Early Game

Gameplay begins when two workers hatch from the initial two eggs the queen has laid.

A Day in the Life of Worker Ants

Each day, your ants can experience a handful of different types of events.

Predator Attacks

About once every 1.5-3hrs (including overnight), your ants may experience a predator attack. The unit will alert you via sound and you will have to tap the unit repeatedly to deter the attack. You will know your taps are registering if the unit makes a “woosh” sound and dust rains within the nest.

Most predators will pass back and forth across the top of the soil (the exception is earthworms, which will dig through your nest underground). You will know you successfully deterred an attack when the predator changes direction on their current pass. Do not stop tapping until this happens.

Surface predators will attempt to attack any ants on the surface if you do not tap to try to deter them. Tapping appears to distract them from attacking so even ants in the path of the predator will be ignored and spared.

Once an attack finishes, deterred or not, the unit will give an “all-clear” tone that sounds sort of like a choral “ahhh!”. You can stop tapping.

Types of predators change with the seasons. You can see my current data on distribution of predator attacks here! I keep a log of each attack I catch: what time the attack happens, what predator it was, what time of day, and how many ants I lost during the attack. As this data set grows, it may give you a good idea of what predators to expect and when they may appear based on time of year.

Tips for attacks:

• The sensor for tapping is in the upper righthand corner of the unit. Try tapping there first.
• I use my knuckle to gently tap on the flat front border piece to avoid tapping the unit too hard.
• Predator attacks appear to be easier to deter (fewer taps required) with a larger population and perhaps higher “strength” stats. Stats are hidden from the player, so further research is necessary to confirm this hypothesis.
• You can block your ants in with the “Stick” option in the menu which prevents workers from emerging and protects them from attacks on the surface. The length of time your ants are blocked in is determined by how thick of a layer of soil you push into place at the entrance. It looks like a pencil pointed down. Please refer to “Stick” in the later portion of this guide for more info on how to use it.

Feeding

<aside> 💡 Please refer to the Food Guide for a full list of food items available for placement and their currently understood effect on your colony.

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Selecting the first menu item will allow you to place items on the surface of the soil. Most are food items, some are not.