Mutations

Mutations are passive items that modify and increase the abilities of the player in various ways. They are obtained between levels from Guillain.

Most mutations are not initially available. To unlock them, one must bring the mutations' blueprints to the Collector, then spend the required Cells.

Mechanics
The player can only have a certain number of mutations at once. Each area cleared in a run allows one more mutation, up to a total of 3 (unless in custom mode, where many more can be picked). However, the player can spend gold between levels to remove all current mutations, allowing a new choice of mutations to replace the old set. The price to do this starts at 1,000 and doubles with each reset, until the cost reaches 8,000 gold, at which point it will stop increasing.

Most mutations are associated with and scale their benefits with a specific stat. That is, mutations' base damage and/or healing magnitudes are multiplied by 1.15n-1, where n is the current level of the appropriate stat, rounded to produce the final amount.

For example, if a Brutality mutation provides an extra 90 base DPS and the player's Brutality is 2, the final extra DPS is 90 × 1.152-1 = 90 × 1.15 = 103.5 ≈ 104). Note that damage and DPS bonuses from mutations are not affected by gear-specific damage bonuses or Affixes.

Colorless mutations have fixed benefits unaffected by Stats, except for Instinct of the Master of Arms which scales on the highest stat.

As of v1.9, skills can no longer be used to activate mutations that lower their cool-downs when killing enemies, such as 'Hunter's Instinct', but will still activate ones like 'Heart of Ice' or 'Instinct of the Master of Arms', as they are not activated when killing enemies.

List of Mutations
There are 46 mutations in the game: 12 for Brutality, 12 for Tactics, 13 for Survival and 12 that are Colorless.

Cooldown reduction mutations
In this table, you will find the effect value (in seconds) of the cooldown reduction mutations based on your Stats.


 * Killer Instinct starts at 0.4 second and caps at 3 seconds CDR with 25+ Brutality. The formula is [base value] + [(stats - 1) x 0,11].
 * Hunter's Instinct starts at 0.3 second and caps at 2.5 seconds with 19+ Tactics. The formula is [base value] + [(stats - 1) x 0,12].
 * Blind Faith starts at 2.5 seconds and caps at 5 seconds CDR with 25+ Survival. The formula is [base value] + [(stats - 1) x 0.105].
 * Heart of Ice starts at 1 second and caps at 3 seconds CDR with 21+ Survival. The formula is [base value] + [(stats - 1) x 0.105].
 * Instinct of the Master of Arms starts at 0.08 second and caps at 1 second CDR with 24 stats of any color. The formula [base value] + [(stats - 1) x 0.04].

Health mutations
In this table, you will find the heal value (in % of total HP) of the health mutations based on your Stats.


 * Soldier's Resistance increases your health by a % of your total HP, starting at 2% and capping at 25% with 19+ Survival.
 * Adrenalin heals a % of your total HP based on percentage multiplied by base total damage of a single hit after dodging at the last second. Percentage provided by mutation starts at 0.0015% and is capped at 0.015% with 30+ Brutality.
 * Frenzy heals a % of total HP based on percentage multiplied by the base total damage of a single hit if you are currently under speed buff. Percentage provided by mutation starts at 0.0012% and is capped at 0.008% with 37+ Brutality.
 * What Doesn't Kill Me heals a percentage of your total HP after a parry, starting at 1% and capping at 3% with 24+ Survival.
 * Necromancy heals a % of your total HP after killing an enemy, starting at 0.2% and capping at 1.7% with 33+ Survival.

Soldier Resistance's scaling follows the classic formula used for calculation of DPS (see DPS mutations), which is [base value] &times; 1.15(Stats-1). On the other hand, Adrenalin, Frenzy, What Doesn't Kill Me and Necromancy scale based on slightly different formulas, which are [base value] &times; 1.085(Stats-1), [base value] &times; 1.055(Stats-1), [base value] &times; 1.05(Stats-1) and [base value] &times; 1.07(Stats-1), respectively.

Damage mutations
In this table, you will find the added DPS of mutations that add damage in certain conditions. Some of these mutations scale with the formula [Base DPS] &times; 1.15(Stats - 1)

For example, the Open Wounds mutation's base DPS is 18 and scales with Brutality. If you have 4 Brutality, the Open Wounds mutation will deal 18 &times; 1.15(4-1) = 27 DPS with each effect it inflicts.

Each of the mutations, such as Porcupack, reduce the damage of the weapon stored in the backpack to a percentage of its original value. The reduced damage is lessened by 1% with each point in their respective stats.

Other mutations
In this table, you will find the scaling of Melee, Berserker, Tainted Flask, Predator, and Tactical Retreat.

For Melee and Berserker, the scaling formula is the same as for damage mutations, that is [Base value] &times; 1.15(Stats - 1).
 * Melee applies a slow down to enemies, which initially lasts for 0.2 second and caps at 0.8 second with 11+ Brutality.
 * Berserker grants a % of damage reduction following a melee kill, which starts at 10% and caps at 60% with 14+ Survival.
 * Tainted Flask, on top of its DPS scaling, can grant a flask recharge if the player's Health Flask is empty. This is triggered upon killing a certain number of Elites which decreases proportionally with the number of Brutality stats, starting at 12 Elites and capping at 4 Elites with 28+ Brutality.
 * Predator grants short invisibility after killing an enemy with a melee strike. The invisibility duration starts at 1 second and caps at 3.5 seconds with 23+ Brutality.
 * Tactical Retreat slows down enemies within a 15 tile radius of the player upon dodging an attack at the last moment. The slowdown initially lasts for 1 second and caps at 3 seconds with 25+ Tactics.
 * Kill Rhythm increases the speed of an attack by a percentage if it was initiated immediately after an attack with your other weapon.

For Tainted Flask, Predator, and Tactical Retreat, the formula is instead [base value] &times; 0.96(Stats - 1), [base value] &times; 1.06(Stats - 1), and [base value] &times; 1.048(Stats-1) (rounded), respectively.

Removed Mutations
Removed from the game in v1.1 (December 2018/January 2019).

Fireworks Technician/Efficiency's scaling with Brutality/Tactics are given in the following table:

Trivia

 * Mutations, as a whole, were first introduced in The Foundry Update.