• Guide

Reinforcements and generations in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Our money is on most gamers not knowing one simple fact about Reinforcements in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey.

Bill Lavoy

August 27, 2019 9:45 AM

1

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is not going to hold your hand. The game tells you as much in its first moments, before you ever gain control of a character. While some gamers love this approach, others are looking for a few bits of advice to help keep them from becoming overly frustrated. In this guide, I’m going to explain what Reinforcements are, how they related to Generations, and how they are essential to your evolution in Ancestors.

What are Reinforcements?

Reinforcements, in a simple sort of way, are the kids in your clan while playing Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. After you lie down and open the Evolution menu, browse to the Generation tab and you’ll see how many Reinforcements you have. That number will match up with how many kids are currently in your clan.

The purpose of Reinforcements is to lock in certain abilities and knowledge for the next generation. If you have unlocked 10 abilities, but only have three kids in the clan, you can only lock three of those abilities as you pass through to the next generation. For this reason, be sure to read up on how to mate and give birth in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. The more kids, the more Reinforcements.

How to use Reinforcements

To use Reinforcements, lie down and open the Evolution menu. Browse to the Generation tab and look through the abilities and knowledge you’ve unlocked. Next, hover your cursor over the abilities and the knowledge that you want to reinforce, then press the indicated button to perform the action. Do this with as many Reinforcements as you have.

How generations work

Once this is done, you’ll have the option at the bottom of the screen to Change Generation. Doing this is only possible if you have at least one kid in your clan and you’ve spent all your Reinforcements. If you do meet those criteria, you can advance your game to the next generation. Before you do, though, take note of the game’s warning that any neurons that have not been reinforced will lose their energy, and unborn babies will be lost. Remember that neurons losing their energy doesn’t mean you have to discover them again; you must spend Neuronal Energy to activate them again.

Once you pass through the generations cinematic, you’ll gain control of your clan again 15 years later. The kids will be adults, the adults will be elders, and the elders will be dead. This is another reason it’s essential to have a lot of kids in your clan; they need to mate and have babies for you to advance generations again, which is difficult if there are only a few fertile adults.

Now that you’ve got the basics of Reinforcements and passing generations down, be sure to browse our Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey topic for help with all the game’s confusing mechanics.

Bill Lavoy

Managing Editor

Bill, who is also known as Rumpo, is a lifelong gamer and Toronto Maple Leafs fan. He made his mark early in his career through guide writing and a deep understanding of editorial SEO. He enjoys putting in the work to create a great content, be it a wild feature or grinding out an in-depth collectible guide. Tweet him @RumpoPlays if you have a question or comment about one of his articles.