Mewgenics breeding guide

(Image credit: Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel)

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How breeding works
How Home stats work
How cats inherit stats and skills
How defects and mutations work
Sexuality and gender
Libido, Mood, Affinities and Breeding status

Mastering Mwegenics cat breeding is a large part of this tactical RPG as you take on the role of a professional cat breeder. Keep cats in your home and they will eventually procreate. While you can't choose which cats end up breeding with which, there are a few intricacies to the mechanic that you can make use of if you have specific Mewgenics collars you want to use. Here's what's going on.

How breeding works in Mewgenics

Every single day a new stray cat will appear at your home, allowing you to continue hoarding your roster of cats even after your entire squad has perished on a run. These cats arrive with seemingly randomized stats and skills, but offer a foundation for your army to grow.

Breeding happens when you end a day with kittens arriving the next morning. Kittens can't be sent out into battles until their second day however. There's also a chance for nothing to happen on a given night, or for cats to get into fights can result in injuries to your cats, or worse, death.

How Home stats work in Mewgenics

At your home, each room has its own stats, these are decided by how clean you keep the room (cats poop, a lot) and what furniture you decide to put in there. Here are the descriptions for each stat

Appeal: Affects the quality of the stray cats that show up each day
Comfort: Affects how often cats will breed or fight
Health: Affects lifespan and chance to develop or cure disorders each night
Mutation: Adds a chance for cats to receive random mutations each night
Stimulation: Affects the quality of newborn kittens.

You can expand your house as you send retired cats to Frank, and each room has its own stats. However, appeal is shared throughout the entire house.

How cats inherit stats and skills in Mewgenics

A kitten's stats are inherited from its two parents. However, if they breed in a room with a high stimulation stat, it is more likely that they will inherit the higher number between the two parents. Skills on the other hand are often inherited from one of their parents, however it isn't always the case. These include skills from cats who have been on an adventure and have class-based skills. And once again, the higher the stimulation stat, the more likely it will be for inheritance.

How defects and mutations work in Mewgenics

Mewgenics desert tips

Here's some tips to help you survive the Mewgenics desert.

Just like stats and skills, Mutations and Defects will generally be inherited from the parents. However, with a high Health stat in a room (10 or higher) you are able to cure defects that cats have gathered. However not every defect is bad, for example, Crohn's Disease – which will occasionally cause your cat to drop poop all over the place – has incredible synergy with the Crown of Feculence item which has every poop spawned alive and on your team.

Sexuality and gender

Cats come in three genders, Male, Female, and ?. Cats each have sexualities, Straight, gay/lesbian or Bisexual.

Cats of the same gender cannot breed however, if you have a house full of gay cats for example, you won't spawn kittens, however there is an increased chance of gay strays turning up at the house with class abilities inherited from any cats who did get together that night.

Libido, Mood, Affinities and Breeding status

Each cat has extra stats you can surface via sending kittens to Tink.

Libido – determines how often your cats want to breed
Aggression – determines how often your cats will fight with other cats inside the house
Breeding status – Will show how inbred your cats are. Inbred cats are more likely to be born with birth defects
Affinities – Cats can fall in love and have mortal enemies, these will make them more likely to breed or fight if left in the same room.

If this all seems like a bit much to you, don't worry too much. For the majority of my 100+ hour playtime I just kind of rolled with it, not worrying about the intricacies of the breeding mechanics. But figuring it out allows you to somewhat engineer your perfect cats – almost like its… Mewgenics.