Buzz Wars

Buzz Wars is a wasp-and-bee-themed RTS with single-player combat and online multiplayer. You build hives, fight enemy units and earn points as your hives produce queens, provided they receive enough resources. You can also switch to first-person mode to control individual units and direct nearby allies.

Gather resources

The two resources are pollen and meat. Friendly units collect pollen passively as they fly between pollen nodes; killing enemy units provides meat. Each of the six playable unit types has different strengths, weaknesses and resource costs, and some counter others. Some are intended for the early game and others for later, but you can choose only three types per match, without knowing which types your opponents have picked.

Build and raid hives

You need a nearby queen that is not already leading a hive to build one of your chosen types. If you run out of queens, you can use a cooldown-based forfeit option to spawn a hive and a queen of your choice at a cost in points that varies by unit; this can be useful when you are in a bad spot.

You can fly into entrances in most hives to attack enemy larvae before they develop into adults. Larvae bite, and older hives are also guarded by drones. Hives may also be defended by enemy players.

Maps and matches

Buzz Wars has four maps with different distributions of resources and hive placements. Matches last 15 minutes, and the player with the most points at the end wins.

Control your units

In first-person mode, you can move, sting, bite and use a rechargeable speed burst. You can target enemies and use pheromones to make nearby allies swarm them. Each unit has a special ability, except for the bumblebee, which can strafe instead. In building mode, you can manage hives and select units to control; you can also swap between first-person and building modes during play.

Poison slows its target, though sprinting partially removes the effect. For example, wasps have poison that acts faster but is no stronger, making it effective against the banded hornet's damage-sensitive shield. Grubs and drones in hives do not have that shield, so the banded hornet can be an effective raider against them, with high resistance to slow-occurring damage. The giant hornet is powerful but has a high meat cost, which is difficult to meet until later in a match.