Hibernation

A wintry mission where you must help your wood ant colony survive the harsh winter of an alpine mountain range.

## **Objectives**

* Keep nest temperature above the skull mark.

* Have 300/ 525/ 880/ 1300/ 1600 vegetation in storage when it is the coldest.

## **Settings**

In this mission, a wood ant colony must keep its nest temperature high enough to survive the winter.

You must complete the last objective before the narrator says his final line to beat the mission.

The mission starts during the day. It gets warmer during the day and increasingly colder at night. It snows from the 3rd day onward and your ants get affected by the cold. Snow completely covers the forest floor on the 4th day.

Pine needles and pine seeds are scattered on the ground. There are some aphid farms in the center of the map.

You only have access to rapid-fire shooters. You start with 7 extra worker tiles.

## **Heating**

There are 2 red bars on the screen. The top one indicates surface temperature, which increases during the day and decreases drastically at night. The bottom one indicates nest temperature. You lose when nest temperature drops below the skull mark.

Heating is only available in this mission. Each heating tile costs 10 food to build or upgrade. Each heating tile can hold 10/ 40/ 100 vegetation and dissolve 4 vegetation per minute.

You can't gather both food and vegetation at the same time. Click on the buttons below the red bars to choose which resource you want to gather. Switching between resources still lets your ants keep what they are carrying. The unchosen resources are dropped at the underground nest entrance instead.

Nest temperature is equal to surface temperature. Your nest gains an extra amount of heat based on the amount of vegetation you store. The amount of heat you gain drastically decreases when your nest is hotter than the surface by 50%.

Ant temperature is equal to the surrounding temperature. Ants are slowed down and eventually die when they become cold enough. Ants that walk over occupied heating chambers can be heated up to nest temperature, increasing their movement speed for a short time.

## **Enemy colonies**

The enemy wood ant colonies are on the same side. They don't invade your nest and aren't affected by the temperature.

The blue colony only has access to rapid-fire shooters. The yellow colony, the green colony and the pink colony only have access to mortar shooters.

The enemy colonies only gather food and don't care about vegetation. They may go near your nest to gather leftover food on later days. If you move toward certain locations on the map, the corresponding colonies will come to chase you off, even if there is no food around.

The pink colony is dead in the evening of the 3rd day. The green colony is dead in the morning of the 4th day. The blue colony and the yellow colony both are dead in the evening of the 4th day.

## **Notable enemies**

Other enemies are on the same side and are hostile to the ants. They aren't affected by the temperature.

Devil's coach horse beetles, woodworms and woodlice inhabit inside your nest. They stay put when they are dug out and don't immediately come after your queen.

Surface enemies don't invade your nest. They go away completely from the fourth night onward.

Devil's coach horse beetles and woodlice roam the forest floor all day. Woodland wolf spiders only appear at night.

Ladybird beetles only attack the aphid farms on the 1st day.

## **Trivia**

* During the victory cutscene, the wood ant queen comes to the surface to enjoy the warm sunlight.

* This mission is a reference to **Natural World: Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants**.

* The music tracks in this mission are remixes of various Christmas songs: **Jingle Bells**, **God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen**, **We Three Kings** and **Twelve Days of Christmas**.

## **Minimaps**

SurfaceUnderground - playerUnderground - blueUnderground - yellowUnderground - greenUnderground - pink

## **Community screenshots**

Ending cutscene (by SyrianDugong)Woodland wolf spider (by JojomaSwarm)

## **References**

1. ↑ Explained by John on Discord (15/12/2021).
2. ↑ Confirmed by Mike on Discord (28/6/2022).
3. ↑ Confirmed by Mike on Discord (16/12/2021).