Spiky Body and harder islands

[glitchplight]

So, when we initially had the update, most player's opinions of the Spiky body were pretty much universally negative, mostly due to the damage when mating. However, the other thing about people's opinions back then is that they had to play from the beginning, when there were barely any carnivores to take advantage of positivity in hurting carnivores that attack spiky creatures.

Beyond the second island however, I'm starting to get surrounded by 2 or even 3 carnivores at a time, and their high spawn rate is actually making me consider bringing back the spiky body into my genetics. Of course, the added strength stat to spiky bodied creatures is a definite plus in general.

Which is why I wanted to ask, for those of you that have gotten past the second island or have just went to the killer island already, how the spiky body gene or other genes factor into your creatures? Or just how worth it it is at that point.

[ZimmaH]

Isn't big body just better?

[sevenluck]

I've made it to killer island, and the spiky body trait managed to stick around with my migrated animals. In truth, it doesn't seem to hurt carnivores all that much and it's still more of a pain when the spiky body hurts whoever it breeds with- especially when survival is at stake. It's more annoying than useful and it's only been kept around because I want the immunity genes attached to the spiky creatures.

The webbed feet + big body is killer for movement speed... I find it's good to prioritize high mobility and double claws on killer island (with a few berry paws for food). Strike hard, then be able to escape if more pop up so you can gather reinforcements.

If you want to deal with the consequences of spiky body, go for it, but I still think it hinders more than helps. Maybe if horny males were put off breeding with spiky females it'd be better to keep around.