Microtopia Guide: How to Build a Thriving Robot Ant Colony

Welcome to Microtopia, a factory building game where you will play the queen of robot ant colonies. Forget the conveyor belt – your worker ants will collect resources along the pheromone path, build supply chains, and expand your mechanical empire. This is a unique automated game that cleverly integrates Ant's logic and strategy.

Here is a basic game guide to help you get started smoothly.

Step 1: Build your colony

Every great empire begins with a queen and you will arrive like a futuristic drone. When placing the queen, remember: she has an input (food input) and an output (worker's output). Place her near key resources like scrap and energy pods so you don't have to waste time transporting resources from the other end of the map.

Your first batch of worker ants will appear automatically, but you need more. To do this, you need an incubator—essentially an ant factory. Place it near the queen and create a pheromone path between them to simplify the process.

Step 2: Pheromone path-Ant Expressway System

Instead of placing a conveyor belt, you draw the path of the worker ants moving. The method is as follows:

1. Place the pheromone path from the resource heap to the queen.
2. Workers will automatically walk along the path, picking up and dropping materials.
3. If the path forms a loop, the worker will cycle infinitely.

This system is simple but surprisingly powerful. Workers cannot pass through objects, so plan your path wisely to avoid clogging.

Step 3: Expand production

Now that you have a stable resource flow, it’s time to start producing goods.

Key buildings that need to be unlocked in the early stages:

• Smelter – Convert waste into iron ingots (a key material).
• Factory – Produce screws and other advanced components.
• Warehouse – Store important resources.

Build these buildings near your main path so that the worker ants don't have to go too far.

Professional tip: Workers will interact with the first object they come into contact with on the path. If they ignore a building, adjust the path so that they touch the building before continuing.

Step 4: Manage Your Workforce

At first, your worker ants will be damaged if they only work for 5 minutes (they are robots after all). But you can upgrade them in the combinator to merge two weak ants into a more powerful worker ant that has a lifespan twice as long as it was.

After that, you will unlock:

• Inventor Ant – used to study new technologies.
• Flying ants – Need to reach a new island.

Make sure you keep producing new ants so that your colony doesn’t stagnate.

Step 5: Unlock the tech tree

Once you have the inventor ants, they will unlock new buildings and upgrade. Some key early technologies include:

• Radar Tower – Reveal new islands to expand your colony.
• Plant Cutting – Lets you harvest fibers to get new materials.
• Iron tile flooring – a fancy upgrade that increases movement speed.

Your ants need to be fed to inventors in order to advance research. It's like real life - just without a free internship.

Step 6: Expand to a new island

Eventually, your starting area will appear crowded. Once you have built the radar tower, you can discover new islands with unique resources like copper and rare plants. But to get there, you need to fly ants.

How to make flying ants:

1. Combine two upgraded work ants in a special building.
2. Assign them to long distance routes.
3. Watch them sprint in the air like robot pollinators.

Once you have a firm foothold on another island, you can build supply chains to transport rare materials back to your main base.

Final Tips

• Use splitters and counters: These allow you to evenly distribute resources into different buildings. No more bottlenecks!
• Planning an efficient loop: Try making loop paths so that the worker ants don't get stuck.
• Upgrade the ants as soon as possible: the longer they live, the less you need to replace them.
• Don't ignore research: new technologies will unlock better automation tools.

With these tips, you will go from struggling to manage five ants to command a high-tech insect empire.

Good luck, Queen!

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