Mewgenics: 10 Tips and Tricks We Wish We Knew Sooner

After a good amount of time playing Mewgenics, I’ve come to realise that there is so much that this game doesn’t tell you. The creators give you the bare essentials and send you off into the great wide world, blind and clueless.

However, if I had some of the tips I’m about to share, well, let’s just say I wouldn’t have spent so much time dying in the Desert, that’s for sure. Mewgenics is a ridiculously deep game that can honestly be enjoyed for hundreds of hours, if not more. But for some, that journey will end before it even begins.

If you want to skip the initial struggle and get right to the good stuff, check out these top tips!

10 Sometimes it’s OK to do Nothing!

Is this Laziness… or Strategy?

You know that feeling: you’ve started an encounter, and the room is full of enemies. You’re in one corner, and they’re all in another. Who do you target first? Do you have enough movement? Is the turn order going to screw you over? What about mana?

Well, what if I told you, you can just do nothing! Honestly, sometimes if you send in your fighter or thief to grab a cheeky backstab, you might just end up getting surrounded by enemies and downed before any of your allies can even take their turn.

Instead, let your enemies come to you. Conserve your mana and stack it up for a particularly powerful round 2! Nothing wrong with being patient.

9 Positioning is Key

Don’t Show Your Butt to the Enemy!

Where do I even start with this one? Most folks know by now that you get boosted hits by hitting enemies from behind. But of course, this applies to you, too. After you’ve finished your turn, click on a direction to turn your cat, and stop them from getting pointlessly backstabbed.

In addition, watch out for field hazards. Water conducts electricity, wind spreads fire, ice makes units slide, etc. Sometimes it’s better to place your cat somewhere where your enemy doesn’t have a line of sight. Use the field to your advantage and try to predict your enemy's moves. Right-click them to gauge their movement and attack radius.

8 Homeless Cats for House Bosses

Sorry, Whiskers, Today isn’t your Day!

Guillotina is on the horizon, and she looks mad! You’ve just ended the day, and your dream team is ready. But suddenly, your kitties get into a fight, and one of them dies. Now your hopes of defeating the house boss are slim to none.

Well, don’t worry about it. Instead, simply grab the homeless cat at your door and throw it into the box. Of course, you’re guaranteed to lose, but your prize cats will live another day, and you get a free dead cat to feed to the weird dead guy! Win Win!

Appealing? You Flatter Me!

Getting a good amount of furniture is one of the most important things you can do in Mewgenics. Every single piece has bonuses that massively affect your cats' development and breeding.

However, did you know that the Appeal stat affects the entire house, and isn’t limited to certain rooms like the other stats? This means, once you’ve upgraded your house to have a few rooms, you can put every piece that only grants Appeal into its own room, saving up space for mega mutations and super-high stimulation in your main breeding chamber.

My Sweet Little Abominations

Speaking of mutations, you may have noticed Baby Jack selling furniture that grants mutations in his shop. Usually, these are pretty pricey and come with drawbacks, but they are so worth it.

Occasionally during the night, your cats have a chance to evolve, granting them special mutations that boost their stats and abilities. These can be bred down along with base stats, allowing you to create some absolute monsters! Just be careful not to inbreed them too much, or you’ll end up with negative mutations.

Mutations can also be granted during runs through random events or the Shimmer weather activity. They might not look like cats anymore, but I reckon it’s more about spirit than looks… right?

5 Level Up those NPCs ASAP

I’m a Hoarder at Heart

Levelling up your NPCs unlocks some ridiculously powerful rewards for your progression through Mewgenics. For example, avid breeders can use Tink to better evaluate their cats and view their hidden stats.

Butch upgrades your item storage, Frank improves your house, and Tracy can sell you super-powerful Idols later on. You might find that after getting comfortable with 3-Chapter runs, you have way too much food.

If you don’t want to waste it, simply use as much of it as possible to breed a bunch of cats that you don’t want and level up Tink and Tracy with kittens or 5+ year-old cats. More often than not, having low-level NPCs is a barrier stopping you from getting to the true late game.

4 Fight Duration is Flexible

It’s Not a Race

It’s strange: Early on in Mewgenics, you’re taught that completing fights more quickly is better, as it will net you more coins and food at the end of a fight.

However, this isn’t really the case. After normal encounters, chances are you’re not really going to earn more than a few coins, even if you complete the fight in 1 turn. In which case, it’s way better to go around the room picking up things from the ground. Simply leave 1 weak enemy alive, and kite them around.

In addition, if you have a Cleric or Druid, use the free time to heal your team back up to full. This is way more valuable than the end-of-fight rewards. So don’t worry too much. Just don’t let the Exhaustion Phase begin.

3 Look for Ability Combinations

Turns Out, Rocks Taste Pretty Good

When you’re starting off your Mewgenics adventure, it can be tempting to simply see an ability that has high damage or mana and just grab it, not really understanding the implications or your choices.

As you progress, you’ll realise that there are hundreds of powerful combinations that will make your cats ridiculously powerful. For example, if you have a tank with the ability to eat rocks, well, you can eat rocks and gain armour. Nice! However, if you can petrify your opponent, you can straight up devour them, killing them in one shot!

Or perhaps you want a Necromancer with the ability to sacrifice its health to deal damage, then regain it all with Giga Drain. Or even a butcher with Binge and HP Overflow. Add a cleric, and suddenly you’ve got an infinitely scaling monster.

It’s pretty easy to get overpowered with the right options; you’ve just got to think in advance and hope the right abilities come up.

2 Take Care of Your Equipment

My Precious!

I wish someone had told me about this before I dove into my first side quest. When you’re completing Dr. Beanie’s side quests, you’re always going to be thinking about the random debuff the item gives that negatively impacts your run.

However, what you’re probably not thinking of is the actual item itself, as in, the physical item attached to your character. Certain enemies in Mewgenics have the ability to destroy equipment that your cats are wearing.

For example, Skull Slimes in the Sewers, or Amoebas in Act 2. Attacks from these enemies will destroy the side quest items, making your entire run a complete waste of time. So, if you see these enemies, either put your quest cat in the corner, or try to take these enemies out from a distance. So long, Persuasion Device…

1 Losing Cats can be a Plus!

It’s for the Greater Good

At the beginning, losing a cat on a run can seem like a death sentence. Aren’t you now 25% less powerful? Well… not quite.

In fact, reducing your team size can be pretty amazing in certain circumstances. Every cat in the run takes a portion of the XP from fights. This means that if you have fewer cats or a cat with a Neverstone, the others will gain more XP.

So many of the amazing abilities and combos are unlocked in the later levels, yet sometimes, with 4 cats, you won’t get to these thresholds until way later, unless you’ve bought some rare candy.

I had a run where 2 of my cats died against the Crater Maker in Act 2. Many folks will tell you to know when to give up, but I say the opposite. Always go for that final run. I only had a Butcher and a Cleric, but with the abilities that I mentioned previously, I could infinitely buff and overheal the Butcher, so he ended up having over 300 health in the fight against The Man in the Moon.

Sometimes, streamlining your team and cutting off the excess fat can make it way more efficient and powerful. Sometimes less is more!