Mewgenics Status Effects Primer: All 60 Effects with Magnitudes
Status effects decide most fights in Mewgenics. The cat with more Bleed stacks wins. The cat that ate one Stun loses the round. Treat status effects as flavor and you lose to a basic enemy with Serrated Claws by round 4.
This primer lists every documented effect with its numerical magnitude and the timing rule that matters. Stack behavior differs by category. Decay timing varies between turn-start and round-end, and a few effects do not decay at all.
Six Categories Plus One
The 60 effects split into six groups: 8 DoT, 6 control, 20 buffs, 14 debuffs, 9 elite modifiers, 2 permanent. A neutral state (Wet) sits between for elemental interactions. Magnitude usually equals the stack count: a 5-stack Burn ticks 5; a 3-stack Damage Up gives +3. Exceptions are documented inline.
Damage Over Time
DoTs deal damage on a clock, not on a hit.
Burn ticks at the start of the burning unit's turn. Each stack deals 1 damage, then stack count drops by 1. A 4-stack ticks 4, then 3, then 2, then 1. Bypasses Shield and Holy Shield. Ignites flammable terrain. Removed by Wet. Brimstone Rune adds +2 Burn to every basic attack.
Bleed is the dangerous one. End-of-round tick, 1 per stack, then stacks INCREASE by 1. A 3-stack deals 3 this round, then 4, then 5, then 6, climbing until the cat dies. Bypasses Shield and Holy Shield. Default removal is death. Death by Bleed inflicts Exsanguinated Injury (-1 STR, -1 DEX).
Poison ticks at start of every turn for 1 per stack and bypasses Shield. Each heal received reduces the heal by 1 AND consumes 1 Poison stack. Healing through Poison costs both ways. Death by Poison applies Poisoned Injury (-1 CON, -1 INT).
Exhaustion is the existential threat. Begins round 10 (normal cats), round 5 (old cats), or round 3 (Insomnia disorder). Each turn: 1 unblockable damage per stack, -1 mana and health regen per stack, then +1 stack. Cannot be removed or cleansed. Adrenaline is the only counter; it keeps Exhaustion at 0. Long fights lose to Exhaustion alone.
Rot decreases 1 stack per turn and hatches a Rot Fly (enemy unit for the applier's team) at end of every turn. Worm and bug damage against a Rotting unit always crits.
Infested persists until the host dies. On death, spawns one Spiderling per stack for the applier's team and destroys the corpse.
Leeches drains 1 health per stack from the target at the end of the applier's turn. Bypasses Shield and Holy Shield. Mana Leeches drains 1 mana per stack on the same timing.
Control Effects
Six effects that strip a turn from a unit.
Stun stacks additively and skips N turns where N = stacks. Two 2-stacks on the same target = 4-turn skip. Hardy elite buff prevents application.
Sleep skips turns equal to stack count; damage has a chance to wake the unit early. Pairs with burst damage: stack for setup, break with a guaranteed crit.
Freeze skips turns AND grants damage immunity except to Fire. Fire breaks Freeze immediately and converts the unit to Wet. Applied to a Burning unit, Freeze never lands; the cat becomes Wet directly.
Charmed flips the unit to fight for the charming team for the duration. Decays one stack per turn.
Madness is uncontrollable. The afflicted unit treats every unit as an enemy, including allies. Standard Madness can be cleansed by Debuff Immunity; Permanent Madness (Psychosis disorder, Elite Buff: Mad) cannot be removed during combat.
Fear forces the unit to move max distance from its nearest enemy at start of turn. The player loses positional control.
Buffs
Twenty buffs across stat increases, action enhancers, combat modifiers, and defenses.
Stat ups: Strength Up, Speed Up, Movement Up, Range Up, and bundled All Stats Up add +1 of the named value per stack. Damage Up adds +1 flat per stack to basic attacks and heals; Magic Damage Up does the same for spells. Crit Chance Up and Dodge Chance add +1% per stack. End-of-turn decay; opposing debuffs cleanse 1:1.
Adrenaline is binary: +25% Crit, +25% Block, Exhaustion stays at 0. The best long-fight buff.
Stealth grants 50% Dodge until hit. item:survivalists-gaiter variant breaks on basic attack instead, letting a Stealth cat trade hits while keeping the dodge.
Insight reduces spell mana cost by 1 per stack (floor 0).
Brace reduces incoming damage from all sources by 1 per stack (floor 1). A 5-stack turns most basic attacks into a 1-damage scratch. item:tank class passive grants Brace; Elite Buff: Tough adds +2 (+1 on bosses).
Thorns deals 1 damage per stack to attackers on melee contact or knockback bump. Elite Buff: Spiky adds +2 (+1 on bosses). Bleed Thorns applies Bleed instead.
Shield absorbs 1 damage per stack. Does NOT block Burn, Poison, Bleed, Leeches, Exhaustion, or Marked-tagged damage. Cleave strips it for a Scrap pickup.
Holy Shield is the rarer absorber. Each stack blocks one entire incoming hit regardless of damage size; a 1-stack negates a 50-damage crit just as it negates a 1-damage prod. Takes precedence over Shield. Same DoT exclusions. Cleave grants Blessing on strip. Elite Buff: Protected refreshes it to 1 if missing at end of turn.
Extra Attacks and Extra Moves add +1 basic attack or +1 move per stack for the current turn. Double Cast fires the next spell an additional time free; stacks. Free Spell sets next spell mana cost to 0.
Debuffs
Fourteen effects that hurt a target.
All Stats Down mirrors All Stats Up: -1 to all 7 stats per stack. Elite Buff: Slightly Depressing applies -1 to adjacent enemies; Depressing to every enemy.
Weakness is bundled: -2 STR, -2 DEX, -2 SPD per active state. Stacks extend duration only.
Bruise adds +1 incoming physical damage per stack. Heavy Hits applies Bruise on basic attack; Heavier Hits on any physical.
Hex adds +1 mana cost per stack to all spells. Insight counters 1:1. A Witch with Hex shuts down a item:mage cat by round 2.
Magic Weakness sets incoming magic damage to 100% Crit Chance with no miss chance; spells always crit and always land.
Marked does the same for physical. item:hunter-marked (5 mana, 3-5 tile range) tags a target: next physical hits crit at 100%, ignore Shield, cannot miss. The highest-value setup debuff in the game.
Blind gives the unit a 30% miss chance for stack-count turns. Confusion has a 33% chance per turn to make the unit hit itself for damage equal to its Strength stat.
Slow caps movement at 2 tiles regardless of SPD and pushes the unit later in round order. Tarred subtracts 2 from Speed and makes the unit flammable; any Fire hit ignites the tar.
Doomed is a countdown. Each stack ticks down by 1 at end of turn; at 0 the unit dies. Resists typical cleanse. A 3-stack = three turns to live regardless of HP.
Bounty is binary: +25% incoming damage; the killing blow earns a coin. Muted disables 1 random spell per stack and persists until the applier dies. Miss Chance adds +1% miss chance per stack on outgoing attacks.
Elite Enemy Modifiers
Nine buffs that mark elites. They appear on bosses and chapter mini-bosses.
| Buff | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Spiky | +2 Thorns (+1 on bosses) |
| Tough | +2 Brace (+1 on bosses) |
| Damaging | +2 Damage to basic attack |
| Speedy | +4 Speed |
| Lucky | +3 Luck, +10% Crit, +10% Dodge |
| Healthy | +3 Health Regen, +20 unfilled max health |
| Undying | Revives to 50% HP at end of round, +2 Corpse Health |
| Mega | +50% health, +50% damage, takes 1 fewer turn per round |
| Twin | 50% health, spawns paired twin |
Mega is the most dangerous solo buff: the action loss costs the elite less than +50% damage gives it. Undying punishes any plan without a corpse-kill follow-up. Lucky's bonuses compound with whatever crit and dodge the elite already had. Status-purge strips some elite buffs; others are persistent.
Permanent Effects
Blind (Permanent) is the post-combat injury version of Blind. 30% miss chance forever. Cannot be cleansed during combat; requires an injury cure at the house.
Zombie is the worst permanent state in the game. -2 STR, -2 INT, takes damage from Holy heals instead of healing, cannot receive Injuries. A Zombie cat with a item:cleric in the party gets damaged every time the Cleric heals.
Wet is a neutral state. Applied by water tiles, water abilities, or by removing Freeze from a Burning unit. Wet units conduct Electricity for bonus damage (multiplier undocumented), cannot be Burned, and auto-Freeze on ice hits. Removed by starting a turn outside a water tile.
Practical Combat Advice
Remove first: Doomed if you have any cleanse, then Bleed stacked above 3, then Bounty on a squishy cat. A Doomed countdown is a guaranteed kill. Bleed compounds round over round. Bounty multiplies whatever else is incoming.
Apply first: Marked on the highest-HP enemy if you have a physical hitter ready to follow up. Hex on enemy mages by round 2. Stun on the fastest enemy to deny the turn entirely.
Synergy combos worth knowing:
- Sleep into burst. Stack Sleep, break with a guaranteed crit on the wake-up.
- Marked plus Bruise. 100% Crit plus +N incoming physical compounds into one-shot range.
- Burn into Tarred. Tarred ignites on Fire hit, adding Burn duration.
- Adrenaline through long fights. Adrenaline negates Exhaustion, so Adrenaline cats grind out fights others lose to the round-10 timer.
- Insight against Hex. Stack Insight to keep spell costs flat against a Hex stacker.
Avoid: Stacking Bleed on a unit you cannot kill before Exsanguinated Injury hits you. Healing into Poison (waste the heal AND consume a stack that would have decayed). Cleric Holy heals near a Zombie cat. Combat past round 10 without an Adrenaline source.
For class-by-class breakdowns of which collars apply which effects most reliably, the Mewgenics Class Tier List ranks the top status appliers and counters.
What's Next
For class selection and which classes apply which effects naturally, see the Best Starter Classes Guide. For how stat-up status mutations like Dice Eyes pass to offspring, read the Stat Inheritance Guide and the Mutations Guide.