With the slew of backend changes from previous updates now finally done and out of the way, development was centered entirely on the development of new features for the past few months. And now, with the release of Thrive 0.6.7, we bring you the long awaited endosymbiosis feature, toxin customization, ferroplast organelle, and much more!

Read on for more details, or visit the download page linked below to get the new version. As always, the update is available for free with our launcher, or you can support development by purchasing on Steam or Itch.io.

Thrive 0.6.7

See our patch notes for full details, or read on for some of the highlights.

Day & Night Fully Implemented

The day/night cycle was originally implemented way back in 0.6.0 as an experimental feature. Today we are proud to announce that it has finally made it’s way into the game proper as a mainline feature and will always be active by default! Photosynthesizers beware the long night, as the sun is no longer a constant source of energy. Photosynthesizing players will have access to dedicated editor widgets that will help them calculate how much energy they produce, and how much they need to survive the night.

AI has been updated to account for the time cycle, and cells dependent on solar energy will become less active when the sun sets. Cells that spawn during the night will have their storage adjusted so they can survive despite.

Afraid of the dark? The day/night cycle can still be toggled off in the game settings on new-game start.

Endosymbiosis

The long awaited symbionts are finally here! Predatory players now have a unique method of kickstarting the evolution of compartmentalized processes by recruiting engulfed prey to serve their needs!

When the player engulfs a bacterial species they may be able to find that same species in the new endosymbiosis menu in their next editor session, where they will have the option to use the species to unlock an associated eukaryotic organelle.

Ferroplast Organelle

Iron appreciators rejoice, for there is finally a eukaryotic organelle for the chemolithoautotrophy process! This brand new hypothetical part, called the ferroplast, permits a more efficient way to harness those Fe- ions out there.

Expanded Toxin Varieties

With this update comes some brand new toxin varieties for players to weaponize themselves with. Each of the four toxin types have unique effects that can hinder your target in a variety of ways. Each toxin will also have it’s own unique color when fired, so let those vivid colors fly loose!

In the future, players will be able to adjust their fire rate at the cost of altered potency, but this is not yet fully implemented.

Other Notable Changes

• Buffed cell corpse chunks
• Added alternative unlock condition for oxytoxisome that unlocks it after dying multiple times, this models how prey species can become toxic instead of only predator species having access to toxin
• Updated land tree placeholder model
• Added a display in the editor showing how long each compound takes to fill up, this will hopefully help in planning for how to survive the night with enough resource generation during the day
• Made auto-evo consider surviving the night more to penalize species with not enough storage or resource stocking up during the day
• Created a new custom model for ice chunks to be separate from the particle effects also present in the patch
• Added custom model and icon for injectisome upgrade
• Added custom cursor icons for drag and dropping between inventory slots

See the rest of the new features in the full patch notes.

Looking Ahead

With this update, a bulk of the tasks planned for the 0.6.x release cycle have been completed. Players may be able to look forward to the implementation of a stamina and sprinting system, new cell parts and customization, and expanded features for toxins.

As always, remember to join us for our developer Thrivestream later today, where we’ll cover the changes in this release and answer any questions you might have about the future of development.

You can also visit our feedback thread to give your thoughts on this update.