I like the idea of maxing out all the bird mutations because I like birds.
What do you do? Do you just chug mutagens and hope for the best, or do you max out a certain field?
Very high cooking skill allows you to craft not just mutagens but custom tailored mutagens. In addition, the more bird mutations you get, the more likely your next mutation is to be a bird mutation.
I know. I should have worded the original post better. I make all my own mutagens, and then I turn them into bird mutagens. It’s kind of odd that they don’t use feathers. Didn’t an earlier build do that?
EDIT: Apparently chugging 20+ bird mutagens has now messed with my character’s brain. He now dreams of flying and being a bird.
Um… they do? Here’s the list of all of the bird mutations:
Quick, Light Eater, Deft, Light Step, Bad Back, Glass Jaw, Night Vision, Hollow Bones, Feathers, Large Talons, Beak, Road-Runner, Bird Wings, Heat Dependent, Extremely Dextrous
That’s the second time someone misinterpreted what I said. I mean use feathers in the crafting recipe.
Coincidentally, the feathers were one of the last mutations I got in the mutagen binge.
Strange. I think the original idea of whoever changed it was to make you need meat of a bird (since it tracks that now) but I don’t think support for that has actually been ever added. It looks like some of the other recipes are missing things like that too.
After bumping into a Rat King I started on the path to rat mutations, but after chugging some mutagens (and gnawing on an arm or two…sue me) I’m now on the beast path with a little bit of rat and trog.
I keep having dreams I’m a beast or something.
I’m becoming the thing I hate.
I go beast, but only for the Insane Strength mutation. Don’t really care what else I get, so long as it’s not Forgetful or Light Sensitive. I’ve avoided Nearsighted as well, but forgot you could wear glasses to cancel that; if you could wear glasses with Powered Armor I wouldn’t mind so much any more so long as I have pair. I’d also remove Furred/Lightly Furred, Ugly Trait line, and Carnivore if it can be helped, but won’t go out of my way to take that out if I got a good mutation combo’d with that.
BTW, what’s the best order of operation in getting and removing mutations. Is it better to try and get as many all at once and try to remove bad ones later, or to stop once a bad mutation pops up and deal with that immediately? Or some other method? I’ve always dealt with bad mutations immediately, but in my latest play I haven’t gotten all the mutations I’ve wanted by doing so (namely Insane Strength).
I’m new to forcing horrible mutations on myself so I’d love to know more about how purifying works.
As far as I know there’s only two items that do it, and the bottled purifier removes mutations with impunity (good and bad). I’m not sure how many it’ll strip off at a time or how far back it will go.
I’m deformed, a carnivore, smelly, and have light sensitivity so it’d be nice to be able to clean those off.
At the same time though I have smart, long fingernails, canine ears, saprovore, padded feet, road-runner, and a few more good ones I wouldn’t want to lose.
One of the biggest downsides to being a bird is you lose a ton of carrying capacity and you’re fragile as hell against bashing damage. But man, can you move fast!
I would have finished the bird build, but I ran out of bleach. Gotta go find more now.
My method is to stockpile a huge number of mutagens and purifiers and then purify every time I get a bad mutation until it goes away, using around 30 mutagens and purifiers I managed to max out the beast category’s positive traits with essentially no significant downsides.
Naturally I also had Robust Genetics and I’m generally a lucky SoB in roguelikes to begin with.
One of the problems with this view is that some mutations fall into more than one category.
For instance, Ka’lol chugged a bottle of homebrew, then grew Tentacle Arms and a Beak (octopi have beaks). So, Cephalopod.
Next bottle went for feathers, etc, and he ended up going Bird, possibly thanks to the Beak. That time. 
Best advice I’d have would be to figure out what category you want, then chug about 3-4 flavored mutagens. After that, regular mutagens will probably work, unless you’re gunning for something like Spider, Lizard, or Fish–those don’t have many mutations that are unique to their category, so chances are you can’t get “stuck into” them. Regulat mutagens would take you back out inito something like Beast.
I’ve been meaning to compile a list of which mutations are over- and which are under-represented, then do a Re-Org (probably add at least two more categories*) to help things out a little.
*Thinking one “Alpha” or somesuch that focuses on making Amped-Up Humans (the stat-ups, attractiveness, fast metabolisms, disintegrating, that sort of thing) and one “Chimera” or somesuch that mashes genomes together for “optimal” performance, again with likely decay.
Dunno if the Actem Labs people would be weird/bored enough to try making an Elf mutagen… 
You people are so bland… XD
OBTAIN MUTIGEN, ROLL THE DICE EVERY TIME.
WHAT COULD POSS- oh goddamn it not slime again…
Personally I usually end up ‘aiming’ for either Lizard (ACT SURPRISED) or oddly enough Spider/Insect (Some twisted combination since they share a lot of the same mutations but each one has ups and downs. Because Chitinous Plate, A Poisonous Stinger, and Bug-Wings are always fun.)
…On a side note the materials for Insect Mutagen are a pain to find… Suddenly I can’t help but think of a trait based around mutigen and purifer… XD Though it’d kinda require the dreams actually effected player character morale… One that Nullifies the negative effects or even makes them positive? (A loose grip on your humanity?) Or another that functions like an addiction XD
On a side note, I will forever love how 2 Gallons of Ammonia, A gallon of bleach, and three pounds of zombie flesh turns into one Gallon of Mutigen.
My character dreams of rats, and has all sorts of mutations.