So it turns out my megacity contains a sulfurous ant hill. 6 days in the ants have taken over quite a large area of the city even though I don’t think my base area is close enough to them to keep them loaded. I decided to set a goal for myself to destroy the colony and reclaim the city from the ants, but it’s pretty rough going so far, especially considering my fairly low-level equipment. I tried making a wooden longbow and wood arrows and I managed to pick a few off, but my archery skill will take a long time to get good enough to hit them reliably (not to mention not having access to better arrows). I’m thinking of trying to use fire somehow - if I just light a building on fire will they run in and immolate themselves? I’m in a huge city map and I don’t mind just burning down chunks of it if that might help. But I keep coming across the ants in basements of houses and stuff, the buggers are just everywhere. Any other suggestions on how to deal with them (that don’t require high-level equipment or mutations/bionics)? I should also mention that I have mobs set to spawn 2x but at half strength/speed. So there are a ridiculous number of them but they’re much slower than me and die in a few hits if I manage to get close without being hit with acid.
Running them over with a truck might give you some breathing room for a while but cities can be hard to maneuver so this might not even be an option.
Fire would kill a few which again, would give you some space but that’s no permanent solution.
AFAIK they will just keep spawning until the queen is dead so I suggest you keep far away, gear up and return when you have a rifle and kots of ammo for it.
Wear a hazmat suit or something else with high acid protection since they are not to strong in melee otherwise beside there acid if you have a decent weapon even for a low level charater (hint bio-silified chitin armor). Do be carefull of there numbers thow don’t want to be over in mellee but since there sight is so bad you should be able to take them on one at a time…
Another trick is to fight them while inside or on top a vehicle like a bike. This prevent you from standing in asid pools.
Hm… If I ride up to them on a bike and fight them from there, will I be immune to the acid, then? They’re not actually a danger to me in melee, it’s just the acid that keeps getting me.
Yes you are immune form the acid since unlike acidic zombies they don’t barf acid over you instead they just cover a large part of the ground in acid however as long as you are on a vehicle you are immune form this.
Well that worked like a charm! Went though with my knife spear and my bike and killed most of the ants on the surface. However, I’m not sure about going down into their nest. When I try to go down, it says there’s a sheer drop halfway down. Does that mean I won’t be able to get out? I have no idea what the inside of the nest will look like, and of course I can’t take my bike down there. Any further tips? I assume I need to go down and kill the queen, but I also assume that if I just jump down there with my knife spear and a pair of boots I’m going to get killed. 
Chimera mutagen, acidproof mutation.
Just be cool like me and bathe in acid, I wear a tank top and jean shorts with no shoes.
Just one less thing to worry about out there.
Spears and guns will work better, I’m sure. I use a Lucerne hammer (got bored of spears and swords) and it works like a charm. It’s a bashing weapon with reach attacks, just hold F and they’ll die.
Yeah, that’s a dangerous proposition, don’t say yes to that prompt.
That said, having a rope or grappling hook will give you a different prompt, and allow you to create an upstairs below so you can get back out. Just be aware there could be a lava rift or something down there.
I think there’s a prompt that tells you “there’s a huge wave of heat coming from below, jump down? y/n” or something like that.
I wouldn’t really worry about lava rifts, just be really careful about young acid ant queens. They’re basically insect flamethrowers that’ll blast you and burn your ass to ashes.
Okay well. I’m still on early game stuff so I suppose I need to back off for now. There is a cathedral right next door though and there are acidic ants in the basement - is it possible it connects to the nest? Also, there seems to be no way to protect against the acid while underground, since I can’t take a vehicle with me. I guess I could try to construct one down there but not before the ants melt my legs off. My one peek down there resulted in nearly losing my right leg, got away on my bike just in time to save it.
It seems like aside from mutations/bionics there’s really no good protection from acid, especially in the early game. I have some decent armor I took off some soldiers but it hasn’t helped much. I tried rubber boots and they did NOTHING against the acid, contrary to previous versions where they kept me pretty safe. 
I wonder if I can just build a wall around the stupid nest… Wait, if I wouldn’t be able to come back up the slope after going down, does that mean the ants can’t come out of there?
There’s the foldable trolley made from a foldable frame, and caster wheels. Don’t know how you’re supposed to drive it tho.
Hmmm… I’d better get scheming while my legs heal from my last attempt! 
Saddle and pedals. Both are foldable.
Okay but… How big are the sulfurous anthills underground? I’d decided to just stay away from the ants for now but the buggers keep coming up from basements everywhere, even 15+ tiles from the anthill on the map. How far away would I have to get to keep away from them? I’m considering leaving this entire region, but since I have mob spawns up so high and such a high number of them have evolved already, leaving my little base area is slow and dangerous…
just where a hazmat suit of any sort (AEP, ANBC, hazmat suit, cleansuit, Hun 01 environment suit, etc) they make you immune to the acid.
I had an odd bug (heh) where there were acid ants in the underground of the anthill but normal ants on the surface and the queen was also normal and not acidic and the ants all fought eachother
Well, you know what they say: have a game bug, will report 
It happened with every single “anthill” I found which so far was 3
acid ant strategy is to shoot em from range, and wear rubber boots in the hive
a shotgun and 00 shot is a viable solution to most problems