The Mycopunk Expedition Alpha mission features the new purple-colored employee who took workplace exposure to a whole new level. With her long sassy nails, the crystals on her shoulder pad, and her cute single robot eye, the Mycologist is here to make her mark. Expedition Alpha and Mycologist were added to the game with the 1.0 update on October 20, 2026. The mission’s highlight is a giant fleshy pink monster floating in the air with tiny tentacles sticking out of it. That’s the boss. Once you’re in the mission area, you have to defeat it to unlock Mycologist.
The boss has 3 main attacks: 1. A homing attack where it sends pink beams of energy toward you 2. Ice spikes spreading and sticking out of the ground 3. Barrels that spurt out from its tip and rain down on you. I’ll explain to you where to look for the mission, how to defeat the boss, and what makes Mycologist different from the other employees.
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Mycopunk Expedition Alpha: Get Mycologist
Unlocking the character itself is easy since you just walk up to her and press the interact button. The hard part is defeating the boss the Mycologist is actually stuck in. Yes, she is literally stuck in the boss’ fleshy core. First, we should discuss how to start the mission she’s in, Expedition Alpha, and then examine how to defeat the boss.
Where to Find Expedition Alpha
First things first, go to the main New Atlas map and find the Expedition Alpha mission node. You don’t need to search the separate X11-B region for it. I recommend making sure you are above level 10, both so you’re guaranteed to have access to this mission AND to actually survive the fairly difficult boss fight. I went in at level 15. I’ve also included a map of the area I was in.
Mycopunk Expedition Alpha Boss
My first tip: have several revives on you, preferably at least 5. Follow the marker you see on your HUD until you see an enormous pink floating monster the shape of a bipyramid. It has a black exoskeleton that highlights that the boss has four sides that can be damaged. We’ll be focusing on ONE side alone so we can quickly expose its core and kill it before it does a lot of damage to us. The boss has three main types of attacks with two minor ones as well. You have to keep dodging as you’re attacking. Be aware of your surroundings at all times.
Pink Beams
The boss’ most dangerous attack. If you’re not quick enough, you’ll be hit by several of these beams repeatedly. And they do a decent amount of damage to your health. Keep dashing and sprinting to avoid getting hit. You can attack the boss’ most damaged side at the same time if you want.
Ice Spikes
The ice spikes are the second dangerous, but way easier to dodge. To make this easier for yourself, find a vantage point so you can shoot the boss while having enough reaction time to get out of the way of the wave of ice spikes spurting out of the ground. Since they stick out of the ground, you can either go in the air or simply change your position to left or right.
Barrels
These explosive barrels drop down from the tip of the boss’ head. They are by far the easiest to dodge since you can see exactly where they’re going to land. Besides, they don’t have much range. Take cover behind a wall or roof to avoid getting damaged altogether.
Minor Attacks
Both of these attack types are minions getting in your way. However, you should deal with them immediately if you don’t want them swarming you.
Crawlers
These spider-like bots will quickly move toward you to do melee attacks. If you’re not careful, a bunch of Crawlies will surround you and then you’ll be taking damage both from the boss’ beams and the bots. Take them down as soon as you see them.
Pixies
Pixies will probably drive you insane. They’ll either render one boss’ side or the Crawlies invincible. It’s highly recommended you destroy their groups as soon as possible. Shooting them down is easy if you’ve good aim.
The Core
Once you’ve damaged the boss’ side you’ve been focusing on, it’s only a matter of shooting the core until the health completely depletes and the boss obliterates into ash. As soon as you see the bright shiny pink core, shoot it. Just remember not to get too risky and get damaged to death in the process.
Unlocking Mycologist (Switch Employee)
When she descends down from the boss’ destroyed core and gently lands on the ground, approach the Mycologist until you see the text “Switch Employee” appear. Press the interact button to immediately change your character into the Mycologist and play the game through her POV.
Mycopunk Mycologist Abilities
The Mycologist comes with her own set of abilities. These abilities are actually pretty good, in my opinion. Sporelift is a movement ability, while the Fungal Skewer is a fantastic AOE attack. Infection is her passive ability which directly influences her health and damage.
Sporelift
You can jump up quite high with this. It starts off like a jetpack; but if you keep holding the jump button and gain some distance off the ground, your Mycologist will surge upward as if using a spring. The only downside is when you are up in the air, you don’t have much mobility to move horizontally.
This ability comes in handy both when you want to get out of most enemies’ reach and when you want to get on some high vantage point.
Fungal Skewer
Fungal Skewer is literally that. A tower that erupts out of the ground wherever you point at. Then its branches pierce enemies and immobilize them. Enemies won’t be able to attack you, and shooting them will prove to be a piece of cake since they are stuck in one place.
It also consumes Infection to deal additional damage, making it particularly useful when you need to stop a dangerous enemy from moving while you deal a stronger hit. Imagine combining this move with a grenade.
Infection
What I love about the Mycologist is that her passive Infection mechanic is both helpful, and dangerous if left unchecked. Taking damage or using Sporelift increases Infection. Building it up strengthens her Fungal Skewer, but allowing it to get too high reduces her maximum health.
In other words, getting more infected can make her more powerful, but there’s a price to pay. Not exactly the kind of health benefit you’d find in Saxon’s employee handbook. The trick is to balance Infection generation with Fungal Skewer rather than allowing it to just increase more and more.
Throwing Grenades
Just like other employees, the Mycologist can throw grenades. The grenades you throw can be extra useful if you pair them with the Fungal Skewer. Once you’ve trapped multiple enemies in the Fungal Skewer’s spikes, throw a grenade toward them to damage all of them at the same time.
Melee
Her melee attack is pretty normal. She jabs one hand forward and the long sharp nails on her hand take care of the rest. Her attack animation appears only slightly faster than other employees.
Mycologist Upgrades and Early Build Tips
The Mycologist has three distinct skill upgrade trees, each corresponding to each of her main abilities.
For Sporelift, go for Lucky Harvest to have a second charge for the jump. I really liked this because if I messed up the first Sporelift and got somewhere dangerous, I’d use the second charge to quickly get out of there before getting killed.
For Fungal Skewer, choose Sporadic Sprouting to have extra spikes grow around the main spore tower you create with Fungal Skewer.
For the third skill tree, I chose Angry Outburst because I just really like using Mycologist’s melee attack. It’s very satisfying, and this upgrade provides increased melee damage and range while also increasing melee attack speed.
TIP: You want a build that helps with managing Infection rather than simply maximizing it.
Where Can I Find Mycologist After Defeating the Boss?
The Mycologist slowly hovers down from the boss’ destroyed core. If you can’t find her, just pay attention to the purple marker on your HUD. You should see her purple tiny head indicating where she dropped.
Who Is the Mycologist in Mycopunk?
The Mycologist was part of Expedition Alpha, the first team sent to investigate the fungal outbreak on New Atlas. She’s the expedition’s sole survivor and was left there for over a year before the Hazard Crew could rescue her.
During that time, she managed to merge with a new type of fungus that appears to be friendly toward her. That’s pretty ironic for a character joining a crew whose main job is exterminating fungal creatures, but it also explains why her abilities are so different from the other employees.
Why Is the Mycologist’s Cape Missing?
I actually had this issue. If your Mycologist appears without her cape, you’re not necessarily experiencing a problem with your game. The developers listed her missing cape as a known issue in the October 20 version 1.0 patch notes. Sadly, no specific fix date has been announced in those notes.
