Ant Challenge

The interior of the Ant Challenge area.

The exterior of the Ant Challenge area.

The Ant Challenge is a challenge found past the Ant Gate with emphasis on waves of ants.

Accessing and Participating

The player will need 20 bees in order to pass the Ant Gate and play the Ant Challenge. An ant pass is also required each time to participate in the challenge. The player can obtain a free ant pass once every two hours by using the Free Ant Pass Dispenser behind the Ant Gate. If players wish to get more ant passes, they can purchase another one for 10 tickets each at the Ant Pass Dispenser.

Gameplay

Upon entering, the player has 5 minutes to defeat as many ants as they can. The timer on the right side of the anthill shows the time remaining for the challenge. The ants come in waves, starting with level 1 and 2 ants, and increases in level with each wave. Each wave launches an assortment of ants that contain Regular Ants, Fire Ants, Army Ants, and/or Flying Ants Every 5th wave always contains a Giant Ant, with the exception of the 40th wave, which contains 2 giant ants. Each ant defeated grants 1 point.

To progress, fill the meter on the anthill by collecting pollen. The amount of pollen needed to progress to the next wave starts at 4,000, and increases by at least 2,000 more of the previous requirement each wave.

A lawnmower during the Ant Challenge.

Upon reaching wave 8, the white doors on the sides will start flashing red. This indicates that a lawnmower is about to come out and pass through the lane the door directs to. Move away from the targeted lane to avoid getting damaged. Getting hit by a lawnmower deals about half of the player's health with no defense. Lawnmowers will move faster and appear more frequently as the challenge progresses, with multiple lawnmowers running simultaneously possible near the end of the challenge.

The challenge ends upon the player's death, leaving the challenge, or when the 5 minutes are up, whichever happens first. While having the Haste+ buff, if the player walks up the ant hill, the player may leave the challenge. This is a common glitch.

Rewards

After the challenge ends, a message box displays the rewards. The player will always get an Ant Amulet, Honey, and royal jellies. The number of rewards received tends to increase with a higher score.

The rewards increase in quality and quantity relative to the player's score. A higher score will also give players higher-tier Ant Amulets:

• 0-24 Points: Bronze Ant Amulet.
• 25-49 Points: Silver Ant Amulet.
• 50-99 Points: Gold Ant Amulet.
• 100-149 Points: Diamond Ant Amulet.
• 150+ Points: Supreme Ant Amulet.

If the player already has an existing Ant Amulet, they may choose to keep their old one or replace it with the new one, depending on which one has better/more favorable buffs.

Tips

• Try to collect as many tokens (Haste, Baby Love, Bear Morph, etc.) as possible before participating in the challenge.
• Rage tokens can be used to take out ants faster, as they increase Bee Attack.
  • Certain mutations on bees that increase attack will also help in defeating ants faster.
• Higher level bees will be able to make the later waves easier to get through. Bees with higher attack and/or speed will also prove to be more effective than those with lower attack and/or speed.
• A high-level Vicious Bee is vital, as the spikes from its ability, Impale, can deal significant damage to multiple ants. In addition, wait to activate the ability when many ants are in the arena to maximize it effectively.
• A Gifted Stubborn Bee can help in this case as it increases the lifespan of ability tokens, giving the player more time to spawn ants before activating abilities.
• Windy Bee’s Tornado can be even more effective than Impale in the Ant Challenge. Not only does it collect pollen, but it also deals massive area damage (which cannot miss) and collects tokens. However, haste stacks and powerful sprinklers are required to maximize their potential.
• Honey Gift and Honey Gift+ tokens can be used to fill progress meter on the anthill, so the player may consider using Honey Bees or Diamond Bees to spawn these tokens.
• Having amulets that boost bee attack damage, having a Gifted Brave Bee, and having a Gifted Rage Bee makes it easier to defeat ants.
• The Fire Mask and Demon Mask will boost attack and add Flame-generating passives. Well placed Flames will grant Flame Heat, collect pollen, and do damage to nearby ants.
• Using stingers will boost attack for a short time, which helps clear ants faster and deal with higher-level ants. The player can also use red and blue extracts, oil, glue, tropical drink, and gumdrops. This will help with honey production and boost bee capabilities, but isn't necessary to get a good score.
• Coconuts can prove to be an unpredictable but powerful tool to take out clusters of ants. Coconuts can deal incredible amounts of damage, are capable of damaging high-level ants, and collect decent amounts of pollen.
  • If the player has Coconut Clogs, catching coconuts will also grant Coconut Haste, which temporarily makes the player and their bees faster. This can be useful to escape dangerous areas.
• To maximize the score, defeat as many ants as possible in the first three minutes, because later waves get more difficult and the lawnmowers appear more frequently and they move faster.
  • A pollen collector can be used to summon ant waves faster at the beginning of the challenge, but collectors should not be used at the end of the challenge if there are too many ants.
• Since the player has 100% Instant Conversion in the Ant Challenge, don't try to go after tokens from Coin Scatter or coconuts, since they won't have much value, as they have nothing to convert from, making them virtually useless.
• Sprinklers can be useful for regenerating flowers and making pollen collection easier, especially when ants and lawnmowers cut the player off from certain areas of the field.
• Using the Glider can help as the player can glide over ants, escaping from certain situations.
• Zoom out all the way to see where all the ants are and where lawnmowers may be coming from.
• The Spark Staff is statistically the best tool to use in the Ant Challenge.
• When new ants spawn, it is a good idea to go as far away from the ant hill as possible, to avoid being hit by an incoming ant.
• Star Saw, a Supreme Star Amulet passive, is very effective at defeating ants and collecting pollen.
• Standing near the side of the field where the lawnmowers come out can make the lawnmowers easier to avoid.

Music

Trivia

• The Ant Field and the Mountain Top Field are the only two fields that do not have their own badges.
• The Ant Field is the only field to have exclusively single flowers. It is also the only field that can't be boosted with glitter, the only field where a magic bean cannot be planted, and the only field where clouds cannot be summoned.
  • The flowers on this field contain 50 pollen per flower, and instead of going up by 15 pollen per tier, go up 10 per pollination tier up to 90, although pollen multiplier remains the same as regular flowers.
• Pollen collected in the Ant Field counts towards non-field-specific quests, such as some of Black Bear's repeating quests.
• The Ant Field is a 13 by 32 field, having 416 flowers, smaller than the Stump Field by 21 flowers.
• If the player uses jelly beans while inside or right outside the Ant Challenge, no jelly bean tokens will appear.

  

  The Ant Challenge instant conversion buff.

• When entering the arena, the player's bag will be converted and the player will gain a boost of +100% Instant Conversion. The boost used to be represented by a Haste token with an expired timer.
  • As of the 11/25/2018 update, the boost is now represented as the Ant Pass icon. There used to be a visual glitch that when leaving the ant challenge, the player would still have this buff. It was only a visual glitch, so the player did not actually have a +100% Instant Conversion boost active.
• There is an ant pass token hidden behind the Ant Challenge area. To get it, go behind the leaderboard and follow the hallway around the corner. This also leads to the Gummy Bee Egg Claim.

  

  A player getting a ticket from the Ant Field.

• If the player has equipped their tool and dies right when the Ant Challenge is about to end, they will respawn without their pollen collector equipped. However, the character's arm will be positioned to look like it’s actually holding it.
• Since the Egg Hunt 2019 update, the player can get jelly beans as a reward from the Ant Challenge.
• There used to be a bug where the pollen meter displayed the cumulative total instead of the total required to reach the next wave. This was fixed in the 9/10/2018 update.
• Players are able to glitch into arena without triggering the actual challenge. This can only be achieved by having a slow internet connection or bear morph and/or haste+.
• If the player leaves their sprinkler(s) in the field and the challenge ends without the player dying, the sprinklers remain in the field.
• If a player glitches inside and then someone starts it, then the player who glitched in will be kicked out.
• In Beesmas 2020, you could get the Poinsettia beequip from the Ant Challenge, however since Beesmas was removed, it is now unobtainable.
• The Ant field is the only challenge field, excluding fields used in the Stick Bug Challenge.
• It is possible to get items such as tickets from the Ant Field itself.