Total War: Warhammer II — Throt’s Flesh Laboratory and augments guide

Throt the Unclean is part of Total War: Warhammer II – The Twisted & The Twilight. The Master Mutator’s unique mechanic, Clan Moulder’s Flesh Laboratory, offers some amazing mutation augments and buffs to units. It’s comparable to what we’ve seen from Grom the Paunch and his food recipes. Here’s our guide to help you out.

Note: This guide is based on a Vortex campaign playthrough on VH/VH difficulty. For more information, check out our Total War: Warhammer II – The Twisted & The Twilight guides and features hub.

Total War: Warhammer II – Throt the Unclean’s Flesh Laboratory and augments guide

After discussing Throt the Unclean’s campaign basics and progression in Total War: Warhammer II, it’s time to talk about the Flesh Laboratory. This unique mechanic makes him a wonderful legendary lord to play as. Okay, maybe “wonderful” isn’t the correct word since we’re dealing with a mad, bloodthirsty, man-sized rat. But, hey, those things don’t exist, eh, Witch Hunter?

I digress. Okay, let’s look at the campaign HUD first:

If you open the Flesh Laboratory screen, you’ll notice three panels (Infantry Augments, Monster Augments, and Laboratory Upgrades). You’ll also notice that many of the augments (for the infantry and monster panels) are still locked. That’s because we need to spend mutagens on units.

The mutations have tiers (uncommon/green, rare/blue, and unique/purple). Only the first three uncommon/green types are available at the start. To unlock the rest, you’ll need to apply an available augment to a unit and the “connecting branch” unlocks others. Once an augment has been unlocked, it can be applied faction-wide across all units and armies.

Note: You can also shift+click or ctrl+click multiple units of the same type to apply the same augments just to save time.

Bear in mind that, while having a couple of mutations on a unit is fine, adding more might lead to instabilities. This occurrence is totally random, by the way.

When units gain instability, their unit card will have a red highlight. The most common instability reduces their casualty replenishment rate while making future augments more likely to cause further instabilities. On the flip side, future augments are also cheaper, and you could recycle units to earn growth juice (more on this later).

Note: Blue/rare augments provide a buff as well as a penalty as outlined below. These are separate from actual instabilities.

Infantry Augments

Monster Augments

Mutagen costs and acquisition

Whoa! Those are quite a lot, eh? Don’t worry because green and blue augments are fairly cheap. They only cost 25 mutagens. Meanwhile, the purple ones tend to cost 50 mutagens. Don’t forget that the costs of these mutations get cheaper if a unit already has instabilities.

Anyway, you start your Total War: Warhammer II campaign with 100 mutagens. This is your soft cap and going over this limit makes the value degrade over time. You can increase this limit (and get some extra mutagens) through certain Laboratory Upgrades… which brings us to our next topic.

Mutation augment tips

Throt the Unclean and Clan Moulder make a monster-heavy composition extremely viable for your Total War: Warhammer II campaign. In fact, I barely used infantry units the further I progressed. Thanks to the faction/lord effects and bonuses to monsters from Throt’s and his Packmaster’s skills, you can go rampaging all over Naggaroth with your creepy creatures.

My advice is to give your monsters “Warp-Fuel Infusion” (for Vanguard Deployment) which, in turn, unlocks “Forced Aneuploidy” (two random uncommon upgrades from those you’ve unlocked). With “Forced Aneuploidy,” you only need to spend 25 mutagens so that a unit, hopefully, gets the perks you want.

Likewise, if you can get “Lobotomy” (gives the “Warp Lightning Rod” bound ability), then most battles will turn into a cakewalk.

Imagine a scenario where multiple Rat Ogres, Brood Horrors, Wolf Rats, and Hell Pit Abominations have Vanguard Deployment. Then, before your AI opponent could react, you’d send them charging towards the hostile army.

Once your monstrosities are surrounded by foes, pop your Warp Lightning Rod ability to strike everyone down. Oh, and each unit that has “Lobotomy” unlocked has three Warp Lightning Rod charges. Yowie wowie!

Laboratory Upgrades

Throt the Unclean has 12 Laboratory Upgrades. The first three occupy a unique tier since you can activate one every 10 turns (just remember the costs). The rest, however, are permanent upgrades/perks.

Clone Warfare ensures that Skavenslaves end up with extra augments. They’re useful for swarming opponents, but they’d still rout and get annihilated (at least they’ve got some extra perks). You probably won’t spend mutagens on Skavenslaves anyway, so recycling them is a non-issue.

Abnormal Growth Cultivation is very helpful when you want a lot of food. Deep Freezer and Bio-Recycle Chamber, meanwhile, are needed for extra mutagens and food whenever you claim Growth Vat units.

Later, you want to get Steroid Infusions since you’re likely to have lots of monsters with several augments. Of course, if many of them have instabilities, get Mutagen Distillation as well to reduce their upkeep significantly. As for Enlarged Growth Vat, this gives an extra unit so it’s possible to have another Rat Ogre when you claim the reward.

Growth Juice and unit recycling

Since we’re on the subject of the Growth Vat, you might’ve noticed a small bar at the top of your HUD (which happens to have pips). This is the Growth Vat meter and the pips symbolize rewards that can be claimed once you’ve accumulated enough growth juice. You earn growth juice normally from battles. Likewise, you have a +60 passive gain each turn.

Now, if a unit has instability, you can “recycle” that unit. This destroys the unit completely but gives you 50 growth juice in exchange.

As such, you don’t really want to get attached to your troops… because Throt already attached a lot of things to them, if you know what I mean.

Recruiting Growth Vat units

Anyway, as you continue to progress, you’ll reach thresholds that allow you to claim Growth Vat units. These have particular pips (or tiers), so the more you’ve acquired before claiming, the better the units you’ll get. In addition to the guaranteed monsters, you also get some extra fodder such as Skavenslaves or Clanrats. Furthermore, you’ll obtain a lot of mutagen and food depending on the Laboratory Upgrades you’ve unlocked.

Here are the thresholds:

• Wolf Rats Cluster – 500+ growth juice; 100 mutagens.
• Rat Ogres Cluster – 650+ growth juice; 105 mutagens.
• Brood Horror Cluster – 800+ growth juice; 110 mutagens.
• Mutant Rat Ogre Cluster – 900+ growth juice; 115 mutagens.
• Hell Pit Abomination Cluster – 1,000 growth juice; 120 mutagens.

When you claim the Growth Vat units, you can see them by pressing a button next to your army’s Regiments of Renown selection. While these units still cost upkeep each turn, recruiting them is absolutely free and they can be immediately added to your army. This allows Throt’s and Clan Moulder’s forces to expand rapidly using vile creatures and monstrosities.

Speaking of a vile monstrosity, it’s time for us to discuss how you can unlock the legendary hero Ghoritch in your Total War: Warhammer II campaign.

Total War: Warhammer II – The Twisted & The Twilight is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.