Mutator

Overview

 * The Mutator is one of the two 'support' lumes, added in the Road to Elysion DLC.
 * Does not attack players or the core, but instead fires a 'mutating ball' at other lume, which increases the rank of the lume it hits (adds a '+'), increasing their health drastically, doubling the lume's current and maximum health on the first mutation. The second mutation raises it to a total of three times its original health, then four and so on.
 * Their weak point is the small "Eye" towards the lower half of their body at the front, this can prove very difficult to hit consistently given the above point.
 * Mutators never target other mutators, but can target Healers and Healers also sometimes target them.
 * If all lumes in a wave except Mutators and/or Healers are killed, any remaining support lumes will self-destruct.
 * The mutator balls can be destroyed not only with aiming at them, but by explosions as well, unlike the balls from Spore Keepers.

Notes & tactics

 * Mutators amongst light enemies tend not to be much of a threat, but Mutators near heavier enemies can easily become the difference between success and failure. It can be useful to leave enemies on low health, so that mutations are wasted - wounded lumes would increase their current health only with the current amount, although Healers and the Hydra Hunter feat can sometimes make it more complicated to keep mutated lumes on low HP, since the maximum health rises with mutations as well.
 * Having both Mutators and Healers in a wave can potentially lead to a serious threat if the player is not prepared with proper damage, since they might start to target each other.
 * Mutators are among the most important enemies in the game and often have to be prioritized with weapons and towers, unless the other lumes are only weak ones.
 * There is a fixed delay between each time it fires its mutating ball before it can fire again, but the fired ball itself goes to its target very quickly and there is usually very low time to destroy it.
 * Weapons with crowd control capacities such as REX, Gatling Laser secondary fire and the Ballista's secondary fire works well damaging Mutators without the need to close distance putting the player at harm's way against aggressive lumes.
 * The mutating ball has 1 HP and can be destroyed with any weapon. Weapons with area of effect fire modes tend to be very effective at this, particularly the ETK-Tesla Prototype's primary fire.
 * If left unattended, Mutators have the time to fire several mutating balls, creating high-rank lumes which prove extremely difficult to kill.
 * Mutators will not run towards the core, instead they will try to run towards a random lume between each mutation attempt, once they recharge, they will try to fire it at any lume currently in range. This results in an erratic, unpredictable movement pattern.
 * Since they can't hurt the core, sometimes it is perfectly safe to lead them to a direction, in which they would even walk around the core, to walk to the other lumes by walking a bigger distance. With some reordering of the bases this can make things a lot easier in four waves in the game:
 * the 6th wave of 5-1: Cluster
 * the 4th and 8th wave of 8-1: Below Arc
 * the 5th wave of 8-2: Arc