Mutations

## Menu

The Mutation menu allows an animal to mutate any of their 42 genes. To do so, the player must click the second helix icon in an animal's summary. This will open up a GUI with two empty slots, and clicking on one of them will open up a menu of selectable mutations. As indicated, mutations have a 50% chance of actually being applied on confirmation.

Mutations can be used to add new genes, but it can also be used to override unwanted genes or increase the chance that an existing gene appears, as the chance of inheriting a gene stacks with the chance of getting a mutation.

There are a total of 107 mutations. Only 59 out of 107 mutations are initially available by default and at the beginning of story mode.

### Mutations

When certain genes are placed into the mutation slots, the box will turn green, indicating that, with each new child, there is a chance that a new gene will be unlocked in the menu. If a gene is successfully mutated, a yellow circle will show around the gene, and it will be dominant and recessive. However, incompletely dominant genes, like fur color, and co-dominant genes, like paw genes, have a chance of mutating on one or both slots.

## Unlockable Genes

There are various ways to unlock new genes. Some examples include: mutating them, exploring new tiles or completing a specific action.

## Tips

* Genes require multiple actions to complete can be done by repeated failed actions. For example, failing to crack a nut will still count toward the requirements for Cracker Jaw.
	+ Failed actions include attacks toward targets by nichelings with not enough strength (E.g attacking a peaceful bear with less than 5 strength counts)
* Bearyena-specific genes can be unlocked by taming a friendly Bearyena and breeding with it (and its decendants) until the genes are activated in its offspring.
* For mutations that require unlock conditions via hopping islands, multiple islands may have to be visited to actually unlock them.
* "Invite animals with this gene to your tribe" means that there should be at least one Nicheling in your tribe that has this gene as dominant. When it comes to recessive genes it could take 2-3 generations of breeding to properly manifest.
* Spend time in hot climates includes the islands: Burning Savanna, Oasis islands, Deep Jungle and Jungle Gate. The temperature fluctuates on these islands, and only when it is hottest, does it count toward spending time in a hot island.
	+ Despite Burning Savanna having changing temperatures, every day spent in a Burning Savanna will count toward spending time in a hot climate.
* Spending time in cold climates includes the islands: First Snow, Summer Mountain, Long Winter, and Frost Lands. When the screen tints blue and snow begins falls on these islands is when it will count toward spending time in a cold climate.
	+ The Summer Mountain island does not have snow, and as a result, every day spent on this island counts toward spending time in the cold.
* When attempting to unlock the Toxic Body mutation, it is prudent to pick from Toxic berry bushes using only tribe animals with poison immunity; as doing otherwise will harm animals and shorten their lifespan greatly.
* Saber Tooth Fangs, Digging Trunk, Armored Body, Mammoth Foot, Megaloceros Horn, and Hammer Tail can be unlocked by inviting ancient animals into your tribe, which can be found from Ice Blocks in Mountain biomes. Wings can also be found this way.
* Both the Wing and Bat Wing genes are very common to find on Wandering Nichelings on the whale island.
* Swoop attacks by flying nichelings don’t count toward the number of flying for Bird Beak. Swoop attacks also don’t count for traditional melee attacks that are required for Ram and genes requiring attacks to be performed.
	+ Likewise, swoop attacks onto fish by flying nichlings don’t count as fishing attempts