PokeBonk Daily Mutation: the four mutations, prizes and rules

The PokeBonk Daily Mutation is a game mode added in version 0.8.61 on October 27, 2026. Each day brings a new Classic run with a twist, and it is the same for everyone: the same map, the same seed and the same mutation. You can play it with any Pokémon in your League and retry as many times as you want; your best run of the day is the one that counts, ranked first by how far you get and then by KOs. Look for it in the first row of the main menu, next to Survival. We checked this guide against the game files of version 0.8.62 (build mvr5gbc0) on October 28, 2026.

How the PokeBonk Daily Mutation works

On its screen, the game sums the mode up as “the same map and seed for everyone, no Bag”. A few rules set it apart from a normal Classic run:

• The mutation picks the difficulty. You do not choose Normal, Hard or Nightmare; the game says “The Daily Mutation has its own difficulty.”
• Your best run counts. Retries are unlimited. The game keeps your furthest progress of the day, and KOs break ties.
• You see the mutation during the run. A banner appears at the start of each zone, the mutation’s medallion shows at the top of the screen, and in Metronome a countdown shows the next move swap.

The four mutations

There are four mutations. Each has a fixed difficulty, one rule change and three prizes of its own.

In Metronome, your first move and Bill’s fusions never change. If no move can be swapped at that moment, the game tries again after 3 seconds, and after 3 tries it swaps a move even if that move is busy. Each swap is shown big on screen: “Metronome! [old move] turns into [new move]”. Version 0.8.62 fixed a bug where moves that had “turned into a beam” got stuck. That is the patch note’s wording, and the note does not say which moves it means. Since the fix, those moves keep changing every 30 seconds in every zone.

Crystal is the name the game’s English menus use. The English patch note for 0.8.61 calls the same mutation Glass, and its title in English is Glass Heart.

How the Daily Mutation rotates

The mutation changes once a day at 00:00 UTC; convert that to your local time to know when a new one starts. The game groups days in blocks of 4. Each block is a shuffled order of all four mutations, so every mutation comes once per block, and the game makes sure the same mutation never comes two days in a row, even across two blocks. Each block also moves every mutation to another map: Viridian Forest, Rocky Desert, Storm Coast or Celestial Glacier.

The patch note says each mutation comes “once every 4 days”. Going by the game’s actual rotation rule, the gap between two days of the same mutation can be anywhere from 2 to 7 days. The game’s Daily Mutation screen looks 8 days ahead and tells you when each mutation is back. The calendar on this page follows the same rule; if the game ever changes it, trust the game’s own screen.

Daily Mutation rewards

Stardust, once a day

The Daily Mutation pays up to 300 Stardust a day. The game counts it as a running total and pays it once per day, so a second run only pays the part you have not received yet.

The patch note calls the shrine the sanctuary; in the game’s progress labels it is the Shrine.

Prizes you keep

Each mutation gives three cosmetics that stay on your account:

• its title for reaching zone 3,
• its avatar frame for reaching the shrine,
• its profile background for winning it.

Win all four mutations and you also get the title Mutation King. The Daily Mutation screen shows how many of the four you have won (for example “2 of 4 wins”), counted from the backgrounds you own. The 0.8.61 patch note calls this title “King of Mutations”, but the game’s English menus say Mutation King. Since each day has only one mutation, collecting all four wins takes at least four different days.

Profile backgrounds arrived with this mode. A background is a picture on your trainer card that sits underneath your name, so your name is shown on top of it. You pick it in the Backgrounds tab of the picker, next to avatar, frame and title; there is also a “No background” option. For now, the four Daily Mutation backgrounds are the only ones in the game. Since version 0.8.62, the Daily Mutation frames you have earned also show in the Frames tab of the avatar picker.

Daily Mutation rules and limits

• No Bag. The run starts without any of your Bag items, and the mode’s screen says “no Bag”.
• No co-op. The game says “The Daily Mutation can’t be played in co-op.”
• Fixed difficulty. Metronome is Nightmare, Dynamax Wilds and Candy Fever are Hard, Crystal is Normal.
• Shinies are still on. As far as we know, shinies, Classic Shinies and League encounters still appear: they only stay away from the shrine, the Mewtwo fight, Survival and the Lavender Tower. See the shiny guide for how shinies work.

The daily leaderboard

Each mutation day has its own leaderboard. Runs are ranked by the furthest point reached (Zone 1, 2 or 3, then Shrine, then Victory), and KOs decide between runs that got equally far. The leaderboard screen has tabs for Today, Yesterday and 2 days ago. You need an account to enter it: the game asks you to “Create an account to enter the Daily Mutation leaderboard.”

Tips for each mutation (our suggestions)

These are our suggestions, worked out from the rules above. They are not tested strategies or a “best team”.

• Crystal: keep your distance. With a quarter of your usual max HP, every hit takes a much bigger share of your health bar. The game’s own tip, sliding (Shift) to dodge the bosses’ strongest attacks, matters more here.
• Dynamax Wilds: expect longer fights, not faster enemies. Wild Pokémon have twice the HP and hit harder, but they move more slowly, so you have more room to back off. The bosses are the usual ones.
• Candy Fever: do not stall. Enemies get stronger faster with time, while experience and PokéDollars come in double. Level up early and spend your PokéDollars early instead of saving them.
• Metronome: trust your first move. Your first move never changes, so pick a League Pokémon whose first move you rely on. The countdown tells you when the next swap comes.
• Use retries. Only your best run of the day counts, and Stardust is paid once per day up to 300, so an early failed run costs you nothing on the leaderboard.
• Your Bag items are safe. The run starts without any Bag items, so a Dawn Stone or a Master Ball is never used up here; keep them for normal runs.

Where to go next

To play today’s mutation, start the game from our home page and open the Daily Mutation in the first row of the menu.

• Beginner guide: how a Classic run works if you are new.
• Builds: what to pick on level-up for each starter.
• Shiny guide: shiny odds and the Shiny Collection.
• Updates: every PokeBonk version, including 0.8.61 and 0.8.62.

The game itself is at pokebonk.com, and this guide is an unofficial fan site. If the game and this guide ever disagree, trust the game, since it updates often.