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The Blood and Wine expansion added a lot to The Witcher 3, including new characters, the Skellige Gwent deck, and one of the most beautiful locations in the game, Toussaint. Another excellent addition, though, was the mutations. These powerful new abilities became the focal point of every The Witcher 3 character build going forward.

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There are 12 mutations in total, which all have their own distinct ways of improving the player. But they are not created equal. Some of them are far more useful than others. And as players can only equip one at a time, it's important to know which are the best mutations in The Witcher 3.

Updated February 1, 2022 by Mark Sammut: Despite debuting more than half a decade ago, The Witcher 3 still averages above 15,000 simultaneous players on Steam, and that's not counting periods during or after sales that give the game a substantial boost. CD Projekt Red is reportedly working on a standalone Gwent game, so Witcher fans have a lot to look forward to in 2022. Whether someone is playing through the RPG and its expansions for the first or tenth time, they will come across mutations when they get to the Blood and Wine DLC. This article has been expanded to provide more information about each mutation.

Strengthened Synapses

Strengthened Synapses is a mutation that improves as Geralt researches the active mutations. As such, it is not really comparable to the other ones, even though it is arguably the most important in the grand scheme of things.

Strengthened Synapses allows Geralt to equip more abilities, although they would need to be of the same type (color) as the equipped active mutation:

Green

Alchemy

Blue

Signs

Red

Combat

Some mutations have a mix of colors, allowing a wider range of abilities to be equipped. If Second Life or Metamorphosis is active, any ability can be chosen.

12 Adrenaline Rush

Type

Combat & Signs

Ability Points Required

5

Mutagens Required

  • 3 Greater Blue
  • 2 Greater Red

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

  • Piercing Cold
  • Bloodbath

The main issue with Adrenaline Rush is how long it takes to unlock. Players need to have Piercing Cold and Bloodbath simply to get their hands on this one. And it's not worth the effort, never mind the mutagens and ability points it costs.

The mutation increases the player's attack power and sign intensity by 30% per enemy. So if they're taking on five foes, their damage will be boosted by 150%, which is a lot. But the catch is that it only lasts 30 seconds. After that, it becomes a hindrance as players' damage drops by 10% per foe instead.

11 Mutated Skin

Type

Combat & Alchemy

Ability Points Required

5

Mutagens Required

  • 3 Greater Green
  • 2 Greater Red

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

Euphoria

With Mutated Skin, each adrenaline point decreases damage received by 15%. So in total, players can improve their defense by 45%.

Not bad, however, there are multiple basic skills that players can pick up to increase their survivability. They shouldn't have to rely on their mutation and adrenaline points to keep them safe during the most difficult battles in the game. Especially as beyond making them tougher, Mutated skin doesn't help players in any other way.

10 Toxic Blood

Type

Alchemy

Ability Points Required

2

Mutagens Required

2 Greater Green

Considering Toxic Blood is one of the cheapest mutations; it's not that bad. How it works is every time Geralt takes a hit in combat, the attacker will receive 1.5% of damage for every point of toxicity the Witcher has. Therefore, if their toxicity bar is full (before it's enhanced with skills or certain armor), then the people who strike the player will take 150% damage.

That's a hell of a lot of punishment to deal out just by getting attacked. However, that's the problem, players need to take a beating to use it, which on harder difficulties is dangerous.

9 Cat Eyes

Screenshot From Witcher 3 of Geralt with Crossbow

Type

Combat & Alchemy

Ability Points Required

5

Mutagens Required

  • 3 Greater Green
  • 2 Greater Red

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

  • Euphoria
  • Bloodbath

Every player knows that unless they're underwater, the crossbow is pretty useless. However, that changes once Cat Eyes is equipped.

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The mutation gives a significant increase to the effectiveness of the ranged weapon by boosting its power and critical chance. And in the right hands with some strong bolts, it can turn the crossbow into a truly deadly part of a player's arsenal. Although, it doesn't help with the game's many close-quarters fights.

8 Deadly Counter

Type

Combat

Ability Points Required

2

Mutagens Required

2 Greater Red

The Deadly Counter mutation is fun and deadly at the same time. With it, finishers become a lot more prevalent as counterattacking anyone whose health is below 25% immediately triggers one.

It also gives a 25% boost to sword strikes against those immune to counterattacks as well as all monsters - no matter how strong they are. Those are some decent bonuses, but they aren't as impressive as what some of the best mutations have to offer.

7 Bloodbath

Shot from Witcher 3 of Geralt fighting monsters

Type

Combat

Ability Points Required

3

Mutagens Required

3 Greater Red

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

Deadly Counter

For every melee strike players land with the Bloodbath mutation equipped, they get a 5% boost to their attack power. Hit enough people, and players can obtain an insane 250% increase in damage.

While it seems incredibly deadly, there is a major drawback. Once players get hit, the boost resets, thus reaching the maximum damage output is rare. But those skilled in the art of dodging and parrying can inflict a lot of pain with this mutation.

6 Second Life

geralt witcher 3 best builds

Type

Combat, Signs, & Alchemy

Ability Points Required

7

Mutagens Required

  • 3 Greater Red
  • 2 Greater Blue
  • 2 Greater Green

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

Adrenaline Rush

Second Life is like a safety net (albeit one with a 180-second cooldown), as once players die, the mutation makes them invulnerable as their health regens back to 100%.

The usefulness of this depends on the player. A revival power is pointless for those who rarely ever die in the game. Yet, for the players who struggle to contend with all the creepy monsters roaming around in The Witcher 3, then this mutation is a literal life-saver.

5 Magic Sensibilities

Geralt using Igni against a fiend in The Witcher 3

Type

Signs

Ability Points Required

2

Mutagens Required

2 Greater Blue

Despite being one of the cheapest mutations, Magic Sensibilities is up there with the best. It gives players the chance to get a critical hit with their magical signs. And the frequency and damage of those criticals improve based on the sign intensity of the player.

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As signs are a significant part of a Witcher's arsenal, this mutation is a nice way of making them more useful on harder difficulties.

4 Metamorphosis

Type

Combat, Signs, & Alchemy

Ability Points Required

7

Mutagens Required

  • 3 Greater Green
  • 2 Greater Blue
  • 2 Greater Red

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

Cat Eyes

Metamorphosis is an interesting mutation, as once equipped, every time players apply a critical effect, it randomly triggers a decoction without causing any toxicity. So it's possible to stack a bunch of the most powerful ones together.

Now, there is a random element to what decoctions are consumed, but it's only between those that players have previously brewed. Therefore, as long as players aren't making pointless decoctions (they can also drop the useless ones), then Metamorphosis can be very useful. As a bonus, the mutation also gives players better vision in the dark, meaning there's no need for cat potions or torches.

3 Conductors Of Magic

Geralt using magic.

Type

Combat & Signs

Ability Points Required

5

Mutagens Required

  • 3 Greater Blue
  • 2 Greater Red

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

Piercing Cold

For players who want to make their signs as powerful as possible, Conductors of Magic is a necessity.

Conductors of Magic adds 50% of their equipped sword's damage to their sign damage. Although, on the condition that it's either a magic, unique, or witcher sword, which isn't much of an issue as those are the best in the game. When the mutation is paired with a sword that has a very big damage output, signs become a lot more lethal than usual.

2 Piercing Cold

Type

Signs

Ability Points Required

3

Mutagens Required

3 Greater Blue

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

Magic Sensibilities

When using the Piercing Cold mutation, Aard has a 25% chance of freezing enemies. And once frozen, the opponents die immediately upon hitting the ground. Even those who are lucky enough to avoid the elemental effect still take an incredible amount of damage.

The mutation alone makes Aard extremely effective. But pairing it with skills that boost the strength of the sign makes it one of the most destructive powers in the game.

1 Euphoria

Mutated Geralt

Type

Alchemy

Ability Points Required

3

Mutagens Required

3 Greater Green

Mutations That Must Be Unlocked

Toxic Blood

There's no question that Euphoria is one of the most overpowered abilities in The Witcher 3. Therefore, it's definitely the most useful mutation. With Euphoria, each point of toxicity improves both the player's sword and sign damage by 0.75%.

Initially, it doesn't sound like much. However, when paired with skills that increase a player's maximum toxicity such as Metabolism Control and Acquired Tolerance, and after drinking some strong decoctions, the damage output soon adds up. And players can make quick work of even the toughest opponents in the game.

The Witcher 3 is available on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game are also in development.

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