Guide to Genetics

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Here we go, time to make superheroes!

Geneticists have access to "GeneTek" consoles and scanners. These devices can, with enough patience, reward you with superpowers, crippling disabilities, or just amusing mutations.

Cracking the Code

Mutations are composed of a series of paired blocks. Each block contains the values G, A, C, T (Guanine, Adenine, Cytosine, and Thymine respectively) or is empty. In each pair of blocks, a G block always links to a C block, and a T block always links to an A block, but the order in which these appear in the block can vary.

Every person (and monkey) on the station will have a range of latent mutations, which are mutations where some of the values in the blocks are missing. The goal of genetics is to activate these mutations by filling in the missing blocks. There are two ways of doing this:

• Put the person/monkey in the scanner. The GeneTek console will then allows you to select blocks and modify them. Some values can be figured out immediately, while others need simple guesswork as you go through each possible combination. Once the correct code is entered, the user can then activate the mutation. It will no longer appear in Potential, and is now located in the Mutations section.

• Create a DNA activator for the mutation, which when used on someone will instantly fill in all their missing blocks and activate the mutation, as well as having other benefits (see below). You can create an activator through the Potential section of the GeneTek interface if your target is in the scanner, or through the View DNA Samples section if the target isn't.

The second method is much funner and faster than the first, and should almost universally be preferred. (It was a change made by a kindly coder who realized it wasn't much fun to spend 40 minutes sequencing DNA to have 1 or 2 people running around with superpowers in the dying minutes of the round.) The only advantage of the first method are that a) the correct sequence of blocks will be stored in the GeneTek, letting you instantly activate the gene without guessing or waiting for activator creation to cool down, and b) you can activate the gene without letting the target out of the scanner, which may be beneficial if doing so would result in bodily damage to the Geneticist (as in the case where the subject is a homicidal monkey with Musculature Enhancement who you've nuked half to death with the radiation emitters).

Within a round, all subjects with a specific mutation will have the exact same DNA code required to unlock it. Once you've activated a mutation the slow way once, an autocomplete button will appear in Potential, letting you instantly activate that mutation on a target in the scanner. This also means that if, for example, one human has half the code for Fire Resist and another has the other half, you can simply put the two together to figure out the full code. By clicking on the green vertical line connecting pairs of blocks, you can highlight that pair. Useful for marking parts of the mutation which haven't been figured out yet.

The Building Blocks of Life

When a person (or monkey) is put into the scanner, the GeneTek console menu will show several options:

• Potential - This is where you go to mess with DNA and activate mutations.
• Mutations - Shows mutations which are active.
• Research Menu - Shows the research that is currently taking place, and shows possible research and finished research. It also contains the DNA Samples. DNA materials can also be bought by spending money from the station's research budget.
• Change Appearance - If Hair Follicle Research has been unlocked, this lets you change the occupant's hairstyle. Rainbow afros for everyone!
• Change Body Type - If Hair Follicle Research and Body Type Research have been unlocked, 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 cockroach.
• View DNA Samples - NanoTrasen takes a DNA sample from every crewmember when they join up and provides them to you here.
• View Stored Mutations - see the section below on storing and combining mutations.
• View Stored Chromosomes - see the section on Chromosomes below.

In addition to this, the console will show you the occupant's health and genetic stability. It is important to keep an eye on both of these attributes, as there is a finite amount of air in the scanner, and loading your occupant up with mutation after mutation can have detrimental effects.

The printer icon at the bottom left is used to print out the current page onto a piece of paper.

Icons

The following icons and numbers will appear beside the Research Menu button as you perform research

This is the number of seconds you must wait until a piece of tracked research is completed.

This is the number of seconds you must wait until a DNA Injector or DNA Activator can be created. Injectors require a longer wait than Activators.

This is the number of seconds you must wait until the DNA Reclaimer can be used.

This is the number of seconds you must wait until the Radiation Emitters can be used.

This is the number of seconds you must wait until the Gene Sequence Checker can be used.

Walkthrough

So, we're trying to make someone fat, and they have Obesity in their latent genes. Normally it would be preferable to create an Activator for this and jab them with it, but let's say that's undesirable or impossible, so we're doing this the long way.

To start, fill up any half-filled pairs, A goes with T, G goes with C.

The unfilled pairs must be filled in with every combination of AT, TA, GC and CG possible until the words "Sequence Stable. Activate?" appear. This can be quite tough if there is more than one pair, however researching the Gene Sequence checker can make this much easier.

Click "Activate" and you're done!

Locked pairs

You may notice some pairs have a little lock between them, click on them to begin a game:

 SCANNER ALERT: Encryption is a 2-character code.
 Possible characters in this code: G C 

A specific chain of letters must be entered to unlock the pair of blocks. 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:

 SCANNER ALERT: Decryption failed.
 0/2 correct characters in entered code.
 0/2 characters in correct position.
 Attempts remaining: 1.

This shows that there is no G in the code, and thus the code must be CC!

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!

Chromosomes

Every time a DNA activator is used and successfully activates a mutation (ie, the target had the latent mutation and it was not already active), it becomes a filled DNA activator which can be placed back in the GeneTek again. Doing this will gain one of several benefits:

• Extra research material;
• A free unlock for a locked pair (when asked to guess at a locked pair, you'll be told you have free unlocks available, and entering UNLOCK as your guess will instantly unlock it)
• A random chromosome.

Chromosomes are modifiers that can be spliced with existing mutations to improve or alter their abilities. Each chromosome can be used only once, but the modified mutation can be stored and applied multiple times. Especially valuable chromosomes are Stabilizer, which prevents the mutation causing stability damage when injected, and Synchronizer, which transforms Harmful mutations into Beneficial or Neutral ones.

Injectors

The "Turning point" for Geneticists is the enabling of DNA Injectors. DNA Injectors are made from either stored mutations or subjects with active mutations, and they will immediately give the target a mutation even if they did not have it latent. On the downside, it will also cause much greater damage to their genetic stability.. which is what the Stabilizer chromosome is for.

Testing

The geneticist begins with several monkeys which have mutations just like people do; they are perfect for being tested on. Their mutations can also be researched and activated. Activators can be used on monkies to activate their mutations, revealing their sequences and potentially providing chromosomes or other benefits. Once the sequence is stored in the GeneTek it can be used to give the mutation to other humans later on.

Since the genetics scanner is tied to the medical database, you have access to everybody's DNA sample right from the start. They can be found by going to View DNA Samples in the View Research tab. From there, you can select the name of the person you want to work on. You can't alter the code of a sample while the person isn't in the scanner, but you can note what powers they have and give them to them when they visit genetics, or just create an activator and take it to them (although people tend to react poorly to being chased by someone with a syringe). Of course, your first activity in most rounds will be to create activators for all your own desirable mutations, because the only thing better than getting superpowers is getting superpowers and material/chromosome bonuses at once!

IMPORTANT: If left in the scanner for too long, the scanner can run out of air and people can begin to suffocate! Consider giving your test subjects some internals to circumvent this.

High Complexity DNA

This is a unique, rare mutation which cannot be researched or activated using an activator. If you find someone with it, get them to come get in the scanner, decode the locked pairs, then activate the mutation and Store it (the mutation is only useful for being stored; it's useless to the person who has it). It serves as a wildcard for combining stored mutations, so you can very easily get some fascinating and rare mutations this way.

Research

Every mutation can be researched to find out what it does. If a mutation has not been researched, it is simply titled Unknown Mutation. Each mutation only needs to be researched once. Research is conducted by spending research materials, which are slowly gained over time. Additional research materials can be bought by spending money from the station's research budget.

Extra features and upgrades to the machine can be bought directly from the Research Menu section. Research starts at tier 1, and higher tiers are unlocked when lower tiers are completed. In addition, some research options only unlock when you fulfill certain conditions, such as researching a particular number of mutations.

All research costs are reduced every time a) a filled DNA activator is put into a GeneTek, or b) someone is cloned with Genetic Analysis enabled on the cloner.

Research	Tier	Research Time	Materials Cost	Effect
Mutation Research	None	60 seconds	20	Shows the name of that particular mutation and gives a brief description of it.
Research Efficiency	1	60 seconds	30	Research costs decrease by 10%.
Research Acceleration	1	60 seconds	30	Research times decrease by 10%.
Hair Follicle Research	1	30 seconds	20	Unlocks additional hair styles when you change the appearance of someone.
Radiation Emitters	1	90 seconds	80	Installs radiation emitters in the scanner, allowing you to re-roll the pool of potential mutations of a person. This will cause severe radiation poisoning that will have to be treated. This can not be used on dead organisms and has a cooldown time of 3 minutes.
Gene Sequence Checker	1	90 seconds	50	Installs analysis equipment in the scanner that allows users to check how many base pairs are stable. It has a cooldown of one minute. Correct DNA pairs will turn blue. Incorrect DNA pairs will turn red.
Advanced Mutation Research	1	90 seconds	50	Halves the base cost and time of researching a mutation and enables the ability to see, research, and activate secret mutations. Secret mutations are highlighted in purple and are generally very powerful and/or unique.
Biotic Cooling Mechanisms	1	90 seconds	150	Applies genetic research to halve the cooldown times for all equipment.
Body Type Research	2	60 seconds	40	Lets you change the body type of people in the scanner to any type discovered via genetic mutations. (Aquatic Genes, Blattodean Genes, etc.)
Improved Research Efficiency	2	180 seconds	80	Research costs decrease by a further 10%, for a total of 20% discount.
Improved Research Acceleration	2	180 seconds	80	Research times decrease by a further 10%, for a total of 20% acceleration.
DNA Reclaimer	2	240 seconds	100	Allows unwanted genes to be converted into research materials. It has a two minute cooldown and has a chance to fail depending on what gene is being reclaimed.
Radiation Dampeners	2	180 seconds	80	Reduces the amount of harmful radiation caused by Radiation Emitters
DNA Injectors	2	240 seconds	120	Allows the manufacture of syringes that can insert researched genes into other subjects. Syringes cost 40 materials to manufacture.
Emitter Coolant System	2	180 seconds	120	Reduces the amount of time required for Radiation Emitters to cool down.
Mutation Storage	3	300 seconds	100	Allows for storage of up to three genes in the GeneTek console for the purposes of combination or transference into new recipients. The genes must be researched and activated before storage. Stored mutations can be combined, resulting in rare or even completely unique mutations! Experiment!
Precision Radiation Emitters	3	300 seconds	150	Upgrades the Radiation Emitters in the scanner so they can target single genes at a time. The gene must have been researched first, and doing this has a longer cooldown and greater irradiation amount than regular emitters.
Improved Material Storage	3	300 seconds	125	Increases the maximum number of research materials to 150.
Biotic Radiation Dampeners	3	250 seconds	100	Completely removes the harmful effects of the Radiation Emitters.
Expanded Mutation Storage	4	450 seconds	120	Adds two additional saving slots for mutations, for a total of 5.

Mutations

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 many more mutations than those listed here, so feel free to research and find mutations on your own! Clicking the blue ABIL tab on your hotbar will toggle between standard options and your available mutation powers.

Each mutation also has a set Stability level. You start out with 100 genetic stability, and as you inject yourself with more mutations, this number will increase and decrease. Typically speaking, the more powerful the mutation, the bigger the stability penalty. Some genetic mutations, particularly the debilitating ones, can actually increase your stability instead. If you reach sufficiently low levels of stability, extremely bad things will end up happening, up to and including spontaneous gibbing. Every character has a few latent mutations, alterable with DNA scrambling. Activating these mutations using DNA activators does not change stability — only injecting new mutations with injectors does.

Certain chromosomes can change the effects of mutations, such as removing the stability penalty, making otherwise harmful mutations harmless, or making them more powerful. Experiment!

Power	Message	Danger Level	Stability	Effect
Blindness	You can't see anything.	Harmful	+20	You no longer see action messages about what people are doing. This includes your own actions. To fix this without modifying DNA, you can equip a pair of VISOR Goggles.
Frontal Gyrus Suspension	You are unable to express yourself.	Harmful	+20	You become mute, you are unable to speak. Mutadone cannot cure this if it is caused by admins, for obvious reasons.
Deafness	It's quiet. Too quiet.	Harmful	+20	You can't hear anything. Blessed silence may come as a relief once you've gotten sick of the regular radio chatter. To fix this without modifying DNA, you can equip an auditory headset.
Radioactive	You feel a strange sickness permeate your whole body	Harmful	-10	You suffer from radiation sickness and cause the same to nearby people. May also give you more bad mutations.
Dyspraxia	You feel kind of off-balance and disoriented.	Harmful	+5	Randomly causes bouts of movement confusion.
Glowy	Your skin begins to glow softly.	Harmless	0	You permanently emit a light with a random color and intensity.
Dwarfism	Did everything just get bigger?	Harmless	0	You are smaller. At the start of the round, Miners may spawn with this mutation.
Tourettes	Your thoughts become disorderly and hard to control.	Harmless	+5	Your speech will often come out as excited shouts in ALL CAPS, be horribly misspelled, and instead of saying "say" before everything you, well... say, it will say that you "gibbered". Also, sometimes things you say will be broadcast over the radio if you are wearing one, in all its CAPS filled glory, whether you want it to or not.
Frontal Gyrus Alteration	Variable	Harmless (Mostly)	0 (Mostly)	There are several variations of this mutation. Each one effects speech in a different way, such as faltering speech, low-talking, and talking Swedish. The chef will commonly spawn with Swedishness, Bork Bork Bork!
Cranial Keratin Formation	A pair of horns erupt from your head.	Harmless	0	Makes you look (more) like a doofus.
Apocrine Enhancement	You feel sweaty.	Harmless	0	Gives you a serious case of the stinks, causing people nearby to get wonderful messages about how nice the room smells.
Fire Resistance	You feel cold.	Beneficial	-10	You are immune to high temperature and fire. You have a noticeable orange aura.
Cold Resistance	You feel warm.	Beneficial	-10	You are immune to low temperature and ice. You have a noticeable blue aura.
Thermal Resistance	N/A	Beneficial	-10	You are immune to heat changes. Obtained only by combining Fire Resistance and Cold Resistance. You gain an aura which flicks between orange and blue.
Alcohol resistance	You feel unusually sober.	Beneficial	0	You are a bit more immune to alcohol I.E: You can drink Bo Jack Daniel's without passing out, but you will still get fairly smashed. At the start of the round, the detective, HoS and barman will normally spawn with this mutation.
SMES Human	Your hair stands on end.	Beneficial (Mostly)	-15	You are protected from electrical energy. Useful when the AI is shocking everything and you are lacking insulated gloves. This includes defibrillators.
Jumpy	Your leg muscles feel strong and taut.	Beneficial	-5	You gain a jump that moves you half a screen in no time at all.
Chameleon	You feel at one with your surroundings.	Beneficial	-20	You become invisible while standing still. This can work against you in more ways than one. (Note that this and other invisibility mutations make you deaf when invisible.)
Cloak of Darkness	You meld into the shadows.	Beneficial	-20	You're invisible while in the dark. vampires also get this power. Unlike vampires however, you cannot toggle it on or off. (Note that this and other invisibility mutations make you deaf when invisible.)
High-pressure intestines	Your stomach grumbles unpleasantly.	Beneficial	-15	Blow away your foes with your tremendous farts!
Cryokinesis	You notice a strange cold tingle in your fingertips.	Beneficial	-10	You gain the ability to cool people down significantly by firing a ball of ice at them, and to get on everyone's nerves by creating patches of slippery ice on the floor.
Telepathy	You can hear your own voice echoing in your mind.	Beneficial	-5	You gain the ability to communicate telepathically. Don't use this to impersonate admins, lest you want to earn yourself a ban.
Optic Energizer	Your eyes ache and burn.	Beneficial	-10	You gain the ability to fire laser beams from your eyes.
Meta-Neural Enhancement	Your mind feels closed.	Beneficial	0	You can no longer be mind-read or telepathically spoken to.
Empathic Thought	You suddenly notice more about others than you did before.	Beneficial	-5	You can read the minds of others, telling you things such as their current intent, and numbers that might be important to them. Wizards start will a spell much like this, but theirs shows the owner of the mind being read's current location.
Matter Eater	You feel hungry.	Beneficial	-5	You can eat many more items than normal, like weapons from disarmed opponents, or even your own limbs!
Telekinesis	You feel your consciousness expand outwards.	Beneficial	-15	You can send unanchored items flying from afar by click-dragging them from one tile to another. Works great with X-ray vision.
Gamma Ray Exposure	You feel your muscles swell to an immense size.	Beneficial	-25	Your skin turns green, and you can punch through walls. Hulk wears off after a while just like in "real life", though there might be a way to negate this...
X-Ray vision	You suddenly seem to be able to see through everything.	Beneficial	-30	Basically it's just like you put on both a pair of Optical Meson Scanners and Optical Thermal Scanners at the same time, as it lets you can see through walls, see cloaked people, and removes darkness.
High Decay Digestion	Your stomach grumbles unpleasantly.	Harmful	-10	Your farts create butts of jenkem, which goes straight into the bloodstream of anyone who breathes it in.
Obesity	You feel bloated and lethargic.	Harmful	+5	Is fat. You are so fat that people may struggle to push your fat ass out of the way. Some of your clothes may also rip due to your extreme girth. Also makes it harder to find your neck.
Self Biomass Manipulation	Your skin and joints feel loose.	Harmful	-5	You can turn yourself into a liquid. If it's not Synchronized, you can not turn back again; RIP. If it is Synchronized, it's a version of the wizard's teleport.
Incendiary Mitochondria	You feel like you are burning up.	Harmful	-10	You set yourself on fire and become a human torch. This is a very bad thing if you don't want to burn alive. If you have Heat Resistance this will instead fizzle and do nothing.
Epilepsy	You twitch.	Harmful	+10	You will occasionally have seizures, being stunned on the floor for the duration of them. You will shake violently, and due to a bug the twitching will persist even after the mutation is removed.
Chronic Cough	You start coughing.	Harmful	0	You occasionally cough, dropping anything in your hands.
Diminished Optic Nerves	Your vision blurs.	Harmful	+5	Your vision becomes blurred, and darkened outside a small radius. Can be counteracted with Prescription Glasses.
Adrenaline Rush	You feel hype!	Beneficial	-5	Gives you an activated ability that allows you to recover from stuns by putting various stimulating and painkilling drugs in your bloodstream. Also one of the only genetic mutations that can be used while incapacitated.
Anaerobic Metabolism	Your lungs feel strangely empty.	Beneficial	-40	Prevents you from taking any damage from lack of oxygen and harmful gases, effectively giving you the changeling's ability to be in low-oxygen environments or in the presence of leaked plasma with no negative effects. If this mutation is received while taking suffocation damage, your damage "locks" to its current value.
Apidae Metabolism	You feel buzzed.	Harmless	0	Doesn't seem to do anything at first. However, if sugar is put into the bloodstream through any means, it has...interesting effects.
Body Type Genetics	Various	Harmless	0	Completely cosmetic, changes your character look to that of various things such as a lizard person or a giant roach. Can only have one at a time. (Melanin Eraser, Bio-luminescent and the like also fall into this category.)
Bioluminecent Overdrive	Your skin begins flashing!	Harmless	0	Your skin begins to rapidly flash different colors. Falls under Body Type Genetics.
Booster Gene	N/A	?	?	Booster Genes are a group of five different, mysterious genetic mutations that, on their own, do absolutely nothing. However, they are said to interact with other activated genes in various and interesting ways.
Constricted Larynx	...you feel like being quiet...	Harmless	0	Causes your text to become really, really small.
Corprolalia	You can't seem to shut up!	Harmless	0	Causes you to randomly shout random swear words.
Dactyl Crystalization	Your fingers and toes turn transparent and crystalline.	Harmless	0	Changes your snap and slap noises.
Dermal Glitter	Your skin looks all blinged out.	Harmless	0	Makes you sparkle as if you're carrying an item made of gold.
Dimensional Shift	You begin to see a small blue light...	Beneficial	-20	Allows you to enter a pocket dimension, rendering you immune to any and all outside events, but you're unable to move while within this space until you exit. Any effects that are doing damage to you such as a heart attack or damage from poison still happen.
Ethanol Production	You feel drunk!	Harmful	0	Causes you to constantly produce ethanol in your bloodstream, slowly making you extremely drunk.
Healing Touch	Your hands radiate a comforting aura.	Beneficial	-10	Allows you to touch an adjacent human and heal a small amount of damage.
High-Pressure Larynx	YOU SUDDENLY FEEL LIKE SHOUTING A WHOLE LOT!!!	Harmless	0	YOUR TEXT BECOMES REALLY LARGE
Irritable Bowels	You feel bloated and gassy.	Harmless	0	Causes automatic and intermittent farting.
Melanin Stimulator	N/A	Harmless	0	Turns your skin and hair EXTREMELY dark. Falls under Body Type Genetics.
Melanin Suppressor	N/A	Harmless	0	Turns your hair and skin to an extremely light shade. Falls under Body Type Genetics.
Melanin Eraser	N/A	Harmless	0	Turns your hair and skin EXTREMELY light. Essentially albinism. Falls under Body Type Genetics.
Meta-Neural Antenna	Your head is full of odd chatter.	Beneficial	-5	Allows you to hear the common radio channel (145.9) without a headset.
Midas Touch	Your hands sparkle and gleam.	Beneficial	-5	Gives you the ability to turn certain items into solid gold! This includes your own butt (and other limbs).
Motor Neuron Signal Enhancement	One of your limbs feels a bit strange and twitchy.	Harmful	+20	Causes a random limb to be chosen upon mutation acquirement. That limb will then proceed to strangle you, kick you in the head, and various other harmful actions.
Musculature Enhancement	You feel buff!	Beneficial	0	Gives you a slight strength bonus to mining. Maybe it has other uses...
Narcolepsy	You feel sleepy.	Harmful	+5	Randomly causes you to fall asleep.
Natural Anti-Toxins	Your pulse quickens.	Beneficial	-15	Increases the depletion rate of all chemicals in your bloodstream. Note that this is not exclusive to poisons: It affects ALL chemicals.
Ossification	You feel kinda thin.	Spooky	0	You turn into a skeleton. Falls under Body Type Genetics.
Paranoia	They're out to get you!	Harmless	0	Causes automatic and intermittent screaming.
Photokinesis	Everything seems too dark!	Beneficial	-5	Allows you to create a radiant point of light.
Polymorphism	You don't feel like yourself.	Beneficial	-15	Allows you to take on the appearance and name of a crewmember by touching them.
Pseudonecrosis	N/A	Beneficial	-5	Causes you to be recognized as dead by all medical scanners and machinery.
Regeneration	Your skin feels tingly and shifty.	Beneficial	-40	Causes you to slowly regenerate brute and burn damage. Also regenerates lost limbs.
Spatial Destabilization	You feel a bit out of place.	Harmful	-15	Causes you to teleport at random.
Toxic Resistance	You feel refreshed and clean.	Beneficial	-40	"Locks" your current toxin damage and makes you immune to any further toxin damage. You will still be susceptible to any other effects of poisons, such as radiation, burn damage, stuns, and suffocation.
Unstable Refraction	N/A	Harmful	-15	Causes you to randomly flicker in and out of invisibility at random.