Cold Blood

Carving out an existence at the edge of a swamp will not be easy for this fire ant colony.

## **Objectives**

* Eiminate the bullfrog.

* Survive the final invaders.

## **Rewards**

* *Base value*: 12 territory, 950 food, 34 Royal Jelly

* *Difficulty bonus*: 115%/ 130%/ 150%/ 175%/ 210%

* *First-time bonus*: + 125%

* *Challenge bonus*: + 50%

* *Completion bonus*: + 100%

## **Settings**

In this mission, a fire ant colony must defeat an American bullfrog and the local amphibians that are waiting for its demise. Your nest is located on a small hill. Nest entrance will be excavated automatically when little black ants are about to invade.

The mission starts during the day.

You have access to a milkweed plant and 3 aphids. 3 milkweed plants are located on the far side of the stream. There are 50 aphids on the entire map.

Magnolia saplings and carnivorous plants grow sparsely across the map. Milkweed seeds frequently land on the map and disappear 90 seconds afterward.

You must choose either pervasive or vigorous soldiers before playing the mission.

## **Enemy colonies**

The enemy big-headed ant colony and little black ant colony are hostile to each other. Each colony has access to 2 milkweed plants and 1 magnolia sapling.

The little black ant colony gains free food every 60 seconds.

The big-headed ant colony gains free food only when it has no food left and 90% of its brood has been incubated. It only has access to supersoldiers after you have attacked it for the first time. Supersoldiers are kept around the queen and are only deployed to invade your nest or to protect gathering groups.

The enemies colonies gather food around their nests. They only approach your nest during the day and retreat at night. They will engage you sooner if you attack them first.

The little black ant colony either takes your aphids or invades your nest from the 3rd/ 3rd/ 3rd/ 2nd/ 1st day onward.

The big-headed ant colony takes your aphids from the 4th/ 4th/ 4th/ 3rd/ 2nd day onward. It will only invade your nest if it finds no aphid to take and only after it has unlocked supersoldiers.

After you have removed the bullfrog, both colonies stay underground to avoid the infesting amphibians.

## **Notable enemies**

The bullfrog is hostile to everything. Other enemies are on the same side and are hostile to the ants.

Checkered beetles inhabit in your nest. Narrow-mouthed toads come from the underground spawners at night increase in number each time. They dig around your nest and will leave in the morning if you don't dig into their paths. Nightly toad invasion will stop after the bullfrog has been removed.

Surface enemies don't invade your nest. They occasionally fight among themselves to keep their own number in check.

Red velvet ants, checkered beetles, six-spotted tiger beetles and magnolia green jumpers only appear on the surface during the day.

Bombardier beetles, false bombardier beetles, narrow-mouthed toads and dwarf salamanders only appear on the surface at night.

3 green lynx spiders rest on nearby pitcher plants and sometimes switch places. 3 wasp mantidflies rest on pitcher plants across the stream and only attack when you approach.

The bullfrog sits on the hill to the north of your nest. At the beginning of the mission, it only has 1/6 of its maximum health. It swallows smaller amphibians, which come from nearby spawners, to regain health throughout the mission. It will jump out of the map if you fail to kill it within 30 seconds after it has been reduced to 25% of its health.

60 seconds after the bullfrog has left or has been killed, dwarf salamanders and narrow-mouthed toads appear on the surface and enter your nest through the 2 hillside spawners. They are evenly distributed through 10 underground spawners. You must survive for 2 minutes and keep no active enemy in your nest afterward to complete the final objective.

## **Trivia**

* The queen chamber of little black ant colony has 8 tiles.

* In real life, *Pheidole morrisii* don't naturally produce supersoldiers. It can be inferred that the first encounter with fire ants has caused an unusual surge of juvenile hormone in the local the big-headed ant colony.

* Toad in the hole is a dish in the UK, which has sausages buried in Yorshire pudding. The respective achievement requires you to dig out buried food.

## **Minimaps**

SurfaceUnderground - playerUnderground - blueUnderground - yellow

## **Community screenshots**

Green lynx spider and pitcher plant (by SyrianDugong)Dead American bullfrog (by BrickyGraph631)

## **References**

1. ↑ Tested by Incandescent#4031 on Discord (26/2/2023).