The REAL Final Experiment

Information
Name	The REAL Final Experiment
Categories	Story Formicarium challenge
Environment	Formicarium
Player species	Gene-thief ant
Player units	Gene-thief ant worker Black ant soldier Wood ant shooter (either) Leafcutter ant major (either) Fire ant soldier (either) Matabele ant medic (either)
Surface	Yes
Features	Unlockables Timed attacks
Music	The REAL Final Experiment Theme
Extra	None

An unprepared colony will not survive the next challenge. Make sure you are well stocked on resources.

Objectives

• Survive the tests.

Rewards

• Base value: 6 territory, 475 food, 200 Royal Jelly

• Difficulty bonus: 1400%/ 1425%/ 1450%/ 1480%/ 1520%

• New game plus bonus: + 40% x plus number

Setting

Your gene-thief ant colony must survive the final challenge.

The male scientist drops Royal Jelly in your formicarium at the start of each test. It can be gathered even when food storage is full and is fed directly to the queen.

The testing equipments can evaporate any leftover resources on the surface and force the remaining enemies to invade your nest. Range of each equipment increases over time.

• Acid can inflict true damage on any creatures equal to 2% of their health every 0.2 second over 6 seconds.

• Laser can inflict true damage on any creatures equal to 20% of their health.

• Electricity can stun and inflict true damage on any creatures equal to 80% of their health.

• Fire can inflict true damage on any creatures equal to 4% of their health every 0.2 second.

You can spend 5000/ 15000/ 50000 Royal Jelly to reduce taken damage from each testing equipment by 50%/ 75%/ 100%. Your ants gain beneficial effects after you have upgraded the resistances to level 3.

• Acid resistance: Affected ants can leave acidic trail behind them to inflict 4 venom damage every 0.2 second on contacting enemies. The effect lasts for 60 seconds.

• Laser reflectivity: Affected ants can reflect the laser and inflict 1000 true damage to any enemies on the surface.

• Electric grounding: Affected ants move 40% more quickly and can discharge electricity to inflict 250 physical damage to nearby enemies.

• Heat resistance: Affected ants can inflict 8 physical damage every 0.2 second on nearby enemies. The effect lasts for 180 seconds.

You can only have up to 300 brood tiles before attempting the challenge.

Notable enemies

Enemies are on the same side.

The first phase has 4 tests and the male scientist only use 1 equipment per test. He releases enemies in your formicarium between each test. The testing order is randomly chosen among the following options.

• Choice 1: Acid - Group 1 - Laser - Group 2 - Electricity - Group 3 - Fire

• Choice 2: Electricity - Group 2 - Fire - Group 3 - Acid - Group 1 - Laser

• Choice 3: Laser - Group 2 - Acid - Group 1 - Fire - Group 3 - Electricity

Lab enemies in this phase consist of:

• Group 1: Bombardier beetles

• Group 2: Adult nothern dune tiger beetles, beach tiger beetles, six-spotted tiger beetles and African tiger beetles

• Group 3: Sand bear wolf spiders, beach wolf spiders, jumping spiders, magnolia green jumpers, green lynx spiders and huntsman spiders

Only during this phase, if you keep most of your soldiers inside, the male scientist knocks on the glass to stun and randomly damage any active creatures.

The second phase has 3 tests and the male scientist only uses 2 random equipments per test. He doubles the damage of 2 equipments during the second and the third test.

He also releases leaf-mimic praying mantises, small and medium African giant mantises in your formicarium during the first and third test.

The third phase has 4 tests and the male scientist only uses 3 random equipments per test. He accidentally releases various enemies in your formicarium during the first and the second test.

Lab enemies in this phase consist of:

• Group 1: Adult devil's coach horse beetles, tiny and small hermit crabs, adult northern dune tiger beetles, sand bear wolf spiders

• Group 2: Adult green rove beetles, jumping spiders, harvestmen, spiny devil bush crickets, leaf-mimic praying mantises, velvet worms and tiny whip spiders

• Group 3: Magnolia green jumpers, checkered beetles, bombardier beetles, false bombardier beetles, six-spotted tiger beetles, eastern newts and narrow-mouted toads

• Group 4: Juvenile and adult earwigs, African tiger beetles, huntsman spiders, small and medium African mantises

He doubles the damage of 2 remaining equipments and connects feeding tubes to your formicarium during the third and the fourth test. Attacking waves enter your formicarium throught the tubes and invade your nest until the end of the mission.

Attacking waves consist of:

• Tube 1: Leafcutter ant minors, leafcutter ant mediae and stun leafcutter ant majors

• Tube 2: Vigorous fire ant soldiers

• Tube 3: Driver ant workers, driver ant small soldiers and driver ant large soldiers

• Tube 4: Army ant mediae and army ant majors

• Tube 5: Anesthetist Matabele ant medics and Matabale ant soldiers

• Tube 6: Big-headed ant minors, big-headed ant majors and big-headed ant supersoldiers

• Tube 7: Little black ant workers and little black ant soldiers

• Tube 8: Trap-jaw ant soldiers

The fourth phase only has 1 test and the male scientist uses all equipments. He also releases alligator back scorpions and juvenile emperor scorpions in your formicarium.

You lose if you haven't upgraded all resistances to level 3. The equipment combination destroys your surface nest entrance.

The equipments are automatically activated one at a time during the fifth phase. The testing order is the same as the first phase.

The male scientist transforms into a human-ant hybrid. He destroys various containers in the process and releases various enemies in your formicarium. You can encounter all previously mentioned lab enemies, as well as medium hermit crabs, huge sand bear wolf spiders, juvenile whip spiders, dwarf salamanders, pine woods tree frogs, juvenile rainbow lizards, juvenile sun spiders and juvenile African giant centipedes.

You can control his hand after his transformation. It can inflict 8000 true damage on any creatures.

The fifth phase only ends after all lab enemies have been eliminated.

Achievements

Achievements
Icons	Name	Requirements
	The REAL Final Experiment	Beat the mission on designated difficulty.
	Hands Off	Beat the mission without using the scientist's hand.

Trivia

• During the ending cutscene, the primary colony mounts the transformed male scientist and is taken out of the lab offscreen.

• The acid testing equipment is a reference to Heinz Automato ketchup dispenser.

Minimaps

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  Surface