Many elements of the Grounded make it stand out in the recent past of the survivalist genre, and one of them is the mutations in the game, which we will explain and rank in our Grounded Mutations Tier List.
- From a pool of 33 total Grounded Mutations, players have to choose just 5 for their coming game journey.
- To help you choose the best 5 Mutations, ranking is based on each pick’s overall substance use and Effect. Unblocking mechanism is also given special attention to weighing a Mutation’s general usability.
If you don’t like challenging yourself with additional problems but just healthy Grounded Mutations competition, choose from the following best Mutations only:
- Juicy, Mom Genes, Buff Lungs, Meat Shield, Coup de Grass, and Sharpshooter.
- On the other hand, Mutations that can be avoided include Daredevil, Rock Cracker, Grass Master, Mithridatism, and Parry Master. Unlike the best Mutations, they are either broken or possess a somewhat gimmicky nature.
Grounded Mutations Tier List Ranking Table | |
| Tiers | Mutations |
| S-Tier | Juicy, Coup de Grass, Mom Genes, Meat Shield, Buff Lungs, Sharpshooter |
| A-Tier | Blademaster, Ant-nihilator, Chopper, Natural Explorer, Smasher, Cardio Fan |
| B-Tier | Guard Dog, Javelineer, Fresh Defense, Truffle Tussle, Barbarian, Lil Fist,Reliable Friend, Spicy Safety, Assassin |
| C-Tier | Merteen |
| D-Tier | Daredevil, Grass Master, Rock Cracker, Mithridatism, Parry Master |
The game reminds us of Lost, a book by Natasha Preston. It will hook you from day 01, and most of you will not realize how much time has passed since. The game does require you to know certain things, and to aid you in one of that aspects, we have made this Tier List. Let’s talk briefly about Mutations in the game.
Mutations In Grounded
The game consists of challenges and tasks that are rewarding for you on a personal level but in-game, you get perks; mutations are one of them. Initially, you have a humble start, but with time, as you unlock mutations and unlock phases, life becomes easy for you in the game as they help you, for example, in combat, farming, hunting, and other things you can do in the game.
It is important to know that the mutations are unlocked from BURG.L and are not unlocked in normal gameplay. We can’t tell you further about BURG.L as it might spoil the game for you, but be sure it is one of the most awesome characters in the game & likewise, one of the most important ones.
As you upgrade in the game, your mutation slots open. By default, you start with 2 mutation slots. The next three are opened by buying them from our favorite robot BURG.L. In total, there are 5 slots, and with each upgrade to the number of slots, it becomes increasingly hard to open the next. Having a maximum of 5 slots means you have to be very clever in choosing the right mutations, and our Tier List can come in handy here.
Tier List’s Criteria
Our Mutation Tier List consists of all the notable mutations in the game. We will rank them from the best to the worst to help you in the game. They are organized in tiers that go from best to worst.
- S Tier: The best mutations
- A Tier: The second-best mutations
- B Tier: Average mutations
- C Tier: Below-average mutations
- D Tier: Mutations best avoided
S-Tier
The Mutations in this tier are the best in the game. You can book a permanent slot for them out of the 5, and it will make your life easy in the game where the world has shrunken.
Buff Lungs
| Description | Inhalation burn your cell bright with increases energy capacity |
| Effect | Increase Stamina by 30% |
| Obtain from | Purchase for 3000 Raw Science after getting the Grave robbery chip from Red Anthill |
Buff Lung is one of those mutations you might want to equip because it is essential for us in all the general tasks. Your sprinting, chopping, and smashing abilities are boosted, while your defense improves greatly in a fight. This is one of our favorite mutations and a must-have because the general tasks are something you can’t get away from and a boost of 50 to the stamina makes the game easy for you, and the grinding is not hard as a result of this.
Meat Shield
| Description | The size to meat ratio is off the plane and you can take hits like a champion |
| Effect | Increase Max health by 30 |
| Obtain from | Purchase for 3000 Raw Science |
One of those mutations had given us a hard time because it was not easy for us to choose between this and Buff Lungs. This mutation is very good if you have an issue with blocking and want to take as little damage as possible because of your inability. To be very honest, we would not call it an inability; the game makes blocking hard.
Mom Genes
| Description | Vocal cords stretch to form spiderling summoning motherly cries |
| Effect | 10% chance to spawn Spiderling with 25 health. Capable of inadvertently damaging the player. |
| Obtain from | Kill the Hedge Broodmother |
When you initially use this mutation, you might curse us for putting it on the S Tier, as it is not everyone’s cup of tea. Still, it is on the ultimate tier of our Grounded Mutations Tier List because you can have a deadly combination of daggers and spears.
The pro tip would be to avoid using it with heavy weapons. Daggers and spears are generally good weapons in the game and having Mom Genes equipped, you can get the most out of them. Besides, the friendly spiderlings spawn because of this can help you in fights.
Coup de Grass
| Description | Act like a beacon of hope in the darkness by bursting inspiration flash to your eyes |
| Effect | Increase critical hit change by 2.5%-5% |
| Obtain from | Find the 4 leaf cover. Roll the dice at Minotaur’s Maze on the picnic table until you get 20. |
There was a very frustrating bug in the past, but with the recent updates, they have fixed it, and you can now get to phase 2/2 very easily. This bug was so annoying that we would never have placed it on this tier, but since the fix, we can’t stress enough how good this mutation can be.
It boosts your critical hits and can complement all weapon types, unlike the Mom Genes, which is well suited to daggers and spears. The boost to the critical hits can bring down enemies that are not easy to beat and save you a lot of time.
Juicy
| Description | An encyclopedic knowledge of beverage ingredients |
| Effect | Thirst rate decreases to 50% |
| Obtain from | Discovering all 5 juicy boxes |
The mutation will decrease the thirst drain by almost half. The issue of hunger and thirst dropping quickly was in the game, but with the new development and updates, the dev team of Grounded has done a great job of fixing it. It doesn’t drain as fast, but it doesn’t mean thirst has stopped dropping. Juicy can help you and is essential for those hindered by thirst draining quickly.
It is placed in the S Tier as the thirst drain in the game’s initial hours can be very annoying as you need to have good stamina to do the basic tasks in the game. In addition to that, in fights, you can not afford to have your stamina drained.
Sharpshooter
| Description | Focus with deadly clarity. Landing a shot with bow or crossbow even with significantly less stamina. Candy arrows unlock some special properties as a Mastery Bonus. |
| Effect | Pin enemies with ranged and powerful weapons. Crossbow attacks reduce the stamina cost by 50% or 100% for only 5 seconds. Activates while using Spring Bow, Insect Bow, or Crow Crossbow. |
| Obtain from | Kill 40, 100, or 200 creatures with the Crossbow or Bow |
One of those mutations we avoided in the past was because we thought it stopped increasing damage. Still, while playing the game, we learned that unlocking the Smithing Station is the best way to increase the damage you can inflict with your weapons and one shouldn’t rely on mutations for that.
Our perception about it changed, and we think there is no better mutation than Sharpshooter for pinning the enemies and creating a distance between you and them in the game. Yes, it doesn’t increase the damage but temporarily freezing an enemy makes life easy.
A-Tier
The mutations on this tier list can be easily put on the S Tier if you think we have done injustice to them because the margin of difference between them is very less. Nevertheless, both tiers have the best mutations in the game.
Smasher
| Description | Heavy strokes will bring down the hammer with more force and intensity. As a Mastery Bonus, hammer attacks stun easily. |
| Effect | Daze enemies with the help of the Hammer. Slow target attack speed by 10%, 20%, or 30% for just 10 sec. |
| Obtain from | Continuous killing creatures with Hammer |
We suggest you always use a hammer at level 6 with the smasher. Yes, weapon types don’t increase damage when coupled with a mutation, but they surely add a unique effect to your chosen weapon type. The hammers gain a unique effect from the smasher mutation is a slow attack/daze effect giving you more time to hit your enemies.
Natural Explorer
| Description | With every landmark you’ll find, gives you understanding of the yard. Your tiny feet skitter through the weeds and muck becomes even more fast. |
| Effect | Increases how fast you can run. Increases your Sprint speed by 20%, 35% or 50%. |
| Obtain from | Discover Landmarks. |
Sprinting in this game has been very painful for us. It drains very easily, and the world is very large; we feel it should not drain as fast. Many argue that it is good to get the true essence of the game, but for us, we can’t compromise. Thus the natural explorer will speed up things for you, and your exploring and dodging become very easy in the game.
Chopper
| Description | Axe attacks are the extension of your anger, rending your enemies armor. As a Mastery bonus, axe attack removes stamina delay when not exhausted. |
| Effect | Lower overall resistance of all the creatures by 10%, 15% or 20%. Axe attack removes the Stamina regen delay. Actives when using Pebble, Insect, Termite or Sour-Battle axe. |
| Obtain from | Continuous killing creatures with axe |
Small insects are perhaps one of those enemies that annoy us a lot. You might want to disagree, but they are damned. So for them, the axes are weapons that you must keep. They are not as lucrative as other weapons in the game, but when you have the chopper mutation, the nasty insects can easily be killed with quick swirls.
It can give you the ability to stagger your enemies and will restrict their movement. We would have put it on the S Tier, but only if the mutation was good with all weapon types.
Ant-nihilator
| Description | Ant become your familiar threats and Death greet all the ants that face you |
| Effect | Increases damage dealt by 5%, 15% or 25%. Increase damage resistance of every ant to 10%. |
| Obtain from | Repeatedly kill Black, Fire or Red ants in the game |
Red Ant Eggs, Marbles, and Quartzites are some of the essential things to have in Grounded, and the best place to find them is in the Anthills. It would be very stupid to go there without the Ant-nihilator mutation. Equipping one gives you the ultimate resistance against them at phase 3 and increases your damage to kill them off.
Ants are very annoying in this game, and it is one of the must-have mutations. Bringing death to them is very soothing, but we wish the mutation was not just ant specific so we could put it on the S Tier.
Blademaster
| Description | Kill enemies to reduce your effectiveness. Lower the damage enemies deal by sword attacks. As a Mastery Bonus, enemies with swords remove your exhaustion timer. |
| Effect | Lower the damage of the target attacks by 10%, 20% or 30%. Reduces exhaustion time by 90%. Activates when using Larva blades, Mosquito needles, Black ant sword or Spicy Coaltana. |
| Obtain from | Kill 40, 100 or 200 creatures with sword |
Certain weapons in the game, like the swords, need you to be rapid. This drains your stamina, making it harder for you to cope with it if you don’t have a mutation like a blade master in your mutation slots. Speaking of this, there was a bug associated with the blade master in the game at one point, where attacks from weapons cost zero stamina but were later fixed.
We would have easily put Blademaster on the S Tier had it not been for our disliking for swords and how better weapons are available than the sword.
Cardio Fan
| Description | Your cells will adopt more efficient respiration process after the exhausting impacts on your body |
| Effect | Increase Stamina regen by 10%, 15% or 20%. Decreases exhaustion time by 10%, 20% or 30%. |
| Obtain from | Keep running until the player is exhausted 100, 250 or 500 times |
Our Grounded Mutation Tier List targets every player, from beginners to experts. Thus this Cardio Fan’s inclusion on the A Tier might make the experienced ones sad. It boosts your stamina which is much more than, for example, the natural explorer and is on the higher side. Experienced players know how to conserve stamina, so for them, it might be annoying, but for those who are starting new, this is a must-have mutation as it makes your life easy.
At the start of the game, stamina is one of the biggest challenges you may face. It is not easy to manage it. Certainly, the chances increase if you have not played a game from the survivalist genre.
B-Tier
The average Tier of our Grounded Mutations Tier List. You can use these mutations but they are not a must and can be switched around according to your needs in the game.
Barbarian
| Description | You can use your muscular arms to swing a club with blind rage. As a Mastery bonus, it regenerates health while enraged. |
| Effect | Enter rage mode for 10 seconds. Increase overall damage to 15%, 20% or 25%. Health is regenerated with the use of rage. |
| Obtain from | Kill creatures by using two handed weapon, club |
The barbarian, at one point, was perhaps a go-to mutation. But the developers of Grounded decided to encourage players to use other methods to combat the Wolf Spiders in the game. In the past, they were menacing, but we feel they aren’t as intimidating with the recent changes in the game.
The barbarian was for the biggest weapons like the clubs, but now the Wolf Spider can be slashed, and the developers have tried to decrease overreliance on clubs thus, it didn’t make the S or A Tiers, but it is an essential mutation to boost attack damage.
Truffle Tussle
| Description | Fungus of haze entered your tiny skin, adding its power to your unarmed attacks |
| Effect | Creates fungal explosions Deals 75% explosion damage |
| Obtain from | Kill the infected ladybug in Haze lab |
There can be instances in the game when all the weapons might give up on you. In that case, the Truffle Tussle can be a great mutation. But other than that, I don’t find any substantial reasons to put it in one of the mutation slots. It can be good against noninfected bugs, but against the infected ones, it’s of no use; it works, for example, in close-range with grenades, which is a bummer.
In short, for mob control, Truffle Tussle can be used if, by chance, all your weapons break. Besides that, this average mutation can be avoided.
Fresh Defense
| Description | Plume of mint dust send cool waves rippling to your skin and as a response your cells actives Freshness layer to combat the sting |
| Effect | Increase gas resistance and burning damage by 20% or 50%. Reduce Rizzle rate by 25%, 50 or 75%. |
| Obtain from | Eat 1, 3 or 5 Mint Shard |
If you need some coal, having this mutation is a plus, but only if you have the lion armor with you! The lion armor is easy to find but only having the line armor to have protection against the sizzle effect is ridiculous. For this reason, it is part of the B Tier of our Grounded Mutation Tier List.
This gives the impression that the mutation is weak and glitched, but in short, it is just a very weird mutation. Hopefully, the devs will consider changing it a bit, as it is a must-have in areas with BBQ fumes and haze.
Javelineer
| Description | Spear is your support system that deals additional damage and counter poke enemies attack to reflect the damage back result |
| Effect | Lower enemy’s armor. Increases spear throwing damage by 10%, 20% or 30%. Deals with more 30% damage. |
| Obtain from | Kill creatures by using Spear |
We don’t think many players like spears because of how sluggish they can be, but they, on the other hand, drain less stamina. While they increase your range, they can be sluggish and result in less damage. To increase the damage, one can use the Javelineer mutation, but again the increase will not be substantial, and the Switching Station is your best bet to increase the damage of your weapons. Thus it is not placed on the higher tiers, but it is not completely useless, so it was fair enough for us to put it on the B Tier.
Guard Dog
| Description | All the garding locations against the angry mob creatures has increased your protective instinct |
| Effect | Deals increased damage to the enemies involved in defense events |
| Obtain from | Complete MIX.Rs defense events |
Raids are hard for many players, and they often complain about how their whole bases are destroyed, but in our opinion, they can’t do much damage with the right strategy. One of the ways to combat this is using a mutation like the Guard Dog. The Raids happen very rarely, though, but when they happen, the Guard Dog mutation will help you defend your base better.
Assassin
| Description | Daggers are your favorable weapon which cause your enemies to bleed like hell. As a Mastery bonus, the dagger attacks open new opportunities. |
| Effect | Dagger attack inflicts enemies bleed to the target. DOT effect deals with 30%, 50% or 75% damage in 5 seconds. |
| Obtain from | By repeatedly killing creatures with a dagger |
The Bone Dagger is one of our favorite weapons from the game. It has a short range but is very quick. With the Assasin mutation placed in the holder, the damage from the dagger increases. One can argue that the Dot (damage over time) from the dagger is a good thing, but we find it underwhelming.
Spicy Safety
| Description | Your bloodstream is all filled with Spicy sediment seeps Fiery wall is there to protect you from stabs and smashes. |
| Effect | Smashing and Stabbing attacks damage taken is reduced by 25% or 50% |
| Obtain from | Eat Spicy Shards |
A useful mutation against enemies that relies on stabbing or smashing you. For example, the larva will chop you to death if you are not careful, but the Spicy Safety can help you have good resistance against its damage. Enemies with explosive attacks can also be menacing, but they are very few. This mutation is average at best until the devs introduce more enemies who rely on stabbing, explosive, and smashing.
Reliable Friend
| Description | Living all the time in the lawn filled your muscle memory with hope, make a harrowing rescue all the more probable |
| Effect | Player revive speed is increased by 25%, 50% or 75% |
| Obtain from | By reviving a friend multiple times |
If you have the right strategy, then this mutation is of little use to you but if on your team there is a newbie, then using this mutation helps you as it boosts your speed to revive the friendly players in the online multiplayer mode. Thus we placed it on the average B Tier of our Grounded Mutations Tier List to keep a balance.
Lil Fist
| Description | With every swing, your muscles become stronger which increases the damage of further blows. As a Mastery bonus, you get the ability to hit twice in a single punch. |
| Effect | Gives unarmed attacks 1%, 1.5% or 2% damage buff. Each punch landed deals with 75% damage of the second hit. Activates when you use your fist. |
| Obtain from | Repeatedly killing creatures with your fist |
It is considered useless by many players, but in our opinion, it is not completely useless. As it can help fight the Gnats in the game easily; moreover, it is of great use if your weapons break or you want to preserve your weapons. Returning to Gnats, they are very annoying and can make you drop your weapon, then Lil Fist can come in handy. It is, in our opinion, hated for no reason, as it deserves a little less hate.
C-Tier
This unfortunate mutation is below par but not outright gimmicky, as you can use it if needed. If the devs decide to add more underwater places in future updates, it might jump a tier or two.
Merteen
| Description | Your permeable skin starts to utilize an electrochemical gradient that aids in respiration |
| Effect | Increase Swim speed by 15%. Underwater oxygen time is increased by 10%. |
| Obtain from | By discovering 5 Landmarks inside Koi Pond |
When you discover 3 underwater landmarks, then you will be able to unlock the Merteen mutation. You might be excited, but we want to tell you that it has little to no usefulness. Grounded has very few underwater areas, and one such place is the Kai Pond, which might be useful as it gives you an underwater oxygen boost. Besides that, just put it aside.
D-Tier
The worst tier of our Grounded Mutations Tier List. Some of these are broken because of an update, while the others are gimmicky and have no substance use in the game.
Parry Master
| Description | Blocking attacks is only based on your perfect timing, proves you to be an extreme advantage |
| Effect | Gives perfect block chance to gain 5%, 10% or 15% stamina |
| Obtain from | By perfect blocking attacks |
We would have placed this on the A or the S Tier in the past, but since the bugs strike back to update, it is better avoided now. We had it ranked 2 for us, which was very underwhelming. In the past, it aided in boosting your stamina upon a good block, but now it does nothing. Therefore it is best avoided.
Mithridatism
| Description | Your body has build up a permanent resistance for the thrilling surge of poison coursing |
| Effect | Resistance to poison increase by 25%, 50% or 75% |
| Obtain from | By killing Wolf spiders |
This mutation again would have been part of our best tiers, but since the latest update, it has been bugged. It will fluctuate between levels, sometimes at level one; then it will jump to level 3. This continues back and forth. Thus, we expect it will make your life hell while fighting enemies with venom.
Rock Cracker
| Description | Being dependent on the busting is your plus point. Bringing the hammer down gives your ever-growing efficiency. |
| Effect | Increase busting efficiency by 25%, 50% or 100% |
| Obtain from | Burst 25, 60 or 105 rocks |
Who even harvests rocks in the game? Just kidding, some people might do it. Everyone has their mindset but once you are done rock harvesting, pack it somewhere. Don’t waste your mutation slot on it.
Grass Master
| Description | Being a living lawn mower, the knowledge of chopping grass allow you to drop them with increasing ease |
| Effect | Increase chopping efficiency by 25%, 50% or 100%. Harvesting grass can return you 5, 10 or 15% overall stamina. |
| Obtain from | Chop 50, 200 or 500 blades of grass |
Ok, you are done collecting grass? Empty the slot and use another mutation from the C Tier and above. A useless mutation!
Daredevil
| Description | The perpetual flow of adrenaline powered you as you traveled through the yard. Going through repeated trials and errors will lead to taking leaps of faith. |
| Effect | Reduce fall damage by 50% |
| Obtain from | Buy it for 3000 Raw science, after completing Hedge lab |
Save your Raw Science, and don’t buy this mutation from BURG.L. With time you can buy it, but for the most part, you don’t need it because if you are careful, falling to your death is nearly impossible in this game.
Disclaimer
This Tier List is based on our time in the game. We have clocked many hours in the game, and as a result, we were able to form this Tier List. So we are very confident that the information you see is accurate, but we can not make sure you agree with this Tier List ranking 100% as the nature of it is subjective.
Wrap Up
The Mutations Tier List comes to an end here. We ranked all the major mutations from the best to the worst with a logical explanation of their ranking, and we would love to hear from you in the comments below. Meanwhile, you can also look at our other Grounded content below.
Next:
- BEST Grounded Weapons
- Grounded BEST Settings
- Grounded Shared Worlds
- Grounded: How To Repair
- Grounded Floors
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