Aphid Farm

Aphid farms generate in four locations around the map and are defended by fire ants.

## General Information

   Aphids farms are one of the main sources of honeydew in the game.

They appear as a leaf protected by fire ants, with honeydew producing aphids. They appear in one of four locations on the main map. Only one farm can be present on the map at a time. Players must attack and defeat the defending fire ants. Once all fire ants are gone, the player will have to defend the convoy of worker ants carrying aphids from fire ants. The fire ants attack from random directions until the convoy gets to the ant colony entrance. A new aphid farm appears 6 hours after the previous farm is defeated.

Aphid farms will start appearing when the Honeydew Chamber has been built.

Honeydew is rewarded for each aphid that is successfully delivered to the Honeydew Chamber. If a worker ant carrying an aphid is killed during the convoy, that honeydew does not count. The amount of honeydew starts at 1 per aphid but can be increased to a max of 15 per aphid by purchasing honeydew multiplier upgrades in the Honeydew Shop.

The difficulty of defending fire ants increases the more farms that are conquered, however there is a cap to how difficult it can get.

## Locations

The aphid farms will appear in one of four spots around the main map. The location will not change after the farm has spawned and will remain there until it has been defeated. The locations are: top left corner, middle of the right wall, top right corner and the bottom right corner.

The top right corner location is the most difficult since it is the farthest that the convoy must travel before reaching the entrance.

## Strategy

   The strategy to defeat the fire ants and protect the aphid convoy depends on the upgrades the worker and soldier ants have. The fewer upgrades, the more careful the player will need to be when dealing with aphid farms.

### Defeating the fire ants

If the player directly attacks the defending fire ants, many soldiers will be killed. It is usually better to try to separate a few fire ants and attack them a few at a time. This requires patience to work successfully.

The fire ants defending the aphids will walk around in a set area. If they see the player ant or any soldiers, they will give chase and try to attack. The player and soldiers can wait near the edge of the area the fire ants are patrolling. Move closer a little at a time until a fire ants sees the soldiers and runs toward them. Move away a little and let the soldiers kill that fire ant. Repeat the process until only a few fire ants are left. At that point it will be safe to attack the rest without much loss.

Be careful not to get so close that the soldier ants start to chase the fire ants. If that happens, the chasing soldiers will likely be killed.

### Protecting the convoy

When all the fire ants have been defeated, the screen fades into darkness and the message "Protect the convoy!" will appear on screen. 10 worker ants carrying aphids will spawn in near the farm and will move towards the anthill. Fire ants will spawn nearby from every direction randomly and will attempt to kill the worker ants.

Each fire ant will target a specific worker. Sometimes, more than one fire ant will target the same worker. If that worker is killed, the other fire ant will pause for a moment until it targets a new worker.

The mini-map will show the fire ants as little orange dots. This can be useful for seeing where the fire ants are coming from. If soldier speed has been upgraded, keep toward the front of the convoy since the soldiers will trail behind. If soldier speed is low, keep to the middle of the convoy so it is easy to get to the attacking fire ants. Be careful of fire ants attacking from the front. If they target a worker near the front of the convoy it can be hard/impossible to attack them fast enough to keep the worker alive.

The garrison is useful for defending the convoy. It can be placed in the middle of the pathway the convoy will take or run ahead a little bit and place/disband the garrison as the convoy moves along.

The workers can be moved around by running into them with the player ant or the soldiers. This is useful for keeping the convoy close together and easier to defend.

When the convoy gets close to the colony, the rest of the soldiers patrolling the colony entrance will also attack the fire ants. Continue protecting the convoy until every ant enters the anthill. The worker ants will then put the honeydew in the Honeydew Chamber, run out the entrance and disappear.

### Upgrades

There are several upgrades that can be purchased in the Honeydew Shop or Resin Shop that will help to improve the chances of successfully protecting a convoy.

* Worker speed - to increase the speed of the workers carrying the aphids
* Soldier speed - this makes it easier for soldiers to catch and defeat attacking fire ants
* Soldier resilience - this keeps soldiers from dying as easily when fighting guard fire ants
* Army size - this provides more recruited soldiers to help fight the fire ants
* Garrison - this provides more soldiers at key points during the convoy

It is recommended to get the honeydew multiplier upgrades to level 5 (x10 honeydew) as quickly as possible. Doing so will increase the amount of honeydew that can be collected each day thus making it easier to get further upgrades. It will also make getting special creatures from Events much easier.

## Difficulty

Aphid farms get more difficult each time one is defeated up to a max level of difficulty. Each new aphid farm adds 1 guard ant and makes the attacking ants' spawn rate during the convoy an average of 0.1 seconds (1.7%) faster. This maxes out with 40 guard ants and a convoy spawn rate of every 3 seconds.

 10
 20
 30
 35
 40

The increase in difficulty continues even if a convoy does not survive or successfully makes it to the colony. This is because each aphid farm is counted toward the difficulty increase when it is defeated (when the guarding fire ants are all killed) and not when the convoy arrives.

Buying the honeydew multiplier, or any other worker or soldier upgrade **does not** increase aphid farm difficulty. However, increasing the queen's chamber level increases the health of the fire ants accordingly but the player will always have an advantage. Therefore it is recommended to get as many upgrades as quickly as possible in order to help the chances of convoy success.

## Events

Aphid farms are important during Events. Honeydew from aphid farms is one of the main sources of activity points for obtaining Special Creatures. One point is awarded for each honeydew that is collected from aphids and the honeydew multiplier upgrades count toward that. It is possible to get a max of 150 activity points from a single aphid convoy.

Aphid farm respawn timers are reduced to 3 hours during regular events. Timers are not reduced during mini Creature Events.

## Additional Notes

The workers that spawn carrying aphids don't count toward the total amount of workers so if they die, no actual workers are lost.

If the player dies right as the aphid farm is conquered, the convoy is not lost. Immediately recruit and go to the convoy. A few aphids may be lost but the rest can still be protected.

If a player attacks an aphid farm but does not kill all the guarding fire ants, no new fire ants will spawn and it will stay at the lower amount until it is eventually defeated.

If all workers carrying aphids are in the nest, the fire ant(s) will retreat and go back to their nest. If they go back to their nest, it does not harmfully impact anything or if you kill it.

## Trivia

When the Pond was added, the aphid farm that was top middle to the right of the tree was moved the middle of the right wall.