The first big Mewgenics update is great news for Mages, with a wealth of balance changes

It’s been a long time in the oven, but Mewgenics update 1.1 is finally live. The cat-collecting strategy game has followed beautifully in the steps of its older sibling, The Binding of Isaac. It managed to win my heart despite me not particularly caring for its gross-out tendencies, offering a tightly designed blend of positional combat in the vein of Into The Breach and Tactical Breach Wizards. After carefully studying and testing potential changes, developers Tyler Glaiel and Edmund McMillen have just deployed their first big overhaul, filled with a wide range of class balancing and other adjustments.

The Mewgenics 1.1 patch notes are pretty extensive, with almost every class getting changes, although by far the most heavily affected are Mage, Hunter, and Tinkerer. The adjustments start at home, however. Inbreeding has been nerfed (we don’t need to keep addressing it, but this game certainly makes me write some strange sentences). As your kittens get more inbred, the chances of inheriting birth defects gradually rises, and the beneficial effects of stimulation on them fall.

More generally, stimulation has been adjusted so that higher values will now decrease the chance of birth defects being passed on to the next generation. The Mutation stat no longer rerolls existing mutations and defects, and will roll just simple mutations (the +2 or -1 stat modifiers) until its value gets above ten. The chance of a kitten inheriting the voice of one parent has also been dropped from 98% to 75%, which should create more spontaneous variety in how your cats sound.

Several disorders have been modified. Hypersomnia’s sleep application has been fixed to allow passives and items to affect it correctly. Malaria only reduces Constitution (rather than all stats). Sociopathy’s Charisma bonus has been halved to just five, but it now provides an extra five Intelligence, making it more useful over the course of a fight. Schrödinger’s Syndrome grants an extra one point to all stats, plus a bonus turn at the start of battle. Finally, when a cat hits zero Intelligence with the Naegleria Fowleri parasite, it’ll no longer start battles downed, but will instead take actions automatically, falling under its control.

Events have been buffed to make them more worthwhile. I don’t want to spoil them all, as discovery is part of the process, but several options where you can choose to sacrifice either health or entire cats (such as at the altar) can no longer result in a purely bad outcome. Organ Grinder now provides extra bonuses with either option, and the ‘insatiable rage’ tragedy will apply additional effects. The Infestation weather effect has been limited so that units will only spawn charmed maggots when killed.

I won’t go through every single change for each class, but instead cover the most important pieces. The Cleric’s Cleanse is now single-target but with longer range, and can hit a larger area once upgraded. The Druid gets slight mana cost reductions, while the Fighter’s Merciless trait can no longer be activated by actions that cost movement points.

Hunters lose Dexterity scaling on Ball of Spiders and Flea Shot. Heavy Shot is more accurate but pricier and less potent, while Egg Sac Trap is cheaper. Scattershot costs more and can no longer be made to avoid hitting allies in its radius, and the mana regeneration of Hunter’s Boon is now capped at one use per turn, but it can now be triggered off non-enemy kills.

Mages get the most changes, but it’s largely good news. They gain more range on their basic attacks and many of their spells, while others benefit from small damage boosts. The effects of their forbidden spells have been increased, and the disorders you can gain from casting them have been separated into a 90%-chance ‘basic pool’ and a more severe group that you’ll hit just 10% of the time. Blizzard has been significantly reworked: it now deals “very high damage with 100% Freeze and no Slow.”

Moving down the list, Monk’s upgraded Fist of Fate must target different enemies each time it repeats. Necromancer’s Evil Incarnate costs less magic, and Flesh Golem strips less health from your allies. Psychic escapes with just a mana reduction for Shatter the Sky. The Tank’s Ass Blast and Clap both get cheaper, with the former dealing bonus knockback. The Thief gets buffed: it can move further while using Caltrops, and deal more poison with Poison Gas. Nail Flurry’s multi-hit effect has also been made more consistent.

Last but certainly not least is the Tinkerer, which should also feel stronger overall. Many abilities have had their mana cost reduced, and Throw Weapon no longer costs an action. The EMP, Mr Mega, and Napalm passives have all been made stronger, and all three of them plus Demo Man now apply the Blast Resistance status effect. Conductor additionally causes your weapon to deal electric damage if you’re wearing metal, while the Math ability deals electric damage and stun if you hit a prime number. Finally, your cat’s internal AI calculations are now better at sequencing the basic craft and throw actions without wasting moves.

There are a few more adjustments, quality-of-life, and bug fixes to flick through. On the enemy side, Spewer’s health has been nerfed, but The Coven, Tormentor, Dreadnoughtus, and Stacy all get buffed HP. Cursed items and parasites are now subject to the whims of item degradation. A backpack button has been added to shop screens, several tooltips and typos have been fixed, and the final boss gets some small tweaks that I won’t give away here.

Mewgenics 1.1 is live now on Steam. As someone who was very much enjoying my time but was pulled away by the release of Slay the Spire 2, this is exactly the bump I needed to get back into the Sewers and start building my cat army once more.