Total Count
41 Cards
The strongest launch-window collectible sources agree on 41 Baseball Cards for the full set.
Verified Route
41 Baseball Cards
Card Shark
Collectibles / Baseball Cards
Mouse PI For Hire Baseball Card Locations Guide
Baseball Cards are more than a countable collectible set. They tie into Card Shark, feed the bar minigame achievements, and mix normal pickups with shop buys and side-job rewards. This page focuses on the strongest confirmed route facts without pretending every late-game label is cleaner than it really is.
Main Achievement
Card Shark
Collect every card and you unlock Card Shark.
Shop Rule
Recoverable, Not Free
The developer has confirmed that missed cards can later appear in the shop, but public route guides still treat side-job rewards and endgame cleanup as the danger zone.
Bar Layer
Minigame Pressure
Cards also power the bar card minigame, where Pocket Aces, S'all in the Cards, and the X1 D-Mousifier weapon reward all enter the picture.
How To Read This
Why this page favors route logic over fake precision
The current public sources agree strongly on the 41-card total, the achievement links, and many individual landmarks. Where they drift a little is in how they label some back-half pickups, when they assume a shop recovery instead of an in-level grab, and how they fold side-job rewards into the route.
So the layout below is built around the things that matter most to an actual run: which cards should be grabbed in-mission, which ones are commonly handled in the shop, and which side jobs you should not postpone casually.
If you are pairing this with a one-run cleanup plan, keep the Platinum Guide open beside it. Cards are more forgiving than figurines, but they still get messy fast when you start leaning on future recovery instead of clean route discipline.
If your real bottleneck is the table itself rather than the pickup route, open the Baseball Card Minigame Guide for the rules, reward ladder, and safer pre-Jack Squat timing.
Route Mindset
Treat shop cards as cleanup insurance, not as your main plan
The official shop-recovery rule is real, but the cleanest card routes still come from grabbing the obvious mission pickups, tracking side-job rewards, and entering the endgame with as little unfinished card business as possible.
Confirmed Route
The strongest confirmed pickup path by run segment
These are the landmarks with the best cross-source support. Where public guides differ on exact numbering, the room object and traversal beat still overlap, so that is what the checklist below emphasizes.
Early Run
The Vanishing Act to Bandel's Laboratory
- The Vanishing Act
Top-of-stairs table after the first fight
After you head upstairs from the opening combat beat, look for the card on the table before you push too far into the mission.
- The Vanishing Act
Secret room stool after the balcony and window route
Public routes agree on a second early card tucked into the secret room reached through the balcony path and window entry.
- P.I. Office Return
Bedroom drawer at the office
Once you return to the office, open the bedroom drawer rather than assuming every early card will be handled by later shop rolls.
- Gumshoe in the Opera
Stage-designer room table by the breakable wall
One of the strongest overlapping landmarks is the card in the room with the stage designer near the breakable wall.
- Gumshoe in the Opera
Bartholomew Creasley double-jump return
Treat this as a proper return after you gain double jump, not as an awkward early sequence-break attempt.
- Bandel's Laboratory
Fenced crawlspace before Robo-Betty
Before the Robo-Betty fight, crouch under the fencing and check the small hidden room for the card.
- Bandel's Laboratory
Broken platform near the elevator
The second lab card is commonly described on the upper broken platform reached before the elevator segment.
Middle Run
A Bit of a Scene to Damp Evidence
- A Bit of a Scene
Dead-end stairs after the street ambush
After the large street fight, follow the stairs into the dead-end apartment route for the next reliable card stop.
- A Bit of a Scene
Jail cell bowl after the wall breach and Jail Key
Blow open the wall, grab the Jail Key, and check the bowl inside the cell instead of rushing straight out.
- Cheeseball Sub
Locker-room clothesline after the timed tailpick
This is one of the clearest route traps in the early-middle game. Open the timed lock route and claim the locker-room card while you are already inside.
- Saltwater Cambozo
Top-left yard windowsill behind the tailpick path
One strong community overlap puts the card on a windowsill after the top-left yard tailpick route.
- Damp Evidence
Shack furnace after leaving the mines
Once you emerge from the mines, the furnace inside the shack is the landmark most guides agree on first.
- Damp Evidence
Hideout building reached by stairs and warp pipe
The follow-up card is commonly placed in the first right-side building of the hideout after the stairs and warp-pipe route.
High-Risk Pocket
Shrewd Shrews to It All Points Here, Right?
- Shrewd Shrews
Skeleton closet after the TNT door
Follow the TNT-gated path and search the skeleton closet before leaving the room cluster behind.
- Shrewd Shrews
Warp-pipe fence route table
Another well-supported landmark places a card on the table reached after the fence-side warp-pipe route.
- It All Points Here, Right?
TNT Watch It Explode window jump
Use the TNT reward route, then jump in through the broken window for one of the mission's more commonly cross-checked cards.
- It All Points Here, Right?
Vent route behind the tailpick room barrels
Public routes also converge on a vent-access card tucked behind the barrel line in the tailpick room path.
- Side Job Reward
Oh Yes... They Float
Do not treat this as optional flavor. Multiple guides agree this side job awards a Baseball Card, which is why card cleanup becomes more than a simple map-sweep by this stage.
Late Run
Bookkeeper through the deep endgame
- The Bookkeeper
Customer-service lounge side route
Launch-window route guides place one late card in the customer-service lounge path around the Bookkeeper stretch.
- Fair Enough
Desk route after the red-button bunny room
Another commonly shared late landmark is the desk card that follows the red-button bunny-room sequence.
- Glugging from the Deep
Do not start the final push with open shop business
Community routes repeatedly warn against saving too many missing cards for the very end, because the last stretch is where shop access stops feeling dependable.
- Side Job Reward
Friends in Deep Places
The strongest current public routes treat this side job as the reward source for the closing Baseball Card and the last step into Card Shark.
Shop And Rewards
What should be bought, what should be won, and what should be grabbed live
Public collectible routes agree that multiple Baseball Cards are handled as shop purchases rather than standard field pickups. The cleanest early example is the office and roadhouse card bundle that starts appearing after your first returns to the P.I. Office.
That does not make the category casual. The routes with the best success rate still separate cards into three buckets: mission pickups, shop purchases, and side-job reward cards. The reward cards are the ones most likely to punish a sloppy clean-up mindset.
The practical rule is simple: buy the obvious shop cards whenever you see them, collect the mission cards while you are naturally in the room, and do not postpone card-reward side jobs until after you are mentally done with the run.
Late-Game Reminder
A recoverable collectible can still become a bad endgame problem
Baseball Cards sit in an awkward middle ground: more forgiving than figurines, less automatic than newspapers, and tied to extra win conditions that can quietly inflate the amount of cleanup left in your run.
FAQ
Quick baseball card answers
How many Baseball Cards are in MOUSE: P.I. For Hire?
The strongest current launch-window route sources agree on 41 Baseball Cards.
Can missed cards be recovered later?
Yes. An official developer reply says missed cards can appear in the shop later, but public guides still warn against relying on that too heavily for side-job rewards or deep endgame cleanup.
Which achievement is tied to the full set?
Collecting the full 41-card set unlocks Card Shark.
Why do cards matter beyond Card Shark?
They also feed the bar minigame achievements and the win-based unlock path for the X1 D-Mousifier.
Pair These Pages
Best internal follow-ups
Use the Collectibles Hub if you want the big-picture relationship between cards, newspapers, comics, figurines, and schematics. Use the Newspapers Guide if you are trying to compare the shop-recovery rules between different collectible types. Use the Beginner's Guide if room scanning and traversal shortcuts are still costing you pickups. Keep the Platinum Guide open if you are trying to protect a single run.
Use the Baseball Card Minigame Guide when your collectible problem has turned into a cash, token, or achievement problem instead of a map-route problem.
Version Note
What this page is based on
This page was updated on April 28, 2026 using the official Steam achievement page, an official developer reply about shop recovery, and launch-window collectible route guides published or updated between April 16 and April 24, 2026.
The parts most likely to need future revision are exact late-game card numbering, the full shop-only subtotal, and any route note that depends on how side-job reward cards are surfaced in future patches or guide updates.
If future hotfixes change shop behavior, hub timing, or card-related cleanup pressure, verify the live patch state in News & Patches first, then re-check the late-run timing in the Jack Squat Cutoff Guide.