Hives

The Hive

The Queen, the Hivelord and the Drone all share the ability of secreting resin in a manner which allows them to create structures. This ability is incredibly important, as this allows them to create Hives, big resin chambers in which Xenomorphs can live, recover, gather hosts and protect Larvas. This environment hostile to non-Xenomorphs can also be used as a defensive position, allowing Xenomorphs to shape the battle to their will as they get pushed back.

All resin structures, outside of the Resin Sac, must be built on existing resin weeds. This means that building Hives is a methodical process, where weeds are first planted to accommodate local structures, and those weeds then serve as the foundation for other, more complex structures.

Resin is relatively tough, able to sustain some punishment from firearms, explosive shockwaves and sharp weapons before falling apart. It is however notably vulnerable to fire. Resin structures can only be placed on a stable surface without existing foliage. Artificial flooring and sand are two notable examples of surfaces that can be used. Grass and any tiles containing water are notable surfaces that won't be usable.

Only one resin structure may inhabit a chosen tile, not counting Resin Sacs. As such, it is impossible to stack a nest and sticky resin, or a door and sticky resin. If a structure is getting in the way, you can simply tear it down.

Hive Structures

• All Hive structures cost 75 Plasma to create.

Resin Weeds	Uses	Image
Resin Weeds are secreted from a special Resin Sac that you will regurgitate and place on the ground. From there, it will spread weeds step by step in a small, circular radius until finally dying out. Weeds are absolutely critical for even the most basic Hive to be built, and are always beneficial even if no special fortifications are planned. In many cases, they can mean the difference between life and death for Xenomorphs. They are however extremely fragile and easy to rip away, with only the actual Resin Sac showing a minute resistance to attacks.	Any Xenomorph standing on weeds will receive increased plasma regeneration and will regenerate their health slowly. They need to rest to heal at a faster rate. Humans moving through weeds will be slowed down slightly, making it harder for them to evade and maneuver

Resin Wall	Uses	Image
Resin Walls are another important part of the Hive. Rarely will existing terrain be perfect for the Xeno's use, and often they may wish to adjust it. Resin walls are big, opaque and fairly tough structures, capable of wisthanding a reasonable amount of fire Their most obvious use is to delimit chambers inside a completed Hive, but their properties also make them excellent cover. As you will almost always be threatened with ranged weaponry, this makes resin walls invaluable in defensive setups.	Completely blocks line of sight. Xenomorphs can use their special vision to see mobs through them regardless. Sturdiest structure available to the Xenomorphs, making for good hard cover until destroyed.

Thick Resin Wall	Uses	Image
Thick Resin Walls are a major upgrade over regular Resin Walls, exclusive to the Hivelord caste. While normal Resin Walls will tend to fall rapidly to enemy fire, Thick Resin Walls will usually hold up for much longer, for no added cost to the Xenomorph building and maintaining them. This makes a Hivelord invaluable when building Hives and forward positions, and can potentially stall Marine advances if positioned properly.	Straight upgrade over Resin Walls, able to soak up much more punishment before falling apart, for the same initial investment and build time. Can only be built by a Hivelord, replacing normal Resin Walls.

Resin Membrane	Uses	Image
Resin Membranes are a transparent resin structure, shaped much like Resin Walls, allowing direct eyesight through both sides of it. This means Xenomorphs will be able to observe terrain and objects through them, allowing them to get their bearings more easily in complex Hives. Of course, they can also be used for vanity.	Allows vision through, while giving a minimum of protection compared to thin air. Fairly fragile, but will block bullets until destroyed.

Resin Door	Uses	Image
Resin Doors are specially crafted resin membranes, allowing Xenomorphs to navigate through the Hive. Thanks to the special elastic resin used to shape them, they will collapse back to their original shape after a short while, opening and closing themselves for passing Xenomorphs. Resin Doors are paramount to most Hives for obvious reasons. A chamber is no use to anyone if it cannot be entered or left. However, you should absolutely consider adding more than one door. Faced with Resin Doors in multiple directions, no-one can be fully confident which one will open to reveal a Xenomorph.	Allows Xenomorphs to pass through somewhat seamlessly while denying access to humans unless destroyed. Less sturdy than a wall, but capable of holding its own against limited punishment.

Resin Nest	Uses	Image
Resin Nests are an important structure for Hive nurseries, allowing Xenomorphs to lay down and secure hosts using extra resin provided within the nest, preventing them from easily leaving and thus allowing a relatively large amount to be guarded safely. The medium it provides is particularly suited for incubation, meaning that Xenomorph Embryos will grow faster within nested hosts. Nests are not particularly sturdy and will be destroyed fairly easily. While a nested host will find it long and arduous to break out on his own, it is extremely easy for him to be cut out by someone else, making them fairly useless if not guarded or left to the enemy. A skillful Xenomorph might still manage to use one as a trap of sorts, although it will only work on downed targets.	Allows the Hive to secure hosts for incubation. Increases Xeno Embryo growth.

Sticky Resin	Uses	Image
Sticky Resin is an arrangement of thick, stringy resin filament strewn across weeded floors able to easily delay and bog down any human going through them. This allows Xenomorphs to make their Hive even more dangerous to navigate, with no other cost than making the selected space not usable for anything else until destroyed. A Hive might find it wise to fill empty spaces with sticky resin once the layout of the Hive is done. In a pinch, it is recommended to at least cover entrances, doorways and surround nests.	Slows down and even halts non-Xenomorph movement A bit harder to get rid of compared to Resin Weeds.

Hive Planning

While it is easy to throw down resin, it is important to try and plan ahead for what you want to do with the space you are using. Are you simply weeding the terrain ? Are you planning to supplement existing structures with doors and walls ? Are you making a full Hive chamber ? Is it going to be a defensive chamber, a nest, maybe a storage chamber for Larvas and dead bodies ?

Not planning ahead can lead to serious errors, and once a Hive is well underway, it is extremely time-consuming to tear it down to try again. Be careful about the space available to you.

Some common tips to help you build a Hive worthy of your Xenomorph Hive:

• As time goes on, any area that isn't weeded and can be, should be. Weeds are the life and blood of the Hive, and as the Resin Weeds spread and extend through the colony, the area where Marines can safely navigate shrinks proportionally. In the event of combat, even the smallest patch of weeds can be used to rest and recover plasma and health, which is critical for staying power. A fight far from weeds can only last until either is running dry.
• An average chamber should be fully sealed with Resin Walls and Resin Doors. Of course, using existing structures as walls is perfectly normal. It is recommended to make doorways two or three tiles wide to make maneuvering easier, and to always provide multiple exits to ensure Xenomorphs never get cornered if humans are walking on the Hive
• An arrangement of Resin Walls and Resin Doors in a line is the most basic defensive setup possible. While it can be pierced through with concentrated fire, it allows Xenomorphs to fight during stand-offs and to ambush rushing humans. More complex layouts can involve stacking walls, or creating more complex arrangements like small Resin Walls posts for Xenos to hide behind, or labyrinth-like stacked walls to force Marines to waste all their ammunition.
• Nests, if you have the time and space, are best placed in a special layout, commonly called the "Checkerboard Nest". As its name implies, it consists of a Resin Nest surrounded in all four cardinal directions by Resin Doors, and those Doors surrounded in all cardinal directions by Resin Nests. This has a lot of benefits. It is the best trade-off between space used and safety, isolating hosts in individual chambers without taking too much space. They are extremely hard to navigate for humans, in and out, but easy to guard as you know where all the hosts are and they will not know where you are. They also allow you to immediately ambush and re-nest any host that manages to un-nest themselves, relatively safely as you can literally engage from any direction, preventing them from pre-aiming the entrance. Should they escape anyways, it will be a slow, grueling process for them to make it all the way out of the nest, and they will probably not empty the nest and save other hosts along the way.
• As mentioned before, Sticky Resin is an extremely useful tool to hamper mobility for humans inside the Hive, with its only cost being that you can't place anything else there. If used properly, you can make your Hive hellish to assault head-on, forcing Marines to either gun the entire lot down into crumbs or set everything on fire. If they are stupid enough to engage through Sticky Resin anyways, they will have trouble moving in and out to dodge your counter-attacks, especially if it's stacked along the way.
• Membranes are usually only useful to help Xenomorphs find their way deep inside complex Hives. They have no place inside defensive positions as they make obvious weak points for Marines to progress, and sometimes an open space is just better as it allows easy navigation along with seeing through.

Check My Badass Hive Guide for information on building good Hives and visual examples.