The calculation on how to get mutation points in Back 4 Blood is a little inconsistent. But, if you are looking into specifics, this guide will help you earn more mutation points by learning what to do to efficiently gain them.
It will bridge the gap of the cleaner team gaining more cards after each round as you gain more upgrades for your chosen Ridden.
Remember, you can swap Riddens during the game so you have to be sure on which Ridden you are upgrading since it will not carry over to the next game.
What Are Mutation Points?
Mutation points are used to upgrade various types of Riddens including the common ones. That is their only use for the game and it is an important aspect in winning the later stages of the Swarm mode in Back 4 Blood.
Each upgrade costs mutation points. But, as mentioned before, these upgrades do not carry over to the next game so you need to be careful when you are spending them.
You might end up spending upgrades on your Reeker and then realize that the cleaner team is in an open area giving you no chance to go near them since they are playing around your Reeker pick.
A safe choice is always upgrading the common Ridden as you end up spawning more powerful Riddens to aid you in battle.
Getting Mutation Points
After looking through my own prerecorded videos of my PvP mode content, you will be able to get mutation points by hitting cleaners and common Riddens hitting players.
As long as these cleaners are getting damaged, you will be gaining mutation points. As for the calculation, every point of damage gives you 0.5 mutation points.
Although, this may be inconsistent with some other attacks as doing 5 damage only gives 2 mutation points. Causing a lot of havoc on cleaners will be the best way to get mutation points.
As long as you are doing damage, you will eventually reach a few max upgrades for your chosen mutation before the start of round 3 or wave 3.
Keep surviving so that you keep the cleaners on guard at all times and you would not have to wait for 15 seconds before spawning in again.
That 15-second death timer window is huge when you add it up. Focus on surviving while using your abilities on cooldown.
One of the best combos is having a Reeker (Exploder) and a Stinger (Hocker). Wait for a good Reeker player to push a cleaner out to the swarm radius and immediately spit and trap that cleaner as a Stinger.
Doing combos like this will help you win more but, you will need some chemistry or proper communication. Even then, you can learn how to ping specific commands so playing with random players might understand what you have in mind.
Other ways of getting mutation points
Incapacitating or killing cleaners will earn you +25 mutation points each. Getting players down will help you get those huge upgrades in the next few rounds. The more these cleaners heal themselves, the better for your whole Ridden team to gain mutation points.
It is a tug-of-war since you can play well as a cleaner but end up giving a ton of mutation points to the enemy team. An example would be a support cleaner keeping the whole team’s health topped up at all times which will help Ridden players build up mutation points.
This is why I believe that the first team playing as a cleaner has a tiny disadvantage when playing competitively. If the Ridden team knows they farmed enough mutation points, they can give away the first round by not giving that many mutation points and take the next two rounds.
Where to Spend Mutation Points
Mutation points can be spent on upgrades by opening the Ridden selection menu while playing. Remember that you can switch pages to upgrade which Ridden you want to upgrade.
Make sure you are also spending mutation points on upgrading common Riddens. These will stack up and cause a ton of problems for the cleaner team.
It is also worth noting that if you are upgrading up to the max level (4) and you do not have enough mutation points, you can still pick them and end up spending your mutation points temporarily.
If you want to min/max your mutation points, you have to be aware of how many mutation points you have and spend it exactly as the cost of the upgrade.