In the ever-growing genre of strategy games, StarUnion’s The Ants: Underground Kingdom is one base-builder that knows how to keep itself fresh. Since launching back in 2021, The Ants: Underground Kingdom has amassed over 10 million players. It remains one of the most played games on the planet and for good reason.
With near-endless ways to expand your anthill, foes to face, and upgrades to acquire, Ants: Underground Kingdom is the ultimate city-builder for fans of the genre. However, it is also one of the more sophisticated ones. As such, this is where our handy game guide on The Ants: Underground Kingdom comes in. This guide gives a general introduction, a breakdown of the gameplay mechanics, and some tips to help you get a headstart.
The Ants: Underground Kingdom Gameplay – Infinite Strategizing, Occasional Fighting
As the game master, you manage an entire colony of ants. The first order of things is expanding the colony and that can be done by pressing the screen on areas covered by dirt and digging them. Digging across the map makes up room to place structures and may reveal hidden resources and places of interest.
At the same time, you’ll also be managing the different resources such as Fungi, and Honeydew, as well as mechanics like the Ant Population which is responsible for gathering the resources. Furthermore, resources are bought from a shop, there exists a battle pass mechanic, enticing value packs, log-in rewards, events, and many more aspects to the game.
The Queen Ant
In The Ants: Underground Kingdom, you’ll be doing everything from building structures that generate resources, hatching Soldier Ants, or gathering Intel in the surrounding area to forming an army to combat threats. There’s also a Queen Ant or structure that acts as your town hall and it frequently needs to be leveled in order to progress to the next chapter and unlock new game modes including multiplayer.
Is There Any Combat?
Most of the gameplay in The Ants: Underground Kingdom will focus on you developing and upgrading structures, but from time to time, you’ll be responsible for defending the colony in battles where you have to devise the best possible formation for your army. Unfortunately, the core gameplay is all strategizing.
There is no actual combat where you take control of the ants, instead, everything plays out automatically. That might be bumming to hear if you were looking forward to some action, but you should know that this is a universal constant in all city-building games, and The Ants: Underground Kingdom is no exception.
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The Ants: Underground Kingdom Ant Types
As expected, ants are the main characters in the game and there are 3 types of them: Guardian Ants, Combat Ants, and Develop Ants. Guardian Ants are the first ones you unlock and their job, as the name implies, is to protect the colony from invading ants.
The Combat Ants in comparison are those ants that are particularly skilled when it comes to battle, whereas the Develop Ants are better for farming resources faster. Both Develop and Combat Ants can be assigned to fight for your colony. However, since they each have a specialty, it’s best to deploy them where it matters.
Best Ants In The Game
New Ants in Ants: Underground Kingdom can be acquired by Hatching them from the Special Nest. Ants can be hatched once you acquire the respective “Egg” by playing in the available game modes. Furthermore, all ants also follow a tier system as stated below.
- Common – Green
- Rare – Blue
- Epic – Purple
- Legendary – Orange
Here’s a list of the best Ants in the game.
| Tier | Name | Type | Specialty |
| Legendary | Reap Master | Combat Type | Ranged, Shooter |
| Legendary | Banshee Velvet | Combat Type | Melee, Shooter |
| Legendary | Dark Giant | Develop Type | Support, Carrier |
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The Ants: Underground Kingdom World Overview & Game Modes
The world in Ants: Underground Kingdom is divided into two. At the start of the game you are introduced to the anthill, specifically your anthill, and as the game progresses, you are later shown the outside world.
Within the anthill you’ll be base-building, exploring beneath the planet, expanding your colony, and completing other objectives including strengthening your army of ants. All strategic aspects of the game are covered within the anthill world and this is where the game will progress.
On the other hand, the outside or surface world gives you a preview of your surroundings. You’ll see giant enemy bosses, other players’ anthills, and areas of interest nearby. From the outside world, you’ll be able to scout your surroundings and initiate attacks on neighboring players. This will be the first multiplayer aspect you’ll come across. Then, once you reach Queen Level 6, the Alliance tab will be unlocked. As the name suggests, here you’ll be able to join an alliance to earn exclusive rewards and participate in Alliance Battles.
The final two game modes apart from the above-mentioned are Events and Ant Exploration. Apart from the rewards offered, both of these modes are similar in the sense that they require you to form a small ant army by placing your best ants in a team and then sending them off to battle against a giant boss.
Game Modes Explained
| Game Mode | Premise | Rewards |
| Anthill | Main town area where you expand your colony, complete quests, level up the Queen townhall, and progress the game | Rewards vary from unlocking resources to new game modes |
| Surface world | Gives you an overview of the surroundings and allows you to scout and attack other players nearby for resources | Resources |
| Alliance | Allows you to join an alliance for unique rewards and Alliance Battles | Rewards include Alliance Points which can be used to purchase items in the shop |
| Events | Game mode where your army of ants fights bosses for rewards | Winning results in your resource production increasing exponentially |
| Ant Exploration | Game mode where your army of ants fights bosses for rewards | Winning results in your resource production increasing exponentially |
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The Ants: Underground Kingdom Tips
Here’s one tip about The Ants: Underground Kingdom you should keep in mind.
Make An Alliance Instead of Joining One
Initially, you’ll be prompted by the game to join an Alliance. After that’s over with, you’ll notice being an alliance member has its perks, more so than you might’ve imagined. There’s a salary system now where you earn Treasure Shells that are loaded with resources or rare items like Speedup tokens as well as Epic grade Eggs from which you can hatch Epic Ants.
You can even participate in battles against other alliances for rewards, however, most Alliances are very inactive in the game. If you are really enjoying your time in Ants: Underground Kingdom and are in it for the foreseeable future, it’s best if you make an alliance instead of just joining one. First of all, creating an alliance is free, and secondly, as the alliance leader, you can control all alliance resources. As a normal member, you wouldn’t be able to purchase items from the alliance shop without the leader’s permission as all alliance points are shared between members. Due to this, it’s way more beneficial to lead an alliance.
That’s all for our Ants: Underground Kingdom game guide. For more of the latest PC, console, and mobile video game guides, head to our GameMastersHQ guide section.