Disorder! Disorder! DisooooOOOOOoooorder!
Last week we talked in-depth about death dying and the basic injuries that gimp your characters slightly as they progress... but there are many other ways your cats can change during their journey, and today we will go over a few!
[h3]Diseases, Disorders, Parasites oh my![/h3]
These permanent ailments will act as passive effects on your cats, each comes with it a major downside.. and minor upside that will totally change how you play! Lets dive into each one and see how they work!
[h2]Diseases![/h2]
There are a range of diseases your cats can acquire along their journey that will affect them in many many different ways. Diseases are usually acquired by physical contact with an enemy or npc or the ingestion of something contaminated or very very rotten.
One of my favorite diseases is Rabies, mainly because of this really fun run I had where my fighter (Rodney) got Rabies when attempting to loot a dead cat who was actually still alive! Rodney failed his dexterity check and the "dead cat" reared up and, with its last bit of energy, bit Rodney and gave him the rare disease Rabies!
Rabies comes with a straight forward passive effect, your attack becomes a melee attack ( must bite or claw when fighting ) and each time you complete combat that cat gains +1 str and -1 int.. slowly eating away at the cats brain while also making them more deadly as well. seems like a pretty good deal for a fighter who is already limited to melee combat and deals damage based off their str.. but fighters are also notoriously dumb and with rabies its not long before their int hits 0 and their brain turns to mush. so by the end of the 1st chapter my fighter had destroyed just about everything.. but hit 0 int at the start of the first boss fight. when a cat with rabies no longer has a brain not only does he fail to generate mana each turn, but he also fails to take commands.. he simply does whatever he wants.. and all he wants to do is kill! right off the bat Rodney started attacking our mage downing him and spreading rabies to him, I was able to throw Rodney towards the boss and just keep away from him, letting him do what he did best.. murder! by the end of the run Rodney had spread rabies to all of my cats and nearly all had their brains consumed by the disease, the final epic battle consisted of me watching as my cats auto played themselves, I was totally helpless, just watching as the cats would switch from attacking the boss and attacking each other, with the last few turns consisting of them killing one another while the boss destroyed what was left of Rodney... I had lost, but it was one of the coolest losses I've ever had in a video game.
[h2]Mental Disorders![/h2]
Mental disorders are acquired by mental trauma or passed down through genes, seeing the ghost of your mother or being mocked by your team for failing a basic task are a few examples of how you might gain one.
A good and common example of a mental disorder is depression. depression gives you all stats down... but it also gives you a depressive aura. anything adjacent to you also becomes temporarily depressed gaining -2 to all stats as long as they are adjacent to the cat with depression, further ostracizing the sad cat.. but also lowering the damage and slowing down any enemies around it. I've had more than a few runs where I had a healer with depression and holy shields who would just stand in the middle of a large group and tank their attacks while my squishy cats took turns stabbing them all in the back.. good times.
[h2]Physical Disorders![/h2]
These disorders are usually gained by physical trauma, getting your eyeball pulled out by an unseen force or falling down the stairs might causes these.
A good example would be Charred, a physical disorder that gives your cat +4 armor but also gives them bruise 1 ( take +1 damage each time you take damage).
[h2]Parasites![/h2]
Parasites are acquired many many different was in Mewgenics, but joining a cat orgy or eating a really big poop are great ways to acquire them.
Parasites take over one of your item slots, making you unable to use said slot. ( we will go over items and items slots in a future update )
A good example of a parasite would be Pin Worms. Pin worms infest your neck making you unable to wear items around it, give you -2 str and -2 con, but each time you take damage you spawn a maggot familiar that fights along side its mama!
[h2]Mutations![/h2]
Mutations are gained VERY rarely from breeding/strays you find in the wild, more commonly they are acquired by interactions with toxic waste, radiation, or in rare cases, furniture in your house.
Mutations will effect a random piece of your cats visual appearance changing it permanently and embedding itself in your cats DNA forever.
A good example of a Mutation would be something like Ram horns, your cats melee attack gains +1 knock back.
Mutations are the bread and butter of the long play of Mewgenics. Once acquired, mutations can be passed down through DNA to future generations, amassing many buffs and modifications over time.. but you need to be careful not to inbreed your cats because you just might get....
[h2]Birth Defects![/h2]
Birth Defects are very rare... unless you inbreed your cats! cats breeding with close relatives will have a high chance of giving their children birth defects.
A good example of a birth defect would be Webbed Toes, -2 speed but gain water walk ( moving through water tiles doesn't slow you down ).
Birth defects are essentially mutation disorders, usually having a major negative effect with a minor upside.. so you could use them to your advantage if you are creative.
[h2]Curses![/h2]
Curses can range from magical disorders to cursed items.. they can be acquired many different ways but are usually quite rare.
A good example of a cursed item would be A Childs Skull, your attack becomes a short range very low damage projectile called Tear, that you can use twice per turn. this cursed item attaches itself to your head like a helmet also giving you +1 armor.
Cursed items can't be removed.
As you can see, Mewgenics has a lot going on. one of the reasons why I'm slowly covering every major mechanic here is so I can lay the ground work so we can start telling more in-depth gameplay stories and eventually showing gameplay videos later this year and have things make sense. Much like Isaac, Mewgenics is a vast world of complex, but logical interactions. Our current goal is to spoon feed all this info to you as you play and the game unfolds as to not overwhelm the player. Each time I write a post I get more and more excited to show you random footage... we will get there eventually. but till then you can always get snippets of in-game content on my tiktok.
see you again in 2 weeks where we will be going over items! 100s and 100s of glorious items!
-Edmund
[h3]Diseases, Disorders, Parasites oh my![/h3]
These permanent ailments will act as passive effects on your cats, each comes with it a major downside.. and minor upside that will totally change how you play! Lets dive into each one and see how they work!
[h2]Diseases![/h2]
There are a range of diseases your cats can acquire along their journey that will affect them in many many different ways. Diseases are usually acquired by physical contact with an enemy or npc or the ingestion of something contaminated or very very rotten.
One of my favorite diseases is Rabies, mainly because of this really fun run I had where my fighter (Rodney) got Rabies when attempting to loot a dead cat who was actually still alive! Rodney failed his dexterity check and the "dead cat" reared up and, with its last bit of energy, bit Rodney and gave him the rare disease Rabies!
Rabies comes with a straight forward passive effect, your attack becomes a melee attack ( must bite or claw when fighting ) and each time you complete combat that cat gains +1 str and -1 int.. slowly eating away at the cats brain while also making them more deadly as well. seems like a pretty good deal for a fighter who is already limited to melee combat and deals damage based off their str.. but fighters are also notoriously dumb and with rabies its not long before their int hits 0 and their brain turns to mush. so by the end of the 1st chapter my fighter had destroyed just about everything.. but hit 0 int at the start of the first boss fight. when a cat with rabies no longer has a brain not only does he fail to generate mana each turn, but he also fails to take commands.. he simply does whatever he wants.. and all he wants to do is kill! right off the bat Rodney started attacking our mage downing him and spreading rabies to him, I was able to throw Rodney towards the boss and just keep away from him, letting him do what he did best.. murder! by the end of the run Rodney had spread rabies to all of my cats and nearly all had their brains consumed by the disease, the final epic battle consisted of me watching as my cats auto played themselves, I was totally helpless, just watching as the cats would switch from attacking the boss and attacking each other, with the last few turns consisting of them killing one another while the boss destroyed what was left of Rodney... I had lost, but it was one of the coolest losses I've ever had in a video game.
[h2]Mental Disorders![/h2]
Mental disorders are acquired by mental trauma or passed down through genes, seeing the ghost of your mother or being mocked by your team for failing a basic task are a few examples of how you might gain one.
A good and common example of a mental disorder is depression. depression gives you all stats down... but it also gives you a depressive aura. anything adjacent to you also becomes temporarily depressed gaining -2 to all stats as long as they are adjacent to the cat with depression, further ostracizing the sad cat.. but also lowering the damage and slowing down any enemies around it. I've had more than a few runs where I had a healer with depression and holy shields who would just stand in the middle of a large group and tank their attacks while my squishy cats took turns stabbing them all in the back.. good times.
[h2]Physical Disorders![/h2]
These disorders are usually gained by physical trauma, getting your eyeball pulled out by an unseen force or falling down the stairs might causes these.
A good example would be Charred, a physical disorder that gives your cat +4 armor but also gives them bruise 1 ( take +1 damage each time you take damage).
[h2]Parasites![/h2]
Parasites are acquired many many different was in Mewgenics, but joining a cat orgy or eating a really big poop are great ways to acquire them.
Parasites take over one of your item slots, making you unable to use said slot. ( we will go over items and items slots in a future update )
A good example of a parasite would be Pin Worms. Pin worms infest your neck making you unable to wear items around it, give you -2 str and -2 con, but each time you take damage you spawn a maggot familiar that fights along side its mama!
[h2]Mutations![/h2]
Mutations are gained VERY rarely from breeding/strays you find in the wild, more commonly they are acquired by interactions with toxic waste, radiation, or in rare cases, furniture in your house.
Mutations will effect a random piece of your cats visual appearance changing it permanently and embedding itself in your cats DNA forever.
A good example of a Mutation would be something like Ram horns, your cats melee attack gains +1 knock back.
Mutations are the bread and butter of the long play of Mewgenics. Once acquired, mutations can be passed down through DNA to future generations, amassing many buffs and modifications over time.. but you need to be careful not to inbreed your cats because you just might get....
[h2]Birth Defects![/h2]
Birth Defects are very rare... unless you inbreed your cats! cats breeding with close relatives will have a high chance of giving their children birth defects.
A good example of a birth defect would be Webbed Toes, -2 speed but gain water walk ( moving through water tiles doesn't slow you down ).
Birth defects are essentially mutation disorders, usually having a major negative effect with a minor upside.. so you could use them to your advantage if you are creative.
[h2]Curses![/h2]
Curses can range from magical disorders to cursed items.. they can be acquired many different ways but are usually quite rare.
A good example of a cursed item would be A Childs Skull, your attack becomes a short range very low damage projectile called Tear, that you can use twice per turn. this cursed item attaches itself to your head like a helmet also giving you +1 armor.
Cursed items can't be removed.
As you can see, Mewgenics has a lot going on. one of the reasons why I'm slowly covering every major mechanic here is so I can lay the ground work so we can start telling more in-depth gameplay stories and eventually showing gameplay videos later this year and have things make sense. Much like Isaac, Mewgenics is a vast world of complex, but logical interactions. Our current goal is to spoon feed all this info to you as you play and the game unfolds as to not overwhelm the player. Each time I write a post I get more and more excited to show you random footage... we will get there eventually. but till then you can always get snippets of in-game content on my tiktok.
see you again in 2 weeks where we will be going over items! 100s and 100s of glorious items!
-Edmund
1. Toss: Toss is a fun tank ability that grabs something adjacent to you and throws it into an empty tile in the spells AOE. enemies can be tossed into glass, water or adjacent to the next cat in turn order.. you can even toss interactive objects in the level or if you want, you can toss your own team mates! just remember landing will cause a tiny bit of damage to whatever you throw.
2. Frost Blast: Frost blast is a mage ability that shoots a blast of icy air in a straight line up to 5 spaces away, freezing the 1st thing it hits solid. frozen things will lose their next turn, then thaw out. while frozen they become immune to all damage and will slide around when hit in the opposite direction. this spell also has a ice element tied to it.. but we will go over elements and how they effect things in a later post. 
3. Zealot: Zealot is a cleric ability that allows the caster to imbue themselves with a holy shield. much like the holy mantle in isaac, holy shield will absorb an attack no matter how much damage is done. 
4. Marked: this ability is a hunter support all star, marking an enemy allows all other cats attacking it a 100% chance of landing a critical attack against it. ( critical attacks deal x2 damage, they can be done naturally as well but their chances are very low and tied to your luck stat )
1. Gravity Falls: this hunter passive, rewards your hunter for attacking stuff as far away as possible, comboing well with abilities that give you more range or reposition you easily. 
2. Thunder Thighs: this tank passive grants your tubby lil cat the ability to "trample". things that have trample can pass through other cats or enemies that are blocking them, dealing damage to anything they walk over or land on, also displacing them in the process. this passive combos well with abilities that raise your movement, dash you forward and also things that give your cat contact type status effects like thorns ( thorns = things that make physical contact with you take damage equal to your thorns )
3. Undercat: this fighter passive gives them +2 str ( more melee damage ) and +1 brace (brace reduces physical damage taken by a flat amount) for each adjacent enemy around it. this ability combos well with positional abilities that get you close to multiple enemies, like jumping or being thrown... it also works perfect with melee aoe attacks that hit all targets around you at once. 
4. Tutor: this mage passive teaches the last spell you cast each turn to the rest of your cats, allowing you to temporarily multiclass your team into mages! this one combos with a lot and allows for some pretty cool planning ahead for some possible minor game breaking combos.. if you play your cards right. 
1) Cat info hud. 
2) Action hud. 
3) Turn Order.
4) Passive Hud / Extended hud.
