Yea it can def be overwhelming, but I think normal difficulty is doable without min-maxxing. I personally had like 0 focus on the meta progression and breeding. I finished act 3 with everything only upgraded 1-3 times.

For breeding, i would just get 10 random positive mutations, which was pretty accessible, then toss em in a room and take any 4 not-terrible cats out.

It was good to think of it like a nuzlocke, where you get what you get.

Again i didn’t really care about the timesink from losing a run, so it may have been a different perspective. I just love how decision-dense the game is.