MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – “Once Upon A Time…” By Tinsel Bros. Walkthrough

After Jack’s journey through the sewers and uncovering what has been happening with the shrews in MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, he meets a mysterious mouse named Vivian.

Just when Jack thinks he already has enough on his plate, Vivian pushes him, in her own way, to take on the case of her friend Betty and get to the bottom of what happened to her.

Note

This is part of our MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – Walkthrough Hub, so if you want more content about the game, be sure to check it out.

Reach The Main Studios Building

After you drive to Tinsel Bros., you will arrive in a small area outside the main building, and your first objective is to reach the studio building to investigate.

Follow the street northeast, and at the end, you will find a truck on fire that you can photograph as an object of interest. The fence door to your right is blocked from the other side, so you need to find another way around.

If you go to the alley just before this one, you will be able to access that fence door and unlock it as a shortcut. Now, the second fence door must also be unlocked from the other side.

There is a secret you can reach from here. Jump onto the dog house in the corner, then jump to the balcony of the building in front of you. Go to the end, and you will see an open window ahead.

Make the jump to go through the window and enter the secret area. You will find a safe with money and some ammunition here. Open the door there and head to the bar on the lower floor.

Before you exit the bar, there is a vent entrance to the south. Open it and go through to reach another secret location.

Exit the bar and defeat all the enemies around. There will be a switch you can activate to lower a platform, which you can use to cross the gap in the street.

After you cross, open the fence door to your left to create a shortcut between the two areas. The main studio building is to your right, but you will need to find a way to get inside.

Find A Way To Enter The Main Studios Building

Opposite the main building, take the stairs up, pick up the schematic from the desk in the corner, and head west toward the switch.

Activate it, and the wrecking ball will break the side wall. You can use this opening to enter the main building. You will reach the parking area, and as soon as you do, you must defeat the enemies that spawn so the gate will open.

Go through the gate, and more enemies will be waiting for you. Defeat them all, and you will find a bridge that will lead you inside the main building.

As soon as you approach it, the director will close the door and send more enemies your way. Once again, you need to defeat all enemies before the main door opens again.

Find Someone Who’ll Talk

Inside the building, enter the door on the right and follow the path. The enemies will keep spawning, so you need to defeat them all. Eventually, you will reach a set of stairs that you need to take to get to the upper floor.

Before you go up, unlock the shortcut by opening the door in front of it. Follow the path on the upper floor to reach an office room. To the west, there is a vent entrance that you can use to reach a large projector room.

Interact with the switch here to open the curtain and free all the workers from their pain. This will cause enemies to spawn, so defeat them.

Head to the exit at the far right corner and make your way to the next building, the Wardrobe. You will come across actors and actresses along the way, but they do not have much to say.

The Wardrobe hallway has multiple doors. You need to reach the last door on your right and open it to find what seems to be the director, or an actor.

Speak To Gabe Clarkle

Speak to Gabe and ask him about Betty and whether he knows anything about her disappearance.

He will direct you to one of Betty’s friends, a pyrotechnist who might know something. As it happens, she is on set today, and you can find her and speak to her directly.

Find The Pyrotechnist

In the next room, before you interact with the door, look east and use dynamite to blow up the “totally normal wall.” You will reach a secret and very dark area, so you need to use your flashlight to see.

There are multiple barrels and boxes with hidden enemies behind them on the lower floor, so it is best to shoot them and deal with the enemies from the upper floor.

After you have dealt with them, make your way to the end of the path on the lower floor and pick up the Baseball Card that is sitting on the box.

Back on the main path, open the door and make your way to the next building. You will come across a large dining room, and you need to defeat all the enemies here before you can progress.

Before you do that, enter the first bathroom to your left and check the last stall. You will find a mouse skeleton holding a newspaper.

Make your way to the next room, which is the stage area, also known as the family show set. Here, you will need to defeat all enemies and move through multiple layouts to reach the other side.

The Things We Keep – Wanda Side Job

Before you progress, there is a side quest you can complete here. Wanda asks you to investigate the family show set, and to do so, you need to find two items for her.

• The first item is a letter that you can find in the south corner of the kitchen area, on the shelf, which you will be able to pick up.

• For the second item, just before the exit door, go south at the end, look behind the radio, and you will find a necklace.

With these two items, you will be able to finish Wanda’s request when you complete your investigation in Tinsel and return to town.

Speak With The Trapped Stuntman

Now exit the family show set and keep following the straightforward path here until you reach a jungle set area. Here, a stuntman is trapped behind a “waterfall,” and you need to rescue him.

It is not a real waterfall, so he is not drowning, because it is all a studio. All you need to do is interact with the switch here, and the waterfall will disappear.

Now go to the stuntman, Rocky Ford, and speak to him. He thinks you are an actor as well, and he wants you to help him do the scene, but you can only do that after you “master an ancient technique of the tail whip.”

This unlocks a new movement ability, where you can use your tail as a grappling hook to swing or reach higher places.

Return The Idols To Their Plinths

The scene requires you to pick up two additional idols and place them back near the switch. The first one is right next to Rocky, so pick it up and use the jumping pad to reach the plinth.

After you return it to its place, interact with the same switch again to drop a grappling point that will help you navigate to the next statue location.

You will be able to use it and swing across easily. Pick up the statue and bring it back to its spot, then interact with the switch one more time.

As soon as you pull the switch, the action scene begins. A giant rock drops and follows the same path you need to take. You must use the grappling tail to escape successfully and reach the other end.

Back To Finding The Pyrotechnist

Now that the action scene is done, it is time to go back to the location of the Pyrotechnist. Exit the jungle set and move along the path. You will come across a garage to the south.

Interact with the switch inside to lower the platform, then speak to the mouse on the upper floor. It seems this is the Pyrotechnist.

Jack asks her about Betty Lynch and anything that might have been going on before what happened to her, anything unusual. The Pyrotechnist mentions a low-profile, fancy suit type guy she had been constantly meeting up with.

That is not all, she adds that all of her stuff is packed and shoved into a dressing room that you can find past the medieval set.

Locate The Dressing Rooms

Just behind the Pyrotechnist, you will find the medieval set and you need to cross it. The whole set is basically you fighting enemies and using the grappling tail to navigate from one side to another.

Nothing special or interesting to pick up here, at least during our pre-release gameplay section, so just go through it. After you reach the end, you will need to use two grappling tails to reach the locked gate room.

Before you go inside, take the Hot Pepper power-up to defeat all the enemies here. To the south, you will find a small room with money, some ammo, and a comic page pinned to the wall with an arrow.

Make your way to the upper floor and open the door to the west to unlock a shortcut. Now progress forward east, open the door here to exit the medieval set, then shoot the target above to drop the grappling point.

Use the grappling tail to spot a secret room under the main path where you will be able to find a safe. Here is the solution for it.

Now go all the way to the top and use the door to your right. You will find yourself on the upper floor of the projector room from earlier.

Here you need to use the grappling points to move from one side to another and reach the north side. The door will open to multiple enemies, and you need to fight them.

Now use this door to exit, jump down, and enter the actress dressing room. Here you need to find any clues. Simply open the drawer, and you will find a picture of Betty and the fancy man the Pyrotechnist mentioned, Milford Soyer.

Leave The Film Studio

Under the picture, you will find a door key. Pick it up in order to unlock the rear gate. Before you leave, there is one more secret we found. Open the door to the south with the heart-shaped lock.

Inside, you will find a tailpick door to your left, tailpick it. Take the stairs down and tailpick the safe below to get an extra schematic for your weapons.

With that done, head back to the rear gate and unlock it with the key you obtained. Use the Quit-o-Phone to leave this location and drive back to town.

Get Back To Wanda

The first person we want to speak with is Wanda, letting her know about our findings from the favor she asked for.

Wanda will appreciate it, and it means a lot to her that you went ahead and investigated what happened to her friend.

As your reward, you will get 150 bucks for your effort. Meanwhile, you can also speak to Stilton in the bar if you want, but it is not required.

Present Your Findings To Vivian

Now head back to your office and speak to Vivian to inform her about what you found so far. Jack will mention that she was hanging out with Soyer, and it seems the only way she got to him was through Curd.

Vivian did not know about any of this, apparently, and getting close to Soyer is very hard since he is running for mayor and probably has guards. She suggests you start with Miles Curd first and see what he knows.

Pin Your Tinsel Ave. Clues

As usual, the last step is to interact with your crime wall and pin down all the clues you have found during your time visiting Tinsel.

This time, two of them will resolve a lead about Dock’s set, but that is not something Jack knows anything about. For this, you will need Tammy’s help to ask her about liaisons.

Now that it is done, John, the bar owner, will have a favor to ask. He wants you to help him introduce the Azure Burger as a new item on the menu.

This will unlock two different investigations that you need to pursue, and you are free to do either one you find more interesting. Do not worry, in the end, you will have to do all of them in MOUSE: P.I. For Hire.

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