Co-Op Mutation #341: Wheel of Stupid

The Void itself bleeds into reality, warping the very fabric of space and time. Battlefield Conditions change at random and never stay stable for long. All bets are off, commanders. Be ready for anything.

Chaos Studios - Mutators are chosen at random and periodically cycle throughout the mission.

Rating:

Video Replays on Brutal difficulty:

Player 1                                   Player 2
[CtG Shadow of Death] Dr Lila Evolution Master
[CtG Rebel Raider] [Twotuuu Mother of Constructs]
[CtG Best Buddy] [Nostrebor Network Administrator]
[CtG Dutiful Dogwalker] Turbotastic Lord of the Horde

[Reddit Post Link]

Notes:

  • There are three mutations at the start of the map. Mousing over them in the lower right corner is helpful.
  • Starting at 5:00, every 90 seconds, a mutator is switched off, and a new one takes its place.
  • If you get a bad set of mutators, you can sometimes just wait it out in the base until the mutator cycles out.
  • Full clearing removes the threats of Poopagators, Void Reanimators, Outbreak, and Photon Overload. It is easier on this map than on most maps.

Commander of the Week: Commander of the Week [Wheel of Stupid] - Online Poll - StrawPoll.com
Mutation difficulty: https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx0oH3_ZqW9Qd19j65z5RKv3gmgKTVcmo0
Do you like this mutation? https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx-7-ypyb6OOGYBw5UEn9ju_Mrb6uQt24H

Commander of the Week winner of last week:

Links:
Weekly Mutation Database
Maguro’s Mutation List
starcraft2coop.com

4 Likes

This again!

It’s weird but Slim Pickings as a first mutator is probably an instant restart as it nerfs the amount of resources available for the whole game.

Mutation overlap 155 this week 2nd GOOD LUCK~!..

1st clear Mengsk P1+Tychus P1

Mutation (Wheel of Misfortune:Miner Evacuation) play list

So that is Halloween.
I guess it work.
But the mutation with a candy bowl is weeping.

2 Likes

Missed opportunity: it’s Halloween and therefore the candybowl should definately be present but I guess we get it somewhere in june or august this year…

2 Likes

First half was kinda lucky with weak mutators like eminent domain and missile command, later we got polarity twice, also slim pickings very late I was 180 supply with swann so I didn’t bother.

1 Like

Cleared with Stetmann (me) + Fenix (ally). Got real lucky as we only got Polarity and Black Death during the final ship, and Double-Edged was the first to go at the start.

Yeah, it’s off cycle/sync. I thought it’d naturally sync up anyways since Halloween, T-giving, and Xmas are all on the same day of any given year, but it obviously doesn’t work that way.

On a related note, ditto with “Ulnar New Year” with it tying into Chinese/Lunar New Year. Typically Feb. (give or take a month or two), but one time it was all the way in June!

That’s because they are on a repeating cycle of more than 52 mutations, so even if it was synched up, it wouldn’t stay synched up.

1 Like

1 attempt so far. Queued in with a level 10 Mengsk P2. Said GLHF and then mostly innocently asked if their ability was up to the challenge of this week’s mutation at only level 10 to which they questioned my choice of commander (Zagara P3).

Carried on with the game. Lost the first ship to Darkness and checking every location except where the ship was (my ally did nothing). Stabilised and did 3 ships and all optionals mostly solo. Cleared all the buildings however my ally joined me to clear the last group of buildings by a ship and then activated the ship as I was leaving and the ship next to it activated as well. I could not defend 2 ships.

1 Like

Second try is the charm as queued with someone I’ve played with before in a regular Brutal+1 game and they offered to help me do the mutation.

Zagara P3 again (I think she’s quite good for mutation resistance) and teammate Alarak P3. Everything was super smooth. Planned to clear buildings after 1st ship but mutations had other ideas so we did 2 ships and then cleared buildings. However just as we were finishing clearing Black Death turned up and the 3rd ship activated and ally pulled back Destroyers and warped in Slayers (great on-the-fly strategic choice) however it wasn’t quite enough to hold on as I didn’t set up for that ship much (assuming the Destroyers would have an easy time).

1 ship down and we turtled in base. I built Bile Launchers in natural to cover the NW ship (only covers 1 entrance) and waited out the Black Death. Far east ship was easy despite Avenger with 8 Bile Launchers targeting the bottom right funnel. Final north ship was even easier with 12+ Bile Launchers targeting the left and right paths despite some super Avengered Hybrid Behemoths (they also conveniently eradicate attack waves when targeted on the drop point).

Terran bio comp iirc. I got top left optional but skipped bottom right (was really busy with Black Death as had am attack wave infect the natural).

Mutators seen (by memory):

  • Double Edge
  • Black Death
  • Avenger
  • Inspiration
  • Lava Burst
  • Mineral Shields
  • Microtransactions
  • Barrier

Not a big fan of this one since there is little strategy involved due to the randomness of the mutators. Add Stettman’s lovely voice to that and you got a great combo. Finished it on the third try, dying once to polarity (teammate kinda absent) and once because I was playing it on mute and didn’t pay attention enough to the minimap DLC.

I feel like there’s more strategy as you have to assess when to activate ships based on currently active mutators (wait or go) and when/if to destroy all buildings (to avoid possible game ending mutators).

Plus you might be able to utilise static defense/sieging units on some ships but not others based on the presence of environmental mutators.

My ally sending his destroyer fleet home in the face of Black Death and warping in a mass of Stalkers was a genius Tactical move really and demonstrated a lot of flexibility to react so quickly to a changing situation.

1 Like

It also forces to break your common build, it doesnt matter you didnt get that mutator that completely obliterates your build, the mutation may flip to that next, and if you are not ready (already setup to counter them) you will lose (cough stukov p3 into propagators, or anyone into unseen).

Have had too many crappy switches though.

1 Like

Yeah right, anyone playing this week’s mutation as Stukov P3 and not building any tech is really hoping for good luck or to be carried.

On the flip side 2 Queens can kill a poop no worries. Or maybe 2 tanks? 4 would be safe.

Always use Alarak P3 on this mutation and the Mothership will protect the evac ships from harm.

How do you figure? 20 characters.

Took 4 tries here. I’m thinking 5 tries should be enough to average out some decent mutators (not withstanding how helpful your allies will be in random queue though).

One game - Zagara P1 + Karax P1
First shuttle got destroyed, got 3/5 obj. done, then Props ruined us.

For the game that worked - Zagara P1 + Raynor P3
Ally went ahead with “fc” (full clear), which seemed to be a prudent thing to do, so I joined him. First shuttle was safe (improved my build order from the 1st 3 games to not let this happen), but the 2nd shuttle wasn’t. His BCs weren’t enough to hold back damage to it. This one’s more on me since I should’ve kept throwing ground units at them. Lesson here applied to the next shuttles… always had a steady stream of Lings, Bans, and Abs going that way (much more so the former 2). Amon was pure ground comp, making it all that more streamlined.

From what I’ve seen with Raynor P3, air is mostly immune, so probably b/c of that? I haven’t run through all of the mutators, but some may trip it up though (like nukes).

C above :slight_smile:

Mothership can do a lot of work but isn’t a ground unit so ground only attacks will just go for evac ships and mama ship (and Alarak in general) dies to a lot of mutations.

Alarak is solidly a B tier commander to me against mutations and chaos studios doesn’t change that assessment to me. Better than some (like Raynor) and worse than others (like Tychus).

Pick for me that week was Zagara P3 as she’s just so great at complimenting common Commander picks and generally mutation resistant.