Mewgenics Classes Guide: Every Character Class and Top Abilities
Vladyslav Shamshurov
In Mewgenics, the new roguelike from the creator of The Binding of Isaac, there are 14 cat archetypes you can choose before starting a run. Obviously, not all of them are equally strong—some stand out much more than others. In this guide, we’ll cover every class and highlight the best skills for each one.
General Info
Even though there are 14 classes in the game, only five are available when you first start. These are the Tank, Brawler, Mage, and Hunter. You can also skip picking a class—if you do, your cat will be Collarless.
Other classes unlock gradually as you progress through the story campaign. The Healer collar becomes available after you finish the alley in Act 1. The rest unlock after completing other acts and sub-zones, and the last one, Jester, opens up in Act 3.
Technically, almost any class can be great if you manage to get the perfect set of abilities. But the pool of skills is huge, and you won’t always get what you want during a run. There are ways to reroll, and certain items and set bonuses can completely change your playstyle and your character’s role.
Base Classes
Collarless
Collarless means your cat has no chosen class. Its stats stay the same, but it gets access to an extremely wide pool of abilities.
The lack of specialization makes this a weak choice for tough battles. Collarless cats are only really useful if they already have strong innate skills or if you want them to fill a support role in your team.
Collarless, or the default “no class” option, mostly has access to general-purpose skills, most of which are designed to boost your squad. Only a few of these are truly useful, and it’s often better to use these cats as a base for multiclassing. Still, there are a few standout abilities worth mentioning.
Best active abilities:
- Vet Visit (0 mana) — Spend 5 coins to restore 10 health once per turn.
- Buy Catnip (0 mana) — Spend 5 coins to gain 10 mana once per turn.
- Subway Ride (0 mana) — Spend 5 coins to teleport to any tile.
- Hire Hitman (0 mana) — Spend 7 coins to summon a bounty hunter once per turn.
- Copycat (5 mana) — This spell copies the last spell used by an ally.
- Hose Off (5 mana) — Spray a unit with water to remove debuffs and create a puddle, once per turn.
- Second Wind (8 mana) — Refreshes your basic attack, movement, weapon action, and accessory action, once per battle.
Best passive abilities:
- Bare Minimum — your stats can never drop below 5.
- Careful — any damage you deal to allies becomes zero.
- Unrestricted — actions with a "once per battle" limit can now be used once per turn.
As your run goes on, you’ll often end up with extra coins you can use to activate these kinds of skills. Passives can be really helpful too. Bare Minimum stands out—it cancels out stat penalties from injuries, illnesses, and quest item modifiers.
Mage
The Mage is available right from the start and acts as a long-range damage dealer who scales with intellect. High intellect and charisma help you regenerate mana faster.
This class has access to a huge variety of spells—from free attacks to devastating area abilities. Still, the Mage falls a bit short compared to the Hunter because most spells require line of sight and careful positioning for area effects. Only a handful of items remove this limitation, so your success depends a lot on which skills you get.
The Mage can use some of the best skills in the game, but because of the line-of-sight restrictions, positioning is key for many options.
Best active abilities:
- Meteor Storm (10 mana) — summons meteors that hit random tiles in a large area. Meteors can stun, start fires, or leave rocks behind.
- Hyper Beam (3 mana) — pick a tile. At the start of your next turn, a powerful beam hits that tile. Can be used once per turn.
- Mega Blast (13 mana) — deals heavy damage in a cone.
- Homing Blasts (7 mana) — fire three magic projectiles at random enemies.
- Cryo Heal (8 mana) — heals and applies one freeze to a target within three tiles.
- Teleport (6 mana) — teleport to any tile.
Best passive abilities:
- Learn from Me — when you cast a spell, all allies get access to it in a bonus slot.
- Two — if you only cast one spell last turn, your next spell is cast twice.
- Paw Missile — your basic attack becomes a magic projectile, and its damage scales with intellect.
- Ice Aspect — you are immune to ice. You can damage frozen targets. Anyone who touches you takes +1 ice damage, gets 2 slow, and has a chance to be frozen.
- Magic Guru — allies get +1 mana regeneration. When an ally spends 7+ mana on a spell, they get a bonus to all stats.
Hunter
The Hunter is available from the very beginning and serves as a ranged physical attacker. His bonuses to agility and luck make him a deadly damage dealer, though he does lose a bit of stamina and speed.
This class probably has the highest damage potential, thanks to skills like Heavy Shot and Arrow Flurry. The main drawback is that shots can miss. However, common items like the Monocle, Man's Glasses, and Bullseye guarantee hits, completely removing this weakness. With enough stamina and speed, the Hunter becomes a true sniper, picking off enemies safely from a distance.
The Hunter specializes in picking off targets from afar. His mobility is not great, but he makes up for it with powerful critical shots.
Best active abilities:
- Arrow Flurry (8 mana) — fire five weak shots, each with a 50% chance to miss.
- Heavy Shot (4 mana) — fire a high-damage shot with a 70% chance to miss.
- Line Shot (7 mana) — attack that hits all units in a straight line.
- Snipe (6 mana) — shoot exactly six tiles away, ignores shields and cannot miss.
- Marked (5 mana) — marks a target. The next physical attack against the mark is guaranteed to crit and cannot miss.
- Sentry Mode (6 mana) — take a shot if an enemy ends their turn within your attack range.
Best passive abilities:
- Thrill of the Hunt — at the end of battle, if you killed at least three enemies, permanently gain +1 agility and one random consumable.
- Bullseye — your ranged attacks never miss and gain +25% crit chance.
- Rubber Arrows — your projectiles bounce to another enemy within three tiles.
- Tower Defense — when an enemy enters your attack range, you automatically shoot them with a projectile that deals extra damage.
Brawler
The Brawler is also available from the start and specializes in close-range physical damage. Bonuses to strength and speed make him extremely effective in turn-based combat.
This class has plenty of mobility and multi-action skills, letting you quickly close gaps and land powerful hits on multiple targets. He can knock enemies out of the fight, deal area damage, and even launch opponents into the air to remove them from the field temporarily. Thanks to his flexibility and high damage, the Brawler is easily one of the strongest classes in the game.
The Brawler almost always needs to be right in the middle of the action. Various skills can seriously boost his combat potential.
Best active abilities:
- Spin (6 mana) — attack everything around you three times.
- Fury Swipes (6 mana) — a weak melee attack with a chance to hit multiple times.
- Counterattack (6 mana) — after you take damage, strike back at the enemy.
- Stoopzerk (6 mana) — your intellect drops to zero. For the rest of the fight, you can attack one extra time per turn. Unlocks the More Angrier skill.
- More Angrier (X mana) — lose all your mana and gain the same amount of strength until the end of the turn.
- Confront (7 mana) — move to the tile in front of an enemy.
- Gravity Slam (6 mana) — jump to a tile and pull enemies toward you when you land.
- Think Too Hard (2 mana) — take damage equal to your intellect. The next spell you cast this turn is free and costs no mana.
- Berserk (4 mana) — gain +5 strength and 5 stacks of Bruise. After using, this skill turns into Berserker Dash.
- Berserker Dash (2 mana) — dash attack over a short distance.
Best passive abilities:
- Fervor — after killing an enemy, restore five health.
- Frenzy — after killing an enemy, gain two strength.
- Punch Face — your basic attacks always crit if they hit the target’s face.
- Underdog — gain two strength and one resilience for every enemy next to you.
Any smart combination of these skills turns the Brawler into a true death machine.
Tank
The Tank is available from the very start and is built to protect the team. He gets a huge boost to stamina, at the cost of intellect and agility.
His damage is lower than the previous class, but his toughness lets him absorb massive amounts of damage. Abilities that redirect attacks to himself and shield allies make him a reliable choice for the front line. The downside is that some of his skills are situational, especially those that create rocks or petrify enemies.
Best active abilities:
- Steelskin (0 mana) — gain +99 Resilience until your next turn. This skill is unavailable until you have taken a total of 25 damage.
- Pincushion (0 mana) — gain +3 Thorns but you cannot move this turn.
- Goad (3 mana) — force an enemy to move toward you.
- Bodyguard (2 mana) — the next time an enemy targets an ally, you swap places with them.
Best passive abilities:
- Hard Head — you block all attacks from the front.
- Scabs — gain +2 Shield every time you get an injury from a skill.
- Hardy — at the start of each battle, heal to full health.
- Toad Style — gain +4 Speed. Your movement becomes jumping. Landing on a unit deals damage and knocks them aside.
- Pet Rocks — rocks you create come to life and get +3 health. At the start of each battle, you always have a rock.
If you have Steelskin, it becomes your emergency button. It drastically reduces all incoming damage for that turn, making you nearly unkillable. Goad and Bodyguard are great for stopping enemies from focusing your teammates.
Unlockable Classes
Healer
The Healer unlocks after you first clear the Alley and serves as the main support in your party. His stats boost charisma and stamina, but slightly lower speed and agility.
This is one of the strongest classes in the game thanks to a wide range of healing abilities. He can quickly pull the team out of critical situations, revive fallen allies, and heal injuries. In later zones, fights get especially tough, so the Healer is almost essential as support. Extra items like the Nurse Mask and Scrubs make him even more effective.
Best active abilities:
- Prayer (4 mana) — heals units in an area.
- Healing Word (5 mana) — heals a unit at range.
- Adoubement (5 mana) — heals a unit and removes debuffs. The target gets +1 to a random stat and becomes an Alpha. If there is already an Alpha, the spell has unlimited range and must target the chosen alpha.
- Awaken (1 mana) — resurrects a body with one health.
- Revive (8 mana) — resurrects a body with half health and heals one injury.
- Open Wounds (8 mana) — this attack deals more damage the lower the target’s health percentage.
- Cleanse (3 mana) — removes all debuffs from units in an area.
- Reverse Damage (4 mana) — cancels the last damage received by a nearby unit.
- Crusade (3 mana) — you and your allies move toward the nearest enemy.
- Circle of Protection (8 mana) — gives +1 Holy Shield to every unit within two tiles of you.
Best passive abilities:
- Ranged Medic — your basic attack becomes a ranged arc shot that heals allies and damages enemies.
- Caretaker — after you heal an ally for a certain amount, you also heal yourself.
- Breath of Life — healing an ally who is dying will revive them.
- Purifier — your basic attack removes debuffs from allies.
- Enchanted Relic — active and passive effects from your trinket or consumable are doubled.
Butcher
The Butcher unlocks after you clear the Core for the first time and combines the roles of a melee fighter and tank, thanks to his large health pool. He has high strength and stamina, but is slow.
His signature weapon, the Meat Hook, lets you pull enemies in and finish them off with powerful attacks. A unique feature is creating food during combat, which you can eat to heal. Even with limited mobility, a well-built Butcher can become extremely tough and deadly.
His basic action, Cleave, creates food on the ground, which you can then "feed" to yourself to restore health.
Best active abilities:
- Spin Cleave (7 damage) — attack everything around you with an axe.
- Slice and Dice (9 mana) — dash one tile and spin attack with your axe, then repeat this two more times.
- Mutilate (8 mana) — attack 3–5 times for 1 damage each, applying bleed with every hit.
- Succ (2 mana) — pick up an item within 2 tiles.
- Spoil (6 mana) — turn all food into flies.
- Chomp (6 mana) — melee attack with lifesteal. If used on an ally, you gain +1 strength. If used on an item on the ground, you get double its effect.
Best passive abilities:
- Spin to Win — your basic attack becomes a spinning axe attack in a 3x3 area.
- Glutton — when food appears within 2 tiles, you move toward it.
- Harpooner — when an enemy enters your range, you pull them in with your hook.
- Duke of the Flies — at the end of battle, all food turns into friendly flies that persist between fights.
- Lord of the Flies — all flies become charmed and gain +1 damage. Every rot effect is applied one additional time.
Monk
The Monk unlocks after clearing the laboratory and is a hybrid between melee and ranged combat. He is unique because he has two basic attacks and can switch between stances.
Even though he is versatile, penalties to strength and agility make his basic strikes weaker. He relies heavily on what skills you get during a run. With the right abilities, the Monk can be surprisingly effective, including a skill that instantly kills a normal enemy after a turn.
Best active abilities:
- Empty Mind (0 mana) — you can't cast spells for the rest of the fight. Every time you kill an enemy, you gain an extra turn.
- Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique (7 mana) — melee attack that causes the target to die at the end of their next turn. Bosses fall asleep instead.
- Combo Throw (6 mana) — melee attack that knocks the target back three tiles. On hit, you switch to ranged stance and refresh your basic attack.
- Combo Pull (6 mana) — ranged attack that pulls the target to you. On hit, you switch to melee stance and refresh your basic attack.
- Way of the Hare (9 mana) — for the rest of the fight, you can move one extra time each turn.
- Ocular Pat Down (7 mana) — mark the target and apply magic weakness 1.
Best passive abilities:
- Running Jab — when you finish moving, automatically use your basic attack if an enemy is in range.
- Counter Barrage — when you take damage from an enemy attack, perform +1 bonus attack.
- Flow State — when you deal damage to another unit, gain +1 strength and +2 agility until the end of the turn.
- Unburdened Strikes — gain +10% crit chance and +25% crit damage for each empty armor slot. If all armor slots are empty, you counterattack every time you get hit.
Psychic
The Psychic becomes available after you clear the moon for the first time and serves as a magical support and control class. His abilities focus not on damage, but on manipulating enemy positions and slowing them down.
He can push enemies into each other, pull them closer, and even seriously slow down bosses. Despite a weak basic attack, as a controller the Psychic can be extremely useful.
The Psychic gives you exceptional battlefield control by manipulating gravity. In some ways, he is similar to a tank with his focus on knockbacks, but instead uses magic spells.
Best active abilities:
- Increase Gravity (3 mana) — apply slow 1 to a target in line of sight. If you use it with full mana, you also apply paralyze 1 and deal 6 damage.
- Gravity Pull (3 mana) — pull units to a single tile within 5 tiles.
- Gravity Blast (6 mana) — push adjacent targets back 10 tiles. If used at full mana, enemies take 10 damage when they collide.
- Become Entropy (14 mana) — evaporate everything on a chosen tile in line of sight. Against bosses, it deals damage and stuns.
- Chaos Teleport (1 mana) — teleport to a random tile.
- Suggestion (6 mana) — force one enemy in line of sight to attack another enemy if possible.
Best passive abilities:
- Flourish — gravity abilities no longer harm allies. Instead, they grant a random positive effect and boost it by +1.
- Antigravity — you gain flight, letting you ignore tiles and move over units and obstacles. Gravity spells cost 1 less mana and give you +1 speed when cast.
- Enlightened — when your mana is full, your next three spells are completely free.
- Full Power — with full mana, your basic attack deals triple damage and knocks units back three tiles.
- True Sight — you and your allies cannot miss any target in line of sight.
- Omniscience — you can see the entire battlefield and line of sight is ignored.
Thief
The Thief unlocks after clearing the sewers and is known for high speed. He deals serious damage both up close and at range.
However, most of his ranged attacks only work in straight lines, which limits tactical options. The Assassinate skill requires you to get behind an enemy, which is risky because of low stamina. This class needs good positioning and team support.
The Thief can flank enemies, dealing damage from a distance or getting in close for a flurry of strikes. With the highest speed bonus in the game, you will need to keep moving to attack targets effectively.
Best active abilities:
- Shadow (4 mana) — teleport behind a unit.
- Stalk (3 mana) — pick any unit. At the start of your next turn, teleport behind them. Can only be used once per turn.
- Boost Backstab (4 mana) — at the end of your turn, backstabs deal 75% more damage and ignore shields.
- Assassinate (8 mana) — melee attack that only works from behind. Ignores shields and has a 50% crit chance.
- Poison Nail (3 mana) — throw a nail that poisons and ignores shields.
- Venom Barrage (5 mana) — throw a poisoned, shield-piercing nail at every enemy in your line of sight.
- Pierce (4 mana) — gain +2 range. Your attacks pierce through units and ignore shields until end of turn.
- Chakram (3 mana) — throw a projectile that passes through units and returns to you. It can pick up items from tiles.
Best passive abilities:
- Backstabber — backstabs always crit.
- Sweetspot — gain +1 range. Basic attacks deal more damage the farther you are from your target.
- Poison Tips — basic attacks apply one stack of poison.
- Stealthed — start every battle in stealth, giving you +50% dodge chance. Stealth breaks if you get hit.
Druid
The Druid unlocks after you clear the Crater for the first time and specializes in summoning creatures and support. He can shapeshift into animals, call in helpers, and heal allies in an area.
The main challenge is the high randomness in skill selection. Your playstyle can change a lot from run to run, and lower stamina makes him vulnerable.
Best active abilities:
- Encourage (8 mana) — give a familiar an extra turn after this one.
- Protection (5 mana) — gives familiars in an area one holy shield each.
- Form of the Squirrel (10 mana) — creates squirrels on every adjacent tile, then transforms you into a squirrel. Your basic attack becomes Chitter, and this skill turns into Birth Squirrel.
- Chitter (0 mana) — every squirrel familiar gets +2 damage and +2 speed.
- Birth Squirrel (2 mana) — create another squirrel. Can be used once per turn.
- Squirrel Squad (15 mana) — summons five small squirrels.
- Death Metal (13 mana) — a song that explodes a random enemy.
Best passive abilities:
- Love Song — your basic action gets +2 area and also heals 1 extra health.
- Rap God — your basic action also gives a temporary +4 speed boost.
- Versatile Vocalist — your basic action deals +1 damage to enemies and gives them a temporary -1 damage debuff. Your basic attacks will not debuff allies or buff enemies.
- Super Crow — your crow gains improved abilities.
- Empty Vessels — summoned familiars have +3 health regeneration and +10 max health.
- Suicide Squad — your controlled familiars get Self Destruct as a bonus skill.
- Self Destruct (7 damage) — the chosen unit explodes.
Necromancer
The Necromancer becomes available after you clear the graveyard and commands the undead. He can drain health and raise fallen creatures to fight for him.
Sometimes revived minions turn out to be extremely strong, but overall the class build is tricky and unstable. Some abilities only unlock when the necromancer himself falls, so you have to play carefully.
Best active abilities:
- Soul Link (6 mana) — applies soul link to units in an area. When any linked character loses health, all other linked ones take the same amount of damage.
- Reanimate (5 mana) — revive a dead body with half health. It becomes a zombie and joins your team.
- Eternal Servitude (12 mana) — revive an enemy body with full health. It joins your team.
- Shriek (9 mana) — applies fear 1, confusion 2, and madness 2 to all units in a cone.
- Reaper Step (6 mana) — teleport to an empty tile within 1 tile. Each time a unit dies, this spell's range increases by +1.
Best passive abilities:
- Soul Bond — your basic attack applies soul link.
- Spread Sorrow — when you apply a debuff to an enemy, the same debuff is applied to another random enemy.
- Eternal Health — when you are downed, you only suffer from curse, losing one luck. When your team wins the fight, you heal back to full health.
- Last Grasp — when you are downed, deal 6 damage to every enemy and heal all allies for 6 health. Gain the bonus ability Seppuku.
- Seppuku (6 mana) — down yourself.
Inventor
The Inventor unlocks after clearing the bunker and is a hybrid fighter and item crafter. He upgrades gear and can create weapons right during battle.
The challenge is that crafting results are random: you might get a powerful weapon or a useless item. The best gear requires the rare Scrap resource and the right passive abilities.
The Inventor gets two actions at the start of his turn. If he has no weapon equipped, he can create a random one with his basic action and use it immediately. Scrap determines the rarity of the weapon you create.
Best active abilities:
- Craft (4 mana) — create and equip a random temporary weapon. The item disappears at the end of the fight.
- Research (5 mana) — gain +1 scrap.
- Nurse Bot (9 mana) — create a Nurse Bot that heals allies.
- Fast Hands (8 mana) — refresh weapon and accessory actions, unless they restore mana.
- Mech Suit (15 mana) — summon a mech suit you can control. This spell can only be used once per fight.
Best passive abilities:
- Item Proxy — you need one less item for set bonuses.
- Armor Specialist — passive effects from your gear are doubled.
- Duct Tape — created items persist between battles, but become cursed: you can't unequip them and must use them until they break.
- Napalm — your explosions apply one burn and set tiles on fire.
- V 2.0 — start with +1 scrap. Your scrap can't drop below 1.
Jester
The Jester unlocks last, after you clear the Rift for the first time, and holds a unique spot among the classes. What makes him special is his ability to get abilities from all other classes.
This makes him extremely unpredictable. In one run, he might become incredibly powerful thanks to strong skills, while in another he could end up nearly useless.
The Jester works in a very unusual way: every time he levels up, he is offered abilities from other classes, including some that are classless. Because of this, it's impossible to list the "best" skills for him out of context — you really have to build your set as you go.
Kittens with strong class-based innate abilities and good base stats make great candidates for Jester, because when you pick this archetype, neither your stats nor your innate abilities change.
Extra active and best passive abilities from other classes are chosen randomly after you "lock in" the archetype. If they fit well with your starting skills or are strong on their own, you will be in a great spot. If you get nothing useful, you'll just have to keep going and hope luck turns in your favor.
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