The cell stage is the first part of your spore journey and plays a lot like Pac-Man. The goals are simple; 'Eat or be eaten' and find parts to upgrade your cell.
Start of Life
A comet crashes into the ocean of a small planet. The rocks are displaced everywhere and out of one comes your cell. The first choice is to pick a carnivore or a herbivore mouth then your ready to start eating and amassing DNA points.
Cell Editing
- For more information see Spore/Cell Editor
You can edit your cell at any time you want if you have enough DNA Points. To edit a cell, click on the 'Call Mate' button on your screen and then follow the sound of another cell. Swim up to the cell and then you can enter the Cell Editor.
Food and DNA Points
There are many types of food in the cell stage and you'll need to eat the type that corresponds with your cell.
- Plants. There are two main types of plants. Small green bits floating around and large seaweed. Unsuprisingly, these larger plants attract herbivores. If you're a carnivore, it may be worth taking a look.
- Meat. Meat is eaten by carvnivores. Defeat a cell and eat the juicy bits inside.
- Eggs. All cells can eat eggs. Eggs only begin to appear later in the cell stage. Eggs will eventually hatch so eat them before they grow into a predator and eat you.
- Cells. If you have a proboscis, you can become parasitic and suck the nutrients out of living cells.
Objects
There are several objects you can encounter in the cell stage as you swim in the water.
- Debris and Shells. These objects are unbreakable and only serve as barriers.
- Air Bubbles. Air bubbles will be found all around the area you're playing in.
- Current. Swim with the flow of these streams to go faster.
- Posion Cloud. Any cell armed with a poison sac will leave a trail. Don't swim in these.
- Meteor Block. Ram these opens to get new body parts.
Cells
There are four types of cells in the cell stage.
- Prey. Cells smaller than you are easy prey and aren't a threat at all.
- Peer. Peer cells are the same size as you.
- Predator. Beware of predators, which can kill you in two strikes. You can still defeat them if you discover their weaknesses.
- Epic. Epic cells are the ones you should be scared of. They can kill you in one strike and can only be defeated by the cleverest of cells.
Stages
There are five main stages in the cell stage each divided into two sub-stages. Each substage is marked by an increase in size. An increase in size obviously means your cell will be slightly bigger. It also means that any cell that was around the same size as you is now smaller and easy prey if you're a carnivore or an omnivoure. When you can see the floor under the sea, it means you're almost ready to evolve to the creature stage.
Ways to Play
Carnivore
Carnivores are meat eaters; therefore they cannot eat plant chunks (green). The advantage is that, unlike herbivores, their mouths can be used as a crude weapon against other cells. Carnivores can either eat up meat chunks, or kill another cell, which then splits into several meat chunks. It is possible to complete this stage without killing another cell, but it is much harder to do so.
If the cell remains a carnivore until the end of the cell phase then it will carry this characteristic, and the consequence abilities it gives, into subsequent phases
Herbivore
Herbivores are plant eaters; therefore they can only eat the floating green pieces, or feed off of one of the arms off one of the larger green 'plants'.
Because herbivores are more inclined towards a passive nature their mouths cannot be adequately used for defence. However, herbivores, like all cells, can make use of spikes as an attack/defence mechanism.
If the cell remains a herbivore until the end of the cell phase then it will carry this characteristic, and the consequence abilities it gives, into subsequent phases
Omnivore
Spore doesn't provide you with the option to be an omnivore from the beginning, but by adding a herbivore and carnivore mouth to your creature it allows you to eat both types of food.
Later on in the phase you may discover the proboscis, which allows you to 'suck' nutrients out of anything you happen to bump into. The main difficulty with this option is that you need to play a careful balancing act for your cell to finish the phase as an omnivore.
If the cell remains a omnivore until the end of the cell phase then it will carry this characteristic, and the consequence abilities it gives, into subsequent phases