Locust

Locusts replicate almost instantly making them useful for soaking up damage.

The Locust is a Tier 1 Omnivore amoeba. Locusts have the lowest health and attack power of all amoeba, but their omnivorous diet, low food requirement, low replication cost and fast replication speed make them the easiest amoeba to replicate.

Locusts, like other Omnivores, gains 10 food points when attacking an enemy, 5 when taking a bite from an algae tree and 50 when eating microalgae. Locusts also ignore the 50% speed penalty from walking through undergrowth and regenerate health 2 health per second.

## Campaign

The player begins Mission-1 with one Locust. AMI uses the opportunity to teach the player about feeding/replicating amoebas and the energy cost of replication. This is also the first mission in which you meet and engage with wild locusts. Wild locusts appear pinkish-purple in this mission, but it is unknown if this is to distinguish the player from the wild or an indication that locusts aren't naturally blue.

Locusts are unreliable in later missions - despite their ease of replication, they don't have the health to stand up to higher tier amoeba for long. Locusts function best as obstacles, blocking units from passing bottlenecks and protecting key points until reinforcements arrive. The player can make use of their omnivorous diet and easy replication to mutate them into other units: an example would be Mission 4, where the player can mutate one of their initial Sharks into a Locust to take advantage of the algae trees in the map.

## Battle Royale

Fully upgraded locusts can become a huge swarm, capable of severely limiting the movement options of their opponents and growing very quickly. This can be deadly when paired with Herbivores as tearing through the locust bulwark to reach them proves impossible. Watch your amoeba cap so you can take advantage of Explosive Growth to take out bulkier units. Keep in mind that while locust swarms can win you a match by attrition, carnivore players with higher tier units will happily use your army to feed their forces. Small groups of Alphas can and will munch away at your army if you aren't careful!

###  Upgrades

####  Locust Upgrades

* **Explosive Growth**: Upon replicating, a Locust will deal 20 damage to adjacent enemies and spawn 3 new locusts instead of 2.
* **Locust Swarm**: Locusts will count as 1/3 against the amoeba cap, allowing the player to have a much higher number of Locusts.

####  Omnivore Upgrades

* **Natural Highway**: Entering undergrowth increases the Locust's movement speed by 50% while in it and for 4 seconds after exiting it.
* **Regeneration**: Locusts will regenerate 4 health per second instead of 2.

## Outbreak

Each player in an Outbreak campaign starts out with Locusts unlocked. Similarly to Battle Royale, players start each mission with 3 Locusts that drop at a random spot on the map (though this initial drop can include more units with deployment AMI modules).

###  Traits

Locusts can receive the following traits:

* 8 +5% Max Health (for a total of +40% Max Health)
* 8 +1HP/2sec Health Regeneration (for a total of +8HP/2sec Health Regeneration)
* 4 +5% Starting Food Points (for a total of +20% Starting Food Points)
* 4 +5% Movement Speed (for a total of +20% Movement Speed)
* 6 +5% Attack Speed (for a total of +30% Attack Speed)
* 0 +5% Mutate Cost Refund

and Discovery Upgrades:

* Unstable Growth: When a Locust replicates, all enemy amoeba adjacent to it are hit for 20 damage.
* Accelerated Growth: When a Locust replicates, 34% of the replication energy cost is refunded.
* Unchecked Growth: When a Locust replicates, 3 new Locusts are produced instead of 2.
* Locust Swarm: Each Locust will count as 1/3 against the amoeba cap.
* Regeneration: Increases the base health regeneration of Locusts by 100% for a total of 4HP/sec.
* Natural Highway: Entering undergrowth increases the Locust's movement speed by 100% while in it and for 2 seconds after exiting it.

## Tips

* Due to their very fast replication speed, Locusts can replicate mid-combat without significant losses.
* The Shell Shocked upgrade in Battle Royale and Outbreak makes destroying Locust replication cysts almost impossible, minimizing losses mid-combat.
* It is unwise to replicate locusts when stronger units can be replicated as reaching the amoeba cap would mean having to find a way to get rid of locusts to replicate the other units or mutating the locusts into something stronger (which is expensive energy-wise.)
* Locusts can make an effective wall, keeping enemy units from getting to something (like a Gather Probe) for a long period of time.

## Trivia

* In the original DSi version of Amoebattle, Locusts costed 10 Energy to replicate, and 30 Energy to mutate, limiting their potential to swarm targets.

## Gallery

Official portrait art of the Locust.In-game appearance of the Locust in various colors.Official rough model of the Locust. Used as a reference for artists.Early concept art for the Locust and other tier-1 amoeba.