# Cell stacking bug (Multicellular)

**URL:** https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960
**Category:** Bug Reports
**Tags:** visual-bug
**Created:** [March 13, 2026, 9:06pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960 "2026-03-13T21:06:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![AThrivingKraken](https://thrivecommunity-cdn.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/athrivingkraken/32/15075_2.png) [@AThrivingKraken](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/AThrivingKraken)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2026, 9:06pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960/1 "2026-03-13T21:06:54Z")

</div>

Version is 1.0.1. I’ve attached the game output log provided from the launcher to the [pastebin](https://pastebin.com/iS8B1HrP) link. This second [pastepin](https://pastebin.com/yhzWxnv0) link is a log file from the logs folder, that I think is for this play session.

I believe this only happens when you get damaged and loose cells, and some start to regrow. For some reason this cell seems to have 3 clones stacked on top of it, creating 4 health bars when you hover over it. When these cells get disconnected from the creature, they split apart before dying. This also makes the visual appearance of the cell looking darker than other cells. the cell being discussed is the one below the fossilize button. This has happened multiple times through this play through. I think this occurs as the creature is trying to regrow all of its cells that it lost, and regrows the selected cell multiple times. At least that is my hypothesis. More testing is needed.

 ![Cell duplicating on itself many times bug?](https://thrivecommunity-uploads.b-cdn.net/original/2X/b/be037175af83ced3598061faef9d6c0775bc791b.jpeg)

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### Author: ![AnthropocenianAge](https://thrivecommunity-cdn.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/anthropocenianage/32/16021_2.png) [@AnthropocenianAge](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/AnthropocenianAge)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960/2 "2026-03-13T21:38:07Z")

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I had the same thing happen a few days ago! I got stuck between some Terrain Chunks while cells were growing, then got hit by H2S, constantly losing cells and regrowing them.

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### Author: ![aah31415](https://thrivecommunity-cdn.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/aah31415/32/14564_2.png) [@aah31415](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/aah31415)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2026, 9:44pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960/3 "2026-03-13T21:44:33Z")

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I do recall also having some cells lost but this didn’t happen

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### Author: ![hhyyrylainen](https://thrivecommunity-cdn.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/hhyyrylainen/32/32_2.png) [@hhyyrylainen](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960/4 "2026-03-13T21:51:45Z")

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Only truly lost cells should regrow. So what I assume happened is that you lost a cell and all cells linked through that cell to your colony became unlinked. So did you then move away from them? That’s what you are supposed to do, or the now AI-controlled cells should move away. Then the regrown cells can safely get placed in your colony. Also the presence of multiple health bars and the fossilization button indicates to me that those extra cells are truly freed from your colony. Meaning they are no longer part of you and you should move away from them to regrow properly. As they are just normal cells now.

The only way this could be improved is if we just killed the detached cells, but I think that would be a worse option. If you mean that the cells are stuck to you even if you move away, then that’s a separate issue I’ve known for a while. I guess I should open an issue for that now that multicellular is our focus:

> <https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/issues/6804>
>
> Instead we kind of would need some way for the game to make sure the space occup…ied by a new colony member would be clear either before creating or maybe the physics body could start off at the colony origin and move or something. I'm not sure what would be the optimal solution, but I'm opening this issue as multicellular is now our focus and players keep reporting issues related to this every now and then.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![AThrivingKraken](https://thrivecommunity-cdn.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/athrivingkraken/32/15075_2.png) [@AThrivingKraken](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/AThrivingKraken)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2026, 9:57pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960/5 "2026-03-13T21:57:21Z")

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I moved away plenty, they don’t appear to be previous cells but they could be overlapping in an odd way. They perfectly align with the cell that is placed there, and move with you as if they were that cell in the colony.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![hhyyrylainen](https://thrivecommunity-cdn.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/hhyyrylainen/32/32_2.png) [@hhyyrylainen](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2026, 10:35pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960/6 "2026-03-13T22:35:20Z")

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My only guess then is that the cell that was supposed to die, could not unbind leading to these messages:

```auto
ERROR: Failed to unbind microbe from colony on death
ERROR: Failed to unbind microbe from colony on death

```

And it staying attached to you. At this point a save file that shows off the problem _triggering_ would be needed to get more info on this.

Edit: I just realized a mistake that has been made in multicellular by adding some new logging code:

```auto
OrganelleContainer: cannot unbind, species type is: MulticellularSpecies, part of colony: True

```

So I’ll fix that that force unbind events can still work in multicellular.

Edit 2: I may have made a fix that might fix this problem:

> <https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/pull/6819>
>
> \*\*Brief Description of What This PR Does\*\*
> 
> and overall added more error print…ing to the unbind processes. User-triggered unbinding is still prevented as non-forced actions.
> 
> \*\*Related Issues\*\*
> 
> 
> I think this might fix errors related to colony members staying attached and multiple stacking at the same location: https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/cell-stacking-bug-multicellular/8960 
> 
> \*\*Progress Checklist\*\*
> 
> Note: before starting this checklist the PR should be marked as non-draft.
> 
> \- \[x\] PR author has checked that this PR works as intended and doesn't
> break existing features:
> https://wiki.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/wiki/Testing\_Checklist
> (this is important as to not waste the time of Thrive team
> members reviewing this PR)
> \- \[\] Initial code review passed (this and further items should not be checked by the PR author)
> \- \[\] Functionality is confirmed working by another person (see above checklist link)
> \- \[\] Final code review is passed and code conforms to the 
> \[styleguide\](https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/blob/master/doc/style\_guide.md).
> 
> Before merging all CI jobs should finish on this PR without errors, if
> there are automatically detected style issues they should be fixed by
> the PR author. Merging must follow our
> \[styleguide\](https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive/blob/master/doc/style\_guide.md#git).
