How to play Oh God It Grows

Feed the specimen, grow organs that work by themselves, choose what it mutates into and eventually go extinct on purpose. The next life begins stronger and reaches further.

The four-step loop

Organs, manual feeding and reflexes

The three figures below the biomass total describe separate sources of growth:

• Organs per second are automatic production from everything you have grown.
• Per manual tap is what your own click, tap, Space press or Enter press adds.
• Reflexes per second are the creature feeding itself. They begin small and can be developed into a separate build.

Buying an organ increases its owned count and raises the price of the next one. Buy ×10 and Max are conveniences, not bonuses. Adaptations appear as relevant thresholds are reached, so an empty panel usually means the specimen needs more biomass.

Mutations and hybrids

Fourteen forks exist, with three normal choices at each. A single life takes one card per fork unless the permanent Second Opinion trait allows an additional choice. Early lives are not expected to reach the end of the tree.

A mutation needs both biomass and stabilisation time. The two fill together. A fresh lineage will usually wait for biomass; a powerful lineage may fill that first and briefly show “Mutation stabilising” while the current anatomy settles. Prehensile Time and the late-game Restless Strain shorten this observation period, but it never falls below one minute.

Cards affect organs, feeding, reflexes or costs in different proportions, but choices within a fork are balanced around alternative routes rather than one obvious best answer. Pick the creature you want and let later purchases support it.

Hybrids are secret combinations taken within one life. The ledger shows partial clues as you carry relevant components. Discovering a recipe permanently unlocks its special card for future lives and awards genome once. There are twelve; this guide will not list their recipes.

Extinction, genome and epochs

Extinction is the prestige system. It removes the active creature, current biomass, organs and ordinary adaptations. Genome, permanent traits, discoveries, catalogues, achievements, habitats and preserved garden specimens survive.

Your first viable extinction always pays at least 3 genome, enough to purchase a real trait immediately. All-time genome also builds permanent mastery, even after it is spent. Mastery is deliberately a small cumulative edge and gradually approaches a 1.25× production ceiling, so a developed lineage feels quicker without turning every later mutation into an instant stack of dialogs.

After the first extinction, each life is shaped by an epoch that changes the rules. The first post-extinction life uses the forgiving Kind Epoch; later lives may favour idle play, fast tapping, cheap organs or unusually rapid mutation.

See the first-extinction guide for the exact threshold, what to buy and two sensible reset strategies.

Morphs, habitats and the Forbidden Garden

Each mutation shifts the creature’s pigment and can roll a rare body morph or ocular anomaly. Discoveries are recorded permanently, and breeding traits can improve the morph chance. These systems are cosmetic.

Habitats recolour the laboratory and are bought with current-life biomass, then retained. Regalia is earned through play and can be fitted to the living creature or preserved specimens.

When a specimen dies, you may preserve it. The Forbidden Garden stores up to 24 lineages with their appearance and file information. Drag them around the plot, open their records or release one when the collection is full.

Common questions

Is it free?

Yes. There are no advertisements, payments or account requirements.

How long does it take?

A first life usually lasts three to four hours of mostly idle play. Later lives often take one to two hours. Seeing the deepest systems takes well over twenty hours.

Does it run while closed?

Yes. Offline progress accrues for up to eight hours. It starts at half rate; permanent effects can improve the efficiency, with a final ceiling of 200%. Once the service worker is ready, the game itself can also launch without a connection.

Where is my save?

In local storage for this domain, on this device. Moving from the homepage to /play does not move or reset it. Use Export save code in Records if you want a backup or need to change device.

Can I make a bad mutation choice?

You can make a strange one, which is better. Effects are designed as different viable routes, later lives encourage experimentation and the lineage is supposed to be yours.