Best Wood Ant Setup (Rising Tide)

WaffleGuy

Colony
Expanding on my previous post, level one mortars combined with level one workers creates an army with the most survivability. I mean it does cost tons upon tons of food to maintain the worker count, but it does really well against both hermit crabs and wolf spiders.

The findings are listed below:
  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[45 Lvl 3 Wood Ant Melees + 15 Lvl 3 Mortars]: 1210
  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[45 Lvl 3 Wood Ant Melees + 45 Lvl 1 Mortars]: 1560
  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[45 Lvl 3 Wood Ant Melees + 15 Lvl 3 Rapid Fires]: 846
  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[45 Lvl 3 Wood Ant Melees + 45 Lvl 1 Rapid Fires]: 1160

  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[45 Lvl 3 Wood Ant Melees + 45 Lvl 1 Mortars]: 1560
  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[135 Lvl 1 Wood Ant Melees + 45 Lvl 1 Mortars]: 2410
  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[338 Lvl 1 Workers + 45 Lvl 1 Mortars]: 3245
  • [15 T Wolf Spiders + 7 S Wolf Spiders + 4 M Wolf Spider + 2 L Wolf Spider + 8 S Hermit Crab + 3 M Hermit Crab]|[113 Lvl 3 Workers + 45 Lvl 1 Mortars]: 1560
 
My strat was different on this level too lol. I figured out if you get lvl 3 mortars, then just sit everything you can right in front of where the wolf spiders spawn, they don't spread out and just sit there in a clump. Then your mortars splash the hell out of them. I think I beat this with rapid fire using the same tactic too, though I'm not sure.

I'm not sure if it's the most optimal way, but I actually ended up using level 3 defender wood ants (the blue ones) as a plug, while having a bunch of level 3 workers running around melee tanking for the mortars which killed all the critters crossing in front of the base. That lets you maintain an insane food income while plugging the spiders right at their spawn. It's a bit tricky to get right but once you do the level becomes much easier. The cat is out of the bag once they get in the base though, which they do sometimes, so I usually have at least 26 workers replenishing brood. It's much easier when everything is level 3 though because there's less of it.

The trickiest part is the first day. I always give up if I can't harvest at least one patch of food fully from the bottom tier before the tide comes in. It's a really hard balance to get right. Then I clear most of the inside of the base on the first day (bar the triple stack in the corner and one other usually if im slow) while the tide is coming up. That's why I think I've beaten it with rapid fire before, as the rapid fires are much better at clearing the hermit crabs on the first day. While the mortars scale better the rapid fire dudes absolutely slay hermit crabs at level 3. IIRC i had 4-5 of them before the hermit crabs enter the base.
 

WaffleGuy

Colony
Yeah, it's kind of a trade off with rapid fire and mortar. If you use rapid fire, the first day becomes easier, but the later days are harder. But if you use mortar, the first day is really hard with many hermit crabs coming in, but the later days are a piece of cake once you start camping at the spawnpoint. I can do mortar because I am able to spam workers enough in the first day to get quite a bit of food. And about quantity and quality, level one mortars are most suitable for situations where the wolf spiders infiltrate your nest. But yeah, as you said above, if you can contain them in the spawnpoint, then level three mortars will be much better.
 
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