Crown of Destiny
	Area	Preloop
	Pro:	Free Mutation
	Con:	Narrow Future

Tech

• Upon taking a crown one free mutation will be granted.
• Starting a run with Crown of Destiny will grant the mutation after completing 1-1 instead.
• This brings the total number of mutations in a set from 8 to 9, or a total of 12 with Melting's Detachment.
• Taking the crown multiple times in a run will not grant any extra mutations.
• On Non-Beta (u99r1) the mutation given is predictable and will give the first mutation of the last set seen.
• On any Betas, this is a separate set and the mutation given is essentially random on normal run.
• Beta destiny set being separate is still predictable for the sake of dailies and weeklies, using the scouting sheet.
• Crown of Destiny will never give Last Wish as a mutation, with the exception of Horror. Patience can still be granted regardless.
• Only one mutation will be seen in a set instead of the usual four.
• Only one of the ultras will be granted as well randomly.
• If Crown of Destiny is removed the extra mutation is still kept, but the downside of one mutation is removed from any further level ups.
• If leveling up in a vault then removing Crown of Destiny it will erase the following set.
• Horror gets to choose between two mutations instead of one, which includes his ultras.

Strategies

Crown of Destiny is a unique crown as the bonus mutation is kept even while taking off the crown, while the bonus effects from the other 11 crowns is lost upon switching crowns during a run. Because of this the most optimal way to use destiny is by taking the crown early and swapping it off as soon as possible without leveling up at all to avoid the downside, a strategy commonly known as radstarving. This adds quite a bit more time to a run and is moreso recommended for runs going much further (preferably L2+), and will be listed in the section below.

The downside of Crown of Destiny severely outweighs the upside if continually leveling up. Mutations are usually taken to compliment a character's abilities and their weapons as well as other mutations, but taken at random some mutations in a set will barely help during the course of a run, especially if ending up with multiple different weapon-specific mutations.

If trying to unlock the crown then it's better to take it on 5-2 rather than 3-2, as it reduces the amount of sets that are seen at random.

For weekly runs as a build is severely limited, it's recommended to lean into whichever weapons drop that benefits from any useful mutation that happens to appear. Otherwise, it's best to take any generalized weapon that has a decent firerate without high ammo consumption as these are much less reliant on good mutations.

Radstarving Guide

There are multiple methods in which Crown of Destiny is taken to minimize mutation rng. This is covered in-depth by the meta guide for set grinding. Rather, this section will focus on avoiding leveling up to avoid the downside of the crown.