Story Mode

Story mode is the major focus of the game.

Hub formicarium

Your gene-thief ant colony must establish itself in a formicarium and survive a multitude of challenges that the scientists create. The formicarium is your hub world.

You can open the mission menu by clicking on the ant symbol in the top left corner of the screen when you are in the formicarium. Details about the respective mission are shown on the right side.

You earn resources by beating story missions and they can only be used in the formicarium. You can spend Royal Jelly to customize your gene-thief ant colony. You can spend each territory point to excavate a tile. Seeds, woodworms and woodlice are dropped on the surface as food.

You can't build more brood tiles when you reach the population cap. It increases when you enter a new story chapter. The population cap is 100/ 125/ 150/ 175/ 300.

Spawning menu will be available on the left part of the screen after you are done with a story chapter. You can freely release previously introduced enemies in your formicarium to test your colony. They aren't edible.

Your queen will be moved to another formicarium with little to no resource to start anew when you decide to enter the next story chapter. You gain Royal Jelly equal to the number of unused territory points and excavated tiles. You also gain Royal Jelly equal to 1.25% of your total construction cost and amount of food in the entire formicarium.

Documentary missions

Documentary missions in each chapter introduce new ant species in their natural habitats and new aspects of gameplay. The missions are narrated in documentary-style. Your adaptations are not applied in these missions.

• New Home and Subjugation: You play as black ants in an European woodland. You must manage the limited resources and grow your colony.

• Rising Tide andQueen of the Hill: You play as wood ants on an European beach. You must defeat the creatures running from the rising tide.

• The Harvest and Front Line: You play as leafcutter ants in a South American rainforest. You must engage in territorial disputes against other ant colonies.

• Cold Blood and A Bridge Too Far: You play as fire ants in Green Swamp Preserve. You must test your skill against a combination of previous challenges.

• Triage and Drive Them Back: You play as Matabele ants on a sub-Saharan savannah. You must both pillage and protect your only resource at the same time.

• Last Mound Standing: You play as termites on a sub-Saharan savannah. You must become the final survivor.

Challenge mode introduces new enemies, which act as obstacles, to a previously completed mission.

You gain extra resources if you beat a documentary mission for the first time with and without challenge mode enabled.

Formicarium challenges

You must beat formicarium challenges to progress through the main story. Formicarium challenges occur in your formicarium and your adaptations are applied.

• The First Experiment and The Second Experiment: You must survive attacking waves.

• Possibly the Final Experiment: You must defeat the enemy colony.

• The Final Experiment: You must defeat the titans.

• The REAL Final Experiment: You must survive the ultimate trial.

You only earn resources when you beat formicarium challenges for the first time. Edible enemies become inedibles during replays.

You will be sent back to right before you have attempted a formicarium challenge if you fail. You lose all of your spent resources if you quit midway.

New game plus

You have the choice to enter new game plus after you have beaten The REAL Final Experiment. You can't return after proceeding.

You will play the the main story from the start again, but with all unlocked units, adaptations, minor improvements and Royal Jelly. Adaptations and minor improvements are applied to the respective units in documentary missions.

You can proceed to the next new game plus after you have beaten the current one. Mission difficulty increases along with the number of times you have beaten new game plus. Swarm creatures are powerscaled while non-player colonies have greater headstart and more frequent cheat.

Save files

Save files can be found in these locations, even if you delete them in the game. You can move these files by copying and pasting.

• Colony[X]Stage[Y].sav keeps informations about unlockables and state of the story.

• Colony[X]LevelDataStage[Y].sav keeps informations about formicarium layout and resources.

[X] is the creating order of your save. Stage[Y] is your progress in the previous chapters and will be omitted if you are in the most recent chapter.

Trivia

• The original story of the game involved a scientist who followed an Formica ereptor queen on its migration. The story occured on an island with a variety of environments and ant species that shouldn't exist in the same place. The gene-thief ant colony expanded through the island, killing rival ant colonies and gaining their desirable traits.

• Aggressive enemies may also be dropped in your formicarium together with food after each time you beat a mission. It happens only after the spawning menu becomes available. Inedible creatures like slave-maker ants and army ants may appear after each time you beat Subjugation and Front Line respectively.