paw's offer: a selection of enticing deals presented in grandiose language such as "strength beyond your wildest dreams" or "learn unfathomably powerful abilities." Each deal sounds like a guaranteed win, but accepting one always comes with a concealed drawback that can cripple your cat or derail your run.

The number of raised fingers on the paw decreases with each wish granted, visually tracking how many wishes remain. The event can be encountered multiple times across a run, each time with fewer fingers still raised.

Wish Categories

The Monkey Paw offers deals across four categories, each with a distinct risk-reward profile:

• Genes — Grants the "Tainted Genes" passive, causing your cat to gain a random mutation after every battle. This is extremely valuable for breeding, as it lets you farm mutations rapidly. The catch is severe: your cat essentially dies permanently if it gets downed in combat, making this a high-risk, high-reward choice.
• Abilities — Your cat learns powerful new abilities. Generally considered one of the safest and most rewarding picks. However, the hidden cost may slash a key stat such as Intelligence, potentially leaving your cat unable to use the very abilities it just gained.
• Strength — Provides raw stat boosts. While tempting on paper, this is widely considered the weakest option because bred or found cats cap out at 7 in any given stat, limiting the long-term value of raw stat increases.
• Items — Grants powerful items to your cat. The downside is that items can break or be lost after losing battles, making this the least reliable option of the four.

Strategy

Experienced players generally recommend choosing Genes or Abilities over Strength or Items. The Genes option is particularly powerful for players focused on breeding, as the random mutations after each battle can produce exceptionally strong offspring — provided you can keep the affected cat alive. Abilities offer a more consistent benefit with manageable downside risk.

Because you can never see the hidden penalty before accepting a deal, the Monkey Paw is always a gamble. It embodies the game's core design philosophy of meaningful choices with real consequences — rewarding careful risk assessment while punishing recklessness.

Literary Reference

The event is a direct reference to the 1902 short story "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs, in which a man acquires a cursed monkey's paw that grants wishes in twisted, tragic ways. In the story, the man wishes for money and receives it — as compensation after his son is killed in a factory accident. The game faithfully adapts this concept: you get exactly what you asked for, but the cost is always something you didn't expect.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Monkey Paw event in Mewgenics?

The Monkey Paw is a multi-stage Skill Event inspired by W.W. Jacobs' classic horror story "The Monkey's Paw." Your cat encounters a mysterious disembodied hand with raised fingers. Each encounter represents a wish, and the number of raised fingers decreases with each subsequent appearance, tracking how many wishes remain. The event uses an Intelligence (INT) check for the Examine option.

How many Monkey Paw encounters are there?

There are four Monkey Paw encounters in total (monkeypaw through monkeypaw4). Each successive encounter shows one fewer raised finger, representing used wishes. The first encounter has all fingers raised, while later encounters have progressively fewer. This creates a narrative arc across multiple event encounters within and across runs.

What is the best strategy for the Monkey Paw event?

Send your highest-Intelligence cat to Examine the paw. The INT stat check determines the quality of the outcome. The Monkey Paw's wish mechanic means that each interaction has meaningful consequences that escalate with each use. If your cat's INT is low, choosing Leave avoids any negative consequences. Be cautious with later encounters (fewer fingers remaining) as the outcomes may become more extreme, fitting the classic monkey's paw theme of wishes with unintended consequences.