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 Non-player colonies Circadian rhythm
Music	{{{music}}}

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

Objectives

• Remove 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%

• New game plus bonus: + 40% x plus number

Settings

Your 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. Dead termites disappear after 2 minutes while dead surface enemies disappear after 5 seconds.

You can attempt the first objective everyday until you succeed. The game only checks the requirements after the driver ants have retreated.

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 enemy termite colonies are hostile to 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 on the ways to the termite mounds.

Huntsman spiders occasionally appear one at a time and follow your most recently place pheromone marker. They retreat after they have eaten any food or eliminated enough enemies.

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

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 this specific order: green - yellow - blue - pink. They only move to the next colony after they have gathered all available food in the current mound. They don't harvest dead termite queens.

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

African stink ants

Level 1 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 consecutively to make them close off their tunnels. Your progress is reverted over time if you can't finish it in a single attempt.

Level 1 African stink ants only appear on the surface at night and disappear 10 seconds before the driver ants arrive. They carry dead termites from the targeted mound back to the original spawner.

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

Challenge

Assassin bugs gather on the ways to the termite mounds. They only disappear briefly at noon. They don't attack other ants even without their armor.

Achievements

(to be added)

Trivia

(none)

Minimaps

• 

  Surface

• 

  Underground - player

• 

  Underground - blue

• 

  Underground - yellow

• 

  Underground - green

• 

  Underground - pink