Scientist

The scientists study the cross-species nature of gene-thief ants in a laboratory.

Descriptions

The scientists narrate what is happening in the formicarium. They have different dialogues depending on which creatures you choose to drop in your formicarium and which rewards you choose as completion bonus.

The female scientist leads the research team. She gives orders and questions about the progress of the experiments. She is willing to get rid of any colonies that fail to meet her expectation. She often leaves the male scientist in charge of the experiments.

The male scientist executes the experiments and reports the results. He has an unhealthy obsession with the gene-thief ants and finds amusement in observing them overcoming extreme challenges. He has been over-exposing the ants to Royal Jelly. He interferes directly in later formicarium challenges. Only his hands and arms are visible in the game.

Abilities

Only the male scientist can directly interact with your colony.

He can knock on the glass to stun and damage any active creatures in the formicarium.

He can use his finger to crush and inflicts 4000 true damage on nearby creatures.

History

The scientists started their research on gene-splicing and the polymorphism of gene-thief ants, which they didn't expect to be possible. They had only managed to find a few healthy specimens, one of which is the primary colony.

They exposed the colony to outside threats to see how it adapted in the first and the second experiment. The female scientist always went away and put the male scientist in charge. He secretly increased the intensity of the challenges and lied to his superior about the process. The experiments were put on hold temporarily afterward.

The third experiment was meant to be the last test for this colony. The queen was moved to a new formicarium in preparation for the battle against the counterpart colony. The female scientist still left the experiment in his control despite noticing his conduct and promised to have a word with him about it later. The male scientist interfered directly this time. He knocked on the glass to force the ants out, crushed them using his finger and dropped extra enemies to even the playing field. He was ordered to dispose of anything that had contacted with the Royal Jelly after the primary colony had triumphed.

The male scientist rehoused the primary colony in a moss-growing terrarium. He created a bunch of hybrids on the whim using Royal Jelly and made the primary colony fight against them as soon as the female scientist was absent. When the challenge was about to be beaten, she suddenly returned, which forced the man to fake having contamination accident to stall for time. He quickly hid the terrarium in a cupboard. The security guard escorted him out of the lab despite his protest.

On later days, the female scientist discovered that chlorosulfonic acid, propane, laser galvanometers and a supercapacitor were delivered to the lab without her being informed. The male scientists secretly broke into the lab through a vent and infrequently resupplied the colony.

Finally, on a fateful day, the male scientist returned with his homemade equipments. He put the colony through the real final experiment against acid, laser, electric and fire. The primary colony ultimately gained immunity and benefitial effects from the testing equipments. He accidentally overloaded the power as the experiment went on and raised the alarm of the entire facility. He set off a dynamite and destroyed the lab to block the security guards.

The male scientist made a concoction from Royal Jelly and living ants and drank it. It could be assumed that he tried to assimilate the acquired benefitial effects to himself. Unfortunately, he underestimated the power of the Royal Jelly. He transformed into a human-ant hybrid, became one with the colony and protected it from the invading lab creatures. He let the primary colony mount him and broke out of the lab, with the intention to release it to the wild. Their fate remained unknown at the end of the story.

Trivia

• The original story of the game involved only one scientist who followed a gene-thief ant queen on her migration. He becomes the narrator in the current game. He is voiced by Edmund Callum, also known as youtuber MauLer.

• The female scientist is voiced by Mary Jo Wood and the male scientist is voiced by Eric Peterson.

• The scientists don't have actual name or show any skin. They are only known to have British accent. The developers want to leave some space for players to interprete their appearances.