Mutagen tips?

[MarkB]

I have a character with Robust Genetics and high Cooking skill, so he’s able to cook up the specialised mutagens as well as generic.

However, I’ve had some bad luck actually attaining a set of positive mutations that I like whilst getting rid of negative ones.

My tactic so far has been to take several doses of mutagen at once, in hopes of advancing good mutations as far as possible, then taking Purifier to try and strip out the bad ones. However, I tend to get a couple of negative mutations hanging around through multiple doses of Purifier, and losing most of the good ones before I can remove them.

Would it be better to alternate Mutagen and Purifier doses, or is it just down to luck?

Also, which of the specialised Mutagens would you recommend? My character is primarily an archer, but carries a broadsword as backup, and is heavily bionically modified.

[UberZacht]

CHUG IT. Err, yes it is down to luck, but its also mostly in your favor considering you have Robust Genetics, which should mean you have at least a 50% chance of good or neutral effects. If you are going for archer, I believe bird mutagen might have some useful things. Beast mutagen I know gives you near sighted so don’t use that unless you have glasses, but if you do it has some rather good traits for balance and natural warmth. Reptiles and Insect give you natural armor, plants as well, but plants also give you some passive effects. To be honest, if you can make straight-up Mutagen, it can give you ANY mutation, while specialized mutagens give you more predictabilty (if you drink so many of these you don’t get any more mutations, so you know where you can end off at your best and worst). With Robust Genetics, and plenty of purifier, Normal Mutagen should be fine.

[i2amroy]

CHUG IT. Err, yes it is down to luck, but its also mostly in your favor considering you have Robust Genetics, which should mean you have at least a 50% chance of good or neutral effects.

66% chance, to be specific.

[MarkB]

I guess the RNG gods are against me on this one - I don’t think I’ve managed as good as a 50% ratio on good vs. bad mutations so far.

Ah well, I suppose it balances out all those bionics installations that surprisingly didn’t go horribly wrong.

EDIT: And then I go and chug one dose of regular mutagen, and get Light Step and High Night Vision. Result! I think I’ll stick with that for awhile.

[UberZacht]

Yes, when it comes to mutagen and bionics, you very much have to take it with a grain of salt and a handful of sugar. Sometimes bad traits are even fun and/or humorous, like randomly yelling or being heavily radioactive.

[kilozombie]

Radioactivity is my favorite negative trait because it completely changes the game.

Road Runner and Extremely Ponderous! Herbivore! 8 tentacles!

[woflsipder]

I remember quite long time ago i had a biker character which had full leather cloth set.
After a heavy start he got addicted to painkillers , found adamantium claws and got the growling voice and whiskers mutations.
Damn , even the wolverine ain’t got shit on how badass my char was.

[Aggrons_shell]

Get 4+ bad mutations, and chug 1 purifier. And just deal with some bad traits.
Or if you have millions of purifier and mutigen, give yourself a clean slate and get the best mutations for your next objective.

[Zireael]

The OP sounds right up my alley.

[Sheb]

1. Know when to stop. If you get a sweet deal with 1 minor bad mutation and 3 good ones, maybe it’s not worth it aiming for better.

2. Accept some bad mutation. Most of the “bad mutations” are fairly neutral.

Alternatively, mutate to hell and back, at least until you get Radioavtivity or Unstable Genetic. Then you’ll start mutating on your own. In my experience, a Robust Genetic, thoroughly mutated character is largely a good thing, in part because you’ll get +8 to all your stats.

[youtoo]

so how does purifier work? Is it completely random which mutation you lose when you take it or does it skew towards more recently acquired mutations?

[UberZacht]

so how does purifier work? Is it completely random which mutation you lose when you take it or does it skew towards more recently acquired mutations?

So I tested that, and strangely enough I had a perfect 50/50 split. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. Basically, I drank 5 mutagen, waited a day, and drank 5 more. I drank one purifier, and it seemed to always take equal amounts of mutations away from the first set and second set. If it’s not supposed to do a half and half thing, then I was pretty lucky, and it would seem it doesn’t decide from a time basis.

[MarkB]

I had heard (I think it was in a Let’s Play) that Purifier tended to target negative mutations first, but I don’t know if that’s actually the case. Maybe that particular LPer got lucky.

[Tamunshin]

When you drink a purifier the game builds a list of all removable mutations, then selects a random number between 1 and 4. It then randomly selects that many mutations and removes them. There’s no bias towards new or old, nor towards good or bad.

[MarkB]

When you drink a purifier the game builds a list of all removable mutations, then selects a random number between 1 and 4. It then randomly selects that many mutations and removes them. There’s no bias towards new or old, nor towards good or bad.

Thanks, good to know. I think I’ll stick with what I have (High Night Vision is great, especially against turrets) and concentrate upon cybernetics to further enhance my character.

[Zireael]

I had heard (I think it was in a Let’s Play) that Purifier tended to target negative mutations first, but I don’t know if that’s actually the case. Maybe that particular LPer got lucky.

I wish it was the case.

[vultures]

I think it might work slightly more in your favor with radiation mutations, but that’s just me & my ole’ build.