Undawn Gene Guide: Everything You Need to Know

After reaching level 70 and completing a simple mission in Seinz Hills, every player receives a free Gene Workbench, which can be installed in their Homestead.

Using the Gene Workbench, you can synthesize, combine, upgrade, and equip genes. Genes provide significant boosts to both defensive and offensive characteristics for your character. In this brief guide, I’ll share everything I’ve learned about genes in Undawn and the intricacies of their functionality.

Gene Crafting

There are 4 types of genes:

• Active Gene: defensive characteristics;
• Resistance Gene: defensive characteristics;
• Awaken Gene: offensive characteristics;
• Superpower Gene: both offensive and defensive characteristics.

You can review the potential attributes of each gene in the Gene Crafting interface by clicking on the “Effect Preview” icon.

Simultaneously, players can equip up to 4 genes: 1 gene of each type. As you can see from the attribute list, Undawn’s genetics doesn’t offer much variability. The only choice that might affect your build is the attributes you receive from the Superpower Gene—primarily offensive or primarily defensive.

Crafting genes requires 4 Synthesis Reagents (obtainable from daily quests or purchasable with Gold from the Store), as well as 2 types of Uncommon and 2 types of Rare materials.

Interestingly, for gene crafting, you can use materials not only of level 4 (from the Golden Desert) but also of level 3 (from Koller Mines).

My tests (dozens of crafting attempts with various materials) didn’t show any significant difference in gene attributes. Therefore, I’m inclined to believe that the material level used to create the gene doesn’t impact its characteristics. However, I emphasize that these are just my superficial observations based on a very limited sample.

Each crafted gene can have 2 to 4 attributes. The chances can be viewed by clicking the “Info” icon in the Gene Crafting interface:

• 2 Stats = 30%,
• 3 Stats = 30%,
• 4 Stats = 40%.

Genetic Recombination

Genes can be combined with each other to create even more powerful genes. When crafting, a gene can have a maximum of 4 attributes, and through combination, a gene with up to 8 attributes can be obtained.

You can combine 2 genes of the same type (e.g., 2 “Active Gene” types).

In the Primary Gene slot, you place the gene whose attributes you want to modify. In the Minor Gene slot, you place the gene whose attributes you want to add to the Primary Gene. After the combination attempt, this gene will be destroyed.

The gene obtained through recombination randomly inherits a certain number of attributes from the Primary and Minor genes. You can guarantee keeping one of the Primary Gene’s attributes using a Stabilizing Agent (obtainable from tasks or purchasable for 5000 Gold from the Store).

The number of stats the final gene receives depends on the initial number of attributes in the Primary and Minor genes. For instance, if both genes have 4 attributes each (the maximum available after crafting), the chances are as follows:

• 6 Stats = 9%,
• 5 Stats = 24%,
• 4 or fewer Stats = 67%.

If one of the combined genes has fewer attributes, the chances of getting a gene with more stats decrease. You can see this in the screenshot below.

By clicking the “Effect Preview” icon, you can see the best possible gene combinations you’re trying to create. The chances of obtaining different numbers of attributes are also displayed here.

Each attempt at gene combination costs 1200 Silver and requires 3 Recombining Agents (obtainable from tasks or purchasable for 600 Gold from the Store).

Gene Synergy

In the Gene Transcription section, you can equip genes to your character and freely switch them. In the same section, you can gain additional bonuses from genes. For example, a combination of 4 genes, each with 5 attributes, unlocks Gene Synergy level 1.

I haven’t fully explored this aspect of genetics in Undawn yet. But I’ve found out that such improvements will require Transcription Plasmids (purchased in the Gold Store for 20000 Gold).

Once I fully understand this mechanic, I’ll update the guide. Thank you for your understanding and patience!

Gene Development Strategy

Creating high-quality genes is an extremely expensive and thankless task. Please read this section very carefully. You are not obligated to agree with my position on the cost of finished genes, but before you embark on crafting your own, there are a few things you should understand.

Firstly, the cost of each gene crafting attempt will set you back at least 10,000 Gold (considering an average cost of 1 normal material being 65-70 Gold and factoring in 4 Synthesis Reagents). This needs to be firmly established because people often don’t feel the cost of this craft when using materials instead of currency.

Secondly, each recombination attempt will cost you 1,800 Gold (x3 Recombining Reagent) or 6,800 Gold (if you wish to preserve a specific bonus with the help of a Stabilizing Agent). If you want to obtain a high-quality gene without undesirable bonuses (such as the one you can see in the picture), you will have to make quite a few attempts, and it’s essential to understand this in advance.

Now that you (hopefully) have an understanding of the cost of gene crafting in Undawn, I will explain my simple strategy for developing high-quality genes. Everything written here is, of course, done at your own risk.

1. Create a high-quality base gene. By “base gene,” I mean a gene with a purple bonus (for experienced and wealthy players, e.g., +71 Max Armor) or a high-quality blue bonus/group of bonuses (for casual players, e.g., +35 Damage, +25 Armor Piercing). It’s assumed that this gene will never be placed in a “minor” slot and destroyed in case of unsuccessful recombination. This is your foundation, which we will gradually cleanse of junk and enhance with other useful bonuses.
2. Cleanse the base of junk bonuses. When we obtain a gene, we don’t really need +4.1% damage to animals, do we? So, it’s essential to get rid of such bonuses as soon as possible so that they don’t hinder the addition of useful bonuses to the base in the future, and this will not be cheap. I do this as follows: I take some weak genes with a small number of bonuses (2-3 pieces) and attempt to merge them with the base until I get a result without junk parameters. It all depends on luck at this stage. The key is not to forget that at this stage, we REDUCE the number of base bonuses by removing junk, not increase them.
   
3. Enhance useful bonuses. At this stage, I take high-quality genes and attempt to merge them with the base to enhance the bonuses I need. It’s highly advisable to cleanse them of junk and donor genes beforehand because you won’t want to get 4% damage to animals in your base again, as it will be extremely challenging to remove them painlessly in the future.
   
   Here is where it gets interesting because to increase the chances of successfully enhancing useful bonuses, donor genes should be of high quality (having 4+ parameters without junk). This means you will have to repeat steps №2 and №3 multiple times to obtain high-quality donor genes and then attempt to enhance the base with their bonuses, losing a significant amount of gold in case of failure.

Therefore, creating a high-quality gene containing only useful and necessary bonuses will require millions (this is not an exaggeration) of gold or a great deal of luck.

With this understanding, I strongly recommend not selling high-quality genes (like the one in the picture below) for meager prices of 200-300k Gold. Achieving such a result for the same amount of money will be possible for 1 person out of 10,000. The real value of such a base gene is no less than 1 million Gold.

I’ll repeat, you are not obliged to agree with my position on the cost of genes. Whether to sell them cheaply or not is your personal business. My only task is to warn you that it is objectively unwise and unprofitable because even a Skill Chip: Utter Destruction (+2.8% Critical Hit) costs more than 300k (around 400-450k, to be precise). From a newcomer’s perspective, this may seem like a significant amount, but in reality, it’s just a few days of focused gold accumulation. So, if you’re lucky enough to create something similar but can’t sell it for a reasonable price, it’s better to keep such a gene for yourself and gradually develop it.