Gene Card Guide — Drafting & the Archive

The draft

After every cleared wave you choose one of three Gene Cards. The boost lasts only the current run — but the card itself is permanently added to your Gene Archive, where it can be leveled with Gene Essence to strengthen every future appearance. Draft what the RUN needs; level what your BUILD wants.

Drafts deal for the run you are actually playing: cards for the towers and heroes doing your damage come up more often, cards you were just offered come up less, and ◆ PICK marks the best fit for this board, not simply the rarest card. A card that barely touches your build says so (◇ Off-build).

Campaign runs from Stage 8 open with an Opening Draft built around your favorite tower. And when Biomass piles up between waves, Splice spends it on an extra draft — the price rises with every splice in the run (unlocks after Campaign Stage 5; everyone gets it on the Daily).

Reading a card

Cards speak a small effect language: multipliers, flat adds, flags, grants and hooks. Rarity scales with depth — pushing deeper waves offers rarer drafts. Some cards are gated behind progression unlocks, so the pool itself grows as you clear campaign stages.

Rule Genes

Some cards change the rules instead of the numbers: reaction builds that reward pairing fracture with corrosion, infection that spreads on kill, conveyor and strain economies, placement tricks, hero stances, and risk-for-reward trades. They unlock as you clear Campaign stages, a ⚙ RULE badge marks them in the draft, and once you have earned one every draft guarantees a rule-changing option. Build AROUND them: a Rule Gene picked in wave 2 should decide what you deploy for the rest of the run.

Archive strategy

Essence is scarce early: level broad multipliers first (damage, biomass income), then the cards that define your favorite archetype. A leveled common you see every run outperforms a legendary you see once a session.