Recommended Mutations

Discover the best mutations in Grounded to help you survive the yard. Learn about Meat Shield, Buff Lungs, Parry Master, and Mithridatism for early-game advantages.

The first thing you should understand about mutations is that most of them are acquired by performing specific actions in the yard. There are three which can be purchased from an ASL Terminal after speaking with the friendly robot BURG.L, but you’ll need to bring him specific chips before they’ll show up in the shop. At the beginning of the game you’ll be able to use 2 mutations by default, but you won’t have any mutations available until you earn them or purchase them from an ASL Terminal. The below recommendations are based only on our opinion of what works for us, and what we’ve found useful based on our playstyles. You may find that you begin to prefer different mutations as you progress through the game, but the mutations noted below are intended to make your experience of the early game slightly easier by buffing you in various ways. We’ve only included mutations which are reasonably easy to obtain fairly early on, and we’d recommend using at least some of these if you find yourself struggling against the numerous nasty bugs in the yard…

Meat Shield

The Meat Shield mutation is likely to be one of the first that you’re able to obtain, since you only need 3000 Raw Science to purchase it from an ASL Terminal after speaking with BURG.L in the Oak Lab. The maximum health increase of 30 may not seem like much at first, but you’ll quickly find that this amount of health can make all the difference when it comes to whether you survive a tough fight or not. This mutation will give you that extra bit of health which can see you through the closest of battles. You’ll also find that many bugs inflict gas, burning, or poison over time debuffs. A larger health pool is always useful to outlast these debuffs.

Buff Lungs

The Buff Lungs mutation is useful for similar reasons to Meat Shield: it substantially increases one of the core stats that you’ll be making use of throughout the game. You’ll find that there are countless times when you run out of stamina as you’re fighting off multiple bugs, or trying to finish off a more powerful one on its own. The extra stamina from Buff Lungs will ensure that you can keep fighting for long enough to finish off enemies by landing those last few extra hits before they catch you off guard without the ability to defend yourself or run away. One of the main reasons why this mutation is listed in our top 5 is that you can get it fairly early on without much grinding, since it’s one of the mutations that you can purchase from an ASL Terminal. However, keep in mind that you’ll need the Red Anthill BURG.L Chip before it will become available in the shop.

Parry Master

The Parry Master mutation is most useful for those who are confident with their parry timings. If you find that you’re able to perform perfect blocks more often than not, the buff from Parry Master will make you feel like a god at times. It essentially removes the possibility of running out of stamina during a fight, at least once you reach Phase 2 or Phase 3. But there’s the catch: you will need to block 20 times to unlock Phase 1 of the mutation, which replenishes a small amount of stamina with each perfect block, 60 times for Phase 2 which replenishes a moderate amount, and 100 times for Phase 3, which replenishes a significant amount. If you get used to blocking early on in the game, you should soon get the hang of performing perfect blocks and make good use of them as one of your primary defences against more powerful bugs such as Wolf Spiders.

Mithridatism

The Mithridatism mutation is arguably one of the most useful that you’ll want to keep with you for most of the game. There are many bugs in the yard which inflict poison damage, so reducing it as much as possible should