How to survive the desert in Mewgenics

Mewgenics collars — (Image credit: Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel)

The Desert in Mewgenics opens up in Act 2 and is, frankly, the worst part of the game to get through if you're unprepared. The Desert comes with a cute little weather effect called Heat Wave, and this sweltering heat has a direct effect on your cats. Not only will you no longer automatically restore some health at the end of battles, but the heals you do get during those battles will be less effective. However, if you manage to find water, everything will go back to normal, which is why there are unique water merchants in the biome.

Once you've completed the two routes that Mewgenics seemingly has to offer, this is a... fun little surprise, and while the road here was somewhat difficult, it's about to get even more ludicrous. However, there are ways to get by, but even at 100 hours I still don't find it particularly easy. So here are my Desert survival tips in Mewgenics.

1. Make sure you bring supplies

You won't survive the desert very easily if you go in without any gear. If you fancy doing an Act 2 run without any gear on your cats, point blank: you will almost definitely struggle. Consider doing another run through Act 1 to grab some supplies to help your cats be a bit beefier throughout your desert trek. The absolute best item you can find in the game is the Water Feeder, which straps to the neck slot of your cat's set and keeps them hydrated at all times.

2. Buy Water Bottles and use them wisely

You can buy water bottles from water merchants, which will heal you for 5HP and give you the wet status effect for the remainder of the battle.

These cost 1, 3, and 5 coins for empty, half full, and full (two charges), while the second water merchant bumps these prices up to 5, 10, and 15 respectively. Water bottles will be filled to full if you stand in any type of water tile while carrying one, although empty ones can also be thrown for 1 damage.

Once you unlock the later Act 2 areas, it may be worth making it through The Desert and going home to have water bottles ready for later runs too, to make sure you're in a better place at the end of the desert. While I don't believe you can buy it from the water merchant, I also found a water jug which had eight charges of water.

These are also extremely useful for the Act 2 area, The Core and home invasion boss Pyrothina, as they both have a lot of chances for you to have a ton of stacked up burn, which will be completely wiped by a little bit of water.

3. Break certain cacti to gain a water tile

There are a lot of cactus plants in The Desert's maps, however, there is one specific type of cactus (short and fat) that has a health bar shown. If you defeat these specific cacti, it will turn into a water tile. Not only will these tiles make your cat wet – and in-turn bring back its regular healing – but it will completely refill any empty water bottle that a cat holds when standing in a water tile. However, the wet status effect seems to wear off after a turn if you don't stay in the water, unlike with water bottles

The downside to this is that cacti always have thorns, so you will take damage by melee attacking them, so make sure to have at least one ranged unit handy.

4. Get luck with a rainy day

Mewgenics has a fair few weather effects. The first time I visited the desert it was raining at my home, which extended to the desert and completely nullified the effects of the Heat Wave, filled water bottles, and made burn status effects useless, making for a far easier run.

However, I don't think I've had a single rainy day in the time since, so if you see it raining at the house, even if you want to go somewhere else on that day, make sure you go to The Desert, because it's the easiest you're ever going to have it.

Unfortunately, other weather effects that seem like they would have a similar effect on the Heat Wave effect don't seem to, as I had both a Heat Wave and a Blizzard working simultaneously.