Dr. Hofnarr

Madness Combat 9.5
Tricky in Madness Combat 9
Tricky in Madness Combat 9.5

Tricky appears in MC9.5 as a secondary antagonist, and notably lacks the green zombie skintone he usually has (although he still possesses his trademark red clown hair and visible teeth). He first appears at the cliffside that Hank starts out the episode on, and attacks Hank with a Nightstick, although the clown's arch-nemesis makes short work of him with a Desert Eagle. He then reappears behind a concrete half-barrier, muttering that his situation is "So Familiar..." in a state of distraction that gives him no chance to even attack as Hank guns him down yet again, although before Hank can finish him, Tricky is abducted by a bolt of red lightning.

Tricky later appears for 'Antipathy' Hank and summons a red skeletal version of himself in addition to his regular form after being attacked by Hank. Eventually a Retainer spots Hank and attempts to disable him, but Tricky joins the fight at the last minute and manages to kill the Retainer by prompting the message 'bindings compromised'. Both forms are later seen in battle with 2 separate Hanks with both Hanks coming out on top.

Madness Combat 10: Abrogation
The tenth installment of Madness Combat revolves entirely around the fight between Mag Hank, Sanford and the Auditor. At first, Tricky's corpse seems forgotten by everyone. The fight between the three mentioned individuals rages on and on, ultimately moving to the top of a large building that had been summoned by the villain. The Auditor, slowly being overpowered by Hank, begins to absorb more and more random dead bodies from all over the place, allowing him to grow in size and strength. However, when he absorbs the final wave of corpses, one of them just so happens to be the one of Tricky. This would mark the fatal and final mistake of the Auditor.

Tricky returns, MC10
Tricky returns, MC10

When Tricky's corpse is absorbed by the Auditor, the latter's body suddenly starts to go out of control

Madness Combat 11: Expurgation
Tricky at the end of MC11.
Tricky at the end of MC11.

Tricky appears in Madness Combat 11 as the main antagonist. After Hank and Sanford fight off a pack of skeletons erupting from the ground, the clown himself appears as another skeleton wearing Jesus' halo, taunting the duo with his proclamation of "CANNOT KILL CLOWN". He is then swallowed together with the halo by his apparent next body, a giant skeletal form of his demon-version from Madness Antipathy and Consternation. The halo reappears on top of his head before he starts screaming Hank's name, Tricky then proceeds to duel his arch-nemesis one-on-one as more skeletons emerge and overpower Sanford. As Sanford is dragged into another dimension, similar to the one seen in CHASE.fla, Tricky rips Hank's mutated arm clean off and slams him into the ground to join Sanford.

The skeletal Tricky proves to be a nuisance to Sanford.
The skeletal Tricky proves to be a nuisance to Sanford.

Upon reaching another world, Tricky toys with his nemeses, focusing especially on Sanford: he makes him fight groups of agents before sending more skeletal minions after him and finally battling him by himself. However, as he fires on Sanford with an M60 machine gun, Hank bursts through the ground behind him. Empowered by what is highly suggested as the Auditor with telekinesis and a new metal arm to fight Tricky, Hank is able to disarm him and smash an island on top of him. However, try as they might none of the protagonists are able to wrestle the halo away, and the clown manages to knock them both to an island connected the an eerie pillar of light. Continuing to play with the pair as they fight back to the real world, Tricky turns the world on its side, attempts to crush them by pushing an island on top of them and sends another horde of minions after them, including a skeletonized mag agent. Hank and Sanford, however, overcome every obstacle, the former summoning an assault rifle and a glowing drag

Appearance
Tricky's appearance represents a clown. He is a Zed, from his death in Madness Combat 3. From the Improbability Drive, he is constantly shaking. He has 2 red, horn-shaped hairs on the sides of his head. He wears a stone face slab with the eye holes glowing red. On the Tricky's jaw, the skin is always torn with red jaws underneath, implying he wears a green skin on top of his muscles.

In Madness Combat, Tricky has the same color torso as an average grunt, sometimes turning to reveal his green skin underneath, implying he is wearing a gray piece of clothing, however in MADNESS: Project Nexus he wears his torn lab coat. It has the name tag Hofnarr on it. His underpants are also showing, with a heart shaped pattern on it. There is blood splattered on the coat.

Personality
Tricky is Hofnarr's current being. With the Dissonance energy and Improbability Drive set in his mind, it has caused him to go somewhat insane. He always sees everything as a simple game, and has a violent mindset, reflecting off his former self.

His sanity is one thing, but he still retains some of his intelligence. He is aware that he is insane, and still knows about stuff like the Divergence Engine and the two soda cans theory.

Story Mode
In their search for Dr. Hofnarr within the Commercial Sector in the stage Sleeper Labs, Hank and Dr. Christoff discover what has become of Christoff's old friend: he is now the zombiefied monster clown, Tricky. Initially Tricky has no intention of aiding Hank or Christoff in anything, and forces them into a blood sport for his own amusement, filled with fire and laser beam traps, trapdoors and waves of Asylum Patients and Harmacists. During the last wave of the insane arena, some Nexus Core Drones start descending onto the arena, pestering Tricky and attacking Hank and Christoff. Eventually Tricky tries to finish off his "playthings" with an inescapable laser deathtrap, but he is interrupted by Agents from the Nexus Core. Enraged that someone would dare steal his kills, Tricky kills the interlopers. Afterward he reluctantly agrees to show Hank and Christoff a secret passage into the Science Tower.

Tricky reappears at the end of the stage The Last Leg, confronting Sanford and Deimos after the duo's fight against the Ghoul in the monolift. He briefly attacks them but then realizes that neither of them are members of the Nexus Core and proceeds to warn the duo about the consequences of ending Project Nexus. After Deimos asks him how to prevent the world from ending, Tricky tells them to figure it out before disappearing in an explosion of confetti.

He is later mentioned by Sanford when interacting with the Science Tower's tower viewer binoculars in the hub. Sanford notes how Tricky is slaughtering everyone indiscriminately on the city while all the factions fight each other on the streets.

Tricky makes his last appearance in the end credits scene, where he reappears in an explosion of confetti on a highway barrier and dances on it with his stop sign, while Nexus units occasionally run past him.

Tricky, confirmed to be Dr. Hofnarr, appears in Story Mode of MADNESS: Project Nexus on multiple occasions.
Arena mode:
Dr Hofnarr is seen in Club Advent doing his same dance from the end of the game

Pre-Fall:
Dr Hofnarr was Head of the Nexus Core's Epoch branch with an obsession with Slaughter Time and worked on inventions such as the Divergence Engine, Portable Improbably Drive and helped discover Improbability and dissonance energy. He tried to hide some of these discoveries from The Director although they're eventually discovered which leads to a distrust especially once Dr Christoff starts discussing their scheme until he eventually is cut off from MERC by guards. After a lot of dissonance exposure his body occasionally glitches uncontrollably until pure dissonance is injected straight into his abdomen. After a meeting with the director carrying many papers which he drops and leaves on the floor. Once Christoff gets fired he shows up in his floor 55 office and says their plan needs to be started and they agree to meet in the Commercial district outside his secret door in Anger Wear where he lets Jeb into the building with his keycard after expressing how he's going to miss the city and asking if there's another way than unleashing the Zeds. The next time the two meet after MPN Classic is when the city is falling apart and they talk in an alley way that he comes down to in a jetpack and is starting to regret what he did and is left incharge of the city with sheriff after saying he'll "Try to keep it together"

In his lab you can see blood on the floor presumably from just after the fall when he eventually lost his mind and started painting stuff like "IT'S OVER" and "RESULTS" onto the floor with blood

Dr. Hofnarr is the original identity of Tricky and a character who only appears as the deuteragonist in Episode 1.5 of Madness: Project Nexus (Classic), Seen in levels [1.5-B] and [1.5-C]. Hofnarr was an eccentric scientist of Project Nexus 30 years ago who had a higher level access than that of Dr. Christoff and other scientists, as seen by his green clip tag.

In the Story Mode, Christoff comes to Hofnarr asking him as an old friend to help him bring down Project Nexus. Shortly, a group of armed agents enters and Hofnarr realizes that there is no other option. Dr. Hofnarr helps Christoff through level [1.5-B], killing foes and opening doors and panels that are restricted to higher-level access. His involvement in the following level is limited to granting Christoff access to the main tower of the Nexus.

Tricky in Madness: Project Nexus (Classic)
Tricky in Madness: Project Nexus (Classic)

Tricky's zombie form also appears as a mercenary that can be hired in Arena mode at level 20. He doesn't have his mask and is the only character in-game that was supposed to randomly twitch. Although his trademark mask, the "Iron Slab," can be purchased in the Arena Mode, it cannot be equipped to Tricky.