Overview

Set grinding is a strategy in which a run is played to see the mutation sets and is restarted if optimal mutations are not given. The odds of getting a perfect set is rare, especially for a perfect 9, meaning that a lot of time could easily be wasted without even seeing a playable set. For this reason set grinding is almost never used by meta players anymore, instead adopting the grillskills mod that removes mutation RNG.

It is strongly recommended to use grillskills, or participate in community scouting for dailies, rather than setgrind. However this guide will still catalogue all different approaches to set grinding as a way to document the past and for any of those that do want to try it.

The best character for set grinding is easily Horror as he trivializes any mutation starving with his ability to use rad beam, along with seeing an extra mutation per set. Crystal can play runs without Rhino Skin and YV can play runs without Stress, thus deviating from a standard p9 which also gives them increased chances of seeing a workable set.

Here are/were the most popular options that are all expanded upon below:

• Strategy 1: Standard Starving: Great option for Non-Beta and decent for Betas. Listed first as it's still used in dailies, and has its own radstarving guide.
• Strategy 2: Destiny Start: The best option for vanilla setgrinding, most favorable RNG.
• Strategy 3: Hate Start: Uses radfarming instead of radstarving, but with unfavorable RNG.
• Strategy 4: Blood Start: Requires no radstarving or radfarming, but has unfavorable RNG and may not even work each run.

Strategy 1: Standard Starving

This strategy is the most common for dailies and has the most 'vanilla' feel to it. A run can be started as normal until the 3-2 Vault is reached, in which Crown of Destiny is taken. Rads will be purposefully avoided to not level up until the 5-2 Vault is reached, in which the crown is taken off. This is commonly known as radstarving and there is a dedicated guide for this specific strategy.

If playing Non-Beta (u99r1) the mutation given by Destiny is the first mutation of the last set seen, meaning that Destiny can be predicted. After the player sees a set where there is a good mutation in the first slot, they can choose to start starving from there as it will be guaranteed to be gained from Destiny (unless if it's Last Wish). This is most commonly done at level 5 on dailies.

If playing on the betas Crown of Destiny gives a random mutation, so on a vanilla run the player can just enter the Vault at a bit of a higher level to avoid any radstarving. On dailies this can be shared between players, so be sure to check the daily sheet.

Once the starve is done the player can continue leveling until the rest of the sets are seen. If it is not a good enough of a set, then the run can be restarted, unless if it is a daily challenge then it can just be played out. While this is one of the more simple strategies, it can also be draining to play more than once due to the time that standard radstarving takes.

Strategy 2: Destiny Start

This was a fairly popular strategy before grillskills caught on. A run is started with Crown of Destiny and the starve goes until the 3-2 Vault. The free Destiny mutation will be granted upon completing 1-1 so resetting the run is a simple matter if it is not optimal. Due to how few rads are needed to reach level 2 (61 rads), some players opted to just level up at the very start of the run as resetting if a bad mutation is given may be more preferable than starving through 1-1 each time, even if the odds are less favorable.

One option to speed up the process is to summon Big Bandit on 1-1 which is usually used to trigger Oasis, but not kill him in under 10 seconds. If Oasis is failed to trigger this way it will bring the player to 2-1, which will skip two levels. This is at the cost of difficulty which causes good weapons to start dropping slightly later.

On all versions (Non-Beta and Betas) this can be considered entirely random as there's no way to predict what mutations are given. If there are 9 mutations being sought after that means it's a 9 in 27 chance (33.33%) of seeing them. (There are 29 mutations but Last Wish cannot be given on Destiny as non-Horror, and Heavy Heart requires certain conditions.)

Once the 3-2 Vault is reached the crown can be swapped off for any other one and leveling can be continued as normal, resetting if an optimal set is not given.

Strategy 3: Hate Start

Hate Start was one of the less popular strategies. It is considered to be grindy and not as fun, and Destiny is taken very last which could make all the player's effort go to waste, such as if they get Eagle Eyes.

The specifics of this run is starting with Crown of Hatred, playing normally until the 3-2 Vault and then repeatedly walking over the proto chest to gain rads at the cost of HP. Crown Guardians can then be used to farm HP (bringing a Wrench is suggested) until reaching 9, and then upon exiting Vault the rest of the sets will be seen and can consider resetting or not.

Ultra does not have to be reached in Vault as there are usually enough rads between 3-3 and 5-2 to level up, although to be safe level 9 could be filled out 25%-50%. Do NOT take Crown of Destiny at the 3-2 Vault, it is taken in the 5-2 Vault after hitting ultra.

The issue with this strategy is that taking Destiny last means there is just a 1 in 19 chance (~5.3%) of getting a specific mutation, so if wanting a full perfect 9 this is very suboptimal. If the set is not desirable, restart the run.

Extra Tips:
Health drops are converted from ammo drops, so it's useful to be at 1 HP as much as possible to maximize Crown Guardian drops. It's also useful to run a secondary weapon that's constantly out of ammo to make Guardian Orbs more likely to drop pickups, any weapon with a high firerate so ammo can be exhausted will do.

Opening proto chest will give 16 rads due to Hatred. If the player enters the Vault around level 5 which is typical, then they would need to open Proto Chests around 98 times to reach level 9, which would require 49 health pickups. Exact numbers:

Strategy 4: Blood Start

Blood Start is the least practical option of these strategies as it is far more RNG reliant, however it was done by some players as it removes any grindy parts of gameplay. The goal of the run is simple, start with Crown of Blood and reach ultra before the 5-2 Vault. Destiny is then taken there to see what 9th mutation is given, with the run being reset at any point if optimal mutations are not given.

In order to reach ultra in time Cursed Crystal Caves (CCC) must be visited which requires running a cursed weapon. There is only a 1 in 7 chance when running Crown of Blood to see a cursed weapon, with 7 weapon chests being seen from 1-1 to 3-3. If the best option in a set is Last Wish this could also hurt this method as it uncurses held weapons when taken.

Crown of Blood's extra enemy count will also make the game very difficult if bad weapons are ran, and CCC will be especially dangerous if webbed or a very open area at all. Killing enemies from long range is also discouraged in CCC as the player needs all the rads they can get - hitting ultra isn't even guaranteed, meaning that they may also have to use Destiny to get a random ultra.

This strategy is obviously not suggested as it has multiple aspects that could go wrong, which is aside from just getting the right mutations. This mainly stood as an option for those who did not want to play through the game slowly.