 |
|
|---|---|
| Crown of Destiny | |
| Area | Preloop Vaults |
| Pro: | Free Mutation |
| Con: | Narrow Future |
Tech
- Upon taking a crown one free mutation will be granted.
- Runs starting with Crown of Destiny will instead grant the mutation after completing 1-1.
- The total number of mutations in a set is brought from 8 to 9, or from 11 to 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 that is essentially random on a normal run.
- This is still seeded which matters just for dailies/weeklies, and can be seen using the scouting sheet.
- Crown of Destiny will never grant 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. ('Narrow Future')
- This also effects ultras, only granting one of the two randomly.
- If Crown of Destiny is removed the extra mutation is still kept while further sets will return to four mutations, avoiding the downside.
- Horror gets to choose between two mutations instead of one, which includes his ultras.
- Bug: If leveling up in the vault and Crown of Destiny is removed, it will erase the following set.
- It is unlikely this bug will be patched and exists in both Non-Beta and Betas.
Strategies
Crown of Destiny is a unique crown as the bonus mutation is kept even if the crown is taken off, while benefits from other crowns are lost upon switching them. There is a popular strategy known a 'radstarving' in which CoDestiny is taken for the extra mutation, then leveling up is purposefully avoided to skip the downsides of the crown, only leveling up again once the crown is swapped out. This can be time consuming and generally only recommended for longer runs (preferably L2+) and is outlined on a separate page here.
As for normal gameplay the downsides of Destiny severely outweigh the upside. Having 8 mutations that compliment a certain playstyle is far better than having multiple mutations at random, as some mutations may barely help over the course of the run. For this reason the crown is best only taken if necessary in a run - whether weeklies, unlock or for later runs utilizing radstarving.
For crown unlock runs it's generally best to level up as many times as possible before the 5-2 vault, and only then take the crown to minimize the amount of random sets, rather than taking it on 3-2. This will make the run fairly close to vanilla, with maybe one or two sub-optimal mutations.
Weekly runs are considerably difficult as having 9 random mutations and ultra gives no room for set building. If a set is particularly awful the only way to avoid playing it is by opting into a different Steam version that could have slightly better mutations, or to utilize niche and time consuming Non-Beta set mechanics.
As for the actual Weekly runs - the best option available to the player is to simply make any weapon that may be complimented by any of their mutations, otherwise taking generalized weapons that have decent firerates while not reliant on any particular mutation to work well.
As Crown of Destiny runs are essentially random there are no character/mutation notes for this crown page. However it should be noted that Horror is always the best for random Destiny runs, as he gets two mutations/ultra choices allowing him to have some set variety.