Every time I look into goo it gets more complicated.
So I tried checking in boundless info, dark fuchsia into shadow blue and it shows 5 steps.
Mutation Steps:
but If i go to dark fuchsia into strong lavender:
Mutation Steps:
then strong lavender into shadow blue:
Mutation Steps:
meaning 4 steps.
just something interesting I saw.
thats what i meant with hidden rarity, it prefers mutating to already unlocked colors rather than to a gleambow color , i have the same problem with warm moss to mint.
@Larky do I have to make a goo farm? Can’t I just steal yours 
I may be coming to you for some advice.
Larky is a beast with goo. A lot of knowledge with her.
Oh I know she is and very helpful with everything. I owe her a lot … right now though I need to get over there and help her run Painters so she can keep up with all the spray production.
I think I’m heading over there today to help.
dw its fine , someone is helping me rn , he is getting paid in sprays 
good deal for both sides
Am I right in thinking the graph here is used for both mixing and mutating? as it may help explain your results… (toggle advanced):
Also might be useful:
color mixing and goo mutations seem to be different,
for example I can get to shadow blue by planting strong lavender into night azure.
If i mix those 2 I cant seem to reach shadow blue, need a third to pull to shadow blue.
This is based off looking up info not experience.
I have yet to harvest the results of my farm / mutations.
the gleam /goo matters
planting night azure goo on strong lavender gives dark cerulean
but planting strong lavender on night azure gleam g ives shadow blue
my thoughts to this is : night azure goo mutating towards strong lavender locks into dark cerulean because its "on the way " and since its a “nongleambow” color it locks into dark cerulean instead of shadow blue (maybe the mutation step between the last step and a gleambow color is "longer " than an actual 1 mutation step due to hidden gleambow rarity)
but mutating from strong lavender towards night azure there is no “nongleambow” color close enough /right ahead of it and the system has no choice BUT to go to shadow blue , idk
more stuff looked up:
strong lavender on night blue gleam (closer to shadow blue than night azure route)
yields dark blue instead of shadow blue. (here your theory would work)
yet the line from strong lavender towards night azure gleam is closer to dark blue than shadow blue but it goes the shadow blue route instead. (here it contradicts)
Is this not because of the graph though?
As I understand it from the post I linked (I may be wrong), for colour mixing, the graph is used and the colour closest to the centre of the chosen points (colours) selected is the result. While for goo mutating, the colour will hop from where it is on the graph, along each point along the way to finally reach the destination colour.
Edit: I just opened the graph in one window and the goo mutator on the other window and checked if the results matched what i thought and they seem too. To try yourself picks a colour of gleam from the graph, then try multiple different goo colours from the graph and you can see it works toward the gleam colour along the points.
Edit2: also if you look at the Goo mutates from/to, it is always the closest points on the graph to the chosen colour.
Hmm i just saw this, and cant find all the colours on the graph so i will take your word for it
honestly I am more confused now than when i started so taking my word for it is iffy lol