Mutated Expeditions Guide (Updated Up To Patch 1.3.4)

• How To Enter The Mutated Expedition
• Mutation Effects
• Promotion Mutations
• Curse Mutations
• Scoring & Advancement
• Rewards For Mutated Expeditions
• Preparations And Consumables For The Mutated Expeditions

With January patch 1.3, a new end-game feature, Expedition Mutators, was introduced. Mutators change “Elite” and “Named Enemies” found within expeditions, changing the way encounters play out and what strategies players should consider before the battle.

This system is intended to rotate through a unique combination of Expeditions and Mutations each week, with 10 difficulty levels per Expedition Mutation. Players will be challenged to climb the ladder, with the aim of eventually reaching the max difficulty.

Currently, there are 3 Expeditions in the rotation:

1. Dynasty Shipyard;
2. Garden of Genesis;
3. Lazarus Instrumentality.

To see which Expedition is Mutated, check the World Map.

“Recommended Gear Score’” levels for a Mutated Expedition is important, as it directly factors into enemy scaling — and by consequence, your chances of success.

If your 30 Average GS is below the High Number in the Recommended, you do 0 damage and take one-shot damage.

Level	Difficulty	Recommended Gear Score
1	Normal	600-602
2	Normal	600-604
3	Intermediate	600-606
4	Intermediate	600-608
5	Intermediate	600-610
6	Hard	600-613
7	Hard	600-616
8	Hard	600-619
9	Elite	600-622
10	Elite	600-625

It’s critical to point out that the combat scaling is specific per individual player and separate from the base difficulty increases in health and damage. 

How To Enter The Mutated Expedition

Before entering the Mutated Expedition, you have to complete this Expedition on normal difficulty first.

To enter a Mutated Expedition, you need one universal orb. It can be crafted once per week, at level 200 Stonecutting:

Or buy it from your Faction representative along with Asmodeum Chisel required for craft. The cooldown for buying an Orb is 3 days.

For the current state, you can get only two orbs per week.

Mutation Effects

On levels 1 and 2, you have only one Mutation. Elemental mutations infuse enemies in the Expedition with a specific elemental damage type, increasing their resistance to that damage type, converting a large portion of their damage to that type, and giving them powerful elemental-based abilities.

There are two kinds of Mutations: 

Hellfire infuses enemies with fire, allowing them to burn players who oppose them. 

Hellfire Mutation for level 1 and 2 Expeditions:

For levels 3-10, Fiery, Fire Resist, and Enflamed are increased up to level II.

Eternal infuses enemies with the void, granting them abilities that debuff players or buff their void-infused allies.

Eternal Mutation for levels 1 and 2:

For the difficulty levels 3-10, Oblivion, Void Resist, and Paranoid are increased up to level II.

Promotion Mutations

On level 3 Mutated Expeditions, the second affix is added. Promotion Mutations endow creatures in the Expedition with new, powerful abilities. They have the same effect for all Expedition levels. There are two Promotions for the current moment.

Savage AI apply healing reduction and cast damaging beams around themselves:

Indomitable creatures persist through damage with life-stealing abilities and can summon a phalanx, blocking all incoming player projectiles:

Curse Mutations

From level 6 onwards, a Curse is added. Curse mutations apply dangerous effects to players, forcing them to work together to overcome the curse’s power. Curses become Empowered at difficulty levels 9 and 10, creating additional tactical challenges. There are two kinds of every Curse, depending on the element they’re based on.

Censored Curse will turn players’ abilities against them. After players in the group have used a certain number of activated abilities, explosive silence zones will appear on all group members. When the curse is Empowered, players will lose natural mana regeneration and must enter the silence zones to regenerate their mana.

Censored Void Curse level 1 for 6-8 difficulty levels:

Censored Void Curse level 2 for 9 and 10 difficulty levels:

Censored Fire Curse level 1 for 6-8 difficulty levels:

Censored Fire Curse level 2 for 9 and 10 difficulty levels:

Desiccated players will occasionally combust with elemental energy. When the curse is empowered, players will need to cleanse themselves by approaching the combusting player.

Desiccated Void Curse level 1 for 6-8 difficulty levels:

Desiccated Void Curse level 2 for 9 and 10 difficulty levels:

Desiccated Fire Curse level 1 for 6-8 difficulty levels:

Desiccated Fire Curse level 2 for 9 and 10 difficulty levels:

Scoring & Advancement

The score is performance-based, taken from a combination of categories. The score is also a shared value for group members.

The following categories count towards the group’s overall score value:

1. Time: The better the time, the better the score. Calculated at the end of a run;
2. AI Kills A target value for killing a predetermined amount of enemies within the Expedition;
3. Takedowns: A target value for killing “Named Enemies” within the Expedition;
4. Team Wipes: Each team wipe during a boss fight reduces the score significantly;
5. Respawns: Each respawn reduces the score by a moderate amount.

There are also Bonus Multipliers for run efficiency, minimal respawning / wiping, speed, and taking down all targets. These are calculated at the end of the Expedition run. The score ranks are Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

Bronze: less than 20,000 points

Silver: 20,000 – 39,999

Gold: 40,000 + points.

Advancement through each Mutator difficulty level requires reaching a predesignated level of proficiency within the highest achieved level. Higher scores mean advancement to greater difficulties, which, in turn, lead to bigger rewards.

Rewards For Mutated Expeditions

For completing a certain level of the Mutated Expedition, you will receive a Codex increase, which means you have unlocked the next level of this dungeon for any Mutation cycle. 

Every Expedition has 10 ranks. To get to level 10, you have to complete all previous levels with at least Silver Rank.

While you can join a group and enter the Expedition with a higher difficulty level than you already opened, your difficulty level will increase by 1 each time you complete a Mutation level with a Gold or Silver rank regardless of what level you are on.

For example, you’ve completed level 3 and joined a group that’s going to complete level 9. Even if you succeed for the Gold or Silver Rank, you’ll open level 5 difficulty for yourself.

You will also be awarded a set amount of Umbral Shards depending on the difficulty level and your team’s Scoring.

Mutation Level	Bronze	Silver	Gold
1	27	33	40
2	40	50	60
3	53	67	80
4	80	100	120
5	133	167	200
6	533	667	800
7	1,000	1,250	1,500
8	1,333	1,667	2,000
9	2,677	3,333	4,000
10	4,000	5,000	6,000

The Expedition Items reward does not change for different levels of Expeditions – you can receive the same loot as drops in the normal version of it. But the number of the items received depends on the difficulty level and your team’s Scoring.

In contrast, the number of Epic items you can receive increases for every new level.

Mutation Level	Earring	Shoes	Amulet	Gloves	Pants	Chest	Head
1	+
2	+	+
3	+	+	+
4	+	+	+	+
5	+	+	+	+
6	+	+	+	+	+
7	+	+	+	+	+
8	+	+	+	+	+	+
9	+	+	+	+	+	+
10	+	+	+	+	+	+	+

The list of the receivable green and blue items doesn’t depend on the difficulty level.

With Eternal Mutation, you’ll have a chance to receive Abyssal equipment:

With Hellfire Mutation, you’ll have a chance to receive Flame equipment: 

Crafting mods can be received for completing any level of difficulty. They increase your damage and resistance to a certain element, depending on which Elemental Mutation is currently on.

Preparations And Consumables For The Mutated Expeditions

First of all, choose the right Weapon for every Expedition. Commonly said, you need an area of effect damage combined with crowd control. Also, you don’t want to switch armor types or Attributes for every Expedition, so you’ll probably run as a main Strength Heavy armor DPS. 

Of course, for some Mutation Combinations, it’s better to get three ranged DPS.

Damage Effectiveness	Slash	Thrust	Strike	Fire	Ice	Nature	Void	Lightning	Arcane
Ancients	-15%		+20%	-40%			+15%	+30%
Corrupted		+20%	-15%		-40%	+15%			+30%
Angry Earth	+20%	-15%		+30%				-40%

To get extra damage for the Garden of Genesis, which is inhabited by Angry Earth, you need a Slash weapon. Great Axe is recommended because Hatchet has a low AoE potential. Also, you can use Fire Staff or Cut Pristine Ruby but only for Eternal Mutation.

For the Lazarus Instrumentality, inhabited by the Ancients, War Hammer fits best. Cut Pristine Topaz is also an option. As for the Void Gauntlet, it is usually being used as a supportive weapon. 

Spear has a +20% damage bonus against Corrupted, which are in the Dynasty Shipyard. While scaling mainly with Dexterity, it has Bleed, Fortify, Weaken and Rend at the same time. Musket and Bow also deal Thrust damage, but it doesn’t scale with Strength. As for Rapier doesn’t have enough AoE damage and is mainly used as a motion improvement.

Cut Pristine Sapphire also can be used to increase damage.

The Spear works great as a secondary weapon due to the Fortifying Perforate perk. 

This is one of the potent self-Fortify effects. By hitting multiple targets in Expedition, it’ll stack faster.

Enfeebling Skewer is reducing incoming damage and comes attached to a skill that inflicts Bleed.

Sundering Javelin can apply Rend. Being capable of using a near-constant 30% Rend at all stages of a boss fight will be very noticeable.

Angry Earth, Corrupted, and Ancients Bane perks for weapons give a +14% damage bonus starting from 568 Gear Score, so you don’t really need an extra expensive 600 GS weapon.

Since in Expedition you can backstab, it’s nice to have a Rogue perk. For maximal 19%, you’ll need a Weapon with a Gear Score of 596 or higher.

As for the armor, you might want a special set for every Expedition with a Ward perk on it.

Secondly, you need Combat Trophies. And this part is all about the gold you can spend. Placing three Tier 4 Major Combat Trophies in every house will give you a +15% damage bonus, but it comes for a huge price. Buying the three cheapest houses and using Basic Combat Trophies will save you a lot of money, while the bonus will still be 12%.

For the Garden of Genesis, you need the Angry Earth Combat Trophy:

For the Lazarus Instrumentality, you need Ancients Combat Trophy:

And for Dynasty Shipyard, you’ll need the Corrupted Combat Trophy:

For more information, please check our Trophies and Housing Guides.

Weapon Coatings give a 15% damage bonus against certain types of enemies. You need Angry Earth:

Ancients:

And Corrupted Coatings:

Powerful Honing Stone will increase your damage. They can be bought or crafted at Smelter if you reach 170 Weaponsmithing level.

You can use cheaper stones, like Strong Honing Stone, because the difference is only 1%.

Using all these items will give you: +20% damage bonus from the correct Weapon type, +14% from Bane perks, +12-15% from Combat Trophies, +15% from Weapon Coatings, and +6-7% from Honing Stones, which means a 67-71% damage increase.

As for the other consumables:

1. Of course, you need Health Regeneration Food, Health Potions, Regeneration Potions, and Mana Regeneration Food, Mana Potions, Focus Potions for mana users.

2. As for the Attribute Food, you’ll probably use Roasted Rabbit with Seasoned Vegetables to maximize your health. The reason is that it’s the only food with a maximum Attribute bonus that doesn’t require a legendary fish for crafting. If it’s too expensive on your server, you can use any cheap food to save your money.

3. Powerful Gemstone Dust can also be bought or crafted at level 170 Jewelcrafting. 

Since they’ll be used in the Mutated Orb crafting, you can buy Strong Gemstone Dust much cheaper.

4. Powerful Oakflesh Balm can be bought or crafted at 170 Armoring level. It also has cheaper analogs, but usually, they don’t cost too much, and you don’t use them too often.

5. Powerful Incense requires 170 Furnishing level to craft.

Otherwise, you can buy it or use Strong Incense, which often costs much less.

6. Ward Potions increase your damage absorption against certain enemy types. They can help you mitigate heavy incoming damage. Same as before, you need Angry Earth:

Ancients:

and Corrupted Ward Potions.

7. Absorption Potions can also help you. They increase absorption by 15% against certain types of elemental damage, so you need a Fire Potion for Hellfire Mutation:

and Void Potion for Eternal Mutation:

8. Corruption Tincture and Blight Tincture remove afflictions and give 97.5% resistance to these afflictions for 5 minutes.

This Guide will be updated; more information will be available.