Chrysalis

Examining Tiny and Crinis' status reminds me that I really need to take a good hard look at my own. I've stacked up a reasonable supply of Biomass, certainly enough to start investing in upgrades to the two most expensive organs I have, the Vestibule and Nave. I've brought my antennae up to +15 since the reset, but to this point I'm yet to even have a look at the options for those two new(ish) additions. In the past I expanded the range of the Vestibule, but that was due to a rather specific reason, namely being captured and hoping the Colony would be able to detect me. Now that no such conditions are pressing on me, I have a little more flexibility in what I want to choose.

I watch and assist as Tiny and Crinis continue their rampage through the ever growing wave, turning my thoughts over in my mind. I mean, first and foremost amongst my concerns is that I still don't really understand precisely what the combination of Vestibule and Nave actually does. The sustained energy that pours into me, ensuring I never get tired, refilling my reserves and refreshing my body so long as there are ants nearby, that's all great, and certainly the effect is vastly more pronounced than it was before. As long as the Colony is nearby, my energy is absolutely limitless, to the point I think I could run at top speed forever, without ever growing tired. Something else I noticed is that my health regeneration around the Colony is also much higher, my cells regenerating with incredible alacrity so long as the Vestibule continues to provide me with its power.

When you add on top of that the rapid healing provided by the regeneration gland, and the fact that the gland refills super quick thanks to the Vestibule, my level of heal tanking is getting out of control. Combined with my general defensive setup, being both hard to hit and hard to damage, I'm very, very hard to kill. Which is obviously a good thing! I'm sure that if I poured all of my evolutionary energy into it, I could have been an absolute brick of a monster, with multiple carapace and supporting structures in between, with additional healing glands to keep the juice pumping in a continuous cycle, but I've had other considerations.

All in all, I'm fairly happy with my current build. Good defensively, good with magic, reasonable physical fighting capacity. To be honest, it's the physical fighting that I'm by far the worst at. My stats lag far behind in the pure brute strength department, and I just don't have the kind of Skill synergies that Tiny has that give his punches extra destructive power. I might be far more flexible than my ape companion, but other than specialised attacks like the gravity bomb, my ape like pet has me beat on pure offensive output and he's only a tier five! I suppose in the long run I'll out sustain him. I'll be using Doom Chomps long after he's passed out from exhaustion so long as there are a few of my siblings nearby…

Alright! This cannot stand! I'll have to dive into the menus and see what I can do about powering up! Surely some new Skills must have unlocked for me since the last time I had a poke through the list!

it up and move back behind the chokepoint. Make sure

and sleeping every day. Enjoy it while it lasts, big guy, it isn't going to last forever. The two of them cooperate to grab a few of the more delectable offerings that they were able to defeat and fight off the monsters swarming around them

eat and then I'm going to go through my menus and do a bit of mutating. You guys know what to do,

can tell Tiny is

until it's done,] I warn him,

away at the menu while they eat. Honestly, what could be more important than maintaining the dignity of the Eldest within his own family? There's more at stake here than just my shallow pride! This is Colony shattering stuff! Also, I'm certain

hundreds available, unlocked by glands, or size, or crossing stat thresholds, or just pure

Granin warned me about! Even though Skill points feel as though they rain down from the skies above, if you actually purchase a whole bunch of skills and then level them until they actually become properly useful, say rank three or four, suddenly you've invested twelve levels worth of Skill points! Then maybe you find a nice fusion, that could be another ten, or more… It adds up. Skill purchases need to

are Doom Chomp and Dash, which doesn't lead to a whole lot of variety. Granted, Doom Chomp is a fusion of three different active bite Skills, but still. That brings up a good point, what do I want to be able to do?

but