Mewgenics is a dense, difficult game. With so many mechanics and so much content, it can be tough to know to get your footing. These best Mewgenics tips will help start your stay in Boon County off on the right foot, and become the coolest cat on the block!
Don’t miss these other helpful guides to get started, too!
Essential Mewgenics Tips
Below are a few of our best beginner tips! You can also jump beyond the beginner tips to:
Read First, Act Later
Mewgenics is very intentional with the way it words abilities. For instance, pay close attention to attacks’ descriptions and whether they say it targets “enemies” or “units.” If you choose an AoE attack that targets all units, it will also hit allies! If you take abilities, make sure you pay close attention to your positioning to avoid unnecessary friendly fire.
In addition, during a battle, hover over each enemy to read what they do before you act. This will give you tips on how to proceed. This ranges from the mundane (does this unit attack from range, or close-up?) to the absolutely vital (oh wow, this unit will instantly kill anything that’s adjacent).
Use Tactical View Often
Activated by pressing the middle mouse button or triangle/Y on your controller to get a clear view of the battlefield! In this view, obstacles are plain gray blocks, your cats are green cat heads, and the enemies are red skulls. It can be tough to see everything on the battlefield with the fixed perspective, so use this view to get a sense of the battle!
Aim for the Rear
That’s right, every game is a little bit soulslike, and Mewgenics is no different. If you hit enemies from behind, you’ll deal 25% extra damage. Some classes will give even further bonuses for doing this, but it’s always a good idea to do it if you can!
Attack Based on Turn Order
When you’re prioritizing targets, take a look at the top right of the screen. This will show you the order of operations during battle, and you can hover over enemies with the cursor to highlight which enemy it is on the battlefield. If you can eliminate an enemy before their upcoming turn, do it! Even if you feel there’s a bigger threat that you can wear down, it will pay dividends to have less enemies acting.
Choose Classes With Survival in Mind
As you progress in Mewgenics, the biggest challenge will be making it to the end of an adventure. Battling takes a toll on your cats, so being able to have minimal injuries will help keep your cats strong and healthy. In particular, the Tank and Cleric classes early in the game will help you absorb attacks and keep your units’ health topped off, respectively. Defense wins championships, after all!
Search the Battlefield Thoroughly
In your battles, you’ll undoubtedly be focused on the enemies and allies. But, there’s something else you should be watching for: resources. As you hover over tiles with your cursor, you’ll get a window showing you details of what’s on the tile. In particular, watch out for money, food (restores health), and catnip (restores mana). These resources can give you an edge not just in the fight, but in your full journey to come.
Use the Neverstones
If a cat dies, you may come across a new stray on your path that will provide a Neverstone to you. While this may seem like a bad item, it’s actually a great tool! When you complete a battle, a random cat will level up, prioritizing lower level cats. Because of this, it will behoove you to put the Neverstone on the stray you get to focus your level ups on the cats you started with. This way, your strong cats keep getting stronger, and the new guy can just kinda hang out.
Take Your Time
This is a piece of advice that works twofold in Mewgenics. First, while you’re mid-battle, really walk through the butterfly effects of your decisions. Will this knockback lead to my teammate getting hurt? Does moving to this position put me in harm’s way? Especially as you progress the game and unlock increasingly complex classes, every decision will have ripple effects. It’s important to think more than one move ahead with each turn you take.
This advice also goes for the meta progression of quests. As you get further in the game, you’ll unlock quest items for both main quests and side quests, which require you to go to certain locations while completing a challenge or fulfilling a requirement. You may even get some that let you do multiple of these challenges at once, but we highly recommend doing one quest at a time. Even challenges that seem simple can become daunting when stacked with a second one. More importantly, side quest items can be lost forever, so a mistake on one of these runs can be fatal! Doing one at a time is both safer and easier.
Even More Mewgenics Tips
Looking for even more? Jump to:
Battle Preparation Tips
The Size of Your Squad
Before you even start a run, you must pick out the crew you want to adventure with. Normally, you would journey with a squad of four cats, but you can optionally pick three instead. Why would you do this? Well, a smaller squad means your cats will level up faster. This is something to keep in mind if you are struggling with specific bosses down the road, but for the most part you will want to stick with the standard four cat crew and keep the three cat option in your back pocket.
Choosing Your Collars
In Mewgenics, equipping a collar is the equivalent of choosing the class of your cat. Red being your fighter, blue being your mage, brown being your tank, white being your cleric etc. Every collar increases and decreases certain stats. Your goal with a collar is to pick one that is complimentary to what the cat already has inherently. For example: If your cat has ranged abilities and high dexterity, you should go with the green ranged collar.
I personally found the most success in my runs when I had a competent Tank and Cleric on my team, but it’s a good idea to experiment with team compositions. As you continue the game you will unlock more collars to equip your cat with.
Going Collarless
You don’t actually have to choose a collar if you don’t want to. Think of going “collarless” as the “wild card” option that can give you a more unique cat. It’s riskier as the passive abilities you can obtain are more up in the air. If you already have the base stats of your cat to your liking, and feel like taking a bit of a risk, consider giving it a go.
Outfit Your Cat Carefully
Outfitting your cats with the right items can make or break a run. Your goal when equipping items should be to fix weaknesses a cat may have. For example: if you see that a cat has low HP, maybe give them an item that will act as armor.
You should also look for combos while equipping items to your cat. Let’s say you have a tank that specializes in knocking back enemies with their “Chain Knockback” or “Home Run” passive abilities. You can outfit that tank with a Rubber Fist weapon that gives an extra melee attack with knockback and a chance to confuse enemies so they are less likely to successfully retaliate. Building cats that can combo their passive abilities, spells, and items is the heart of Mewgenics, and creativity plays a crucial role in that process.
Watch Out For Weather Effects
Many items in Mewgenics can have detrimental effects under certain conditions. For example, a metal hat will conduct electricity, making it a bad idea to equip it to a cat during a thunderstorm. Others might be destroyed by water, making them a waste to equip while it’s raining. You can see the current weather on the upper right side of the map screen, and you can even preview what it will be before a run back at home base.
Battle Tips
Keep An Eye on Turn Order
Once you enter a battle, you will see the turn order on the upper right side of the screen. Turn order is based off of the speed stat, which also affects movement in general. If you select someone on the turn order, you will see them highlighted on the battle screen. At the start of a round you should ask yourself “who is going to move first? Who should you prioritize?” Keep in mind, some enemies have multiple turns per round. It’s easy to be caught off guard if you don’t pay attention.
Use Your Intel
If you select an enemy on the field, you will be able to see how far they can move on their next turn, what their attack range is, and a blurb about what special abilities they may have. These are important things to keep in mind. For example: if someone has a dash attack that reaches the end of the map, then maybe you shouldn’t set your entire party in front of them. Also, some enemies will have special counter effects that you should avoid triggering if you can help it.
Use Tactical View Often
You can enter a tactical view by pressing the middle mouse button. If you prefer using a gamepad, you can press Y or Triangle to access it. Tactical view lets you plainly see where enemies and hazards are on the map. The perspective during combat is static, unlike other tactics games in which you can move your camera around. With a static camera and enemies like maggots and flies that are hard to see, it’s pretty common to have a small enemy sneak up to you without your notice. If you use Tactical View, those hard to see enemies will be highlighted with a red skull. It becomes especially useful near the end of a battle when you are just mopping up the leftovers.
Aim For The Back
Like Dark Souls before it, Mewgenics rewards players who backstab enemies. Specifically, your cat will inflict 25% extra damage if they hit an enemy facing away from them. Some collars make this task easier than others, for example the thief collar gives a cat extra movement speed and the potential for abilities to turn enemies around.
Mana Recharge Rate
It’s important to keep in mind how much mana each cat will recharge after each round, which is based on their intelligence stat. There may be a special ability that a cat can cast every turn depending on the mana cost versus the recharge rate. For example, this fighter can attack an enemy in melee range and use the 4-mana cost “butt scoot” to not only move away from the enemy, but also leave a maggot familiar behind to act as a teammate and a shield. Since that fighter regains 4 mana every turn, he can do it every turn.
Cast Spells Multiple Times
You may find yourself with a cat that has a bit of a mana surplus. If that happens, you should remember that most spells in the game can be cast as many times as your mana will allow. For example, thorns is a defensive effect that reflects damage back to your attackers, and you can stack multiple instances of thorns on top of yourself, which in turn rewards you heavily for being attacked.
Action Order Matters
You should consider the order of your actions during a turn. Do you move first to get into range to attack, or do you let them come to you so you can attack and run away? There are items that let you move twice, so maybe you can do both with the right loadout. Perhaps you have a fighter with the ability “cosmic punch” that uppercuts enemies out into space for a turn. While that’s pretty cool, you should probably maximize damage with a basic attack while they are on the field, and then cosmic punch them away. It can feel like a lot to keep track of all the quirks of your available actions in a fight, especially with the ever changing roguelike nature of the game, but it feels incredibly rewarding once you do so.
It’s a Trap!
On the battlefield, it’s important to keep an eye on traps. Some enemies like to constantly spawn traps making movement much harder, while other traps are inherent to the stage. Luckily, traps can also hurt enemies as well as yourself. Do you have a cat that has knockback with its basic attack? Why don’t you just use that knockback to send them directly into a trap?
Water Hazard
Water is also present on many maps, and it tends to slow the movement of cats down to a crawl. If you find yourself ending a turn in a stream of moving water, be prepared to have your cat move in between rounds which may incur some damage. It may be better to keep your cat on dry land a bit longer. Water is also conductive in all the ways you’d imagine, so if you use a lightning attack on a body of water, everyone else in that water will feel its effects!
Finders Keepers
Near the end of a match if you have a free cat and see coins, health, or armor scattered around the field, you should make it an effort to pick it up before the end of the round. Keep in mind that end of battle rewards will dwindle depending on how many rounds the fight lasts, so it may not be worth it to continue to the next round to pick up that extra coin, so once again look at the turn order and make your determination on what you can accomplish before moving on.
Swipe Items With A Big Stretch
If you find a cat is out of range by one tile from a pickup scattered on the field, you can use a cat’s basic melee attack to acquire it. This can be incredibly handy to get some extra coins, refill some health or armor, or possibly equipable items for the next fight. Unfortunately, this does not work with Magic spells from afar.
Post Battle Tips
Level Up Carefully
Once you finish a fight, you will most likely be prompted with a level up choice for one or more members of your squad. At this point, you should have an idea what is and what isn’t working with your team. You should remember what role your cat is filling with its collar and pick abilities that will fill out that role better, or combo with its passive ability. Once again consider things like mana cost. You don’t want to fill your cat with abilities that take forever to use if their intelligence stat isn’t up to snuff. It’s wise to have a spread of cheaper to more expensive spells to more consistently give yourself options. Late into runs you might be given stat increases as a reward instead of extra abilities. This is a great time to further fix inadequacies of your cat.
Finally, you should also make sure that each of your cats has some sort of movement technique, if possible. Movement is key in Mewgenics, and will help a cat either avoid ending a turn in a bad spot, or allow you to secure the kill on a foe that’s attempting to get away from you.
Keep an Eye On Your Storage
Throughout a run you will be collecting an assortment of trinkets to further outfit your cat with. It’s a great idea to keep an eye on your storage. You may have an item that is better suited for a cat now that you have a new ability, or you might just have a new item that you picked up during the battle. Whatever you don’t use you can bring with you on future runs, depending on storage space. Keep in mind, you can reuse items that you previously equipped on other cats on future runs too, but they become “worn” and have a high likelihood to not survive for a third round.
Non-Battle Spaces
When you approach a non-battle space, you are often given a choice of what action to take, with each action using a stat from your cat to perform it. Think of it like Dungeons and Dragons or Baldur’s Gate, the higher the stat in question, the more likely you are to succeed in a roll for it. It’s still left up to chance, but you may as well pick the option that gives you the best chance. Keep in mind that these spaces can and will be cruel at times. They can range from giving you a decent reward, to negative permanent effects for your cat that can lead a run to its inevitable downfall.
Dead Cats Can Be Replaced
If a cat completely dies during a run, usually because the knocked out body got destroyed by some means, don’t throw in the towel. Sure, it will be harder, but if you persevere long enough, a wandering stray cat will find your party, and join you for an adventure. They won’t be anything special, being collarless, and starting at Level 0 no matter how far along you are in the adventure, but every soldier helps, especially back home.
Don’t Be Afraid To End Your Adventure Early
However, if you do feel like a run is doomed to fail, it may be better to go back home at the end of an area instead of venturing into a new one. If you do, you will hold onto the rewards you have gathered thus far, and most importantly, your cats will live to see another day (and breed another kitten or two). If you abandon a run during a battle however, you will lose out on all the rewards you have obtained, and your cats will be MIA. Cats that didn’t go through a full adventure are still useful in the meta-progression system outside of combat. Don’t fret, enjoy your spoils, and let your team enjoy a well deserved nap.
One Extra Chance
Mewgenics is by no means a walk in the park in terms of difficulty. Unlike some other tactics games, you aren’t exactly able to collect various saves to prevent devastating moments from occurring. Thankfully, there is a bit of leeway hidden if you want to exploit it. If you save and quit during a battle and restart the game, you will encounter Steven from The End is Nigh and the Binding of Isaac fame, and he will do his best Mr. Resetti impression. Steven will permit you 1 restart per run with no consequences, outside of a stern lecture. Just know, he won’t be so friendly the 2nd time.
Home Tips
Keep your Favorites
A cat will only have 1 adventure before retiring, but even in retirement they are still extremely useful. Every night you have the chance to have new kittens join your army, and you can facilitate that by bringing the parents into the same room. You should make an effort to keep cats that have great passive abilities, high stats, or powerful mutations, as those can be passed onto their children. You’ll also want to hold on to your strongest cats for the eventual unavoidable boss battles where your home is invaded by a foe like Guillotina.
Don’t Wait on Level 1 Upgrades
As you progress through the game, you will be able to interact with the various NPCs of Boon County that will provide a new home of sorts for your retired cats. The level 1 upgrade for each NPC provides a great reward with a low cost of just 1 cat that fits their specifications, so it’s best to prioritize those as soon as they become available.
Future Upgrades
After receiving your level 1 NPC upgrade, it becomes much more time consuming to receive future upgrades. You will need to be smart on how you distribute your cats throughout all the NPCs. When you select a cat, you will see a character portrait in their stats screen showing you who you will be able to give them away to. This is a great way to quickly cycle through your entire army if you are going for a specific upgrade.
As for what you should prioritize? Well, Frank will upgrade your house with extra rooms which helps out a lot when you are trying to breed specific cats, but he does require a heftier sum of cats to upgrade him. It’s not a bad idea to get the ball rolling with him. Alternatively, if you find yourself throwing away useful items and need even more space in your storage, then Butch is the way to go, just know your cats will need to get to at least the 2nd stage of an Act 1 adventure to give them to Butch.
Buy and Display Furniture
You will be more successful in passing on abilities and higher base stats if the room the cats… procreate in… has a high “stimulation” stat. If you want your cats to breed more often, and fight less often, you will need a high “comfort” stat. If you want better stray cats to appear outside, you need a higher “appeal” stat. To adjust these stats, you will need to buy furniture from the NPC Baby Jack who will eventually unlock after a few runs. Once you unlock Baby Jack’s level 1 upgrade, his shop will refresh every Sunday, and it’s definitely worth saving some coins for.
Clean Up
Unfortunately Mewgenics doesn’t provide you with a litter box. If you see a mess, it’s your job to clean it up. If you don’t, the cat’s “comfort” stat will go down. Be careful, it’s easy to miss if you have a crowded home.
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