Well…I was hoping to have this out in advance of the console release of Mewgenics, but time got away from me. Either way, I believe there will be a deluge of new players trying Mewgenics for the first time over the next several weeks, and figured it might be pertinent to share my experiences so that you can avoid all of the pitfalls that I got stuck in.
As such, here are 10 things I wish I knew before starting Mewgenics:
Grab Butch’s Meta-Progression Upgrades First
Full stop: Butch’s meta-progression upgrades are among the most useful in the game. All he does is increase the amount of equipment that you can store between runs, but this is so much more useful than the other available upgrades.
To drill down into exactly why I think that, consider what you do, and do not have control of when you start each run in Mewgenics. You can choose which cats you use, what classes they are, and what equipment they’re using. You can’t control what passives, or active abilities they’re randomly assigned based on their class selection. As such, equipment is the 1 way that you can meaningfully improve your cats before you start a run, especially if you have equipment that synergizes strongly with the abilities, or passives that they’ve been assigned.
As a direct result of this, having a large storage locker for items is very powerful. It’ll let you accumulate and hoard more items, which will give you more options for teching out your cats before you begin a run.
For this reason, I strongly recommend pursuing Butch’s meta-progression upgrades above everyone else’s upgrades.
Also, as a bit of a bonus tip: you can also unlock Tink’s upgrades in parallel to Butch’s upgrades. Tink requires kittens, so you can basically dispose of any kittens that you don’t like the look of, and slowly accumulate progress toward Tink’s upgrades, while you send all of your cats that have completed runs towards Butch.
Speed is the Most Important Stat
There’s a bit of a joke in the Fire Emblem community about how a unit’s viability is entirely linked to their movement stat. The idea is that a unit with higher movement has more options for how they approach combat each turn. Ergo, lots of movement is good, especially since that’s a (largely) static stat.
The same principle holds true in Mewgenics, which is why I believe Speed is so important. Every 2 points above 5 Speed grants an additional movement, and having more movement gives you more options for attacking, or evasive manoeuvring each turn. As such, the higher your cat’s Speed stat, the better off they’re going to be in combat.
Though, Speed doesn’t just increase a cat’s movement: it also determines when they can act each turn. Yes – that’s right. Having high speed also means that you’ll get to move, and attack before your opponent does. This means that you can potentially kill several enemies before they ever have a chance to act. I don’t feel like I need to elaborate further on why that’s good.
The bottom line: Speed isn’t a stat you should skimp on. You can usually get away with a lower value in most other categories, but Speed above and beyond 5 will make your runs so much easier.
You Get 1 Free Retry Every Run
I’ll fully admit that I needed to be told about this from a friend of mine who is a lot more familiar with McMillen’s other work.
Basically, you can Save and Quit to the Main Menu at any point while you’re mid-combat, and this will restart the fight you’re presently engaged with back to the first turn. This will give you an opportunity to try an alternative strategy – one that will hopefully see you cinch out the win.
However, you’re not able to retry fights indefinitely. The second restart will permanently cripple one of your cats with Déjà Vu, which gives them a random chance to not act. If you reset a third time then all of your cats will have Déjà Vu, and a fourth will forfeit all of your cats to be AI controlled.
That said, the first reset is always free, so I’d highly recommend leveraging your singular reset if it’ll help you to clear a difficult fight that you’re otherwise struggling with.
Also, I feel like it’s important to mention that resets do not change your chances of landing critical hits (or other chance based effects). For example, if you play your first turn exactly the same across both attempts then the outcome of every action will be the same. You can’t use your retry for better luck – you need to try a different approach.
Kill the Birds (Especially in Act 1)
You should always try to kill the bird enemies that randomly spawn into combat. Upon defeat, they reward an item, and they also grant All-Stats Up to whichever cat lands the killing blow. The former is great for giving you additional items to win your current, and future runs with, while the latter provides a powerful buff that’ll help with your current combat encounter.
Taking the Hard Route is Almost Always Worth it
This one requires a bit of an explanation…
So, when you take the hard route after the mid-boss, you need to do 2 combats to reach the boss instead of just 1. These combats will be tougher, but you’ll receive an extra level-up because you’ve completed an additional combat before reaching the boss.
That 1 additional level might not sound like much, but it means you’ll be walking into the Chapter 1 boss with 2 Cats that are level 3, as opposed to only having 1. By the time you reach the Chapter 2 boss, this bonus compounds such that 2 of your cats will be at level 5. Keep in mind, level 5 is where you get upgraded versions of your abilities. Having half of your cats at this milestone before you face the likes of Chubs ‘n’ Nubs, or Johnny can make a huge difference.
It’ll also (likely) help you to snowball through the Chapter 3 bosses with such ease that Chapters 1 and 2 will feel more difficult by comparison.
The bottom line is that all of the additional levels that you’ll earn throughout your run by taking the hard routes will almost always pay for themselves thanks to how much stronger your squad of cats will be at each major milestone in a run.
Plus, the hard routes also offer additional furniture, and gold which can be useful for improving your base at a much faster pace.
Survival is More Important Than Winning
While it can be fun to push your luck with Roguelikes, I wouldn’t necessarily advise doing so in Mewgenics. When you lose a run in Mewgenics you don’t just lose all of the items that you collected throughout the run: you also lose your cats. Cats, especially cats that have completed a run, are valuable resources for breeding new kittens and for unlocking meta-progression upgrades. As such, it’s always better to return home with your cats when you’re struggling. Your kitties are simply more valuable when they’re still alive.
Furthermore, as I’ve already mentioned, you probably want to horde a vast collection of different items. When you lose a run, you lose all of the different equipment that you’ve collected. This means that you’ll have fewer items to utilize during your next run, which will make future runs harder to complete.
Speaking of stockpiling…
Replay Act 1 to Stockpile Useful Equipment
Act 1 is by far the easiest of Mewgenics’ 3 Acts. As such, it makes the most sense to use Act 1 as a place to resupply after a particular devastating loss. The Alley (Chapter 1 of Act 1) is pretty well the perfect place to stock up on new items, so players can quickly regain their footing.
Also, don’t forget to kill those birds when you’re trying to restock! They provide a lot of useful equipment, and they’ll help with the process of quickly filling your storage up with useful items.
Breeding Great Cats Isn’t That Important
You do not need to worry about breeding your cats if you’re still in Act 1.
Hell, you don’t need to worry about it in Act 2 either. Just let whatever’s going to happen naturally happen. Personally, I kept 2 rooms filled with a rotating selection of 6 to 12 cats a piece, and grabbed whichever kittens looked the best for all of my runs. I wasn’t optimizing for stats, or specific mutations. I just took whatever I got, and cleared Acts 1, 2, and most of Act 3 without any major setbacks.
That said, Act 3 is when I started to pay a little more attention to breeding. By that point, I had several strong mutations that I wanted to propagate throughout my colony of cats. I also had 4 rooms in my house, which made it far easier to isolate, and target specific cats for breeding. Prior to this point, I basically didn’t have the space to meaningfully target specific traits, so there was no point in even trying to control what I was getting.
With that in mind: no, you do not need to start breeding super cats to clear Act 1. And trying to do so will make Mewgenics incredibly tedious
Break Cacti in Act 2 Chapter 1 For Water
There’s no getting around this: the Heat Wave debuff is oppressive. It acts as a near constant source of pressure for players who’re travelling through the Desert, and reduces all incoming healing. Unfortunately, this means that your cats won’t be passively healed after every encounter, which can lead to a negative feedback loop that eventually ruins your run.
Thankfully, there is a built-in counter to Heat Wave: the Wet status. Moreover, there is a reliable way to inflict Wet onto your cats by destroying cacti throughout the Desert. All of the Cacti that appear as foreground objects can be destroyed, and they’ll leave behind a puddle of water. You can then walk your cats through this puddle to apply Wet, which will negate the healing debuff from Heat Wave. This’ll cause your cats to receive the full benefits from any healing abilities, as well as the passive heal that normally follows each fight.
It’s also worth noting that all Water elemental abilities, and items will also apply the Wet Status. However, you can’t always guarantee that you’ll have Water abilities/items before you start a run in Act 2. Ergo, rely on the local floral to help keep your cats topped off as you trek through the oppressive heat of the Desert.
Go to The Crater if You Want More Mutations
This one is fairly self explanatory: The Crater is the best place to gain additional Mutations.
Once you reach the half-way point in the Crater, you’ll be asked to choose 1 of 3 different weather conditions that’ll affect the remainder of the combat encounters. One of these available options is called The Shimmer, and it’ll replace 1 limb on each of your cats randomly at the start of battle with a Mutation. This is the fastest, and easiest way to obtain Mutations, which you can then breed down to your kittens for future runs.
Some of the mutations are really good too. Personally, I’ve found stuff like jet engine tails that let my cats to jump instead of walk, spider legs that give a whopping +2 Speed, and this horrible horse face (featured below) that adds +1 Bruise onto your basic attack.
That’s just scratching the surface though: there are so many amazing Mutations available, and The Shimmer is a very easy way to discover the majority of them.
Bonus Tip: This contains a spoiler for Act 3. Read at your own discretion.
Don’t Bring Multiple Magic Attackers Into The Future
There are multiple enemies in The Future that nullify magic damage. As such, classes like Mage and Psychic struggle to contribute anything meaningful to fights. As a direct result of this, you’ll want to avoid bringing more than 1 magic attacker with you on runs where you plan to tackle The Future.
I didn’t know this the first time I went to The Future, and had a squad with both a Mage, and a Psychic. I still muddled my way through, but I ostensibly had 2 cats to clear all of the fights with which was awful.
If you want to save yourself a headache, avoid running multiple magic attackers on runs where you plan to tackle The Future. Alternatively, ensure that magical cats have either a ranged, or melee ability (via breeding) so that they can continue contributing in fights. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with cats that can’t deal any damage to the overwhelming majority of enemies.
And that’ll do it. Those are 10 (and a bonus 11th) things I wish I knew before I started playing Mewgenics. It can be a very difficult game, but there are a lot of ways for players to fight back against that difficulty. Hopefully some of what I’ve covered here will help you to do just that, so that you can have as much fun with Mewgenics as I’ve had across these last several months.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to answer them as best as I can. Otherwise, best of luck out there.
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Frostilyte Writes 