Eric Clason
United States
Cedar Rapids
Iowa
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After I played Primordial Soup with the Freshly Spiced expansion added for the first time, I decided to do an analysis of the new genes so I could better decide which ones I might buy in future games. That is how this list got started.
Disclaimer: I have not used or even been in a game with most of these genes yet. I am sure that some of my opinions on these genes will change after I see them in action (as happened with the original genes, that’s part of the fun). Given how often I play Primordial Soup (not as often as I want) and the fact that only a portion of the new genes are available in any given game, I suspect that Freshly Spiced will be out of print by the time I have tried all the new genes. Despite my lack of experience with the new genes, I hope this analysis is a good starting point for deciding which genes to try.
Cleanliness, Go Out With a Bang, Toxic Excretions, and Healing II are all genes the hurt others but do not directly help you. While there are several genes in the original Primordial Soup that hurt others, only Aggression doesn’t also help you.
Cleanliness: May place your poop in neighboring space (3,3) – You can use this gene to cause trouble for others by concentrating most of your poop in just a few spaces. Not that powerful, but then it’s cheap.
Go Out With a Bang: On death, cause 1 DP to all amoebas in same space (5,5)– The ultimate ‘misery loves company’ gene. This gene is most effective if you move last so that the other amoebas have a harder time avoiding your exploding amoebas.
Toxic Excretions: Your poop causes 1 DP to the next amoeba to enter space (5,5) – I assume amoebas of the player with this gene are immune from Toxic Excretions. Considering that Toxic Excretions and Go Out With a Bang are the same price, I prefer Toxic Excretions. True, Go Out With a Bang has the potential to get multiple targets at once. But Toxic Excretions occur every time one of your amoebas eats which, hopefully, occurs much more often then one of your amoebas dying. Also if Toxic Excretions fails to hit a target the turn it is produced, it can hit a target on subsequent turns. Toxic Excretions and Cleanliness are a great combo.
Healing I: Heal 1 DP for 3 BP (5,4) – My first impression of this gene was negative. You can spend 3 BP to remove 1 DP using Healing I or 6 BP to get a new amoeba can take 2 DP without it. Healing I offers no net benefit. But then I realized a situation where it would be useful. If a player has 7 amoebas in play (the maximum number allowed) and one of them has 2 DP, the player cannot create a new amoeba that turn to replace the dying amoeba, because Cell Division occurs before Deaths. This means the player will not have 7 amoebas in the Scoring Phase. However if the player has Healing I he can heal one of the DP before Deaths occur and score 7 amoebas. Also, consider each DP not taken by an amoeba is a 3 BP investment. Over time, a player with Healing I can arrange to have more amoebas with 1 DP than 0 DP (by healing amoebas with 2 DP). This means for the same number of amoebas, the player with Healing I can have less BP invested than a player without Healing I. Less BP invested in amoebas means more BP can be invested elsewhere.
Healing II: Transfer 1 DP healed to another amoeba is same space (5,5) – Being able to hurt other players is always nice. 5 additional BP seems expensive (although it is the same price as Go Out With a Bang and Toxic Excretions which also cause 1 DP) but only 1 additional MP for another gene towards scoring ain’t bad.
Doris & Frank: Choose next game (2,3) – From an in game point of view, basically another Intelligence gene without the ability to advance to PhD.
PhD: Does nothing, advanced gene, prerequisite Intelligence (3,4) – Like it’s prerequisite, PhD lets you get an additional gene for scoring at a fairly low price in both BP and MP. Unlike Intelligence, it is not cheaper to lose PhD to radiation and re-buy it then it is to spend the BP to protect it.
Energy Conservation: Gain 1 BP for each of your amoebas that drift (6,6) – This is the single most expensive (considering both BP and MP) non-advanced gene in the game, with good reason. This gene is going to make a lot of BP for its owner. Energy Conservation is my favorite of the genes in Freshly Spiced because it’s effect is so different than any other gene. With Energy Conservation your strategy is to let your amoebas drift, because every time you move an amoeba it costs you 2 BP (1 BP that you spend moving + 1 BP you don’t get from drifting). This means that several genes related to moving, like Movement, Movement II, Speed, and Streamlining, that are usually considered desirable, are next to useless for the player with Energy Conservation. On the other hand genes like Division Rate and Long Life, whose benefit is in no way enhanced by moving instead of drifting, make excellent combos with Energy Conservation.
Flexible: Gene cost reduced by 1 BP (5,4) – Since it costs 5 BP, you are going to have to buy 5 more genes just to break even. If you don’t buy Flexible as your 1st or 2nd gene, I don’t think you have much chance to make a profit from it. For this reason, Flexible makes a good choice to add to the gene pool at the start of the game.
Highly Adaptable: Get new gene by discarding old gene plus difference in price (4,3) – My first thought was, why not just spend the BP you saved by not buying Highly Adaptable to buy a gene outright, instead of trading up to it. Then I started thinking of all the situations you might use Highly Adaptable. Probably the most common is: if you can’t afford the gene you want, buy a cheaper one (like Intelligence) so you’ll have an extra gene for scoring this turn. Then upgrade to the gene you really want next turn. Another example: buy Struggle for Survival and use it for a couple of turns. Once everyone else has developed counter measures, trade for some other useful gene. In order to make Highly Adaptable worthwhile, you need to use it at least twice. So it’s better if you buy it early.
Migration Sensing: See next environment card at start of Phase 1 (3,3) – If you see a thin Ozone Layer coming, you can save BP you might have spent moving. And knowing next turn’s drift might occasionally influence how you move this turn. Not a flashy gene, but not bad considering it’s cheap.
Environmental Sensing: See next environment card after current one is revealed, advanced gene, prerequisite Migration Sensing (4,3) – Knowing next turns Ozone level before you buy genes is great. Knowing 2 turns of drift before you place new amoeba is good too. And as a kicker, Environmental Sensing has a lower MP then any other advanced gene. If you have Migration Sensing, and Environmental Sensing is available, you almost have to upgrade to it.
Population Explosion: Loose all BP to gain enough amoebas to equal leader (6,5) – I assume that the player has a choice of activating or not activating this gene for a given turn. Assuming you have no BP going into the phase 4, if the leader has 3 more amoeba than you, Population Explosion will pay for itself plus a little. Otherwise you would have to gain 2 amoeba from using Population Explosion 3 times to break even (in BP) and if it would only gain 1 amoeba, you’re better off buying the amoeba. The best time to buy Population Explosion is when you are at least 3 amoebas behind the leader. Making Population Explosion pay off in other situations is complicated and risky.
Social Gene: Gain 1 BP for each player 6+ space ahead. Only last place may buy. If already owned, buy for 2 BP from current owner (4,3) – Whether I might buy this gene depends on how many people are 6+ spaces in front of me on the scoring track and therefore paying me BP. If there is only 1, then it takes 4 rounds to reach the break even point (assuming I’m the first to buy the gene). If there are 2 people 6+ spaces in front of me, it only takes 2 turns to break even. I think I’d want at least 2 other players paying me before I’d buy Social Gene at full price. There are too many things that could happen in 4 rounds for me to buy it if only 1 other player is paying me. If I can buy it from another player, that’s different. I think I might buy it then as long as there was 1 player paying me.
Rebound: If an amoeba would move/drift into a wall, may drift/move the opposite direction (5,4) – If you are against a wall (and all but 3 spaces are) without sufficient food, Rebound increases the chance that you can drift/move to a different space. It seems a bit expensive.
Glutton, Short Life Span, Fast Food, and Suction I are essentially handicapped versions of Ray Protection, Division Rate, Tentacles, and Frugality respectively. For Fast Food and Suction I, the handicap is: sometimes you don’t receive the benefit when the more expensive gene would have. For Glutton and Short Life Span, the handicap effect is a penalty that can occur whether the benefits are realized or not. The later are much more risky as you could receive a lot of penalty with very little or even no benefit. Finally, it is hard to judge how often the conditions activating a handicap occur. Therefore take my opinions, on whether the handicaps balance out with the decrease in price, with a larger than usual grain of salt.
Glutton: Must eat extra food cube (3,-2) – How often is there enough food in a space to eat normally but no extra food? I suspect that answer is more often then you might think. For an additional cost of less than 1 extra starvation, you can buy Ray Protection instead. Near the end of the game (so that the negative effect would only apply for a round or two), if you knew a low ozone round was likely, Glutton might be a reasonable purchase. Otherwise it’s hard to think of situations where Glutton’s benefit would be worth it’s handicap.
Short Life Span: New amoebas cost 4 BP, die after 1 DP (5,5) – This gene actually increases the cost of receiving a DP fron 3 BP to 4 BP. The longer you have Short Life Span, the more likely it is that the down side is going to out weigh the benefit. Short Life Span might work with Healing, where you are going to avoid death or with Highly Adaptable, build up your numbers then trade Short Life Span in before many amoeba die of single starvation. Finally late in the game, you could figure out the game is going to end before the down side out weighed the benefit. Otherwise I’d avoid it.
Fast Food: Eat before or after drift/move (4,3) – You can have the same effect with Tentacles that you have with Fast Food, and more. True, Fast Food is a little cheaper, but I think in most situations I’d pay the higher price.
Suction I: May take 1 cube from neighboring space (4,4) – I like this gene, even though it is not quite as good a Frugality. It’s also not quite as expensive, so things balance out.
Suction II (6,6): May take 2 cubes from single neighboring space – A good solid advanced gene. It’s 1 of the 2 most expensive advance genes in the game. Not sure it is worth the price.
The last 6 genes are all associated with Struggle for Survival (SfS). There is no reason to acquire any of them until someone has SfS. Alarm, Hard Crust, More than a Mouthful, and Threat Display, are counter measures to protect against Struggle for Survival. Camouflage I and II are genes to make SfS more effective.
Alarm: After your first amoeba is attacked, your remaining amoebas get Escape for rest of the round (3,3) – I know it’s cheap, but one of your amoebas has to be attacked before it does any good. Unless you have another counter measure this means that one of your amoebas has to die each round before Alarm does any good. The only situation I can see for buying this is when you only have 3 BP and you need to buy some counter measure this round.
Hard Crust: Costs 2 BP to attack your amoeba (3,3) – If an amoeba has Hard Crust, a SfS amoeba is only going to attack it as a last resort, since it costs 2 BP. Last resorts do happen I suppose. Still Hard Crust is cheap and doesn’t cost 1 BP to activate. I definitely prefer it over Alarm, which cost the same (not that both are always going to be available as choices).
More than a Mouthful: Only take 1 DP if attacked (4,3) – Reduces average harm received from attacks by half at no BP cost for activation. The downside is that the attacking SfS amoeba still eats, making an amoeba with More than a Mouthful a more attractive target than an amoeba that has the potential to starve the attacking SfS amoeba. This gene works especially well if you have Healing.
Threat Display: Your amoebas may only be attack by amoebas with same or lower number (4,4) – Should reduces the number of attacks by almost half and there is no activation cost.
Camouflage I: Ignore Defense, Escape, and Alarm half the time (4,4): Normally after a player buys SfS he has a turn or 2 of good hunting until all the other players take counter measures. At that point pickin’s get pretty slim and SfS becomes a candidate for loss at the next ozone hole. With Camouflage I, you can keep SfS effective, maybe not as effective as that first turn when no one had any counter measures, but effective. If you are a non-SfS player and Camouflage I is available, even if the SfS player doesn’t have it yet, think twice before you buy Alarm, Defense, or Escape, if other counter measure genes are available. If you think you can use Defense or Escape to get Armor, fine. But remember the number of Armor genes available is very limited.
Camouflage II: Ignore Defense, Escape, and Alarm all the time (5,5) – The gene makes Alarm, Defense, and Escape useless except (in the case of Defense and Escape) as a prerequisite for Armor. If none of the new counter measure genes are available, the happy hunting grounds are back. Even if a couple of them are available, they’re not nearly as effective as Escape and Defense at causing a SfS amoeba to starve.
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Tom Hancock
United States
Charleston
West Virginia
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Great analysis. How much do you think the social gene helps rein in the rich get richer nature of the game?
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Eric Clason
United States
Cedar Rapids
Iowa
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I would say that the Social Gene is more of a prevent the poor from getting poorer gene. It's pretty good at this, especially in a 6 player game where there may be 2 or 3 players 6 spaces ahead of last place(after all, in a 6 player game there are at least 5 spaces between first and last). However the Social Gene is not going to have a very direct effect on how far apart the top 2 or 3 players are from each other. Indirectly the Social Gene might allow more players to get within striking distance of the leader I suppose.
To directly rein in the leader, you need a gene that can hurt other players, like Struggle for Survival, Parasitism, or Healing II.
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Bruce Glassco
United States
Charlottesville
Virginia
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Looking over the copy of the game I just bought, I'm thinking Short Life Span and Rebound are pretty seriously overpriced. For the rest, I'll have to see.
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Riku Riekkinen
Finland
Jyväskylä
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BruceGee wrote: Looking over the copy of the game I just bought, I'm thinking Short Life Span and Rebound are pretty seriously overpriced. For the rest, I'll have to see.
Argeed, "Short Life Span" should be seriously cheaper (4/4 highest). "Rebound" would be OK (but not overly good), if it would be 3MPs. I also think "Go Out With a Bang" sucks (or really doesn't since "Suction" does that  ), since it doesn't work when you really want (=when you are under attack). I also would have given "Alarm" cost 3/2.
Quote: Glutton, Short Life Span, Fast Food, and Suction I are essentially handicapped versions of Ray Protection, Division Rate, Tentacles, and Frugality respectively. For Fast Food and Suction I, the handicap is: sometimes you don’t receive the benefit when the more expensive gene would have.
"Short Life Span" doesn't do anything, if you have "Division Rate". "Fast Food" has little use, if you have "Tentacles". But "Glutton" does stack with "Ray of Protection". So I think it should be viewed in a different light. Also "Glutton" counts as a gene for scoring (unlike "Ray of Protection). So for example "Glutton"+"Frugality" combo is basically "Substitution" that costs 9, but has only 3MPs and gives you 2 genes for scoring. And you can still have "Ray of Protection" for extra genes. Meaning I regard "Glutton" as an exellent gene when its in the game. "Glutton"+"Struggle for Survival" combo is also somethiong to think about. I also think "Suction II" is worth its salt.
Of course Flexible-Highly Adaptable combo, is somethig to mention, when it happens. Gives you discounts at first and lets to choose direction after others.
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Riku Riekkinen
Finland
Jyväskylä
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Quote: Also "Glutton" counts as a gene for scoring (unlike "Ray of Protection). So for example "Glutton"+"Frugality" combo is basically "Substitution" that costs 9, but has only 3MPs and gives you 2 genes for scoring.
Huh what was I on when I wrote this? "Glutton"+"Frugality" combo is usually better than "Substitution".
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Well, i suppossed that when you have division rate and short life spam the amoebas will cost only 2 BP's because the short life span sais ''amoebas die faster, but is cheaper'' or something like that so i supposed that if a division-rated amoeba cost 4 BP's and it is cheaper because of the short life spam it would cost 2 BP's. If it weren't in that way, a short-life-span life-expectancy amoeba would have to receive 3 DP's. And talking about toxic excretation, i think that you can also be hurt by your own cubes when you move with and amoeba to that square.And personally i found very powerful the combo aggression+camouflage II+glutton+ray proteccion+holding only 9 MP's and you are going the eat almost all phases from 2 to 5 amoebas, to be succesful with that combo you can start with highly adaptable and population explosion, and buying the other genes with your BP's and when you have the ray proteccion, the glutton and the holding you use the population explosion to have the same amoebas as your partners and then change the population explosion for the SfS and the highly adaptable for the camouflage I and then buy the aggression and the camouflage II. Another combo that could run(but also if the rule of the short life span is as i said) is short life span+division rate+go out with a bang+glutton+ray protection, with this combo you put a lot of amoebas paying 2 BP's for each one and then make them starve to explode and hurt all the other amoebas killing them.
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