Nicheling

In the game of Niche, the player controls a tribe of animals called **nichelings**. In early versions of the game, they were simply called **creatures**. Nichelings have been described as having a canine-like or feline-like appearance (sometimes referred to as a "foxcat"), and have varying features and abilities depending on their genes. Clicking on a nicheling will select it and bring up its circular menu/GUI in the bottom left of the screen. Along with the creature's likeness, it will display the nicheling's name, lifespan and damage bar, gem colors, remaining actions, gender, and ranking. The four icons to the right can be clicked to display further information. The paw icon shows the nicheling's abilities, the DNA helix icon displays their gene bar, the mutation icon opens the mutation menu, and the icon with three nichelings opens the family tree.

## Action Points

Nichelings have three colored gems on their chests that represent the three action points they have for the day. At the beginning of each day, all the gems on the creatures become "lit" and brightly colored, indicating they have full actions. Anything a creature does darkens out one gem (moving, attacking, gathering, etc.). Once a nicheling uses up its three action points, it closes its eyes and looks downward, sleeping until the player progresses to the next day.

A baby nicheling starts without any action points. As a child, they gain one, as a teen they have two, and gain all three when they become an adult.

### Color Code

The gems on nichelings are green by default, but can have any color combination of green, orange, light blue, pink, and yellow. To change the colors of individual gems, simply click on the colored dots in the lower left UI or in the family tree when the nicheling is selected to cycle through the colors. Color coding can be used however the player wants, and is often used to organize creatures into groups or mating pairs.

It is possible to add custom gem colors to the game, as well as change the default gem color. On Windows, open the following file to access a document where you can copy/paste in new gem colors with hex code: [C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Team Niche\Niche - a genetics survival game\ActionPointColors.ini]. On Mac, navigate to the file through this route: [Library > Application Support > com.strayfawnstudio.niche > ActionPointColors.ini] and open the file using TextEdit to edit the hex codes.

### Custom Names

Like custom gem colors, it is possible to also change the default names and syllables used in each nicheling. To access this file, you will need to go to [C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Team Niche\Niche - a genetics survival game\AnimalNames.ini] on Windows, and [Library > Application Support > com.strayfawnstudio.niche > AnimalNames.ini] on Mac. Players are able to make edits to the syllables and names by replacing the values underneath [MaleSyllables], [FemaleSyllables], [MaleNames], and [FemaleNames] with those they prefer.

## Age

    Upon being born, nichelings progress through four life stages: infant, child, teen, and adult. Although there is no elder stage, adults will eventually die of old age. The full lifespan of a nicheling is 24 days (dying when they turn 25), though the actual lifespan of a creature is determined by how full their life bar is. The white area marks the creature's age and the red is the damage they have taken. A nicheling's lifespan can be reduced by injury and disease. Fortunately, it is possible to heal damage by consuming certain plants or by using the Purr ability. Hovering the mouse over the lifespan bar shows the nicheling's age, life stage, the number of days until death, age, and the amount of days taken away by damage.

 Child
 Teen
 Adult

\*In Sandbox Mode, the player can alter the duration per age level, increasing them up to 100 days for each level.

**Note**: Even though the duration given to the "baby" lifestage is stated as 2 days, nichelings are only babies for exactly 1 day (the day they are born). The true number of days a nicheling will stay at the baby lifestage is equal to 1 less than the stated duration. For example, in a sandbox game, if you set the baby duration to be 4 days, and the child duration for 3 days, then newborn nichelings will be babies for exactly 3 days (age 1-3), and spend 3 days as children (age 4-6) before becoming teens at 7 days old.

### Baby

Baby nichelings do not possess the abilities given by their genes, with the exceptions of Sight and Hearing. They will always have 1 Speed and 1 Swimming when they are first born. If a baby is takes damage, it will instantly be killed. If you do not set any Alpha/Omega rankings, the youngest babies will suffer from hunger by default if you do not have enough food, though it will not kill them instantly. Because babies do not have any action points, they are unable to perform any actions, including movement. Babies without Toxic Body are vulnerable to Bluebirds attacks if they are not adjacent to a teen or adult. Babies cannot be banished.

### Child

Nichelings at the child level have one action point, but cannot yet use their abilities, only able to move a single tile. They are still vulnerable to predators, able to be killed instantly if damage is taken. The only action that a child can perform is give a Peaceful Bear nesting material to make them replete. Children without Toxic Body are vulnerable to Bluebirds attacks if they are not adjacent to a teen or adult. Children cannot be banished.

### Teen

Nichelings at the teen stage have two action points and are now able to use their abilities and have a full range of movement. They are also now capable of protecting babies and children from Bluebirds as long as they occupy an adjacent tile. They are notably shorter than adults, thus making them more susceptible to drowning. Unlike the earlier life-stages, Omega teens are now able to be banished by an Alpha adult.

### Adult

Adult nichelings gain their third and final action point while also gaining the ability to breed. If promoted to the rank of Alpha, adult nichelings are able to banish Omega teen/adult nichelings from their tribe. There is no stage beyond adult.

## Ranks

Nicheling's can be assigned a rank of either Alpha (α), Beta (β), or Omega (Ω), with Beta being the default. A nicheling's ranking can be changed by clicking on the ranking symbol in the GUI or the Family Tree. These ranks determine the order in which your Nicheling's eat (Alpha has the highest priority, Omega has lowest). This can be useful if you are short on food, allowing the most important Nicheling to eat first.

Alpha Nicheling's can also be used to "banish" Omegas from your tribe. The banished nicheling will roam around the world, free of your control, and will behave the same as Wandering Nichelings. They will steal food and can be attacked by predators and the player's nichelings. You may re-invite them back into your group for a fee of 5 food.

## Breeding

*Main article: Breeding*
Male and Female nichelings are able to breed with each other when standing next together. Breeding is a necessary to sustain the tribe's population, as giving birth and inviting wanderers are the only two ways of increasing the tribe's population. Each parent will randomly pass a copy of their genes to their offspring, with the more dominant genes taking precedent over recessive genes.

## Family Tree

All living creatures and their known parents can be viewed in a family tree. Each icon is color-coded: purple for female, yellow for male, and black for a deceased parent (unless the father was a friendly Bearyena). When a nicheling dies, it will only continue to be displayed on the family tree if it has living relatives.

The levels are based on generations: every time a creature is born, it is placed one generation below the lowest-generation parent and is connected to its mother and father with pink and blue lines respectively. (When not highlighted, the lines are greyed out.) Clicking on the icon of a creature in the tree will display a rotatable model of them, their genes, and their stats.

### Gene and Attribute selecting

In the family tree menu at the bottom, there are 2 circles, one for attributes and another for genes. When selecting one of these circles, a menu will appear displaying all discovered genes or attributes. Once a gene or attribute is selected, the family tree will be filtered - any creatures with the selected gene or attribute will be light blue, and carriers of the selected gene will be dark blue. Nichelings without the trait will display with white icons. This feature is especially good for filtering immunities.

## Adam and Eve

At the beginning of Story Mode, players will start with Adam, who has fixed genetics. The next creature they will meet will be a female creature called Eve. Eve used to have fixed genetics like Adam, but in current versions of the game she has completely random genetics. If players start on Sandbox Mode, their two starting creatures will have completely random names and genes, with the exception of immunity genes. However, they can be customized before game start if the player chooses.

## Wandering Nichelings

*Main article: Wandering Nicheling*
You may find other Nichelings wandering around the island, called Wandering Nichelings. You can invite these Nichelings into your tribe for 5 food, allowing you to control them as your own. If left alone, they will take food from plants and meat piles. If they are too close to a predator, they can be harmed. They be bred to your nichelings without being invited to the tribe, and cannot harm your creatures. Wandering Nichelings have normally generated names and will appear yellow in the scent and hearing maps. Nichelings in your tribe will become Wandering Nichelings if you banish them.

## Rogue Males

*Main article: Rogue Male*
Rogue Males (previously Horny Males in version 0.2.9 and before) are NPC nichelings that roam around the medium and hard islands and spawn in grass or darkness. Unlike wandering nichelings, Rogue Males do not have a normally generated name and instead will appear with only the text "Rogue Male" above their heads. They appear red when the scent or hearing modes are selected, similar to aggressive entities.

Rogue Males will move toward all females (regardless of age). They will attempt to impregnant adult, non-pregnant, non-spiky and fertile females in your tribe. They move anytime you complete an action and do not abide by the "three-move rule" of gems. You cannot invite them into your tribe. Some of their genes are randomized, but they all have the following genes in common:

 Paws
 Pattern
 Legs

## Trivia

* It is nearly-impossible to look at the backside of creature unless they are Rogue Males or Wandering Nichelings. However, using the family tree menu, the forms of the creatures can be rotated.
	+ Zooming out extremely far and moving your mouse above your nichelings can cause them to rotate so that you can see their rear. This may also depend on the resolution of your monitor.
* Creature models have changed dramatically from early stages of the game, featuring different shaped heads and ears.
* On rare occasions, when a Bluebird is about to attack a baby creature and the baby grows up the next day, the bluebird will swoop down to kill it, leaving the juvenile creature with full damage and only one bit of lifespan left.
* No matter how old an adult creature is, it can still mate.
* Although the player can change their creatures' names from version 2.0.0 onward, the game assigns names to baby nichelings when they are born. These names are a mixture of two to three fixed syllables (with the exception of Adam and Eve).
	+ For males, the syllables are: don, duk, kir, ku, lur, no, nu, pri, ro, ta, and van (e.g. Dukvankir)
	+ For females, the syllables are: ana, el, is, ko, la, len, me, mi, ra, re, si, and ta (e.g. Anarara)

## Gallery

A tribe of blue eyed Pandas in an early build.A very vampire-like creature with yellow eyes, dark brown fur and fangs.An albino creature (0.3.0 )KirroKunu and His FamilyBearyena hybrids on the whale islandWay too many Nichelings