Empire of the Ants: seven tips to help your legions succeed

11.11.2024
By Jason Rodriguez, Contributor
Empire of the Ants, developed by Tower Five and published by Microids, is a real-time strategy (RTS) game inspired by Bernard Werber’s sci-fi saga of the same name. In it, you take on the role of 103,683rd, a heroine tasked with saving not just the colony of Bel-o-kan, but the lands of your erstwhile allies. With captivating visuals, you experience a world through the eyes of the tiniest of creatures.

Our Empire of the Ants guide has several tips to help you get started on your quest. We discuss everything from tactical combat and units, as well as exploration, collectibles, and various kinds of missions.
 

Tackle missions in any order you see fit


Empire of the Ants eschews a traditional campaign structure where you have to complete missions in a specific order. Instead, you can choose from various available missions whenever you’re in a new region or hub, and you may complete them as you see fit.

Certain missions may lean more toward exploration or traversal, in which case you will notice adventure-platformer gameplay mechanics. For instance, you might be tasked with seeking out lost ants by detecting them with your antennae. The gauge fills to denote that a worker is very close to your location. You have to be fast though, especially if the water level is rising, since your surroundings aren’t safe.
Empire Of The Ants 7 Tips To Help Your Legions Succeed Log
In another mission, you have to catch specific types of bugs or cross gaps by way of leaves and branches. Some quests might even task you with spying on hostile forces, scanning for their nests and troops.
 

Watch out for potential environmental hazards


Ants are truly fascinating insects, and perhaps the best way to showcase this is through 103,683rd’s own athleticism. You can hold down the space bar to charge your jump and leap across great distances—your character won’t even take fall damage in most cases.

However, you need to beware of bodies of water. If you land on water, your health will drop to represent surface tension. You only have a few seconds to climb on a solid surface before 103,683rd drowns.

Similarly, you’ll face other dangers, such as spider webs and the lairs of predators. Moreover, if you approach hordes and nests of hostile termites, your health will be depleted over time too.
 

Capture nests and build structures for battlefield information, resources, and recruitment


In tactical and strategic missions in Empire of the Ants, you’re often given a means of capturing nests which act as bases. This is done by using any legion unit to eliminate hostile troops and guards. Once you have control of a nest, you may build a limited number of chamber upgrades using resources like food and wood. These structures are part of the following categories: Legion, Economy, Information, Powers, and Defense.
Empire Of The Ants 7 Tips To Help Your Legions Succeed Environment
Legion structures allow you to recruit a particular unit type, such as Workers, Warriors, Gunners, Super Predators, and Support. Each nest is limited to only one legion type once the structure is built, so make sure that you have a proper army composition as you advance.

Economy structures help you gather resources or acquire upgrades. These include:
  • Woodyard: +10 wood per minute; cost increases for each similar structure that’s built.
  • Mushroom Farm: +10 food per minute; cost increases for each similar structure that’s built.
  • Storage Expansion: +100 maximum food and wood storage.
  • Chemical Laboratory and Chemical Library: Unlocks tier 2 and tier 3 upgrades, respectively.
  • Salvage: Grants a 50% refund when you manually destroy a chamber.
  • Multitude and Swarm: Increases the maximum number of legions that you can control in your current army.
  • Pheromone Reserves: Reduces the cooldown of powers by 30%.
  • Nursery: Decreases legion recovery food cost by 30%.
Information structures give you more details about the battlefield and your opponents:
  • Cartographers, Veteran Cartographers, and Elite Cartographers: Displays regions, nests, and visible legions.
  • Activity Alert: Displays alerts when an enemy interacts with nests, foraging points, or resources.
  • Scout Training: +50% maximum health, stamina, and stamina regeneration for your character.
  • Sharp Antennae: Improves the detection capabilities of your legions so they can spot enemies and nests from further away.
  • Traitors and Infiltrators: Displays enemy nest information and legion/nest positions, respectively.
  • Counterspies: Hides your legions in a particular area.
 

Make use of defenses and powers


If you know that your foes are invading your territory, then it’s always a good idea to set up defenses in your nests. Unlike most structures, these don’t take up a chamber slot at all:
  • Wood Barrier: Raises a barrier that enemy units must destroy first before damage can be dealt to the nest itself.
  • Nest Gunners (including Veteran and Elite tiers): Guards that shoot acidic projectiles.
  • Nest Guards (including Veteran and Elite tiers): Guards that fight attackers in melee.
  • Slime Reserves: +20% shield protection via Wood Barriers.
  • Frenzy Catalyst: Locks in all enemy legions that attack a nest until the Wood Barrier is destroyed; enemy legions will be unable to target troops or move to new locations.
  • Acid Gland Evolution: Increases the range of Nest Gunners.
Powers are also unlocked by building specific structures in nests. You may then cast these by pressing and holding their assigned keybinds, causing them to affect nearby units in an area around your character. Higher tiers also confer improved boons:
  • Dash Pheromones: Increases the legion’s movement speed.
  • Rage Pheromones: Increases the legion’s damage output.
  • Shielding Spores: Shields a percentage of the legion’s maximum health.
  • Reinforcement Call: Heals depleted legion strength over time.
 

Attack your foes with legions that they’re weak against and be careful when engaging units in combat


One of the most important Empire of the Ants tips to remember is that your legions follow a rock-papers-scissors-style strength and weakness matrix:
  • Warriors (orange) are strong against Workers (blue).
  • Workers (blue) are strong against Gunners (green).
  • Gunners (green) are strong against Warriors (orange).
It’s imperative that you choose the right troops to counter an enemy unit. Otherwise, your own ant legions might end up taking heavy damage. Moreover, you must plan on how you’d engage enemy forces. That’s because any unit that is actively engaged in melee combat will be unable to reposition or escape unless another unit provides backup. If you’re not careful, your troops could get bogged down in costly engagements.
Empire Of The Ants 7 Tips To Help Your Legions Succeed Mission
To replenish lost unit strength, you can either use the Reinforcement Call power or send a unit back to its nest. Alternatively, you can wait for a legion’s health to be restored over time.
 

Bring Super Predators and Support units with you


Another key Empire of the Ants tip is to have additional units to bolster your ranks. One classification, the Super Predator, should help turn the tide of battle, since they tend to be strong against all types of enemies. Here are some examples:
  • Dor Beetles: Locks in all enemy legions in combat.
  • Rose Chafers: Immune to acid and gunner ranged attacks.
There are also Support units that can complement your army, but you must defend them properly since they tend to be weak against all types of foes:
  • Aphids: Reinforce and replenish nearby friendly troops.
  • Rhino Beetles: Can transport up to two ant legions and carry them over any type of terrain.
  • Snail: When out of combat, legions will cover themselves in the snail’s mucus to gain a +40% damage shield.
Unlike regular ant units, Super Predator legions and Support legions can only be created once for each mission. Use their capabilities properly to gain the upper hand in battle.
 

Acquire various kinds of collectibles


While tackling missions in Empire of the Ants, remember to explore your surroundings to unlock additional entries for your collection. Here are some examples:
  • Bestiary: Has pictures and information about the creatures that you encounter in your journey.
  • Memory Pheromones: Tells you about a past event experienced by an ant from your colony.
  • Scans: Find discarded objects and look for floating scent molecules to fully scan them.
  • Monarch Butterflies and Tortoise Beetles: Discover these majestic insects in key locations.
That does it for our Empire of the Ants guide. We hope these tips help you preserve and strengthen your colony throughout the campaign. You may also try multiplayer matches against other players.

Those eager to battle countless critters using their insect legions should pick up Empire of the Ants on the Epic Games Store.