Help And Tips

This page has some basic gameplay information and general tips on playing Thrive.

Basic game mechanics

The player controls members of a species which needs to spread out into the world, and evolve into more complex lifeforms. You control a single cell from your species: if it dies, you take control of another one. You compete with cells from other species, and must ensure your own species' survival.

The world is divided into patches. The area the player's cell inhabits is your current patch.

In your current patch, you must gather compounds to keep you alive, and grow enough to reproduce. Once your cell has reproduced, you move millions of years into the future and switch to the Editor.

In the Editor you can see a what happened to all existing species over the millions of years as a result of their biology and your performance in your current patch. You can see which new species evolved, which ones went extinct and how their total population counts have changed.

You can change your current patch and move others of your species to another patch in the Patch Map section of the Editor. You can also determine how your species evolved by editing it.

You edit your species by adding, removing or adjusting parts of your cell, as well as changing the species' behaviour.

When you leave the Editor, you switch to your current patch, and you start the cycle again. The small changes made each turn lead to big changes over the life of the planet.

Compound clouds

These are the useful chemicals that can spawn in a patch as compound clouds.

White – Glucose

Yellow – Hydrogen Sulfide

Orange – Ammonia

Purple – Phosphates

Red – Iron

Microbe Parts

These are the parts that can be added to cells for size, storage and food or energy production.

Prokaryotic Proteins

Cytoplasm, Hydrogenase, Metabolosomes and Rusticyanin (as well as Thylakoids and Chemosynthisizing Proteins) produce ATP .

Chemosynthisizing Proteins produce Glucose .

Thylakoids produce Glucose for free, as long as there is sunlight.

Nitrogenase produces extra Ammonia .

Oxytoxisomes produce toxins that can damage or disable other cells.

External Organelles

Flagella increase your speed in one direction.

Pili can be used to stab the other cells or to defend against them.

Chemoreceptors allow detecting compounds and cells from further away.

Slime Jets give a short boost of speed in one direction.

Cilia increase turning speed of cells, and can be upgraded to pull things towards you.

Membrane Bound Organelles

The Nucleus doubles your cell's size, reduces all damage taken by 50% and unlocks the other membrane-bound organelles.

Mitochondrions and Ferroplasts produce ATP .

Chemoplasts produce Glucose .

Chloroplasts produce Glucose for free, as long as there is sunlight.

Nitrogen Fixing Plastids produce extra Ammonia .

Vacuoles give you a lot of extra storage for compounds.

Toxin Vacuoles produce toxins that can damage or disable other cells.

Lysosomes let you feed on other cells more efficiently, and allow engulfing cells with chitin or cellulose membranes."

Signalling Agents allow you to send signals that friendly cells can react to.

Binding Agents allow binding with other cells. Required to advance to the Multicellular Stage.

Non-LAWK parts

These parts are only available if you deselect 'LAWK only' in the New Game settings.

Thermosynthase and Thermoplasts produce ATP for free, as long as the environment is hot enough.

More Game Info

Each generation, you have 100 mutation points (MP) to spend, and each change (or mutation) will cost a certain amount of that MP. Adding and removing organelles costs MP. However, removing organelles that were placed in the current Editor session refunds MP for that organelle. You can move (and rotate) or remove an organelle by right-clicking on it and selecting from the pop-up menu.

The main ways that cells gain energy are by feeding on the environment around them - which is called autotrophy - and feeding on other cells or parts from dead cells - which is called heterotrophy. Both are important parts of the food chain.

Cellulose and chitin cell walls can't be digested without having the enzymes that can break them down first. These enzymes are produced by lysosomes, which are exclusive to eukaryotes. Prokaryotes don't have such organelles, and digest their food less efficiently. For small cells this is fine, but for larger cells, having no lysosomes can be a big disadvantage.

The binding agent allows your cell and others of its species to build a cell colony where the cells share the compounds they absorb and produce with each other. While in a colony, you can't enter the editor. To do this, you must leave the colony by pressing the Unbind all key. Large cell colonies are the way towards multicellularity, and the end of the Single-Cell Stage.

If you survive for twenty generations with 300 population, you are considered to have "won" the current game. You can still continue playing as you wish.

General Tips

This section lists all the game tips applicable to multiple stages that are displayed on the loading screens.

Press the Undo button in the editor to correct a mistake

Watch out for larger organisms. They will eat you, and it's not fun to be digested!

Be careful when repeatedly hunting the same species, as you can hunt them to extinction. Other species can do it as well.

Sometimes it's best just to run away.

When Auto-Evo predicts your population dropping, you can still raise it by performing well.

Don't forget, you can use the panel at the top right of the screen to see what's under the cursor.

If your population drops to zero, you go extinct.

Microbe Stage Tips

This section has all the tips for the Microbe Stage that are displayed on the loading screens.

Each hex of cytoplasm costs 1 ATP per second to maintain, but it generates 3 ATP . If you're a bit short on ATP , try adding a couple of hexes or removing some organelles.

Your cell uses ATP as its energy source. If it runs out, you will die.

To unlock the editor and reproduce you need to stay alive long enough. Gathering Ammonia (orange cloud) and Phosphates (purple cloud) speeds up growth.

You can engulf things that are smaller than you to feed on them by pressing G. This will cost extra ATP and slow you down. Don't forget to press G again to stop engulfing.

The bigger your cell is, the more ATP -producing parts you need just to stay alive. Metabolosomes, rusticyanin, hydrogenase and even cytoplasm produce ATP .

There are many organelles in the editor for you to evolve, allowing for a wide range of different playstyles.

There are limited reources available to each species, so increasing the size of your cells will also decrease your maximum population.

Use the W, A, S and D Keys to move and the mouse to rotate. Use E to shoot toxins if you have a toxin vacuole. Press G to toggle engulf mode. You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel.

To reproduce you need to divide each of your organelles into two. Organelles need Ammonia , Phosphates , and time to split in half.

Be wary because your competitors are evolving alongside you. Every time you enter the editor they evolve as well.

Binding agents allow you to build a cell colony with others of your species. The cells all share compounds, act as one, and allow you to evolve into a multicellular organism.

The more (or longer) flagella you have, the faster you go - vroom vroom! It costs more ATP, though.

Cells with cellulose or chitin membranes can't be digested by prokaryotes. A eukaryote with lysosomes can feed on these by producing enzymes to break down the cell walls.

Hydrogen Sulfide can be converted into Glucose via chemoplasts and chemosynthesizing proteins. Iron can be converted into ATP via rusticyanin or ferroplasts.

Each visit to the editor in the Microbe Stage represents 100 million years of evolution.

You can engulf chunks of floating matter, whether they are parts of dead cells or minerals.

Prepare before adding a nucleus. Those things are expensive - in up-front cost and upkeep!

Toxins can be used to knock other toxins away from you if you are quick enough.

If a cell is about half the size of yours, that's when you can engulf them.

Biomes are more than just different backgrounds - the compounds and floating chunks in different biomes spawn at different rates.

Place flagella or slime jets symmetrically at the back of your cell. Otherwise, you'll be wasting energy.

It matters where you place parts. The shape of your cell impacts your movement and turning speed.