Leafcutter Ant

Information
Common name	Leafcutter ant
Scientific name	Atta cephalotes
Environment	Rainforest
Castes	Queen Minim Minor Media Major
Traits	Fungus farming Taunt Heal Resistance buff Stun
Playable colony	Yes

Leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) are playable as complete colonies in story levels, extra levels and custom games.

Abilities

Leafcutter ants use basic attack by biting. You must choose either taunt or stun majors before playing.

• Taunt majors can redirect attacks onto themselves and heal. They can raise their defense at low health at level 3.

• Stun majors can stun enemies. They can affect multiple enemies at once and slow them down afterwards at level 3.

Minims are uncontrollable. They are invulnerable and can't attack enemies. Each brood tile can spawn and hold a minim without requiring food when it is built.

Food processing

Leafcutter ants automatically bring leaves from harvestable plants on the surface back to leaf storage. Leaf storage tiles can hold 10/ 40/ 100 leaves. Dead creatures aren't edible and disappear after 3 minutes.

Minims bring leaves to brood chambers to grow fungus over time. Brood tiles can hold 20/ 30/ 40 food or waste and cultivate 1 food every second. The queen chamber can hold fungus but not leaves like brood tiles.

Fungus turns into waste that occupies brood tiles when they are used. Minims need to bring waste to waste storage so that fungus has space to grow. Waste storage tiles can hold 10/ 40/ 100 waste and dissolve 1 waste every 5/ 4/ 2.5 seconds.

Leafcutter ants are poisoned for 60 seconds after going through occupied waste storage in their nest. Affected ants move 30% more slowly, attack 50% more slowly and lose 1 HP every second. Minims are immune.

Waste storage tiles remove 2 upgrade points from adjacent tiles and 1 upgrade point from other tiles which are one-tile away. Highway tiles aren't affected. You can only delete a waste storage tile when it is empty.

Waste storage usually can't be completely filled up. The extra space is reserved for the waste carried by the minims. Waste can't be dropped when waste storage become full suddenly.

The first leaf storage tile and the first waste storage tile are free. Later storage tiles cost 5 food to build.

You receive 66% of the building cost as leaves from deleting tiles. Fungus can only exist on brood tiles so leaves are left on the ground instead.

Minims panic and stop working when the queen takes damage. You can keep them working by preventing the respective pheromone groups from attacking.

Appearances

You can play a a leafcutter ant colony in:

• The Harvest (either)

• Front Line (either)

• Cramped (taunt)

• The Crucible (no major)

• Adventure (either)

You can play with leafcutter ant mediae in:

• Main story

• Extremis

• Excavators

• Tug of War

You can play with leafcutter ant majors in:

• Main story (either)

• Extremis (either)

• Tug of War (taunt)

• Tug of War 2 (stun)

• Festive Spider (both)

• New Year's Feast (taunt)

You can also encounter non-player leafcutter ants in:

• The Other Foot

• Enemy of My Enemy

• Beetles Rise Up!

• Adventure

Notable stats

Leafcutter ant queen
Common stats	Health: 1200 Score: 700 Healing speed: 1
Damage modifications	Physical resistance: 40% Venom resistance: 40% Maximum taken damage: 25
Immunities	Immune to stun/ confusion/ fleeing Immune to pickup/ knockback (strong) Immune to execution

Leafcutter ant minim
Common stats	Health: 1 Movement speed: 220 Harvest amount: 4
Damage modifications	None
Immunities	None

Leafcutter ant minor
Common stats	Cost: 20/ 2 Health: 25/ 35/ 45 Movement speed: 300/ 340/ 380 Score: 5/ 8/ 12 Harvest amount: 7/ 8/ 9 Healing speed: 0.1/ 0.1/ 0.1 Vision radius: 400/ 400/ 400 Encumbered
Damage modifications	None
Immunities	None
Basic attack	Damage (physical): 0.6/ 0.8/ 1 Attack speed: 1/ 1/ 1

Leafcutter ant media
Common stats	Cost: 80/ 6 Health: 100/ 115/ 130 Movement speed: 310/ 320/ 330 Score: 14/ 16/ 18 Harvest amount: 17/ 19/ 22 Healing speed: 0.1/ 0.2/ 0.3 Vision radius: 400/ 400/ 400
Damage modifications	Armor: 0.2/ 0.4/ 0.8 Piercing: 20%/ 30%/ 40%
Immunities	None
Basic attack	Damage (physical): 4.5/ 6/ 7 Attack speed: 1/ 1/ 1.3

Leafcutter ant major (taunt)
Common stats	Cost: 150/ 15 Health: 200/ 240/ 400 Movement speed: 300/ 300/ 300 Score: 30/ 42/ 54 Harvest amount: 16/ 16/ 16 Healing speed: 0.1/ 0.15/ 0.2 Threat: 0.3/ 0.3/ 0.3 Vision radius: 450/ 460/ 470
Damage modifications	None
Immunities	Immune to pickup/ knockback
Basic attack	Damage (physical): 12/ 15/ 22 Attack speed: 0.8/ 0.8/ 1
Taunt	Trigger: User has above 30% HP. Chance: 30%/ 30%/ 30% Damage (physical): 1/ 1/ 1 Cooldown: 10/ 10/ 10	Taunt Radius: 100/ 140/ 180 Duration: 4/ 5/ 6
		Heal Total health: 20/ 25/ 30 Duration: 4/ 5/ 6
Buff	Trigger: User has below 40% HP. Cooldown: --/ --/ 15	Resistance buff Physical resistance: --/ --/ + 80% Venom resistance: --/ --/ + 80% Duration: --/ --/ 4

Leafcutter ant major (stun)
Common stats	Cost: 150/ 15 Health: 200/ 240/ 400 Movement speed: 300/ 300/ 300 Score: 30/ 42/ 54 Harvest amount: 16/ 16/ 16 Healing speed: 0.1/ 0.15/ 0.2 Threat: 0.3/ 0.3/ 0.3 Vision radius: 450/ 460/ 470
Damage modifications	None
Immunities	Immune to pickup/ knockback
Basic attack	Damage (physical): 12/ 15/ 22 Attack speed: 0.8/ 0.8/ 1
Stun	Chance: 50%/ 50%/ 50% Damage (physical): 1/ 1/ 1 Radius: --/ --/ 40 Cooldown: 8/ 7/ 6	Stun Duration: 3/ 3.5/ 4
		Speed debuff Movement speed: --/ --/ - 90% Duration: --/ --/ 8

Trivia

• Leafcutter ant colonies have nineteen-tiled queen chambers in custom games.

• Dead leafcutter ants can often be seen in the waste storage. In real life, this is a normal behavior in most ant species because waste storage can also serve as a graveyards.

• Leafcutter ant larvae don't spin cocoon. Their naked pupae can be seen in the game.

• Level 3 mediae and majors have 100% chance to fend off phorid flies, even if they are carrying leaves. This is represented by two minims hanging on the carried leaves, defending the carriers. This behavior also occurs in real life.