What is Gilick and why should you play it?
Voidling Bound puts a lot of early-game voidlings in your path, but Gilick stands out immediately. Native to the planet Vireo, this insectivore sits between 0.9 and 1.4 meters tall and weighs up to 120 kg, which tracks with how it plays: compact, aggressive, and built to get in your face. Where other voidlings like Kwipeck prefer to kite and avoid hits, Gilick wants to close distance, blast enemies at point-blank range, and slam the ground hard enough to shake the whole arena. It carries both Pyro and Cryo elements, giving its evolution tree a wide spread of damage types to work with across adventure games and beyond.
Gilick's base ability loadout
What are Gilick's base abilities?
Gilick starts with five abilities, three of which are permanently fixed regardless of how you evolve it. Understanding which slots are locked early saves you from building around abilities you'll replace later.
Slash And Bash, Counter Blast, and Blunder Streak never change. Your evolution choices only affect the primary and secondary slots, plus a perk at the Mutated tier. That means Counter Blast is your bread-and-butter defensive tool for the entire game: pop it when you're about to eat a hit, get your Block, and let the whirlwind do work while the blast punishes anything that lands anyway.
How does Gilick's evolution tree work?
Evolution runs through four rarity tiers: Rare, Superior, Exotic, and Mutated. Each tier costs Mutagens, and the costs stack as you climb.
- Superior evolution: 3 Mutagens (4 total) — unlocks new primary abilities
- Exotic evolution: 6 Mutagens (10 total) — unlocks new secondary abilities
- Mutated evolution: 10 Mutagens (20 total) — unlocks a perk that other species can also access via the Splicing Station
The evolution tree branches hard at every tier. Pyro paths push into fire damage, status application, and mobility tricks. Cryo paths lean into area control, slow application, and defensive bursts. The Telluric Gilick and Andromeda Gilick branches sit outside the main Pyro/Cryo split and open up Organic and Plasma options respectively.
Full Gilick evolution tree
Which primary abilities are worth unlocking?
Primary abilities unlock at the Superior tier. Here's the full list and what actually makes each one useful:
Fissure Bark is the biggest upgrade from base Buck Bark if you want range. The piercing mechanic lets it hit multiple targets in a line, which pairs well with grouped enemies. Thorn Blast with its hold-to-fire mechanic gives you sustained pressure that the burst-oriented primaries can't match. Seekers Burst is the laziest option in a good way: homing projectiles mean you spend less time aiming and more time positioning.
Which secondary abilities are worth building around?
Secondaries unlock at the Exotic tier and represent the biggest shift in how Gilick moves through a fight. The base Kinetic Drop is functional but plain. The evolved versions add layers:
- Burnout Crunch (Pyro): Consumes Elemental Status on landed enemies to trigger secondary explosions on each affected target. Pairs directly with any Pyro primary that applies status.
- Fire Hoop (Pyro): Jumping through the hoop mid-air refreshes an ability stack and fires a status-applying projectile blast. High skill ceiling, high payoff.
- Glacier Strike (Cryo): Creates 5 destroyable glaciers that shatter into slow-applying projectiles. Good crowd control for horde situations.
- Blizzard Leap (Cryo): Lands and releases a storm that continuously applies Elemental Status. Excellent setup for any build that wants sustained status pressure.
- Rebound Slam (Plasma): Applies Float to enemies on landing, setting up the Bubble Pop perk for burst damage.
What are the best Mutated perks for Gilick?
Mutated perks cost 10 Mutagens at the final tier (20 total) and represent Gilick's highest power expression. A few stand out as build-defining:
Watch them BURN! (Blackened Gilick): Heals 100% of Burn damage dealt. Pair this with any Pyro primary that consistently applies Burn and Gilick effectively becomes self-sustaining in extended fights.
Cryogenic Stasis (Frozen Solid Gilick): Triggers invulnerability for 3 seconds when health drops below 30%, then releases a Frostbite explosion. The 20-second cooldown is long but the emergency save it provides is unmatched for solo content.
Ravenous Cyclone (Inferno Gilick): On taking damage, spawns a cyclone that drops healing orbs when it deals damage. Capped at 3 active cyclones with a 1-second cooldown between triggers, so sustained fights where you're getting hit regularly turn into healing opportunities.
Earth Shaper (Sandstorm Gilick): After any ability use, landing creates shockwaves and an Armor-boosting zone. Since Gilick is always slamming into the ground anyway, this perk activates constantly with no extra effort.
Bubble Pop (Andromeda Gilick): Hitting a Floating enemy pops the Float status and deals burst damage in a wide area. Combine with Rebound Slam as your secondary for a reliable Float-into-pop combo.
How do modules affect Gilick's stats?
Modules are body part attachments (Arms, Back, Tail, Head) that add +1 to specific attributes. Base Gilick unlocks four modules with no stat bonuses: Slick Shoulders, Soft Back, Essential Tail, and Plain Scalp. All meaningful stat modules come from evolved forms.
Here's what each attribute covers and which modules deliver it:
Elder Beard is the only Recuperation module in the list and comes exclusively from Blackened Gilick or Frozen Solid Gilick. If you're running the Watch them BURN! perk build, stacking Recuperation from Elder Beard on top of the Burn healing makes Gilick extremely hard to kill.
For aggressive builds focused on output, prioritize Strength modules from evolved Pyro forms. For horde-clearing Cryo builds, Vitality keeps you alive long enough for the area-of-effect abilities to clean up.
Recommended build paths
Pyro burn sustain build
This path leans into Gilick's natural Pyro element and turns the Watch them BURN! perk into a full healing engine.
- Primary: Nova Blast (Sunbathing Gilick) for DoT and Elemental Status on pass-through
- Secondary: Burnout Crunch (Burnt-out Gilick) to consume status and trigger extra explosions
- Perk: Watch them BURN! (Blackened Gilick) to heal 100% of Burn damage
- Module focus: Elder Beard for Recuperation, Bony Plates for Vitality
The loop: Nova Blast applies status, Burnout Crunch detonates it, Watch them BURN! heals you off every Burn tick. Counter Blast handles anything that gets through.
Cryo horde control build
For players who want to shut down large groups rather than burst single targets.
- Primary: Snow Canon (Iceland Gilick) for 15 low-spread projectiles with status chance
- Secondary: Glacier Strike (Glacier Gilick) for 5 glaciers that shatter into slowing projectiles
- Perk: Cryogenic Stasis (Frozen Solid Gilick) for the emergency invulnerability
- Module focus: Plated Spine and Reinforced Legs for Strength and Vitality
Plasma Float-pop build
Higher execution requirement but satisfying payoff against clustered enemies.
- Primary: Seekers Burst (Andromeda Gilick) for homing status application
- Secondary: Rebound Slam (Andromeda Gilick) to apply Float on landing
- Perk: Bubble Pop (Andromeda Gilick) to pop Floated enemies for wide-area burst
- Module focus: Finned Limbs and Dorsal Fin for Agility to maximize repositioning speed
All three builds use the same fixed abilities (Slash And Bash for finishers, Counter Blast for defense, Blunder Streak for ultimate damage), so the playstyle difference comes entirely from your evolution choices.
For more on squeezing performance out of the game, the Voidling Bound best PC settings guide covers graphics optimization that keeps Gilick's particle-heavy abilities running without stutters. The full Voidling Bound strategy guides collection has breakdowns for the other species too if you're comparing options before committing your Mutagens.