Who's our friendly rodent pal who lives in Reactor 3? C-A-N-C-E-R M-O-U-S-E!
Whose irradiated fur is slowly killing me? C-A-N-C-E-R M-O-U-S-E!
Cancer Mouuuuse~
Cancerous Rodent is a secret "boss" enemy that appears in the mission [ 1-2: THE BURNING WORLD ]. It can be accessed by breaking a cracked wall in the lava room that contains a Soul Orb. Afterward, another cracked wall must be broken to access the Cancerous Rodent's arena. Cancerous Rodent is a reference to popular boomer shooter YouTuber Civvie11, who has a reoccurring character named Cancer Mouse that claims to be a children's entertainer but is actually an alt-right political pundit.
Appearance/Details
Cancerous Rodent is a collection of roughly 15 polygons vaguely arranged in the shape of a mouse. It is found at the end of a tunnel that is modelled after what is shown in the Civvie's Dungeon intro with the arena taking place in Civvie's Dungeon Cell. It slowly moves towards V1. It is the weakest enemy in the game, with the lowest health and no attacks. Despite the Rodent being incredibly weak, it is a herald of what's to come, as killing it and moving back out of the Dungeon will pit you against the Very Cancerous Rodent, a boss that poses some amount of a threat to V1.
Rending Apart
While the Cancerous Rodent is a very intimidating foe, it can easily be dispatched with a well placed hitscan attack. Just be sure not to use coins. Ground slamming also works, though, it can take a couple tries. Using the Attractor Nailgun is recommended, but bringing the Cancerous Rodent to the trap will take some time.
You don't have to worry about the Cancerous Rodent's attacks, because V1 is immune to cancer via being a machine. However, the Cancerous Rodent, similarly to the Very Cancerous Rodent, induces a "radiation static" effect the closer one approaches (true to its appearance). This lack of visibility can be very irritating if you're fighting the Very Cancerous Rodent, but against the regular Cancerous Rodent, it's nothing to write home about since it's so weak as is.
Trivia
- Cancer Mouse was first featured in Civvie11's video titled FROM DUSK TILL DAWN - FEARFUL SYMMETRY and was used as a break from how dumb the game was.
- Cancerous Rodent, Very Cancerous Rodent and Mysterious Druid Knight (& Owl) share a unique battle track that is not present in any current OST release.
- The Cancerous Rodent completely ignores collision and has no gravity, clipping through all walls, stairs, and slopes in its endless pursuit of V1. If spawned and allowed to walk off a ledge, it will simply ignore gravity and continue its pursuit towards the player.
- The Cancerous Rodent is the smallest "entity" in the game, while the Drone is the smallest enemy.
- The Cancerous Rodent is immune to certain attacks.
- The Cancerous Rodent is one of two enemies that doesn't get targeted by Coins from the Marksman Revolver. The other is the Idol.
- The Cancerous Rodent is immune to all explosions.
- Rockets will still act like they've hit something and unleash a damaging explosion.
- The Cancerous Rodent cannot be grappled with the Whiplash.
- The Cancerous Rodent does not take damage from being slammed.
- The Cancerous Rodent doesn't burn in the Gold dust in Greed.
- The Cancerous Rodent cannot be bit by KITR.
- The Cancerous Rodent cannot be killed by soap if thrown via Whiplash.
- Using the soap normally, however, does kill The Cancerous Rodent.
- If you are patient enough, it is possible to lead the Cancerous Rodent into the lava room, where the Rodent will walk into the lava of its own volition and die. Of course, if you’re a Ultrakill player, it is very unlikely you are patient in the first place.
- Killing the Cancerous Rodent outside of its arena causes the Very Cancerous Rodent to spawn. The player must make contact with a spawn trigger at the entrance to the Cancerous Rodent's arena to trigger the spawn.
- Killing the Cancerous Rodent with the "Kill All Enemies" Cheat will cause it to "ragdoll" instead of its usual death animation of combusting into a disproportionately large cloud of blood. This "ragdoll" is very weak, and is destroyed by even the rocket's nondamaging explosion.
- The Cancerous Rodent can be protected by Idols but since it ignores collision, most if not all attacks will push it into the ground.
- The rodent, Idols, Streetcleaners, and Stalkers are currently the only four enemies in the game to not have parriable attacks.
- To help fight against cancer in more than just this video game, you can donate to help childhood cancer research at https://www.stbaldricks.org/ways-to-give or you can donate to St. Jude's childrens hospital to help families fight childhood cancer here.
