A comprehensive reference for every mechanic in SpeciesQuest. Click any topic to explore it in depth.
3,000+ hex tiles across forests, deserts, tundras, and more.
The world is a hex grid of 3,000+ tiles, each with its own biome, food score, temperature, and active species. Tiles are unlocked gradually as player count grows. The map is based on real-world geography — the Serengeti, Arctic coast, boreal forests, and oceanic shores all have counterparts here.
High food, moderate temperature, dense competition. The most contested biome. Intelligence and social genes thrive here.
Open terrain with moderate food. Favors speed and reproduction rate for spreading across multiple tiles.
Harsh, low food, extreme heat. Only low-metabolism, high-adaptability species survive long-term. But almost no competition.
Cold, low food, frequent cold snaps. Resilience is everything. Species here grow slowly but face few rivals.
Extreme terrain with volcanic event risk. Isolates populations — great for mutation accumulation, bad for growth.
Moderate food but disease pressure. Stealth and resilience matter. Origin of many fungal plague events.
Variable food, flood risk. High food during calm ticks, severe losses during coastal flooding.
Not habitable by default. Aquatic trait mutations can unlock ocean tiles over time.
How much nutrition each tile provides per tick. Drops during droughts, spikes during food bloom events.
Affects species comfort. Mismatched temperature drains adaptability and increases die-off rates.
The maximum sustainable population in a tile. Overflow populations attempt to migrate.
Multiple species can share a tile. Each tick they interact — competing, hybridizing, or living as parasites and symbionts.