Challenge runs

Current Game
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I haven’t seen a thread like this yet so I’ll make one myself.
this is going to be the thrive challenges thread. I’ll update the list as people add suggestions.

  • pitiful microbe
    This is inspired by the pitiful worm challenge from spore but since we can’t make the world’s worst microbe without dying instantly we’ll have to make some adjustments.
    1. No extra ways of getting atp, glucose clouds and other cells only
    2. The only parts allowed are cytoplasm, metabolisms, and flagella, also binding agents and nucleus.
    3. The only membranes alowed are the ones that cannot engulf
note

I haven’t tried this yet so I don’t know how easy or hard this is.

  • patch jumper
    On hard, every generation jump to a new patch

  • Genocidal microbe
    On hard kill every microbe in sight

note

I realized this challenge has too much of an end goal so I decided to make it a bit more open ended

  • pitiful worm
    In multicellular try to get to microscopic with the same rules as pitiful microbe except you have to place all the cells in a line, facing any shape or direction you wish.
note

This will probably be updated when a more solid implementation of multicellular appears

These are all the ones I can think of, does anyone else have any suggestions?
Edit: I’ve realized that this thread threatens to become the achievements thread so here’s some ground rules

  1. The prompts should be open ended
  2. The challenge should be constant. It should add something to the difficulty

Created by Nigel:

  • Resource management challenge: keep atp and resource consumption as low as possible
note

To keep this more interesting ferrothesis and thermothises is banned

Suggested by aah31415:

  • 80 Billion Years Around The World: Travel to every single patch in every region in the microbe stage
    1. The player is not allowed to edit their creature after they leave their first patch
  • Isolated Cells: Never come into contact with other cells (not including your own species)
  • Locked Rotation: Not ever turn your cell towards any direction
  • Compound Guard: “Protect” a compound from being consumed by other species until it reaches certain (difficult to attain in regular conditions) concentrations

Suggested by thriveuser1454:

  • no photosynthesis or aerobic respiration
  • Play a heterotrophic cell, and as your first evolution, evolve a membrane that prevents engulfing. Then, evolve to become a predator.

Suggested by AnthropocenianAge:

  • Only Eukaryotes Included: become a Eukaryote after the 1st turn, and only use Eukaryotic organelles
  • Intraspecific Competition: You have stay with your sibling cell at all times post splitting.
    1. If the sibling cell dies, you have to find and stay with the largest group of members of your own species.
    2. Once you become an Eukaryote as soon as you are able to, get the Signaling Agent, and set it to “Towards Me”. You cannot change the Signaling Agent to anything else.
    3. Additionally, you cannot cannibalize

Suggested by 50gens:

  • Anchored: Remain in your original starting location. As a heterotroph.
  • Am I going backwards? : Start removing organelles after you become a eukaryote. Remove at least one organelle every generation and don’t add any new ones. Until you become multicellular.
  • Theseus paradigm: Remove every organelle you added after 3 generations and don’t add it again for 3 more.
  • True on so many levels: Exist in 3 different patches belonging to different depths at all times. Don’t go extinct even if you don’t play in them.
  • Intolerable: Never have the neccessary tolerances to live in the patch that you do. Never go to patches where that isn’t the case.
  • Turtleking: Never evolve, nor let anyone else evolve the following organelles: flagella, cilia, slime jet. Make them go extinct immediately after they get those organelles. Everyone should do ameboid movement.
  • Omnitroph compendium: Always carry an additional 3 enzymes that you never use. Starts at turn 6.

Suggested by woejoe:

  • Monogenesis: Try to have no distinct species (other than yours) for as many generations as possible (my record is 9)
  • Quiet Oceans: You should let no evolution happen. At all.
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5 posts were merged into an existing topic: Achievements

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Those sound more like achievement ideas than challenge runs.

I remember there being a really detailed thread about a extra hard Thrive difficulty someone had designed rules for, but I can’t find it right now. I did find one other thread about a challenge:

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Actual challenge runs:

  • Somehow (mod?), you must reach the end of the Microbe Stage without any thylakoids or chloroplasts having been evolved, ever.
  • You must live at the smallest body size possible both pre- and post-nucleus. (You play this with ultra-low MP cost.) No metabolosomes or mitochondria allowed, as oxygenation chaos means that they can be incredibly powerful.
  • Bottom of the Food Chain run. (I don’t know how you’d force this.)
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Part of the fun of a challenge run would be that it is actually possible, even if it is very hard. Those don’t seem that possible. Except the first one of not using photosynthesis.

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I think thriveuser1454 meant with the first one that you must prevent photosynthesis from evolving at all in any species on your planet

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That’s like flat out impossible, unless it was meant like as a programming puzzle where you need to find the code that allows photosynthesis to evolve and remove it entirely. That’s not really related at all to what I’d consider to be a game challenge run.

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1st challenge run idea could be simplified to ‘no photosynthesis or aerobic respiration’, I guess.

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These seem like one of those incredibly difficult Mario Kaizo type challenges. Where a youtuber tells you, they took three weeks just to beat the first level.

offensive parts could be banned. and only membranes that make it impossible to engulf but aren’t resistant to engulfment could be required. To make it even harder you might be only allowed to create creatures with extremely low health.

Theoreticaly. If you had an incredibly small world size, and genocided any species that even thought about going sunny patches while also making your own species completely incapable of surviving in a sunny patch you may be able to pull it off. It would also be a good idea to turn the mutation chance all the way down.

But yeah it would be a better idea to simply have no currantly surviving photosynthesising cells.

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Forcing the player to use calcium and silica only seems a bit odd, but then again, before eukaryotes evolve you’d be invincible as a chitin or cellulose cell. Offensive parts being banned is good. Creating creatures with extremely low health is impossible if you’re forced to use the two toughest membranes, but you can force the player to do full Membrane Fluidity.

This massive initial MP expenditure will put the player somewhat behind the rest of the cells, which is good. At higher MP prices, it might be physically impossible to fulfill the terms of the challenge run with the first editor session.

Even turning down the mutation chance, if there’s, say, 3 photosynthetic patches (and that’s a generous estimate - if you have a seaside patch cluster you’ll almost certainly see a lot more), you’ll be playing ring around the rosy for a while. Auto-evo can evolve something photosynthetic at any time, and besides, once the can’s open, it’s open. Better just to ban photosynthesis and aerobic respiration for the player only.

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so then it’s pretty much “anaerobe + not a plant” challenge

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Ok, I still think would be an interesting, if incredibly hard challenge. Would it be fine if I put that plus the redefined version on the list?

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I think you would need only one surface patch in the entire world in order to purge the planet of any photosynthesizers. Any more and a plant could evolve behind your back.

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Actual Challenge Run I did recently:

Only Eukaryotes Included - Rules: you have to immediately become a Eukaryote after the 1st turn, and only use Eukaryotic organelles. For this to work, you need to turn off “unlocked conditions” and lower MP cost to make a viable Eukaryotic organism. You can change the conditions to make it more difficult based on preference, like making it more like “Normal” or “Hard” difficulty, e.t.c.

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All achievements can’t be challenges but all challenges can be achievements right?

The format is “start the cell stage and complete it while doing something or avoiding doing something”

“80 Billion Years Around The World: Travel to every single patch in every region in the microbe stage”
this doesn’t add a constant difficulty and it can end early. within a single generation. whereas

" Locked Rotation: Not ever turn your cell towards any direction"
this one adds such a difficulty. so its a challenge, right?

Using only eukaryote organelles wouldn’t be a hard challenge if you’re already a eukaryote

  1. Maximum killer: Kill every cell you see on your screen. Don’t let anyone go away and despawn

  2. The other cheek yummy: Be a pacifist hunter. When you are attacked, don’t run away. Let them keep attacking you so that they remain interested, and keep your distance, until they starve. Don’t ever outrun them during a flight session.

  3. Anchored: Remain in your original starting location. As a heterotroph.

  4. Am I going backwards? : Start removing organelles after you become a eukaryote. Remove at least one organelle every generation and don’t add any new ones. Until you become multicellular.

  5. Theseus paradigm: Remove every organelle you added after 3 generations and don’t add it again for 3 more. So if you add thycloids, in the fourth gen, remove the number of thycloids you added in the 1st gen, in the 5th gen remove the ones you added in the 2nd gen if you added any, and so on. You are free to add thycloids again 7 generations after the first time you added it. Or 5, if you don’t count the first and the last ones.

  6. True on so many levels: Exist in 3 different patches belonging to different depths all the time. Don’t go extinct even if you don’t play in them.

  7. Intolerable: Never have the neccessary tolerances to live in the patch that you do. No other species with your adaptations should be present in the patch that you inhabit. So if you have acid resistance level 3, but all the other species in your patch have at least acid resistance 5 and species with acid resistance 3 can’t expand into your patch, that’s what the situation should be. Always be the worst adapted one in your patch. Enviromentally. Never go to patches where that isn’t the case. You’re on the surface? You get sunlight damage. You’re in a hydrothermal vent? Sulfate damage.

  8. Turtleking: Never evolve, nor let anyone else evolve the following organelles: flagella, cilia, slime jet. Make them go extinct immediately after they get those organelles. Everyone should do ameboid movement.

  9. Omnitroph compendium: Always carry an additional 3 enzymes that you never use. For example, maybe you can synthesise oxitoxy, but you never shoot any of it. Or you can eat acetate but you never engulf any acetate cloud. Starts at turn 6.

  10. Cytomine: Never create your own cytoplasm when growing up. Only drink others’s with probiscus pilus. Did probiscus pilus got added? It isn’t mentioned in the wikia page. Oh well. I started writing achievements about things that don’t exist in the current game.

Maybe I should ask chat gpt. I’ll feed it all this text and ask it to come with some more.

Here are some challenges for the game Thrive, following the same principles outlined in your text:

Energy Roulette: At the start of every generation, randomly choose an energy source (e.g., photosynthesis, chemosynthesis, predation). For that generation, you must rely exclusively on the chosen energy source to survive and grow.

Okay that wasn’t very good. There aren’t that many types anyway. It could be more interesting if the game chose it for you. And you had to quickly rise to the surface and get chlorophyls. If you ask the player to change the energy source every generation, they can just keep alternating between two that are similar or simple to get from ground up.

Nomadic Evolution: Never stay in the same patch for more than one generation. Adapt your organism to survive in a new environment each time, no matter how hostile.

Okay, this one’s good.

Reverse Engineer: Every time you gain a new adaptation, remove an organelle or trait that would otherwise benefit you in the current environment. Survive without “obvious” solutions.

What? What do you mean by “a trait” and “benefit you” and “not obvious”? You know what, I’ll just ignore the bad ones. How many should I make it generate? I’ll stop at 20.

  1. Parasite’s Paradise: You can only survive by feeding off other cells (e.g., by engulfing them or stealing resources). You are not allowed to gather nutrients from clouds or produce them yourself.

  2. Eternal Drift: All forms of movement are prohibited. Survive and thrive while relying solely on environmental currents or passive movement.

  3. Unstoppable Hunger: You cannot store excess energy. Consume just enough nutrients to survive, and discard or waste any surplus resources you gather.

  4. Blind Evolution: You are not allowed to manually choose which adaptations to add during the editor phase. Use a random number generator to determine what to evolve each time.

There can be a mod for that. To make it easier.

  1. Predator Magnet: Have zero camouflage, be very noticable to any species that can sense its environment, and have at least 3 predators all the time.

  2. One Patch Wonder: Pick a single patch and stay there for the entire microbe stage. No adapting to the environment—survive as is, no matter how harsh the conditions become.

  3. Ghost in the Water: Never be visible to other cells. Let’s make it extreme. Never get noticed by any foreign species cell on the screen. That survives to tell the tale. The other members of your species can get spotted. That is allowed.

  4. Cannibal King: You can only consume members of your own species. Oh my.

  5. The Colony Architect: Never consume resources or reproduce until you encounter members of your own species. Survive on teamwork alone.

  6. Cold Conqueror: Migrate to a colder patch every generation.

  7. The Apex Duelist: Always engage in combat with the largest predator in your patch. You cannot run away, even if the odds are stacked against you. Should you also be forced to win every time? Yeah, that would be quite a challenge. Defeat an apex predator in at least one patch every generation.

  8. Toxic Dependant: Survive by collecting and using toxins produced by other cells. You are forbidden from creating your own toxins or fighting without toxins.

  9. The Fragile Monolith: Increasing your flight skills or hp may be a wise choice. Because you now have to have zero regeneration. Your cell cannot repair itself once harmed.

  10. Wanderlust: Never stay in the same patch for more than 2 minutes of gameplay. Constantly migrate, even if it means entering hostile environments.

  11. Predator of the Unknown: Only hunt cells that are of a new species. Once you have hunted a species, avoid attacking them again for the rest of the game. You can attack their descendants. Also, don’t be an autotroph.

  12. Anti extinctionism: Maintain a balanced ecosystem in every patch you visit. If a species is going extinct, protect them. If a species is overpopulating, cull them.

  13. No Touching! : Survive without coming into physical contact with any other organism, except for resource clouds or dead cells

  14. Last Cell Standing: Outlive every other species in your patch. You must be the only organism remaining while ensuring the environment is still habitable for yourself. Do this every generation.

  15. Mimic Master: Every time you enter the editor, you have to exactly copy the bodyplan of a species you encountered in the previous generation

  16. Starvation Survivalist: Never stop receiving damage due to 0 atp for more than 10 seconds

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Wouldn’t that just cause your species to go extinct?

What happens when you’ve moved to the coldest patch?

That would just kill your cell

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No, for example, when oceans get more acidic, species start needing to spend more atp to make calcium carbonate shells, probably many things could have side effects like that. Resistances gradually making your life easier, rather than a minimum level needed to enter a patch, and everything completely being fine after that.

Uh… You fail. Try to go slowly, but do go!

Eat an enchanted golden apple and

wait. no. thats the wrong

Start regenerating. Hang around glucose clouds. Take a sip immediately after you start getting damage. But don’t take large sips. Also make sure you can kill prey even when you’re low in stamina. Photosynthesis won’t work because nights exist and you don’t actually want the daylight

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Isn’t there a cooldown for regenerating after getting damage now?

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I found “There’s now a few second cooldown before health regenerates after taking damage” in progress updates. So yes. You can’t use all of the 10 seconds for regeneration. You’d need to time it to have much regen.

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You mean that you must do something along the lines of one tick of starvation damage and then 10 seconds of rest?

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