Mewgenics is, like Edmund McMillan’s most influential game, The Binding of Isaac, a largely random experience. But just like TBOI, progression is split between themed stages, each of which come with their own unique enemies, bosses, and challenges.
Every run in Mewgenics starts in the Alley, so it’s important to understand how to make the most of the first steps. If you know what you’re dealing with, you’ll know exactly how to start each attempt on the right foot, so let’s get started!
The Alley’s Theming
The Alley is exactly what it sounds like, a series of alleyways packed with vermin, trash, and other cats. By far the most hospitable of the locals, The Alley is the simplest area to cut through.
Arenas are often overgrown with tall grass, providing cover for whichever team can claim the advantage. Like any tactics game, maintaining control of any advantage you can is paramount.
New combat mechanics will be introduced throughout repeat visits to the Alley, including Weather Effects and Hard paths that are unlocked after progressing through a locale once.
Think of The Alley like your sandbox, the perfect place to try new things and catch your bearings. Mewgenics rewards experimentation, and if you’re going to make a mistake, make it early.
The Alley’s Enemies
As the closest thing Mewgenics has to a tutorial area, the Alley’s enemies are on the simpler side. Despite this, it’s best to know exactly what you’re up against, so let’s go through them now.
| Tom Tom | Slow melee front liners with a wide attack range. Can hit multiple cats at once. Stay out of range. |
| Kitten | Small, disposable foes. Flee whenever they take damage. Easy to lead into traps, squishy. |
| Pooter | Ranged flying insects. Can attack over terrain and obstacles. Can’t attack at close range. |
| Mangy | Ranged cats that spawn Maggots when taking damage. Try to kill them in as few hits as possible. |
| Maggot | Cannon fodder melee attackers with one hit point. |
| Fly | Weak flying melee attackers with one hit point. |
| Cat Caller | Debuffing support enemy that apples Slow to cats. Try to kill them from range. |
| Lil’ Rat | Small melee attackers with a single tile of movement. Have a lunging dash attack. |
| Leaper | Chubby, slow rats that leap and deal damage around their landing zone. Also knock cats back. |
| Pinky | Single health point fodder. Take a random movement action during their turn. |
The major lesson to be learned from the Alley’s enemies is to focus on maintaining control of a fight’s tempo. While weak, the enemies fought in the Alley punish misplays hard.
Whenever a fight starts, take a second to map out how you want it to go via the turn order and initial team layouts. There are minimal moments of randomness this early, so master your simple gameplan and stick to it.
The Alley’s Sub-Bosses
Halfway through the Alley, right before the Hard path, you’ll run into a Sub-Boss, one of four cats that mimic one of the starting classes. Each fight is like a supped-up version of their class, so we’ll go over them quickly.
Magnus
Magnus is a bright red cat that stands in for the Fighter, aiming to batter down your cats and introduce combo knockback. Magnus’s primary attack is the combo charge he uses every turn, charging in a target direction and knocking a cat back before repeating the process two more times.
Keep your cats in separate lanes to minimize damage from them bouncing off each other, but keep the team close together. If Magnus singles out a cat, he’ll repeatedly charge them over and over, dealing more than enough damage to injure most classes permanently.
Lucy
Lucy stands in for the deep blue Mage, weilding multiple elements to devastating effect. Each spell has its own pattern and effects, forcing quick responses. Luckily, Lucy has to prepare each spell in advance, giving you time to dodge and punish accordingly.
Bunching the party can lead to situations where only some can dodge in time, so focus on surrounding Lucy as best you can. Give each member of the party space to maneuver and get their hits in when the opportunities present themselves.
Fenrir
Fenrir is the third Sub-Boss of the Alley, standing in for the Hunter. Just like the playable class, Fenrir prefers to keep at a range, laying bear traps that hide themselves and peppering the party as they approach.
Fenrir will always try to end his turn hiding in tall grass, which makes it harder to hit him, but much easier to figure out where he’s going to go. His bear traps are only visible for a few seconds after he places them, so keep their locations in mind as the fight progresses to avoid getting kited.
If you have anyone with fire damage, burning down the tall grass is very effective way to weaken Fenrir. A Mage with Fire Aspect can ignite tall grass simply by walking into it, so it’s worth trying to smoke Fenrir out if you came prepared.
Maisie
Maisie is the fourth and final Alley Sub-Boss, acting as the Tank. Maisie fills this roll by forcing the party to target her as she spends her turns healing and buffing her kittens.
These kittens are identical to the kittens you’ll find throughout the Alley, but make no mistake. If you don’t burn Maisie down, she’ll turn the kittens into absolute bruisers.
Whenever you attack a kitten, Maisie forcibly switches places with them, taking the damage in their stead. She’s notably susceptible to AOE attacks, however, as she only has time to save one kitten before the attack goes off.
Abuse this to remove the kittens from the fight early, or focus Maisie down with as much damage as you can muster.
The Alley’s Bosses
The Alley only has two bosses barring access from the next areas, both of which throw a wrench into your plans in different ways. We’ll take a quick look at both, which in depth guides linked for further assistance.
Radical Rat
Radical Rat is the end-of-area boss you’ll face in Mewgenics, tasking you with more of a minigame than a real up-front challenge. Radical Rat doesn’t deal damage on his own, instead tossing bombs that will explode at the end of the current round’s turn order, or if hit by fire damage.
These bombs have 1 hit point and can be easily disarmed by any non-fire-based attack. After tossing a few, Radical Rat will cast Turtle, hiding in his bucket to avoid the blast.
Simply keep on the bombs as they come, keep tearing into Radical Rat, and you’ll be on your way out of the Alley.
Queen Hippo
Faced after heading down the Alley’s hard route, Queen Hippo is a much more direct confrontation than Radical Rat. Despite this the fight has plenty of nuances you can play around to make it easy as possible.
For one, you can deny Queen Hippo her extra attack by keeping out of her immediate range, or moving out of it before her turn begins. Any cat directly next to her will get caught by an uppercut before her main phase even starts, which can lead to a real snowball of injuries.
Despite her damage mitigation, Queen Hippo is vulnerable to both debuffs, and her own failing body. Focus on keeping her out of range as long as possible, healing yourself, and poking her down where you can.
Before you know it, the hardest challenge the Alley has to offer will be as good as gone, and you’ll be well on your way through Act 1 of Mewgenics.
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