Aside from the meteorites and furniture boxes (and I assume whatever act 3 has that's analogous, haven't had time to play much this week and still cleaning up act 2 stuff) is there any way to increase the rarity of your item drops, or do you just get better item drops on later acts?
If anything reading that bit about the bow (which I don't really consider a spoiler; of course that's gonna be the final boss. it's an ed mcmillen game) made me realize how much this game likes to throw stuff at you early on that you really, REALLY should save for later acts. Wish I'd saved the persuader for some of these irritating-ass quest runs.
rarity appears to be random (please put down the gun) besides the final act areas, throbbing domain, rift, infinite, where after their bosses, the event that happens is a luck roll on whatever cat it picks. when you do said roll, you get a red item, or the cat dies and you get nothing. items that increase drops, birds, etc, likely increase total odds of good items, but i'm unsure if they're weighted to low items heavily, i'd assume so. i've had oddly good luck with red guns from the eagles, though, and checking the shop every day, especially when breeding and passing them helps find items you can use. maxing pet mart and giving them extra cats makes them sell a cheap rarer item the next day.
rarity isn't everything, set bonuses, even common, can do some serious shit, (prowler set, prowler items/blackjack, makes all backstabs crits) and some weapons like the jitte perform above their rarity grade. it's important to know what you're going for also, and that each act has exclusive item drops, like the cactus set in act 2. i'm not aware of rarity increasing in later acts. some red items are very good but a lot are also kind of underwhelming or like a common item but with a bonus. it's easier and more commonly effective to unlock/go for items that benefit what classes you like/want to use, like again prowler for thieves, fully metal sets for tinkerer, monocle or something that gives 100% accuracy for hunters to counteract accuracy passives etc
I can attest to the fact that incest works well, the incest cats have higher stats in general. What I don't get is stuff like the base stats being 10 or the various stat ups which give +10 or +15, like I can't even cross a stat up of 3. How do you get extra turn and all that? How do you get enough mana to crowd the arena in summons? Stuff like that.
Also I have to confess, I've never used the thief. The concept for the class sounds shitty and lame, I really don't give a fuck about the coins, I just want good stats which I bet thief is not going to have.
the fight clubbing etc is alright and all but not really a good idea to rely on stuff like that, particularly with stuff like malaria, the retirement system, rng fight death, stat gained random, etc. some mutations can give bonus attacks or things of that nature. you don't need mana necessarily to crowd summons, the butcher does it alone with a couple abilities by turning all food pickups into flies, them staying with you after battle, them doing more damage etc. but most sustainable power spikes are an all base 7 line and getting 9+ mutations, so in a contained bloodline all kids stay around 9 mutations with 2 defects. also culling your herd regularly, especially when crowded. as you progress, remove all cats with mutations that are bad or don't work with who you use, cats with below 5 in a stat or at least when stats are lopsided, those with disorders you can't use, ones with defects like blind or miss chance.
thief is actually quite good, but by a certain point i would make sure he also has a solid amount of con because he'll go from "glass" to "liability". main thing that's a bit of a pia with him is he doesn't do as great against enemies that can't be backstabbed and/or immune to status effects. you do give a fuck about coins with him because he gets abilities that can have movement resets on coin pickup, static damage increases, and a decent damage ranged attack that uses them. stats on multiple cat classes have to be adjusted with mutations or just "better" base cats, you can have a base cat with good con to buffer their penalty etc. you really prefer instead a regularly good ability set, which thief has, unlike say, tinkerer or mage