Feathers

[covert saddle]

The visuals are very rough, just made them to get my idea across. Apologies if the dev team already had something like this planned!

FEATHERS
An evolution that gives Darvin both heat and cold protection, and bans Fur, Scales and Exoskeleton

On the third and laast evolution you get a split evolution option

ORNAMENTAL FEATHERS
Gives Darwin social points and has a chance to tame a creature (similar to tail wag?)

[dapper badge]

Awesome illustrations!

[covert saddle]

WATER-PROOF
Gives Darwin additional cold insulation and terrain movement (idea is that it makes swimming in the water biome easier, inspired by semi-aquatic birds like penguins or ducks)

[covert saddle]

Thank you! I spent just a few minutes on them to get my ideas across, but I'm glad you like them :]

[near minnow]

Like the idea for another path besides the fur and scales

[frosty onyx]

Love feathers as an additional body coating that the game is clearly missing, it also slots neatly into the whole scales=warm, fur=cold, exoskeleton=defensive/social.

I'd suggest that since it doesn't get the damage reduction everyone else gets and which is arguably more powerful than the heat/cold adaptation, besides giving heat and cold adaptation it could also give a small terrain adaptation bonus, maybe 20% at level 3 to make it a full 100% if you have wings. Admittedly that steps onto the toes of your second evolution, but heat/cold only is too weak, especially considering fur 3 can give you the same plus damage reduction.

[simple pond]

love this idea so much! great visuals too this was an idea I had when playing the other day

[covert saddle]

Yeah that's true, I think some terrain adaptation would be a good idea
Perhaps water-proof could give a much greater boost to terrain adaptation than the standard feathers evolution
Maybe ornamental could sacrifice some of this terrain adaptation in exchange for the social bonuses, since peacocks (which I based it off of) aren't that great at taking off because of their long tail feathers. I think it'd fit?
Admittedly I'm not a game developer so idk how to make it balanced, I'm sure if feathers is the one picked the devs will figure out how to do that

[frosty onyx]

Thing is, wings give 80% terrain adaptation, will be a popular combination with feathers and terrain adaptation can't go above 100%. Waterproof feathers aren't exclusive to flightless birds and penguins still have wings, they just use them as fins. So if waterproof gave additional terrain adaptation, it would often be useless (the cold adaptation is still useful ofc.). Maybe a specific bonus in frozen terrain could work, a counterpart to basking?
Whether the social spec needs a downside for its bonus depends on the specific numbers, that's where the devs come in

[covert saddle]

Ohhh that's a good idea!

[frosty onyx]

Just from an optimization point of view I'd say social specialization on a support mutation should probably have a bonus to number of charmed targets, since there's already a lot of ways to trigger charm

peacock harem xD

btw the peacock darwin illustration is amazing

[cinder hull]

They could gain a percentage of their cold and heat resists as social stat!

The same way Wool gives you 50% of your Cold Resistance as Heat Resistance

[soft leaf]

Literally just chiming in to say that the lack of feathers is a crime and this 100% should be the winner. Birds are under appreciated 😤

[civic arrow]

Feathers into Specializations of water-proof or ornamental feathers is bare none, one of my favorites ive seen. Because wings dont imply feathers, and feathers dont imply flight.

[subtle star]

I’ve thought about this evolution too! Your art is fantastic especially for the specializations very in-style. I had my own ideas which were pretty similar actually. Maybe a small buff to dodge would be good for feathers, similar to the defensive properties of scale/fur/exo while being unique, and the dodge is reflective of real life “fright molting” where a bird will shed feathers to evade when attacked.
Could also relate dodge to the specializations, for instance I was thinking the peacock spec could have a tail wag-like effect that checks with dodge instead of social (Dodge reflecting real-life bird “dancing”, like paradise birds) but debuffs your effective dodge (larger feathers harder to remove)

[covert saddle]

I really love all of these ideas!
Once I get some time I'll definitely upgrade the visuals and might write down some of the ideas people had for this evolution

[cinder hull]

maybe the waterproof feathers also give access to Slide

That's one of the better movemen options, but it's hard to get

[covert saddle]

TRUE since their inspiration were penguins, it'd fit

[wintry rover]

@covert saddle what did you make your visuals with (I’m usually paper and I want to go digital for this challenge) do you use a stylus? Please specify what software for rough drawings and pixel art… thanks!

Also how did you draw Darwin? Just by looking at reference?

[covert saddle]

Ibis Paint X, it's a free app on the phone and computer though it does have a lot of ads (premium is dirt cheap though)
I just drew it on my phone with my finger because my computer shat itself, but I usually draw on a XP-Pen tablet and use Clip Studio Paint
If you're looking for a free digital app on the computer though, I recommend firealpaca, my friend's been using it for years and says its pretty good :]
For Darwin I just crudly traced his sprite, I didn't really have a lot of time for the visuals so I just did whatever

[misty wyvern]

I really want feathers and other skin (or whatever you call them) evolution.

[wintry rover]

balright