Mewgenics Hidden Areas: How to Unlock Each Route
Progression spoilers ahead. The Throbbing Domain and The Rift require quest items and specific interactions after a boss fight. The Ice Age opens through the Lab’s time machine quest. Reaching the location, having an item in your inventory, and completing its quest are separate steps.
This guide covers those three verified chains. The Ice Age is an Act 3 route, rather than that act’s final secret area; the later Infinite unlock is outside this walkthrough.
Which Item Goes Where?
| Goal | Item and destination | Action that advances the quest |
|---|---|---|
| Open the Throbbing Domain entrance | Throbbing Gristle → Wall of Flesh in the Caves; Putrid Leech → Throbbing Artery in the Boneyard | Complete both delivery interactions |
| Open the rest of the Throbbing Domain | Guillotina’s Head → Meat Altar | Sacrifice the cat wearing the head |
| Prepare the Moon obelisk | Scalding Orb → Man in the Moon | Have the boss swallow the orb carrier |
| Prepare the Core obelisk | Glowing Black Shard → The Coven | Use the transformed shard on the boss |
| Enter The Rift | Pyrophina’s Collar → Moon, or Zaratana’s Collar → Core | Activate the correct prepared obelisk, then enter the portal |
| Enter the Ice Age | Filled Cryogenic Time Chamber → broken time machine in the Lab | Repair, then choose the past |
For delivery events below, select the cat with the quest item equipped. An item elsewhere in the party’s inventory does not satisfy the recorded event requirement.
How to Unlock the Throbbing Domain
1. Start Guillotina’s House Boss Chain
Clear an Act 1 ending route to begin the Guillotina encounters at home. These use retired cats. The first, second and third victories provide the Throbbing Gristle, Putrid Leech and Guillotina’s Head respectively. GamesRadar’s walkthrough and VGC’s route guide agree on this sequence; the site’s quest reward table records the same three items.
2. Deliver the Two Entrance Items
- Equip Throbbing Gristle and finish the Alley → Sewers → Caves route. At the Wall of Flesh, select its carrier and choose Place Gristle.
- After obtaining Putrid Leech, equip it and finish Alley → Junkyard → Boneyard. At the Throbbing Artery, choose Attach Leech with its carrier.
- Finish both deliveries. The event data records each one separately; either delivery checks whether the other is already complete before opening the Domain entrance. One item alone is insufficient.
Read the carrier’s effects before leaving: the Gristle makes downed units die, while the Leech prevents its wearer from leveling and makes being downed fatal for that cat. These items change how much risk your party can afford.
3. Open the Domain Beyond the Altar
Equip Guillotina’s Head from the third encounter and bring that cat to the Meat Altar in the Domain. Choose Sacrifice with the head’s wearer selected.
That cat dies. The quest branch explicitly sacrifices the participating cat and opens the rest of the area for the remaining party. Sacrificing a cat without the head follows a different reward branch and does not perform this unlock. Prepare a party that can continue after losing the carrier.
Confirmation: the altar’s outcome opens the passage deeper into the Domain. Merely reaching the altar after the first two deliveries means the entrance is open, not that this final step is complete.
How to Unlock The Rift
1. Obtain Both House Boss Quest Items
The Core route introduces Pyrophina’s house encounter; the Moon route introduces Zaratana’s. Their rewards are the Scalding Orb and Black Shard. Some walkthroughs call the orb a “Burning Orb”; use Scalding Orb when matching it to the site’s item reference.
2. Complete the Opposite-Route Tasks
- Orb → Moon: bring the Scalding Orb through the Crater route. During the Man in the Moon fight, position its carrier in front of the mouth so the boss swallows it. This is the quest solution described by both linked walkthroughs. The item can burn its carrier; its own action passes it to an ally with an open weapon slot, and catching it also affects adjacent units.
- Shard → Core: use the Black Shard’s own absorption action on units whose current health is within its displayed limit. Its description specifies 20 absorptions, persistence across runs, and one use per battle. Do not count ordinary team kills as progress. Once it becomes the Glowing Black Shard, use that item on The Coven at the end of the Core route. Its description specifically identifies this boss as the target.
Complete both tasks before attempting the collar finish. The obelisk event has separate states for “not raised,” “counterpart not raised,” and ready to activate.
3. Match the Surviving Boss’s Collar to the Correct Obelisk
After the combined house encounter, equip the surviving boss’s collar. Escort the corresponding ally through the destination route:
| Equipped collar | Destination | Final choice |
|---|---|---|
| Pyrophina’s Collar | Desert → Crater → Moon | Activate at the Moon obelisk |
| Zaratana’s Collar | Desert → Bunker → Core | Activate at the Core obelisk |
Choose the cat wearing the collar. Pyrophina cannot finish at the Core obelisk, and Zaratana cannot finish at the Moon obelisk. Touch the Obelisk is a different interaction: it does not substitute for the collar’s activation.
Confirmation: the successful activation creates a mirror-like portal. Choose Enter Rift at the Rift portal to continue into The Rift. If the event says the other obelisk must be raised, return to the unfinished orb or shard task.
How to Unlock the Ice Age and Repair the Time Machine
Access to the Throbbing Domain matters again here: you need its boss’s heart before the Lab machine can take you into the past.
- Start the quest at the Lab. Reach the broken time machine and choose Examine. The event records that the quest has begun and points you toward Dr. Beanies.
- Return to Dr. Beanies. Continue the quest conversation to obtain the empty Cryogenic Time Chamber. VGC describes receiving this device after the first Lab run.
- Equip the empty chamber for the Domain run. Defeat the Throbbing King. At the Dead King event, select the cat wearing the empty chamber and choose Take Heart. Ordinary looting is a separate option.
- Check the transformed item. The heart changes it into Cryogenic Time Chamber (Throbbing), the filled chamber. You need this version for the next trip.
- Return to the Lab with the filled chamber equipped. At the broken machine, select its wearer and choose Repair. The successful quest branch consumes the device and turns the machine on.
- Choose Go to The Past. The working time machine offers this destination after the Ice Age unlock. Repairing the machine and choosing the destination are consecutive interactions.
The chamber also changes battles: its recorded empty version revives non-boss enemy bodies with partial health at the end of a round; the filled version revives them with full health. Plan corpse cleanup rather than treating it as a passive delivery item.
Why Is My Secret Area Still Locked?
| What you see | Check before starting another run |
|---|---|
| Delivery choice is absent | Select the actual item wearer; check equipped gear, not just inventory |
| Domain entrance is available, but only the altar appears | Complete the head-wearing cat’s sacrifice; the two entrance deliveries are not the altar unlock |
| Black Shard never transforms | Use its absorption action, observe the health limit and once-per-battle restriction |
| Collar is equipped but activation fails | Match collar to route, finish both obelisk tasks and escort the boss ally to the destination |
| Time machine still asks for a device | Check that the quest was started with Examine and the selected cat wears the filled, not empty, chamber |
| Machine works but you have not entered the Ice Age | Choose Go to The Past after Repair |
Sources and Version Scope
Reviewed October 9, 2026. Route order and house encounter context were cross-checked against the linked GamesRadar and VGC walkthroughs. Equipped-item requirements, the altar sacrifice, obelisk states, chamber transformation and destination choices were checked against the site’s extracted quest event data and item descriptions. Follow the linked event and item references for the individual steps.
The extracted snapshot predates the 1.1 updates and has no recorded game build. This is a source-based walkthrough, not a claim of current-build gameplay testing; localized names and mods may differ. For preparing the carrier’s party, see Combat and the Event Choices guide. Continue planning house progression with NPC upgrades, or compare other rewards in the quest item reference.