One of the strongest mutations in the game, I’ve found, isn’t the spreader or organic mutations (though both of them are very strong for income generation).
Which Mutation Is Strongest?
It is the water plant mutation. Of all the mutations that impact water, water plant is the best and can be key to solving your water issues without sprinkler/mulch or dedicating half your build to wet/dry/root synergies.
Water plant causes your crop to wither once your water level goes below a certain threshold and in exchange, gives you a burst of water. Unlike the water mutation which gives you free water when the crop matures, water plant can give you water during the planting phase which can make sure that all of your crops actually get planted. This becomes even more potent if you have the mushroom synergy active.
The best candidate for the water plant mutation is a flower. Flowers, especially common flowers, are generally not your big earners in terms of money. However, flowers can be duplicated by bees AND the replicator. This can turn 1 flower into 4. giving you 4 times the water generation if the wither condition is triggered. Because it is a common flower, it’ll be easy to get it to tier 5 through upgrades, letting the water gain be even more potent.
Because the water plant mutation triggers at 120/110/100 water, it might seem wasteful to have this many copies of water plant that will all wither at the same time. However, if you put your flower partway through your plant order, once your water is drained well below 100, it will plant, duplicate and then instantly wither, giving you your burst of water. if timed properly, very little of the water will be wasted. It is the fact that the water plant is a wither trigger, rather than a mature trigger, that makes it so consistent.
Placing the flower later in your build (but still early enough to be hit by your bee) can make sure your water finishes high going into your mature phase which can be critical if you’re leaning on a fruit synergy.
The trick is, of course, getting the water plant mutation onto a flower early enough for it to put in work. Mutations don’t start naturally showing up until Summer, but mutation kits can show up earlier and I will always gamble on them. It is worth using all the charges of your kit on your flower to ‘re roll’ for this mutation. Once you have a healthy base established, you can safely take other mutations for your other plants, like organic and spreader, knowing you’ll have the water to pay for them.
Another Good Mutation
Another really good mutation that I consider better than spreader or organic is seed. Seed provides a ton of additional card drafts throughout a run and is arguably the easiest way to consistently draft rares. If you can spread or replant seed mutation crops, you can rush tier 5s everywhere, including for coffee bean, which you can then sell to get six of any mutation you want.
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