Geneticists have access to GeneTek consoles and scanners. These devices can, with enough patience, reward you with superpowers, crippling disabilities, or just amusing Mutations.
GeneTek console and GeneTek scanner are machines that help Geneticists activate Mutations. Click the GeneTek console to start.
All cooldowns are measured in seconds.
To lock an occupant inside the GeneTek scanner right click on the GeneTek scanner and choose Scanner Lock. The occupant can sometimes break out by flipping (R). To unlock the GeneTek scanner click Scanner Lock again.
There is a finite amount of air in the GeneTek scanner, so it is possible but unlikely for occupants to suffocate.
Research Materials are a currency shared by all GeneTek consoles.
Every organism has Potential, Unknown Mutations, incomplete and inactive. Potential Mutations are randomized each round, but within a round, they will always be the same, even after death. Only changing identity via stable mutagen or DNA Scrambler can change it. The overarching goal of genetics is to research and activate Potential Mutations among the crew.
View the crew's Unknown Mutations through View DNA Samples or insert an occupant into the GeneTek scanner and click Potential. To research an Unknown Mutation select it and click Research required. After several seconds the research will finish. Each Unknown Mutation only needs to be researched once. The base cost of researching Unknown Mutation is 20 Research Materials.
When you activate the Potential Mutation of a crew member or player-controlled monkey you are rewarded with:
Activating a Mutation on an NPC human or monkey will not give you the above rewards, though the Mutation will still work as normal.
DNA Activators activate organism's Potential Mutations. You can Create Activator every 20 seconds.
If a DNA Activator activates a crew member's Potential Mutation the DNA Activator will turn transparent and become a filled DNA Activator (). Click on the GeneTek console with the filled DNA Activator in your active hand to put it in and receive the rewards. If the DNA Activator did not activate a crew member's Potential Mutation, you'll get a useless expended DNA Activator ().
After you Sequence a Mutation, you can activate a Potential Mutation immediately, without cooldown. To Sequence a Mutation you need to find the missing base pairs. You only need to Sequence each Mutation once. Next time you see the same Mutation, an Autocomplete button will appear. Press it to Sequence the Mutation immediately.
Mutations are composed of base pairs. Bases are represented as letters G, A, C or T (Guanine, Adenine, Cytosine or Thymine). Bases always come in pair. G is always paired with C and base T is always paired up with base A.
You can only Sequence Mutations of GeneTek scanner occupants.
First, insert an occupant into the GeneTek scanner. Then, select a Mutation you want to Sequence. You don't have to research the Mutation before Sequencing it.
Start off by filling up any half-filled base pairs. A goes with T, G goes with C.?-G becomes C-G,?-T turns to A-T and A-? becomes A-T.
Next, start working on the unfilled base pairs. G-C is different from C-G, and T-A is different from A-T, so each unfilled base pair has four different possible arrangements. Let's try G-C first and work down the list.
With a Gene Sequence Checker you can fill out base pairs, click Check Stability and see if your guess is correct. If the base pairs are correct, they will turn green. If they are wrong they will turn red. Make another base pair guess, wait until Check Stability cools down and see if your guess is correct this time.
If you do not have the Gene Sequence Checker Research, you can make the guesses manually by going through all the sixteen base pair permutations. If you have one person with half of the code for the Mutation and another has the other half, you can compare the two and deduce the complete code, or at least part of it.
After correctly guessing base pairs it is time to unlock the locked base pair.
If you don't want to play the game, you can type "unlock" and auto-decrypt the lock. You gain 2 auto-decryptors after activating a Mutation on a crew member.
Alternately, a specific chain of letters must be entered to unlock the pair of bases. The only possible combinations here are GG, GC, CG and CC.
If your answer is wrong, the machine will show you how close you are to the correct answer. Let's assume we entered GG and this was the result:
Some codes will be this simple, but others will have up to 4 characters. Some genes will even have multiple locked pairs. Most of the more powerful genes have some of their pairs locked, so it can be worth the effort!
Completing the DNA Injectors research allows the creation of DNA Injectors . When you inject an organism with a DNA Injector they will gain the Mutation even if it was not in their Potential Mutations. However, these do not give any Chromosomes, Research Materials, or auto-decryptors as rewards. It is also important to note DNA Injectors change the organism's Stability!
To make an Injector, pick Create Injector from either Stored Mutations or occupant's Mutations. This can be done every 40 seconds for 40 Research Materials. They share a cooldown timer with Activators, so creating a Injector also prevents you from making an Activator and vice versa.
DNA Injectors are administered similarly to DNA Activators, i.e. you click on the subject while you're holding the Injector to use it on them (The subject can also use it on themselves.) Using one always creates a "filled injector"; these do not give any rewards when redeemed, and it is not possible to make them do so.
Once the relevant upgrade is researched, it is also possible to grant Mutations through the Gene Booth (also known as the Genetics Booth), a machine that grants Mutations in exchange for money. Through the Gene Booth, you can share Mutations without having to stray from the console.
When you access an occupant's Mutations or Stored Mutations and click on a Mutation, you can choose Sell at Gene Booth to send 5 applications of the Mutation to the Gene Booth for 30 Research Materials. It'll prompt you to set a price in credits and a description. It is possible to sell Mutations spliced with Chromosomes, and genes in the booth can be locked or have their price adjusted by swiping a Captain, Medical Director, or Head of Security ID on the booth.
Similar to Injectors, the Gene Booth can give Mutations not in the recipient's Potential. Receiving a Mutation through the Gene Booth changes their Stability. Because of this, it is common practice to splice Mutations with Stabilizer Chromosomes to nullify the Stability change.
Gene Booth sales go towards the Research budget. You can swipe your ID card on the GeneTek console to siphon a portion of the proceeds to your own account.
The Gene Booth normally takes 20 seconds to give someone a Mutation, but this can be reduced with research.
When you activate a Potential Mutation it becomes an active Mutation. There are a wide variety of Mutations, some commonplace and simple, some extremely powerful and rare. Some are beneficial, some are detrimental, some are situational, and some are just wacky and fun. There are more mutations than those listed here, so feel free to sequence and find Mutations on your own!
When you die you lose all your Mutations, but keep your Potential Mutations. For the cloner in particular, you can also enable the Advanced Genetic Analysis option, so clones keep Mutations they had when they were scanned; this is especially handy for those trying to stick with a certain Body Type Mutation.
Clicking the blue ABIL tab on your hotbar will toggle between standard options and your available Mutation powers.
Debilitating Mutations often increase Stability while beneficial Mutations decrease it. Gaining a Mutation that was already in your Potential causes no Stability loss or gain, e.g. getting Mutations through the Gene Booth and DNA Injectors can change Stability, while getting them via DNA Activators does not.
Stability determines how often your Mutation powers will work as intended. Every organism starts with 100 Stability. At 100 Stability your Mutation powers will work correctly 100% of the time. At 40 Stability your Mutation powers will work correctly 40% of the time.
Low Stability causes your Mutation powers to backfire or even degrade into their opposite Mutations. For example, Toxic Resistance degrades into Blood Toxification, while Optic Energizer burns your eyes instead of firing lasers. Having Stability below 50 also garbles your speech, replacing some letters with g's, u's, l's, and b's, and instead of "[name] says [text]", it's "[name] gurgles [text]".
Some genes belong to 'groups'. For each of these groups, you can only have one gene from that group at once. If you already have a gene from a particular group and another gene from that group is added to you, the new gene will replace the old one.
The Clown spawns with a variant of this mutation that cannot be cured. Different from the "Dyspraxia" caused by the Wizard spell Clown's Revenge.
- ts->zes
- st->ss
- ch->sh
- tion->sion
- vowel-t at end of word->vowel-tte
- vowels at the beginning of a word->h-vowel
- f at beginning or end of word->ef
- ay->ey
- ade->ed
- ave->ev
- ea->eea
- d, t, f & th at end of word->sometimes contracted to '
- i->ah when alone or an e comes two letters later
- it at the start of a sentence->'t
- ou/ow->ah
- oar->ooar
- oa->oi
- oot & ool->ooit & ooil
- ole->oil
- ough->ow
In short, you might not think it's English, but it is. You can fault the Space Danes and their Space Viking raids of the past for this one.
In terms of individual letters, there's the expected "v" for "w" (unless the "w" is on the end of a word), but "th" doesn't always become "z". Besides this, there are other transforms:
- ch->sh
- e->eh (at the end of a word)
- eu->oi
- j->y
- r->rr (you roll your r's, if it's not a double r)
- z->ts
- qu->kv
- s->z (if followed by vowel)
- th->50% chance of "d", 50% chance of "z".
- ue->ee
- v->f
As an example, "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" becomes "zeh kvick brrovn fox yumps oferr zeh latsy hound" (or "deh kvick brrovn fox yumps oferr deh latsy hound").
Additionally, it's much harder for you to become addicted to alcohol; you'll need to consume at least 200 units for addiction to become possible instead of the usual 50. Even then, the chance that you do become addicted is cut by three quarters, from 1% per life cycle to only 0.25%.
At the start of the round, the Detective, Head of Security, and Bartender get the Professional Drinker trait, which gives them this mutation.
The Discount Superhero Spooktober job has a chance to spawn with a nonlethal version that drains 80 Stamina, on par with a taser. Unlike the laser version, you can fire them without your headgear getting in the way.
- Two thoughts ("thinking about..."). One is a randomly-selected line of no significance, and the other is the text they have typed into their talk/radio menu (if they're using hotkeys to talk) or the text following
say "(if they're using the command bar to talk). - Condition: Rough description of their current health.
- Mood: Clues about their current intent, as in Disarm, Grab, etc., not necessarily the player's actual intent.
- Numbers: Their PIN number.
Note: This power used to trigger the unsynchronized effect if you were anywhere on the Restricted area, but now it simply states that "you cannot seem to turn incorporeal here.")
More specifically, the color you set for Bottom Detail becomes color for Top Detail, Middle Detail Bottom Detail, and Top Detail Middle Detail. For example, if you had grey Einstein hair for Bottom Detail, white Twirly mustache for Middle Detail, and black Eyebrows for Top Detail, you'd then have white Einstein hair, a black Twirly mustache, and grey Eyebrows.
Body Type Mutations cosmetic Mutations that change your Body, Appearance or even Race. You can only have one active at a time. You can activate these through the Body menu or just like any other Mutation.
You have a tail like a T-rex too, and if it dies or goes missing, you become clumsy until you get a new tail. Luckily, you can regrow your tail via, naturally, the Regrow Tail ability, if you've eaten enough of certain organs to afford it. If you already had a tail, Regrow Tail makes you snap if off and regrow a new one. The ability has a five minute cooldown, i.e. once you use it, you need to wait 5 mins to do it again.
In addition, your thermoregulation is significantly slower, at 20% the rate of normal humans (0.025 Kelvin for humans vs 0.005 for lizards). This doesn't mean fire or whatever heats/cools you less; rather it means that your body readjusts its internal temperature in response to those stimuli at a slower pace. You might shiver at room temperature, but wearing a winter jacket (or anything with 45% Cold Resistance) will stop that.
The colors for scales, tail, a belly spot, and/or head crest are inherited from your hair colors, and are typically somewhat less saturated. Top detail color influences scales and tail color, the middle detail the belly spot and tail underside, and the top detail the crest. These colors can be changed through genetics, and the belly/head spots can be changed via hair dye. You also extend every 's' into a hiss, like a snake. You are also able to change your colors through two abilities fueled by eating the organs of humans and monkeys.
Note: Don't steal peoples' organs unless you're an antagonist, they're okay with it, or they're dead. Crimes in the name of fashion are still crimes!
Also, you love brain food, literally. You can gradually repair brain damage by eating brainburgers (and their variants) and "fleshy" brains (e.g. one from a human or a synthbrain plant, but not a flock brain or neural net processor), since eating them gives you a unique Brain Food buff, though this is rather situational. Also, you don't have to worry about space kuru, because if you get infected, the disease immediately becomes asymptomatic.
While you might be a brain-eating purple humanoid with a faceful of tentacles, you still need to observe some common courtesies. You should avoid brains that will be used for making cyborgs, and you definitely shouldn't go around murdering people to eat their brains, unless you're an antagonist.
The catch is that sources of blunt and crushing damage (e.g. a fire extinguisher or a door closing on you but not a welder or kitchen knife) do 1.5 times more damage, making you considerably more vulnerable to blunt-force trauma.
The color of your exoskeleton is based roughly on the skin tone you chose for your profile in your character setup, with a fair amount of saturation. Similarly, the color of your scelera matches what you set for eye color on your profile.
Speaking of color, your blood is a bright blue-green, because it's actually hemolymph. Blood-related chems like filmgrastim work as normal, and Vampires and other bloodsuckers can still gain nourishment from you.
As a cow, your blood is milk; all the other blood-related chemicals still function as normal, and drinking milk does restore blood. Speaking of blood, you start with hemophilia, so you tend to bleed more often when it's possible. You can also *milk (no hotkey, so you must do say "*milk or similar, like other emotes) to produce milk into a container you're holding or onto the floor, if you aren't holding one. Yes, this means you're actually pouring out your blood, so milking too much can kill you, and the game won't try to stop you until you have absolutely no blood/milk left.
Because of your sturdy hooves, you cannot be tripped by glass shards, even plasmaglass ones. Said hooves also make you do an extra 4 damage when kicking. However, they can't fit shoes, so be extra careful when playing Janitor or Clown. You can set the color of the bottom of your hooves using the second hair color option in the character setup menu. You also have a tail, and if you lose that, you lose your balance too until it's restored.
The real benefits come from pugs' natural detective abilities. You are able to sniff out a very large amount of information from people, using the *sleuth emote.
1. Using *sleuth on a mob will tell the pug what color the mob smells like.
2. Using *sleuth on an object will tell the pug the color of one of the people that interacted with it and a general idea of how long ago.
3. Using *sleuth over and over on the same object will uncover all the colors of the people that interacted with it
However, you cannot use this ability if you are poisoned by chocolate! Dying pugs can't be playing detective, but if they are in need of assistance, they can eat the bone that they start with, which is filled with buffs.
Booster Genes are a group of mysterious Mutations that, on their own, do absolutely nothing. However, they interact with other Mutations in various and interesting ways.
This is a rare mutation which cannot be researched or activated using a DNA Activator, it can also only be Sequenced which means the occupant must be in the GeneTek scanner. When activated and stored in Mutation Storage, it serves as a wildcard for combining Stored Mutations, so you can very easily get some fascinating and rare Mutations this way. When activated it unlocks powerful Research.
Chromosomes are Mutation modifiers. They can be be spliced with Mutations. Each mutation can only be spliced once. Each time you activate a Mutation you gain 2-5 random Chromosomes. Each GeneTek console has its own Chromosome storage.
To splice a Chromosome with a Mutation, click the Storage tab, scroll down to Stored Chromosomes, pick a Chromosome and click Splice. Find an active or stored Mutation which you want to splice, and click the Splice button next to it.
You can buy extra features and upgrades through Available Research. Research is shared between all GeneTek consoles.
In return for slowing down the cloning process with Advanced Genetic Analysis enabled on the cloner all Research cooldowns are reduced by 5%. Up to two active cloners will reduce the cooldown.
Here is the Genetics Research tree, with arrows indicating requirements, in case you want to focus on, say, Precision Radiation Emmiters.
Once you have researched Mutation Storage, active Mutations can be stored and combined to yield new and more useful Mutations. Some of these are only available via combination, whereas others may appear (rarely) as Potential Mutations. There isn't any penalty to getting an invalid combo, so feel free to experiment and see what results you get! Mutation combinations are not considered secret content, so if you discover one, you aren't required to ask for permission, preface it as spoilers, or otherwise take extra precautions to share it.
If you want to skip the discovery part and go straight to learning the combos, you check out this unofficial guide.
Alongside Potential, these menus appear when you have someone in the scanner. Compared to Research and Potential, there's not much to say about these. They still have a purpose, mind you, but they do far less than the other ones. and are way less important.
This shows mutations which are active. If you have the Mutation Storage or Gene Booth upgrade, this is where you go to store or sell them. While you have the same 'Potential after getting cloned, you lose any active mutations after getting cloned, so people coming out of the cloner usually have this empty, unless the cloner had Advanced Genetic Analysis enabled.
This lets you change the occupant into a variety of lovely forms depending on what mutations you've researched, such as a lizardman or a giant co*ckroach. By default, Human and Primal Genetics (monkey) are available.
This one opens up a menu just like the one in the Character Selection screen, where you can change the hair style (s), hair color, skin tone, eye color, and various other cosmetic things about the occupant. If you want to give people obnoxious Sailor Moon hair or colorful Rainbow Afros, this is the place (and the only place at that, as this is pretty much the only way to get those unique hair styles). Only appears if whoever's in the scanner is a race that can accept these appearance options, namely humans.
