About the Game
Dive into the microscopic world, radiating with bioluminescent life and unspeakable horrors. Genome Guardian is a deeply-complex shooter that's easy to pick up but hard to master. Research permanent upgrades to survive a variety of microbes across 6 game modes, each with multiple "depths".
Pair DNA nucleotides Adenine (rapidfire), Cytosine (precision), Guanine (spread), Thymine (explosive) to discover wild hybrid bioweapons!
Bomb + Shotgun combines explosives with spread to create Blast Shotgun!
Bomb + Bomb doubles down on explosive power to make Bazooka!
Blast Shotgun + Shotgun forms the all-powerful Flak Cannon!
49 Turrets with unique strengths and functions
96 Perks to mix and match that drastically change how you play
75 Weapon & Turret Mods that can turn shots into sticky laser mines or bouncing fireballs
64 Mutations alter the challenges you face each run
20-minute Runs that can be continued in Endless Mode
75 Bassy Electronic Tunes that adapt to the current mood & intensity
Cosmetics like spider legs and tank tread
Accessibility Settings for colourblindness, motion sickness, and even arachnophobia!
100 Steam Achievements
Steam Trading Cards
Cloud Save
Plays great on Steam Deck!!!
Screenshots
23 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
On the site: Build v5.3.7
·
Latest on Steam: Build 19302623
Update available
EDIT: Update 7.0.4 is live, which just fixes a softlock related to perks / perk slots for new players.
Genome Guardian is finally Steam Deck verified! Only reason it shows as just "Playable" is because some text in Checklist / Records / Credits is kinda small.
⚖ BALANCE
(Mutation) microbes are completely insane: less erratic movement in Shmup mode.
🔄 CHANGES
Various tweaks to the Steam Deck experience.
Major performance increases on Steam Deck.
Minor performance increases on PC.
(early game only) game will make sure you've used all your perk slots before starting a run.
There's now a warning before adding an Accuracy-increasing mod to a pinpoint-Accuracy weapon (yes, new players need this).
Larger perk name text in CHECKLIST.
🔨 FIXES
(Mode) Gameshow: The "AFTER WAVE" text would eventually start slowly moving left after each wave deep into endless.
(Weapon) ːcdnaːːcdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Rail Splitshot: now deals the correct amount of damage when landing the main, initial slug on a microbe.
Cell Command (essentially the sequel) releases in 12 days.
🔒 UNLOCK CONDITION CHANGES
Everything below that's become harder to unlock is stuff new players often struggle with and genuinely shouldn't have access to until later:
- (turret) Diesel: overheat 300 → 500 times. This turret becomes a lot easier to use after you have more perks.
- (perk) Magnet: now only triggers at Depth 1+. It has VERY niche use but I still want it to unlock early on since it works so well with the Maw turret.
- (perk) Hourglass: now only triggers at Depth 3+. New players will use it without knowing how to properly utilize this (+50% Damage with -50% Firerate is -25% DPS, after all).
- (turret) Buckler: no triggers at Depth 3+ → 1+.
- (turret) Boomerang: no triggers at Depth 3+ → 1+.
- (perk) Backpack: buy 500 → 100 items from the shop.
- (perk) Amber: gain 50000 → 30000 biomass.
- (perk) Cosmo: land 50000 → 30000 Critical Hits.
- (perk) Subwoofer: eliminate 2000 → 1000 Oversized microbes.
- (perk) Nitro: take 150 → 100 hits from microbes.
- (perk) Mushroom: take 500 → 300 hits or overheat 500 → 100 times.
- (perk) Microwave: eliminate any one microbe species 5000 → 3000 times.
- (perk) Microscope: triggers at Depth 5 → 3+.
🔨 FIXES
- (turret) Fortress: Burst Fire was causing weapons to only fire through 1 of its 3 barrels.
⚖ BALANCE
- (Mode) Brood: won't go into specifics but it's "generally a bit easier",
- (Mode) Gameshow: won't go into specifics but it's "generally a bit easier".
- (Turret) Scorch: Firerate scales with Heat up to +200% → +300%. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
- (Turret) Helios: removed "-1 Health each time you reach full Charge".
- (Turret) Diesel: while below 50% Fuel, Damage +70% → +100%.
- (Turret) Deadeye: Speed +100% → +200%.
- (Perk) Bulb: -40% → -50% Heat Increase from firing while at or below 50% Heat & +400% → +500% Heat Increase from firing otherwise. (this is a buff)
- (Perk) Gyroscope: Damage -45% → -40%.
- (Perk) Calculator: Damage +25% → +30% while at full Health & Damage -25% → -30% otherwise.
- (Perk) Turbine: Cooling Rate +70% → +75%.
- (Turret Trial) Castle: Damage -50% → -30%.
- (Turret Trial) Bearclaw: Damage -50% → -30%.
- (Turret Trial) Riptide: Fuel Max -50% → Knockback +50%.
🔒 UNLOCK CONDITIONS
- various changes (aka made easier) to unlock conditions like "achieve victory with # turrets/perks/weapons".
- (Perk) Stamp: eliminate 2000 → 1000 microbes with Critical Damage.
- (Perk) Cosmo: land 100000 → 50000 Critical Hits.
- (Perk) Amber: gain 80000 → 50000 Biomass.
- (Perk) Pot: synthesize 300 → 100 weapons.
- (Perk) Subwoofer: eliminate 3000 → 2000 oversized microbes.
- (Perk) Backpack: buy 1000 → 500 items from the shop.
- (Perk) Emerald: spend 50000 → 30000 Biomass.
- (Perk) Glue: endure 300 → 100 mutations.
- (Perk) Burner: survive 2000 → 1000 waves.
- (Perk) Coolant: fire for 120s → 90s without stopping during a Depth 3 (or deeper) run.
- (Perk) Worm: fire 50000 → 30000 projectiles.
[
🔨 FIXES
- (Perk) Antifreeze: It was reducing Firerate by 17% per second instead of 15%.
- Having "DNA Letter On Items" enabled in SETTINGS will no longer show weapons in RECORDS with DNA letters next to their name.
---
WISHLIST CELL COMMAND
This is my next game, releasing 19 June 2025!!
{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44933391/3b8fc5d5c4b2ca7ca35c17088d30d9cc58597e37.png
{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44933391/0d2211c942fb70f5b6a3ea249ec602dd5c900810.png
{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44933391/8d6c8f97a87a37fcedbf8c9f4379ee16dcc7a31b.png
{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44933391/53121313a9e9a638912b22b115eb58c11935234c.png
⚖ BALANCE
- (mutation) Microbe Weight -60%, Microbe Speed +40%: Weight -60% → -70%, Speed +40% → +30%.
- (mutation) Speed +40% to microbes with A DNA: Speed +40% → +30%.
- (turret trial) Ramjet: Health Max -50% → Range -50%. (given how this turret trial is intended to be played, this makes it easier overall)
🔓 UNLOCK CONDITIONS
- (perk) Amber: Gain 100000 → 80000 ːbiomassː to unlock.
- (perk) Backpack: Purchase 2000 → 1000 items to unlock.
- (perk) Leaf: Discover 50 → 35 weapons to unlock.
- (perk) Blubber: Use the heal button in the shop 50 → 30 times to unlock.
- (perk) Stamp: eliminate 3000 → 2000 microbes with Critical Damage to unlock.
- (turret) Commander: achieve victory in any mode at Depth 5 → 3 (or deeper) with the Gyroscope perk to unlock.
- (turret) Inferno: achieve victory in any mode at Depth 5 → 3 (or deeper) with a Burn weapon that didn't originally have Burn to unlock.
🔄 CHANGES
- (perk) Generator, (turret) Gauss: This perk now lets Gauss fire once it reaches full charge.
🔨 FIXES
- The demo was uh… not working correctly, I'll put it that way.
---
Wishlist the 2nd game in the series, Cell Command!
Not a super eventful patch, but had to fix Heatwave Repeater as soon as I found out about it!
🔨 FIXES
- (weapon) ːadnaːːadnaːːgdnaːːgdnaː Heatwave Repeater: It wasn't dealing Damage, Knockback or Burn - fixed. (I broke it while fixing hitboxes for projectiles in the last update)
- (endless mutation) Health Max -1 after each wave It was resetting Health Max back to full upon adding a new mutation or adding/swapping turret mods.
- Some intro popups were re-worded & made more readable.
Oh, and of course thanks to everyone who tried Cell Command's demo during Next Fest!
(the demo is still available btw)
Got lots of wishlists and feedback. Super glad people are liking it.
CELL COMMAND DEMO IS LIVE!
check it out (trailer is done too)taking a few weeks off from dev finally (been busy making Cell Command and I haven't had a day off since November 20 2024), but was able to get some Genome Guardian update stuff done. Still have other stuff planned.
ːguardianturretː TURRET TRIAL MODIFIERS
- Bearclaw: Range +50% → +100%
- Viper: Health Max -50% → Power-up Duration +100%
🔄 CHANGES
- Each Abyss health checkpoint now clears all currently-active projectiles.
- During the intro, it's now impossible to be confused by the need to open a slot first before adding a DNA letter to it.
- Many references to "Health +" have been changed to "heal Health" since new players kept confusing it with Health Max.
🔨 FIXES
- (perk) Antifreeze: No longer prevents the Fume turret from firing when it's ran out of Gas.
- An intro shop tip would show "<sprite name="EP">" instead of the Heat icon.
- Various hitscan projectile hitboxes weren't as long as they appeared (so their hitboxes were lengthened).
- The "feeling sick?" intro popup would sometimes linger on-screen after exiting a run.
- Daily Dive could set your depth in a mode to 5 outside of Daily Dive even if you haven't unlocked that depth yet.
- Correct a couple outdated SETUP tips.
Don't forget to check out (and wishlist if interested) Cell Command!
🔄 CHANGES
- Added thing for Cell Command to main menu.
🔨 FIXES
- (turret) Jester: For some reason, it became really blurry using Jester with High Quality on in SETTINGS.
- Fixed some silly typos.
- Daily Dive day # was wrong for a few weeks - accurate now.
I've been cooking something new for the last little while that I'll be revealing soon (those in the Discord know what I'm talking about). In the meantime though, have this:
⚖ BALANCE
- (perk) Cosmo: Critical Damage +100% → +200%, Damage -15% → -25%.
- (perk) Radar, (turret) Spyglass: Radar will now allow Spyglass to autoaim at microbes beyond the normal visible area.
- (weapon mod) Accuracy +100%, Firerate -25%: Accuracy +100% → +200%.
- (weapon mod) Accuracy +75%, Damage -15%: Accuracy +75% → +90%.
- (weapon mod) Accuracy +60%, Speed +100%: Accuracy +60% → +70%.
- (weapon mod) Critical Chance +25%, Accuracy +40%: Critical Chance +25% → +50%, Accuracy +40% → -50%, ːbiomassː20 → ːbiomassː30.
- (weapon mod) Critical Chance +50%, Knockback -100%: Critical Chance +50% → +40%, ːbiomassː35 → ːbiomassː25.
- (weapon mod) Critical Chance +75%, Firerate -25%: Critical Chance +75% → +100%, Firerate -25% → -40%.
- (weapon mod) Homing +50%, Size -30%: Size -30% → -25%, ːbiomassː25 → ːbiomassː20.
- (weapon mod) Homing +75%, Damage -15%: ːbiomassː30 → ːbiomassː25.
- (weapon mod) Homing +100%, Firerate -20%: ːbiomassː35 → ːbiomassː30.
- (weapon mod) Damage +50%, Range -25%: Damage +50% → +60%.
- (weapon mod) Range +100%, Damage -25%: ːbiomassː30 → ːbiomassː25.
- (weapon mod) Critical Chance +30%, Speed -30%: ːbiomassː30 → ːbiomassː25.
- (weapon mod) Sticky: ːbiomassː30 → ːbiomassː35.
🔄 CHANGES
- Hovering over the filter buttons at the top for weapon traits now says what it's called (ex. hovering over the one for Explosive).
- The "feeling sick?" intro popup won't appear if you've already disabled Music Visualizer and Screenshake in SETTINGS.
- The warning text that shows when you're about to reroll while at low Biomass will no longer appear if you don't have rerolls, or past wave 30.
- For burst-fire weapons, a shot will now only count as a "miss" if all projectiles within the burst didn't hit a microbe.
- Menu background patterns now have some extra effects applied to them (if "high quality" is on in SETTINGS).
🔨 FIXES
- (perk) Seismograph: The "MOD SPEED IGNORED" popup now says SIZE instead when this perk is equipped.
- (weapon mod) Projectiles +100%, Range -35%: Was only reducing Range by 30%.
- (turret mod) +100% Range on weapons with Bounce: The Turret Trial & Daily Modifier "Bounce" now properly interacts.
- (turret) Chrono: Cosmetic previews will now properly align with the turret.
- (mode) Shmup: A handful of microbes that were supposed to move side to side after reaching a certain distance from the bottom, now do so.
Adding a much-requested feature for gamepad & Steam Deck users: Proper menu navigation! Analog sticks will still move the cursor, but DPads will now snap the cursor to buttons.
It's not PERFECT yet (there's cases where the next button it snaps to isn't what you expect) but for the most part it's functional - will have a chance to improve it later.
Let me know if you encounter any bugs or oddities with D-Pad navigation - if things ever go REALLY wrong, remember you can still use the Analog sticks or touchscreen for navigation as well.
I've removed the in-game warning about the cursor dissappearing on Steam Deck since that's not really an issue with DPad navigation.
⚖ BALANCE
- (weapon mod) Firerate +60%, Accuracy -60%: Accuracy -60% → -75%.
- (weapon mod) Firerate +80%, Accuracy -200%: Accuracy -200% → -300%.
- (weapon mod) Projectiles +100%, Accuracy -100%: Accuracy -100% → -200%.
- (weapon mod) Critical Chance +20%, Accuracy +40%: Critical Chance +20% → +25%.
- (weapon mod) Firerate +40%, Size -40%: Firerate +40% → +50%, Size -40% → -50%.
The thinking behind the first 3 changes below is that, for the most part, these +Firerate/-Accuracy mods felt "free", and +100% Projectiles for -100% Accuracy was basically a must-pick on any weapon.
🔄 CHANGES
- Gamepad/Steam Deck D-Pad menu navigation.
- I guess that recently Steam Deck update ALSO tanked framerate for some reason - fixed that 👍
EDIT: I'm aware of the "dissappearing cursor" issue for Steam Deck users - it's a result of the 24 Oct Steam Deck stable branch update, not something I can fix on my end. I expect Steam will patch this soon because it's broken cursor function for a number of other games as well. In the meantime you can still use the touchscreen to navigate menus. If you desperately want to fix it on YOUR end, there's some instructions here that supposedly work
View on Steam
I put a ⭐ next to the most notable changes.
⚖ BALANCE
- ⭐These weapons now have innate Critical Chance:
- (weapon) ːadnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Stardust Blaster: Critical Chance 0% → +30%, Damage 14.9 → 11.2 (DPS 104/s → 102/s).
- (weapon) ːadnaːːadnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Heatseeker Swarm: Critical Chance 0% → +30%, Damage 6.7 → 5.1 (DPS unchanged).
- (weapon) ːadnaːːgdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Stardust Mortar: Critical Chance 0% → +30%, Damage 25 → 18 (DPS 110/s → 108/s).
- (weapon) ːadnaːːgdnaːːtdnaːːtdnaː Bubble Blaster: Critical Chance 0% → +30%, Damage 66/s → 50/s (DPS 83/s → 81/s).
- (weapon) ːadnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Stardust Blaster: Critical Chance 0% → +30%, Damage 14.9 → 11.2 (DPS 104/s → 102/s).
- All flamethrowers are getting +100% Speed so that they feel more like flamethrowers:
- (weapon) ːadnaːːadnaːːgdnaː Flamethrower: Speed 44 → 66.
- (weapon) ːadnaːːadnaːːadnaːːgdnaː Plasmathrower: Speed 44 → 66.
- (weapon) ːadnaːːadnaːːcdnaːːgdnaː Frostthrower: Speed 88 → 131.
- (weapon) ːadnaːːadnaːːgdnaːːgdnaː Heatwave Repeater: Speed 38 → 47, Size 26 → 35. (it's like, a half flamethrower)
- (weapon) ːadnaːːadnaːːgdnaː Flamethrower: Speed 44 → 66.
- ⭐(turret) Dragoon: Instead of having no interaction with Hitscan weapons, now crit Hitscan shots use their wider, Bounce versions, and they'll also have x3 the lifespan.
- (weapon mod) Accuracy +75%, Firerate -15%: Accuracy +75% → +100%, Firerate -15% → -25%.
- (turret mod) Damage +80% to shots fired at 0% Heat: Damage +80% → +75%.
- ⭐(turret mod) Health Max +50% (based on initial Health Max, won't refill Health): Now refills Health!
- (Turret Trial) Guardian: Health Max -50% → Cooling Rate -50% (you'll want the Cooling Rate reduction).
🔄 CHANGES
- ⭐Critical projectiles now have an orange tint, and orange trail if it has a trail.
- Changed some Intro SHOP tips.
- Various other forms of intro experience improvement & extra guideance.
- There will no longer be a warning popup when adding a negative Speed modifier to a Hitscan weapon.
- Added more SETUP tips & "devs".
- The fade from green to red when retreating after wave 30 is now much faster.
- Lengthened a few weapon descriptions so that they all have 3-line descriptions.
🔨 FIXES
- (turret) Ramjet:
- ːadnaːːadnaːːcdnaːːtdnaː Burst Anti-Air Missile wouldn't move Ramjet, as if it had no Knockback.
- ːgdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaːːtdnaː Acid Rain wasn't being registered as a no-Knockback weapon.
- ːadnaːːadnaːːcdnaːːtdnaː Burst Anti-Air Missile wouldn't move Ramjet, as if it had no Knockback.
- (turret) Inferno: Hover-over weapon stats now correctly displays DPS as being X (aka 0).
- (perk) Worm: Fixed the icon's colour (should have been less red).
- I've finally put an end to that bug during the intro where you end up seeing an unlock popup for something twice.
⚖ BALANCE
- Laser weapons will have even more excess Range:
- (weapon) ːcdnaːːcdnaːːcdnaː Laser: Range 125% → 150%.
- (weapon) ːadnaːːcdnaːːcdnaːːcdnaː Laser Repeater: Range 125% → 150%.
- (weapon) ːcdnaːːcdnaːːcdnaːːcdnaː Ion Laser: Range 175% → 250%. 🔭
- (weapon) ːcdnaːːcdnaːːcdnaːːgdnaː Laser Shotgun: Range 125% → 137.5%.
- (weapon) ːcdnaːːcdnaːːcdnaːːtdnaː Tracking Laser: Range 125% → 150%.
- (weapon) ːcdnaːːcdnaːːcdnaː Laser: Range 125% → 150%.
- (weapon) ːadnaːːgdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Stardust Mortar: To separate it more from ːcdnaːːgdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Splitter Spitter, Firerate 1.125/s → 1.5/s (same DPS as before).
🔄 CHANGES
- The doubletime reminder popup will now dissappear if you activate doubletime.
- The sprites for lasers with Bounce now look a bit less stretched length-wise.
🔨 FIXES
- (weapon) ːadnaːːgdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Stardust Mortar: DPS in ARSENAL / on hover is now more reflective of the weapon's performance.
- (weapon) ːcdnaːːgdnaːːgdnaːːtdnaː Splitter Spitter: DPS in ARSENAL / on hover is now more reflective of the weapon's performance.
- Some tips were showing up as "DEVS" instead of "TIPS" on the SETUP menu.
- Knockback can no longer display as being negative.
🔄 CHANGES
- Added a few more SETUP tips.
- More Intro / new player guidance.
- A warning popup will now appear before you add a weapon mod with…
- A Knockback multiplier, to a weapon without Knockback.
- A Speed multiplier, to a Hitscan weapon.
- Sticky, on an Area weapon (it won't extend the Area's duration).
- A Knockback multiplier, to a weapon without Knockback.
- Added a few more UI effects here and there.
🔨 FIXES
- (turret) Helios, Gauss: The Autoclave perk and other items that claim to only work on shots fired at 0% Charge were always triggering whenever these turrets would fire - that should technically be impossible.
- (turret) Ramjet: With the Backpack perk equipped, Ramjet could avoid taking damage from microbes reaching the bottom simply by having the green Backpack barrier pointing downward.
- The game would completely break down if you disconnected a gamepad while the game was running.
Current Release
Build v5.3.7
Uploaded Jul 13, 2026
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System Requirements
OS
Windows 10
CPU
N/A
RAM
N/A
GPU
N/A
How to Install
1
Download all files
2
Extract the .RAR file to a folder (use WinRAR or 7-Zip)
3
Mount the ISO file (double-click or right-click → Mount)
4
Run setup.exe
5
Important: Check "Copy Contents of ... Directory to Installdir"
6
Launch the game from desktop shortcut
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
Size
436 MB
Build
v5.3.7
Password: cracked-games.org
CRC32
B9E1153C
SHA-256
eedc1e6bc75b52650afbb335c184e3e7f722579ac41993039c6dab53301e652e
How: Right-click the downloaded file → 7-Zip / WinRAR → CRC SHA → compare with the values above.
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Download Genome Guardian for PC with a direct link or via torrent. Get the full version of Genome Guardian for free. Genome Guardian is a Action released by Alpherior.