The Harvest

Colonies in close proximity create competition for leaves and ultimately survival.

Lurking amongst the vegetation, insidious flies are waiting to lay their eggs. *(challenge)*

## **Objectives**

* Build 5 leaf storage tiles.

* Build 5 refuse storage tiles.

* Process a piece of leaf into fungus.

* Gather 10000/ 10000/ 11000/ 12000/ 14000 leaves first or kill the enemy queen.

## **Rewards**

* *Base value*: 12 territory, 950 food, 34 Royal Jelly

* *Difficulty bonus*: 115%/ 130%/ 150%/ 175%/ 210%

* *First-time bonus*: + 125%

* *Challenge bonus*: + 50%

* *Completion bonus*: + 100%

## **Settings**

In this mission, a leafcutter ant colony must race against another established leafcutter colony in leaf harvesting.

The mission starts during the day.

The forest floor is covered with harvestable saplings. They grant a total of 34455 food. Only leaves originated from the surface count toward the objective.

You must choose either taunt or stun majors before playing the mission.

## **Enemy colony**

You can also beat the mission by defeating the enemy leafcutter ant colony.

The enemy colony only has access to taunt majors. Taunt majors are kept around the queen and are only deployed to protect the gathering groups.

The enemy colony chooses specific locations on the surface randomly to gather leaves. An attacking group will escort a gathering group to the newly chosen location then return to the nest.

A gathering group will retreat back to the queen when it has taken enough casualties. It returns after 60 seconds afterward, together with an attacking group to take back the contested area. The reinforcement lingers around the area for 60 seconds and is prevented from gathering. A new location will be chosen afterward.

Stun majors come from a spawner in the enemy nest to protect the queen when the nest is invaded. They leave when you are outside. A few level 1 stun majors stay on the surface to protect the gathering groups.

The enemy colony doesn't actually invade your nest. Attacking waves, however, come from the previously mentioned spawner to invade your nest after you have gathered 9000/ 9000/ 9500/ 10000/ 11500 leaves and are ahead of the enemy colony. They consist of only stun majors. The inbetween time is 2 minutes.

## **Notable enemies**

Other enemies are on the same side and are hostile to the ants.

Green rove beetles and small velvet worms inhabit in your nest.

Surface enemies don't invade your nest during the day. They mostly appear on your side of the map and actively avoid the enemy colony in the first few days.

Harvestmen, velvet worms, spiny devil bush crickets and trap-jaw ants roam the forest floor all day.

Jumping spiders and leaf-mimic praying mantises only appear on the surface during the day.

Green rove beetles only appear on the surface at night.

Rove beetles, bush crickets and trap-jaw ants can sometimes invade your nest in small groups at night.

**Challenge**:

Phorid flies appears every 6 minutes 30 seconds at specific locations on the surface.

Phorid flies

## **Trivia**

* The enemy queen chamber has 19 tiles.

* 3 nearby woodworms are treated as allies. They leave through the underground nest entrance after you have played for 2 minutes.

* In this mission, AI behaviors are based on leafcutter ants in real life. Majors rarely leave the nest and only come out to deal with threats.

## **Minimaps**

SurfaceUnderground - playerUnderground - blue

## **Community screenshots**

<gallery widths=270px>
File:Xarithene PhoridFly.jpg|Phorid flies (by Xarithene)
<gallery>

## **References**

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K\_FNnDNe1Dw