The Insect Tier List

foreign [Music] insects are one of the most broken factions the game has ever seen nowhere else in nature will you find such an incredible concentration of abilities that are not only overpowered but also extremely unique it's tough to even know where to start when talking about what makes insects such a successful group because in a lot of cases it's not just that their individual abilities are overpowered but some of them feel like they should be mutually exclusive since they're just insanely op when used in combination with one another you'll see what I mean once I get into the tier list but first a brief overview of the insect faction's General attributes and history insects were added to the game during the early Carboniferous expansion the devs bumped up the atmospheric oxygen level which allowed members of the arthropod faction to adopt larger sizes and more costly abilities and while most of the arthropod player base was trying to dominate The Land by leveling up their size a small offshoot of the crustacean player base opted to forego the gigantism trait and instead used this oxygen bonus to unlock an ability never before seen in game flight because these new creatures were the very first to gain the ability to fly the air became entirely their domain for the time being and would remain that way until reptiles unlocked the ability several expansions later insects are extremely diverse in their abilities and Stat spreads in fact they're so diverse that it's impossible to include them all in a single video I'll be keeping things fairly generalized but truth be told many of the groups I'll be discussing today have so many standout members that they could easily be an entire tier list in and of themselves so it's a little tough to pin down their General attributes but there are a few commonalities being members of the arthropod faction all insects are granted the exoskeletal armor perk which greatly raises their AC compared to soft body builds of similar sizes with the only downside being a massive reduction in those same defensive stats for a short time every time the player levels up this makes insects quite tanky on average allowing them to excel in combat the insect build also has access to the compound eyes perk which grants them vastly improved awareness compared to other arthropods like scorpions and centipedes with 360 degree Vision their ability to avoid obstacles Dodge attacks and pursue targets while flying is far superior to most other flyers this enhanced perception perk is important because insects tend to have naturally High stealth so in order to compete with other insect builds acute vision is required we've only just scratched the surface of the insane abilities insects have access to though for a more in-depth look let's get into the tier list at the bottom of the tier list we have the silverfish the silverfish is the most primitive insect build still in existence it kind of blurs the line between what is and is not considered an insect and not in a good way unlike other flightless insects which decided to respect and drop the flight ability in favor of more refined strategies the silverfish build actually never had access to it in the first place aside from having an exoskeleton they don't really have any of the abilities that make insects powerful they do not have wings and have essentially no combat abilities they have fairly low defenses and get bodied left and right by pretty much everything with their only useful stat being their decently High movement speed their special ability allows them to gain XP from eating cellulose and lignin meaning they can Farm XP from wooden structures which normally don't Grant any experience this ability would be fairly powerful in forest biomes but because they're such weak combatants they tend to actually stick to urban areas feeding on things like paper and cloth in the relative safety of houses apartments and office spaces even there they aren't completely safe though and while no build is ever truly safe in the insect meta the silverfish is an extreme lack of useful abilities places it firmly in f-tiered that's honestly the only insect build I believe deserves an f-tier ranking most insects are quite viable and even the less viable ones tend to have at least a few useful things going for them even if those things aren't necessarily broken [Music] first in DeTour we have the phasmid build which includes walking sticks and leaf mimics these builds sport what are unquestionably some of the most impressive camouflage abilities in the entire game second only to color changing builds like the octopus and chameleon as impressive as these are though the question I constantly end up asking is is this really necessary because with the exception of insects which deliberately lower their stealth as part of the apostomatic coloration strategy insects as a whole already have an above average stealth and are usually able to maintain this while still specking into other equally impressive abilities their camouflage can only take them so far while they're near undetectable while remaining motionless walking sticks still need to move to find food and while they do mimic the movement of a swaying leaf or Branch this certainly isn't perfect in fact if they're ever caught in an environment where camouflage doesn't match as well their instincts to sway and move can actually end up giving their position away even more rather than aiding in their attempts to hide some phasmids do possess chemical defenses but as we'll see further up the tier list this attack is quite mild compared to the heat some other insects are packing phasmids have a similar game plan to sloths complete with all the major flaws this strategy is riddled with although at least phasmines don't completely forego all common sense and make a dangerous Trek to the forest floor once a week just to poop next in D tier we have the lepidopterans the faction which includes moths butterflies and Skippers at first glance these may seem like absolute bottom-tier builds they're among the most vulnerable builds in the game when it comes to combat with extremely squishy defensive stats and utterly abysmal offensive abilities many of the larval forms of these builds are 100 defenseless and have Mobility stat in the single digits literally the freest kills in the game however the leopard player base is quite crafty and has come up with a few ways of at least sort of mitigating their many weaknesses caterpillars and adult leopards alike can adopt quite convincing disguises some designed to help them blend in and some designed to intimidate granted these strategies often don't hold up against High Intelligence builds but it does help some caterpillars Speck into quite potent defenses like spines and toxins which make them simply not worth the potential damage to take on and credit where credit is due even though they still are fairly defenseless butterflies and moths do have excellent mobility and can fly much greater distances than most insect builds this enables them to avoid high conflict areas of the map and reach higher quality loot that might be too rare for most players to rely on their massive Wings in addition to being highly customizable for a variety of stealth or intimidation purposes also just make them look much larger than insects of comparable body sizes which helps dissuade attacks But ultimately lapids still take plenty of L's and most high tier insect builds have quite oppressive matchups against them so they're definitely a below average faction that's actually it for D tier and I know it might seem like we're moving up a tier list quickly but again insects are a massively successful faction and are going to be concentrated in the higher tiers at the bottom of seat here we have the Cockroach the cockroach is the Ultimate Survivor which opted to spec into Mobility stealth and a multitude of Elemental resistances in lieu of any offensive abilities while they don't pack much heat their flat shape allows them to easily wedge themselves into locations that are extremely difficult for other players to attack them in their rather clumsy Flyers but they do have an above average ground movement speed enabling them to quickly Scurry to cover if they see a predator player approaching however when caught out in the open or backed into a corner they're fairly helpless and easily one of the most vulnerable builds in the entire insect faction they're also somewhat carried by human Mains making temperate and Tundra servers viable for them because really as impressive as their Toxin and radiation resistance abilities are they're quite vulnerable to the cold and would still be mostly confined to Jungle servers if not for humans unlocking the fire control ability the biggest variants may be able to tank one or two hits but even then with no way to fight back they are still pretty screwed if they fail to outright escape a fight next in seat here we have the earwig a fearsome looking generalist build which appears to have a giant pair of mandibles on its rear end called Cersei as fearsome as these Cersei forceps are if we actually check that your wig's base stats we quickly noticed that just like all of its other stats its power stat is actually quite mediocre as menacing as the Cersei are the actual piercing damage they can deal is fairly minimal and can even be deflected by the most basic of armor and even against build without armor the damage is so low that larger builds still don't really need to be wary of approaching an earwig and can attack without restraint still just because they can doesn't mean they do as the earwig's intimidation Factor alone is oftentimes enough to protect it from conflict and credit where credit is due the forceps are actually fairly decent in matchups against soft-bodied insects and allow the earwig to carry their targets much better than they could with their jaws and while it may seem silly to have opted for rear-facing weapons instead of the more typical forward-facing ones like mandibles and rostrums the position does actually serve a purpose in that it allows earwigs far greater access to Burrows and tight spaces where they can hide out and avoid conflict altogether of all the weapons insects have access to Cersei might be some of the most unorthodox which probably contributes to its ability to intimidate other players however I think to get out of mid-tier earwigs need to actually have the ability to back up their threat display they would do well to smack into some sort of venom venom infused stings are a fairly common attribute for insects so this feels like a bit of a missed opportunity so while certainly a viable mid-tier don't overestimate this build's abilities at the top of seeds here we've got the orthopterans including grasshoppers crickets and Katydids these are the first Mobility Centric Builds on our list while they're quite capable Flyers their true power comes from their saltatorial hind legs rather than their wings flight is an excellent defensive ability as it allows the user to Get Out Of Reach of an attack's range but this utility is lessened if their ability to get airborne has too much startup lag and so instead of using their wings to get themselves up into the air a powerful jump enables the arthopter in Mains to escape vertically at instant speed their excellent Vision makes it extremely difficult to get within striking range without alerting them and because their jump has such excellent Frame data Landing an ambush strike on an orthopteran can feel near impossible at times and even if a player does manage to secure a grab their power behind legs can function as quite an effective combo break the spines on their legs augments the damage their kicks can deal meaning that if a grasshopper can tank the first few hits of an ambush attack they may be able to turn the tide of a confrontation and Escape after dealing serious damage to the attacker with that said I think there are a few flaws in their strategy which I think keeps them out of the upper tiers grasshoppers can jump so far that there's really no way of knowing what sort of situation they're about to put themselves in in a similar manner to the Flying Fish using such a drastic Escape option can sometimes end up putting you in a worse position than you were before especially if your local meta has a lot of spider players and although they do present a challenge most Predator players aren't disrupted by the grasshopper's kicks and can either tank the damage outright or one hit the grasshopper before even has a chance to retaliate at the bottom of beach here we have the hemiptins a diverse order of insects with a few things in common including generally having high defense and being somewhat Shield shaped however the most notable thing is that rather than slicing or pinching mouth Parts the hamitara build opts for a piercing Rostrum perfect for puncturing through tough surfaces for the majority of hemitterin builds this allows them to farm XP from sources that are normally hard to access like the energy dense sap inside trees and Stems or the starch inside of seeds however there are some hematurians which use their sharp Rostrum to deliver a venomous bite that is able to pierce through armored targets their venom is powerful enough to one shot just about any other insect and can even deal severe damage to larger builds the only major shortcoming here is that these so-called assassin bugs tend to actually have fairly low stealth opting for the aposomatic intimidation defense I mentioned earlier and on top of all that they have fairly low Mobility making actually ambushing another player kind of difficult if they're actually paying enough attention to Simply Dodge the attacks and flee some do break this trend though and opt for both better camouflage and high aquatic Mobility making them some of the most fearsome aquatic builds in the game on the herbivore side of things mipterns tend to fare a bit worse they usually still have fairly low mobility and low stealth and their defenses may be higher than the average but are nowhere near as impenetrable as some of the builds higher on this list they tend to rely on a chemical defense similar to some phasmids which is where they get the name stink bugs from however similar to phasmids these defenses also tend to be a bit lacking and often fail to deter attackers so certainly a group with some standout members and fine for XP farming but still nothing too broken and topping off B tier we have the neuroptera a rather clumsy build with some pretty pathetic looking base stats genuinely one of the least agile flyers in the entire game however looking at the final form of this build paints a highly misleading picture of its capabilities the larval form which is the form they spend the vast vast majority of their time as is a brutally effective Predator build for any player who prefers the camping playstyle taking a look at the larva's stats we see that they have incredibly high power and stealth for their size ant lions have a devastating venomous bite which they use to One-Shot unsuspecting players before draining all their life points with their Hollow Jaws because of their ability to construct Pitfall traps their passive stealth rating is extremely high making their Ambush playstyle unbelievably effective as if Escape wasn't hard enough once the prey gets caught in their trap the ant lion even has the ability to launch projectiles to stun its Target making escape a near impossibility I have an entire video dedicated to the overpowered abilities of neuropter and larvae but in short they are what the earwig pretends to be if you took the earwig Cersei put him in front and made them sharper and gave them deadly venom to boot you'd have an ant lion so why the weak adult form having spent all their evolution points optimizing their larval form they spend hardly any time at all as adults they don't even have the ability to eat in this form and really only exist to be a vessel that allows players to find each other and complete the mating questline something they lack the ability to do in their much less mobile larval form so while I do think it'd be more impressive if they didn't take such a massive cut to their power level during their final level up there's no denying that for the vast majority of their play time these builds are an absolute menace to encounter at the bottom of a tier we have a personal favorite of mine the Mantis mantises have a fairly straightforward play style consisting of slashing and grabbing their targets using powerful spiked raptorial forelimbs if we take a look at the Mantis stats we see that the Mantis has one of the highest base power stats of any non-venomous insect it also has a stealth stat similar to that of a walking stick which it desperately needs in order to be able to get within striking range of its targets its clumsy flight and slow ground movement speed makes chasing prey basically impossible however what they lack in movement speed they easily make up fork with strike speed the mantis's strike is lightning quick to the point that it's easily able to hit targets that are normally considered hopelessly evasive as powerful as these strikes are one weakness of the strategy is that the grappling attack doesn't immobilize the Target and actually brings them within range of a counter-attack and while the mantis's large size enables it to tank most counter-attacks attacking a venomous Target Canada being a serious blunder for a mantis player so definitely a powerful High to your Predator but not one that's so Invincible that mantis Mains can get careless next in a tier we have the Flies this does get a bit confusing due to the amount of other builds that use the word fly in their name but this group the true flies are defined by a very specific feature true flies only have two wings this might seem like a major trade-off but while it does leave them more vulnerable to having their fight ability disabled from taking damage the perk they unlock in return is more than worth the risk instead of a second pair of wings flies swap them out for Hall tears a sensory structure that grants flies and insanely powerful buff to their aerial maneuverability and their evasion their Superior aerobatics make them all but impossible to land a hit on mid-air and also enables Predator fly variants such as the robber fly to launch incredibly precise attacks mid-flight and take down targets that would normally be too powerful to confront head-on but are unable to effectively counter-attack during flight however most flies are either scavengers or parasites using their quick mobility and Superior reaction speed to weave past the defenses and avoid the sweeping counter attacks of larger players while they do have an extremely short lifespan there's no denying that they make the most of the time they do have and are one of the most efficient and evasive builds in the entire game but while flies are excellent aerial combatants they are no match for the ultimate aerial Hunter build the dragonfly is similar to the crocodile in that it is one of the most well-optimized PVP builds that has ever existed in the game it's already such an efficient build that across several balance patches and game expansions the dragonfly has seen very few changes to its core strategy they simply aren't necessary as the dragonfly is already equipped to deal with just about anything the devs throw at it so what is it about the dragonfly that has given it such a Competitive Edge dragonflies have the best aerial maneuverability of any build in the game and the highest Top Flight speed of any insect unlike most insects dragonflies have specked into the ability to move their wings independently of each other which grants them the ability to move in any direction without needing to turn and face that direction meaning they can strafe mid-flight and even fly backwards this ability makes their flight more energetically demanding than it is for other insects so this is a high commitment High reward play style in order to ensure a proper payoff for their incredible agility dragonflies have also specked into what is arguably the best vision of any arthropod extremely large high-resolution eyes that take up basically their entire head granting them full 360 degree vision this allows them to track all potential targets around them with ease and allows them to see attacks coming long before they're actually at risk of getting hit unlike many of the other bills on this list which either have a powerful larval form but a weak adult form or a powerful adult form that can only achieve this after enduring an extremely vulnerable early game the dragonfly is a high tier predator in both forms while everyone knows they dominate the skies when they reach their max level what you might not know is that as nymphs dragonflies are one of the most vicious aquatic builds in the game able to one shot similarly sized fish and amphibian players now while it was tempting to put dragonflies in s tier they do have a few shortcomings while they are generally able to see approaching Predators before it's too late they aren't particularly good at avoiding accidentally flying into dangerous situations they're easily trapped by spiderwebs and are often snatched out of the air when Flying Too Close to another player in addition dragonflies cannot walk meaning that their energy expensive flight ability is their only option if they need to reposition themselves not that devastating of a weakness but it's enough that this ancient build can't quite break into s tier first in s tier we have the beetle the beetle is the epitome of the insect build a bunch of extraordinarily powerful abilities that seem like they shouldn't really function properly when used in conjunction with each other yet somehow actually end up synergizing unbelievably well beetles are the premier tanks of the insect faction with an outer cuticle sturdy enough to deflect just about any attack with ease it has such a high AC that it can confidently plow through a swarm of aggressive ants without taking any damage something that even many reptiles and amphibians can't get away with now typically when a build is heavily invested into defenses like this it has to make a lot of sacrifices in its other stats this is the opposite of what we see in the beetle build as in addition to being the most heavily armored insect in the game it also excels in several other metrics the most obvious of which is its power stat beetles can obliterate their enemies in combat using powerful jaws and explosive chemical weapons their ability to bulldoze opponents with their forward-facing Weaponry is hard to overstate but in my opinion their real damage potential comes from beetles which possess the ability to blast their attackers with a toxic or acidic chemical burst but that's not where the craziness stops because although you'd probably expect a high power tank to be a slow lumbering build beetles also possess the top terrestrial movement speed of any insect and if that weren't enough despite often having heavy horns or giant mandibles packing a tank full of noxious chemicals being clad in heavy armor and strapped with enough muscle to move objects far far above their weight class the beetle is still able to fly without much issue now they did sacrifice one of their sets of wings for additional armor so they can't perform the advanced aerobatics that dragonflies and houseflies can but the ability to get from point A to point B via flight is still extremely valuable both for escaping danger and for reaching valuable points of interest in short beetles have essentially every ability they could ask for they are an amalgamation of everything that makes the insect faction so powerful and so it's no surprise that Beetle species comprise a whopping 25 percent of all species in the game they're so versatile and adaptable that a beetle player can find a niche in essentially any server they truly are the ultimate insect and deserve a tier list of their own as incredible as this combination of powerful abilities is ultimately the beetle is still lacking the most powerful insect ability of them all use sociality now I have an entire video dedicated to explaining just how broken this ability is and there's no question that the insects that incorporate it into their game plan simply dominate all in their path now technically termites are a variant of the Cockroach built but they have such a unique and Powerful playstyle that lumping them in with mid-tier cockroaches seems disingenuous the termite Queen is the longest lived insect in the game with a lifespan near that of a human or elephant and it spends these many decades building one of the most powerful armies the game has ever seen these termite armies are able to construct some of the most well-fortified bases in the game giving even beaver dams and human skyscrapers a run for their money not only do they build incredible bases but termites literally transform the map in order to better optimize their colony's ability to gather resources they will pave paths and build ramps and bridges to important resource deposits this efficiency allows them to support a huge Army and command vast territories termites despite being most closely related to cockroaches have a combat style that is actually most similar to the spitting cobra which if you've seen my snake tier list you'd know is also a top-tier build termites can accurately fire acid from a needle-like horn on their face dealing heavy damage to anything caught in its blast some termites opt for giant slicing Jaws instead of acid sprayers on their head and are crucial for defending their face from an onset of Invaders termites are a somewhat imbalanced build with crazy powerful forward-facing Weaponry but extremely vulnerable abdomens with no armor at all this means that oftentimes despite a larger size they are quickly overwhelmed if they get outnumbered and flanked not usually an issue as termites are proficient at defending in a Phalanx formation which covers the weak points of individual members so certainly not a bad enough weakness to negate the top tier status of your sociality but this weakness does mean that I Gotta Give the top spot to the other you social insect faction hymenoptera is the group of insects that includes ants bees and wasps unlike termites these insects are a bit more well-rounded having decent Armor All Over and tend to have both forward and rear-facing weaponry with most time in operons packing strong jaws and a venomous Stinger the wasp's signature buzz and yellow banding are so Infamous that almost every other insect faction in the game has at least a few members trying to replicate it to gain advantage on their own intimidation checks you social hymenopterans can build extremely complicated structures without the use of tools they can launch organized attacks containing thousands of combatants they can capture prisoners cross major barriers and control territory to an absolutely incredible degree thousands of players will lay down their lives in defense of a colony if need be ants in particular are masters of both Empire building and military tactics often having to wage war on multiple fronts while undertaking large construction and agricultural projects in their own territory so while beetles may take up a larger percentage of total insect variants termites and ants both vastly outnumber any other insect build and while I don't base my tier lists purely off of population there's no denying that the abundance of these insects is due to their incredibly powerful strategies and their ability to bend their environment to their advantage in fact the only genuine threats to you social players tend to be Invaders disguising themselves as members of their own colony but are really there to disrupt steal and attack many spider hemiptura and mantis Mains adopt the strategy and are incredibly successful in doing so as the ant troops forage and browse unknown territory the parasites weave their way into their ranks something similar happens when you browse the internet without using nordvpn the sponsor of today's video as you browse trackers latch onto your system and follow you from one page to another stealing your vulnerable private data just like Ant-Man making spiders steal vulnerable worker ants the moment their backs return nordvpn's new threat protection feature can watch your back making sure you aren't being followed blocking malicious websites malware trackers and intrusive ads from preying upon your browsing session this is a new feature that nordvpn added this year to their service so even if you've heard of Nord before which I'm sure you have if you 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Channel: TierZoo

Views: 7,686,753

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Id: g9BMcIxrkF4

Length: 27min 59sec (1679 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 10 2022