Mutation



When an amoeba mutates, it turns into a cyst. After a short delay, it emerges as a different type of amoeba. Mutating costs a lot of energy, but does not require your amoeba to be well fed.

All amoeba are considered a certain tier that is decided by their strength and level of threat. The cost of mutating any amoeba into another as well as the amount of time a mutating amoeba stays a cyst differs between tiers. They can be broken down as follows:


 * Tier-1 amoeba (Locust, Wasp, Shark) require 30 Energy to mutate into, except the Locust who requires 5 Energy, and cyst for 8 seconds
 * Tier-2 amoeba (Rhino, Stingray, Viper) require 60 Energy and cyst for 16 seconds
 * Tier -3 amoeba (Ursa, Queen, Alpha) require 120 Energy and cyst for 24 seconds

Spawning Pools half the amount of time an amoeba spends as a cyst.

Keeping in mind that all amoeba have an attack period of 2 seconds, you can use spawning pools and lower tier amoeba to keep your army filled out even in the middle of combat with enough energy.

Trivia

 * Amoeba were originally organized into BSL (Biosafety Levels) instead of tiers, with the chaos and proteus amoeba filling BSL-4. Initial testers were thrown off by the acronym, so it was changed into a term that felt more like it fit a video game: tiers. The original concept is a loose adaptation of real life Biosafety Levels, a universal set of bio-containment precautions used to isolate dangerous biological agents in enclosed laboratory facilities.