Formicarium Adaptation

In the main story, you can customize your gene-thief ant colony using Royal Jelly.

Royal Jelly

Royal Jelly (RJ) had a mysterious origin. It wasn't known where it came from or how it was made. The scientists were tasked with researching the genetic capabilities of it. Gene-thief ant (Formica ereptor) were made using this substance. The queen could select and pass down desirable traits to its brood by consuming Royal Jelly which was infused with genetic materials of other species.

You can open the adaptation menu by clicking on the gene symbol in the top left corner of the screen when you are in the formicarium. You can spend Royal Jelly here to unlock new units and adaptations, even during formicarium challenges.

You only have access to level 1 gene-thief ant workers at the start of the story. New unit option is only available when you enter a new story chapter. You must choose either of the 2 variants of each unit and the choices are permanent.

You can unlock only 2 out of 4 available adaptations for each unit. You can switch between paired adaptations by spending the same amount of Royal Jelly. Adaptations can be either new abilities, additional effects or stat modifications.

You can also modify some stats of each unit by trading Royal Jelly for improvement points (IP). The improvements are permanent and can't be done during formicarium challenges. The exchange value increases drastically after each trade, which applies to each unit separately. You only gain access to minor improvements after you have unlocked both adaptations of each unit.

You can bring your customized story-mode colonies into freeplay.

Unlockables

Gene-thief ant queen
Icon	Name	Cost	Type	Effects
	Second wind	50	Ability	Trigger: User is reduced to 75% HP. Cooldown: 300 Take no damage for 30 seconds. Regenerate 300 HP over 5 seconds.
	Fierce mother	50	Ability	Trigger: User is reduced to 75% HP. Cooldown: 300 Radius: 2600 Confuse enemies for 10 seconds.
	Royal guard	100	Ability	Trigger: User is reduced to 75% HP. Cooldown: 300 Spawn 14 royal guards immediately near the queen and eliminate them after 60 seconds. Spawn ants without requiring food or workers for 5 seconds.
	Royal decree	100	Ability	Trigger: User is reduced to 75% HP. Cooldown: 300 Spawn ants without requiring food or workers for 20 seconds.
	Minor improvements			Health: + 10 * IP Cooldown: - 0.5 * IP
Note: Royal guards resemble the worker units of the player species.

Gene-thief ant worker

Icon	Name	Cost	Effects
	Level 2	10
	Level 3	15
File:Nimble icon.png	Nimble	30	Evasion chance (out of battle): + 60%. Workers They don't appear on minimaps or show health bars when they are out of battle. Workers can only be detected within a smaller radius.
File:Defensive icon.png	Defensive	30	Maximum taken damage: + 20 Physical resistance: + 20% Venom resistance : + 20%
File:Aggessive icon.png	Aggressive brood	40	Damage: + 200%
File:Efficient icon.png	Efficient brood	40	Movement speed: + 40 Harvest amount: + 10 Work speed: + 2 Workers can move normally on tiles.
	Minor improvements		Movement speed: + 2 * IP Harvest amount: + 0.4 * IP
Note: Workers can only harvest up to 30 food from large resources.

Black ant soldier

Icon	Name	Cost	Effects
	Level 1	75
	Level 2	15
	Level 3	20
File:Dangerous icon.png	Dangerous	50	Attack speed: + 20%
File:Meat wall icon.png	Meat wall	50	Physical resistance: + 50%
File:Preservation icon.png	Self preservation	70	Trigger: User is reduced to 40% HP. Run away from battle for 0.5 second.
File:Repair icon.png	Self repair	70	Healing speed: + 4
	Minor improvements		Health: + 0.7 * IP Damage: + 0.05 * IP Armor: + 0.1 * IP Piercing: + 0.5% * IP

Wood ant shooter

Icon	Name	Cost	Effects
	Level 1	150
	Level 2	30
	Level 3	40
File:Corrosive icon.png	Corrosive	80	Mortar: Each attack deals 6 extra venom damage over 0.5 second. Rapid-fire: Each attack deals 1 extra venom damage over 0.5 second.
File:Highpressure icon.png	High pressure	80	Mortar: Each attack deals 4.5 extra physical damage over 0.1 second. Rapid-fire: Each attack deals 0.75 extra physical damage over 0.1 second.
File:Crippling icon.png	Crippling	100	Mortar: Each target takes 40% more damage from further physical attacks for 1.5 seconds. Rapid-fire: Each target takes 40% more damage from further physical attacks for 0.4 second.
File:Weakening icon.png	Weakening	100	Mortar: Each target takes 40% more damage from further venom attacks for 1.5 seconds. Rapid-fire: Each target takes 40% more damage from further venom attacks for 0.4 second.
	Minor improvements		Health: + 0.5 * IP Damage (acid spray): + 0.02 * IP Attack speed (acid spray): + 0.4% * IP Range (acid spray): + 20 * IP
Note: Adaptations and improvements are only applied to acid spray. Debuff effect of Weakening and Crippling can be stacked in value. Despite the wording in the game, High pressure is a damage-over-time effect.

Leafcutter ant major

Icon	Name	Cost	Effect
	Level 1	300
	Level 2	50
	Level 3	60
File:Durable icon.png	Durable	100	Armor: + 3
File:Shockproof icon.png	Shockproof	100	Maximum taken damage: + 20
File:Sharp icon.png	Sharp	200	Radius: 250 Leafcutter ant majors and nearby allies reflect 30% of taken damage back to the respective attackers. Affected ants have orange aura.
File:Resilient icon.png	Resilient	200	Radius: 250 Leafcutter ant majors and nearby allies take 30% less damage from both physical and venom attacks. Affected ants have blue aura.
	Minor improvements		Health: + 1 * IP Physical resistance: + 0.5% * IP Venom resistance: + 0.5% * IP Attack speed (basic attack): + 0.3% * IP
Note: Damage reflection will be calculated before maximum taken damage is applied in calculation.

Fire ant soldier

Icon	Name	Cost	Effects
	Level 1	500
	Level 2	70
	Level 3	80
File:Surefooted icon.png	Surefooted	200	Damage (mount): + 10
File:Evasive icon.png	Evasive	200	Evasion chance: + 30%
File:Laststand icon.png	Last stand	300	Trigger: User has 0 HP. Regenerate 50 HP over 0.5 second. Attack 50% more slowly for 5 seconds. Survive at 1 HP for 5 seconds and lose all heath afterward.
File:Lastlaugh icon.png	Last laugh	300	Trigger: User has 0 HP. Deal 20 venom damage to a single nearest enemy.
	Minor improvements		Movement speed: + 2 * IP Piercing: + 0.5% * IP AOE resistance: + 0.01% * IP Damage: + 0.05 * IP

Trivia

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