GodcloneRust crossbreeding planner

Clone guide › Quick answer

What do the gene letters mean in Rust?

Every seed, clone and plant has six genes, each one of five letters. G Growth, Y Yield and H Hardiness are good (green); W Water and X Empty are bad (red).

The five genes

What each gene letter does
GeneWhat it doesBreeding weight
G GrowthFaster through each stage: harvest sooner and more often.0.6
Y YieldMore produce at harvest, and more clones when you cut it.0.6
H HardinessCopes better with cold, heat and thirst. Useful in snow or desert, otherwise the weakest green.0.6
W WaterNeeds more water, so it dries out and slows down sooner.1.0
X EmptyDoes nothing. A wasted slot.1.0

Hover a seed or clone in your inventory to see its genes, or look at a plant once it's in the ground.

Does the order matter?

Not for growing: GGGYYY and YGYGYG grow exactly the same, because only the count of each letter counts. Order matters for breeding, which works slot by slot: slot 1 only takes genes from the neighbours' slot 1, and so on.

What the weights mean

When a plant crossbreeds, its neighbours' genes compete slot by slot. A red gene counts 1.0, a green only 0.6, so one red neighbour can push a red gene into your plant, while it takes two matching greens (1.2) to beat it. That's why red genes spread so easily. The full rule

Six greens is the goal: which six.

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