Gene Strands

Gene Strands (GS) are resources that can be used to purchase various upgrades.

GS and GS upgrades are not lost after attacking a planet, but entering a Black Hole will cause the player to lose all GS upgrades and transform the unspent GS into Dark Matter

New GS can be obtained by killing a percentage of a planet's population.

Contents

Gene Strand Bonus

Unspent Gene Strands provide a 1% increase to global BPS.

This can be increased to 2% by researching Schroedinger's Gene at the Dark Matter Institute.

Gene Strand Bonus vs. Gene Strand Upgrades

The increase to Bacteria production from Gene Strand upgrades isn't always as big as the bonus from unspent Gene Strands.

The usefulness of Gene Strand upgrades usually differs depending on your playstyle and current progress in the game. For example, most upgrades to colony production are worth the Gene Strand investment only if most of Bacteria production comes from these colonies. Similarly, BPC and tapping combo upgrades are worth it only for an active tapping playstyle.

One of the exceptions to this rule are the Gene Strand upgrades that increase idle BPS bonus. These upgrades almost always increase your total BPS significantly.

This is because idle BPS also provides bonus to production when the game is closed and it will be active most of the time. Furthermore, idle BPS multiplies the bonus from the unspent Gene Strands, which means that the upgrade can be worth the cost even if the price of the upgrade is very high.

Example: Gene Strand Bonus vs. A.I. controlled production

A.I controlled production is an upgrade that costs 2500 and increases the player's idle BPS bonus by 100%.

Let's say your BPS without any bonuses is 100.

If you have 100 (coefficient is 2.0), your total BPS without the upgrade would be 100 × 2 × 1 = 200.

If you purchased the upgrade it would be 100 × 1 × 1.75 = 175.

As you can see, the BPS is now smaller.

If instead, you have 1000 (coefficient is 11.0), your total BPS without the upgrade would be 100 × 11 × 1 = 1100.

If you purchased the upgrade it would be 100 × 10 × 1.75 = 1750.

In this case, the total BPS has increased.

Drop Amount

Gene Strands are earned from planet attacks. The base amount is calculated according to formula

where

• GeneStrands - how many GS will be obtained in the planet attack
• Total Population Killed - the total number of killed inhabitants since the first planet (including the current attack)
• Population Killed - the number of inhabitants killed in the current attack
• Initial Population - the initial number of inhabitants on the current planet

The amount of GS earned can also be increased by bonuses from equipped Evolved Bacteria.

Dark Matter Conversion

Upon entering a Black Hole, all unspent Gene Strands are converted into Dark Matter.

See also: Black Hole drops