Mutations

[joob]

So after grinding gods with rainbow forever, I started to notice some patterns with my mutations. It seems like certain creatures more often end up with a specific ability. Off the top of my head, I remember Azure Dragon and Stone Dragon seem to get growth and Ice Dragon seems to get paradox. I've also seen screenshots from other people with those specific mutations. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but has anyone else noticed this? Could there be some game mechanic that would make it more likely for a creature to get a certain ability?

[Delreich]

Could there be some game mechanic that would make it more likely for a creature to get a certain ability?

Could be, but it could also just be confirmation bias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias) at work.
There's a thread on mutational tendencies, somewhere. Search should be able to show the way.

[joob]

Ah, thanks. Didn't find that post before. I must've searched while I was looking at a thread.

[Dragoon]

Wow, that's quite a list.  I bet that took you forever and a day to research and write.

[joob]

More evidence:



The Blue Crawlers both have scavenger, though they started with different stats. The Chrysaora both had lycanthropy, though they started with different attack.



The pairs of Phase Spiders and Cockatrice are identical.



Those are mutated dragons for Oty, of course.

I've seen more Stone Dragons with growth. I've also noticed a lot of Crimson Dragons get hatch (which is kinda sad since I'm never gonna hatch a 15/6) and Shriekers get dive. I still wonder why this happens.

[Scaredgirl]

Could there be some game mechanic that would make it more likely for a creature to get a certain ability?

Could be, but it could also just be confirmation bias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias) at work.
There's a thread on mutational tendencies, somewhere. Search should be able to show the way.

What he said.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

I'm not exactly sure if this proves anything, but in a fight against Miracle, I mutated two sets of identical creatures. Two Sparks with poison, and two Maxwell's Demons with Burrow. Both had the same stats, too (you can't see it on the top row Spark, but I can confirm that it delt the same amount of damage as the other one when it attacked).

[various-guises]

i got bored................................. sorry.........................
This took forever, so if you want to add your own to get better results, go right ahead. lol

creature:
damage/health
costxquantum ability

guardian angel:
1/6, 1/6
2xlight heal, 2xlight heal

photon:
5/5
1xlife growth

shrieker:
8/6
2xearth dive

wyrm:
7/7, 3/4, 4/7, 3/5
2xair infection, 2xair grav pull, 1xair devour, 2xair mutation

chrysaora:
1/3
2xwater paradox

anubis:
5/8
scavenger, 2xtime lycanthropy

bone dragon:
13/9, 11/9, 13/8
1xdeath poison, 1xdeath growth,  2xdeath deja vu

colossal dragon:
7/16
2xgrav dive

parasite:
5/3
2xdark devour

vulture:
2/3, 1/3
momentum, 2xdeath lycanthropy

armagio:
2/27
2xgrav poison

chrysaora:
2/3
2xwater paradox

spark:
5/4
immaterial

fire spirit:
1/6
1xfire destroy

rustler:
3/4, 3/1
momentum, 1xlife heal

emerald dragon:
14/8, 13/9
2xlife hatch,  imaterial

phase dragon:
8/9
2xaether lycanthropy

shrieker:
12/5, 10/7
1xearth dive, 1xearth dive

artic squid:
4/2, 5/2
2xwater mutation, 2xwater mutation

grav fire eater:
4/8, 1/9, 2/5
2xgrav freeze, 1xgrav freeze,1xgrav steal

dragonfly
 3/2 , 3/4, 5/3, 4/3, 5/3
1xair paradox2xair paradox,1xair paradox, 2xair paradox, scavenger

antlion:
6/4, 5/7
1xearth paradox, momentum

guardian angel:
1/8
momentum

lava golem:
9/3, 7/4, 7/2, 5/1, 6/1
1xfire heal, 2xfire dive,scavenger, 2xfire heal, 6/1 1xfire heal

pegasus:
7/4
1xlight burrow

ash eater:
2/1 6/5, 4/1
1xfire deja vu, 2xfire momentum, 2xfire deja vu

sapph charger:
5/7, 7/5
 1xgravity growth, 2xgrav mutation

parasite:
3/3
2xdark growth

artic squid:
1/4
2xwater poison

max`s deamon:
6/5, 4/2
1xentropy destroy, 2xentropy momentum

cockatrice:
4/4
scavenger

devourer:
4/3, 2/2
scavenger, 1xdark infection

stone dragon:
11/11, 9/11, 11/12
1xearth poison, 1xearth poison, 1xearth growth

flesh spider:
3/5
2xdeath steal,

fallen elf
6/3,3/3, 7/3, 7/4, 3/2
1entropy burrow, 2xentropy steal, 2xdeath burrow,1xdeath burrow, 2xentropy burrow

anubis:
7/12
2xtime infection

firefly:
5/3, 3/3
2xair deja vu, 2xwater deja vu

fire spirit:
1/4
1xfire destroy

ice dragon:
12/10,10/10
momentum,2xwater dive

azure dragon:
12/9, 12/9, 13/8, 10/10, 10/10
2xair growth, 2xair growth, 1xair poison, 2xair poison, 1xair growth

blue crawler:
3/5
scavenger

anubis:
2xtime
paradox

deja vu:
0/1, 1/2, 5/3
2xtime hatch, 2xtime deja vu, 2xtime freeze

BLACK DRAGON:
13/6, 11/7 14/5
2xdark paradox, 1xdark heal, 1xdark paradox


abomination:
6/8, 6/6, 7/9
2xentropy dive, momentum, 2xentropy dive

gnome rider:
5/3, 5/6, 1/6, 5/6
1xearth hatch, immaterial, 2xearth poison, 2xearth deja vu

FFQ:
6/10, 3/8, 7/11, 6/8, 6/9
2xair devour, 1xair mutation, 1xair devour, 2xair grav pull, 2xair growth

fate egg:
2/2
1xtime burrow

skell:
1/3, 4/1
scavenger, 1xearth grav pull

mind flayer:
5/6, 4/6, 6/4
2xwater infection,1xwater devour, 2xwater grav pull

lycanthrope:
4/1, 4/2, 5/5, 5/1, 4/5, 4/5, 2/1, 1/2, 1/1
2xentropy grav pull, 1xentropy grav pull, 1xentropy devour, 2xentropy grav pull, 1xentropy devour,  1xentropy devour1xentropy grav pull,1xentropy mutation, 1xentropy grav pull

otyugh:
0/5, 0/4,
devour, 2xgrav grav pull


forest spirit:
5/1, 2/5, 3/4
mutation, 1xlife growth, 2xlife growth

[various-guises]

There is definately a trend with the mutations. I noticed this as well. My druid is not up`d , so i get less mutations, But a treand is definately noticeable.

[Daxx]

The forum has a table functionality that might help. Use the following tags:

Code: [Select]

[table] and [/table] define the table element.
[tr] and [/tr] define each row within the table.
[td] and [/td] define each cell within the row.
It probably is confirmation bias, but given the sheer amounts of semi-lazy shortcuts in the game's programming, I wouldn't be surprised if the mutations weren't completely random.

[Delreich]

I think there's a few errors in vg's data. I've never seen (in-game or in screenshots) a mutant with an ability cost of a different element.
The 1xdeath heal black dragon would either be a bone dragon or have 1xdark heal, I'd think.

As far as I can tell (from the data here and what little in-game experience I have with mutants), you get

a random critter (non-upped, possibly from a subset)
with the base stats that creature would have, buffed in a way similar to chaos power
retaining any passive/unnamed abilities (think devourers)
with a random active/named ability (from a subset of all available)
costing one or two quanta of its element (random or based on the ability/element or a combination thereof) if it's active.

I've not seen anything indicating that the ability is not uniformly random. Then again, I've not seen all that much...

[Delreich]

Mutations don't actually have "all abilities" on the list of available options.

...which is what I meant by "a subset".

I probably shouldn't have said "uniformly" though, as some abilities (e.g. steal, destroy) seem rarer than others. Don't know what I was thinking there.
What I meant was, it seems like what critter you get has no impact on what ability you get.