Morphing
The process by which a tuxemon enters a new Life Stage. Can be permanent or temporary.
Discussion on Github
Has some thoughts that haven't been reproduced here yet.
Methods of morphing
Leveling up
In this model, a tuxemon changes Life Stage when they reach a certain level or, if their morph is stopped then, at any subsequent level.
Conditional morphing
In this model, a tuxemon changes Life Stage when some special condition is met. They may also be required to be a certain level.
- Tuxemon of different genders may morph into different tuxemon, or only one gender may morph. For example, Aerodin morph from level 24 - into Aerostag if male and Aerodeer if female.
- Tuxemon may morph when levelling up, but only if a tuxemon of a particular Type is in the same party. For example, Floodby requires another Water type to be in their team.
- Tuxemon may morph when levelling up, but into a different tuxemon depending on their Stats. For example, Katacoon evolves into Sumchon if its Armour Stat is higher than its Melee Stat, and into Bugnin if the opposite is true. This kind of morphing requires Stat increases from Experiences to be implemented, which is not currently the case.
- Fuzzlet was intended by its creator to morph into Fuzzina when it became happy enough, but happiness is not a part of the Tuxemon mechanics.
- Tuxemon may morph when leveling up in a particular location.
- Tuxemon may morph when leveling up if they know a particular technique.
Vivipere's gimmick is that its morphs are all conditional. It morphs into Vivitron at level 25, which does not sound conditional, except that it morphs into Vivisource or Viviteel (depending on gender) at level 24, meaning that it would only morph into Vivitron if it is deliberately stopped from morphing at level 24.
Item Morphing
If you use a particular item on a tuxemon, it morphs. This could replace the proposed Badge Morphing, described below. The key difference is that the morph would be permanent, instead of temporary.
Proposal: Badge Morphing (and Booster Tech Morphing)
In The Spyder in the Cathedral, the default plot, the player is given a choice between five tuxemon - the "new releases":
They have a special feature, as does Botbot, that they can be made to morph by exposing them to a Badge from a Pillar. The morph lasts for one battle, and consumes the Badge. This means that trainers do get more variety (since there are at least two morph options for each new release tuxemon), but have to keep spending money.
Eventually the protagonist gets access to Booster Tech, an open source tool that's re-usable and where the morph lasts indefinitely. The Booster Tech can also be used to revert the morph, returning the tuxemon to the previous life stage.