Introduction to Meta
Nuclear Throne has a deep metagame that pushes the boundaries of the game far beyond the original outline of intended play. While the game was mainly meant to be played up through Loop 2, certain mechanics have allowed many players to have reached well over Loop 10, with the world record pushing the game as far as Loop 30.
The purpose of this guide will be to give the basics of why meta works and strategies to surviving meta loops, it is not a guide on how to get records, rather this is mainly an introductory piece.
The community has generally accepted terms for loop numbers to describe certain ranges.
- 'Deeploop' is generally used for L6+, where Popo Freaks take two swings to kill with Scarier face as a notable change.
- 'Abyssal loops' is generally used for L12+, generally where bosses become serious threats requiring more specific strategies to handle.
- (Loosely 'Master loops' is used for L18+ which is where many top players would end up around, however this is sparsely used in the community.)
For the sake of this guide the term 'meta looping' will be used for L3+ for simplicity. L3 is the last loop in which there are any mechanic changes, being Popo Freaks replacing IDPD spawns and Vans exploding immediately.
As always this is advice, NOT law. There is never one right way to play Nuclear Throne, this simply explains how people have reached absurdly high loops using very specific loadouts. Any advice here is not instructions on how to play the game, but rather give a frame of reference.
Meta Pages
The following is a list of pages that introduce every aspect in meta loops. It is suggested to read these in order for first time readers as some mechanics build off of each other.
| Setup | Setup outlines which versions are used by the community and some rules regarding run viability for record sheets. It also explains the options of runs whether it's setgrinding, dailies or grillskills. |
| Survival | Survival guide is an overview of every major mechanic that appears in deeploop.
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| Meta Muts | A guide explaining why specific mutations belong in meta, and why other mutations fall short. |
| Areas | A guide detailing the non-boss threats of each area and their typical layouts. |
| Bosses | An advanced guide on boss mechanics and how to deal with them. This is generally less important in L3+, and only becomes relevant in later loops as bosses attacks scale by loops. |
| Setgrinding | This is a supplementary guide and not required to understand meta. Setgrinding refers to continually grinding out runs until a desired mutation set is found, restarting otherwise. This is the traditional way meta runs were done before the Allskills/Grillskills mods gained popularity in 2021. This catalgoues various strategies that were used, even if they largely fell out of favor due to being a large timesink. |