Mewgenics: 10 Essential Tips for Beginners
▼ Summary
– The game’s core mechanic forces you to constantly retire successful teams of cats and start over with new kittens, preventing attachment to any specific group or strategy.
– Managing your cat food supply is critically important, as your colony grows quickly and food depletes faster than expected, requiring proactive gathering and storage upgrades.
– You must regularly clean up poop and other waste in your base to maintain your cats’ health and happiness, as it’s a vital but initially under-explained gameplay element.
– Using the middle mouse button (or ‘Y’ on a controller) during battles provides a simplified, tactical overview that is essential for clarity amidst the game’s visually cluttered levels.
– The game is much larger and more focused on long-term progression than it first appears, with extensive content and no true “game over” state, even after a total party wipe.
Stepping into the quirky world of Mewgenics, the new roguelite from Edmund McMillen, can feel wonderfully overwhelming. This isn’t just another deckbuilder; it’s a strategic, turn-based battler where you manage a lineage of cats, each generation retiring after a successful run. The core loop blends the generational progression of Rogue Legacy with the tactical combat of X-COM, all wrapped in a bizarrely charming package that has a peculiar fixation on feline bodily functions. To help you navigate this strange and deep game, here are some crucial insights for your first forays.
Resist the urge to get attached to any single team of cats. The entire premise is built on impermanence. You might craft a perfect synergy between a Hunter, Cleric, and Fighter, developing devastating combos that crush enemies. However, victory means retirement for that squad, and their offspring will inherit different, randomized abilities. That teleport spell you built your entire strategy around could be gone forever. Embrace the cycle and learn to adapt with each new litter rather than trying to recreate past glories.
Your stockpile of cat food depletes alarmingly fast. You start with 50 portions, which seems ample for four cats. Yet, your family expands quickly through stray adoptions and natural kitten births. Within a handful of days, you can easily have over ten mouths to feed each night, rapidly draining your reserves. Always prioritize gathering food during adventures, and buy it whenever you see it in shops. Consider saving for the 100-coin storage upgrade early on to avoid a constant hunger crisis.
Given the game’s thematic focus, it’s no surprise that managing waste in your home base is essential for cat happiness. While poop serves as a tactical resource in combat, leaving it lying around the house negatively impacts your cats’ wellbeing. Early on, before you can afford fancy furniture, the simplest way to maintain morale is to regularly click on those little brown piles to clean them up.
A vital interface tip the game doesn’t tell you: holding the middle mouse button (or Y on a controller) transforms the battlefield view. The detailed art can become visually cluttered, especially with tiny enemies like maggots blending into the background. This command switches to a clean, board-game-like overlay with green markers for your team and red for enemies, offering immediate tactical clarity for planning your moves.
Don’t overlook the edible items scattered across battle maps. While having a Cleric for healing is wise, it’s not the only way to restore health. Hover your cursor over objects on the ground; many, from discarded sandwiches to strange mushrooms, can be eaten. A cat standing on that tile will automatically consume it, providing a crucial health top-up that can reduce pressure on your dedicated healer.
Neutral birds on the battlefield are prime targets. They appear with grey markers and generally mind their own business, but they’re worth attacking before they fly away after a few turns. Defeating them often yields useful item drops and provides a temporary stat boost to the cat that landed the killing blow, offering a significant edge in tougher fights.
It’s easy to underestimate the game’s sheer scope. The branching path structure might remind you of Slay the Spire, but Mewgenics is a massive, progression-focused game with far more content than initial impressions suggest. There are numerous levels, each with multiple routes and difficulties. You can play for hours and still have explored only a tiny fraction of what’s available.
There is no traditional “game over” state. Even if your entire team is wiped out and you return home with nothing, you haven’t lost. You’ll simply adopt new strays to form another team. However, reaching a point with no food and weak cats puts you in a dire situation. To recover, consider doing short, safe runs with the explicit goal of bringing back coins and supplies to rebuild. Remember, retired cats can be sent to other characters for bonuses, so no effort is ever completely wasted.
Finally, if the pronounced film grain visual effect starts to strain your eyes during long sessions, know that you can adjust or completely disable it in the game’s settings menu. It’s a personal preference, but one that can greatly improve visual comfort.
(Source: Kotaku)
