Ants are industrious, organised and hungry - as anyone who’s seen one of the multitude of documentaries following their exploits will tell you. They also show a huge variety of adaptations and bizarre traits - qualities that make them seemingly ideal for this form of strategy game.

Above ground, players need to send their ants on long missions, far from the nest to secure and defend lucrative resources. The mechanics are more accessible than your typical RTS; control of your ants is achieved by placing pheromone markers, and gives the colony a more realistic, natural feeling.

Hooded Horse is excited to announce the first DLC pack for Slug Disco’s ant-tastic RTS Empires of the Undergrowth, Exploding Ants DLC (Steam / GOG, / Epic Games Store), is coming on March 24, 2025.

The Exploding Ants pack introduces new Ant units – that explode! – and Termites which, in a shocking turn of events, also explode. These deadly new evolutions open up new tactical options for defeating the enemies of the colony. The soldiers of the Colobopsis explodens (ants) have an ability that allows them to chain individual worker explosions together for extra damage, while the workers of the Neocapritermes taracua (termites) generate more powerful explosions the longer one is left alive. Fun fact: both of these are based on real examples from nature!

The pack also introduces two new levels inspired by the main campaign that will feature the new units -- return to The Harvest to eradicate a colony of fire ants, or revisit the rainforests of the Front Line in the hopes of surviving several nights of battle.

Key Features:

• A new tactical tool to use in the heat of battle, autothysis is an excellent last resort for defence inspired by real world ant and termite species. By rupturing a gland, these creatures are able to cause an explosive reaction that takes their lives for the greater good of the colony. The loss of life is not to be underestimated, however – will you rely heavily on the benefits of autothysis among your soldier ants, first building a support network that can provide an endless supply of replacement warriors? And how will you choose when to pull a termite worker away from its nest jobs to die in the defence of the colony instead? While it can be tempting to rely on this powerful new ability, it comes at a great cost.

• Three new unit types hail from the C. explodens species of ants, native to Southeast Asia. While their workers don’t have any special abilities, their regular soldiers are able to explosively sacrifice themselves to damage enemies around them, slowing them down momentarily. Upgrades allow the soldier to cause more damage, reach a wider radius, take advantage of chain explosions to cause more damage, or leave behind a pool of liquid that causes damage to enemies walking through it. Meanwhile, their major soldiers take reduced damage when attacked from the front, able to hunker down and become stationary while increasing armour of nearby allies.

• Two new unit types from the N. taracua species of termites bring a new soldier (able to use asymmetric snapping to deal a great amount of damage to the enemy underground, or stun opponents on the surface while flinging themselves away from harm), alongside a new worker that develops the ability to explode if kept alive for long enough. Just like their real-world counterparts, these termite workers develop spots on their abdomen that contain blue laccase – an enzyme that reacts violently during autothysis to create a toxic mixture. This means that, while they can’t explode immediately after birth, their explosions become more dangerous the longer they’ve been kept alive. These workers can be upgraded to mature their explosive capabilities more quickly, to improve the rate at which their explosion causes more damage, or to keep that damage or resulting confusion persisting over a longer period of time after explosion.

• Two new levels inspired by the main campaign featuring the new exploding ants and termites -- return to The Harvest to eradicate a colony of fire ants, and revisit the rainforests of the Front Line in the hopes of surviving several nights of battle.

Playable missions are narrated from the perspective of a documentary film maker studying the ants, who offers intelligent insight into the goings-on of the colony and the undergrowth beyond. The primary game mode in early access is Formicarium, where you take ownership of a laboratory colony of unique DNA-harvesting ants as they work to assimilate the desirable traits of their foes. You can upgrade them by playing one-off missions, sometimes with your home colony and sometimes with other ant species.

Empires of the Undergrowth is available for PC (Steam / GOG / Epic Games Store) at $29.99 / £24.99 / €29.99 / ¥3,980.