Final Fantasy IX Ragtime Mouse Quiz | answers & rewards for all quiz events
Final Fantasy IX has a range of unique side quests and activities to partake in. Most of them you have to seek out, but some of them will find you - and one such as example is the Ragtime Mouse, a unique creature that can spawn as a random encounter out in FF9's overworld zones.
The Ragtime Mouse is no regular battle. You'll know this because as soon as the battle begins there's very different battle music - less pumped up for action, and a little more fairytale. The Ragtime Mouse doesn't want to fight you, either (at least not initially) - instead, it'll pepper you with various quiz questions across the battles where you encounter it.
Answer the Ragtime Mouse quiz questions correctly and you'll earn a massive amount of Gil, plus the potential to also get the Protect Ring accessory, EXP, and the Beating the Blues achievement or trophy in the modern versions of FF9. This guide will help you to do all of that!
Ragtime Mouse Location - where to find the quizmaster in FF9
The Ragtime Mouse can appear anywhere on the world map in FF9, so long as you're in forests. Any world map forest at more or less any point in the game can be home to a Ragtime Mouse encounter - and while there are more complicated speed-running tricks to guarantee your first encounter, for regular players, all you should really worry about is making sure you wander through forests on the world map. There's sixteen questions, and getting all sixteen encounters is easy enough - it's not a massively rare encounter in the grand scheme of things.
There is a slight limit on how many times you can encounter Ragtime Mouse based on where you are in the game. First, you can encounter him up to four times in any world map jaunts between escaping Evil Forest and arriving on the Outer Continent. Second, you can then encounter him up to 10 times total between arriving on the Outer Continent and getting the Hilda Garde III airship. After obtaining that airship, all 16 encounters are available.
These numbers are cumulative - so if you only encounter him twice before hitting the Outer Continent, that's fine. None of these questions or encounters are missable or tied to specific places, so you can sort of regard this side quest with a casual attitude throughout FF9's story.
The Ragtime Mouse Trick: how to guarantee pop quiz encounters
Keeping the rules above in mind, there is a trick you can employ to ensure that you encounter the Ragtime Mouse more often. This is easier broken down simply:
- Ragtime Mouse actually runs on a different random encounter mechanic to other encounters. Normal random encounters can be avoided by only moving Zidane in tiny increments by tapping directional buttons, leading to stop-start movement that never gives encounters a chance to trigger. Ragtime Mouse pop quiz encounters aren't effected by this, however, so if you get inside a forest and repeatedly tapping the directional buttons to move around, you can farm the pop quiz encounters without triggering normal random battle encounters.
- You can achieve the same effect by disabling random encounters with the built-in cheats on modern versions of FF9: again, Ragtime Mouse doesn't count as a 'normal' battle.
- If you're farming encounters in this way, keep in mind that Ragtime Mouse encounters can only appear 20 seconds after the most recent battle, which includes pop quizzes. However, you can simply stand still for 20 seconds and then resume the process to get around this rule.
Final Fantasy IX Ragtime Mouse Quiz Events - question & answers list
Once you do encounter the Ragtime Mouse in forests, you'll be asked sixteen questions, each of which can give you a chance of gaining a reward. The questions are simple pop quiz ones about the world of FF9, but to get all of the answers you will have to have paid a lot of attention to many background details throughout the world. The questions are simple True [O] or False [X], and you input your answer by attacking the corresponding symbol O for True, X for False. Any attempt to beat Ragtime Mouse, be that through inflicting 9,999 damage, summoning Odin, or using Lvl-5 Death, will fail. The only way to beat it is to answer questions crorectly!
Once a question has been asked, you have 20 seconds to answer. Failing to answer in time is a failure - but you can pause the game! Below, we have all questions & answers, plus explanations of how you can learn that fact organically during the game.
- The 15th Lindblum War started in 1600.
- False [X]
- The 15th war began in 1601, as shown on the statue of the three Pluto Knights in Alexandria Square.
- Chocobo Forest is located between Lindblum and South Gate.
- True [O]
- Yep. Hang a right at the Dragon's Gate and keep going straight for a bit to find this forest sitting right in front of South Gate.
- "I Want To Be Your Canary" was written by Lord Afon.
- False [X]
- No, it was written by Lord Avon.
- The Theater Ship Prima Vista was built in Artania Shipyards.
- False [X]
- It was actually built in Zebolt Dockyards, in Lindblum. More information on the Prima Vista can be found in the very first room in FF9, where Zidane lights his candle.
- Fossil Roo is a tunnel that connects Treno and Alexandria.
- False [X]
- No. The tunnel that connects these two is in fact Gargan Roo.
- Lindblum's air cabs operate around the clock.
- True [O]
- Yes - you can learn this by reading a sign located in the Air Cab Station.
- Berkmea cable cars have been running for eight years.
- True [O]
- Yes. A man at summit station will tell you all about this.
- Treno's cafe, Card Carta, is members only.
- True [O]
- You can find this out, naturally, in Treno.
- Lindblum Castle is larger than Alexandria Castle.
- True [O]
- Considerably. Alexandria is a castle town, while Lindblum is a bastide.
- Some Mus are friendly and don't attack.
- True [O]
- There is a friendly Mu Monster in FF9, yes.
- Theater Ship Prima Vista uses Mist as its source of energy.
- True [O]
- This fact is clear throughout the game's explanation of Mist Energy, and multiple lines of dialogue about the Prima Vista.
- Conde Petie is a village of Goblins.
- False [X]
- Watch your language! Conde Petie is in fact home to Dwarves.
- Only one desert exists in the entire world.
- False [X]
- Your world map adventures should make this clear. There's the Vube Desert in Cleyra, and the Kierra Desert, which is home to the Desert Palace.
- Bobo bird is a bird that brings you fortune.
- False [X]
- No - the bird is actually said to bring you happiness.
- Prima Vista means love at first sight.
- False [X]
- Incorrect - it actually means "first sight", approrpiately, given it's one of the first things you see in FF9.
- You can beat me, Ragtime Mouse.
- True [O]
- After answering all other questions, answer this to trigger a battle.
Ragtime Mouse Rewards - what you get for getting all questions correct
Answer every question right, and you'll get a range of rewards. First of all, there's the cash-money reward that you get for getting each question right, which scales the more questions you're asked by Ragtime Mouse:
- Question 1, 2, & 3: 1000 gil each
- Question 4 & 5: 2000 gil each
- Question 6 & 7: 3000 gil each
- Question 8 & 9: 4000 gil Each
- Question 10 & 11: 5000 gil each
- Question 12 & 13: 6000 gil each
- Question 14 & 15: 7000 gil each
- Question 16: 10,000 gil
Beyond that, your final encounter with Ragtime Mouse will net you a unique reward. By completing the quest and seeing every question, you'll get the Protect Ring, a useful accessory that reduces all elemental damage by 50%, some solid stat boosts, and some very handy abilities. If you also answered all questions correctly along the way, you'll also get an extra 70,000 gil and 5963 EXP for your troubles. Players of the newer versions of FF9 can also get the Beating the Blues achievement/trophy for answering all questions correctly.
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