How the Sea Wolf game works
You run a research ship cleaning up three ocean sites. Each site sets a range for three attributes, scored as whole numbers from 1 to 10, plus one trait it wants and one it must avoid. Every microbe has a value for each attribute and one trait, and made-up names so outside knowledge does not help.
Each site runs the same four steps. In step 1 you choose two characteristics for a target profile. In step 2 ten microbes arrive one at a time, and you assign each to this site or the next, or reject it. In step 3 you complete a pool of ten prospects by picking one microbe from three, four times. In step 4 you choose three microbes from that pool as the treatment. At sites 2 and 3 you first review the microbes you set aside for them.
A treatment starts at 100% efficiency. It loses 20 points for each attribute whose average across the three microbes falls outside the site’s range, 20 if no microbe has the desired trait, and 20 for each microbe that has the undesired trait. You see the efficiency after each site; how the earlier steps are scored is not published.
A perfect 100% is not always possible from the microbes you are dealt. It is reported to be out of reach at roughly three sites in ten.
How to solve a Sea Wolf site
Use the same routine at every site:
- Read the site card. Find the tightest range, the one that is narrowest or furthest from the middle of 1 to 10, and note both traits.
- In step 1, choose the tightest attribute and the desired trait. If two attributes are tight, choose both.
- In step 2, put a microbe on this site whenever it could help here, on the next site if it cannot, and reject it only if it carries the undesired trait or could never be balanced into range.
- In step 3, pick for what the pool lacks: the desired trait if nobody has it, or high values if every prospect is low on an attribute.
- In step 4, turn each range into a target sum, three times the lower bound to three times the upper bound, and add the three values instead of averaging them.
- If no combination reaches 100%, take the best one available and move on. Time spent hunting for a perfect treatment comes out of the sites still to come.
Worked example
A site wants average Speed of 6 to 8, Adhesion of 2 to 4 and Energy of 3 to 5, needs a bioluminescent microbe and rules out hydrophilic ones. As sums for three microbes, the targets are Speed 18 to 24, Adhesion 6 to 12 and Energy 9 to 15.
Your pool includes P (Speed 9, Adhesion 1, Energy 4, bioluminescent), Q (7, 5, 3, heat-resistant), R (5, 2, 6, aerobic) and S (7, 3, 4, hydrophilic).
P, Q and R sum to Speed 21, Adhesion 8 and Energy 13, all inside the targets, and P brings the desired trait, so the treatment scores 100%. P, Q and S also land every range, at 23, 9 and 11, but S is hydrophilic, so that treatment scores 80%. P and Q each break a range on their own; only the average counts.
Tips for the real Sea Wolf game
- Budget about 10 minutes a site. Time saved at one site carries to the next, but nothing carries over from Redrock.
- Read the efficiency rules in the tutorial carefully. They are shown again before step 4.
- Apply one rule for keeping and rejecting, and stick to it. Rejecting a microbe and then keeping a near-identical one wastes time and is hard to justify.
- Keep at least one high and one low value on each tight attribute in your pool, or the average cannot be steered into range.
- Sit it on a PC or Mac. A mouse is optional, but it makes comparing microbe cards quicker.
Practise Sea Wolf on CogniPrep
Our Sea Wolf deals three new sites every run on one 30-minute clock. At each site you pick the two characteristics you will see while sorting, sort ten microbes (keep up to six, save for the next site or return), take one microbe from three in four rounds, then choose three for the treatment. You see the efficiency after each site, and one site in every run is capped at 80% so you practise spotting a ceiling.
The final screen shows the running average against each range, which the real module is not reported to do. The score out of 100 at the end uses our own rules, because McKinsey publishes none: it weighs what you achieved against the best your pool allowed, the pool you built, your step 1 choices, how you handled set-aside microbes and your pacing.