This challenge is the dumbest thing ever. It was genuinely designed unintelligently.

I tried for over 10 hours to roll good evolutions on a simple or minimalist gene and nothing works.
I either get screwed by level eaters like Antler, Stomach, Saliva, or I get all the attacks without the stats (and vice versa).

In my best run I got instantly cornered by the charmed animals and died without being able to dash out…

It sucks so hard that I can’t see all the evolutions because they are locked behind this RNG bullshit…

Edit:spelling & cleanup

The games an absolute treat, nicely job! I would love to be able to hold the attack buttons so you can attack the second cooldown is done. Was it intentional to not have this as an option? Cheers crabbers!

Some people were asking about bonuses charmed animals give so here they are.

Take note, that they give the same bonuses despite their evolution step.

Alphas bonuses are doubled so make sure you get them for more powerhousing.

I skipped bosses because how rare it is to get them (and not sure they give any at all) and clawdia brood since it gives no bonuses at all.

Blobfish- -1 mutagen upgrade cost

Beeware- +10% ability

Snowhare- +5% speed and dodge

Turtoid- +5 plating

Hatbirb- +2 social

Pantther- +10% physical

Spineapple- +8% dmg

PilFeeret- +10% food progress

Sandshark- +25% heat resistance

Spitfish- +8% dmg

Spiderfrog- -0,2% stun duration

Crabbybara- +25% cold resistance

Has anyone checked if damage resistance reduces the counterattack damage done by spines?

Just stumbled upon this surprising combo in the "Unintelligent Design" challenge.

Long beak lets you close up unoccupied burrows for food. Burrowing lets you create unoccupied burrows. And bafflingly, Turtle Down resets the cooldown for Burrowing -- letting you create a new burrow every 3 seconds! Burrow after burrow after burrow.

With these three abilities you can litter the world with closed-up burrows and generate tons of food! It seems like a bug where maybe Turtle Down isn't supposed to reset your Ultimate's cooldown -- but whatever it is, it's very powerful.

Edit: After about 2 minutes, the combo stopped working and Turtle Down reset Burrowing's cooldown to 0%... And after another 2 mintes, the combo started half-working and Turtle Down reset Burrowing's cooldown to 60%. So... not very reliable, but pretty OP when it works

Workshop, nexus, thunderstore, anything ?

This looks like the perfect game for modding am i blind or are there actually no mods for this ?

Is mod support planned ?

https://preview.redd.it/7bcd5aa5mm1h1.png?width=938&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff106cf75ae9aec9d93a37caf0d98f678db3789a

- BEFORE YOU GO INTO THIS POST -

You can ask me anything you have troubles with.

Reddit is not my thing, so it might take a min for me to notice questions, but I promise ill try to answer you back asap. 😄

Also a Disclaimer - Information could be outdated or partially wrong due to updates or mistakes, just try to do your best with this info and adjust or share things or updates if you can. This is meant for people struggling not to look for perfectionism, yet you are very welcome to include help new information or helping to point out mistakes but include sources of information where you can find this if possible.

Rumors are welcome too !

Last but not least, if you are reading stuff at reddit you know there will be spoilers, if you don't like them this is your chance to stop.

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- BEGGINING OF THE GAME -

* Reset your starting game until you get grass biome and Bull as your first boss, you can see this on your time bar, the icons tell you what boss you are facing next.

This is the icon for the Bull boss fight

Also make sure you get stubborn Gene starting genetic if its available.

If those are not available - either choose patient or picky. Your job is to maximize prey by either rerolling or skipping.

* After this Just focus on maxing this Evolutions in this order.

- FOCUS LIST -

https://preview.redd.it/4wp1gx2bcn1h1.png?width=580&format=png&auto=webp&s=13d4972743a647b63f3acfb44427d450d08dc614

This is the priority order of importance for your evolutions.

• Speed > Dodge(75%) > Terrain adaptation (Slithery or Wings if you are fighting the sea snake) Lower Size > Damage reduction > Plating > Health > Health regen > Poison Resistance

I cannot even suggest how important is learning to dodge AND the dodge stat itself. All attacks in the game can be dodged if you know how to do it AND if you have the speed necessary or size. Most of the attacks can be dodged with your dash ability yet you have to use it wisely if you plan to dodge this way.

Learn the attack patterns almost all of them can be avoided with practice. You will have to master this for the last challenge map.

- THE MOST IMPORTANT TIPS !!! -

Arguably the most powerful tip I can give you about dealing damage is DODGE FIRST then hit your enemy. If you try to preemptively land a hit on your opponent before dodging you will loose life sooner or later.

You need to learn this for the final challenge.

1. DODGE ! > then... ATTACK.

Almost every enemy of the game can be dodged by circling it around.

• Depending on your speed, size and dodge pattern avoidance doing a circle around them is one of the best tactics.
• The second tactic is run away from them and if the attack is imminent since they are faster than you turn around and aim to dodge past them on one side. This is particularly useful for predator monsters.

Also understand that your attacks count towards the hit box that is why things like horns get you in trouble a lot if you try to attack preemptively and you ram the enemy attack area of effect.

• * Try to get Burrower or Courting for survivability remember you can switch them between levels
• *Avoid any Carcinisation since you increase your damage taken per hit and make bosses tougher to survive.

- UNDERSTAND RARITY -

Desperate to find that key evolution you need to survive ?

This is what you need to learn.

The key to find the upgrades you need is understanding how evolution rarity works.

If you are looking for that key evolution you need to learn if it can only roll on rare rarity or higher rarity if they do... you need to try to find them on levels 5,10,15 etc.

As you can see the game NEVER rolls common rarity evolutions at level multiples of 5.

This is a good chance to grab a cool evolution or to find a common evolution that rolls at a higher rarity ( I am not 100% sure about this )

Understanding how RARITY rolls is PRIMORDIAL. Evolutions can only roll if a certain rarity is achieved that is why the patient evolution can be very powerful if you know how to use it.

- GAME FLOW -

After the game starts, focus on killing without getting damage, eat what you can but always leave 1 small piece of vegetation around. This attract fish, bunnies, birds and weasels to kill more. Depending what your social and size is you will either attract more or less attention from predator monsters.

Always prioritize to kill prey that eats your vegetables before you eat your veggies. You can always come back and eats those tasty fruits.

All food can be munch 4 times, make sure you leave 1 small piece behind to attract more potential food.

Once you get your first level up choose prey. Making sure you opt for the order of importance mentioned before.

- EVOLUTIONS -

- You MUST HAVE 10 evolution points to roll for Ruminant after the boss fight. This is a core component of the build.

If you don't see it on the list, reroll 2 times on your first level only subsequent levels you will be able to roll 1 time specially if you have the stubborn Gene . Its important you try to minimize the % of other evolutions to be rolled.

If you have to choose between 2 options that increase prey always choose speed and dodge first. If none of those are available then choose the option that only raises prey only. If you start raising other tech trees you will roll more evolutions of that nature.

I didn't like my fist roll so I decided to risk it for the second. Jackpot ! Epic Burrower at level 1. Its Epic rarity but also its burrower only AND ! a survival skill.

Stubborn genetic can give extra mutagen points.

They come in 4 types.

• Green Mutagen Icon +1 mutagen
• Blue Mutagen Icon +2 mutagen
• Purple Mutagen Icon +5 mutagen ? ( I forgot )
• And Legendary Yellow Mutagen Icon +10 mutagen

Always try to choose new prey evolutions to have them at least on level 1, the game seems to be benevolent to always give you a choice from evolutions you already have available.

This also synergizes with the Stubborn evolution to help you get 10 evolution points before you defeat the first boss. ( you need this to roll for Ruminant )

Mushrooms - Mushrooms are a HUGE amount of early game XP

- TIP - Don't be afraid of poison mushrooms, just keep 2 things in mind.

https://preview.redd.it/jar5iz8ofn1h1.png?width=835&format=png&auto=webp&s=7720eb4bb189ea7be0dd869fdab6e1feb4965e70

Do you have healing food nearby ? then eat the mushroom see if its poison then eat the healing food. OR EVEN BETTER ! is there a burrow nearby... then eat the mushroom see if its poison and if it is then use the burrow to nullify the poison damage ticks.

Poison resistance is your best friend against those SPICY POISON mushrooms. ;D

Learn what the mushrooms names mean, since some of those upgrades are the only way you can increase those stats in the game.

Points of Interest

https://preview.redd.it/wqqx4ke7wm1h1.png?width=1532&format=png&auto=webp&s=88eef670a048c080b03d4a9bed52ac6f0729adad

- FIRST BOSS -

Once you face the first Bull boss it will arrive with a calf or not. The first bull boss is the only one 100% avoidable.

The pattern is simple 3 different attacks.

* Stomp - can be avoided by just running away in a straight line.

* Horns - can be also avoided by either running away in a straight line ( specially if you are small ) or if you have not reduced your size and you have troubles to aim for the center of the horns, keep running forward until last second then turn left or right to avoid the horns easier.

* Charge - is the easiest to avoid specially if you have a bit of speed or your dash is available.

- TIPS -

If you choose to fight ( you should probably not ) remember if you manage to lure them to ram against environmental objects like trees and stones ( not the boss cage ) they will get get a bit of damage from doing this ( you can unlock an achievement this way ), but also they will get stunned a bit longer allowing you to land 1 hit safely or even 2 hits.

- AFTER BOSS

Pick up your BOSS fruit if there is a burrow available, your job is to get that fruit and roll for Ruminant then get in the hole so the bosses can start killing stuff for you.

Avoid being too close to the boss always keep a burrow in your mind to escape in case the boss focuses on you.

Once you have Ruminant your job is just to max the focus list.

Make sure you are close to the boss so you can face the 2nd boss while trapping the first boss on the boss fight cage. At this time hopefully you either have burrow or Courting or some kind of charmed minions to help pin the bosses to fight against each other.

- Pretty much after this point the game is winnable.

Focus on your speed and dodge maxed then the rest of the list. Make sure to switch between burrow and courting depending if you have a burrow available or there is a potential minion to charm, remember you can use Q to focus your minion to attack the boss or any other target you want.

Every time you level up you can click on your Q ability, then select from the panel what you want to switch.

- FINAL BOSS -

By this time you had so many levels that you picked everything that made you stronger to survive. Focus on making burrows all over the place before the final boss fight and maximize ways to charm minions in all ways possible. Charming by getting hit is very useful as well as tail wag.

Once you start leveling up on the final boss fight maximize your resistance to the meteors only skipping this to upgrade a REALLY important skill that becomes available on the list.

The same evolution that gives you resistance to the meteors also increases your prey ( = more leveling )

This levels start getting diminishing returns once you start getting only 2% increase per level prioritize other evolutions that could be more important.

All you have to do is run in circles and if you see your health drops below 50% hide in a burrow, spot healing food around you and go straight to it when you have the chance. Most likely by this time you have cheeks to and enough points of eating speed to gobble that fast.

Also consider trunk to have some free food range pick up.

- AND GG -

https://preview.redd.it/9gpdj88p5n1h1.png?width=2359&format=png&auto=webp&s=756211b607ad4a59a0e92902de17bfcd29d28075

This is how I finished Pressure 20 including the real tough challenge of no heal.

( that one is a bit more complicated with the priority list but it follows the same pattern )

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Its 2:18 AM forgive me if I have grammar mistakes or I omitted things that needed to be known. Feel free to ask me anything you struggle with.

I tried to put this together because I see a lot of people are struggling to beat the game and even Youtubers are WAY behind at beating the game.

Example: Stinger poison + Spikes Poison

I'm currently only on difficulty 5, so not particularly far. I really enjoyed my first few runs, but the last couple I've started to get kind of bored. The decisions don't really feel particularly interesting. Focus on physical or ability. Pick a couple of random aligned attacks. Take some health/regen and then hit things. All the melee attacks feel pretty similar, except perhaps trunk. I've done a ranged spit build once, but I find myself pretty much always wanting arms since playing with feeding range just feels infinitely better than playing without, so I usually wind up in melee.

I was hoping after my first few runs that the meta progression would open up and I'd start being able to shoot more projectiles, modify my melee attacks in interesting ways etc, but I'm starting to think this might be it.

Do the future unlocks add more options that actually feel distinct?

What evolutions are needed, pretty self-explanatory question

Is pollinator working for the bonuses? I can kinda tell the vegitation part, but I can't tell what 'bonus' I'm getting after X POI's.

I didn't get the achievement for 75% dodge and 40% size. Do the achivements not count on the challenges?