Home FAQ Get Involved News Download

Progress Update 5/16/2026

Posted on May 16, 2026

Progress Update Banner 2026-05-16

As announced last week, we are now in feature freeze for the release of 1.1.0 next week! Which means there is also a release candidate build available right now for testing. If you're interested, please help us discover any bugs or other issues to be ironed out before the official release.

As also hinted at last time, we still have two rather significant new features added to the game this week. First, we have our first new Multicellular reproduction mode: Spore. This lets you select any of your cell types as the one you spawn in as instead of your normal first cell. You can then use a new active ability to “germinate” this spore into your normal first cell whenever you want. This for example gives you the option to have your otherwise sessile organism start life as a highly mobile spore to find the best possible place to settle in. For now, this is all it does, but we also have plans to eventually let you germinate your spore into multiple cells if it stores enough resources.

Secondly, there's been a significant update to the cell specialization feature. Up until now, the bonus only affected process speeds. But this has now been expanded to affect almost everything else done by organelles in a cell as well. This makes cell specialization and adjacency a lot more powerful. To go with this, we also have new tutorials for both cell specialization and adjacency in the game.

Besides various bugfixes, there were still some other significant changes. The oxygen tolerance slider now caps out at 10%, meaning you have to get the rest of any tolerance you need out of organelles. The performance of toxin organelles was brought down overall, and the Double membrane type was converted into an anti-toxin specialist. Meanwhile, over on the development forums there was only one small comment on a previous design question.

So look below for the full progress list, help us test the release candidate if you can, and we will see you next week for the release stream for Thrive 1.1.0!

Programming

New Devbuild available to our Patreon Supporters:
- Added spore reproduction mode
- Expanded cell specialization effects to movement, tolerances, toxins and various other cell functions
- Added a tutorial for the specialization feature both in the microbe and multicellular stages
- Limited max oxygen tolerance on the slider greatly to force higher tolerance values only to be available through adding organelles that grant tolerance bonuses to oxygen
- Rebalanced the double membrane type
- Tweaked toxin balance by reducing damage and generation speed and slightly increased max cooldown between shots
- Tweaked the threshold for AI to consider it having enough toxin to shoot
- Fixed flagellum push direction calculation when placed exactly at 0, 0 coordinates
- Fixed pilus physical position being offset from the graphical model in some cells (all cells use now more accurate math)
- Fixed player colony members independently deciding to eject toxic food
- Added loading screen tips about specialization
- Adjusted cloud system assumed runtime cost in the code
- Added a proper icon for the Thriveopedia page pin button
- Updated banana biome currents and added radioactive chunks
- Updated System.IO.Hashing from 10.0.7 to 10.0.8
- Updated Thriveopedia content
- Updated translations

Graphics

Nothing substantial.

Gameplay

Added Sporulation reproduction mode for Multicellular. This lets you select any of your designed cell types (even ones not actually placed in the design) as a “spore.” Instead of starting with the first cell in your growth order after you leave the editor/respawn, you will instead spawn as the spore. You can then use the “germinate” ability (K) at will to transform into the normal “first cell” and grow as usual from there.
Expanded the cell specialization bonus (which is affected by adjacency) to not just affect process speeds, but also almost everything else that happens in a cell. That includes:
- Positive environmental tolerance effects from organelles.
- Storage capacities from organelles.
- Movement speed from organelles (only flagella right now)
- Turning speed from organelles (only cilia right now)
- Digestion speed and efficiency from organelles.
- Toxin fire cooldown reduction from organelles.
- Pulling Cilia pull strength.
Added tutorials for cell specialization and adjacency.
Limited max oxygen tolerance on the slider greatly to force higher tolerance values only to be available through adding organelles that grant tolerance bonuses to oxygen
Rebalanced the double membrane type: Reduced osmoregulation was removed. General health was brought down, but toxin resistance was greatly increased.
Game design discussions:
- A short comment on size-related costs.