We're very pleased to announce that our first major update for Empires of the Undergrowth, the Leafcutter Update, is now available for Windows, Mac & Linux! Featuring an all-new rain forest environment with new critters of all sizes, two new levels which will see you face off against fully-fledged colonies, and a new Formicarium Challenge where the dastardly scientists have something special planned for you. The jungle floor stirs. Ants of all sizes creep out of their holes to harvest the nearby foliage, travelling far and wide to find the choicest leaves. The odds are stacked against these fledgling colonies - you may be tempted to discount creatures that forage for leaves but with huge crushing mandibles on their side, they are not to be underestimated. https://youtu.be/HoRqZa7BH9Q

Headline Features

• New playable species - The Leafcutters
  • Featuring 4 sizes of ant (minims, minors, media and major) which can walk under / over one another
  • Major leafcutters are tank units with very high health and come in two forms:
    • Stun majors stun targets for 4s and at level 3 will slow them to a crawl for a further 4s
    • Taunt majors force targets to attack them for 4s and at level 3 at 50% health will reduce all incoming damage by 80% for 4s
  • Unique resource management
    • Leafcutters need leaves to cultivate a special fungus which is their only source of food!
    • Leaves can be gathered on the surface from various climbable plants
    • Once gathered leaves are taken to a leaf drop-off chamber
    • Each nursery built spawns a free minim ant (tiny leafcutter)
    • The minims take the leaves from the leaf drop-off to nurseries where it is cultivated into fungus that can be spent
    • Once fungus is spent, its remains will need to be taken to a refuse chamber where it can safely decompose
    • The distance between nurseries, leaf drop off chambers and refuse chambers affects the efficient processing of leaves leading to some careful colony design decisions.
• Two new levels in the rainforests of Ecuador
  • Two very different levels with unique challenges and threats with carefully designed difficulty settings to suit you level of play!
  • The new environments offer a host of new fauna and flora and have a very different feel to them from previous levels
• A new formicarium challenge - What has the evil scientist got planned this time?
  • Do you think you could hate the evil scientist any more? We think you might after you see what he has in store!
• Add the mighty leafcutter major to your formicarium!
  • 4 unique upgrade options
    • Sharp - This aura causes attackers of the major and any nearby friendly creatures to reflect an amount of damage back to themselves
    • Resilient - This aura causes the major and any nearby friendly creatures to take less damage each hit
    • Durable - All incoming damage to the major is reduced by a set amount
    • Shockproof - Limits damage to the major in any single hit
  • 4 improvement upgrades to spend that extra jelly on!
• More than double the enemy creatures!
  • Variety is the spice of life and the rainforest is the king of variety! Each of the new creatures comes with its own stats and abilities and will require their own approach to take down

• Creatures sizes mean you can get more to the front line
• Minimap now displays food that can be collected
• Quantity held by all food types is now displayed when showing tile info
• New enemy creatures have made there way into the battle arena and freeplay
• Freeplay setup dialogue changed to use more screen space for options
• Pheromone marker assignment panel now displays the living ants from chambers

• Queens have been given 50% resistance to slow their deaths
• Queen Second Wind invulnerability duration increased to 30s (up from 20)