Almost everything you bring home in Active Matter ends up in one of three places: the Refiner, which breaks it down; the Replicator, which builds new things out of what the Refiner gives you; or your four chronogene slots, which the Replicator also supplies. They're one economy, and the game explains very little of it. This guide goes through all three, from the numbers on the screen.
It's written from the game, not the wiki. Screens are from build 0.4.0.148, 25 September 2026.
Two things the screen tells you in red and most people miss:
What it pays out
Three kinds of thing:
Read the tooltip before you refine anything
Three lessons in that table:
Chronotraces themselves are worth ₳5 each if you refine them, so there's never a reason to.
Replication: limited, slow, cheap
Replication makes copies from a blueprint you own, and each blueprint only has so many. What we saw:
Fusion: unlimited and instant, if you have the chronotraces
If you're short, the game says exactly what's missing ("Not enough components: Fiber chronotrace x343"). That's your shopping list for the next raid, and the Refiner table above tells you which loot to bring back for it.
Tiers
The same chronogene comes in up to three tiers. Tier III is Rare and much stronger than Tier I. From the tooltips:
The full list we saw includes Active Matter Gathering, Breath Control, Carrying Capacity, Cold-blooded, Endurance, Examination, Fire Resistance, Jump, Pain Shock, Serenity, Speed, Sprint and Steady Hand, plus locked ones with no tier numbers: Active Matter Locator, Berserk, Sharp Memory, Soft Steps, Tenacity, Trap Sense and Weapon Expert.
Charges: what dying costs you
Where new chronogenes come from
From the Replicator. The last page of blueprints is chronogene recipes:
