Bite back: how fights work in Ants Quest

In Ants Quest you are a small ant with one job: carry crumbs home. The garden has other plans. Beetles, spiders, wasps, centipedes, phorid flies, antlions and rival ants all live there, and most of them want what you carry.

Early builds gave the ant three lives. That made every hit feel the same, so we swapped them for a Life bar of 120 points. A light hit makes the ant dizzy for a moment. Only the big ones flip it over: a mantis strike, an antlion, the last hit.

Then came the jaws. Press E, or tap Bite, to bite. A quick bite goes for the head; a heavy bite takes longer and hits harder. Every foe winds up before it attacks and needs a moment to recover after, so watch the wind-up, step back, then bite. Armour matters too: a bite at the wrong angle glances off.

Every hit has weight. On impact the game holds the picture for a split second and knocks both bugs back, so you feel the hit even with the sound off.

You don't have to fight. One stamina bar powers both sprinting and flying, so you can fly right over a fight. The sandy antlion pits and the rivers stay dangerous either way: ants are not great swimmers.

The newest change spreads the danger over the four rounds. Round 1 is yours. Win it, and a new neighbour moves in: small rival colonies in round 2, big rival ants in round 3, and praying mantises in round 4. Each one first shows up on a "New foe" card, turning slowly, with a tip on how to beat it. A mantis strike takes a third of your Life, so back away from its wind-up.