This guide is going to teach you how to build well as xenomorph, I hope I can keep things concise but detailed. I will be explaining more than simply doing things, but the rationale. I made this guide around the time when I primed the drone caste, but it should be valid for hivelords too.
We’ll start with pre-drop preparations, in these circumstances we have all the time we need to make a big fortress, so we can really deck it out. The first example will be on the map Solaris Ridge, however we will be talking about concepts that can be applied to all maps.
Lets explain the colour, sorry for those that are colourblind, I will also explain for you. The left there is a circled area with an X over it, it is in red. That was not made by me, but I am going to include this in the example, because this is also going to include what not to do.
The reason that it is crossed out, is that it is a one tile opening, which we will never build in our hive if we can help it. One tile wide openings kill xenos because it leads to bodyblocking. This is doubly the case in an important frontline choke, where many xenos will be entering and leaving that doorway. Don’t make these.
The circled eggmorpher is placed in such a way that enemies can be grabbed and flung back into it, doors are placed so they can be closed or to hide warriors and oppressors. It is also placed next to an indestructible part of the map (the door), meaning that marines will path to it.
The 2x2 block placed directly outside of that door does include 1x1 passages, however, those are not going to be used by xenos much. The real purpose of that block is to make marines move closer to the indestructible wall.
Since marines know the map, they know that they will need to move there, but by putting this block there, they will be forced infront of those doors. The wall further up from that provides cover. This area is a natural chokepoint, you should also look for these kinds of areas as hive in general, and then you should improve them like so.
This is an example of an ‘offensive’ eggmorpher, there are many places for these on any map.
Back to the main picture.
This room needs mentioned because if it doesn’t have a tunnel in it, it can kill xenomorphs with less experience. It is usually a bad idea to make doors into empty rooms for people who don’t know the map. But because this tunnel is here, we added a door. I want to mention something for drones in particular.
Drones are adaptable. You have access to carrier, hivelord, and burrower on evolution, if you want to play as a drone but would still like to temporarily access these tier 2 toolkits, you absolutely should. Every drone can evolve to a burrower and immediately make a tunnel whenever the slot is free. You should use this and make tunnels all over the map as needed. You can just devo if you want to return to drone.
You may have noticed something that is not always common in hives here, why are there no doors here? Well, there is a good reason. The doors aren’t on these passages because these are ‘retreating’ passages. A lot of builders will make doors almost all over the hive, this is a mistake.
Doors slow xenos down. A proper use for a door is to deny information and to provide cover on the front. They are also good for spotting where a scout is digging in a hive, so you should door around your core, but otherwise, less doors is better.
All these passages are at minimum 2-tiles wide. This is to prevent xenomorphs bodyblocking.
However, there is also the fact that in a 2-tile wide hallway, simply less marines can fire without IFF at any given time. A ravager in a 3-tile wide hallway can be shot simultaneously by 3 well co-ordinated marines. Making tighter hallways (but not ones that bodyblock) will actively decrease non-IFF marine damage, that’s why they are used.
Alright, on to other maps and examples.
This is the staggered 2x2 pattern. This has a 3x3 space inside each cell. This covers a larger area than 2x2s that are aligned together, which will have 2x2 centres. As a result, this actually makes them more resistant to Close Air Support fire. One nice thing about the 3x3 space is that it is perfectly fit for a recovery node or an egg morpher to be placed on them. Consider making a strong core for a cluster, then using the rooms for such.
Other advantages to this pattern is line of sight and firing lines. When a marine stands infront of one of those doors, lets say an M2C, and fires into it. They will destroy the door, and then one more door, depending on where they stand. But eventually, they will be shooting hive wall instead, this is good.
You should stagger your defensive line like so.
The purple dotted line with arrow represents a marine’s firing line, they will shoot through staggered areas but eventually be stopped by actual walls. It is preferable that you do this over using doors, since walls, especially thick walls, are more resistant to things like sniper fire. Cover like the bottom half is more appropriate when you are offensively attacking, because it takes little time to place, and provides good cover for xenomorphs.
1x3 lines can protect a xenomorph laying in the middle from both sides when fired on, sometimes you don’t have time to place actual thicker walls, like after an Orbital Bombardment. So you should weed and place down 1x2s to gain some cover, and then use those to start building actual defences when you are attacking.
What is this!? Who makes these? Did you know that these, especially thickened, can offer cover from a Heavy Explosive Orbital Bombardment? It’s true, these thicker walls are not in fact useless. You should include them if you have the space, and especially in front of that green circle up there. That green circle represents where you will be placing a cluster. These big 3x3 blocks help to fortify clusters.
Also, about clusters.
You should build them, preferably it is one of the first things you build when you are on the offensive. Hive weeds are very powerful, they slow marines incredibly hard. They also stack with sticky resin, anyone trying to attack a sticky resin covered clustered area is going to have a miserable day. In fact, they are so unpleasant to attack, that this kind of structure I made is frankly CAS / OB bait.
What is with the spikes? Those spikes are there to hurt the scout. They might step on them, but as a rule, spikes aren’t used very often. You should use spikes at chokepoints, you only get 15 of them. But I personally find that if they manage to catch a scout unaware, it can lead to them bleeding, which gets them caught. Otherwise, spikes can be used to push marines into them. They will start to get hurt a lot if they’re dragged over them and need to retreat.
The above image is about door placement. The doors should be placed on the opposite side of where marines are approaching from. This is because it makes marines move into a ‘small choke’, a warrior is better off behind those doors on the south side if only 2 marines can approach the doors. For fleeing xenos, it also provides a very small amount of cover from enemy fire.
Now onto something you should not do.
Doors suck! Lets say that you make one of these chambers, and a xeno is being attacked. They open the first door, and immediately try to go into another chamber. They must then wait to open the second door, in that time, marines could be chasing them, and sometimes xenos are too panicked to close the door behind them. Do them a favour, do not make their escapes slower than they need to be. On the offensive side, this also slows them down if they want to attack!
Putting things together, here is a picture of a hive post-hijack. The absent core is due to the shuttle destroying it, but you can see how things come together. Something I would like to point out, is the way that hallways usually end with a turn, and how the walls are placed in front of those hallways to provide cover. Ideally, hallways should have plenty of bends in them, to prevent long-ranged attackers utilizing them, and to reduce the distance that xenomorphs need to travel to meet a marine in them.
Doors are placed two tiles back in hallways that leads marines into small chokepoints, and there are very little stacked doors. This area also used to contain egg morphers, but hijack also removes them. Be sure to always have at minimum 2 egg morphers in the hive, and set them to reserve of 2, meaning that observing players cannot deplete them. This ensures that there is always a hugger available for a captured marine when people return to hive.
Recovery nodes are also worth mentioning, a recovery node needs a free 3x3 space to place it down, however the central tile is the only one that counts for the purpose of placing another node. This means you can place quad recovery nodes down in a 3x3 space (one in each of the corners).
== Advice for Hivelords ==
Your thick resin walls are far too tedious to kill with a bayonet, if you make them thick, marines can and simply will give up attacking them, leading them to focus primarily on doors. But remember to use your acid pillars, they are great fire extinguishers, they can and they will save xenomorph’s lives. Contact your local acid fire department today for one.
The other thing that hivelords can use is reflective resin walls. You can place these on the frontline, this will often force marines without IFF to attack with a bayonet, or risk buckshotting themselves and or their friends. You should be abusing these, they’re one of the ways hivelords can frag.
They can even bounce full on grenades.
Another point of advice for builders.
Do not concentrate your building in one dense spot. Make your buildings spread out. This is to help with CAS, OB, and Mortar fire. If all your eggs are in one spot, it increases the value of demolition tools. Space them apart instead, make long lines of building, rather than blobs that are good to use GAU on.
Also, sticky resin is good actually, if you aren’t making a door, you should make a sticky resin instead. Lots of it. Marines will waste so much time trying to get rid of it, they might even just give up and throw all of their nades at it in frustration, instead of using them to kill YOU.
Finally, resin membranes (the clear resin walls) have only one use, resin whisperers can hide behind them to use their abilities from cover. However, they are bad. Resin whisperers can remotely open and close doors, this means that it is often better for them to simply make a door for cover and then open it to use their abilities, membranes are essentially a dead feature.
- Note on the HE OB cover claim, it can dampen the impact of that OB, which can save someone’s life if they are hiding behind it, but you should still be creating distance from any OB.
