Is esper worth it? or is it better to be a standard mutant?

[Chickenug]

Esper is really fun but i feel like certain pysical mutations like beak and Two-headed are just too good to miss out on. Any tips?

[glass zebra]

Beak is a rather small boost that matters less and less as the game progresses (like most 1 point mutations), but two-headed can indeed be really good. There are also multiple other physical mutations that can offer you great utility, even if you focus on dealing damage with mental abilities. Some of them can be supplemented with items (like flight and phasing).

Esper is just another playstyle and allows you to buy a guaranteed new mental mutation every 4 levels, making sure every one of your abilities reaches godlike levels due to ego focus. You will also get glimmer up really high quickly, which has both its down- and upsides. If your plan is to mainly put mutation points into mutations to level them (instead of constantly getting new ones) and focus on something else than pure ego, Esper is probably not worth it.

Really depends on your plan and your tolerance for glimmer fights.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by brs:

Esper needs a buff tbh. Maybe something like chimera, taking a new mutation boosting our mental damage but also reduces our mental armor

I think two-headed mostly needs to get nerfed. It received a big buff a few patches ago which really surprised me. The addition of new late game face and helm items with Moonstair was already buff enough.

[Foolswalkin]

I have a hard time spending a point for the privilege of not starting with Phasing/Spinnerets or Carapace/Sleeping Gas, and I find the -3 and -4 cost physical defects to be a little gentler than the mental ones. Also, slow rolling Glimmer with a mix of mutations lets you build up a bit of power before it's time to start wandering the desert to hunt free Ego boosts.

But you certainly can get crushed by RNG some games as a non-Esper, while as an Esper you can start with e.g. Burgeoning, Force Wall, Teleport Other, Clairvoyance, Mental Mirror, and Blinking Tic and know that you'll have already bought all the 2 and a chunk of the 3 cost mental mutations and you can count on usually having pretty good choices from RNG on account.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Foolswalkin:

I have a hard time spending a point for the privilege of not starting with Phasing/Spinnerets or Carapace/Sleeping Gas, and I find the -3 and -4 cost physical defects to be a little gentler than the mental ones. Also, slow rolling Glimmer with a mix of mutations lets you build up a bit of power before it's time to start wandering the desert to hunt free Ego boosts.

But you certainly can get crushed by RNG some games as a non-Esper, while as an Esper you can start with e.g. Burgeoning, Force Wall, Teleport Other, Clairvoyance, Mental Mirror, and Blinking Tic and know that you'll have already bought all the 2 and a chunk of the 3 cost mental mutations and you can count on usually having pretty good choices from RNG on account.

Esper has pretty decent utility/escape tools like teleport, teleport other, force bubble, confuse, precognition and clairvoyance which scale up very hard to a level of nigh immunity. A big thing with Espers starts is that most stuff tends to have such a big cooldown and you end up letting your follower do most of the dps while you insta gib big threats.

Every 4 levels you can get another kill button though and everything just gets stronger and stronger, while you get more and more skills with less and less cooldown. A lot of people probably want to start with really strong mutations instead of just getting the most and cheapest and Esper makes sure they get almost all of them.

Espers are definitely playable, but their early and late game have some very different elements to face. I totally agree that the higher point mental defects are much more impacting than the physical ones. Just looking at them makes me want to pick none of them, though evil twin is something one can game around.

[Foolswalkin]

Just to clarify my point to the original OP - I agree you want something good to start with. My point was not to get that getting the most and cheapest mental mutations was the best way to play, though, but that it will improve all your later RNG if you have all the 2 pointers and 40% of the 3 pointers out of the way. This is something that is unique to Esper that a hybrid mutant cannot do - you can't buy out the bottom of both kinds of mutations, there's too many, but there's exactly 3 3-pointers left for the Esper build I mentioned and it's unlikely you'll ever get just them in your random mutation draw. You start with an odd grab bag of tricks and will need 18 agi for supplementary firearm-based offense, but you ramp even harder over time by being very points-efficient in your initial buys, leaning into a "linear physical mutations, quadratic mental mutations" theme.

(Also if you pre-spawn Burgeoning until you get 5-6 feral lah you can wipe out a couple equimax herds and get your first couple random mutations if the grab bag of cheap stuff doesn't feel good.)