Part 35: NG+ Update 07: Ant Farming

NG+ Update 07: Ant Farming

Music: Lift



LowSector Lift is a pretty boring area on New Game+. There aren’t any SOL Scenes to watch or D-Ratio Doors to open.







There are a lot of enemies to chew through, so it’s not a total snoozefest.





Interestingly some foes seem to have had their placements shifted for NG+. The Duke Battler that was formerly asleep in the middle of this room is now actively patrolling the corridor leading to the Treasure Chest.











After getting through the majority of the level I decide to have a look at how the Fairy Colony is doing.



Fairy Drops are not consumable, so you don’t have to worry about running out of them.

Music: The More We Dig







From now on whenever we access the Fairy Colony we’ll be greeted with a screen asking us to choose which excavation team digs where.



There’s a clearly visible room to the left, so I order our diggers to head that way.





They take a rather circuitous route, but manage to breach the chamber.





They dig a little more before the accrued time runs out. The player has no choice over the exact path the ants dig, which can be a problem since the underground has a number of hazards that can impede their progress.



Going to the Orders menu reveals that some of the hieroglyphs at the bottom have been chipped away. The gap represents the room we’ve discovered, and selecting it provides us with a number of options as to what we can do with it.





At the moment we only have two options, a Market and a Laboratory. The Market is a very important feature that allows us to buy equipment and skills, some of which cannot be found anywhere else. The Laboratory is also important since it lets our ants research new jobs for the colony and new items / skills for the Market.





It’s a very good idea to build the Laboratory first. The Market is useful but won’t reach its full potential without the research the Lab provides, and we won’t be able to unlock new jobs without it.







There are a few new messages on the bulletin board, although none are particularly enlightening.





Three more ants are available for hire. Their stats are pretty poor, but right now quantity matters far more than quality.



I put them all into the red team, then quickly leave the colony and return using the Fairy Drops.



Doing this causes three more ants to appear in the unemployment line.



Ant recruitment is the one aspect of the colony that isn’t pegged to random encounters, so if you have the money there’s nothing stopping you from warping in and out and filling up your excavation teams right from the get go.

Music: Lift



That’s all we can do for the colony at the moment, so let’s continue the main game for a bit.









There’s honestly not a lot left to say about LowSector Lift. Aside from a few enemies switching places it’s still an underground railway full of pigs and maggots.





All that’s left is to head on up to LowSector and begin our run through BioCorp.

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Bonus Art: Concept Designs