The Mender Altar is a map feature that allows offering items for a chance to receive an item in return. The success rate is random, with the Bodacious endo mutation ensuring 100% success. The bummer mutation Heinous has the opposite effect, with success rate dropping significantly (though not zero).



The Altar is an extremely powerful game mechanic if mastered, due to the control it grants players over improving their builds. Mastery involves knowing the key exchange paths, as well as the rad offering trick that allows multiple offerings of the same item.

While various guides for this game feature a 1:1 item exchange list, the concept they miss is the exchange path—thinking backwards from a key upgrade item for your build. For example, reverse lookup on the 1:1 table will say Mutant Shot: Waterproof can be obtained by offering HoT Sauce. What's not as evident, is that Mutant Musk can also lead to Mutant Shot: Waterproof if exchanged successfully twice. Understanding the exchanges as paths leading to a certain item will help us see these opportunities more clearly.

The graphic below summarizes exchange paths, which are grouped into four clusters based on their final destination (click on the image or here to view in full size):

Your basic consumables will end up as floppies. Useful early game if you find an Altar and have extra Drupes or Diet Health Potions. An unremarkable cluster overall.

This cluster consists mainly of temporary boost items that can be exchanged for endo mutations that give similar boosts permanently. All paths eventually lead to money.

Notable Paths
Crit Juice > Juice Cleanse; Useful for purging bummer mutations, especially since Crit Juice is common in World 2

This cluster consists of consumables that end up in a loop of Health Potion Classic > Mutant Shot: Hotfoot > Rad Snack Pack. The cluster has useful immunities, as well as speed and crit boosts that add robustness to builds. Combined with the abundance of the exchangeable items in the world, this is an important cluster for improving your game play.

Notable Paths
Here are some commonly found items that yield powerful upgrades:
Mutant Musk > HoT Sauce > Mutant Shot: Waterproof
Boom Berry > Health Potion Classic > Mutant Shot: Hotfoot
Multi Toxic Heart > Mutant Shot: Hulk Haunches
Polyp Pal > Health Potion Classic > Mutant Shot: Hotfoot > Rad Snack Pack; Very powerful path when playing the Quirk My Buddy, which increases Polyp Pal drop rate significantly.

This cluster consists of top-grade items that ultimately become heart upgrades. (For simplicity, this guide will treat heart up and heart split as the same.) The heart upgrades, while nice, are not the story here; By far the most powerful exchange path is the one below, which makes the game much easier especially toward end game:

Notable Paths
Multi Battle Heart > Mutation Shot: Insulator > Flux Escapatron > Mutation Shot: Beefcake > Mutation Shot: Mutation Power

To reiterate:
If you have Bodacious and come across a Multi Battle Heart or Mutation Shot: Insulator, which are relatively common at stores, you are guaranteed a Flux Escapatron, Mutation Shot: Beefcake or Mutation Shot: Mutation Power.

Mutation Shot: Beefcake is the priority choice, as the boost to bat damage has the highest impact to game play. Mutation Shot: Mutation Power is a secondary choice after one or two levels of Beefcake, but can be prioritized if you have an area/multi-target attack exo mutation. The Flux Escapatron is cool to look at and own, but Beefcake and Power should take priority unless your build is good enough to skip a level and still beat the final boss.

At this point, you might be wondering but what if i don't have Bodacious? Wouldn't the exchange fail? Yes, but there is a way to mitigate:

Killing mutants near the Mender Altar will sometimes re-trigger the last offering. This gives you a chance of either re-rolling on an unsuccessful exchange, or obtaining more copies of the item.

You might have noticed during or after combat in its vicinity, the Altar sometimes spits out a floppy or Diet Health Potion. That's essentially the trick triggering without an offering being made, defaulting to basic items. By offering an item first and then killing the enemies near the Altar, you can control what the Altar spits out after combat.

Step-By-Step
1. Decide on the item you're aiming for. Do not kill enemies near the Altar yet.
   
2. Exchange the base item with the Altar.
   
3. Whether it succeeds or fails, mob some enemies and lead them to the Altar, and start killing them right next to it.
   
4. The offering will trigger and give you a chance to obtain the item again.

The trick is to save the enemies on the map near the Altar until you've found an item that you want to exchange. If you kill them first you'll miss the opportunity to use them as sacrificial lambs.

The rad offering trick becomes OP if combined with Bodacious, making multiple copies of Mutation Shot: Beefcake and Mutation Shot: Mutation Power possible in World 1 or 2.

If you see a massive opportunity below, rather than a nuisance, congratulations—you're officially a Mender Altar Super User:

If you found this guide helpful, please rate up, fav and comment!