Ants

**Ants** are one of the oldest discovered contraptions, and are traditionally made of gears and mirrors, but by definition can be any contraption that exclusively moves using forcers that use swap force, including crystals and amethysts.

Documented ants are usually spaceships, however not all of them are, including the original ant, as it only moves around walls, and on it's own is just an oscillator. Ants with this wall-climbing behavior are called **true ants**, as this is how the first ant discovered behaves, and is why it was called an ant in the first place.

Ants that are spaceships usually have an interesting interaction when hitting a wall, potentially turning into a new or multiple different ants. But this isn't a requirement to be an ant.

## Variants

##### Classic ant

The classic ant, original ant or just ant was the first one discovered by fowo, made of one mirror and one gear, when is adjacent to a wall it moves at 1c/2, and when it isn't near a wall it is an oscillator with a period of 8.

##### Fast ant

The fast ant or mini ant is the minigear variant of the classic ant, it was discovered by KyYay after he added the minigear cells. Around walls it moves at 1c, twice as fast as the classic one, and is an oscillator of period 4 if suspended alone in the air.

##### Big driller

Acts like a 3x3 driller moving at 2c and different to the ants before, as it is our first notable example of an ant that is a spaceship instead of relying on walls to move around. When hits a wall it rotates 180 degrees, also making it a tank. This ant has a skewed variant (see definition below). It was discovered by KyYay to show 180 gear isn't the same as octomirror.

##### Knightwise ant

An ant that moves (2/4)c/4, also discovered by KyYay.

##### Jumper ant

A faster gear with an octomirror, moves around walls like classic ant but instead moving straight moves in circles looking like is jumping, it moves at 6c/4 when adjacent to a wall and is a period 8 oscillator on it's own.

#### Flipper ant

This ant uses a flipper to switch the fast gear between clockwise and counter-clockwise every tick, effectively moving it diagonally. It moves at 3c/2.

### AMOA

**AMOA** are spaceships made of ants, that also are ants, in this way is possible to create big ants.

 This AMOA is named **butterfly**, and is made of slow ants that also are AMOAs, it moves at 7c/17.

### Skewed ants

**Skewed ants** are 45° analogues of ants that use minigears, switching mirrors with diagonal mirrors and minigears with skewgears

 Skewed fast ant

### Twin ants

**Twin ants** are pairs of ants flipped in an axis perpendical to movement, is used to stabilize ants, an example is the butterfly that is a pair of a slow ant and a flipper version, can be used to make orbiter ants move out of wall borders. E.g. butterfly.

### Gearless ants

By definition, not all ants are made of gears or mirrors, examples are **glassships**.

## Slow ants

Ants that are remarkable for their unusually slow speed.

##### Slow ant

Discovered by Benhide, is a pair of fast ants (a example of SMOS) that moves at 1c/12 orthogonal (or diagonal if is a skewed version).

##### Esculator ant

Named after Gusssssss#1290 nickname because he discovered it, it moves at 4c/245 orthogonal.

##### Slowed esculator ant (SEA)

Looks very similar to Esculator ant but diagonal crystal is replaced with a diagonal henacrystal, moves at 2/324 orthogonal (aproximatelly 2.6 times slower than esculator ant).

##### The Dust Cell's extremely slow ant (DESA)

Named after The Dust Cell, It moves at 2c/426 diagonal, is almost 4 times slower than esculator's slow ant.

## Slinger ants

Slinger ants are defined as an ant that ejects a part of itself that acts as a tank, then remains in place until said projectile bounces off of a wall and returns back to the remaining part of the ant, where it then "catches" the tank, moves in some direction, and repeats the cycle.

They were discovered in March of 2022, but were only defined after another one was brought up in June of the same year.

Slinger ants could be considered by some to be true ants, as they require a wall to function. However, as they do not move around it, they should be thought of as their own subcategory.

### Decelerating slinger ants

Decelerating slinger ants are slinger ants that move away from the wall that their projectile rebound off of every time they complete a cycle. Because of this, they will slow down over time, as the projectile will take longer to return, increasing their period without affecting their displacement.

The first documented slinger ant looks like this: , and it's discovery doubles as an example of a normal ant transforming into a slinger ant upon colliding with a wall. It's projectile is a quasicrystal tank.

### Parallel slinger ants

As their name implies, parallel slinger ants move parallel to the wall, and thus do not slow down or crash into the wall.

The first documented one was discovered by k, and looks like this: . It's projectile is a variant of the big driller, using a cross mirror instead of an octomirror.

Parallel slinger ants have a unique property compared to other slinger ants; Some of them can be turned into adjustable ants by placing a mirrored version of themselves to the side of them. This can cause their projectiles to bounce off of each other, thus completing the cycle without a wall needed, and since their period stays the same, these double-slinger ants are legitimate adjustable spaceships, adjustable by just changing the distance between the two ants.

### Crashing slinger ants

Crashing slinger ants are the opposite of decelerating slinger ants, as they move closer to the wall with each cycle, which will eventually cause them to crash into it and either stop working or become a new ant.

None have been documented so far.

## Gallery

Moving classic antMoving jumper antQuadruplets, 4 ants in line that move at 4c/5
1. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/866250603508662313/866261410757738497/952307140943556638
2. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/866250603508662313/866261410757738497/987143282230439977