The Basics
You are a rogue scientist who just received Subject 001 — a rat infected with a mutant strain of the Hantavirus. Your job is to keep it alive, feed it, and watch it evolve through 6 mutation stages.
Controls
TAB or Left Button — Navigate menu icons
SPACE / ENTER or Middle Button — Confirm action
BACKSPACE or Right Button — Go back / Cancel
Feeding
Your rat gets hungry fast. Use the Feed icon to give it a Meal (fills hunger) or a Snack (boosts happiness). Starving rats get sick and die. Don't let that happen. Or do.
Health & Sickness
The rat can get sick at any time — it is carrying a deadly virus after all. When it does, use Medicine to treat it. Ignore sickness long enough and your subject won't make it to the next stage.
Mutation Stages
Egg — Incubation period (~20s)
Newborn Carrier — Fragile, needs constant care (~3 min)
Juvenile Host — Growing, getting hungrier (~4 min)
Active Vector — Rebellious, may refuse food (~4.5 min)
Super Spreader — Peak infection, strongest form (~5 min)
Elder Strain — Final form, mutations stabilizing (~4 min)
Total lifecycle: roughly 20 minutes if you keep it alive. The NEXT MUTATION timer in the Vitals panel shows your countdown.
Hygiene
Your rat leaves messes. Let them pile up and it gets sick faster. Use Clean to flush them away. Think of it as biohazard waste disposal.
Play & Happiness
Bored rats become unhappy rats. Use Play to start a mini-game and boost happiness. A happy rat lives longer and evolves faster.
Discipline
Sometimes your rat calls for attention for no reason or refuses food when it's hungry. That's bad behavior. Use Discipline to correct it. Builds character. For a rat.
Sleep
When the rat falls asleep, turn the light off. When it wakes up, turn it back on. Disturbing its sleep cycle weakens its immune system (what's left of it).
Chat
Use the chat panel at the bottom to talk to your rat. It understands keywords like feed, play, sleep, virus, and more. It will also tell you what it needs — if it feels like it.
Vitals Panel
The right panel tracks all critical metrics in real-time:
- Infection — Overall pathogen level, rises with each stage
- Hunger — Feed before it hits zero
- Happiness — Play and snacks keep it up
- Mutation — Current evolution stage
- Next Mutation — Time until the next stage
- Weight & Age — Tracked automatically
- Discipline — How obedient your subject is
Death
If you neglect your rat — don't feed it, ignore sickness, let messes pile up — it will die. Game over. You can reset and start again with a new egg. The virus always finds a new host.
⚠ REMEMBER: YOU ARE GROWING A BIOHAZARD. PROCEED ACCORDINGLY.