Hivelord

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Hivelord	Difficulty: Medium Supervisors: Queen Rank: Not defined Duties: Create the ultimate hive Guides: Hivelord Guide, My Badass Hive Guide Unlock Requirements: Not available. Detailed Description: |__________| Not defined |__________|

Playing a Hivelord

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The role of a Hivelord is nearly identical to that of a Drone. However, the Hivelord benefits from an increased Plasma cap, greatly increased Plasma regeneration, and a new unique ability, Dig-Tunnel. Unfortunately, these benefits are offset by an increase in size and a lumbering decrease in movement speed.

The Hivelord caste is a useless waste of space if they're not played properly. If played well, they give the Xeno team an incredible advantage in offense and defense. Understand that you are a force multiplier. You make the existing Xenos say, twice as strong. The problem is, 2 times 0 is still 0. If the Xenos you're supporting are incompetent, you won't be able to help the Hive as much as playing a more combat oriented caste.

A Hive does not need more than one Hivelord who knows what they are doing. Every other Drone is more effective evolved into a Carrier, a caste that is absolutely fantastic at all stages of the game. Good Carriers give marines nightmares, but even bad Carriers will destroy a few helmets and soften up a squad of marines. The Hive might only need two Hivelords if it has 30 Xenos who don't know how to transfer plasma effectively. Once a tunnel network is up, the first Hivelord's utility goes down significantly. The Hivelord is better in defense than attack. Two Hivelords should really only happen if the first doesn't know what to do.

The Hivelord's goals are:

1. Build effective tunnels
2. Build an effective Hive
3. Build supporting defenses in combat and use pheremones correctly

Building Tunnels

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The primary purpose of a Hivelord is building a good tunnel network. This is almost certainly the most important ability of the Hivelord and can drastically change the course of a round. Any Drone can build the Hive. Drones also have acid to melt walls and weapons. A Hivelord who doesn't tunnel is just a slow, fat Drone with no acid.

Xenos never need anything resembling a "forward base" if they have good tunnels. Anything outside the caves can be hit with an orbital barrage, which is a good way to lose a lot of eggs, hosts, and your Queen in a single attack. Tunnels allow the Aliens to completely control movement on the planet and removes the need for the Queen and others to risk themselves establishing a forward base. Marines can't use the tunnels and all Aliens can move through tunnels straight back to the Hive. Instead, build deep in the caves and use tunnels for mobility. This gives you the best of both worlds. You have a lot of space to build the Hive out to frustrate any attacks and your most critical areas are immune to orbital barrage.

To dig a tunnel, choose a spot and use the Dig-Tunnel ability. This takes a bit of time, so be safe. Consider taking an escort with you. Even a tier 1 Runner is enough to distract Marines so you can escape. The first hole is useless without a second hole. Go to a spot where you want the other end of this tunnel and use Dig-Tunnel again. These two holes are automatically considered connected and can be used right away. A Hivelord can and should pre-build an entrance before they leave the Hive to place an exit, so they can use the newly built tunnel to travel back. Also, smaller Xenos go through tunnels much faster than bigger Xenos.

Tunnels must be dug on natural terrain, not inside domes or other buildings. The best place to put tunnel entrances is deep in the Hive and next to other tunnels. Consider creating a room in the Hive dedicated to most or all of your tunnel entrances and an arrangement that makes sense. Perhaps a 3x3 to 5x5 area, where the location of the tunnel entrance indicates where it exits. (As examples, a tunnel entrance in the top right of the tunnel room might exit in the far northeast corner of the map. A tunnel entrance in the bottom right of the tunnel room might exit close to LZ1.)

The best tunnel exits vary. Place exits in areas with minimal marine foot traffic and at least a full screen away from any fighting. Along the edge of the map tends to be good because there are plenty of areas to break line of sight. Coordinate with offensive castes to see where the fighting is, and drop a tunnel nearby. Under no circumstances should a tunnel exit be out in the open! This will just lead to xenos being killed.

When you build a tunnel, announce it in the Hivemind and specify the entrance and exit very clearly.

Hive Building

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To understand what a good Hive looks like, let us first discuss the properties of a bad hive:

1. Stacked doors - These provide minimal cover from bullets and slow down any Xeno passing through. Any Xeno under fire will almost certainly die if they need to pass through 2 or 3 doors. Don't do this.
2. Large open spaces - Marines are faster on foot than Xenos and have the advantage of powerful ranged attacks. Any large open spaces play heavily to their strengths and your weaknesses. Consider making no room larger than a queen's screech. If there are wide open spaces, break them up with a wall. Even a 2-3 tile wall will provide some cover and break line of sight in an emergency. Come back and fill it in later.
3. Eggs/hosts close to the cave exit (or worse, outside the caves) - Put these as deep as possible. It's harder on Xenos to drag infected hosts deep into the Hive, but resist the temptation to build nests outside of a deep, well-protected Hive.

There can be multiple general strategies when it comes to hive building, each with their pros and cons. Generally speaking, the more walls and distance that marines need to cover, the more time you have to coordinate a defense/counterattack:

• Build a maze like Hive that will have marines getting lost and struggling to find areas of value.

PRO: Effective in misleading marines, sometimes all the way past the Hive; May be very efficient with plasma use CON: If robust marines are confused, Xeno players may also be confused and may struggle to drag hosts to nests

• Have a series of small rooms filled with sticky resin

PRO: Easy to navigate for Xenos; Marines hate fighting through sticky resin CON: Very expensive use of plasma, time consuming to set up

Pheromones

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Pheromones also affect the emitter! What does each pheromone do?

• Recovery: Increases heath regeneration, plasma regeneration on weeds, reduces stun times of affected Xenos
• Guard: Reduces damage taken
• Frenzy: Improves movement speed, damage, and tackle chance.

If a Xeno is injured, use recovery. Also use recovery to keep the pressure up if there's a skirmish. If there's a big push or fighting on grass, use guard. Frenzy may be most useful during an attack, trying to contain escaped hosts, or moving around the map with high plasma.

Resin Walker

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Resin walker is an amazing ability that should be toggled on and off frequently. For long distance travel, frenzy and resin walker will make you hunter speed. A mature Hivelord can sustain frenzy and resin walker indefinitely.

Hivelord Tips

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• A Hivelord creates structures faster than a Drone due to its higher Plasma regeneration. Use this to fortify the Hive, build nests, and cover the floors in sticky resin.

• Build Hives with narrow corridors and small rooms. The Marines are fast and have powerful ranged weapons, so force them to fight on your terms. Covering the floors of these areas with sticky resin further adds to your advantage.

• Nests are frequently built in a checkerboard fashion. Place a single door, and put four nests adjacent to it. (Above, Below, Left & Right). Then, surround those nests with doors. This allows Sentinel castes to guard all four nests when standing in that initial door.

• When the assault begins, tag along at a distance unless you are needed to guard hosts. You are not a front line fighter. You will likely be needed to plant weeds, build defenses, secrete pheromones, and share Plasma. Try to be on the second row, building weeds and nests to support the advance. You can move up and around to build short, useful walls for cover.

Sources and Reading

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Hivelord Guide

My Badass Hive Guide