So recently I have come off experimenting with mutagens and took the boring, but resource intensive alpha mutation line to post-threshold with bionic character as a means to test how mutagens work.
Seems mutagen effects can be guided to better outcome by responsible dosing and letting the body heal after mutating.
Mutated:
- Good hearing
- Prime Stat-boosts
- Robust Genetics
- Very Beautiful
- Very Little Sleep ( from Less Sleep from video gaming background)
- Weak Scent
From my understanding when undergoing mutations via mutagen the most effective way is to prime the mutation via primers which act like a storage for the mutagen and for quicker results use a mutagen catalyst to allow the game to draw mutations from the storage of mutagen primer.
I was fiddling with mutagen dosing via normal mutagen and then primer, primer then mutagen and took things very slowly to see the effects.
Everytime you mutate you incur mutation damage, the more you mutate in quick succession the higher the mutation damage value rises. Higher mutation damage increases the chance for bad mutations.
It seems one primer is good for about 2 mutations with a mutagen catalyst and any further mutations fail as there isn't enough "mutation vitamin" to mutate more.
Post-threshold can be risky as you have to macro-dose primer to "overdose" on the "mutation vitamin" to force mutation but seems that the post-threshold advancement uses a lot of said vitamin
Overall, either my experiment was either super lucky or just being very methodical produced my character with all the positive mutations and no negatives, robust genetics help and fortunately alpha evolves that pre-threshold as that quickens the heal rate of mutation damage it seem.
There are lots of sources to study how mutagen works, but many are hard to find. While you can mutate nilly-willy as long as you wait, I recommend you check out these links.
Personal advice: install alloy plating bionics so that you don't become a furry and are able to wear clothes normally. Nothing beats a good ol' power parmor.
Seems my personal tests were within acceptable safe mutagentic zones
Started slowly - did some mutagen, waited and kept mental notes of the results, wasting mutagen and primers and seeing what they do, saw it wasn't enough "vitamins", added more mutagen and over time, carefully observed the results, keeping purifier in case of a bad result, waiting and seeing would happen, eventually settled on a primer/catalyst setup once I felt comfortable with dosing - going for about 3 or so days - depending on messages and character overview( felt about right with damage recovery and perceive "safety") when I wanted to mutate.
Seems I took a bit of risk with the post threshold metamorphisis as I guessed 3 cataclysts and a primer should be good for post-threshold.
I admit it was far from optimal - although it did help me learn about good locations for mutagen sample harvesting - especially alpha samples.
It was a fun experiment delving into testing mutagens, seems my overly careful scientific method bore good fruits for that particular experiment.
Nice tip on the alloy plating for experimenting with other types of mutantion types - fortunately for that particular character they were close to both the refugee center and the exodii ( bionic man made easy by trading at center and then trading at exodii with some nodachi trading when they had some good stuff). I think by that point I had probably installed all the common and uncommon bionics and few lab rares too
I am more of a hub-01 modular armour person, especially with soldier inlay upgrade for it, it isn't the best armour, but it is for me one of the most versatile sets with great weight to protection and survivability value also a bit OCD on making sure what I use can be repairable - only thing I avoided fighting were shoggoths ( because I wasn't willing to grind launchers and make the rockets for it)
Yeah, power armors are complicated, Huge limitations and dependences, but they basically turn you into a moving mountain. Unless they changed it, last time I used one was some time ago.
I remember reading there is a RM Exoskeleton type armour one can find in hidden caches in the Logistics building.
I found power armour pieces - unpowered and powered ( chest pieces mostly and a helmet) on some of the stronger, rarer military type zombies
I am not sure if it is old content but found a few mech suits ( I think there where 2 types if I recall) in an old central labs, which are pretty fun and powerful although the power supplies are somewhat of a pain to work with - I think Hub 01 can sell or recharge them or something to that effect
I think because of my playstyle I try keep my encumberance and weight down as I prefer melee combat and try aim for lower fatigue action economy to allow me to react to surprises better and to also improve my autopsy results( as I believe the less munilated the corpse the better the potential result)
I know there is a martial weapon art that specialize in heavy armour "mountain" type fighting and barring that, guns are a lot more encumberance friendly and with enough skill and high enough caliber can handle pretty much anything.