Mewgenics Disorders Guide

Disorders are genetic or acquired conditions that affect a cat's behavior, stats, or vulnerability to certain effects. Unlike mutations, disorders are almost always negative in their direct effects — though some builds deliberately leverage specific disorders for unusual synergies. Managing your cats' disorders is an essential part of long-term roster health in Mewgenics.

Disorders can be inherited through breeding, acquired during combat via enemy abilities, triggered by random events, or caused by excessive use of certain mutations or items. Some disorders are curable; others are permanent unless treated at a Shop or by specific items.

How Disorders Work

Each cat can carry multiple disorders simultaneously. Disorders appear on the cat's stat sheet and have persistent effects that apply across all encounters in a run. Unlike status effects, disorders cannot be removed mid-combat — they require items, rest events, or shop services to cure.

Disorders are divided into behavioral disorders (affecting action choices in combat), stat disorders (reducing specific stats), vulnerability disorders (increasing susceptibility to certain status effects), and compulsion disorders (forcing specific actions under certain conditions).

Breeding two cats with the same disorder significantly increases the chance that offspring inherit it. Breeding a disordered cat with a disorder-free cat reduces transmission chance but does not eliminate it. Purging disorders from your breeding lines requires deliberate effort over multiple generations.

Behavioral Disorders

Anxiety

The cat has an increased chance of becoming Confused when targeted by fear-based or psychic abilities. Anxious cats also have a small chance to skip their turn when multiple enemies are present. One of the more common inherited disorders — cats with Anxiety struggle against enemy groups that use crowd-control abilities.

Aggression

The cat prioritizes attacking over using support or healing abilities. Aggressive cats will sometimes override your chosen ability selection and use an attack instead. Very problematic on support builds — if you run healers or buffers, keep them Aggression-free. Somewhat useful on pure damage dealers where the forced attack is often the right call anyway.

Paranoia

The cat occasionally attacks a random ally instead of the intended target. Paranoid cats are dangerous to keep in multi-cat parties — a rogue attack on a low-HP ally can end runs prematurely. Solo builds or pairs where both cats are high-HP tolerate Paranoia better.

Narcolepsy

The cat has a chance to fall asleep at the start of each turn, skipping their action. Sleep can be interrupted by taking damage. Narcoleptic cats in the front line are unreliable — they may choose the worst possible moment to nap. However, cats with naturally high defense can absorb the wake-up hit without much cost.

Cowardice

When the cat's HP drops below 30%, it has a chance to flee combat entirely. A Cowardly cat that flees is removed from the current encounter and cannot return. Extremely punishing if it happens during a boss fight with your primary damage dealer. Avoid Cowardice on any cat you plan to use in a frontline role.

Stat Disorders

Hemophilia

Bleed status effects deal significantly more damage to this cat. Even a single Bleed stack is dangerous on a Hemophiliac. The disorder also causes minor HP loss each turn that the cat has Bleed active. Prioritize cleansing Bleed immediately on any Hemophiliac cat.

Brittle Bones

Reduces the cat's Defense stat permanently. Cats with Brittle Bones take more damage from every physical hit. Particularly crippling on front-line tanks that rely on Defense to absorb damage. Try to avoid breeding Brittle Bones cats unless their other traits are exceptional enough to justify the permanent Defense penalty.

Myopia

Reduces the cat's Accuracy, causing some abilities to miss more often. Nearsighted cats are unreliable with high-damage single-target abilities — every miss is a wasted action. AoE builds that don't rely on hit accuracy tolerate Myopia much better.

Slow Metabolism

Reduces the cat's Speed stat. Cats with Slow Metabolism consistently act later in the turn order. Not devastating on its own, but stacking Slow Metabolism with other Speed penalties (like Shocked status) can make a cat essentially useless in terms of turn priority.

Compulsion Disorders

Gluttony

If food items are present in combat, this cat will eat them instead of using their planned ability. Gluttony is mainly annoying in encounters where enemies drop food, as the cat may waste their turn eating instead of acting. Keep Gluttonous cats away from food-heavy encounters if possible.

Kleptomania

The cat occasionally steals items from allies' inventories. Items stolen this way are consumed immediately, wasting potentially critical resources. In solo runs this disorder has no effect, making it substantially less punishing. In multi-cat teams, watch inventory carefully on turns when Kleptomania could trigger.

Self-Harm

The cat has a chance to deal a small amount of damage to itself at the end of each turn. The self-damage scales with the cat's own Attack stat, making it worse on high-damage builds. Self-Harm can be partially offset with Regenerating or Shield effects, but it's generally one of the more dangerous disorders to carry long-term.

Managing and Curing Disorders

Shops occasionally offer disorder cures as a purchasable service. The cost varies by disorder severity — behavioral disorders like Paranoia tend to cost more than minor stat disorders. Prioritize curing disorders that directly threaten run viability (Cowardice, Paranoia, Hemophilia on bleed-heavy enemy floors) over inconvenient but manageable ones.

Some items found during runs can cure specific disorders. The Therapy Manual cures one behavioral disorder; the Genetic Scrub item removes one inherited disorder permanently (including from breeding). These items are rare — save them for your most valued cats.

The Invention Quest reward for completing Feral Instinct causes disorders to sometimes provide positive side effects in addition to their negatives. After completing this quest, a Paranoid cat might occasionally trigger its ally-attack as a bonus action rather than replacing a normal action, turning a liability into a situational asset.

For breeding, the safest approach is to maintain at least one disorder-free bloodline in your roster. Even if your best fighters carry disorders, breeding them with clean cats periodically produces clean offspring you can then use for subsequent breeding without spreading the disorders further.