New Home is the first level you may encounter in Empires of the Undergrowth, and is a fantastic introductory mission. Simple, clear, and action-packed, it combines the lust for expansion and beetle genocide with the anxieties of treading carefully. On insane difficulty, this level becomes a minefield, where stepping slightly out of line will get your colony killed. Here is your guide on how to best the rotting log in New Home in Empires of the Undergrowth.
How to Complete New Home on Insane Difficulty
Your Path in New Home
To truly see this game through the eyes of a strategist, you must first realize that the map is divided into 21 morsels where you must expand carefully. The pockets of devil’s coach horse larva and woodlouse actually become a puzzle, as if weaving a thread of ants.
There is slight room for variance, but ultimately the path to victory is the same. Below is a numbered map that shows the order in which to invade your enemy’s pockets of activity.
As long as you carefully carve your colony in that order, you will find victory within your grasp, and you are on your way to establishing a new home in the beetle-infested log.
Organizing Your Forces
To actually win the level, you must be extremely careful about the construction of your army.
Rule no.1 of New Home is to never build any more worker ants. You must be extremely economic with your food, and by uselessly spending it, you will find yourself short of victory. Only spend your food on soldier ants and food tiles.
Up until you hit space 9, which is populated with woodlice, only spend food on building soldiers. By the time you hit 9 and then 10, focus on upgrading those soldiers. You can buy more soldiers if needed to upgrade the other tiles further, but only if there is nothing else possible to upgrade.
The key to victory is conserving your food. The goal isn’t for a large force, but for a smaller, powerful one with plenty of food reserves. This means that you are able to constantly hatch waves and waves of ants to weaken and destroy the enemy, instead of a large force that will die quickly and not get back up due to lack of food.
In the second half of the game, once the woodlice have been exterminated and butchered, you can focus on really refining your army for the final battle.
You will want to aim to have at least 320 maximum food storage and around 25 to 30 ants as high level as you can get. You are going to have to carefully place your brood tiles to allow the maximum upgrade potential.
if you find yourself with a lot of food near the end of the game, spend it sparingly. You are going to want lots of food when you break open that last pocket of enemies. Trust me.
As long as you keep developing with this end goal in mind, your colony will best all the beetles and conquer New Home
Related: How to Complete Hibernation in Empires of the Undergrowth on Insane Difficulty
How to best the beetles in New Home
How to approach defeating these devils coach horse beetles will decide your queen’s fate.
The smaller pockets of larva are simple to vanquish, simply swarm them with every soldier ant you have. But for those pockets with the large exclamation mark you must approach differently, for those pockets contain the mighty devils coach horse adult, domineering beetles that can spray an acid that confuses and disorientates your ants, making them easy prey.
Upon breaching the walls of the adult beetles, your ants will swarm and clash with all the creatures inside, this is normal. However, you will find that your ants will start to diminish on the front line, and will start to fall and collapse. This is where you step in.
When the ants on the front line start to dwindle, place a pheromone marker some distance behind them. This will mean that all the incoming ants will huddle together. Once the huddle contains at least about 80% of your soldiers, throw them at the advancing beetles.
If you keep doing this, you will actually have battled the beetles with twice or thrice the amount of ant you actually have. By swarming them like this, they will get weaker with each bout, securing your ants victory. That is why having a lot of food in your larders and having strong ants is imperative for your success.
The beetles will have to choice but to surrender the log to you, securing your New Home from the ferocious critters that once threatened your home.
New Home is an anxiety-inducing challenge, that may need to be repeated a few times to claim victory over the peripheral threats, but the growing feeling of power is worth every second of gameplay. Keep an eye on Gamer Journalist to keep up-to-date with any Empires of the Undergrowth news and guides.
