The Geneticist (Pets)
The Geneticist lives in your Roster — right next to your Avatars — and it's all about one thing: collecting Pets. You pair two pets, they lay eggs over time, and you incubate those eggs to hatch what's inside — building out a Menagerie of every creature in the game. Every pet you own quietly makes you a little stronger.
It's designed to be the casual, collector side of Resonance: easy to learn, lovely to fill in. No combat to manage, no meters to babysit, no pet to keep fed or it dies. Just pair, hatch, and collect.
The Geneticist is opening in stages — operators first, then everyone. If you don't see the Pets tab in your Roster yet, it's on its way to your account.
The whole thing in one line
- What you collect: Pets.
- How far along you are: your Menagerie — how many creatures you've hatched.
- What you do: pair two pets, then incubate the eggs they make.
Everything else — families, hybrids, rarities, buffs — is detail you meet after that first choice, never before it.
Unlocking the Geneticist
Hatching regular pets is free — there's no research to buy to breed and hatch the base creatures. The only thing that gates a regular pet is whether its world is open yet (the same world-open gate as the rest of the game); once a world is live, its pets hatch with nothing to unlock.
Hybrids — the cross-family surprises — take one unlock:
- Unlock the Research Center — a one-time 10 Chits + 10 Crests in the Kitchen (see The Research Center).
- In the Research Center, buy The Geneticist (Pets) for 3 Scrolls.
That single Geneticist unlock opens hybrids across every world at once — there are no per-world geneticist keys any more. (If you'd bought the old per-world keys, the redundant ones were refunded.) Your pet system lives in your Roster, on the Pets tab, right next to your Avatars, and any gate here only ever unlocks what's next — it never touches a pet you already own.
How it works
1. Get your first two pets
You need two pets to start breeding. Base pets arrive from the places you already play — the world you're adventuring in, your mailbox, packs, and the odd in-game event. You don't have to breed to get your first pets; breeding is how you grow the collection from there.
The most common way in is a world egg. Clearing Journey levels in an open world drops eggs for that world (a Volcanic Common Egg, a Storm Common Egg, and so on) — no research required to hatch them — and you can get them from the Shop too. A world egg lands in your inventory like any other item — to hatch it, open the Incubator and use Load a world egg, which lists every egg you're holding. It hatches on the same ~4-hour timer as a banked Hatchery egg.
Eggs from a world that isn't open yet still show up in that list — greyed out, with the unlock you need right beside them, so you can open the world and hatch them without leaving the Incubator.
2. Pair them in the Hatchery
The Hatchery is a two-slot pen. Drop two pets into it and they're checked in — not used up. They stay yours, they just get to work. You can swap them out whenever you like.
3. Eggs bank over time
Once two pets are paired, the Hatchery lays an egg every few hours automatically and banks them up to a cap. There's no claim button — the count just ticks up while you're off doing other things, exactly like a Producer. (A paired Hatchery works fine at its base pace; it can be sped up as you progress, but you never have to.)
4. Incubate an egg — then reveal it
To hatch an egg, place it in the Incubator. It takes both kinds — an egg your Hatchery banked, or a world egg from a Journey drop or the Shop — and the idle slot offers whichever you have. It takes about 4 hours, one egg at a time, and a timer counts down while it's in there — so there's always one cooking while you play. When it's ready, hit Reveal and watch what hatches. The rarer the pet, the bigger the entrance — a common one gives a little pop; the top-tier creatures arrive with a proper show. The pet then attaches to your profile and starts giving you its buff right away.
The fun part — what an egg makes
Here's the twist that makes it a game and not a vending machine: an egg's contents come from its two parents.
Pair two pets from the same family and you'll mostly get more of that family — with the odd surprise. Pair two pets from different families and the egg could hatch as either parent's kind — or a hybrid somewhere in between. The rarest, most unusual pairings can even reach the very top of the ladder.
We're not going to spoil the combinations here — finding out what two pets make is the whole point. Half the joy is the experiment: "what happens if I put these two together?" Every egg the app previews its odds before you commit, so you're never guessing blind — but which creature actually pops out is always a little reveal.
What a pet gets you
Every pet carries a small, always-on buff — the kind of thing that helps a little everywhere: a touch more Journey power, a bit more loot, faster cooks, more Essence, and so on. You don't equip it or turn it on; just owning the pet applies it. Hold several and the buffs stack (up to a sensible ceiling, so a big collection can't run away with the game).
Rarer pets are worth chasing for more than looks: the top-tier creatures carry an extra, punchier special effect on top of their everyday buff. What those are — and which pets carry them — is part of the discovery. Fill the Menagerie and you'll find out.
Growing a pet — feeding
Pets level up by being fed. Feed one and it gains XP; enough XP and it levels, and its buff grows toward its cap. Culinary Pet Snacks give the most XP; spare gear and odds-and-ends give a little. Feeding is entirely optional — a pet never starves, never decays, and is never at risk. It's just how you make a favourite stronger over time.
Got a duplicate? It's never dead weight — a second copy of a pet you already own feeds straight into growing that pet, so no hatch is ever wasted.
The Menagerie — your collection book
The Menagerie is the trophy shelf, organised by world:
- Pets you own show in full colour with their number, level, and buff.
- Pets you haven't found yet show as a locked silhouette that tells you how to get them — which world they're from, or that they come from a particular kind of pairing.
Each world tracks its own completion (e.g. "14 / 26"), so there's always a clear, bite-sized target: gotta catch 'em all, one world at a time.
Seasonal expansion
The pet roster grows the same way the game's worlds do — one season at a time. Four worlds' worth of creatures are here to start (Volcanic, Storm, Tide, and Verdant), and each new season brings a brand-new set of pets to discover, with their own families and their own top-tier chase creatures.
Because families can cross between worlds, older pets never go stale — a creature from an early world paired with one from a newer world can make something you can't get any other way. Keep your old pets; they're breeding stock for combinations that only open up as more seasons arrive.
Live events and partners can drop one-off pets too — limited-time additions to the Menagerie that slot straight into the breeding pool while they're around.
Getting started
- Open your Roster and go to the Pets tab — no purchase needed to begin.
- Grab two pets — hatch a couple of world eggs (Journey drops from any open world, or the Shop) in the Incubator via Load a world egg, or take them from your mailbox or packs. Regular pets are free to hatch.
- Pair them in the Hatchery and let the eggs bank while you play.
- Incubate an egg (~4 hours), come back and reveal what hatched, and watch the Menagerie fill in.
- Want the hybrids? Unlock the Research Center (10 Chits + 10 Crests, one time), then buy The Geneticist (Pets) for 3 Scrolls — one unlock opens hybrids in every world.
Tips
- Pair and walk away. Eggs bank on their own — then incubate them one at a time (~4 hours each), so there's always one hatching while you play.
- Experiment with pairings. Same-family is reliable; mixing families is where the surprises (and hybrids) come from. The odds preview tells you the shape before you commit.
- Level your favourites. A well-fed pet's buff climbs toward its cap — Snacks are the fastest food.
- Hang on to old pets. Cross-world pairings unlock as new seasons land, and they're the only route to some creatures.
- Duplicates are fuel. A repeat pet grows the one you already have — never a wasted hatch.