Mewgenics tips and tricks: 10 things I wish I knew before starting

Mewgenics is one of the strangest games of 2026, and that’s not just because of mutant cats.

It’s a pet breeding game, a tactical RPG, and a roguelike, and it’s one of the biggest games of the year so far. That hasn’t stopped it from being incredibly odd, though.

Everything from preparing your cats for an adventure to upgrading your house and storage is a bit strange, and that’s why I’m breaking down ten things I wish I knew before starting Mewgenics.

A good breeder

The aim of the game is to get to the final area and defeat the final boss, but of course the method that achieves that is having a team of strong cats. That’s what the game is really about: breeding a team of mutant freaks that will be borderline unstoppable. You’ll quickly unlock a second room in your starting house, and then you can section off cats you want to breed, and they’ll give some skills and passive abilities to their kittens. You’ll be able to see which skills are inherited once you’ve donated kittens to Tink. On that note…

Don’t get too attached

Not all cats are made equal, and with a nightly mating ritual and a daily stray you’ll find outside, you’ll never run out of cats. You need food to sustain a house full of cats, so when you’ve got too many on your hands, it’s time to donate them. The various NPCs of the game – who may or may not be clones of you or vice versa – will accept cats that have achieved certain goals, like returning from a certain area, retiring, getting injured, and more. Donating cats that meet the criteria will grant you access to new bonuses, like rooms, food storage, item storage, and even the ability to see which stats will be inherited by kittens.

Tough tabbies or feeble felines?

With all that said, it does mean that sometimes the cat you breed will be just useless. If you don’t check the stats of the cats you throw out on an adventure, you just might find yourself with a team of crippled kitties that can’t fight back against the feral felines of the alley. In one run I had a full team of cats with HP below 20, which meant every fight was a fight for survival, and I escaped as soon as possible. If you’re looking for a long run where you go further than before – and perhaps even encounter a helpful mutation – then you will want to ensure that the cats you breed are ready for it. Otherwise you’ll need to throw strays into the alley just to find food to survive.

Well-equipped cats

In addition to a cat’s base stats you’ll be able to equip cats with multiple types of items. You have weapons, trinkets, and armor, with three different armor slots for the head, face, and neck. Weapons don’t boost your regular attack, they give you an attack in addition to that, though weapons can break easily. Armor always comes with unique buffs and boosts that can turn the tides in your favour, and a simple combo is equipping your cat with items that grant Thorns and shields before taunting them to get their attention. You can also equip usable items for stat and health boosts, but storing these items is rarely worthwhile unless you have excess storage.

Class collars, or not

You won’t be throwing your kitties into the alley with nothing, they’ll take their equipment and combine it with Class Collars. You’ll earn a variety of collars over the course of the game, and each represents a pretty traditional RPG class, like Tank, Rogue, Warrior, Priest, Archer, etc. When you equip a class collar to a cat at the start of your adventure you’ll be giving them some specific stat buffs and nerfs, so make sure to check that your cat’s stats suit the class you’re giving it. Each class will feel pretty familiar if you’re used to playing turn-based RPGs, but Mewgenics has a long list of absurd attacks to use, so they’ll still feel fresh.

Passives over everything

Attack skills and buffs are great, but passives should take priority over everything else. Having two complementary passive abilities will guarantee your cat to be a powerhouse that can be the MVP during tough boss encounters. You won’t be able to gain new passive abilities until you’ve levelled up and moved through a few areas first, but when you do get to choose between make sure to consider your options carefully. The class collar is how your cat plays, but the passives decide the build and its specialities.

Smaller, stronger squad?

You don’t have to use a full team of four cats to go on an adventure. You’re free to use just one, two, or three cats, and a smaller number will see the EXP from each battle split a smaller number of ways, allowing you to level up faster. This is good for select strategies, but overall four is a safe bet, and adventuring with a smaller team should probably be left for challenge runs.

Put your best stats forward

As you adventure through the world you’ll sometimes be hit with random encounters where you’ll have to make a choice. For example, you see a scared kitten — do you charm it, or attack it? Each choice will relate to one of your stats, and you should always use the stat you’re best at. Successful encounters like these can reward you with all kinds of bonus items and advantages, but unsuccessful encounters can give your kitties debuffs or set you up for an ambush in your next fight.

Weird weather

One of the things that can change with these random encounters is the weather. In addition to rain, and frog rain, you can also find yourself in situations like, there are lots of beautiful butterflies in the arena. As with everything in the game, the weather can drastically change certain encounters. For example, the main boss of the first area, Radical Rat, likes to throw out bombs, but the bomb fuses will get instantly doused and become useless if it’s raining, making his primary attack completely ineffective. There are countless ways the weather can change your strategies, so always make sure to pay attention to how it changes your encounters.

Hard routes

As you progress through the game Hard routes will become available through each area, and these routes are exactly what they sound like. They may be more challenging – not suitable if you just want to get food and get out – but if you’re looking to push as far as you can go, then they’ll give you rarer items and more EXP to level up with. If you’ve already made the journey through the area a few times already, then it’s time to take the Hard route.