Drive Them Back

Information

Name	Drive Them Back
Categories	Story Documentary
Environment	Savannah
Player species	Matabele ant
Player units	Matabele ant worker Matabele ant medic (either) Matabele ant soldier
Surface	Yes
Features	Challenge mode AI colonies Circadian rhythm

Without termites to eat, the Matabele will starve. They must be protected.
Well disguised assassins walk unhindered amongst the ants. (challenge)

Objectives

Eliminate 100/ 125/ 150/ 150/ 150 driver ants and prevent them from taking 30/ 25/ 20/ 20/ 20 termites in a single raid.

Keep at least a termite colony alive.

Rewards

Base value: 6 territory/ 475 food/ 17 Royal Jelly

Difficulty bonus: 300%/ 325%/ 350%/ 380%/ 420%

First-time bonus: + 1500%

Challenge bonus: + 100%

Completion bonus: + 200%

Settings

A Matabele ant colony must repel an advancing swarm of driver ants and protect its food sources.

The level starts at night.

You have access to 4 termite colonies.

You can attempt the first objective everyday until you succeed. The game only checks the requirements after the driver ants have retreated. You don't need to eliminate the driver ants yourself.

You must choose either anesthetist or fast-responder medics before playing the level. You start with 13/ 10/ 7/ 6/ 6 soldier brood tiles and 7 food storage tiles.

Non-player colonies

The termite colonies don't interact with each other.

Minor soldiers and major soldiers are kept around the queen and are only deployed to protect the gathering groups.

The termite colonies retreat inside at noon and gather lignocellulose within their territories for the rest of the day.

Brood tiles with eliminated termites can't incubate for 12 minutes.

Notable enemies

Enemies are on the same side and are hostile to the ants and the termites. Driver ants and African stink ants are hostile to each other.

Earwigs and termites live in your nest.

Surface enemies don't invade your nest. They occasionally fight among themselves to keep their own number in check.

Wafer trapdoor spiders hide themselves around your nest and termite mounds.

Huntsman spiders occasionally move toward the center of the map and retreat after they have eaten any food.

African tiger beetles and rainbow lizards only appear on the surface during the day.

Rainbow lizards run out of the map when they have below 45% of their health.

Earwigs, sun spiders, African giant centipedes, alligator back scorpions and emperor scorpions only appear on the surface at night. Some enemies can come out of empty termite mounds.

African stink ants

African stink ants frequently appear underground and move around through the soil. They quickly leave if you don't dig into their paths. You must eliminate a certain number of stink ants to make them close off their tunnels.

African stink ants also travel between termite mounds on the surface only in the morning, about 10 to 20 seconds before the driver ants appear.

African stink ants gather any food on the way. They have 40% chance to summon stink ants from nearby spawners once when they take damage.

Driver ants

Driver ants don't invade your nest. They conduct raids on termite colonies during the day and retreat at night. They gather any food on the way.

The target is chosen in a specific order: green - yellow - blue - pink. They only move on to the next colony after they have gathered all available food in the current mound.

Large driver ant soldiers can inflict 100% more damage on termites and take 50% less damage from them only in this level.

Challenge

Assassin bugs gather on the ways to termite mounds. They only disappear briefly at noon. They are ignored by the driver ants and the stink ants even without their armor.