Why is it so hard to obtain one of the genetic traits?

[Onion]

I've got a big locker full of so many traits except for the one that looks like the first in the list (variant?) but has parts not coloured in (It looks like a rabbit with three ears). You don't seem to be able to extract them from anything you can put in and I've found a few of them. Am I missing something?

[Enter the Wang]

Yes, you can tool tip over each of the potential ingredients at the genetic extractor and it will tell you what trait you will extract from that ingredient.

I had the same issue.

[Onion]

Yeah, it's weird. I've got five mammals made but can't do any more because of this one type of trait.

[Zatick]

I think you're talking about species, you can get them from bee larvae (tier 2 hive).

[Onion]

No, I can get that one easily. It's the variant one lower down which doesn't appear when you mouseover the things you can extract from.

[Enter the Wang]

I think I collected Variant traits from portal wrecks.

[Onion]

Yeah, I've started doing that. I suppose they just made it so it takes some effort to do them.

[sonobionda]

I just noticed that when you pet existing animals you also get DNA characteristics. Among other things, I had the one for the variant

[Phoenix Cat]

I've gotten variant trait from portal and petting my animals. Have quite a few.

[Onion]

Originally posted by brnphoenix75:

I've gotten variant trait from portal and petting my animals. Have quite a few.

Yes, I've now found that out. So for other people, go to the other areas through the portal to find some and pet the animals. It's down to chance which traits you get, so it will be slow build-up.

[jquilty3]

finding traits has become the first really annoyingly grindy aspect of this game - I've gone to many 5 rarity locations and found no additional species traits past the 3 you can craft in game - please make it a little easier to find more species traits

[Onion]

Originally posted by jquilty3:

finding traits has become the first really annoyingly grindy aspect of this game - I've gone to many 5 rarity locations and found no additional species traits past the 3 you can craft in game - please make it a little easier to find more species traits

Yes, although the variant one tends to show up from petting animals if you can get a few created. The ones from frogs eggs are a grind, so just grab any generic eggs you come across.

[archmag]

Originally posted by jquilty3:

finding traits has become the first really annoyingly grindy aspect of this game - I've gone to many 5 rarity locations and found no additional species traits past the 3 you can craft in game - please make it a little easier to find more species traits

There are only 3 species. And you can make all 3 of them.

Species, Color A, Color B traits you can only extract.

You can loot or extract other traits which are not necessary for creation of an animal (can only loot some things, can only extract others).

You can pet animals to get random traits from them from time to time (usually the ones they have, rarely the ones they don't have).

[wyldfae28]

I have most of a T2 storage filled with variants. Some are harder to come by than others. You don't really need variants to make your first mammals, but I find I like them better than the base creatures. If you can just get a couple from chests in the new biomes or wrecks, it gives you something to work with. After that, most of them come from petting them. I have found that if I experiment with different combinations of traits till I find one I really like, then make those and continue petting them..a lot. I end up with a bunch of the traits (including variants) that I favor plus the occasional outlier to try on another creation.

This way I can create "colonies" of similar animals in different biomes. It just takes a bit of time. I keep an "experiment" shelter right by my science center to take DNA to so I can see what things look like before I make more.

[randal_thor69]

Here is a great reddit post about genetic traits: https://www.reddit.com/r/theplanetcrafter/comments/1c15daq/10_animals_and_genetics/