The Manual

Beetle Inspector

The Beetle Inspector is where you can see even more details of each Beetle. It will open if you double-click on any Beetle image, or on a Beetle in the Nest.

Close Up

The center section shows a close up view of the selected Beetle with its name. This  is where you can get the closest view of your Beetles, and is a popular screenshot (F12) location in the game. Feel free to share your unique creations with other players. The mouse scroll wheel changes the zoom level of the Beetle. At the top of the screen are a row of buttons that change the close-up camera view to see different parts of your Beetle.

Left and Right arrows move the Beetle Inspector through your collection. You can also use <shift><scroll-wheel> to do this while hovering over the Inspector, or the Beetle Collection.

Visual Genetics Containers

The column of flask icons to the right of the close up gives you the ability to store and reproduce the visual look of your Beetles. The current Beetle can be stored into any flask slot that you have selected. If you hit restore, the visual look from the currently selected flask slot is permanently spliced into the genetics of the currently selected Beetle. This means it will be passed on to any offspring you breed from this Beetle. 

Needs

The left hand section of the screen shows details about the Needs and Behavior of the current Beetle. This view can help you decide how to improve the life of an individual Beetle. It can sometimes be fun to unpause the game, and watch the values in this section change.

Happiness is a measure of the lowest value of the other Needs listed. Health is the current Health value or hit points of this Beetle, and ranges from 0 up to the Health Stat value determined by the Beetle's Health genes.

Each Need value shown indicates how fulfilled a Beetle feels in each category. Food, Grooming, Healing, Play, Sleep, and Socialization are each listed. These Needs are fulfilled by using Nest Items placed from the Item Inventory. All the Needs decay over time, except Healing, which slowly increases.

The Cleanliness Need is determined by how much trash exists in the Nest. To improve this value, you have to find objects that have decayed into Trash, and sweep them up by moving the cursor over the object.

When a Beetle is not yet fully grown, a baby bottle is shown. Beside that icon are two numbers that indicate the happiness value needed for the Beetle to grow up, and its progress toward that goal.

At the bottom of the column is an indication of what behavior the selected Beetle is currently performing. 

Happiness Effects

When a Beetle has a low Happiness value, this affects several important aspects of the game:

  • In the Nest, the Beetle will attempt to fulfill its lowest Need, if there is a nearby item that meets that need.
  • In Breeding, the Goop cost can be much higher if one or both of the parents are unhappy.
  • When creating Swarms to go on a Combat Mission, the per-unit cost in increased if the selected Beetle is unhappy.
  • When sending a Beetle on a Task (e.g. to forage, scavenge, or explore), the chance of success is reduced if the Beetle is unhappy.

A Beetle does not have to be 100% happy before attempting these activities, but it is more economical, and more efficient to fulfill their Needs in the Nest, and make them happy before hand.

Note that when a Beetle is newly hatched, or newly bred, it starts out with low happiness. It needs to be fed and tended to. Once its happiness exceeds 65 points, it will become an adult. In the mean time, the above happiness penalties are incurred. Keep this in mind if you plan to breed newly arrived offspring. 

Genetic Detail

The right-hand section of the Beetel Inspector is a Genetic Detail display. It is broken into 7 sections, one for each Beetle Stat. Each section holds a number of genes split into two alleles. These alleles contribute to the expression of part of the stat in their section. The allele value ranges from 0 to 5, and its color ranges from red through orange and yellow to green to make it easy to recogize the best value.

The best value for a gene that you have available in your collection (not necessarily this Beetle) is represented by a light blue bar. If the current allele reaches to the bar, you have the best value. If there is a gap, you might consider finding a second parent that has that higher value to breed with, thereby passing the best value down to a new offspring.

If the current Beetle has an allele that has the maximum value in your collection, and no other Beetle has such a high value, that allele is unique in your collection, and is marked with a yellow star. If you try to juice a Beetle with a unique allele, you will receive a warning, because that would decrease the overall potential for your collection. If you decide to juice it anyway, you will need to reaquire an egg with that allele, or a better one by winning a mission, or going on certain tasks.

The Allele total is an arithmetic sum of the 0-5 allele values for each allele in that Stat section. Note that this does not always add up to the Stat value expressed for the Beetle. This is because high values in other Stats can inhibit the expression of that Stat. Life is a trade off.

If you hold the <ctrl> key on the Breeding screen, you will see a simplified version of this Genetic Detail section as a quick view. It shows the same information in a slightly simplified form.