Soldier Ants

Soldier ants are a type of ant from the black ants colony, specialized into fighting other ants, insects and arthropods in general. They have bigger bodies and powerful mandibles capable of dealing massive damage.

## Obtaining

Soldier ants are unlocked after having upgraded the Queen's Chamber to level 2, which requires 15 seeds. The queen ant will then be able to breed up to 50 soldier ants.

The player ant can command the queen ant to breed soldier ants by pressing the "Breed" button in the "Army" menu at the right area of the screen. Each soldier ant will cost 15 fungus. Soldier eggs and larvae are more bluish in color than worker's. There's also a button that makes the queen ant to automatically breed soldiers until reaching the maximum number of soldiers.

The player can also use gems to obtain enough soldiers to reach the maximum number immediately, skipping the hatching process. Each soldier costs 3 gems.

The maximum number of soldiers doesn't increase by upgrading the Queen Chamber, but by upgrading the "Max soldiers" bonus in the Resin Shop, up to 80 maximum soldiers through 15 levels, with resin.

## Managing soldier ants

The player ant can make use of the soldier ants through a series of buttons that appear on the screen, with different functions

### Recruiting and disbanding

The player ant can commands soldiers to follow it by pressing the "Recruit" button at the top left of the screen. Recruited soldiers will automatically attack nearby enemy ants and termites. New soldiers can be recruited as the ones that follow the player die by pressing the Recruit button. By pressing the "Disband" button at the top center of the screen, the recruited soldiers will return to their initial location.

#### Army Size

* In the Main World, the player can only recruit up to 10 ants by default. This number can be increased by upgrading the "Army size" bonus in the Honeydew Shop, up to 40 soldiers through 15 levels, with honeydew.
* In battles and in the Fire Ant Nest, the player brings their whole soldier army, which can go up to 50 by default and up to 80 by maxing the "Max soldiers" bonus.
* In Co-op mode, the player can only bring 10% of the maximum of soldiers they can have, which is 5 by default and can be increased up to 8. The player can also bring 3 more soldiers by purchasing a 1-time use booster with gems.

#### Other notes

* In the Main World, soldiers can only be recruited/disbanded on the surface, the Tree and in the Red Ant Nest.
* In the Main World, if the player dies, soldiers will be automatically disbanded.
* In the Fire Ant Nest and in Co-op mode, soldiers can't be disbanded and will always follow the player if not attacking.

### Attacking and retreating

When having soldiers recruited, the player ant will automatically select nearby creatures or bosses as an objective that isn't automatically attacked by soldiers. When this happens, the "Attack" button at the top center of the screen becomes available, and pressing it will command soldiers to attack the objective immediately. The "attack" button will then turn into a "Retreat" button, and pressing it will command soldiers to stop attacking the objective and immediately return to the player ant.

#### Notes

* In general, the player ant can't command to attack/retreat when it's dead (performing the dead animation).
* In Co-op mode, if the player ant dies, the soldiers will be automatically retreated, returning to the player ant.

### Garrison

Main article: Garrison
The garrison is a command that acts as having the player ant set in a place with a small army recruited. The garrison can only be placed in the Main World by clicking the garrison button at the top left of the screen and then clicking on the map, and the garrison will be placed there. The garrison can be removed or disbanded by clicking on the garrison button again. The garrison has a cooldown of 10 seconds until it can be placed again.

#### Army size

* Garrison can have up to 10 soldier ants by default. This number can be increased by upgrading the "Garrison" bonus in the Resin Shop, up to 40 soldiers through 15 levels, with resin.

#### Notes

* One can't recruit more soldiers to a garrison if they are killed. Instead, the player must remove and place the garrison again manually.
* Similarly as recruiting/disbanding, the garrison can only be placed anywhere on the surface, the tree and in the red ant nest.

## Upgrades

### Level

When first unlocked, the soldiers will be level 1. Upgrading the Queen Chamber will increase their level, which increases their **health, damage** and **attack speed**.

Soldiers can't be bred until the queen's chamber is level 2. This means the soldier level is always one level lower than the Queen's Chamber level.

Regarding their health, it's known that they regenerate health over time.

### Movement speed

Soldier ants' speed can be upgraded in two ways:

* By upgrading the "Soldiers' Speed" bonus in the Honeydew Shop, up to 50% extra speed through 15 levels, with honeydew.
* By activating the "Soldiers' Speed" bonus in a Clan, for 20% or 30% extra speed for 7 days, by 250000 or 400000 of fungus, leaves and seeds respectively, depending on the clan's level.

This upgrade is helpful in general, as players can always take advantage of having soldiers moving faster, for example, in battles or at Co-op Mode.

### Resilience

Soldier ants' resilience increases the survivability or health of soldier ants when fighting. It can be upgraded in two ways:

* By upgrading the "Soldiers' Resilience" bonus in the Honeydew Shop, up to 60% extra resilience through 15 levels, with honeydew.
* By activating the "Soldiers' Resilience" bonus in a Clan, for 20% or 30% extra resilience for 7 days, by 250000 or 400000 of fungus, leaves and seeds respectively, depending on the clan's level.

This upgrade is only helpful when fighting against enemy ants and termites since creatures and bosses will always defeat soldier ants in one hit. It's specially useful for the Fire Ant Nest, for farming resin from the tree, etc.

## Uses

Soldier ants are very important and useful as they allow the player to do most things on the game.

### Main World

In the Main World, soldiers are necessary for:

* killing and defeating red ants.
* defeating wild creatures.
* conquering Aphid Farms and escorting the convoy back to the nest.
* entering and clearing the Fire Ant Nest.
* fighting Termites on the tree to protect workers collecting resin.
* defeating the Vinegaroon.

### Battles

Without soldier ants, one can't start a battle against other players, and even if one could, it would be impossible to do a 100% victory as the Venus Flytrap can only be defeated by soldier ants, making it impossible to defeat all creatures in order to attack the enemy queen ant. Soldier ants are also the best damage dealers in battles as a full maxed army can kill most creatures in a few seconds, although players must be very careful when using ants in battles because they can be killed in seconds by an attack of bombardiers or rhinoceros beetles and they are very costly to replenish if killed in large amounts, although much more quickly than worker ants. (For strategies with soldier ants, see Attacking).

They can also be set to defend the nest in the "Defense" tab. They will automatically attack nearby enemy ants and creatures. They can be assigned to three locations just like creatures: outside the nest, in the hall or in the queen's chamber. There's a slider for each location based on percentages, it will automatically assign soldiers based on the percentage the player enters. In case there are soldiers that are not assigned to either of the three locations, they will be automatically assigned to the outside of the anthill, but they will also follow the workers when they go to gather leaves and seeds.

### Co-op Mode

Soldiers are also necessary to play and win co-op matches, as they are the best way to deal damage to the bosses. Even if the player ant can spit, the damage can't match the one produced by soldier ants. Therefore, it's important to keep them alive. (For strategies in co-op mode, see each boss's individual page: Termite King, Termite Queen and Crab).