Hyperbug

Hyperbug
ASCII	B B B
Movement	Walking
Native Lands	Hive

The Hive is filled with Hyperbugs. They are huge insects which look a bit like ants, a bit like bees, and a bit like roaches.

Hyperbugs are terrestrial enemies found in the Hive, which come in one of three colors, spawning in nests of radius 9. Initially they spawn in groups of 50, which varies after the player begins to collect Royal Jelly.

Properties

Hyperbugs exhibit basic tracking AI, but will additionally target all other enemies who are not Hyperbugs of the same color, with the exception of completely invincible enemies that cannot be affected by their attacks (they will still target stunnable but not killable enemies, and will keep attacking already stunned enemies, stun-locking them). In return, other enemies, including invincible ones, will also target them. The player and their allies are not necessarily prioritized and can avoid fighting if they back away from Hyperbugs fighting with other enemies. Although individual Hyperbugs can be killed normally, a nest has such a high population of Hyperbugs that all of them together are difficult to defeat by just basic combat, and strategies need to be used to get the treasure.

Strategy

• The most common strategy is to lead a nest of Hyperbugs out of their nest and into a nest of a different color, and steal their Royal Jelly either while they are distracted or after all the bugs are defeated.
  • This strategy becomes less effective with the more treasure collected, as the game starts biasing nest generation in favor of Blue Hyperbugs.
    • Orb of Summoning can counter this to some extent, as the Hyperbugs spawned by it are always Red or Green on hexagonal and heptagonal cells respectively.
  • The native Orb, the Orb of Invisibility, assists with both of these by making it easier for the player to take treasure undetected, escape leftover Hyperbugs, and follow Hyperbug trails back to the now-empty nest.
    • The Orb of Luck temporarily negates the Blue Hyperbug bias while it is active, making the Hive and monster proportions the same as if the number of Royal Jellies were 0. However, the wandering spawn rate and hive sizes are not affected.
• Look at the top-of-screen tally to predict which color of Hyperbug will win the current battle.
• Use of attack-assisting Orbs like the Orb of Plague, Orb of Slashing, and Orb of Speed can allow the player to fight a swarm of Hyperbugs head on, with minimal backtracking.
• Alternatively, the player can clear out a safe choke-point and then lead the Hyperbugs there and individually slay them all. An example could include the one-wide gap found in Great Walls.
  • This is also possible to do with some Weird Rock formations, but is generally difficult to set up.
  • If funneling Hyperbugs through a Great Wall, make sure there are no threats on the other side.
• Some enemies are good at clearing large numbers of Hyperbugs due to their resistance to normal attacks:
  • Sand Worms and Tentacles can eat through a Hyperbug army, and Rock Snakes can do the same but faster (but are liable to checkmate themselves).
  • Raiders can help clear out Hyperbugs but without creating large tails that can inhibit the player's movement.
  • Stunnable enemies like Skeletons and Reptiles are of some use, but they can only occupy a handful of Hyperbugs.

Trivia

• In Excessive Walls mode, after the Hive is unlocked, multiple Hyperbug nests will generate in close proximity due to the nature of the mode. The resultant fighting will populate the user's kill list by the thousands, and can cause the host computer to suffer computationally as it tries to process all of the enemy interactions.
• Being pursued by an army of 1000 Hyperbugs of the same colour grants the player the Enemy Number One achievement.