Strategy developed by Heolx from the ICS.
Note this requires practice and knowledge of the level. I recommend the Vigorous fire ants. I also recommend never upgrading ants on this mission.
Once the level begins, dig directly down from your queen to the free nuts. Collect those nuts and while you do so, build a group of 7 workers. After the 7 workers are done and the queen brood tiles are full of food, dig up and make a food chamber. Ideally, build 16 food store tiles and upgrade 4 of them to level 2. Proceed to tunnel out of the nest. Send 7 of the workers to the eastern pinecone, and have the other seven dig out a chamber for the soldiers on the left. Dig as far as you can without opening up the bombardier beetles.
Wait until you have 4 soldiers, and then send the indoor workers and the soldiers to the bottom right woodworm. Harvest them, and wait for the checkered beetle to come, kill that as well. Repeat this process with the woodworm on the bottom left. You should be adding soldiers on this entire time.
At this time, bring your outside workers back onto nest duty. You’ll want to dig out the entire area up top, and kill the false Bb larvae. Harvest ALL the food up top. If there is time before the attack wave, dig out and kill the 6 False Bb larvae to the right, and get the free woodworm just above them. If there is NOT time, ignore them for now.
Defend from the spiders inside the nest. Once they are dead, send the soldiers outside with food gathering off. Send them to kill the attackers. Once all the attackers are dead, put all the soldiers on the far northern aphids, with attacking and food off. (You should have over 30 soldiers) While they make their journey, have the workers harvest all the leftover food to the right of the nest. Once the soldiers collect the aphids, pull them to the caterpillar plant to the right, with food on. Once they harvest all of it, pull back to the nest.
If you did not get the 6 False bb larvae, do so when your workers arrive home. If you DID get it, make sure you have about nearly 50 soldiers, and go left, then down south. Kill all 4 pine frogs on the way with food gathering off. Collect the southernmost aphids first, then the aphids just above them.
Once the aphids are collected return home with food collection ON. Upon arriving home, immediately send all the soldiers down south to the aphids. Around this time, put a group of 14 or so workers on the aphid plant with attacking OFF. Once your soldiers collect the aphids, kill the single creature to the right, and collect all the caterpillars. Rush home to defend from the checkered beetle larvae.
After the checkered beetles stop coming, send all the soldiers to the north and clear the creatures there. Proceed to collect the pinecone they guard. After this, pull back to the nest and wait inside for the attack wave. Defend, and send your soldiers to the northern pinecone. (600 food) it may be tricky to spot, as it’s sometimes concealed. Collect the pinecone, and then redirect the soldiers to the eastern pinecones. Collect it all, and pull back to the nest.
You should have more than 20 workers on nest duty, and at least 15 on the aphid plant by now. You should ALSO have minimum 80 soldiers, ideally 100. Clear underground food until the skimmer lands. Be mindful to hold on to a couple hundred food for respawns in case the skimmer lands. Kill the skimmer, harvest it, and book it to the north. Once the water rises, collect the aphids, and return home to defend from the toads.
Once the toads cease their attacks, head south and collect the many nuts behind the bridge, along with clearing the enemies there. Once you reach 100 soldiers, cut soldier production and make nothing but workers. They are more cost efficient for the objective. After nut collection, proceed to clear enemies from the attack waves, ie lynx spiders, bombardier beetles, etc.
Defend, and bring the soldiers and all spare workers to the west. Bridge the gap with fire ants, and have workers follow behind. Raid the monomorium colony, they should be an easy cleanup. Once they fall, try and collect all the food from the colony. Don’t forget the aphids! After you make it home with this food, you’ve gotten far enough to win. Just harvest food available to you. Most importantly, keep farming those aphids!
