Has nothing to do with cycles.
It is all about probability.
The number you put in is used as a maximum for a random number generator.
5000 will generate a random integer value between 1 and 5000
100 will generate a random integer value between 1 and 100
When a robot reproduces, each command, operator and function in its DNA is parsed in sequence and a random number is generated. If that number is 1 then the value is mutated. if not then it is copied over exactly.
The lower you set the values in the mutations window, the more mutations you get. Set them all to 1 and every single point in the DNA will be mutated every time the robots reproduce. 1 chance in 1 is a 100% certainty
Set it to 1,000,000 and mutations become extremely rare. 1 chance in 1,000,000 is pretty improbable