Needles

Needles is a Skill Event where your cat stumbles upon several syringes filled with unknown colored liquids. You choose between three syringes: Red, Blue, or Yellow. Each syringe targets a different stat but all three check Luck to determine success or failure. Red affects Constitution, Blue affects Intelligence, and Yellow affects Luck itself. On a successful roll, the chosen stat gains +1 and the cat receives a random mutation. On failure, the stat drops by -1 instead, and on a bad-rare outcome the cat also gets an unwanted random mutation on top of the stat loss.

Because all three options check Luck rather than different stats, this event is unusual among Skill Events. There is no reason to choose one color over another based on your cat's stat spread; the only variable is which stat you want to gamble on boosting or losing. Always send your highest-Luck cat to maximize the chance of a positive outcome. The Yellow syringe is self-reinforcing in an interesting way: a successful Yellow injection boosts Luck, which improves your odds on future Luck-based events and checks. If you are building a Luck-focused cat, Yellow is the obvious pick.

The random mutation granted on success can be any mutation from the general pool, which means outcomes range from extremely beneficial to mildly inconvenient. Mutations are permanent genetic traits, so a good roll here can define a cat's build for the rest of the run. The risk is relatively low compared to events like the Volcano sacrifice or Meat Altar: failure only costs a single stat point, and even the bad-rare outcome (stat loss plus a random mutation) is recoverable. This makes Needles one of the safer gambling events, worth attempting on any cat with decent Luck unless you absolutely cannot afford a stat dip.

Read our complete Needles Event guide for detailed syringe comparisons, outcome tables, and strategy advice.