Empires of the Undergrowth Iceberg

[@NappyB1]

Heolx, if you see this, you're a goofy.

[@thespacedinos4037]

ZAMN!!!

[@Whiteguy_offical]

GA DAMN

[@thequackyest3604]

:O

[@heolx]

Ironic.

[@Whiteguy_offical]

@@heolx iron

[@C-Farsene_5]

I always figured that the scientist will hybridize with something, but damn, did that ending surprise me, really explains things

[@Scugzerker]

Would've been nice if that "island 221" with all the other ant colonies is the next stage after completing FC V, as the ant loving scientist releases the colony into the wild... I wonder what's become of him... He probably starved to death as whatever ants are eating could never be enough to sustain him.

[@neoselket562]

Small correction: scientist 2 did not sacrifice himself for the colony, he(if i remember correctly, I only did FC5 once) basically told the ants they had outlived their usefulness and then drank his jelly potion in an attempt to become a superhuman(which kind of worked). He expressed surprise at the ereptors' voice in his head at first, and only started helping the colony after that.

[@FedoraReshiramGaming]

One thing i noticed about the final experiment, is just how at the end 'chaotic' everything becomes, but i also noticed how, once we reach 'that' point... there is litterally 'nothing' that can stop us. Even though its the game throwing everything at you, it also should be mentioned how all the creatures attacking you are the 'normal' creatures of the undergrowth, all the toads that once gave players trouble in the fire ant levels, all the scorpions and lizards in the matabele ants, all the spiders and mantises in the leaf cutter, the beatles from the rufa and black ant levels, even 'every' ant species that you have ever faced, black ant, slave makers, leaf cutters, driver ants, army ants, little black ants, big headed ants, 'everything' mother nature has ever created through 'centuries' of careful adaptation and evolution... is thrown at you in an alliance of bugs and critters in a final attempt to stop you the Ereptor Colony because you are 'not' natural, you are unnatural, you have incorporated ant species that shouldn't be working together, species that are mortal enemies to one another, you have enhanced them beyond what they would ever need for the world, and if you 'do' get out then the undergrowth is doomed because no species, no singular species, not even an 'alliance' of species the undergrowth has can stop you if it can't stop you here, let alone survive against you. But by that point, its 'too late', if you have even the tiniest ammount of food you will survive the sheer overwhelming onslaught, the enemies your fighting will provide the food to sustain you. Some of the things that make the colonies of the ants in the real world terrifying like the sheer 'overwhelming numbers' of the fire ants, pale in comparison to what you have, not even 'superior numbers' can stop you. just to prove it, the immunities you get to survive the final experiment make it so your ants are shock resistant and generate electrical charges that zap nearby enemies, stunning and hurting them. They generate their own trail of hot acid goo, they are fire resistant able to withstand a flamethrower, and they are heat resistant able to withstand the very concentrated heat that say a magnifying glass would produce focusing the heat to a single point from the sun. There is 'nowhere' in the world say for the freezing cold... that you cannot go to and take over or maybe i'm just reading too much into this game lol

[@TotallyNotAlpharius]

It’s an interesting theory, and given the Sci-Fi, or perhaps straight up Supernatural elements of the game, it’s one I can believe

[@The_Calcium_King]

No, you're right. Even the mighty *Whip Spiders* fall easily. The thing is though, we're nomadic: we go anywhere. We're also very smart, we can understand English and the scientist 2 could formulate plans and seemed immune to gunfire. He mentions constantly how he will serve the colony and how the 'Ereptor Bloodline' are basically the ultimate life. I don't know, but I think the Ereptors don't even fight other Ereptors. We also now can theoretically *infect humans* with royal jelly and our workers, meaning we might literally be the end of humanity and become the Tyrannids from 40k or the Xenomorphs from Alien Vs Predator. We no longer have clear weaknesses and the worst part is that we no longer have clear and exploitable weaknesses humanity has to offer except pesticides. Though I will say this: we're natural in that we are made form mother nature. Formica Ereptor come from some island in the lore, so we're entirely natural. But we weren't supposed to gain all these ant species we were never going to interact with... We weren't meant to gain these entirely unnatural resistances. Fire resistance? Bugs don't have that! Shock resistance? Lightning happens to rarely to do that! Acid resistance? Not to OUR level! Radiation resistance? Nothing on Earth produces enough of that to warrant it! Not only that, but we now have unnatural powers. We shoot lightning to those that get close, we make deadly acid as we march, we are immensely powerful, we literally emit radiation... We weren't meant to become this powerful... And as you said, Mother Nature saw this affront and sent her best... But it was too late... now we are destined to destroy the balance of nature... And ruin humanity, the race who brought havoc to this planet and who first destroyed the natural order. The race who has done nothing but cause us pain... Or I'm ALSO reading too much into a game about ants :p

[@BloodlossDrawing]

@@The_Calcium_King a good ol’ boot’l handle it

[@The_Calcium_King]

@@BloodlossDrawing fair, but I doubt you'd squash the only important member of the colony: the queen. In the middle of typing this I realized I was overanalyzing your comment, I'm just gonna leave it here.

[@BloodlossDrawing]

@@The_Calcium_King tactical nuke?

[@TheMeanBean8787]

ik this is absolutely crazy thinking but just IMAGINE if this game got some sort of sequel/dlc where the hybrid scientist 2 releases the ereptor colony onto "Island 221" with the remainder of the laboratory's synthesized royal jelly, as a sort of way to set the colony free to rule the island. Once released, the island gameplay could be divided by the different island sections (as seen in the image), where the now invasive ereptor colony has to conquer the hostile ants and creatures present within the region. After this is achieved, the player could choose which region to go to next, and there could be a cinematic of the entire colony moving locations and settling in the new area, and all new species conquered would now be available adaptations (at pretty much no cost since you'd have a metric ton of royal jelly left by the scientist). This process would repeat until you have conquered the entire island. Also, to keep in mind, the during the entire progression of Island 221, other creatures are just roaming free, and your colony can get attacked at any moment, even after killing all the other colonies, it's sort of like freeplay but with a gigantic map and a nearly continuous objective progression. Obviously everything would be more in-depth than what I described, though, obviously none of this will ever happen ever lol. Still fun thinking of this kinda stuff. This is definitely one of the top 10 eotu videos!

[@grimfoxy9095]

i want a sequel

[@noob12455]

i feel like bringing back what the old story was going to be, could be a really really good way to continue the story/campaign

[@TankieBoi]

I have a theory that the colonies you play as in the primary levels are the ones captured and used in research by the scientists... Also, something scary about the ending is that, while becoming essentially a hivemind to the colony, Scientist 2 seems to completely retain his intelligence, speaking English perfectly fine while quickly devising an escape plan for the ereptors. And no one seems to talk about the hyper-intelligence of the ereptor colony, which displays the ability to adapt to basically any challenge, and actually seems to understand what Scientist 2 says throughout the game (since the person playing as them does), adapting to challenges sometimes based entirely on what Scientist 2 says. This might be scarier than Scientist 2 himself, and have partially fueled his personal obsession with the colony

[@manineo3538]

The documentary colonies also hear the narrator and you usually act accordingly to what the narrator says, as well as knowing things like when the tide will rise or exactly how many black ants died and how much food they collected

[@followingtheroe1952]

I think the conventional levels are from a kind of assassins creed genetic memory that the gene thief queen perceives from ingesting the royal jelly. Like the queen gains the experience and memories of past ants in the wild.

[@niicOoLeee93]

I can’t believe we got a iceberg on a game about ants why it’s kind of weird and funny

[@serpentine8229]

With the Ereptor ants being man made, it was bound to happen. Especially when they were the main story

[@niicOoLeee93]

@@serpentine8229 that’s true

[@gamesbond9513]

heolx, correction at the surface, bha supermajors. the study where scientists found supermajors in pheidole morrisii actually stems from one of the scientists going around new jersey cataloguing local ants, where he stumbles upon a couple pheidole morrisii colonies with functional supermajors. and while i do think you know this, atleast five species of pheidole right now exist with supermajors, with undocumented ones possibly being in australia.

[@thealeks1]

I thought that the noise of the hermit scorpion being made was the scorpion or hermit crab (or both) screeching as they were fused, as both make a noise similar to that sound that plays upon killing them

[@CrystalWhiskers]

When the update came out, I attempted impossible runs on the tier 5 mission and only failed on the FINAL Experiment. It got so laggy that I couldn’t understand what was going on. This iceberg was very insightful and answered a lot of questions I had ever since I saw the game. Great Video 😊. Also attempting the impossible mission took all day. 😢. The amount of detail put into this game is absurdly underrated as a result.

[@MIApor]

yeah, the lag is there for me too. It's annoying a bit

[@daluven]

Yup it lagged but i came back a day after and the lag was gone

[@shmowpow]

When it comes to the counterpart colony, I have an answer. During when you rehouse the nest to the old leafcutter style formicarium (now sandy) they say the counterpart colony has been arrived, so shipped in. This leaves a plot hole in the other foot as the other foot is meant to explain the ereptor workers in the tube, but the counterparts didn't exist until you rehouse for the first time.

[@VanguardEndeavor]

I find it also interesting this game could be seen as a somewhat prequel to the original concept of the game. With the original concept being us taking over a fictional island and then seemingly fighting another Ereptor colony for the ancestral mating ground, could be that, that is the far future of the events the scientist set in motion by releasing us. (Obviously I know this isn’t true, more of a fan lore type deal but the fact those two concepts line up is fun to me)

[@noob12455]

If they ever pick the story back up and begin extending it, they should extend it off of the old story mode. It would be really cool to see what the story was going to be, and a really smart way to continue the story.

[@RoseWarbug]

6:33 these look more like unreal engine editor crash messages rather than code :) it's hilarious and I love it

[@KillaCatzGames]

One thing wrong about S2 is that he wanted to save the ereptors. He was satisfied with how the jelly had made the ereptors basically unkillable, so he decided the next step was to drink the jelly as he thought he would become a superhuman with immense power. Unfortunately, another subconscious had been born in his mind, being called Colony Scientist 2 in the subtitles, and S2 being confused and wanted to reject CS2 out of his head. Unfortunately again, CS2 wins and takes over the body and starts to help the ereptors. Thus, S2 was the antagonist that wanted to dispose of the ereptors in the end due to their 'usefulness' running out and the knowledge he had gained from the jelly.

[@serpentine8229]

After finishing formicarium challenge 5, let’s say I wasn’t expecting the way it was going to end.

[@ThatOneLuk]

great video dude, hopefully this video blows up because it deserves more. Keep up the good work

[@AhYesAnts]

I definetly wasnt expecting an eotu iceberg lmao

[@SHARKY_009]

i didnt expected an empires of the undergrowth iceberg great job heolx

[@shaon1412]

I too thought about many theories and mysteries of this game and maybe other did too. But no one b4 you seem to go so deep into any of them. Extremely informative. and well edited as always. Good job. and wanna try more deathless?

[@how_to_be_a_Old_legionary44]

intresting lore theories and iceberg! ty! good video!

[@DarknessDr]

Heolx, I was not expecting this

[@AntsPlayChess]

Love the full lore of EotU. Never gets old.

[@Bubbun]

I interesting theory about island 221, maybe it could a possible sequel/dlc where after the colony escapes, the mutated scientist moves to the island, and the colony tries to survive in the new environment

[@nadri3335]

I think the documents were documents about the development of the game that got later repurpoosed as props for the game.

[@preyasmanthedemopan2854]

before Tier 5 was released, I always had the idea that we'd be taken away by Scientists 2 to his own home for experiments, only at the final challenge to end up either escaping or consuming him, this ending however, was even more nutty and amazing!

[@demo0970]

Scientist 2 was never bad. He did everything to make us stronger and perfect us

[@TheOppositeOfGenius]

For the "Counterpart" theory thing(Whereas they were either old Ereptors or Delivered from another lab), I may have a theory, there's a mode whereas we play as the Counterpart, now in the first objective we are made to get our Workers to a tube(including some), now that means they're being transported to the main Ereptor(the enemy of the Counterparts), the Counterpart was possibly made AFTER the first Mini-challenge for the first Formicarium Challenge(Which was quite 'small'), so they were most likely newer and younger, however when they confront the Ereptors, they both are kinda equal in strength, which indicates that both Colonies were either born at the same time, or the Ereptors were born slightly earlier, either way its a possibility that the 2 Scientists have planned 2 Ereptor Colonies to fight in equal terms when it came to battle, but the other colony facing a more difficult challenge than its Rival And also for the "Royale Jelly", when we unlock the Matabele ants, Scientist's 1 part of the end dialogue says "Into one of the ereptor colonies?" which could mean there's possibly more living ereptors being tormented. And for the "More Ereptors" there have been extra levels with the desc saying you have access to some ants being also an Ereptor colony, so its possible that there are MORE Formica Ereptors that exist, either escaped or got killed off. Either way most of them could've possibly been failures

[@AntOAnt-ez8gp]

on the old menu screen many insects were visible in containers and if i remember correctly a turantula was

[@TahitiDutchVanDerLinde]

goated vid!

[@reymarkdungca994]

the ending where s2 literally turns into a literal ant-man still traumatizes me to this day.

[@pilot_bruh576]

island 221 looks like a great extra level

[@thebradybas]

Don't forget the weird German names on cards in the swamp terrarium. They make me believe the game is taking place somewhere else and all of the character's speech is translated to English.

[@AntOAnt-ez8gp]

I haven't whatched the video yet, but scientist onefinds a documenttalking about adding fire ant genes and megaponera genes, and says that its reckless, so I wonder what that means

[@Sea_Wheat]

1:35 does that mean she oiled up

[@limanesa]

This is what i needed

[@dichterdenker3111]

I remember reading a comment where someone asked if in the lore of the game, there was like an ant-human war. Devs responded saying it might have happened.

[@blitzwinger999wright6]

7:38 holy shit. A version 2.0 of the campaign with this concept??? I’d easily drop another $20 on that DLC

[@dipping9432]

challenge 5 is a fever dream

[@thebradybas]

FACTS. Especially when he says this: "Doorframe connected to the fuse bit, the fuse bit connected to the wire bit. Wire bit connected to my foot bone"

[@dipping9432]

@@thebradybas Oh... That can't be right!

[@thebradybas]

@@dipping9432 lol

[@JELONGreatMrRed]

I wonder how would formica's ereptor soldier ant look like.

[@NRNF1]

Awesome!

[@WorldWeave]

Due to his dialogue during his transformation, I don’t think Scientist 2 (who I’ve chosen to name Anthony) MENT to become part of the colony, it seems like he initially wanted to become an ant hybrid, but due to some sort of X factor ended up falling under the control of the queen

[@tyreek-bb3ky]

I'm kinda surprised that you didn't the African stink ant in 5.1 that existed what to the African stink ant colony? Did they move a way did they killed of by one of titans? And if so which one?

[@diegooteroczeisler]

You beat me to it!

[@WorldWeave]

New theory….Empires of the Undergrowth is a prequel to Island 221 (I know Island 221 doesn’t exist, but think about it, it’d be the perfect lore explanation if they ever make it)

[@Voidmercenary]

1:27 Just listen to what the Narrator says.

[@thatguywholikesspoders1333]

I looked it up, and big headed ants can actually do that I believe

[@MIApor]

@@thatguywholikesspoders1333 they can, there are articles about that.

[@thatguywholikesspoders1333]

@@MIApor Yeah I read about them, it’s pretty cool

[@jedicrafter1767]

cool iceberg and all but why did you have like 5 pheremone groups of *only* workers in one of the formicarium challenges?

[@ThirdyHernandez]

i was playing eotu ever since the old black ant queen desgin

[@alexmadness19]

im really interested and baffled on who the scientists are working for, seems like a huge company considering all the things they have, nicely done video though.

[@matteodv6407]

Isnt the counterpart colony just another Ereptor variant? with the ereptor queen being able to just adapt and "welcome" any ant species, seeing the counterparts i feel like they were just another choice of species to a second ereptor queen, raised on the same lab and all, then put to fight so as to see what "combos" are better, for a lack of better words

[@MIApor]

That's what i'm thinking too

[@vietaIek]

Can i translate this video to russian with link to you in description? plz

[@heolx]

Sure!

[@vietaIek]

​@@heolxthanks. I will try to do this. maybe it will turn out a little cringe because of my voice ,idk

[@2-AZ1-BE]

Video Idea: Sientist 2 criminal record

[@mrdoom44-ns5se]

Can you put can you make make a workers only tier 5

[@lnon4361]

Anyone got tips for possibly the final challenge?

[@callumconnors5190]

its very tough, i recommend saving up huge amounts of food for it and preparing as many level 3 ants as you can. do also note to not climb the hermitscorpion, do make the twins fight each other, and i even recommend sending ants out to distract the stronger twin, and for the dragantula just premove ants out of the way, and have em in diff move groups for faster escape.

[@lnon4361]

@@callumconnors5190 I think I said the wrong challenge. It's the one after rehousing the colony for the first time

[@callumconnors5190]

@@lnon4361 ah well for that one you want to fight mainly in the tunnel, there the scientist cannot crush you, also make sure you have many level 3 wood ants. the main goal is to kill the army ant majors of the enemy asap, use workers to lure the enemy ants to attack you, when the mole crickets are sent send black ants to the nest.

[@lnon4361]

@@callumconnors5190 i currently have like 72 leaf majors and 40 rapid fires. would that be able to win?

[@callumconnors5190]

@@lnon4361 how much food do you have stored?

[@TerrariumDiscoveryGamingMore]

Game theory better do this

[@AE_AnarchistAlexcianEmpire69Bi]

He left so he didn’t have to deal with the amazing hidden plot

[@zatsuji]

I think the Uber creatures were created by the royal jelly

[@nahruz.w3044]

Lore!?

[@The_Kyro]

L.o.L

[@WetBread2ddvgd]

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