Fire Ant
Small, furious, and built to brawl above its weight.
Common bugs are free to play. The game shows how to get each one.
Passive: Hot-Blooded
Power-up cooldowns 20% shorter.
A passive is always on: you never fire it and it never runs out. It is what the Fire Ant does that no other bug does quite the same way.
Stats
Stats are multipliers on the standard bug, which is ×1.00 in everything (the game shows them as percentages: ×1.14 is 114%). Turn is Agility in the game. For Boost drain, lower is cheaper.
| Stat | Fire Ant | Compared with the standard bug |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | ×1.04 | 4% faster |
| Turn | ×1.18 | turns 18% faster |
| Bulk | ×0.88 | 12% thinner |
| Growth | ×1.00 | the standard |
| Boost | ×1.08 | boosts 8% faster |
| Boost drain | ×1.05 | boosting costs 5% more |
| Spawn mass | 18 | the standard |
Power-ups
Every bug has 5 power-up slots. The Fire Ant can carry 9 of the game's 18 power-ups: the 5 core ones every bug carries, and 4 more that its traits from the real animal allow. Its traits are colony, ground, stinger and tiny.
Venom Trail
For 8s you leave lingering venom clouds behind you that squish any head entering them.
From its stinger trait.
Burrow
Go underground for 5s: untargetable, invisible to bots, 40% slower, cannot eat.
From its ground trait.
Colony Split
Spawns 2 allied bugs that hunt and forage for you for 20s, funnelling food back to your mass.
From its colony trait.
Stinger Strike
Instant jab at the nearest enemy head in front of you (160u): stunned 1.4s, slowed 50% for 3s and pushed back. Never squishes.
From its stinger trait.
Core power-ups: Nitro Wings, Molt Husks, Phase Shift, Pheromone Call, Shockwave.
How bots play it
Bots fill every seat no player is using. A bot playing the Fire Ant plays it as a Territorial. Patrols a home range around where it was born (a Colony Split ally: around its leader) and hunts only intruders in it.
Other territorial bugs: Ant, Honeybee, Termite, Bullet Ant.
Skins
The Fire Ant has 7 skins. A skin changes only how it looks, never how it plays. See them in the full skin gallery.
Magma Fire Ant
A charred, near-black body banded in glowing lava red, like a crust of cooling magma.
Solar Fire Ant
A blazing sun-gold body with dark bronze bands and legs.
Bunsen Fire Ant
Fire at its hottest: a cobalt-blue body with pale cyan flame rings on the gaster.
Cinder Fire Ant
Ash-grey and charcoal-legged, still speckled with glowing embers.
Phoenix Fire Ant
A white-hot gold body marked with three crimson diamonds, crimson legs and gold jaws.
Countdown Fire Ant
A midnight-navy fire ant with two champagne-gold diamonds on its gaster and silver legs.
Cauldron Fire Ant
Fresh from the witch's cauldron: bubbling purple potion dotted with glowing green bubbles.
The real animal
The Fire Ant in buggs.io is based on Solenopsis invicta, and its traits come from what the real animal does. Read about it on Wikipedia.