Collect creatures with a variety of colours to choose from, and breed them together to make your own fully traceable ancestry trees. Explore and battle alongside your creatures to gather resources and help the research effort. Protochroma receives regular feature and creature updates, and creating an account is free. Learn more
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Help — How to Play

Claiming & Raising Creatures

The two main methods of acquiring creatures are by claiming them from either a Sector or the Nursery. All creatures found in Sectors are ones that the site periodically generates on its own. The Nursery is where a growing creature goes when its former owner has abandoned it. Other methods of acquiring creatures include breeding, limited run pickups, and limited run Delves.

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Baby creature
Wild Caught
Left: 6d 15h
Needs: 15h 11m
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Baby creature
WC (Wild Caught)
ID: Tutorial
Left: 6d 15h
Needs: 15h 11m
Unnamed
Female juvenile creature
Wild Caught
Left: 6d 15h
Needs: 15h 11m
Female icon
Unnamed
Female juvenile creature
WC (Wild Caught)
Female icon
ID: HowToPlay
Left: 6d 15h
Needs: 15h 11m

Every creature starts out as a baby, maturing to the juvenile stage, and then finally to the adult stage. Growing creatures can mature to the next stage once theyʼve hit their needed time for maturation. Each species has a set amount of time it needs, with rarer species needing more time than more common ones.

If a growing creatureʼs time left runs out, it will wither away and die. A dead creature can be revived once by using a Life Serum. If a dead creature is not or cannot be revived, it will vanish after one week. When a baby matures into a juvenile, it will gain additional time. Once a creature reaches adulthood, it cannot die.

You have to initiate the maturation of your creatures; it is not an automatic process. When maturing a baby into a juvenile, your supply of Chroma Serum is infinite, but its sex will be random. Its sex can be influenced to be female or male by using Femme and Masc Serum respectively.

Common Chroma

Red Chroma
Red
Green Chroma
Green
Blue Chroma
Blue
Purple Chroma
Purple
Orange Chroma
Orange
Pink Chroma
Pink
White Chroma
White
Tan Chroma
Tan

Rare Chroma

Obsidian Chroma
Obsidian
Silver Chroma
Silver
Gold Chroma
Gold
Bronze Chroma
Bronze
Rainbow Chroma
Rainbow
Sapphire Chroma
Sapphire
Emerald Chroma
Emerald
Ruby Chroma
Ruby

Maturing a juvenile into an adult is when you select their Chroma. There are two types: Common Chroma, which you have an infinite supply of, and Rare Chroma, whose stock rotates daily in the Supply Shop. Chroma is purely an aesthetic trait, but it cannot be changed once set. Every species has all 16 Chroma variants.

Unnamed
Male Silver Selm
Wild Caught
Stoic
Male icon Silver Chroma
Unnamed
Male Silver Selm
WC (Wild Caught)
Male icon
Silver Chroma
ID: FAQ
Stoic

Adult creatures are kept in your Collection. Once you have compatible creatures, you can breed them together to acquire captive bred creatures. You can trace back the ancestry of a captive bred creature by viewing its ancestry tree. You can learn more about breeding creatures in the Creature Mechanics section.


Delving to Find Resources

Delving is a turn-based game where you examine rooms, gather resources, and battle against wild creatures. So long as you have more than 0 HP, you can begin a Delving session. To start off you are given two pieces of equipment, and you can optionally take an adult creature with you. If you have an active Delving session, you cannot perform certain actions such as claiming creatures and buying items.

When just starting out, level 1 limited run Delves tend to be the easiest for a newcomer to complete. Regardless of whether or not you successfully complete a Delve, you keep any resources you gathered by yourself. Your HP refills over time, but you can also restore it faster by visiting the Infirmary or eating snacks.

The resources you gather while Delving can be turned in at the Dropoff Station for Credits you can spend at the Supply Shop. Limited run Delves may have additional rewards for completing them. You can learn more about Delving in the Delving Mechanics section.


Earning Credits and Login Bonuses

Credits are the currency that Headquarters created for researchers in order to incentivise them. They can be used to purchase various kinds of items and equipment to better facilitate your research in whatever way you see fit. Credits are earned in the following ways:

  • Turning in resources at the Dropoff Station. Resources in higher demand will earn you more Credits.
  • Claiming a creature from a Sector. Creatures from the Nursery will not earn you Credits.
  • Maturing a creature into an adult.

You can claim login bonuses from the Pickup Station. Every day, you can check in with Narii-Ta to receive two free items: a snack and a random item. Occasionally, he may have more for you in the form of limited run pickups. These can be items, a creature, or Credits. Creatures obtained from limited run pickups cannot be abandoned while they are growing.

If you havenʼt claimed your daily pickup or any currently active limited run pickups, there will be a reminder in your Research Profileʼs overview.