Let's briefly talk about the background of the game: you play an ant, looking for food, hiding from natural enemies, and developing an ant colony in the wilderness. Sound casual? But after actually playing it, this game is much more confrontational than imagined. Especially the competition for resources and territory expansion in the multiplayer mode are completely a miniature version of the MOBA operation idea - early development, mid-term map control, and late-stage decisive battle.
In terms of the competitive environment, the current mainstream schools are divided into "quick attack collection flow" and "turtle defense flow". The fast attack flow relies on quickly transporting food to upgrade the ant nest, squeezing the opponent's development space; the defensive flow prioritizes building fortifications and cultivating soldier ants, and then counterattacks in the later stage. These two playing styles require extremely high map understanding and timing. They are a bit like the game of "strong lineup in the early stage vs. operational lineup in the later stage" in KPL.
However, there are some hidden dangers in balance. In the current version, the refresh mechanism of the Anteater BOSS is too random. Sometimes two or three will be wiped out in one wave of refreshes, and luck plays a large role. In addition, among the ant species, the collection efficiency of "leaf-cutter ants" is about 15% higher than that of other species. As a result, almost all members of the high-end bureau selected leaf-cutter ants, while other species were relegated to the sidelines. This is the same as some versions of the answer hero in Honor of Kings, which will limit the diversity of tactics. 😅
The good news is that developer Beijing Le Jielun recently adjusted the balance of ant attributes in the test server, weakening the movement speed of leaf-cutting ants, while strengthening the combat capabilities of "red fire ants". If implemented into the official server, it may give rise to a new "combat push flow" style of play, similar to the evolution of LPL's line-changing tactics.
Overall, this free game exceeds expectations in terms of competitive depth and is very suitable for players who like micro-operations and real-time decision-making. If subsequent versions can optimize the balance of random events and give weak ant species more unique skills, it is entirely possible for it to become a small e-sports project. For now, I recommend it to friends who like strategy survival mobile games to give it a try. Maybe you can find treasures. 🚶♂️🐜