This achievement will take 1-1.5 hours.
I have two different methods for doing this, I recommend you have a basic understanding of the edyGene editor first, but it is not required.
Method A [Less reliable, but requires less brain power and no level requirement]:
-[Optional] start a new free play tank
-Duplicate your plants by taking/planting clippings to build up a reserve
-Pause time
-open the DNA window with
and go to the edyGene tab
-take a plant/leaf clipping and place it in the right window of the DNA editor
-analyze the DNA by clicking the large DNA button
-once complete, simply click the Radiation button. This will do one of three things:
| - Fizzle -- this means it had no effect, this is neutral, doesn't matter if this happens
| - Glitch (Specimen seems nominal) -- this is good, this means we just made progress on the achievement
| - Glitch (Specimen seems sick) -- this is bad, this means our plant died and we need to select another
-Just keep clicking the radiation button until the plant dies, we ideally want as many nominal glitches as possible, I typically got 0-7 per plant, it varies a lot.
-every once and awhile, make some more plants, once you unlock more research methods, consider Method B.
Method B [More involved, but faster and more reliable, also requires you to be around level 20]:
-[You need the third DNA mutating tool unlocked, I don't remember what it's called, but there's three tools: The radiation symbol, the petri dish symbol, and finally the one that looks like a virus bacteriophage]
-[Optional] start a new free play tank
-Duplicate your plants by taking/planting clippings to build up a reserve
-Pause time
-Save the DNA structure of one plant by doing the following:
| - Open the edyGene screen using
| - Take a plant/leaf clipping and place it in the right window of the DNA editor
| - Press the DNA button to analyze the genes of the plant
| - Once complete, press the button to save this DNA structure in the first slot (Upside down triangle with a dot in it)
| - now open the saved DNA structure so that you can compare it with others (it should not show in the top and bottom window)
-Now find another plant, preferably with an obvious mutation, or one that looks different.
-Now with the new plant selected, analyze its DNA
-Once complete, look for any highlighted letters/sections, this indicates codons that can be changed without killing the specimen. Ideally, we would like to find a changeable codon that is near the end of the list of codons.
-[optional] Mark the codon so it is easier to find later
-Select the third mutating tool (the one that looks like a virus bacteriophage, we use this one because it seems to have a 100% success rate)
-Now change one of the highlighted letters in the codon
-Press the 'virus' mutation button
-If it succeeds, revert the changed letter back to its original value
-Press the 'virus' mutation button again, and it should succeed again
-now just keep repeating the last few steps, keep alternating a single safe value and applying it by clicking the 'virus' button.
Notes
-The Amino Acid chart can help if you don't know what you're doing
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=16196...-This can be done with a single plant, it does not need to be 1000 different plants
-Analyzing the DNA gets faster as you level up, by level 40, it only takes about 1 second.