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The Formicarium Challenges inEmpires Of The Undergrowthsee your fledgling nest of gene-thief ants under siege from the other specimens in the lab. The first one is fairly tame compared to the others, but if you aren’t ready your Queen can quickly fall to the waves of enemy ants or vicious beetles.
Preparation is key to all the Experiments, so if you’re having trouble surviving you can always replay earlier missions to build up more resources and enhance your ants. With this guide, you’ll have everything you need to fend off the assault.
Preparation
Before you attempt the Experiment,max out your Formicarium’s populationwith Black Ant Soldiers, divided into two or three Broods of roughly equal size. A small brood of extra Workers (four or five in total) is also a good idea to help keep eggs and food supplies moving.
Build enough storage space for1000 units of Foodandupgrade all your Brood Chambersas much as you can, then take advantage of the seeds given between missions to fill your storage completely. Use any extra Royal Jelly you get togive your Soldiers bonus abilities.
You have to unlock the second and third upgrade levels of Brood Chambers with Royal Jelly.
The Formicarium Challenges are one of the few instances where you actually risk being outnumbered, so you need to have both quantity and quality to succeed.
How To Win The First Phase
Most of the attacks in the First Experiemnt will come from two directions; the tougherFusca antsto the northwest, and theswarming, numbers-focused Ereptorsin the southwest. As long as you may keep the path from the enemy colonies to your nest entrance defended, you should be fine during the early parts of the attack.
The first section of the Challenge has the following waves, in order:
Place a Soldier Brood midway between the enemy colony and your own to intercept, while your other Brood(s) stayjust inside the entrance of the nestto intercept any that slip through. If the frontline Brood starts to take too many casualties,have them switch with the nest guardswhile reinforcements hatch.
When the enemy switches to Ereptor waves,move the nest guards into position in the southwest, since they’ll be able to get there faster than the ants who just finished fighting the Fusca.
Keep your Workers on Nest Duty; they’ll focus solely on moving eggs from the Queen’s Chamber to replace hatched Soldiers.
At the end of this phase,seeds will appear on the surface.Move your Workers into the same Pheromone Groups as the Soldiers and send them to collect as many seeds as possible before the next wave begins. When it does, move the Workers back to Nest Duty.
How To Win The Second Phase
After the seed break, the two rival colonies will start sending waves simultaneously. Set a Brood to intercept each as before; if you have a third Soldier Brood, keep them inside the entrance as reserves, like you did before; if not, you may need to send one Brood to support the other if they clean up their enemies first.
The Workers inside the nest will fight to defend the Queen if necessary, but this isn’t ideal. You can, however, buy them an upgrade with Royal Jelly that makes them almost as good in melee as basic Soldiers.
The second phase’s waves are as follows:
Once both waves are destroyed, you’ll get another seed break. Collect as much food as you may, as before, and hatch reinforcements before the final attack.
How To Survive The Beetle Attack
From this point forward, there will be aconstant stream of enemy antscoming form both the Fusca and Ereptor colonies. Defend the nest as normal until the real threat of the final wave appears; a brood of Devil’s Coach Horse Beetles.
The number of beetles that appear will depend on the difficulty. As you learned the hard way duringA New Home,they’re fierce fighters and you’ll definitely lose some ants when you face them. The good news is that they can be broken down into food once they’re defeated.
When the beetles arrive,withdraw all your Soldier Antsto the entry chamber of the nest. This allows you to present a united front, and gives reinforcements less distance to travel after hatching. It also gives the Workers on Nest Duty a chance to drag away dead beetles after the fight while your Soldiers finish off the remaining foes.
The waves of rival ants will only stoponce all the beetles, both larval and adult,are dead. When that’s done, all you have to do to finish the scenario is defeat the remaining enemies on the map. Just stay in the nest; they’ll come right to you.
