Mutation Info, Research, and Theories (Updated 7/10)

[Lirishae]

@Robbie: Thanks for the confirmation ^_^ I'll update the first post.

@Milotic: Thanks for the info; I'll update the first post about white peppers too. I couldn't get it without white berries in my last winter, but I guess the weather not cooperating on a harvesting date was responsible. Onion → Pearl Onion seems strange to me... The onion mutations look like this so far:

Onion → Scallion → Red Onion → Teardrop
Onion → Scallion → Petite Onion

It seems most likely to me that it ends up like this:

Onion → Scallion → Red Onion → Teardrop
Onion → Scallion → Petite Onion → Pearl Onion

Because pearl onion is the next-to-last onion before teardrop, this just seems weird:
Onion → Scallion → Red Onion → Teardrop
Onion → Scallion → Petite Onion
Onion → Pearl Onion

So far we've got two onion mutations in spring, one in summer, and one in winter. Fall seemed the most likely to me, though that doesn't rule other seasons. I didn't have any luck with petite onions in Fall though, so likely I'm wrong on something. Or maybe pearl onion has a ridiculous hidden condition.

Edit: Teardrop in winter and black potato in summer still need second confirmations if anyone wants to tackle that.

[Cherubae]

Edit: Just noticed that Cherubae posted on Miiverse about White Peppers, So Magic Peppers don't need White strawberries Next to them to Mutate into White peppers. But they are still uncommon She could only get it on a cloudy day.

Yep, I could only get White Pepper to mutate from Magic Pepper when the weather in the morning on the day of its mutation was cloudy, and even then it wasn't a guaranteed mutation. Of the multiple reloads and approximately 10 instances of cloudy weather, there was probably only about 4 successful mutation. There were zero mutations when the weather was sunny, and I ended up with more sunny weather reloads than cloudy weather reloads. I don't have any White Berries planted next to them, but I did have Magic Berries planted some ways away (although I don't believe that was a mutation factor).



The other thing is it was this one single plant each time it mutated. I guess none of the other Magic Peppers had the necessary amount of health to trigger a mutation chance.

It was super late when I posted the Miiverse post. My eyes were barely staying open

Data information:

Magic Pepper to White Pepper
Winter season
Marshy/swampy soil
HE-5
Appears to be cloudy weather only

[Guest]

I can't even seem to grow purple potatoes so
I'll try to unlock red onions to test them in winter though, I'm mainly flying through the seasons trying to unlock all the known seeds

Also since it was spring I tried to get purple peppers from red peppers.

Planted at:
Dry Soil @ Bedrock+1, Planted next to Evergreen
Swampy/Lush Soil @ HE+9 - First planted next to Evergreen later added berry fertilizer to 1/2 the plants and planted Magical Berries next to them.
Dry Soil @ HE+11, Evergreen next to them
Swamp/Lush Soil @ WL, Planted next to Evergreen, 1/2 crops added berry fertilizer

No luck with any, although lush soil was pretty scarce at times because of the rain turning most of it to marsh.

I had planted Evergreens with them not in hope of cross-pollination but to make efficient use of Dewey while I tried to find Dryad. (Also no luck)


I've noticed certain crops just completely not finishing their growth cycles at low levels. I remember Lirishae (or someone) saying something about these plants having no preferred elevations? Is it possible these are end-of-the-line mutations?

[Robbie]

Oops that was me, was wondering why I had to answer a question to post LOL

[Lirishae]

@Cherubae: Thanks so much for the info!

@Robbie: Crops that have no preferred elevation won't grow at HE-16 or lower. They just progress to their near-ripened stage and stay that way for the rest of the month. This includes carrots, brown carrots, potatoes, barley, evergreen, and all flowers. It's been awhile so I can't remember exactly what I did, but I tried planting every broccoli type in Spring searching for Dryad without any luck. At the very least, I probably did a high elevation dry patch, a mid elevation dry patch, and a low elevation dry patch. Maybe a lush and swampy soil patch in mid elevations too. Sorry I can't be more helpful than that :/ Spring seems pretty likely for it though, since we have a mutation in every other season but that one. Broccolini seems the most likely seed to me. The chart currently looks like this:

Broccoli → Broccolini → Romanesco
Broccoli → Broccolini → Evergreen

So I'm thinking the completed chart looks like this:

Broccoli → Broccolini → Romanesco
Broccoli → Broccolini → Evergreen
Broccoli → Broccolini → Dryad

[Robbie]

Yeah looks like it might be Brocclini, I only bothered to test Evergreen because Dryads are associated with trees (Oak) and evergreen ( a tree name!) was my best guess lol

[AlexRae]

I've been working on a second game file to restart/have a file of both genders, so I've just been busting my butt making terraforming terraces for testing. By the time I'm done I will have tested every elevation with Strawberry and White Berry in Winter in Lush, Marsh, and Dry. So no one needs to worry about those. Once I finish my terraces and such I'll worry about finishing the plot so I can swing back around to seasonal tests/unlocking seeds.

Nice work everybody with the second confirmations! May everyone's hunt be fruitful! (Or veggieful, as the case may be)

[trichorse]

I think that cross-pollination only increases the chance of a mutation, it does not cause them.

[Lirishae]

@AlexRae: Thanks so much! Good luck and have fun!

@trichorse: I really hope that's the case, since it will make searching easier if we don't have to test every crop. It's also possible that Rowan or fertilizer could eliminate the need for cross-pollination by boosting the mutation chances to greater than zero. Whether or not Rowan and/or fertilizer can bypass growth criteria is something that probably needs more testing.

Not sure if this will be helpful, but I decided to make a mutation chart.

Cabbage family
Cabbage → Red Cabbage → Green Cabbage
Cabbage → Huge Cabbage → Dome Cabbage

Celery family
Celery → White Celery → Royal Herb
Celery → Mystic Herb

Onion family
Onion → Scallion → Red Onion → Teardrop
Onion → Scallion → Petite Onion

Undiscovered: Pearl Onion

Strawberry family
Strawberry → White Berry → Magical Berry

Undiscovered: Angel Lantern, Princess's Eye

Tomato family
Tomato → San Marzano → Red Zeppelin
Tomato → Crimson → Killer Tomato

Corn family
Corn → Fodder Corn
Corn → Sweet Corn → Yellow Corn

Undiscovered: Sunset Corn

Green Pepper family
Green Pepper → Bell Pepper → Magic Pepper → White Pepper
Green Pepper → Red Pepper

Undiscovered: Purple Pepper, Golden Pepper

Wheat family
Wheat → Durum Wheat
Wheat → Barley

Undiscovered: Rye

Hot Pepper family
Hot Pepper → Jalapeno

Undiscovered: Habanero, Dragon Pepper, Devil Pepper

Potato family
Potato → Purple Potato → Black Potato
Potato → Giant Potato

Undiscovered: Titan Potato

Carrot family
Carrot → Baby Carrot → White Carrot
Carrot → Brown Carrot

Undiscovered: Mandrake

Pumpkin family
Pumpkin → Zucchini
Pumpkin → Squash → Cream Pumpkin

Undiscovered: Giant Pumpkin, Giant Squash

Spinach family
Spinach → Baby Spinach → Pink Spinach
Spinach → Savoy Spinach → Lilac Spinach

Broccoli family
Broccoli → Broccolini → Romanesco
Broccoli → Broccolini → Evergreen

Undiscovered: Dryad

First stage mutations with no known second stage
Fodder Corn, Red Pepper, Jalapeno, Brown Carrot, Giant Potato, Zucchini

Theories
Broccolini → Dryad
Red Pepper → Purple Pepper → Golden Pepper
Scallion → Petite Onion → Pearl Onion
Fodder Corn → Sunset Corn
Zucchini → Giant Squash
Brown Carrot → Mandrake
Giant Potato → Titan Potato
Strawberry → Angel Lantern → Princess's Eye
Wheat → Rye
Hot Pepper → Habanero → Devil/Dragon Pepper
Hot Pepper → Jalapeno → Devil/Dragon Pepper
Pumpkin → Giant Pumpkin

Edit: Alternate strawberry theory:
Strawberry → White Berry → Magical Berry
Strawberry → White Berry → Angel Lantern
Strawberry → White Berry → Princess's Eye

[Cherubae]

I've noticed certain crops just completely not finishing their growth cycles at low levels. I remember Lirishae (or someone) saying something about these plants having no preferred elevations? Is it possible these are end-of-the-line mutations?

@Robbie: Crops that have no preferred elevation won't grow at HE-16 or lower. They just progress to their near-ripened stage and stay that way for the rest of the month. This includes carrots, brown carrots, potatoes, barley, evergreen, and all flowers.

This also includes the celery family. I planted a line of Mystic Celery (level 31 to 1), and the plants from level 4 (HE-16) to level 1 (HE-20) never matured.

[osteae01]

Sorry, with school I can really only post on the weekends right now.

I can second confirm teardrops in winter at water level on marshy soil. I'll get a picture as soon as I forgive the game for killing 85% of my squash on harvest day.. more than halfway through the season, so I can't plant more to get cream pumpkins.

Since my last post, I've found that fertilizers tend to be hit and miss on my last theory about them making things grow faster. However, corn fertilizer does seem to work as a hail mary "I need just a few more mutations than I can manage to get reloading to unlock this seed." I haven't tried other fertilizers, but corn fertilizer has worked on potatoes -> giant potatoes, hot peppers -> jalapenos, pumpkin -> squash, and broccoli -> broccolini so far to get just a few extra mutations. Again, I don't know if this is actually working, or a trick of the RNG, since the numbers only increase by like half a dozen each time.

A few other notes:
Pumpkins seem to mutate into squash better for me on lush soil in the spring. I tried marshy soil and couldn't get a single mutation. Same with jalapenos. I got one jalapeno out of 60 on marsh one spring. Tried replanting on lush soil, and was able to mutate enough to unlock.
Also, I feel like I'm doing something wrong with baby spinach. I've got it planted at the right elevation, in dry soil, in the winter, and can only get at best 1/10 mutation rate. Is it just that uncommon, or do I need some type of other strategy to get it to mutate more consistently?
I will also say that planting strawberries, white berries, and magic berries at GS -1, with all surrounding dirt one level higher (GS level) on lush soil will not cause them to mutate into either princess' eye or angel's lanterns. Neither does planting them between an apple and an orange tree at -8 hl on lush soil. Or next to the barn at -2 and -3 hl on patchy soil.

[Robbie]

Romanesco does it too, if someone wants to compile a list of the crops that do so

[Robbie]

Also, I feel like I'm doing something wrong with baby spinach. I've got it planted at the right elevation, in dry soil, in the winter, and can only get at best 1/10 mutation rate. Is it just that uncommon, or do I need some type of other strategy to get it to mutate more consistently?

It seems that the more a field is used, the more likely mutations are. Maybe just keep using that same soil and it'll start giving better results.

[Lirishae]

@Cherubae & Robbie: Thanks, will update the first post with that info ^^

@osteae: Thanks for the second confirm ^^ If you want to test your theory that corn fertilizer means more mutations, you need to get a sample size large enough that the difference in numbers can't be chalked up to a sampling error. Say for example that you plant 25 of a crop you use corn fertilizer on every day, and 25 in identical conditions that aren't fertilized. If you reload sixteen times and keep track of the number of mutations each time, that will give you a sample size of 400, which has a margin of error of 5%. Then let's say you found the fertilized crops were 3% more likely to mutate. That's within the margin of error, so that finding can be chalked up to the RNG. You would need a larger sample than that to tell if the corn fertilizer is helping or hindering. On the other hand though, let's say you did that and the fertilized crops were 13% more likely to mutate. That would be considered a statistically significant finding, and we would be able to conclude that corn fertilizer does indeed boost mutations...with that plant, in that soil, in that season, anyway. If you wanted to be sure it worked across the board, you would have to repeat this exercise in another season, with different soil types, with different plants, with the same sample size. All of which is completely ridiculous just to find out a piece of info that could have and should have been stated on the item's description. The devs seem to think this constitutes compelling gameplay though, probably because they never tried it themselves. Sorry for going off on a tangent >_>;

People have had very different experiences with both squash and jalapeno, myself included. I couldn't get squash to grow on my terrace at all in lush soil, only a few in a swampy patch next to the river. The year after that, I got a ton of squash in lush soil on my terrace and almost none in the swampy patch by the river. It's possible that how often the soil has been used or maybe the crop's distance from water is actually causing this phenomenon. For the baby spinach, you should also try watering them every day. Overly dry soil can produce fewer mutations, so watering only once every 2-3 days in dry soil can cause problems.

[AlexRae]

I personally think that there's a good chance that Sunset may be a mutation off of Yellow, but that's just a crackpot theory >.>