Mutation Priority
This is generally considered a priority list by veteran players. It is opinion. You should feel free to aim for any mutations that you wish without following this list.
If you had a cast of crabs enrolled here, we'd be able to check off mutations that you have.
Checking off mutations unlocked .
TIER 1:
Ember Tipped Carapace - More DNA from Ecdysis: Single most important mutation in the game, especially early.
Ember Tipped Walkers - Skip Reptiles: Halves how many reptiles you have to fight. Can be hurtful in super early levels as you get less gold.
Violet Tipped Carapace - Queen DPS to Crab Damage: This is a major boost to Crab Damage for tapping, skills, and some genes.
Scythe Carapace - Shadow Swarm Duration: Easiest way to start idle farming. Requires level 190 with cool down mutation.
Stalagmite Walkers - All Gold: A separate multiplier to all other gold increases.
Ember Tipped Pincers - Golden Reptile Spawn Chance: Requires level 245 for 100% Golden Reptiles.
Red Devil Pincers - Golden Leech Cooldown: Golden Leech provides you the most gold, and this gets it to you twice as fast.
Tier 2:
Violet Tipped Pincers - Golden Reptile Gold: Once you have 100% Golden Reptile spawn, this will become your main source of gold.
Red Devil Carapace - Boss Gold: Boss Gold is a multiplier of Reptile Gold, and this increases it even further. Boss Gold = 2x for XXX10/XXX60, x4 for XXX20/XXX70, x6 for XXX30/XXX80, x8 for XXX40/XXX90, x10 for XXX00/XXX50
Solar Flare Pincers - Upgrade Cost Reduction: Doubles the value of your gold.
Stalagmite Carapace - Golden Leech Gold: Allows you to break through a wall or push further in a tournament.
Cerulean Walkers - Reptile Gold: Increases gold from normal reptiles, but also multiplies the value that Golden Leech calculates from.
Scarlet Walkers - All Damage: Very cheap for plenty of damage.
Verdant Wings Pincers - Shadow Swarm Cooldown: Makes it easier to reach a permanent duration Shadow Swarm.
Tier 3:
Jade Tipped Walkers - All Crit Damage: Increases the crit multiplier for all damage types.
Scythe Walkers - Boss Health Reduction: Huge boost to get past a difficult boss.
Cerulean Carapace - Genetic Split Duration: Genetic Split directly increases Crab Damage, which then increases everything else. You want this active as long as you can.
Stalagmite Pincers - Genetic Split Cooldown: Helps get Genetic Split active more often.
Verdant Wings Walkers - Boss Time: This gives you more time to kill bosses at difficult walls. Amazing help for when you just can't pass a boss.
Verdant Wings Carapace - Smoke Screen Duration: Permanent duration makes everything crit, and will allow Poison Cloud for idle farming with enough power.
Tier 4:
Viridian Walkers - Emerald Crit Damage: This helps build your Average Crit Damage and is helpful when an Emerald queen is your highest.
Jade Tipped Pincers - Skip Distance after Ecdysis: This becomes a huge time saver at high levels. Currently saves me over an hour and a half per run. (Does NOT apply to entering a tournament.)
Solar Flare Walkers - Garnet Crit Damage: Current end game is entirely Garnet damage, and this boosts that even further.
Scarlet Carapace - Queen Frenzy Duration: Queen Frenzy on permanent duration is actually a very nice damage boost at later levels, but does very little in the beginning.
Orchid Blossom Walkers - Amethyst Crit Damage: This helps build your Average Crit Damage and is helpful when an Amethyst queen is your highest.
Scarlet Pincers - Smoke Screen Cooldown: Makes it easier to reach permanent duration with Smoke Screen.
Tier 5:
Orchid Blossom Pincers - Queen Spawn Speed: This can help you get even more damage out of Queen Frenzy.
Cerulean Pincers - Queen Frenzy Cooldown: Makes it easier to reach permanent duration with Queen Frenzy.
Viridian Pincers - Double Butterfly Spawn Chance: Might help find Treasure Butterflies more often, but not enough to replace a stronger mutation.
Red Devil Walkers - Butterfly Spawn Rate: Might help find Treasure Butterflies more often, but not enough to replace a stronger mutation.
Trash Tier:
Violet Tipped Walkers - All Speed: This doesn't change your damage at all, just gets it there a little faster.
Jade Tipped Carapace - All Crit Rate: It is extremely easy to get 100% crit chance with Smoke Screen. Even when this could help in the very early game, you would get much more use out of another mutation.
Viridian Carapace - Emerald Crit Rate: Even less useful. Should be one of the last mutations you get.
Orchid Blossom Carapace - Amethyst Crit Rate: Even less useful. Should be one of the last mutations you get.
Solar Flare Carapace - Garnet Crit Rate: Even less useful. Should be one of the last mutations you get.
Scythe Pincers - Colossal Crab Cooldown: Useless. The skill is only useful at extremely low levels, where any other mutation would help you more.