Thanks to the Blood and Wine expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt players have a way to augment Geralt’s abilities even further thanks to mutations. To unlock mutations players must complete the quest Turn and Face the Strange which will add a new menu to the character screen.

You can only have one mutation active at any given time, but they provide incredible benefits like increased damage, greater resistance, and even a way to damage opponents whenever the enemy gets a hit on you. Here are all the mutations that can be applied to Geralt and how to get them.

12 Toxic Blood

Toxic Blood is one of the earliest mutations you can have as it’s much cheaper than many of the others on this list. After spending two Ability Points and two Greater Green Mutagens your blood will become toxic.

When an enemy gets a hit in melee Toxic Blood will deal 1.5% damage for each level of Toxicity you have, meaning you can at the very least deal 1.5% or a whopping 150% at max Toxicity. Even at basic levels, it’s another source of DPS that makes fights a lot shorter.

11 Deadly Counter

Deadly Counter is similarly cheap requiring only two Ability Points and two Greater Red Mutagens. This one is a bit more niche, but under the right circumstances is brutal.

With Deadly Counter your swords will deal 25% more damage to humans that are immune to counterattacks and monsters. Against any other foe, if the enemy’s Vitality dips below 25% your counterattack will immediately segue into a finishing blow.

10 Magic Sensibilities

The other cheap mutation on this list is Magic Sensibilities. It costs two Ability Points and two Greater Blue Mutagens. This mutation is better for players that like to use signs.

With this mutation in place, signs can now deal critical hits. The chance of a critical hit occurring and the damage it deals increases with Sign Intensity. It also has the effect of causing enemies to explode if killed by one of these critical hits.

9 Euphoria

Euphoria requires having Toxic Blood already unlocked, three Ability Points, and three Greater Green Mutagens. It’s considerably more useful than Toxic Blood as it applies a damage bonus to swords and Signs.

Every point of Toxicity will raise the damage of swords and Signs by .75% up to a maximum of 75%. Whereas Toxic Blood is only as powerful as the enemy that attacks you, Euphoria scales up based on your damage.

8 Mutated Skin

After you’ve unlocked Euphoria you can unlock Mutated Skin with five Ability Points, three Greater Green Mutagens, and two Greater Red Mutagens. This mutation is different from the others in that it focuses on durability rather than damage output.

For every Adrenaline Point you have, the damage you receive will be decreased by 15% up to a max of 45% damage reduction. This is great for Adrenaline based builds or anyone who needs more durability rather than damage.

7 Bloodbath

Bloodbath requires you to have unlocked Deadly Counter and costs three Ability Points and three Greater Red Mutagens. It has a tricky damage boost that takes some skills to utilize long term.

Each blow dealt in combat will raise Attack Power by 5% until the end of battle for a whopping maximum of 250%. Where things get tricky is that every time you receive damage the counter resets back to 5%. It also causes either a dismemberment or finisher to trigger whenever you deal a fatal blow with a sword.

6 Cat Eyes

Once you’ve unlocked Bloodbath and Euphoria you’ll have access to Cat Eyes that costs five Ability Points, three Greater Green Mutagens, and two Greater Red Mutagens. It will dramatically improve the effectiveness of your crossbows.

It boosts Crossbow damage, increases critical hit chance by 50% and Crossbow bolts will pierce and stun or knockdown enemies. If an opponent has full health when hit by a Crossbow they’ll lose 15% of their health.

5 Piercing Cold

Piercing Cold is a sign based mutation that’s unlocked when you have Magic Sensibilities, three Ability Points, and three Greater Blue Mutagens. It’s very handy if you find yourself using Aard Signs a lot.

Whenever an Aard Sign is cast there is an additional 25% chance of the opponent freezing. If the opponent is frozen and knocked down it will die immediately. Even if the opponent doesn’t freeze each sign will get a major boost to damage.

4 Adrenaline Rush

When you have Piercing Cold and Bloodbath unlocked you can gain access to Adrenaline Rush with five Ability Points, three Greater Blue Mutagens, and two Greater Red Mutagens. It’s very effective when fighting groups.

Each foe triggers a 30% boost to sword or Sign damage for 30 seconds and the only cap is the size of the group you’re fighting. It’s important to finish the fight quickly as after 30 seconds the bonus switches to a 10% decrease in damage for each foe.

3 Conductors Of Magic

This mutation is unlocked when you have Piercing Cold, five Ability Points, three Greater Blue Mutagens, and two Greater Red Mutagens. It gives a nice boost to swords that have sign damage.

Whenever you draw a magic, unique or Witcher sword its sign damage will increase by 50%. It’s not much, but it’s a very passive ability that you can turn on and forget about.

2 Metamorphosis

Once you have Cat Eyes you can get Metamorphosis with an expensive seven Ability Points, three Greater Green Mutagens, two Greater Red Mutagens, and two Greater Blue Mutagens. It’s fantastic for when you like having a decoction’s effects, but don’t want to bother using alchemy.

Whenever you apply a critical effect you will randomly trigger a decoction effect on yourself for 120 seconds. There’s no controlling what will be triggered and you can stack this a total of three times.

1 Second Life

Though this list wasn’t in any particular order, Second Life is arguably the best mutation you can have. It requires having Adrenaline Rush and takes seven Ability Points, two Greater Blue Mutagens, three Greater Red Mutagens, and two Greater Green Mutagens.

Whenever your Vitality drops to zero this mutation will kick in and make you invincible for a moment while your Vitality regenerates to 100%. It does have a cooldown of 180 seconds, but that ability to come back from the brink is great for tough battles.

NEXT: The Witcher 3: 5 Reasons Sorceresses Are The Most Powerful (& 5 It’s The Witchers)