This supposes playing all the environment cards and disregarding the shaded area of the VP track.

1. miss the first gene buying round.

2. Division Rate is the first purchase, with either Move 1 [or secondarily Escape], as the first step to an advanced gene. Buy Ray Protection if you manage to retain all 14 BPs.

3. in the third gene buying round you want to get an advanced gene, and for example Move 2 doubles as a "feeding gene". Or Armour if you bought Escape in (2). Buy Ray Protection now at the latest.

4. With Div Rate, an advanced gene, and Ray Protection, you are really set. You may want to build up BPs now, if possible. However being in front may not be a big advantage at this time.

Fourth Gene

The fourth scoring gene will come sooner or later depending on the game position.If Armour is your advanced gene then Move 1 is a great sustainable fourth gene, especially if your opponents are threatened by Struggle/Aggression genes elsewhere -- indeed this combination of your genes versus their genes is probably the ideal which returns the highest scores. Speed, Defence or Spores are sustainable as the fourth gene for a total of 12 ozone points/2 VPs. If Struggle is bought by others then you may need Escape, possibly Defence, if you don't have such genes. Life Expectancy may be necessary to maintain 7 amoebae at game end but it is not required before then due to Division Rate.

Hopefully you can profit foodwise out of other people being eaten. Possibily you can go for Struggle if you have a slow start and no one else buys it, with Aggression as your advanced gene but this is somewhat counter-productive as it hurts you and benefits your opponents. However it can allow immediate feeding on the remains of one of your victims. Eating other genes that possess Struggle/Aggression is rarely worth the cost.

Rules Changes

These suppose that you can use Escape/Defence once per attack, and that Struggle can only be used once per phase per amoeba [Persistance being the exception]: The rules regarding the process of eating other amoebae appear to be in need of modification. Struggle/Aggression are not worth the cost, though it is less bad if you hold onesuch solely through the game. Escape is too powerful. I suggest changing the last-modified rules so that Escape works only if amoebae can move to an area free of any of the attacker's amoebae. Also, as a further balancing measure, I would suggest cancellation of the BP for the Phase 5 Aggression attack, since too often this capability is inefficacious.

So my ideal mid-game goal is Division Rate, Armour, Move 1 & Ray Protection. This should give high scores that exceed the score track by at least 2 spaces. This combination works at its best if your opponents are concomitantly hampered by their possession of Struggle/Aggression [and presumably also Escape/Defence] genes. Here you will save many BPs on cell division and gene defects compared to your opponents, and are near-invulnerable to attack [and in this way your amoebae do not provide food or protection to opponents']. The critical final do-not-exceed ozone total appears to be 12. Move 2, Streamline and Escape is, for example, very powerful but the higher cost of cell division and escape would tell eventually, i.e., with many amoebae on the oard, the food simply may not be there, especially for those in the lead and moving last. The ozone total being 11 suggests that the ozone layer thickness is not being fully exploited, and that this is less advantageous than the odd BP saved in payment. Still its a very fine point and we are not talking about wide winning margins.

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