It’s been an important last couple of months for Empires of the Undergrowth, and those of us at Slug Disco Studios! Work continues apace on the fire ant update, and we’re not too far away from having all of the 4th tier creatures complete and ready for placement in the levels. We’ve also decided that now is the time to expand our dev team, and we’ve brought in a fantastic new artist to work on our environments – I’ll introduce you to Dan (yes, this is the 2nd time in the past year we’ve hired someone called Dan) a little later in the newsletter.


A whip spider observes a trail of Atta cephalotes from Crazlex9 on our Discord

Last time, the creature feature was all about beetles. We’re (almost) moving away from insects for our newly-finished critters this time, into the world of spiders! We apologise in advance to any arachnophobes who already find looking at them difficult. There’s also a beetle larva to show that wasn’t ready in time for the last newsletter.


Spiders elicit fascination in us as much as they instil dread. What is it about the form of the spider that makes them so intimidating to us, despite very few of them posing any real threat at all? Perhaps it’s the unpredictable stop-start movements they make. Maybe it’s that they’re all business at one end, many eyes and fangs staring right back at us. Or is it that, despite our intelligence, deep down we know that nature perfected functional physical form long before our ancestors could sharpen a stick? Whatever the reason, today we have three spiders to introduce that will battle your fire ants in the 4th tier levels!


The green lynx spider (Peucetia viridans) lurks in foliage, using its pigmentation as camouflage. It is an active hunter, seeking out prey rather than building webs, in a similar way to wolf spiders. It can also defensively spit venom a long distance – a very rare adaptation, and we felt this trait made it ideal for our game.


A green lynx spider confronts fire ants

Like all three of the spiders being introduced in this newsletter, it is what is known as a “true” spider, being a member of the order Araneae. This is in contrast to, for example, the whip spiders of the 3rd tier, which are arachnids but not true spiders.


Lurking in the leaves


The magnolia green jumper (Lyssomanes viridis) hunts using excellent eyesight & powerful back legs that allow it to jump many times its body length. It will be the 2nd jumping spider in the game, after Psecas viridipurpureus from the 3rd tier.


Cute but cunning – a magnolia green jumper

Jumping spiders are highly intelligent, even curious in nature, carefully observing targets before making the decision to pounce at the opportune moment. They represent the largest group of Aranae (true spiders).


I’m not sure I like those odds


The six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) is a large semi-aquatic spider native to North America. It lurks near the bank, exploiting a hydrophobic (water-repelling) coating on its skin, surface tension and air bubbles to stay afloat. It can lie in wait (float in wait?) patiently for many hours for a suitable prey item to drift or swim to within striking distance.


They swim now?!?

Its prey includes insects (both aquatic and ones that have fallen into the water) and small fish. It is capable of fully submerging itself for a time, breathing from a pocket of air it takes with it. Air bubbles that get trapped on its body mean that as long as it is not submerged for too long, it will emerge completely dry.


Ready to strike – keep your distance, ants!

The fishing spider will be the optional challenge creature for the 4th tier levels – this means it is likely to not be in the game with the initial release of the fire ant levels, but added in after in an interim update between the 4th and 5th tiers (following the pattern for the 2nd and 3rd tier challenges).


And to finish off our creature reveals for this newsletter, let’s leave the world of arachnids and return to a beetle we’ve talked about before, but this time in larval form. Like many ground beetles, the larval form of the false bombardier beetle (Galerita bicolor) is as voracious a predator as the adult.


Born ready for battle

There’s an interesting difference between the larval form of the false bombardier and the true bombardier (Brachinus alternans). Although the false bombardier mimics the true bombardier in its pigmentation and shape, its larvae are much more fearsome than that of the true bombardier. Like devil’s coach horse larvae, they are born ready for combat, and are more than capable of tussling with fire ants on their home turf.


A couple of months back we recruited a new member of the Slug Disco team – working alongside Matt on environments for upcoming levels of Empires of the Undergrowth (and perhaps adding his touch to existing ones) is artist Dan Coates. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind introducing himself as a team member, so here he is in his own words:

My name is Dan (Dan.C/Dan 2) and I’m the new Environment Artist here at Slug Disco! This means I’ll be working on some seriously cool level art for EotU and any future projects (spoilers).

If you want to get in touch I’m over on the Slug Disco Discord, you can also find me on Artstation where I’ll be posting how the assets for EotU were made, as well as some personal projects! And if you’re interested in seeing what an Environment Artist with an irrational fear of spiders looks like, make sure to tune in when we stream EotU!

Keep an eye out for future screenshots and environment updates, I can’t wait to share with you what we’ve been working on!

Thanks guys,
Dan.C

The most pressing concern for our new environment artist is of course the look of the Green Swamp, the nature reserve in North Carolina in which the fire ant levels are set. So far Dan has nearly completed work on the underground look for the levels, deciding on a teal glow to contrast the red of the critters themselves.


The new underground look. Fungus is a placeholder from the leafcutters; it’ll be replaced

It’s early days yet and there’s lots more to come, but check out the general aesthetic that Dan is going for in these in-engine shots. One really big advantage of joining a small team is that you can have a quite sizeable influence on a project, and we’re looking forward to seeing Dan really get his creative teeth sunk into Empires of the Undergrowth.


Bathed in the teal glow of the swamp


I’ve found it to be a lot of fun to do size comparisons like this every so often, to give people some perspective of what to expect when new content arrives. The fire ant levels will feature our first official titan-class creature – the great blue skimmer – so here it is in comparison to some of the other new arrivals coming with the 4th tier.



Here’s one which is more thematic, given the “spiders” feel that this newsletter has! It should give you a clear idea of how our new green lynx spider compares to the big boys. The huge whip spider still reigns supreme in terms of sheer bulk, but the lynx gives the juvenile form a run for its money!


You have no idea how hard it was to get them to keep still


A couple of weeks back, Dan P (our marketing content creator) and Liam (dev) sat down to have a deep discussion about the colony AI systems in EotU, and the incoming changes that will be happening to them along with the 4th tier. Liam has been working on a much more flexible, modular AI system for the game, which will be used in all of the remaining campaign levels to varying degrees and will eventually find itself transplanted into freeplay, allowing for much more sensible decision making by the AI colonies in that game mode. Take a look at the vid if you’ve got a spare hour!



Whilst it’s often very appropriate to have more heavily scripted AI colonies, as in 2.2 or to a lesser extent in 3.1, the more generalised approach feels like it’s been worth the effort for us. Such a tweak-able system will be extremely useful for any future content we create, from potential post-release additions to future extra levels.


Think yourself pretty handy with the photo mode tools (F9 by default)? I’m always glad to see them sent my way. By far the easiest way these days is to join our Discord; friendly nature-loving gamers guaranteed! We have dedicated screenshot categories for all three of our games. Alternatively, you can email your snaps in (mike@slugdisco.com). Let’s have a look at this month’s selection!


Angry army ants attack an uber mole cricket from SheevPalpatineee


An uber jumping spider from TheRealStormCZE


Tip: hold shift whilst entering photo mode for a free camera, like in this shot from GamingAnt13

There's a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth - and this one is rather unique. In Enemy of my Enemy, packs of enemies are hostile to each other - the trick is to get them to take each other out before they reach your queen. It's a short game mode, with lots of different solutions - the puzzle of how to unlock the packs gets more complex at higher difficulties.



Digging is instantaneous and done with the mouse, and marker placement is not allowed - instead, your queen is protected by a number of strong Royal Guard ants that will always stay near her. They're your last line of defense against the enemy packs, but of course you should be aiming to set them on each other and wipe each other out before they get close! A bit of trial and error is expected, but the average run of Enemy of my Enemy only lasts 10-15 minutes.

Perhaps in the future we'll run a speedrun competition for this level; its short form factor would suit it! The mission will be in your Extra Levels menu now - your client will not need to be updated.

Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level:

For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch us do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed.

We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.

Cramped is a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth, and it's out right now! This leafcutter level is very tight on space - with a tiny underground nest and many enemies that must be slain, only a superior knowledge of the game systems will allow for victory. Find the level now in the "Extra Levels" section of the menu.



Your game client will not need to be updated to play; the level will already be in the list. Thanks to everyone who helped test and balance this level when it was in beta.

Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level:

For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch John do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed.

We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.

Good lord, it’s May already. This newsletter will spotlight some more enemies coming for the fire ant update, with a particular focus on nature’s favoured form – the beetle. We also have some talk about new AI systems that we’ve been working on over the past few weeks, which will be used in the last of the campaign levels and eventually in freeplay too!


A classically red Formica ereptor queen from GlitchyGamer

We’ve still got quite a few critters to show off as we complete work on them, as well as a few we don’t want to spoil until we get very close to release time.


Ah, beetles. They are the most diverse group of insects, and arguably of all animals. They appear throughout human culture and history, in art and science – they exist just about everywhere that we do. Naturally, we need more beetles in Empires of the Undergrowth (but perhaps not so many as to cause an uprising…) so we have a few more joining our various tiger beetles and rove beetles in the upcoming fourth tier.


Bombardiers are a kind of well-armoured ground beetle. There are several species – this one is called Brachinus alternans. They get their name from the distinctive popping sound they make when threatened, and a closer look at the cause of this sound reveals a defensive system that can be deadly if you happen to be small and in its way.


A bombardier beetle faces off against fire ants

By mixing various chemicals and enzymes together in a special internal chamber, the beetle produces a violently exothermic reaction. The resultant mixture reaches close to the boiling point of water and is expelled by the rapid rise in pressure through an opening pointed at the beetle’s enemy.


Near-boiling liquid is explosively fired at the beetle’s enemies

If you’re a large vertebrate predator, this irritant is likely to be enough to put you off having a bombardier beetle for dinner. If you’re the size of an insect, however, the momentary boiling temperature of this liquid can easily be fatal. With the large area of effect this defensive spray has, it’d be wise to consider carefully whether the bombardier beetle is worth the inevitable casualties.


Mimicry is seen everywhere in the animal kingdom – creatures evolve to look like more dangerous ones, which gives them a deceptive advantage. The false bombardier beetle (Galerita bicolor) has evolved to look almost identical to its namesake, with some minor differences in colouration and morphology.


An impostor among us – a false bombardier beetle looking sus

This helps it avoid predation, but the false bombardier beetle is not without defences – it’s significantly larger than the true bombardier, has the same chitinous armour, and uses muscle action to spray a solution that is mainly made of a familiar substance – formic acid.


Size comparison to the false bombardier (left) and the true bombardier

Whilst not as deadly as the boiling liquid that is explosively fired by the true bombardier, formic acid will still do considerable damage to small creatures. It’s the same acid used by the ranged wood ants of the 2nd tier, and it’ll have a similar in-game consequences – an area of effect venom-type attack.


Cleridae – the checkered beetles – are distributed worldwide. This particular species is called Enoclerus rosmarus, and it’s a common sight in North America. They’re active hunters, and their preferred habitats are moist and sunny – qualities which will bring them into conflict with your fire ants.


A checkered beetle minding its own business


Checkered beetle larvae are also hunters, which in Empires of the Undergrowth will give them a similar role to rove beetle larvae in previous levels. They’re more vulnerable in this state, before they develop the chitinous armour they have as adults – but they’re still a force to be reckoned with.


Checkered beetle larva fights fire ants


At the moment, the various AI colonies we have in the game are either heavily scripted (as in 2.2) or reliant on preset “points of interest” which they use to decide where to send their forces (3.1, freeplay). This makes them relatively robust but doesn’t allow them to make very complex decisions on a changing battlefield. Liam has been working on a scanning solution that will let colonies periodically scan the surface for interesting things, giving them the ability to make much more relevant choices.


Green squares represent areas of interest the AI scan has found

These will be used on all of the remaining campaign levels, all of which will feature AI colonies in some form. Eventually, we hope to transplant this feature to freeplay too – after fire ants, we are likely to do another big round of freeplay changes to bring that game mode closer to its release form.


Two colonies scan for points of interest on one another – light orange is the real scan, the maroon is a skipped scan where it decided to use saved data from a scan not so long ago in the same place


I’m sure many of you are familiar with the fan wikis that crop up; fandom.com is one of the more prominent ones. We’ve been slightly bemused by these and not entirely sure what to make of them – up until very recently, they were simply placeholders with very little in the way of articles. However, thanks to some dedicated community members, the Empires of the Undergrowth fandom.com wiki has had some big content additions over the past couple of months.

Particular thanks to thanhmk28 on our forums for putting a lot of time into the fandom wiki, and writing / formatting a majority of the articles so far. On it you’ll see creature stats and abilities (taken from a version of the spreadsheets that the game uses that we host on our website) that might well be useful for people looking for a more solid idea of what various creature’s strengths and weaknesses are until we implement a way to see these in the game.


The EotU Fandom Wiki

There’s even a dedicated spoiler page for the upcoming 4th tier update, which details all of the new stuff we’ve revealed in Screenshot Saturdays and these newsletters. This wiki is open to further contributors, so if you’d like to help thanhmk28 out with writing some new articles then by all means do! Our community continuously proves itself to be one of the best there is, and we couldn’t be more thankful for that.

For final release, there will be plenty of information accessible in-game with our own encyclopedia system. Even after that’s implemented, there will always be a place for community-driven wikis like these – they’re definitely an appropriate place to post guides, creative strategies and suchlike that won’t be in the game itself.


A couple of months ago, Tom Johnson released his evolution simulation game Ecosystem into early access on Steam. Slug Disco are the publishers for it, and it’s been a joy to see how it’s been received and how community feedback is already shaping the direction Tom has decided to push things.

About once fortnightly, Tom has been sharing his progress and direction with us and we’ve been posting these as articles on the game’s Steam page. He’s now at a point where he can share the path he’s chosen for Ecosystem’s first major update, which will focus on graphs and analytical tools so the player can see plant, predator and prey relationships in much greater detail than before.


The graphs and analytical tools coming soon to Ecosystem

Ecosystem continues to progress rapidly as a project and if you have an interest in speculative evolutionary biology, serene aquatic environments, or even just producing abominations such as human-like fish then we heartily recommend giving Ecosystem a spin. It has a demo which shows a lot of the basic features, but the full thing is gearing up to be something altogether more special.


Seriously, I feel like this section is just for me – every time I write a newsletter, I look forward to the bit where I have a browse through some recent screenshots posted to our Discord or uploaded to the community, and select three of my favourites. If you’d like to participate, by far the easiest way to get your screenshot to us these days is Discord. You can also email them directly to mike@slugdisco.com.


A pleasing formicarium from BrickyGraph631


Trapjaws under attack from a hidden jumping spider from Rarity


A close call in extra level Excavators from Crazlex9

Occupation - a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth - is out now! In this level not unlike the campaign mission New Home, you control wood ants (with mortars) with the simple mission to kill all nearby creatures. Beware - your occupation of this prime nesting location will not go uncontested.



Although the level is definitely the most straightforward of the four that will be releasing over the next few months, that doesn't mean it's a walk in the park - it has a particularly tricky start, and you'll need to use your knowledge of the game systems to walk away from a very tricky early encounter with your queen still living.

You can find the mission in Extra Levels right now - your game will not need to update first; as long as you're on version 0.23 it'll be there.

It's worth reiterating at this point that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours of dev time apiece (you can watch John do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed.

We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.

A localisation issue that didn't come up in testing meant we had to roll back yesterday. This has now been rectified, and so version 0.23 has been reinstated.

Other than that, all the patch notes from the 0.23 post apply. Thanks for your patience on this everyone, and thanks to the players who reported the issues they were having!

Hi all,

Due to some Mac and localisation issues that didn't come up during testing we're going to have to do an emergency rollback from 0.23 to the previous version, 0.22112. This should only be temporary but it's vital since those groups are having major issues to do with saves and language defaults.

We'll work fast to get everything sorted, re-packaged and re-uploaded. In the meantime this shouldn't affect much since there isn't any new content scheduled to come out until April 2nd - but we appreciate your patience on the matter!

Apart from 4 new levels set to roll out over the next few months (thank you to everyone who’s been helping test and balance them) the main bulk of this update is under-the-hood changes.

To deal with a persistent problem experienced by a number of laptop users, we’ve accelerated plans to upgrade the game engine by several versions. We’re always reluctant to do this since it invariably breaks lots of things, and most of the time over the past month has been spent dealing with the fallout. Once again, thank you to everyone who’s helped us iron out those wrinkles. Particular thanks to Scyobi_Empire who helped us diagnose the initial laptop issue.

There’s also a new menu for the extra levels, which will give a description of them and a preview of their minimap, as well as an estimate of how long they’ll take to complete and any reward associated with them.

• Extra levels now come with a description and minimap preview when selecting them from the menu
  
• New extra levels added to be rolled out every 6 weeks starting on April 2nd
  
  • Occupation - a wood ant level not unlike the campaign level New Home
    
  • Cramped - a heavily infested leafcutter level with a surface, kill all enemies!
    
  • Enemy of my Enemy - a unique game where digging is instant and done with the mouse; packs of enemies are hostile to each other. Get them to kill each other before they kill the queen!
    
  • The Culling - a black ant level with interesting enemy spawning mechanics

• The game will no longer crash on startup when using specific Intel graphics chips
  
• Fixed an issue where non-aggressive buried enemies were heading to the queen when dug out
  
• Fixed an issue where after a freeplay save one of the enemy colonies would become un-enterable
  
• Fixed an issue where ubers were linked to the wrong freeplay setup check boxes
  
• Fixed a pathing issue on The Crucible demo map
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur at low frame rates
  
• Fixed an issue in 2.1 where night creatures could get stuck in the tunnel exit
  
• Fixed an issue where creatures on top of tunnel exits could get stuck
  
• Fixed an issue on 2.1 where first night creatures to spawn would immediately despawn (there are now more creatures at night)
  
• Night creatures in 2.1 will now be more attracted to combat
  
• Fixed an issue with an ant getting stuck in 2.2 on a specific ramp
  
• Enemy woodworm dug out at start of 3.1 are now friendly again and hence the narrator makes sense
  
• Fixed an issue where the uber mole cricket would freeze instead of doing its thump attack
  
• Creatures will no longer decelerate when they spot and item of food or an enemy (movement should look smoother when going to gather food)
  
• Minor cosmetic painting issue fixed on 3.1
  
• Fixed an issue where the scientist was not coaxing your ants out when you retreated underground in formicarium challenge 3
  
• Fixed an issue where loaded food items underground could count as enemies being in your nest (this could cause a computer ally in freeplay to never stop protecting you)
  
• Fixed an issue where the scientists finger jab would aim at dead ants
  
• Changed victory animation on 3.1 and 3.2 so they correctly come out of the tunnel exit
  
• Minor cosmetic fixes to 2.2 (water edges and painting issues)
  
• Dug out a tile that should have been in the leafcutter demo level (on top of the tunnel exit)
  
• Fixed some potential issues with bots
  
• Freeplay AI enemy colonies will now leave an enemy’s nest faster after the queen is dead
  
• Fixed an issue with freeplay AI colonies that caused them to sometimes place a marker off the map resulting in the associated ants breaking
  
• Fixed various minor issues with Freeplay AI colonies
  
• Fixed a minor issue where leafcutters could rarely teleport to a plant to climb

• Upgraded to Unreal Engine 4.24 (up from 4.20)
  
• Minor optimisations in plant climbing
  
• Changes to how AI colonies in freeplay decide which resources to harvest from
  
• Cheating freeplay colonies can now resurrect more than one dead group at a time if they have no resources and their ants in groups are all dead
  
• Minor bot optimisations
  
• Minor tweak to the way trails work
  
• Improved checks added to food pickup meaning food should go ignored less

We have become aware that some Linux users are experiencing graphical problems with this version. In our tests these have only been minor but some may be having more serious issues.

As a first step we would suggest ensuring you have the latest distribution of your particular OS (with an approved graphics driver), but if there's still no joy please let us know your distribution version and system specs, and we can put some time into properly troubleshooting the issue.

It's possible that forcing use of the Vulkan API might fix some Linux graphical problems you're having. You'll need to add the -vulkan command line argument as a launch option.

Thanks to DiloDog_ on Steam for the screenshot used in the artwork for this post!

We're likely to run this beta just overnight and get it out onto the main branch some time tomorrow, as long as no huge problems are discovered! Whilst it doesn't have much in the way of new features, v0.23 is a significant patch because we've upgraded the engine that Empires of the Undergrowth runs on (Unreal Engine 4), and we've spent a significant amount of time fixing problems that arise from that.

So, just to reiterate - no major new features since the last optional beta, but there have been plenty of changes going on under the hood. This beta is available on all platforms. It will also remove the four extra levels, with the first of them (Occupation) being due for full release on April 2nd.

If you'd like to join the beta just for the evening, the beta key is givemeextraextra. If you don't know how to join a beta, here's how to do it:

1. Find Empires of the Undergrowth in your Steam library, right-click on it and choose "Properties"
   
2. Choose the "Betas" tab
   
3. In the box titled "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter givemeextraextra
   
4. After the "Access code correct" information appears, make sure you've chosen "Open beta" from the "Select the beta you would like to opt into" drop-down menu
   
5. Press close - the game will now update to the beta branch

• Fixed randomised caverns in Freeplay
  
• Fixed Chinese and Russian languages
  
• Minor tweak to the way trails work
  
• Fixed a minor issue where leafcutters could rarely teleport to a plant to climb
  
• New extra levels removed from list & scheduled for release in future - set your system clock forward a few months to unlock them all if you'd like to continue beta testing them (at your own risk)
  
• The Culling balance changes
  
  • Slightly increased food dropped from creatures in hard and insane
    
  • Slightly reduced creature spawn rate on insane
    
  • Added an extra ramp to the south

Thanks to LilRenn on our Discord for the screenshot used in this post!

We’ve got another few Empires of the Undergrowth critters and some size comparisons from the upcoming fire ant update to show you in this edition of the newsletter. We’ve also done an engine upgrade which has had us banging our heads against our keyboards for the past few weeks! Those of you who have been having issues on certain laptops, whilst a small number, will be pleased to know that the next update will fix this problem in a roundabout way. At the time of writing this patch (0.23) was coming towards the end of optional beta testing. See this thread for more detailed discussion of the issue.


A wood ant queen surveys her dinner from Steam user roobyRoss

We’ll also be talking about the imminent release of Slug Disco’s foray into publishing, Ecosystem! We’re not the developers of this game by Tom Johnson but are publishing it under our banner, and are of course hopping up and down on the spot in anticipation of playing the early access version after months of playing the demo.


We first spoke about Ecosystem shortly after we brought it on board as the first Slug Disco publishing-only project (we are not developing it), back in September of 2019. Tom Johnson is an accomplished developer and we were impressed with his ingenious ocean evolutionary sim based on real-world science.

We’re very pleased to announce that the game is ready to hit early access on March 16th! Please check out the launch trailer below and read on further to find out about this genuinely brilliant simulation game.



Set in an ocean world of your devising, the first task in Ecosystem is to design your marine environment using an array of terrain generation and decoration tools. Your world can look decidedly familiar at one extreme and positively alien at the other. A variety of plants, rocks and decorations can be used to enhance the look of your Ecosystem. Plants and corals have a direct effect on how your creatures will evolve – they form the basis of the food chain on which all evolving animals ultimately depend. You can unlock new plants and corals as you progress.

Ecosystem is a technical marvel and it’s been a joy to see how far the game has come. It’s a remarkably satisfying experience to know your creatures are evolving in a true sense, using neurons that learn how to apply torque at the joints to push against the water, without any preordained animation. The game will be available on Steam from Tuesday 16th March – add it to your wish lists right now, and give the demo a spin if you’re not convinced!

Now, back to our regular programming!



Another species that will be tussling with fire ants in Empire of the Undergrowth’s 4th tier is the big-headed ant (Pheidole morrisii).

Like many species, it has minor and major castes, but it also has a category of major often called “supersoldier” in scientific literature. This beast has a huge head and a wicked pair of pincers. The head powers huge bite force much like a leafcutter major, but in a much more awkwardly-proportioned form.


Pheidole morrisii about to drop the hottest album of 2021

The head is very big in comparison to the body (hence the name), so although the bite is formidable the supersoldiers do tend to be a little on the clumsy side! This is likely to translate in-game as the supersoldiers being very tough, but also having the unfortunate tendency to stumble and fall every so often simply due to the disproportionate size of their heads.

The big-headed ant joins the little black ant (Monomorium minimum, see the previous newsletter for more details about them) as another peripheral species that will appear in the fire ant levels opposing them, but they’re not the focus of the update. Unlike the peripheral species of the leafcutter update (trap-jaw and army ants), both of these species are ideal candidates for inclusion in freeplay as their own distinct colonies, as they have suitable nesting and foraging behaviours. As always with unreleased in-development things, this is subject to change.


The cow killer, or red velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis) is not an ant at all but is a kind of wingless wasp. In nature, the males fly to find mates but the females spend most of their lives looking remarkably ant-like as they busy themselves foraging. Seeing her resemblance to a queen ant but with distinct furry red patches, it’s quite easy to see how ants and wasps are closely-related in the insect kingdom – both being members of the order Hymenoptera.


She doesn’t actually kill cows, but her sting would certainly put one out of action for a while

Red velvet ants are usually non-confrontational and will avoid conflict if they can, but if threatened the sting is so potent that the species gets its common nickname of ‘cow killer’. Her exoskeleton is remarkably tough for an insect – it has been reported that entomologists have difficulty using metal pins to pierce it for display mounting!

Her stats and abilities are related to the tough exoskeleton, reluctance to fight and exceptionally painful sting. She’s likely to be very tough for her size, and to only start using the stinger at low health, perhaps also sometimes fleeing with a speed boost. Overall the cow killer is a tough and deadly addition to the swamplands of North Carolina.


The wasp mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea) is neither a wasp nor a mantid – the wasp-like pigmentation is mimicry to fool predators, and the mantis-like arms are an excellent example of convergent evolution, where similar solutions to a problem evolve in unrelated species.


Hello there!

Voracious hunters of insects, they are more than willing to tussle with fire ants for a quick snack. They grab their prey very much like a praying mantis does – using those uncanny front arms. They then fly off to devour it in peace. Expect to see them lurking among the flora of North Carolina waiting for your colony to stray too close!


Titans – huge creatures with unique behaviours that differentiate them from the regular denizens of the undergrowth – will be coming to the game along with the fire ant update.


She's a beauty!

We detailed the first confirmed titan, the great blue skimmer (Libellula vibrans) in the previous newsletter. Check out its animations to see it in action! What is difficult to see from these stills and video is just how big this dragonfly is. In the above picture, we’ve put it next to a very familiar ant type – the Formica ereptor ant – as well as the upcoming fire ants, who the skimmer will battle. You can see just how much of an absolute unit she is.


Always my favourite part of writing these newsletters – this time round taken exclusively from our Discord‘s screenshots channel. If you haven’t already, come along and join our nature-loving community! Friendly ant enthusiasts guaranteed.


Fezes are definitely cool in this shot from PeepsPlays_YT


The Hungry Spider never forgets his top hat. As long as you have arachnophobe mode on. From syrian dugong


The hermit crabs await the arrival of their uber-powered lord from Dr. Spooks