An advanced guide on playing VirtuaCreature quickly & efficiently, created by a dev!
 
 

Introduction

Hello!
 
 
I’ve created this guide as a sort of advanced walkthrough for players who know their way around the basic mechanics but feel like they’re missing something, whether that be the game feeling too slow-paced, their creature lacking in power, etc. VirtuaCreature can seem like a complicated or difficult game to manage on a first playthrough, but once you know your way around its mechanics, you’ll see that it’s fairly simple to play quickly and efficiently. Keep in mind this guide is aimed at people with some knowledge of the basic gameplay, so if you’ve never played at all before, some things here might not make sense.
 
 
Let’s get into it!
 
 
 

Obtaining a specific creature

Obtaining the specific creature you want for your playstyle should be the foundation of any run through the game. The evolution system works like a tree, with a couple different factors deciding what branch you land on.
 
 
The two main stats you must consider are Behavior and Taste, which can both be viewed on the Info & Moves screen.
 

• Behavior is determined by the minigames you play, with games from the “Training” section making your creature have more of a “Trainer” behavior, and games from the “Care” section giving it a “Playful” behavior.
• Taste is determined by the recipes you feed your creature. Each crafted item has 2 variants, one being “basic”, which gives your creature a palate for “Sweet”, and the other being “acidic”, which in turn gives your creature “Salty” taste buds.

 
These mechanics in tandem create four separate possible branches, which surprise surprise, each correlate with one of the major battle stats and type attached to every creature. So, what can each combination give you?
 

• Trainer behavior + Salty taste will land you on the Physicality type, with creatures specializing in hard hitting, non-magical moves.
• Trainer behavior + Sweet taste will get you to the Swiftness type. These creatures will have base speeds higher than any others, so you will almost always have turn priority in battle.
• Playful behavior + Salty taste gets you to the Resistance type, where the ability to tank tons of damage can be used to your advantage.
• Playful behavior + Sweet taste will land you on the Sorcery type, where in opposition to Physicality, creatures here specialize in powerful magical moves.

 
 

 
 
However, you may have noticed there are four creatures in each category, not two. How can this be possible? Well, there is one more stat to consider here, and it’s crucial: Happiness.
 
 
Happiness is the most difficult of these values to track. Generally, it will go down if you overfeed your creature or continually play minigames in one of the categories, and it will go up if you play a variety of minigames from both categories. Having a very unhappy creature will completely cripple it in battle, so as a rule, you’d usually want to keep this at maximum, right? Well, here’s where it gets a little tricky.
 
 
Within each of these evolution branches are two important sub-branches: Balanced and Niche.
 

• Balanced creatures are the more general of the two, and most people will tend to prefer this option. You have a little more flexibility in what roles it can serve, and all of its stats are generally good.
• Niche creatures will have a glaring weakness in at least one of their stats, but are extremely high in their main stat. Additionally, niche creature abilities are usually more complex and situational. You have to use one or two specific playstyles, but the benefit is it will excel in that role.

 
 

 
 
Speccing into one of these branches requires slightly attuning your happiness.
 

• If you want a balanced creature, as most will, make sure you don’t overfocus on one type of minigame. For example, if you play two Training minigames, and then one Care minigame, you’ll grow a Trainer Behavior stat without incurring any happiness loss.
• If you want to try a niche creature, the easiest way is to overplay one type of minigame. For example, if you play five Training minigames in a row, and then one Care minigame, you’ll slightly dent your happiness without going too overboard.

 
This is probably the hardest of the mechanics to figure out, so don’t worry if it takes a while. We promise the rest is easier!
 
 
 

Manipulating stats

So you’ve gotten your desired creature, and now you’re ready to optimize it. Well, the first part of that process is stat manipulation, or ensuring your creature has the numbers you want before you apply any type of boost. Unlike similar RPGs, there isn’t actually too much to consider here. Your stats are broken into three distinct pools:
 

• Your base stats are determined by what creature you have, and scale exactly as you level up. Nothing you can do about these, so aside from getting the evolution branch you want to determine your primary specialization, you can move along!
• Next are Mod points, which are given each time you feed your creature a recipe, up to a total of 40. Each crafted item gives a point towards one stat, so you have a lot of time to finalize your exact spread.
• Finally there are Level points, which are decided semi-randomly on each levelup, and are given up until level 50. Your highest stat is most likely to get the point, followed by your second-highest, and then finally a small chance for it to be random. So, you have a bit of room to influence this process. Using crafted items to push your two most important stats to the front can ensure a better spread for your Level points.

 
It should also be noted that crafted items give a temporary 10% boost to its specific stat for 24 hours. Make sure to feed your creature one recipe before battles to take advantage of that extra juice!
 
 
 

Equipment

Perhaps the most important factor towards your stat spread, equipment can be used to gain an immense advantage in a particular stat. All equipment is obtained through chests, which will give you a random piece with a general object type, color, and rarity.
 
 

 
 

• Red: The type will determine what stat will be boosted. There’s one for each of the main battle stats including health, as well as an extremely rare type for boosting the damage increase on critical hits.
• Green: There’s a color for each of the four types, and using the color matching your creature’s type will increase the chance any of your damage moves land a critical hit.
• Blue: Rarity ranges from +1 to +5, and determines how much of a stat increase is granted for wearing this equipment. Since gold chests have the largest chance of getting +5, this should be where the majority of your in-game money goes.

 
This is already a very potent system capable of increasing a stat by 30%. However, using equipment leveling, we can take this even further. Using colored gems called Synths, equipment can be leveled up to increase its potency, totaling in a possible 50% boost to a stat at the maximum level of 9.
 
 
Obtaining Synths can be a time-consuming process, so here’s a breakdown of each method:
 

• Nodes on the Void Mine marked with an “S” have a higher chance of netting Synths as the reward. This method becomes very reliable as you advance, however it also takes the longest as nodes are on progressively longer timers. Using this as a passive bonus rather than your active way to accrue Synths is the best way to engage with this method.
• Daily Missions will sometimes give Synths as their reward, usually in fairly high quantities. Checking every day you’re able to can quickly increase your total.
• Playing Versus Public matches or any type of Co-op match will increase your “Player Level”, which in turn nets you rewards, one of them being Synths. Finding people to play with can increase your total at a decent rate.

 
 

 
 
It should be noted that while Synths can be used to increase the rarity of equipment, it is very costly, so it’s better to use chests to guarantee +4 or +5. Once you’ve gotten your preferred piece of equipment finalized, you have to equip it.
 

• For single-player or Co-op matches, simply go to the Equipment screen from the Homescreen and select one of your three slots.
• For PvP matches, go to your Versus Loadout in the Network Plaza and equip it. You only get one slot here rather than the three you get in single-player or Co-op, so choose wisely!

 
 
 

Movesets

While the default moves for your creature are likely alright, swapping them out can help specialize your role or give you the element of surprise over your opponent. Luckily, unlocking new moves is fairly simple! When you evolve into a new creature, you get all their moves unlocked permanently, and plenty more are available in the shop. While shopping, a prompt will tell you if the move you’re buying is incompatible with your current creature.
 
 

 
 
Once you have your moves picked out, simply head to the Info & Moves screen and you’ll see an option to swap each move out. Tada!
 
 

 
 
 

Grinding strategies

Now that you have your desired creature, your moves picked, and your equipment ready, are you at your maximum potential? Almost!
 
 
To demonstrate the importance of level scaling, here’s an example using a PvP match between two players. While your base stats will scale up to level 50, meaning you won’t be at an extreme disadvantage for being at a lower level, things like Level points and Mod points do not. To illustrate this difference:
 
 

 
 

• If player 1 enters with a level 35 creature, and player 2 enters with a level 50, there will be 15 stat points missing from player 1, giving them a small disadvantage.
• If player 1 has only fed 10 crafted items to their creature, and player 2 has fed 20, that creates another 10 point difference, for a total 25 stat point disadvantage.

 
With single-player content, this effect is much worse, as your base stats will also be scaled differently, and you’re looking at tens or hundreds of points of difference. So, you want your creature as close to max level as possible, and with constantly depleting hunger in order to feed it recipes frequently. If you don’t know how to do this efficiently, you’re in for a long haul. Let’s go over how to gain levels quickly!
 
 

Minimize your Minigames

 
Minigames net very low amounts of XP and money, and overplaying them can lead to a shift in your evolutionary branch. Once you’ve evolved past Blob, aside from getting your required Behavior points or to restore Happiness, you should be focusing on other activities.
 
 

Abuse the Arenas

 
The Arena battle mechanics are incredibly simple, essentially just being a quiz on identifying creature types and their weaknesses, paired with some behind-the-scenes number crunching. This also makes them very easy, and a great source of XP. Some key points of your playthrough to keep this in mind:
 

• From level 5 to 15 during the Rookie tier, this should be your main method of leveling, as you have yet to unlock the core battling.
• By the time you’ve hit level 25, you’ve likely cleared the Battle Towers for the Challenger tier, and the chances of winning the first Champion tower before your final evolution at level 35 are next to none. This is usually the slowest point of progression in the game, so repeating your hardest available arena will burn through it without much mental effort.
• Once you’ve cleared all the story towers, you will likely need to Rebirth your creature and hit the next level cap before most of the post-game content is doable. That final grind up to max level can once again be bypassed with little effort by repeating your hardest arenas.

 

Expedite your XP

 
You can sometimes earn temporary XP boosts through Daily Missions, or rarely by playing Versus Public or Co-op matches. These give you periods to efficiently level up whenever you have the time for a longer play session. Additionally, if you’re financially able, you can permanently double your XP by purchasing the Premium Upgrade – [steampowered.com] , which will also give you more slots if you want to raise multiple creatures for experimentation or variation in playstyle. Temporary boosts stack on top of the permanent one, so you can burn through levels incredibly fast if you’re diligent about when you use them.
 
 
 

Conclusion

I hope this guide has been helpful! I’m aware that VirtuaCreature is a niche game that plays sort of unusually sometimes, so my main goal here was to demonstrate that there are easy ways to get past feeling slow or stuck. It’s not for everyone, but maybe it can be for you 🙂
 
 
Happy playing!
 
 

 
 
Here we come to an end for VirtuaCreature Gameplay Basics & Walkthrough hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!