How to Play

The loop

Play, earn, build, return

1. Play. Classic Survival (fast, taps only), the Daily Challenge (one mission a day for everyone) or SIEGE (troops against ten waves).
2. Earn. Verified results pay Supplies and XP. Winning SIEGE missions unlocks new defenders and the next mission.
3. Build. Spend Supplies at your Outpost on buildings, troop levels and research that make your SIEGE army stronger.
4. Return. The Outpost keeps producing while you're away (up to 8 hours), and new daily and weekly objectives arrive.

A. The objective

Defend the land

You are not the colony. You are defending the land against it. Ants dig into free cells and claim them. In Classic Survival the run ends when the colony holds 60% of the 1000 cells. Other modes and Daily Challenges set their own end conditions, shown before you start.

• Free landYours. Ants want it.
• ClaimedTaken by the colony.
• BurnedA kill happened here.
• Burned and claimedAnts dig here safely.
• RecoverableOld ash, glowing green.

How to destroy ants

1. Tap or click an ant. One tap destroys one ant.
2. It lays eggs where it fell: 2 for a normal, fast or golden ant, 3 for a splitter. In Classic they hatch after 10 to 15 s unless you tap them first (Daily: 2.5 to 3.5 s). A Fat Ant lays none.
3. The cell it stood on burns. Ants standing on burned cells can't be destroyed by taps.
4. The kill sends out a shockwave that frees claimed land around it: a 5 × 5 area (25 cells).

Example. You tap one ant digging at the edge of the colony. Two eggs appear next to it, its cell burns, and up to 25 claimed cells around it turn back into your land. Tap both eggs before they hatch and the colony is one ant smaller.

A kill whose eggs you crush shrinks the colony; a kill whose eggs hatch grows it. Kill where the shockwave frees the most colony land, then clear its eggs.

Eggs, nests and Brood Break

• Eggs. A cream egg shows a ring that fills as it incubates and trembles just before it hatches. One tap destroys one egg; an ant standing on burned ground can't be destroyed, but a tap that also reaches an egg takes the egg. Eggs score nothing.
• Nests. 40% of the colony's own births come as pale green nests of 4 eggs on its land. One tap destroys a whole nest; left alone it hatches all 4 after 10 s.
• Brood Break. Destroy 8 eggs or nests by hand within 20 s and for 15 s your kills lay no eggs and the colony breeds at 50% (Daily: 7 s). Then it rests for 45 s (Daily: 30 s). Mines, turrets and creatures never count toward it.
• Combo. Ants, eggs and nests you tap all build one combo: each step renews the 1.2 s window, and the combo raises your next ant kill's points, up to ×2. Turrets, mines, the Fat Ant's purge and creatures never touch it.

B. Burned land

Win the ash back

Burned cells protect the ants standing on them, and they pile up as the run goes on. In Classic and Daily you can win them back two ways: Ash Reclamation on big kills, and CLEANSE, which restores a share of all burned land at once.

Ash Reclamation

A big kill restores ash by itself. If a kill's shockwave frees at least 6 claimed cells, at least 4 of them land that hasn't been freed in the last 12 s, it counts as a strategic kill. A strategic kill also restores one burned cell inside its shockwave, at most once every 3 s.

Example. The colony has dug across an old burn scar. You kill an ant in the middle of that patch: 6 or more cells come back, and the oldest burned cell the colony held in the blast turns green and becomes normal ground. Ants on it can be destroyed again.

CLEANSE

One press restores 60% of all burned land on the board at once, rounded up, spread over the whole map. There is no area to pick and nothing to confirm. Restored cells keep their claim state, and a CLEANSE earns no points by itself: it opens ground for better kills.

• Charging. Your own kills fill Reclamation Energy: 2 per kill, plus 4 for every fresh colony cell the kill frees (up to 40), 10 more for a strategic kill, 20 for destroying a Fat Ant and 10 for a golden ant. Every 1250 makes one charge, and the rest carries over.
• Using it. Click or tap CLEANSE, or press R. After a CLEANSE the next one is ready in 10 s. There is no limit on how many you use in a run.
• With no burned land, CLEANSE says NO BURNED LAND and keeps its charge.
• Kills by turrets and mines, and the ants a Fat Ant removes, never charge it. Tapping into the swarm without freeing land barely does.

Example. 37 cells are burned. One CLEANSE restores 23 of them, scattered across the board, and the message reads CLEANSED 23 CELLS. Press it again after the cooldown and 9 of the remaining 14 come back.

Tactical powers

Turrets, Freeze Towers, Shock Mines and two friendly creatures are part of every Classic and Daily run. They cost Tactical Energy, and only your own taps earn it: you start with 500 and get +75 for each ant you destroy (the Fat Ant too), +25 for each egg and +40 for each nest, up to 3000. Nothing comes from time, turrets, mines, creatures or a Fat Ant's purge.

• Auto Turret (450 energy, up to 3 at once). Fires at ants on unburned ground within 5 tiles, diggers first, for 45 s or 8 shots. Its kills still split ants and burn cells, and never charge CLEANSE. It leaves the Fat Ant to you.
• Freeze Tower (450 energy, up to 3 at once). For 15 s, ants within 5 tiles walk at 60% speed and claim land 2× slower. Fields don't stack. Kills nothing.
• Shock Mine (300 energy, up to 6 at once). Arms in 1.5 s, then destroys the first ant that steps on it and frees claimed land up to 3 tiles away. One mine, one kill. It ignores the Fat Ant.
• Anteater (1500 energy, 1 at a time). Walks to adult ants and eats one every 1.5 s, up to 8, for 18 s. It leaves Fat Ants, golden ants and ants on burned ground alone. An eaten ant lays no eggs and earns nothing.
• Egg Eater (750 energy, up to 2 at a time). Hunts the eggs closest to hatching, one every 0.8 s, up to 12, for 20 s. A nest takes one bite per egg. Eaten eggs never hatch and earn nothing.

• Desktop: click a power or press 1, 2 or 3 (4 Anteater, 5 Egg Eater), then click the land to place it. Esc cancels.
• Phone: tap a power or creature, then tap the land. Tap it again to cancel.
• Automatic kills score 50% of the kill points. The land they free scores in full.

C. Enemy types

Know the swarm

• Normal ant

  Walks to free land near the colony, digs and claims it. Lays 2 eggs when destroyed.

  10 points

• Fast ant

  From 20 s in. Runs at 180% speed and digs faster. Reach it before it claims.

  18 points

• Splitter ant

  From 45 s in. Bigger and slower, and lays 3 eggs when destroyed. Make that kill count.

  24 points

• Golden ant

  Lands at the edge about 30 s in, then every 22 to 34 s, and flees after 8 s. Its shockwave frees a 7 × 7 area and adds 1 s to your combo window for the next 6 s. A strategic golden kill counts double toward CLEANSE.

  250 points

• Fat Ant

  A huge, slow (55% speed) special enemy. It wanders instead of digging, and only one is ever on the land. Destroy it by hand and its shockwave removes 75% of all the other ants, rounded up. Golden ants ride it out.

  • In Classic the first comes at 2:30 and waits until 40 ants are alive; the next comes 42 to 48 s after the last one is gone. Each stays 12 s, then walks off the field. Dailies time theirs to fit the clock.
  • Its big body is easier to hit, but the burned-cell rule still applies: wait for it to step onto open ground.
  • Taking it is your call. In SIEGE it fights differently: it marches on the core, and destroying it gives you a Fat Core to detonate when you choose.
  • It lays no eggs. Its own cell burns and its shockwave frees land like a normal kill.
  • The ants it removes lay no eggs, burn no cells, score no points, earn no energy and never extend combos.
  • Timing matters: a bigger swarm means a bigger shockwave, but it leaves when its time is up.

  40 points

D. Game mode

Classic Survival

4 ants land on separate fronts, and reinforcements follow at 0:12 (+2), 0:30 (+3), 0:50 (+2), 1:15 (+2). They claim land, the colony breeds from the land it holds, and fast ants, splitters, golden ants and Fat Ants join over time. Survive as long as you can: the run ends when the colony holds 60% of the land.

The colony breeds about 1.45 new ants per minute for every cell it holds, so every cell you free slows it down. Ants walk 18% faster each minute (up to 240% of their starting speed) and dig faster as the run goes on.

• Early: few ants and little land. Kill them and crush their eggs: that is your first Brood Break and your first energy.
• Middle: fight at the colony's edge, where kills free the most land. Strategic kills fill CLEANSE and restore ash.
• Late: the swarm outgrows your taps. Spend charges on burned patches that shelter diggers, release creatures where the swarm or the eggs pile up, and use each Fat Ant to thin the swarm.

E. Game mode

SIEGE

Command your own defenders. The colony attacks your Outpost core in 10 waves along fixed routes from its nests. You deploy troops, they fight on their own, and you decide where they stand, when to rank them up and when to call the next wave. Lose all 20 core health and the mission is lost.

1. Plan. Before each wave a panel shows what's coming and from which nest; the route lights up. You have 60 s before the first wave and 30 s between waves, or press START to begin early for 1 Command Point per second left (up to 20).
2. Deploy. Pick a troop in the tray (or press 1 to 6) and tap a free tile. Troops cost Command Points (CP): you start with 150 and earn more for every kill and every wave cleared (40 + 5 × the wave number). Up to 6 troops can be on the field at once (more with Outpost upgrades).
3. Command. Tap a troop to rank it up (+35% health and power for 60% of its price, then +75% with the Training Grounds), move it to a new tile, or recall it for 50% of what you spent.
4. Hold. Ants walk the route and stop at the first troop with room to hold them: a Guardian holds three, most troops one, Artillery none. Fast and golden ants slip past everything but a Guardian. An ant that reaches the core drains its health.

Barrage

A heavy strike anywhere on the field: 60 damage to every ant within 1.5 tiles, a second after you call it. 1 per mission, more with research.

Fat Core

Destroying a Fat Ant leaves a Fat Core (you can hold 1). Detonate it during a wave to remove 25% of the regular ants on the field, rounded up and picked evenly. Fat Ants and the Queen are immune, removed ants pay nothing, and you can detonate at most 1 per wave.

Eggs

A splitter's death and the Brood Queen lay eggs that hatch after a few seconds. A wave only clears once its eggs are gone. Shells, Barrages and Shock Mines clear eggs in their blast, and Freeze Towers pause them.

SMASH

Aim it at a tile (key E) to crush the eggs around it, once every 1.5 s. Each egg pays Command Points, and smashing eggs fills Brood Break: for a while splitters lay nothing and the Queen lays half.

Egg Eater

A friendly lizard you release on a free tile for Command Points. It eats the eggs closest to hatching and leaves when it is full. It never fights ants.

Retreat

Between waves you can retreat from the pause menu and keep the waves you cleared.

Stars

A victory earns 1 to 3 stars by how much core health is left.

Your defenders

• Guardian Frontline

  Holds up to three ants in place and soaks their bites.

  Weakness: Short reach and modest damage: it holds, others kill.

  50 CP · 260 health · reach 1.1 tiles · holds 3 · Available from the start.

• Ranger Ranged attacker

  Reliable long-range damage on the ant closest to your core. Shoots golden ants first.

  Weakness: Fragile: anything that reaches it hurts.

  60 CP · 80 health · reach 3.6 tiles · holds 1 · Available from the start.

• Engineer Support

  Fortifies nearby troops (25% less damage) and repairs the core or damaged allies.

  Weakness: Barely fights: protect it and keep it near the front or the core.

  70 CP · 120 health · reach 1.5 tiles · holds 1 · Win First Contact.

• Frostkeeper Control

  Chills ants in an area: 45% slower, and they bite and drain the core half as hard.

  Weakness: Almost no damage of its own.

  80 CP · 90 health · reach 3 tiles · holds 1 · Win Broken Frontier.

• Artillery Area damage

  Heavy shells that hit whole groups at long range.

  Weakness: Slow to fire, can't hit close targets and packs up slowly to move.

  120 CP · 70 health · reach 5.5 tiles · holds none · Win Swarm Valley.

• Medic Recovery

  Heals the most hurt troop nearby, keeping your front line standing.

  Weakness: Can't attack at all.

  75 CP · 90 health · reach 3 tiles · holds 1 · Win Scorched Territory, or upgrade the Training Grounds to level 3.

Missions and waves

1. First Contact. One lane from the east. Learn to hold the line. First victory unlocks the Engineer. Guests can play it.
2. Broken Frontier. Two lanes from two directions. Splitters burst into brood. First victory unlocks the Frostkeeper.
3. Swarm Valley. Your core sits in the open. Three lanes and fast swarms. First victory unlocks the Artillery. Needs Command Center level 2.
4. Scorched Territory. Scorched ground around the core: you can't deploy there. Hold them further out. First victory unlocks the Medic. Needs Command Center level 3.
5. The Great Invasion. Four corners, every ant type, and the Brood Queen in the final wave. Needs Command Center level 4.

New ant types arrive gradually; later waves are bigger, tougher and come from more nests at once, and The Great Invasion ends with the Brood Queen, who lays brood ants as she walks. Fat Ants are dangerous at the core but leave a Fat Core when destroyed.

The Weekly Challenge

One generated SIEGE mission per week (weeks start Monday, UTC), the same for everyone. Every player gets all six troops at level 3 and no research, so Outpost upgrades never decide the ranking. The board ranks a victory first, then waves cleared, core health left and score. The server replays every result. Eggs, SMASH and the Egg Eater come to the Weekly from the week starting 2026-11-02, so a week never mixes two rule sets.

F. Your base

The Outpost

Your Outpost is your home base between battles, saved to your account on every device. Its buildings grow as you upgrade them, from wooden huts to a fortified base. A new Outpost starts with 50 Supplies (150 for accounts that already played before the Outpost existed).

• The Command Center is your Outpost level. No other building can be above it, and it needs an account level: level 2 needs account level 2, level 3 needs account level 4, level 4 needs account level 7, level 5 needs account level 10.
• Troop levels (Workshop): each troop trains up to level 5 for 80, 180, 350, 600 Supplies, adding 8%, 15%, 21%, 26% health and power in total. The steps get smaller on purpose: upgrades help, skill still decides.
• Research (Lab): Supply Lines, start every mission with more command points. Field Command, room for one more troop on the field. Barrage Battery, one more barrage strike per mission. Quartermaster, bigger command point bounties for every ant destroyed.
• The Training Grounds raise the in-mission rank cap to 3 at level 2, unlock the Medic at level 3 and add a troop slot at level 4.

Production while you're away

The Supply Depot makes Supplies while you're away: 12/hour at level 1, 18/hour at level 2, 26/hour at level 3, 36/hour at level 4, 48/hour at level 5, up to its storage (60, 110, 180, 270, 380) and never more than 8 hours' worth. Open the Outpost and press COLLECT. The server works out what was made from its own clock when you collect; nothing runs in the background, changing your device's clock does nothing, and collecting from two devices at once pays once. Playing earns more than waiting: one mission victory pays more than a full depot.

G. Progress

Supplies, XP and unlocks

Supplies

The one resource you spend: buildings, troop levels and research. Earned only from verified play, objectives and the depot.

XP

Account experience from verified play. Not spendable: it raises your level (level 2 at 100 XP, level 5 at 700, level 10 at 2700), which opens Command Center upgrades.

Classic

A verified run pays up to 40 Supplies and 60 XP by how long you held. The first 6 each UTC day pay in full, later ones 25%.

Daily

30 Supplies and 40 XP for taking part each day, 40 and 60 more for completing it.

SIEGE

Supplies for every wave cleared and a big bonus for a mission's first victory (150, 220, 300, 400, 520). Later victories pay 20% of it; missions below your best pay half wave Supplies; after 4 runs a day, 25%.

Weekly

60 Supplies for taking part each week, 150 more for a victory.

Objectives

3 daily objectives (+60 Supplies each) and 3 weekly ones (+250), from verified play. Claim each once in your Outpost. Missing a day costs nothing and nothing resets.

Every reward is calculated by the server after it has verified the result, and each run, objective and collection pays once, however many tabs or devices ask. Rewards change nothing about Classic or Daily runs: those stay equal for everyone.

H. Fair play

Upgrades and fair competition

• Classic and Daily are a level field. Outpost upgrades, XP and Supplies never affect them: same ants, same rules and same scoring for everyone.
• The SIEGE campaign is where you grow stronger. Your troop levels and research come with you into missions.
• The Weekly Challenge gives everyone the same troops, field and waves, so its board is about play, not upgrades.
• No purchases, no energy timers and no paid advantages. Everything is earned by playing.

I. Game mode

Daily Challenges

A new challenge every UTC day, the same for every player: the same mission, the same starting field and the same ants. In every seven-day block the seven archetypes each come round once, in a shuffled order, never the same two days in a row. Play as often as you like. The board keeps each player's best attempt.

• 60-Second Siege

  Hold out for 60 s and keep the colony under 50% of the land.

  3 to 4 ants land at once and the swarm speeds up fast.

  Success: Survive the clock. Ranked by how much land you held over the run, then land free at the end.

• Golden Hunt

  Destroy 6 to 8 golden ants before 115 to 120 s run out.

  Golden ants arrive on a schedule and flee after a few seconds.

  Success: Catch them all in time. Ranked by time left on the clock, then land held. Failed runs rank by golden ants caught.

• Burned Earth

  Survive 75 to 90 s with the colony under 60% of the land.

  11 to 20% of the land starts burned, in lines, craters, firebreaks or ash fall. Ash Reclamation and CLEANSE can win some of it back.

  Success: Survive the clock. Ranked by land held over the run.

• Swarm Strike

  Land 25 to 30 strikes in 75 to 90 s. A strike is your own kill of an adult ant that frees colony land.

  14 to 18 ants from the first second, 12 to 16% of the land burned, and the colony wins at 45%. Eggs, nests and kills on open ground don't count.

  Success: Reach the strike count. Ranked by time left, then land held. Failed runs rank by strikes.

• Guard the Core

  Keep enough of the 3 to 5 glowing cores free for 60 to 75 s.

  Ants hunt the cores. Cores take twice as long to dig, and a kill next to one frees it.

  Success: Keep the cores standing. Ranked by cores intact, then land held. Failed runs rank by time survived.

• Combo Contract

  Chain a ×10 to 18 combo in 75 to 90 s.

  Ants, eggs and nests you tap all count, each at least 2 cells from the previous step. A miss, a blocked tap or a step too close breaks the chain.

  Success: Reach the combo. Ranked by time left, then land held. Failed runs rank by best combo.

• Territory Lockdown

  Defend 3 to 4 marked zones for 65 to 80 s. No zone may fall.

  A zone falls when the colony claims its limit, shown on the board. Ants are drawn toward the zones.

  Success: Keep every zone. Ranked by land held over the run.

Every challenge has eggs, nests, Brood Break, Ash Reclamation, CLEANSE, the tactical powers and creatures, and 2 to 3 Fat Ants, timed to fit the clock (from 2026-10-28; earlier days keep the rules they were played under). Golden catches and strikes count your own kills of adult ants only; the combo counts ants, eggs and nests. The ants a Fat Ant removes never count. Successful runs always rank above failed ones; raw score is not the ranking.

J. Scoring

Points and leaderboards

Kills

10 to 250 points by ant type (40 for a Fat Ant).

Combos

Kills, eggs and nests you tap within 1.2 s of each other chain. Each step adds 25% to your next kill's points, up to ×2. Eggs and nests score nothing themselves.

Freed land

5 points per claimed cell the first time you free it in a run, 2 each time after.

Survival

Every second: 10 points, plus up to 40 more for the share of land you hold.

• The server replays every submitted run from your taps before it counts. A score that doesn't reproduce is refused.
• Each mode has its own boards, and each player appears once per board with their best eligible run.
• Claimed accounts keep official personal bests on the server, the same on every device. Guests are listed per browser.
• Every mode has one permanent board. Rules updates and balance changes don't reset it: your best stays on the same board through every update.
• Defense Mode and FORK//DEFENSE are retired. They can no longer be played and their boards are no longer shown, but nothing was deleted: every verified score, result link, replay and badge from them is kept.

K. Accounts

Accounts and profiles

No account needed: open the game and play Classic, the Daily Challenge, First Contact and the Weekly Challenge as a guest. Claim a free username when you want to keep progress: your Outpost, Supplies, XP, troops and campaign live on your account. A guest's SIEGE results from the last two weeks join the account when you claim or sign in on that browser.

• Claim with an email address (and a password if you like), then confirm from the email. Sign in later with the password or an emailed link.
• Official personal bests, cosmetics and badges sync across devices.
• Your public profile at /u/yourname shows your profile ant, your best and rank on each board, and up to three showcased badges.
• Equip unlocked ant skins from your account. Cosmetics never change how the game plays.
• You can change your username once every 30 days. Old names stay reserved for you, so old links keep working.

L. Rewards

Friends, skins and badges

Invite friends

Your account has a personal invite link. A friend counts once they claim a username and finish a verified run of at least 45 s with at least 10 actions. Clicks alone never count. Qualified friends unlock five exclusive skins:

• 2 friends Scout Ant
• 5 friends Neon Runner
• 10 friends Royal Guard
• 25 friends Specter Ant
• 50 friends Colony Emperor

Badges

Badges come from verified runs, gameplay mastery, qualified invitations and Beat My Score wins. Showcase up to three on your profile. The OG badge belongs to the first 100 verified username claims, numbered in claim order; the live count of open places is on the claim screen. The CREATOR badge marks the game's creator. Ash Walker, Land Reclaimer, Cleanse Master, Fat Ant Hunter, Swarm Breaker and Colossus Slayer come from verified runs under the current rules. First Defense, Commander, Last Stand, Master Engineer, Outpost Builder and Wave Breaker come from verified SIEGE results and your Outpost. Badges earned in retired modes stay on your profile, marked Legacy.

Beat My Score

After a verified run, CHALLENGE A FRIEND makes a link to the same field: same mode, same start, same ants. Your friend plays it (no account needed), the server verifies the attempt, and if they win they can challenge you back. Challenge attempts are kept off the official leaderboards. Only runs played under the current rules can become challenges, so both players face exactly the same game.

M. Strategy

Tips

1. Every kill lays eggs. Crush them before they hatch, and spend kills where they free land.
2. Time your egg taps: 8 in 20 s starts a Brood Break, and a run of taps keeps the combo for the next kill.
3. Watch the edge of the red land. Ants about to finish a claim are the best targets.
4. Big kills do double duty: they free land, restore ash and fill CLEANSE.
5. Restore burned patches the colony is digging under before they become a fortress.
6. Keep a charge for emergencies, but don't sit on two: progress stops when you're full.
7. Let the swarm grow a little before taking a Fat Ant, but never let it walk away.
8. In SIEGE, put a Guardian where a route narrows and Rangers just behind it, off the route.
9. Don't stack everything at the core: multi-lane missions punish it. Meet each lane on its own.
10. Save the Barrage and the Fat Core for the waves that bring the biggest swarms.
11. Read each Daily Challenge's mission: some reward land held, some a target, some time left.

Follow AI LANDGRAB: X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram (@ailandgrab everywhere).