Attacking

Battle other players for pheromones and additional resources.

## General information

Attacking, commonly known as battling, is a core component of the Pocket Ants game.

Battling is where players use the creatures they have captured to attack other players' colonies. The goal is to defeat all enemy creatures and soldier ants, then attack and defeat the queen. In doing so players can steal resources from the defeated opponent and earn pheromones.

This is an important way to gather large amounts of creature body parts, resources, and pheromones. All things that are important for upgrading Colony chambers and improving the creature army.

## Finding a player

Click the 'Battle' button and click 'Find Player'.

If an opponent is found, a new screen will show the player now on an opponent's map.

One Battle Token is needed in order to get pheromones from a victory.

Note: Make sure you are ready to fight once you hit 'Find Player' because if you retreat without attacking you will lose trophies. (This is not like clash of clans; you are forced to fight the enemy it finds for you)

## Objective

* Your mission is to defeat all enemy units, and/or kill the queen ant, to secure your victory.
	+ Your soldier ants cannot attack the queen if there are still enemy creatures alive.
	+ Your creatures cannot attack the queen if there are still enemy creatures and soldiers alive.
	+ The Venus flytrap is required to be killed to be able to attack the queen along with the requirements above.
	+ You need to kill The Queen if you want 100% completion.
	+ You can kill the enemy queen ant with your soldier ants while the enemy's soldier ants are still alive as long as the remaining creatures (including the venus flytrap) are defeated.
* Killing enemy units will increase the percentage of completion toward the bottom center of the battle UI.
	+ Once you achieve 50% completion you obtain 1 pheromone.
	+ Once you achieve 75% completion you obtain 1 more pheromone.
	+ Once you achieve 100% completion you obtain 1 more pheromone (for a total of 3).
	+ Different units seem to have slightly different percentage values.
	+ Killing the enemy Queen always counts as 100% completion, regardless of straggling enemy units.
* You lose the battle if you fail to achieve 50% by either the timer running out or if you lose all your armies and creatures.

* Enemy's ants and creatures will be defending their anthill by being stationed right outside the anthill on the surface, inside the main corridor of the anthill, and inside the Queen's Chamber.

## Deploying Ants and Creatures

All of your available soldiers in your army are automatically deployed around you on the battle field at the starting point. They start in "recruited" mode and so will follow you. If disbanded they will remain or travel back to the starting point.

Icons that represent each of your creatures can be seen at the bottom of the screen and are not deployed by default. You must tap their icon and then tap the screen to deploy them to that spot.

Soldier ants that die are not replenished after the battle, regardless of victory or defeat. They must be replenished from your Ant Queen after the battle. Creatures that die in battle are restored to your creature inventory after the end of the battle. That is to say, battling never alters your creature inventory.

## Flowers

Two types of flowers can be purchased with honeydew: Chrysanthemum and Lavender. Once purchased, the flowers will be available in battles permanently. However, each flower can only be used once in per battle. They can be deployed by tapping the flower icons on the lower right of the battle UI.

### Chrysanthemum

To deploy chrysanthemum, click on the pink flower at the bottom right of the screen, then click on a place on the battlefield.

The flower will spawn and release particles which paralyze nearby creatures (the particles need to hit the creature to stun it, otherwise they will be unaffected. The particles can also bounce off the creature bodies they hit and not be able to stun creatures that are on top of each other sometimes).

**Note:** Chrysanthemum cannot be used while the player ant is being attacked by an enemy ant or when the player ant is dead.

### Lavender

To use lavender, simply click on the purple flower at the bottom right of the screen.

It will be activated instantly, purple particles (that do nothing) will surround the player ant, the player ant will be a shade of purple/pink, and can't take damage/be targeted.

Lavender cannot be used when the player ant is dead (obviously).

## Rewards

* Rewards include 15% of the opponent's fungi, leaves and seeds (with a cap of 1500) and 5% of the opponent's body parts (with a cap of 500), trophies (2-30 depending on enemy's ranking compared to yours), and 0-3 pheromones.
* If the opponent offers 0 amount of a loot type, you will get a loot bonus if you win (reward depends on your league).

* A battle against Dr. Zany can give you a maximum of 1 pheromone and 10 fungus, leaves, seeds, and 3 body parts.
* Note: If you have no battle tokens when fighting you will not be able to earn pheromones from a victory, but you can still win resources and trophies.

## Tips

* It costs 750 fungi to breed 50 Soldier Ants (15 fungi per), therefore having 750+ fungi saved between battles is wise, as you can easily breed a max army if any soldier ants die in a battle.

* During the battle, you should fight steadily through the battle, you shouldn't rush, as you would lose more casualties at the end. When you have gotten to the Queen's Chamber, keep going in and out of the chamber to lead your soldiers and creatures into fighting the enemies steadily. Rushing into it immediately would result in you dying if the Enemy Player made all his soldiers and creatures to be located in the Queen's Chamber.
* Chrysanthemum Flower (Honeydew shop) paralyzes enemy creatures (Recommended Flower Lvl 2 and Lavender Lvl 1 for best early PvP), this will help you if the enemy has Bombardier Beetle or Rhinoceros Beetle in the corridor or inside the Queen's Chamber as this will avoid losing a high amount of ants and will help you defeat these creatures fast enough. Make sure your creatures are away when you use Chrysanthemum Flower.
* If possible, when fighting against a Rhinoceros Beetle (Outside colony) your best strategy is to eliminate enemy ants surrounding the beetle first, as once your ants engage enemy ants it could result in high casualties due to the beetle one shooting your army since the Attack/Retreat strategy won't work. (Due to close spaces this might prove difficult to achieve inside the colony).

* Use Lavender to get into the Queen's Chamber if there are a lot of threats there.

* If you can, kill the red ant colony before you attack to ensure your workers don't die after an attack where you lost too many soldiers.

* Fuse spiders and mantises as they will fight better and last longer. Don't fuse anything else before you're ready, keep your numbers.

* Just before you engage the enemy, place a tank creature (Preferably Rhino Beetle) in their amidst to draw their attention so your other creatures and ants can kill the enemy ants and creatures.

* If you can save a creature (Preferably a tank/slow moving creature) to put inside the Queen's Chamber to draw the attention of the enemy, so you can get into the Queen's Chamber without dying.
* Use Bombardier Beetles, they have a ridiculously powerful CC attack that can kill tons of ants every attack.
* Tiger Beetles can charge through enemy lines and kill lots of enemy ants.

* Venus Fly Trap, if bought by the targeted colony, will appear outside the nest that can devour a creature-only army in seconds. Prioritize killing the flytrap with soldier ants before releasing any creatures as the creature will **not** attack the flytrap.
* Beware that Bombardier Beetles can do unwanted damage and activate a Rhinoceros Beetle's attack. This might be the end of your ant legion.
* If the enemy didn't assign their soldiers, killing the workers that are gathering will make them stay bundled right at the entrance of the enemy nest. This can be good or bad depending on the scenario.
* For some reason, you can walk out of the enemy nest even if there are soldiers right at the entrance. They won't attack you for a few seconds.