The game prevents you from giving pawns less than -5 metabolic efficiency it doesn't stop you from exceeding 5, but hunger rate will not go below 50%.Ĭomplexity, denoted by the symbol, affects how many gene processors you need to create a xenogerm from a set of genes. A baseline human has a metabolic efficiency of 0 (100% hunger rate), and genes can bring it as low as -5 (225% hunger rate) or up to 5 (50% hunger rate). Meanwhile helpful genes reduce metabolic efficiency, getting hungry faster, and thus consuming more food.
Harmful genes will increase their metabolic efficiency, getting hungry slower, and thus consuming less food overall. Metabolic efficiency, denoted by the symbol, controls the rate at which pawns get hungry. They can be obtained from character creation or implanted via xenogerm. Genes are a system for adding capabilities to human pawns.
For a full explanation of the gene system see: Genetics
