How Ants and Bees Broke the Game 

Never realized just how much ant and bee eusociality breaks the game. And to think the devs have been letting them get away with these broken builds for 100 million+ years...

An ant tier list would be really good

That was a really nice explanation of how eusociality breaks down normal natural selection processes. Just by changing how genetic information is passed on, the math of the objective itself switches. Hymenopterans be like: Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions

This guy is such a genius explaining nature using gaming terms making it understandable AND interesting

Calling scientists "dataminers" has to be one of the more clever things I've heard here. Great stuff man.

A top tier class complaining about another class being busted, TZ is truly a gamer.

Imagine spawning as an ant, one of the most powerful and viable insect classes ever, just to be used as a literal barrel

"Every player needs to respect them as a threat" Me with a marine build: i have no weakneses

"the game is being played less like an RPG and more like an RTS.." honestly that's an amazing analogy haha

TierZoo: "Hymenoptera is so cool with their unique eusociality" Termites: "am I a joke to you?"

I'm not a biologist, so I'll just stick to pointing out that this is a great analogy of eusociality and game theory. Great job!

I love how you used the darkest dungeon fear effect to show their intimidation stat

An ant tier list woulr be really good. Even though most of their playstyles are the same, there are some species that are clearly better than the others and have different strategies or abilities.

Everyone always forgets the termites, they invented eusociality, agriculture, climate control, standing militaries, and more but the upstart ants always get the credit.

Let me just say, as someone who studies honeybee behavior and is also an avid video game fan, watching this video and also discovering your channel has been the *highlight* of my career.

It's great that you used hornet's theme from hollow knight as the music in parts, considering the theme of the video

Aside from the highly informative biology lessons explained eloquently with gaming terms, can we take a moment to appreciate how TierZoo's editing has improved a lot over the course of a few years? The amount of dedication put into his videos is genuinely unreal.

2:52 In many cases, veteran Bear mains have the endurance and the armor values to simply tank all damage Bee players deal, as they've found the XP gains of raiding their hive far outweighs any damage and debuffs they might get in the process.

I'm doing the 'play through Elden Ring' side quest right now and hearing the death sound at the beginning brought so many painful memories back

Would be interested in a rating of the mantis shrimp build and other related builds; as the mantis shrimp has some of the most unique perks of any build in the aquatic server

I love how he used the hornet music over clips of bees attacking a hornet

The ant gameplay is not that engaging in solo But in squad is really fun: scouting, defending, going on food raids on human territory... You always find things to do and more

I must say, as an occasional termite player, that I am a bit disappointed that you didn't even mention this other lineage of eusocial insects, but still great video!

2:13 I don't know why but I find this moment incredibly hilarious. It's like three friends just messing around with the launch and physics mechanics.

Tierzoo: "This faction's strategy is so disturbingly brutal!" Me: It's Parasitic Wasps isn't it?

What is the main goal of Outside? Normie players: “Survive and reproduce!” Human mains with god-tier INT: “What *IS* the main goal of Outside?”

This is one of your best videos to date! The fact you explained complex topics so well with the gaming analogy is really impressive!

I’d like to hear you talk about how the Argentinian ant supercolonies have exploited this even further with the way they entered other servers leading to a lack of in fighting between their colonies on invaded servers allowing them to heavily out compete other ants in the area. Actually a video covering the major effects of server switching invasive species in general would be interesting.

I'm simply amazed it took this long to get to eusocial insects, considering how many times they've been mentioned on the channel.

Was grinding xp recently to unlock the "better memory" perk, and as I was doing so a wasp flew into my territory and engaged in combat so i couldn't fast travel. Almost lost my character, but I managed to win. Good thing too, it took me years to get where I am now, though im still trying to optimize my build for the current meta.

The fact that something like a door head ant actually exists and was ... evolutionarily created due to necessity? for the purpose of blocking entrances with their heads astounds me

Watch my bonus Parasitoid Wasp video here: nebula.tv/videos/tierzoo-are-parasitoid-wasps-op

"It essentially changes the game from being an action RPG to being an RTS." That was such a good analogy. It's perfection.

If anyone wonders what the parasitoid wasps do that is so disturbing, they will paralyze their prey before laying eggs on them, the prey is alive but in a permanent state of paralysis, so the larvae would hatch and literally eat the prey alive. (Source: Brave Wilderness, Tarantula Hawk)

I’ll never forget when I was a kid, I watched this science video showing that a honey bee will find a patch of flowers and then return to the hive and give the exact location to others by shaking it’s body in different directions for specific periods of time. “Go this way for 8 seconds, then that way for 5 seconds, and then this way for 15 seconds, etc”. The others will circle around and watch this dance and memorize exactly where they need to go. They’re amazing little creatures.

This actually is a really common type of exploit in a lot of games, entirely disregarding something that seems really important to most players (in this case size and HP) in order to spend all your available points into OP abilities that you could never combine otherwise or unlock that early.

5:08 One minor correction: Sister bees attain 100% of their father's DNA since the father only has 1 set of chromosomes. That means all sisters share at least 50% of their DNA just from the father. The remaining 50% is provided by the mother, who contributes 50% of her DNA. This in total makes sisters 75% related, like you were saying.

The patch notes on these guys are always a treat to read. Things like: "Asked bee players very nicely to stop being so useful to other playstyles so that we can finally nerf them."

Other insects: Invests points into painful stings and solid armor Ants: *Rapid birth-giving, take it or leave it* Using Hornet's theme from Hollow Knight as background music shows just how much of a man of culture you are.

Playing as a worker ant is so fun, being able to not have the common breeding main quest makes a lot more time for fun, while also the spawn availability is so big, so everyone can just do a suicidal attack at a powerful enemy and still spawn as a new ant not very long after.

Not gonna lie, the companion video about parasitoid wasps has gotten me tempted bigger than anything else. Also, I can't believe you didn't mention the human+bee co-op strategy! It's a criminally underrated game play style, especially because its one of the few human co-op strategies where the human is the support for the bees, rather than the other way around.

I love how Tierzoo used the "Hornet" theme from Hollow Knight once he started actually talking about the bees ants and wasps lol, fitting.

“Eliminated Hornet” while the Hornet theme is playing. Classy, TierZoo.

I never understood how so many players could collaborate for something that goes against the main objective until I watched this. the way you describe it is perfect!

23 years of watching nature docs, and never once did anyone talk about why bee colonies have a Queen. You made me understand so easily!

It always amazed me how many times the hive seems more conscious than the single ant, as it shows collective behavior that is "smarter" that what any ant could do (eg, creating a bridge made of ants to reach for food, even if most of the ants making the bridge will die). This is more plausible when you realize that there are more ants per colony than neurons per ant, and that the ants are always engaging on chemical comunication, so it isn't that bad of an analogy to think of the ants as the neurons of a decentralized brain

TZ has me rollin when he refers to extinction level events as "balance patches".

As a queen bee main, I find that being a queen bee really changes the gameplay style from an rpg to a wartime strategy game where you control different groups of troops

I was super impressed that the most distriburbing thing Elden Ring could do was put extremely realistic ants into the game but make them huge

Man I remember discovering this through the super smash subreddit when this was a super tiny channel and now it's HUUUGE! Big congrats man! Haven't checked it out in a while but it really shows how much dedication has gone into it. Everything good about it back then has gotten even better. The throwbacks to oldskool games blend seamlessly into the educational narrative that doesn't even feel meme-y, it's simply become a legitimate language to talk about how lit nature is, which in turn underlines the transferable nature of 'game logic'. I'm sure you're aware but I am pretty confident that this channel might actually be highly impactful in shaping the next generation of biologists, even if it's only by being extremely successful in nurturing passionate curiosity in the current generation of the modern youth. Cheers!

New video! Hype! Love code-contributions as a DNA analog

I’ve moderated gameplay with a large amount of bee players before, where we actually would at times introduce new queen bees to a hive. Most of the time the hive would accept her, but sometimes they would reject the new queen and kill her. Your explanation was quite good, but if the only motive for the sister bees to work with the queen bee is their shared code, why would they ever accept a queen bee with whom they share no code? Great video as always.

I'm surprised for the 'sacrifice their lives for the colony' part, you didn't show Colobopsis Explodens, ants which literally explode themselves with the acid contained in their abdomen to halt the attackers.

My mom won’t let me watch this video because of the violence but I just want to say that this is one of my favorite channels! Keep doing what you’re doing :D

Watched the Parasitoid Wasp video, and I can just imagine all the keyboards breaking in two as the player is forced to watch their still living character be mind controlled, turned into a living food source for larvae, and all the while being unable to even alt-F4.

This feels like a genuine deep dive/rant someone would make about a busted strategy in a game and it's fantastic

Regular player base: We will struggle to win this game! Ant guilds: The game will struggle to win us.

0:01 “be wary of head”

I play as a human. Back when I was a noob, I used to grief ant bases with a stick (thank you, tool use!). I was always amazed by how quickly the ant players rebuilt their bases. A few times, I even gave them a little XP. I’d chase a lone arthropod player towards a group of ants, then retreat and watch the show. Worms, pillbugs, even ants from different teams-all bodied in seconds.

I get why you'd separate Parasitoid Wasps. They're wasps that lay their eggs inside other creatures to feast on them and kill them over time. It's the stuff of nightmares and it does very little to alleviate my own personal spheksophobia.

Thanks for the guide man I really love that you are a dev and a data miner Your the best

The various music, be it RuneScape or Kingdom Hearts or some other on-theme tunes that you drop in at the perfect moments, really make these videos even better than they otherwise would. I feel nostalgic while I’m learning, AND it’s entertaining! Brilliant.

This was thought-provoking and very informative which is exactly what a good biology video should be. Extremely well done, sir, and very funny, too. "broke the game" makes me chuckle every time. "should be nerfed" lol

The Hollow Knight music at the beginning is a nice touch. Incredible editing as always.

Those ants really snapped that dragonfly’s neck.

this is literally the first time i've seen "DoorHead ant" and i played a mobile game called Ant Legions for a couple months. Congrats TZ, you've broadened my horizons yet again.

"I'm talking about Hymenoptera: The group consisting of bees, ants and wasps." *sawflies crying in corner* Also, I wonder if we'll ever learn how the Eusociality strategy worked out for those guys in the roach faction.

Gaming jargon really lends a great way of breaking down such a complex concept, in a very eloquent manner.

A worm tier list would actually be pretty interesting. They don't even have to be closely related, such as flatworms and earthworms

Just so everyone is aware, bears attacking beehives for honey is mostly a myth, while bears do greatly enjoy honey, far more valuable in XP are bee and ant grubs, and it is, mostly, the allure of tasty little protein fat nuggets that lead bears to beehives.

You know you've broken something when humans need to make full use of their even more completely broken open-ended intelligence ability to spec into a completely new tech tree gear specialized just for taking you out, because even regular high level human gear that can instantly take out the other high-end players is useless

Can we appreciate that the roar effect of the Murder Hornet in the intro is from Hollow Knight, a game primarily about bugs and insects.

I can’t believe I slept on this channel for so long. The videos are interesting, I love the framing device of Life being a game with expansions and DLC and etc., but most of all, I absolutely LOVE the music choices. Every time I hear some old RS music or whatever that iconic little ditty is bookmarking this video, it makes that happiness thing happen 🥲

I like how bees are useful to the environment. While wasps exist just to torment people.

When the time comes, I’ll try to make an open world game with a bunch of animals and insects. That would be so much fun

Imagine humans working together for the greater good without a single thought of self interest. We would break the meta even more, giving us evolution beyond scope.

I've waited so long for this video! I've completed the "biology major" questline and hymenopterans have always been one of the most fascinating guilds to me. As always, a great explanation of a great topic :)

Love the breakdown, definitely thinking of picking up this build if NG+ is ever added.

I’d like to see more play through of the game

Still waiting for them to get nerfed next patch.

Y'know, some bees solo! Most people probably haven't seen "solitary bees" like carpenter bees or mason bees, but they play a big role to places honey bees aren't native to! So if you wanna be a bee, but don't wanna be just a worker in a hive, look that build up!

Some bee tips I got for you as a 4,500 hours bee main: -Always watch out for potential kills. Even just poking an enemy for 10hp gives you a lot of XP (it's probably bugged) -Right after spawning take a sip of honey for a stamina boost -Fighting near the hive gives you a small attack/defense buff

Playing the hornet theme while discussing them is a god tier move

Love, Death + Robots: Season 3 Episode 6 “Swarm” dropped today. I know it's a completely different game, but asking: "What does it mean to win the game?" It felt relevant.

I've always thought of insect hives (in this context) as the player being the queen, and simply having the ability to spawn an army of bots over which they have a degree of control.

Man, that doorstop ant is so freaking cool. I never actually heard of such a thing before, that's awesome. Also, about the doorstop ant, his intelligence stats are significantly higher than a normal ant's intelligence stats. Does anybody understand how that works, and why they are so much smarter?

while ants and wasps are still doing great in the current meta, bees are getting absolutely blasted. it's the damn parasites and pesticides DLC, it nerfed bees so hard that they can't fight back against wasps and now the bee guild has almost entirely ragequit the server. and actually we'll sorely miss them when they're all gone so a patch is desperately needed.

I don't even know whether should I be ashamed of or proud that I recognised every music theme in this video.

As a biologist who majored in ecology, zoology and botany, and who is also a pen-n-paper roleplayer and video gamer, this video is hilarious. Just one thing: The idea that all interactions between individuums, groups and species are primarily governed by "Survival of the Fittest" (a term coined by Spencer, not Darwin), self-interest and competition at all cost is a 19th century misinterpretation of Darwin's concept of evolution. (Apart from the fact that in Darwin's time, scientists had invented the theoretical concept of "genes" as the smallest unit of heritable trait data transfer, but lacked knowledge of the structure of DNA, histone proteins, genetics, epigenetics, and so on). Even today, a great many people misunderstand what biologists mean by "fitness", because it does not mean the biggest and strongest, but being the "best-adapted to your environment". Modern evolutionary ecology has moved away from the _competition model_ of "nature red in tooth and claw"[*] towards models of _cooperation/symbiosis, resource management/energy optimization_and _complex interdependencies within an ecological web._ To make it short, it is all about long-term stable strategies and balancing risk vs reward; why expend massive amounts of energy/calories in competition if both sides can gain better long-term outcomes by cooperation (the classic "Prisoner's Dilemma" from Behavioral Game Theory, when played indefinitely). For example, fighting is really energy-intensive and carries the risk of being crippled or wounded; which is why most animals that fight for mates or territory do not fight to the death. Only species that do not live long and only mate once in their lifespan will throw everything into the ring for the chance to pass on their genes. --- FOOTNTE: [*] The "competition model" was en vogue in 19th century Great Britain because the British Empire was run by aristocrats and merchants who loved the idea of having the "natural right" to crush and subjugate "less developed" peoples and countries, so both "God" and this newfangled idea of "Evolution" could be twisted into a narrative that provided the perfect excuse.

The parasitoid build in a nutshell: A player who’s abilities are spected in a way that creates an exploit where they can remotely take away characters from players and use to do their own bidding and how they wish.

The editing on TZ videos is always top notch. The Hollow Knight music, the various sound effects and references... Fantastic.

theres a major point you should have mentioned is that even if these choices are awesome, you can't really play your own way, the queen is controlling the whole hive and makes you obligated to give all of your exp and resources into the common inventory where only the queen can decide to give back these items, making the point of playing itself non-existant since you can not do your own things. there is also the issue of how you have to attack if judged nessesary by the hive, essencially risking all of your progress.

a question: since everyone in the colony are basically clones, how do they keep their genetic diversity? do they just rely on having so many males that the random mutations alone provide enough diversity? how does new queens and new colonies starts?

The eusociality of Asian honeybees are especially OP. When they detect a hornet has entered their nest, they shake to let everyone know of the intruder. And then when the giant hornet least expects it, they all not only climb onto the hornet like at 3:42 but they increase their body temperatures so that they roast the hornet to death. An effective defense mechanism. European honey bees, however, do not have this defense mechanism against Asian giant hornets and that's why these hornets being in the United States is a bad thing. Giant hornets have, and will, massacre European bees You can say ant tactics like those of invasive fire ants are OP but the existence of antlions balances things out.

Wow, the editing has seen a major upgrade, and I can only imagine its getting better. Good job. I love ants by the way.

"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?" Thumbs up for that line alone. Also, great video! I was looking to see if there were already a video game named after the main game of "Outside" and unfortunately it looks like someone already made it and it is a poor executed horror/survival game. It's totally unworthy of the title "Outside". Oh well. Still, I think it would be really cool if a video game of similar name were made because I believe it would serve as a good in-game guide to this game we're already participating in. Sort of a hidden game within-a-game that might give one hints or cheat codes to better perform in this game. I understand through things like 'education' and 'common sense' we already have player guides but I believe it cannot hurt to have another format for a player guide and visual/audio formats like video games or mmorpgs are very engaging and might assist in upping the intelligence attribute of many players.

6:43 Are you telling me those ants from Elden Ring actually exist and aren't just another fictional eldritch nightmare?

Bees also have a absurdly high intimidation stat. Being thousand of times heavier and taller than, the same ones who have manage to populate the whole are easily scared by them. Truly a broken class!

A number of these builds go far enough in caste specialization that they have now just gotten rid of the ability to even reproduce with their standard members, with only a specific fertile female and male cast capable of it (the female then in most species flying away to form its own colony). In the case of ants, these are also the only castes who keep their wings, and even then a future queen will in many builds dispose of them upon mating and then finding the place it wants to set up its new hive. In the end, they really can often be considered as a hive being a single organism. With most of the members being a "dispersed body," where like a normal body, individual cells are less important than the body as a whole.

Recommendation: ticks They are so small and yet so annoying and can carry very dangerous diseases. From spring to autumn I feel like I'm not living on a open world server without very high level beefed up protection gear and 100x caution