Wormagotchi Rules

How It Works

Wormagotchi is a virtual pet game where your worm changes over time and reacts to your care choices. Energy, stress, and health shift automatically every few seconds, then your button actions push those values up or down.

The game uses real C. elegans connectome data when the provider is set to cect, sourced from OpenWorm's ConnectomeToolbox. Otherwise, the game runs in fallback mode with safe local/default tuning (modifiers and circuit weights stay at neutral values, effectively 1.0, so baseline stress/energy/recovery behavior is used) so gameplay still works even if real-profile loading fails. In this game, that data is used to tune behavior parameters (stress sensitivity, recovery pace, energy drain), so worms feel data-informed rather than random. This is a gameplay model inspired by connectome structure, not a full neuron-by-neuron biology simulator.

You can always check the live mode in the main game stats: provider: cect (real connectome) means real-data mode is active, while any fallback/default provider means safe local fallback tuning is active.

Buttons

• feed: boosts reserves and energy, but can add a little stress.
• rest: lowers fatigue and stress, and helps recovery.
• stimulate: increases activity, but usually raises stress and fatigue.
• observe: low-impact action that calms stress.
• start from fresh: resets this run to a fresh worm and overwrites the local saved session.

Typical runs finish in about 12-20 minutes depending on your choices and event luck.

Wormagotchi is not an idle game: if you leave your worm unattended for too long, it will usually decline and may die before reaching gold.

Aging Difficulty (4 Stages)

Difficulty scales with age. As your worm gets older, passive strain increases, harmful random events become harsher, and helpful calm recovery becomes weaker.

• 0-25 years: easiest stage. More forgiving passive drift and stronger recovery.
• 25-50 years: baseline stage. Balanced behavior close to default tuning.
• 50-75 years: hard stage. Faster decline pressure and tougher random hits.
• 75-100 years: hardest stage. Highest passive strain and lowest calm-event relief.

Practical strategy: in late-game stages, react earlier to stress/energy drops and avoid long idle gaps.

Why Each Worm Feels Different

Each run can behave differently because the game combines profile tuning, random events, and your care choices.

• Profile tuning: when provider is cect, connectome-derived parameters change stress sensitivity, recovery pace, and energy usage.
• Fallback mode: if real profile loading fails, the game uses neutral defaults (1.0-style tuning), which feels more baseline and less specialized.
• Random events: on passive time ticks, a rare noise event can increase stress, while a rare calm event can restore reserve; this adds small run-to-run variation even with similar button choices.
• Your decisions: action timing and action mix (feed/rest/stimulate/observe) shape survival path and final outcome.
• Pet identity: each new worm gets a random adjective + vegetable name, and reset gives you a fresh one.

Status, Age, and Win Condition

• green: normal/healthy
• blue: low energy
• red: critical state
• black: dead
• gold: reached 100 years old while alive

Age is shown as human-equivalent years in the stats panel. If your worm reaches 100 years old and is still alive, it turns gold.

That gold state is the win condition: keep your worm alive until it reaches 100 years old.

Local Save and Restore

Progress is auto-saved in your browser local storage, so an accidental close or refresh can restore your run.

• Auto-save happens on ticks, on button actions, after profile load, and on browser/tab close.
• Saved data includes core stats, hidden physiology, age, alive/dead state, event message, and action history.
• Restore happens automatically on load from the last saved local session.
• Using start from fresh clears current run state and starts fresh.