How Runs Work in Mewgenics

Mewgenics is a roguelite — each run takes your cats through a series of procedurally generated floors filled with combat, events, shops, and boss encounters. Runs end when all of your active cats die, or when you reach and defeat the final boss. Understanding the structure of a run is fundamental to making good decisions about when to fight, when to rest, and when to spend your resources.

Run Structure

Each run is divided into Acts, with each Act containing multiple floors. Early Acts feature weaker enemies and more forgiving events; later Acts ramp up difficulty significantly with elite enemies, more dangerous boss variants, and fewer rest opportunities.

Each floor presents a map of nodes connected by paths. You choose which path to take, meaning you have partial agency over which encounters you face. Node types include: Combat, Elite Combat, Rest Site, Shop, Event (random), Treasure, and Boss. Bosses appear at the end of each Act.

Floor layout is procedurally generated each run, but the ratio of node types is roughly consistent. You can expect approximately 2–4 combat encounters, 1 shop, 1 rest site, and 1 elite encounter per Act before reaching the boss.

Combat Encounters

Combat is turn-based. You choose which cats participate and select their abilities each turn. Combat ends when all enemies are defeated or all your active cats are knocked out. Knocked-out cats do not die permanently — they are unavailable for the rest of that encounter and start the next with reduced HP.

Elite encounters feature stronger, named enemies with unique abilities and better loot. They are significantly harder than standard combat nodes but drop items you cannot get from regular enemies. Elites are worth fighting when your party is in good health.

After each combat, surviving cats retain their HP totals. There is no automatic healing between fights. HP is a finite resource you need to manage carefully across each Act.

Rest Sites

Rest Sites offer two options: Heal (restore a percentage of a chosen cat's max HP) or Upgrade (permanently improve one of a cat's abilities). Early in a run when HP is critical, healing is usually better. Later, when a strong build has emerged, upgrading key abilities can dramatically increase damage or utility.

Some mutations and items change Rest Site behavior — certain passives allow cats to heal AND upgrade at the same rest, or increase the percentage of HP restored.

Shops

Shops sell items, abilities, and occasionally services like removing an ability from a cat's deck or curing a disorder. Currency is earned from combat encounters and events. Shops restock between Acts but not mid-Act.

Save your currency for powerful items rather than spending everything early. A single high-impact item in Act 2 or 3 can be worth more than several cheap items across Acts 1–2. That said, if a shop offers a direct counter to the boss at the end of the current Act, prioritize it.

Events

Event nodes are random encounters with text-based choices. Options vary wildly — you might gain a free item at the cost of losing HP, trigger a combat encounter for bonus rewards, or find a breeding opportunity. Read each event carefully before choosing. Many have hidden outcomes based on your cats' current stats or traits.

Events that offer "risky" choices often have better expected value than safe options. If your party is healthy and can absorb a potential HP loss, the risky choice is frequently worth it.

Bosses

Each Act ends with a boss fight. Bosses are multi-phase encounters with unique mechanics, large HP pools, and powerful abilities. You cannot retreat from boss fights. Defeating a boss advances you to the next Act and provides a major reward (often a rare item or ability unlock).

Bosses rotate each run — you won't always face the same boss at the end of Act 1. Learning the mechanics of each boss and building counters is a major part of Mewgenics' learning curve. Each boss entry on this wiki includes a full mechanics breakdown.

Death and Run End

A run ends when all active combat cats are eliminated and cannot be revived. Dead cats are not permanently lost by default — they return to your roster at the start of the next run, possibly at reduced starting HP or with a temporary penalty depending on difficulty settings.

On higher difficulty settings or with specific Invention Quest curses active, cats that die in a run may be permanently removed from your roster. This creates a meaningful trade-off between pushing further with wounded cats and retreating to preserve your roster for future runs.

What Carries Over Between Runs

Mewgenics has a persistent meta-progression layer that carries across all runs. The following things persist: your cat roster and their learned abilities and traits, any kittens bred during the run (they join the roster between runs), Invention Quest progress, unlocked classes and mutations added to the pool, and permanent bonuses earned from completing quests or reaching milestones.

Items and currency do not carry over between runs. Everything you pick up during a run is lost when the run ends. The goal within each run is to spend resources effectively before it concludes — saving currency at run's end is always a waste.

Breeding is one of the most important cross-run mechanics. Kittens born during a run mature and join your permanent roster, potentially inheriting desirable traits from both parents. This is the primary long-term progression system — over many runs, you gradually build a roster of genetically optimized cats capable of tackling later Acts.