Genetics

Genetics: battle, evolve, win

Genetics is a tactical creature-breeding RPG where you manage your own barn, incubate unique elemental eggs, and raise powerful creatures with modular traits. Every creature inherits stats, visual features, and abilities from their parents, allowing you to discover endless genetic combinations.

Genetics — Update 0.2 Patch Notes

The Incubator & Combat Update

Welcome to the second update of Genetics! This one is big — a full incubator system, a completely reworked battle HUD, and an entire abilities system with over 30 unique skills. Here's everything that's new.

New Incubator System

Eggs are no longer imaginary! The incubator is now a real place you can visit and manage.

• Visual incubator — a dedicated screen with 4 slots, accessed from a sign in the Barn.
• Egg picking — when a creature lays eggs, they go into a waiting list. You choose which eggs to place into incubator slots, so a single creature laying multiple eggs no longer floods all your slots automatically.
• Manual hatching — eggs no longer hatch on their own. After 3 days, a Hatch button appears and you decide when to open it. That moment of anticipation is now yours.
• Egg visuals — each egg shows a shape and color based on the creature growing inside. The markings are tinted by the creature's elemental type, and each egg's shape is fixed from birth.
• Parent preview — when picking an egg, you can see the faces and names of both parents, plus the creature's elemental type, before deciding to incubate it.
• Breeding cooldown rework — a mother now enters a 3-day cooldown after laying eggs, regardless of whether those eggs have hatched. No more infinite egg production in a single day.

Reworked Battle HUD

The old plain buttons are gone. Battle now has a proper two-level action menu.

• Six main actions — Attack, Hability, Item, Capture, Switch, and Flee, each with its own custom icon.
• Fan-out sub-menu — clicking Attack or Hability opens a second panel that animates open, showing the specific skills available to that creature.
• Attack vs. Hability split — damaging skills appear under Attack; utility skills (buffs, debuffs, heals) appear under Hability. Skills are sorted automatically based on whether they deal damage.
• Switch preview — the Switch menu shows each creature's face and name so you know exactly who you're bringing in.
• Tooltips — hovering any skill shows its full description, so you're never guessing what a move does.

New Abilities System

The heart of this update. Creatures now have access to skills based on their elemental type, their traits, and their level. Every skill follows a consistent design rule: the more damage it deals, the weaker or rarer its secondary effect — and vice versa.

Cooldowns

Skills now have cooldowns. A skill on cooldown stays visible in the menu, greyed out with a counter showing how many turns until it's ready again. You can always see your full kit, even what isn't available yet.

Status Effects — Reworked

Several status effects were rebalanced so they stay useful at high levels:

• Burn / Acid — now scale with the attacker's Strength minus the target's Defense, so they never become useless against tough enemies. Acid lasts longer than Burn.
• Venom — drains 5% of the target's max HP per turn. Brutal against high-HP creatures.
• Bleeding — now deals damage AND applies a short Slow, making it useful instead of negligible.
• Slow — reduces the target's ATB fill speed (rebalanced to be strong but not overwhelming).
• Stun — completely freezes the target's ATB. Fixed a bug where fast attackers could waste a stun before it ever took effect; a stun now reliably lasts a full opposing turn.
• Any connected hit now deals at least 1 damage — no more zero-damage attacks.

Full Ability List

Fire

• Fireball — Normal damage. 50% chance of Burn for 2 turns. (Cooldown 2)
• Flamethrower — Light damage. 80% chance of Burn for 4 turns. (Cooldown 3)
• Flame Armor — Increases own Strength by 20% for 3 turns. (Cooldown 4)

Wind

• Tailwind — Increases own Speed by 35% for 2 turns. (Cooldown 4)
• Frost Bite — Normal damage. 50% chance of Slow for 2 turns. (Cooldown 2)
• Tornado — Light damage. 80% chance of Slow for 2 turns. (Cooldown 2)
• Ice Spike — Heavy damage. 20% chance of Slow for 2 turns. (Cooldown 2)

Rock

• Rock Smash — Devastating damage, no secondary effect. (Cooldown 3)
• Stone Barrage — Three projectiles at 0.4x damage each (1.2x total). (Cooldown 3)
• Iron Skin — Increases own Defense by 30% for 3 turns. (Cooldown 4)

Grass

• Entangle — Light damage. 80% chance of Slow for 2 turns. (Cooldown 2)
• Life Drain — Normal damage. Heals the user for 60% of damage dealt. (Cooldown 3)
• Regenerate — Restores 25% of own max HP. (Cooldown 3)
• Venom Cloud — Applies Venom for 8 turns (5% max HP/turn). (Cooldown 3)

Trait Abilities

• Savage Slash (Claws Lv.1) — Normal damage. 50% Bleeding + Slow for 3 turn. (Cooldown 2)
• Multi-Strike (Claws Lv.2+) — Three rapid strikes at 0.4x each (1.2x total). (Cooldown 2)
• Gore Charge (Horns) — Heavy damage. 20% chance of Stun. (Cooldown 3)
• Spike Volley (Spikes) — Light damage. 80% chance of Bleeding for 3 turns. (Cooldown 2)
• Dragon Sweep (Dragon Tail) — Normal+ damage. 50% chance of Slow for 2 turns. (Cooldown 2)
• Acid Spit (Acid Blood) — Light damage. Applies Acid for 4 turns (scales with stats). (Cooldown 3)
• Intimidating Roar (Cat Ears) — Reduces enemy Defense by 20% for 3 turns. (Cooldown 4)

Universal Abilities

Available to every creature once they reach the required level.

• Stun Strike — Light damage. 80% chance of Stun for 1 turn. (Cooldown 3)
• Intimidate — Reduces enemy Defense by 15% for 3 turns. (Cooldown 4)
• Rage — Increases own Strength by 25% and Speed by 5% for 3 turns. (Cooldown 4)
• Counter Stance — 80% chance to counter the next attack,  for 2 turns. (Cooldown 3)

Balance Changes

• Zone difficulty overhaul — each zone now has its own dedicated level and stat ranges that no longer overlap. A zone 1 creature will never be stronger than a zone 2 creature. Level ranges were kept low relative to player progression to keep early battles winnable.
  • Zone 1: Levels 1–3, base stats 8–12
  • Zone 2: Levels 3–6, base stats 13–18
  • Zone 3: Levels 6–9, base stats 18–25
  • Zone 4: Levels 9–12, base stats 26–35
• Themed zones — certain zones now spawn creatures with characteristic trait combinations (for example, Cat-type creatures appearing more often in specific areas).
• Wild creatures now scale correctly — wild creatures now receive proper level-up stat bonuses matching their level, instead of having only their base stats.
• Healing potions rebalanced — introduced a Small / Medium / Big potion tier (25% / 50% / 75% healing).

New Items

• Small, Medium & Big Potions — tiered healing consumables.
• Orange Potion — heals 25% HP and grants +20% Strength for the day.
• Green Potion — cures negative status effects and boosts ATB speed for the day.
• Ankh Necklace — a rare accessory: +15% max HP, +30% chance of an extra egg, and +50% battle EXP.
• Bag Expansion — a preview item for the upcoming bag-capacity system.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed creatures being able to breed infinitely in a single day.
• Fixed the barn team counter being stuck at a fixed number regardless of team size.
• Fixed newborn creatures sometimes appearing with 0 HP.
• Fixed eggs and their creatures not saving correctly (parents and lineage now persist through saves).
• Fixed the incubator opening multiple times from a single click.
• Fixed the shop screen appearing behind the incubator when picking eggs.
• Fixed being able to save inside the main-menu Load screen, which could create empty saves.
• Fixed the battle freezing when closing the item bag without selecting anything.
• Fixed newly deleted creatures still appearing in the breeding menu.
• Fixed the zone-unlock system so defeating a zone properly unlocks the next.
• Fixed double VICTORY / double XP / double loot at the end of battles.
• Fixed buffs and debuffs not resetting when capturing an enemy.
• Fixed self-buff abilities incorrectly damaging the enemy and applying elemental effects.
• Fixed Life Drain healing the wrong target for the wrong amount.
• Fixed duplicate status messages appearing on some attacks.
• Fixed inventory persistence bug and re-implemented items.
• Now, equipment with a chance for "extra eggs" actually works.

Under the Hood

• Rebuilt the ability system to be modular — new abilities can reuse existing effects (burn, slow, lifesteal, buffs, etc.) simply by choosing an effect and a percentage, with no new code required.
• Screen now scales properly to fill the display instead of being locked to a small window.
• Replaced the Godot boot logo with the Genetics logo.

This is still an Early Access build and my very first game project. Every bug report and piece of feedback genuinely shapes what comes next. Thank you for playing — see you in the next update.

— Granak Alithum