Pheromones

Pheromones are an aura-based buff available to the Drone, Hivelord, Carrier, Praetorian, King and Queen. In addition, Xeno Leaders will emit the Queen's very strong pheromones when she is on her ovipositor. The Queen can quickly change her pheromone type to whatever her Xeno Leaders or the front needs. There are three types of pheromones: Recovery, Warding and Frenzy, with effects and range based on their strength. If two castes in range are emitting the same pheromone, the stronger pheromone will override the weaker one (Except Frenzy, which stacks but only for the slash damage). Xenos can be affected by all three types at once.

Pheromones cost 30 plasma to start emitting and then require 5 per tick to sustain. Emitting moderate or stronger Recovery while on weeds will net more plasma per tick than not emitting Recovery. If you run out of plasma, you stop emitting pheromones.

Your pheromones stop emitting if you enter a critical state, but you will still be affected by pheromones from others.

List of Pheromones

Pheromone	Effect
Recovery	Increases health regeneration, increases plasma regeneration on weeds, and reduces stun times of affected Xenomorphs.
Warding	Increases the damage threshold to die when in a critical state, increases the grace time between health going below 0 and entering a critical state, increases health regeneration in a critical state on weeds, and reduces bleed out damage in a critical state off weeds.
Frenzy	Increases movement speed, damage from slashes, and the chance to knock off headhunter masks. Multiple sources of Frenzy further increase slash damage, but not movement speed.

Pheromone Strength	Who has it
Weak	Lesser Drone
Moderate	Carrier, Drone, Gardener Drone, Hivelord, Resin Whisperer Hivelord
Strong	Designer Hivelord, Eggsac Carrier, Healer Drone, Valkyrie Praetorian
Very Strong	Queen
Overwhelming	King

Pheromones Tactics

• The more powerful the caste emitting is, the stronger the effect. There is an obvious difference between the pheromones of a Drone and the pheromones of the Queen. A well placed high level pheromone can allow Xenomorphs to unlock their full potential in a specific area.
• Pheromones emitted by a Queen on ovipositor are applied through all Xeno Leaders. These can be located by the star on their XenoHUD Status. This stacks with any other pheromones emitted by the leader. When in doubt, Recovery is a helpful choice, and you can always ask your hive.
• A common pheromone duo is the Queen with a Praetorian emitting Frenzy and Recovery, with Warding left to the next best caste. This allows the Xenos to be faster and hit harder as well as being able to recover their wounded very fast, making for better odds in large, messy stand-offs.
• Reducing or negating critical bleedout might sound like a weak effect, but it can be critical in big battles. A Xeno shot into critical has a life expectancy numbered in seconds, but a strong enough Warding pheromone can make it infinite as long as they don't take further damage, making it trivial to drag them to weeds to let them recover.
• Recovery pheromones will usually not grant more plasma than they take away to maintain. Of course, this is offset by the fact that all castes around you get said plasma for free, and that everyone gets extra health regeneration if damaged.
• It is actually perfectly debatable what pheromone is best if you are alone, but they are all useful. Frenzy makes you move faster and gives you a good desperation attack if ambushed. Recovery allows you to recover faster from stun sources like explosions or electrified gear, allows you to heal if tracked down and pays for itself partly. Probably the worst choice is simply no pheromones.