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All Grounded 2 Mutations And How To Unlock Them

In: Gaming, News

The outdoors feels more dangerous than ever in Grounded 2, and many bug types seem eager to bully you. Completing challenges will help you earn Mutations, which are sets of abilities that can aid you in your survival of Brookhollow Park. Here we’ll discuss each Mutation, how you earn them, and also give some tips on when to use them.

What are Mutations in Grounded 2?

Mutations menu

Mutations are buffs that can help improve your combat, stamina, and even resistance to various elements in the game. All of these are found in the Mutations tab of your inventory. This can easily be overlooked in the early stages of your campaign, but you’ll want to start working on these right away so you can make the most of the buffs and improve your survival rate.

Mutations come in four different categories:

Fighting styles
Combat abilities
Exploration
Survival

These Mutations are unlocked by completing specific challenges as listed below. Most Mutations have three levels of challenges, and the buffs increase with each level you complete.

Milk Molar

In the beginning, you can have two Mutations equipped at one time. With the use of Milk Molars, you can increase the number of mutations you can have active to a maximum of four.

How to unlock all Mutations in Grounded 2

Fighting style Mutations

Lil Fist

Kill 40 creatures with fists
Kill 100 creatures with fists
Kill 200 creatures with fists

Killing creatures with your fists lets you unlock the Lil Fist Mutation. This lets you build up a powerful fist attack if you want to fight these bugs with your bare hands. I can’t say this is the recommended way to fight bugs in Grounded 2, but it might be a fun combat style you want to try.

To complete this challenge, I’d recommend digging up grubs and punching them. It will be the fastest way to take out enemies with your fists, especially in the early game.

Smasher

Kill 40 creatures with clubs
Kill 100 creatures with clubs
Kill 200 creatures with clubs

This Mutation will give you a bonus stun effect when using clubs. This can be useful for stunning larger enemies like roaches, stink bugs, and the fearsome praying mantis.

Lawn mite killed with spear

Javelineer

Kill 40 creatures with spears
Kill 100 creatures with spears
Kill 200 creatures with spears

Grab a spear and start stabbing to level up this Mutation. This will give you greater damage when throwing the spear, and some of the damage dealt to you is bounced back to your attacker.

Assassin

Kill 40 creatures with daggers
Kill 100 creatures with daggers
Kill 200 creatures with daggers

This Mutation gives you increased critical hit chance with dash strikes. Dual daggers and sickles also deal increased damage on critical hits.

Assassin is a great fighting Mutation to consider. Getting in close and dealing tons of damage with a weapon like the Orb Weaver daggers works great for many bug types. It deals with scorpions, spiders, roaches, and other pesky creatures very well.

Character using a bow

Sharpshooter

Kill 40 creatures with bows
Kill 100 creatures with bows
Kill 200 creatures with bows

This Mutation is for the archers. It gives increased critical hit chance with fully charged bow shots.

Blademaster

Kill 40 creatures with swords
Kill 100 creatures with swords
Kill 200 creatures with swords

The Blademaster Mutation causes sword attacks to lower damage inflicted by enemies for a short duration. Attacking creatures with swords temporarily removes your stamina meter as well. This is definitely a Mutation you want to equip if you’re a fan of wielding swords in Grounded 2.

Whittle Wizard

Kill 40 creatures with staves
Kill 100 creatures with staves
Kill 200 creatures with staves

With this Mutation, staff attacks are enhanced by elemental effects. Sizzle burns enemies with a greater intensity, and frozen creatures that shatter will take more damage.

Additionally, the critical hit chance with staff attacks is increased on frozen and burning enemies with max buildup.

Combat Mutations

Parry Master

Perform 30 perfect parry blocks
Perform 80 perfect parry blocks
Perform 150 perfect parry blocks

With Parry Master, perfect blocks will restore stamina.

Ambush

Land 30 ambush attacks
Land 80 ambush attacks
Land 150 ambush attacks

These are simply stealth attacks on enemies. Using this Mutation will deal critical hits against creatures unaware of your presence. Ambush attacks with daggers greatly increases critical hit damage.

I’m not a very sneaky player, but this could be a great Mutation to pair with daggers if you like stealth combat.

Frenzy

Defeat the mysterious stranger

You won’t have access to this Mutation right away. This is unlocked after completing the main story objectives and defeating the stranger.

With Frenzy, melee attacks trigger rage. You deal increased damage and regenerate health while enraged, but you cannot time your blocks.

Guard Dog

Complete 1 MIX.R event
Complete 4 MIX.R event
Complete 9 MIX.R event

Increase damage dealt to creatures that are attacking “your turf,” so presumably your base.

Exploring the map on a buggy

Exploration Mutations

Natural Explorer

Discover 20 points of interest
Discover 50 points of interest
Discover 80 points of interest

Simply run around and unlock various POIs on the map to unlock this Mutation. Natural Explorer lets you run faster. The speed boost is temporarily reduced after you enter combat and deal or take damage from a creature.

Trapper Peep.r

Collect 25 gold cards
Collect 50 gold cards
Collect 75 gold cards

This Mutation increases the damage multiplier of critical hits.

Survival Mutations

Cardio Fan

Deplete stamina 100 times
Deplete stamina 250 times
Deplete stamina 500 times

The Cardio Fan Mutation lets you regain stamina faster, and it lowers the amount of time you spend exhausted after using all of your stamina.

This is an easy Mutation to unlock early in your game, and it’s very helpful for running from enemies, especially if you don’t have a buggy yet or your buggy gets incapacitated.

Reliable Fan

Revive 5 allies
Revive 15 allies
Revive 30 allies

Reliable Fan lets you revive your downed friends faster. If you’re playing solo, you can still unlock this Mutation by reviving your buggy.

Fresh Mint

Fresh Defense

Eat 1 mint shard
Eat 5 mint shards
Eat 10 mint shards

This Mutation provides a great defense against elemental effects. It slows the rate that sizzle burns you, reduces the damage taken from sizzle, and it reduces the damage received from poison gas.

Mint Shards are the giant mints that look like a kid’s Flintstone vitamins, as shown in the image above. They are found all throughout the world, but you’ll need the Omni-Hammer level II upgrade to collect the mint shards from these.

Spicy candy requires Omni-Hammer level II

Spicy Safety

Eat 1 spicy shard
Eat 5 spicy shards
Eat 10 spicy shards

Eating spicy shards will unlock Spicy Safety, which is a Mutation you’ll definitely want to use when exploring the chilly areas of the Ice Cream Cart. This provides a chill reduction, greater freeze resistance, and it reduces shatter damage when hit while frozen.

The Ice Cream Cart area is a difficult place to explore even when you have armor meant to provide warmth. You’ll want to stack this Mutation with cold gear and smoothies designed to combat the cold. Spicy shards are gained from the spicy chili papper-shaped candy, as shown in the image above.

Mithridatism

Kill 5 venomous creatures
Kill 50 venomous creatures
Kill 150 venomous creatures

The Mithridatism Mutation slows the rate of venom seeping through your body and reduces damage from venom.

For more tips and tricks, make sure to check out our Grounded 2 guides hub, which includes how to find all Ranger Outposts and upgrade weapons and armor.