kill ten rats
CommonThe most generic MMO quest design: go kill a specific number of enemies, return for a reward.
Almost always a criticism of game design. Implies the quest has no story, no reason, no creativity. Used broadly to call out any repetitive kill-count objective.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | this is an 80-dollar game and the side quests are still kill ten rats. embarrassing | The game is expensive but uses the most basic, lazy quest design anyway. | reddit, 2023 |
| 02 | wow has been giving out kill ten rats quests since 2004 and somehow people are still logging in | A game has used the same design formula for 20 years and still has a playerbase. | x, 2024 |
| 03 | if your game's tutorial is a kill ten rats quest you have already lost me | The player's attention is gone if the first quest is this generic. | x, 2023 |
| 04 | the quests in this game are all fetch quests and kill ten rats. no wonder it flopped | Bad quest design contributed to the game's commercial failure. | youtube, 2023 |
Use it when
- A game gives you a quest with no context beyond 'kill X of Y enemy'.
- Criticizing game design for treating the player as a grind machine.
- Calling out any repetitive, low-effort objective in any context.
- Describing the state of MMO questing in early online games.
Do not use it when
- The game wraps the objective in meaningful story or challenge.
- You just mean the game is hard or grindy.Use “grind” instead.
Kill ten rats vs fetch quest
kill ten rats
Kill ten rats is about grinding enemy kills to hit a number.
VS
fetch-quest
Fetch quest is about retrieving items and returning them. Both are MMO filler archetypes.
Origin and context
The phrase comes from early MMO culture, often associated with EverQuest and early World of Warcraft era questing. The exact rat species varied by game but the pattern was universal enough that 'kill ten rats' became the canonical shorthand for the mechanic.
- First seen
- early-2000s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/kill-ten-ratsUpdated: 2026-08-29License: CC BY 4.0