# Genetics

Every seed can carry **genetics** — five traits that tune how a crop performs. Genetics travel with the
seed and the planted crop through planting, harvest, breaking, the Planter/Harvester, storage, and reloads.

## Traits and caps

| Trait | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| Yield | Extra output per harvest |
| Speed | Faster growth (larger age steps) |
| Hardiness | Tolerate an otherwise hostile open-air world, up to a configured limit |
| Oxygen output | Offsets a greenhouse's nutrient upkeep |
| Food potency | Raises a food's signature effect, never above the species' own cap |

Each trait ranges **0–5**, and the **sum of all traits is capped at 15**. These caps are enforced the
instant genetics are decoded, networked, spliced, mutated, or read from a component — a hand-edited or
forged value is always clamped back into range, so no trait can exceed 5 and no seed can exceed a total of
15. Hardiness relaxes only open-air hostility; it can never skip the engineered greenhouse requirement that
high-tier crops have.

## Genetics Station

The NF-powered **Genetics Station** works on seeds:

- **Analyse** — right-click the station with a seed in hand to print its traits and total.
- **Splice** — two seeds in the input slots produce one output seed whose every trait is the higher of the
  two parents, then clamped to the total cap.
- **Upgrade** — a seed plus Material Essence raises the seed's lowest trait by one.

All of these use the same deterministic, capped maths, so an operation can never push a seed past its caps.

See also: [Breeding](Breeding.md), [Pollination](Pollination.md).