Characters & Mutations

Page Contents

This page will cover rough character rankings and then explain mutations in meta. It is recommended to be familiar with mutation rankings before fully diving into any character pages.

This is a rough ranking of where characters and mutations stand in terms of viability, which may be different than the order of character world records or what sets they run. The aim of this page is to explain just why certain characters/mutations excel, while others are held back.


Characters

These are all summaries of each character's meta page. Any character can be clicked to see their full guide, which explains the reasoning in full detail as well as other tips in meta loops. All character pages include a rating explained on the main character page.

Character Viability Reasoning Suggested Ultra
Crystal
 		Highest Tier Crystal holds the global world record and is considered the best character in meta as she gets 16 max HP with Fortress, which allows her to drop Rhino Skin for the sake of another mutation in her p9. She has some of the best survivability in the game, with her shield helping in many key boss fights. Fortress
Y.V.
 		High Tier Y.V. offers very strong offense and defense who is very efficient at pushing and handling bosses. Ima Gun God lets him drop Stress in favor of another mutation for another mutation in his p9. Ima Gun God
Eyes
 		High Tier Eyes can easily swap between having telekinesis on which lets him avoid projectiles while being vulnerable to contact damage, or letting Monster Style take effect to let him avoid contact damage while being vulnerable to projectiles. He has a very high skill ceiling especially if running his Throne Butt, meaning more time must be committed to understand. Monster Style
Chicken
 		High Tier Chicken's passive allows her to recover from player mistakes that are an instant game over for other characters, which makes meta loops far more forgiving to learn/play. In much later loops it may become too difficult to recover max HP which bars her from higher positions, but is a strong contender early on. Determination
Rebel
 		Mid-High Tier Rebel is able to spam allies which lets her handle harder boss fights with ease. Being at lower HP can make her susceptible to misplays, but otherwise has amazing DPS potential and is a strong contender for higher tier placements. Riot
Fish
 		Mid Tier Fish's ultras let him lean heavily into offense, which is furthered by his passive. He's able to clear levels extremely quickly allowing for the player's focus to be saved for more difficult stages. Gun Warrant
Rogue
 		Mid Tier Rogue is best played on the latest openbeta/NTT versions due to her blast armor change, which places her higher than before. Her blast armor is great at preventing multi-hits and giving her more breathing room, while having some utility with portals strikes for digging into walls. Super Blast Armor (Betas)
Plant
 		Mid Tier Plant's big snare gives them a lot of control over their surrounding area in regards to pushing and giving more reaction time, especially for Palace and some boss fights. Their Throne Butt is also a strong option while not necessarily being a part of their p9. Trapper
Horror
 		Mid Tier Horror does not have any exceptional skills in meta, but has usefulness around meta. Their passive makes finding perfect sets far more likely if not playing Grillskills (such as dailies). Any of their ultras is suggested based on preference as all have their reasoning to benefit the run. Any
Robot
 		Mid-Low Tier Robot is usually considered to be the most 'vanilla' character as their active/ultra has a small impact on gameplay. Any character rated above them have abilities that are useful to the run, while characters rated below them have significant drawbacks. Refined Taste
Frog
 		Low Tier Frog is constantly on the move which isn't a big deal in some areas, but during key boss fights he struggles with positioning which makes him far more difficult. His abilities similarly to Robot have less of an impact on gameplay. Distance
Melting
 		Low Tier Melting has the lowest HP in the game which makes it so he is very vulnerable to hard-hitting enemies and bosses, thus limiting him in meta. He does have a very powerful arsenal that makes him a strong character otherwise, between having 12-13 mutations and clearing out many areas with relative ease. Detachment
Steroids
 		Low Tier Full meta guide will be written at a later date.

(Summary for now) Ultra Shovel's spread of 3 swings gives the perfect amount of coverage for other characters, but is ruined by Steroids' inaccuracy as taking Long Arms creates gaps in his defense. Steroids' meta is an ongoing situation as multiple different sets are being tried. 		Get Loaded
Skeleton
 		Lowest Tier Full meta guide will be written at a later date.

(Summary for now) Skeleton is considered to be the worst as he has 3 debilitating passives that constantly holds him back. He does have an amazing ultra & Throne Butt that would make him high tier otherwise, but his passives just make key parts of the game too difficult. Skeleton's meta is an ongoing situation as multiple different sets are being tried. 		Damnation

Playable Big Dog is a different case as his build sort of 'breaks the game' but also plays at a snails pace. His character page has a completely in-depth guide on what his meta is, and why it is so effective.

Throne Butt is almost never ran in sets as standard p9's are always better. The explanation of each Throne Butt can be found on each character page, but a summary of their rankings:

Meta Mutations


A set with meta mutations will be referred to as a 'Perfect X', where X is the number of mutations that are optimal. This is commonly used for a P7, P8 and P9 to signify how good a mutation build is. The best possible set will be a P9 and the longer a run goes, the more necessary it may become for survival. In the early meta loops a P7 is perfectly serviceable.

The Core 4 Part of P7 Damage Muts Healing Muts Situational Picks

Core 4 are the mutations considered the most essential to have a run work in deeploop and usually have the highest priority for most characters sets. Runs lacking any of these mutations will be considerably more difficult.


Strong Spirit

Makes the game far more forgiving by avoiding one lethal hit per level. There are a few damage sources (commonly IDPD explosions and Vans) that are capable of instantly killing the player so this is particularly useful in making it so there is always room for some error.



Trigger Fingers

Super Plasma Cannon has a reload time of 8.67 seconds, so Trigger Fingers is necessary in order to make this weapon meta viable. SPC is capable of getting a vast amount of kills in a single shot meaning that any crowded area can be cleared with ease.



Long Arms

Greatly benefits using the Ultra Shovel as range is increased to give far more coverage to use effectively for clearing levels and for defense.



Rhino Skin

As the player is only ever a few hits away from death a +4 boost to max HP makes lethal encounters less common.
Going from 8 HP to 12 HP reduces the pool of insta-kill potential as well, 10 HP damage sources commonly including normal explosions (not IDPD), Mom's contact damage or Big Bandit's charge attack.

Perfect 7 mutations are more the baseline of a 'functional' set in deeploop. These all particularly make deeploop survival a lot easier.


Plutonium Hunger

Increased pickup range makes pickup collection really simple, just needing to walk in the general direction of them. This works well for better survivability with health drops, more frequent SPC shots with ammo drops, and an easier time staying at full rads for Ultra Shovel.


Stress

The closer the player is at to dying, the better they can defend themselves with Ultra Shovel. Infrequently there can be too many bullets to perfectly be avoided with Ultra Shovel's base swing time making Stress a clutch mutation.

Damage mutations where one can be picked for a p7, or both can be picked for a p8. If only one mutation can be picked Scarier Face is the more popular option and is more recommended to anyone learning meta play.


Scarier Face

20% off of all enemy health makes both weapons more effective at killing throughout the entire run. For those learning meta this is especially useful as Popo Freaks will die in one hit from L3-L5.


Laser Brain

Helps make the SPC deal even more damage taking down bosses much more swiftly and trivializing tanky enemies. Any perfect SPC shot on a boss will deal 501 more damage with Laser Brain on both non-beta and Betas.

Healing mutations where one is picked in order to make either a p8 or a p9. Bloodlust has always been the more popular pick, with Rabbit Paw seeing recent popularity for helping speed up runs. Which of these to pick as a 9th mutation is completely up to player preference.


Bloodlust

Passively helps keep HP levels higher throughout the level which assists in pushing and recovery. Particularly useful if Strong Spirit is dropped to help regain HP in a manner that requires less risk taking.


Rabbit Paw

Drops become far more frequent which gives a strong boost to health drops for sustainability, and ammo to clear levels more quickly and fire at bosses much more often.

Situational mutations can be suitable 9th mutations but are not meta defining as much as the mutations above, each has their own niche.


Back Muscle

Allows for multiple extra SPC shots which generally makes ammo drops used more efficiently. The extra shots are particularly useful for quicker Throne II kills.
Most commonly used as a 9th mutation as Crystal or YV as they can drop Rhino Skin and Stress respectively.


Second Stomach

Less preferred as a healing mutation than Rabbit Paw or Bloodlust, but still really useful as health drops will heal twice as much.
Infrequently seen in Rebel sets focused on ally spamming or Crystal sets due to her high health.


Boiling Veins

Explosions are really common in deeploop so Boiling Veins will always be nice to newer players learning meta, but never necessary once familiar with deeploop mechanics.
Stronger justification for Boiling Veins is done in non-beta where chain explosions are far more frequent and harder to avoid, and is a part of Rogue's p9 as her blast armor can trigger IDPD grenades in this version. Also a core part of Melting's build in any version.


Euphoria

Adds much more reaction time which is really useful for Spirit drops and key boss fights (Big Bandits and Throne II). Sometimes ushovel cannot swing fast enough to deflect all bullets, but Euphoria can prevent this. Can partially replace Stress in some situations (dailies/setgrinding), while not as ideal. However it also expedites the issue of lag in later loops, making some players against running it at all.

Non-Meta Mutations

This is not required reading to understand meta, it just explains why some mutations fall short.

The main utility in this section is if either trying to setgrind or play dailies as imperfect sets will be more common, as it's useful to prioritize decent mutations over bad ones.

Mid Viability Low Viability Situational Drawbacks Marginal Gains The Worst

Mid Viability just falls short to be considered in any p9 set, but still is notable for a run.


Lucky Shot

Every successful proc only has a 1 in 5 chance of granting energy ammo making it a less reliable source of ammunition making it not meta, although it will still be outright useful to any run.

Low Viability is still beneficial to take in a meta run but are far more situational in its usefulness.


Hammerhead

Only allows for a limited amount of wall breaking while SPC is great at quickly digging into walls making this mutation easily overlooked, but can come in clutch on rare moments of being trapped in a bad Van spawn without any energy ammo to dig.

Situational Drawbacks are mutations that can help the run in some situations, while being detrimental in other situations.


Impact Wrists

Enemies will have iframes active far more frequently which can potentially cause more ushovel swings to miss. As a note the damage done is bugged in non-beta/2021 openbeta (only dealing 2 damage) while fixed in the 2025 openbeta/NTT v100 (dealing up to 5 damage based on velocity), with the damage fix this is the best pick of this grouping.


Sharp Teeth

Similarly causes enemy iframes which can cause ushovel swings to miss, benefit mainly just provides a slight increase to damage.


Extra Feet

Motor memory can judge how to stay a safe distance from nearby hazards such as exploding enemies, however the extra speed can cause unintentional damage to be taken by underestimating the distance due to extra speed.
This only situationally affects the player, if accustomed to playing with the extra speed then this mutation can be considered to be a low viability mutation, as it does have its uses.

Marginal Gains are mutations that can help the run in very narrow ways and is not worth taking.


Gamma Guts

Gamma Guts becomes increasingly less useful due to HP scaling. There's limited use in cleaning up Maggots or Lab Freaks but in no way necessary in meta.
Rare situations can harm the player if a Sniper gets iframed and the player ends up killing them directly with Gamma Guts, so be mindful.


Heavy Heart

The issue of taking Heavy Heart is it requires 3 weapon mutations just to get it to appear meaning a set will already be limited by its inclusion. The mutations effect itself makes weapon drops over twice as common from enemies that can drop weapons, which means that energy weapons that give an ammo boost will be somewhat more frequent.


Open Mind

Gives one extra chest a level which at best can be a normal ammo chest to gain one extra SPC shot making the mutation fairly useless overall.
On Y.V. can be considered at the top of marginal tier, if just for the extra giant chest from his Crib.


Bolt Marrow

Other weapon mutations are useless the run revolves around ushovel and SPC, may see some limited usage if bolt weapons are ever temporarily picked up during boss fights making it a better pick than Gland or Shoulders.


Recycle Gland

Similarly useless as a weapon mutation when melee and energy are being used, there are rare times that a bullet weapon could be used in a run and this just extends its usage by a bit.


Shotgun Shoulders

Similarly useless as a weapon mutation as there will hardly be situations that warrants using shell weapons that can also benefit from bouncing far.

The Worst actively hurts meta runs and should never be taken within the context of running Ultra Shovel and SPC.


Eagle Eyes

Ultra Shovel's spread is affected by Eagle Eyes which causes its swings to lose the benefit of wide coverage, which severely limits the weapons defensive viability.
The only situation in which Eagle Eyes can ever come in handy is Steroids due to his inaccuracy, while not a great fit for Ultra Shovel either.