Tip: Turn your phone sideways for a bigger picture
How to Play & Controls
How to Play
Goal: get the most points by getting food. Send your ants to food: they pick it up and carry it home to your anthill, one piece at a time.
Score: yours is at the top of the screen, the other players' at the bottom. When the clock reaches 0:00 the highest score wins.
Power-ups dropped by special flowers give an ant a special power (see below); an ant holds one at a time.
Opponents: the Menu button starts a game on this computer against Easy, Medium or Hard bots, each base at its own level, with you and one bot as a team if you like, or alone as in the original; there you can also host or join a match on the game server to play against friends.
Help:F1 or the Help button shows the original's quick help.
Picture: 16:9 by default; Classic 4:3 is the original's picture. Choose it under the game (the game restarts), or add ?aspect=4:3 to the address (?aspect=16:9 for the wide one). The Fullscreen button makes the picture as big as your screen allows.
Mouse
Select: left click an ant. Shift+click adds or removes one. Drag a box (more than 4 px) to select your ants inside it.
Order with a left click: ground = move, food = harvest and carry it home, another player's ant = attack.
Right click: a move for groups, workers and combat ants; a single powered ant uses its special power. It acts when you release the button.
Buttons left of the Status box: Move, and for a powered ant Use Special Power. Click one, then click the target. Stop (on the right) halts the ants.
Minimap: hold the left button on it to scroll the map; right click sends your selected ants there.
Scrolling
Edge scrolling: move the pointer to the edge of the map: an arrow shows and the map scrolls. Options → Map Scroll Rate sets the speed. In a window the map keeps scrolling while the pointer is just past the edge of the game (about an inch); it stops when the pointer goes farther, onto a button or a link of the page, or out of the window.
Fullscreen: the Fullscreen button in the header. The black bars of a screen that is not 16:9 count as the picture's edge: the map scrolls with the pointer anywhere beyond it, corners included. The mouse is held inside the game (Fullscreen mouse: Locked, under the game, is the default): your cursor cannot leave the picture, so every edge of the screen scrolls the map, and a Mac's Dock and menu bar stay away. A click on the game takes the mouse again if the browser let it go (that click does nothing else).
Esc in fullscreen: in Chrome and Edge Esc goes to the game (deselect, close a dialog) and holding it leaves fullscreen; in Safari and Firefox Esc gives the mouse back first (Safari leaves fullscreen with it).Free under the game gives the browser's plain fullscreen.
Minimap: hold the left button on it and the view follows the pointer.
Jump to an ant:Ctrl+N / Ctrl+P select the next / previous ant and scroll to it; Ctrl+H selects your anthill.
Zoom: the mouse wheel (a trackpad's two-finger scroll or pinch) over the map zooms in and out towards the pointer, one level a notch: from 2× (every world pixel a 2 × 2 square) through 1× (the original's picture) down to the whole width or height of the map; the middle button goes back to 1×. It works in an online match too.
As in the original, nothing scrolls with the keyboard: arrows and WASD do nothing.
Keyboard
Hold Ctrl (the Control key, on a Mac too):
A select all your ants • S stop the selected ants
L show / hide hit-point numbers
O options • Q quit dialog
Esc deselect • F1 quick help
Chat: just type; Enter sends. F9–F12 send the four quick chat texts (edit them in Options).
Setup screen:↑ / ↓ pick the map, Enter or S starts, Q or X leaves.
Browsers keep some Ctrl shortcuts for themselves (Ctrl+N opens a window on Windows and Linux); the on-screen buttons always work.
Special Powers
An ant that picks up a power-up gets its power. Select the ant, click the special power button (or right click), then click where to use it.
Bomber: plants a bomb, or puts out one of yours. A bomb goes off when an ant walks onto it.
Fire ant: builds a wall of fire (about 3 minutes, not on mud) or puts one out.
Swimmer: swims, and builds or demolishes mud mound bridges on water.
Thief: steals food (up to 50 points) from another player's anthill.
Combat ant: hits hard (it throws its victim four tiles) and attacks enemy ants near it by itself.
Touch & Mobile
Tap acts like a left click: select, move, harvest, attack.
Hold one finger still on the map until the ring closes acts like a right click: a move for groups, workers and combat ants, the special power of a single powered ant. It acts when you lift the finger. Hold on the minimap to send your selected ants there.
Drag one finger on the map draws the selection box.
Move the map: drag with two fingers.Zoom: pinch with two fingers. Both work in a match, over the map, with nothing open over it.
Special powers: hold on the target, or tap the special power button and then the target.
Minimap: press and drag on it to scroll the map.
Fullscreen: tap Fullscreen in the header; landscape works best.
