Buy Ant Coins for The Ants: Underground Kingdom ā packs, VIP and the Insect Growth Plan
Released on 11 November 2021 by Singapore-Shanghai studio StarUnion, The Ants: Underground Kingdom is now in its fifth year as one of the more durable mobile 4X MMO strategies on the market. The game blends colony simulation with classic 4X warfare: you grow an ant nest in a naturalistic art style, harvest five core resources, evolve your Special Ants and fight for Diamond Mine tiles in cross-server Server vs Server battles. The monetisation model sits closer to Lords Mobile or Call of Dragons than to a gacha RPG ā real money buys Ant Coins, and Diamonds are an in-game currency you either farm on the world map or purchase indirectly through the Pack Shop.
- Ten Ant Coin denominations from 22 to 20,000 for Pack Shop bundles, speed-ups and exclusive deals
- Levelling VIP up to 15 through VIP Activation Packs paid in Ant Coins
- Activating the Insect Growth Plan, the 30-day pass that ends with a 5-star insect of your choice
- First-purchase x2 bonus that applies to each Ant Coin denomination separately
- Closing resource and speed-up gaps before SvS, Force events and the Underground Cave Cell Challenge
- Top-up by Player ID, with no login needed
How the Ant Coin and Diamond economy actually works
The Ants runs on two premium currencies and the line between them matters. Ant Coins are the cash currency: they go straight into the Pack Shop for resource bundles, speed-ups, exclusive deals and VIP Activation Packs. Diamonds are the second premium currency, but they are not sold directly for real money ā you mine them from Diamond Mine tiles on the world map, collect them as VIP, Insect Growth Plan and Force event rewards, or buy them as a Pack Shop bundle paid in Ant Coins. Diamonds mainly fund instant speed-ups for construction, research and Special Ant recruitment. StarUnion does not publish a fixed Ant Coin to Diamond rate because coins are spent through Pack Shop bundles, not as a flat 1:1 swap.
First-purchase x2 by denomination, plus the 2000 and 2500 packs
The first-purchase doubler in The Ants is a Pack Shop staple, but it works per denomination across the ten Ant Coin tiers: 22, 100, 500, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 5000, 10,000 and 20,000. Buy 100 coins for the first time and you receive 200; the next 100-coin purchase pays out at the standard rate, but the first-ever 500-coin purchase doubles again, and so on up to the largest pack. The bonus does not apply to VIP Activation Packs, the Insect Growth Plan or seasonal bundles ā only to base Ant Coin denominations. There is no fixed reset cycle: StarUnion has refreshed first-purchase bonuses around major sales like the November anniversary, but it is not a patch-tied event. For a long opening run, climbing the denominations one by one usually pays off more than buying the same pack twice.
StarUnion's standard Pack Shop ladder lists 100, 500, 1500, 3000, 5000, 10,000 and 20,000 Ant Coins as base SKUs. The 2000 and 2500 Ant Coin entries on the Brawl Games catalogue are aggregated provider-side: typically a 1500 + 500 combination delivered to the same Player ID. They are not exclusive discounted packs and they are not separate StarUnion SKUs. If first-purchase x2 has already fired on the underlying 1500 and 500, you will not receive a second doubling on the combined 2000 or 2500 ā the bonus is tied to base SKUs, not to the total amount. Where they do help is filling an exact mid-range need before a Force event or the next Special Ant Evolution slot, without having to buy two smaller packs back to back.
VIP up to level 15 is a permanent tier, not a subscription
VIP in The Ants is a permanent account level rather than a recurring monthly subscription. The cap is VIP 15. You level it up through daily logins and VIP Activation Packs paid in Ant Coins; accumulated points unlock each new tier, and every tier grants permanent bonuses ā march speed, an extra march slot from VIP 5 onwards, a second alliance R5 slot, faster recruitment. The daily VIP reward is claimed manually from the icon in the top-left corner: skip a day and you simply do not collect that pack, but the level itself never decays. On 11 January 2026 at 23:59:59 UTC, StarUnion retired the old VIP Activation Packs and replaced them with an updated set, so anyone topping up now is buying into the current revision rather than the legacy one.
Insect Growth Plan: a 30-day pass that ends in a 5-star insect
The Insect Growth Plan is a 30-day progression pass ā the closest analogue The Ants has to a Battle Pass, but tied to 30 days from activation rather than to a patch cycle. Each day you complete daily tasks or trigger Pack Shop activations and unlock a reward block: resources, speed-ups, evolution materials. The Day 30 reward is a single 5-star insect of your choice; the April 2026 selection was Striped Love, Ghost Mantis and Lava Scorpion. The Insect Growth Plan and VIP are different products and easy to confuse: the plan runs out after 30 days, while VIP is permanent. Alongside it, the game also runs separate event passes for big events such as Strongest Warzone and the weekly Force events, but those are shorter and tied to the event's run.
Colony resources and where speed-ups go
The Ants has five core resources and each one is produced by its own structure:
- Plants ā Plant Flora, up to 18,500 per hour per formation
- Fungus ā Fungus Heap
- Sand ā Sand Pile, up to 10,500 per hour, up to four formations
- Wet Soil ā Wet Soil Pile, up to 15,100 per hour
- Honeydew ā Aphid, up to 52,000 per hour, the only resource with no depot, flowing straight into your balance
Ant Coins and Diamonds mostly go into speed-ups for upgrades and research, because hourly production is hard-capped by building level while late-game build times stretch into days. Heading into Sunday's SvS or the final hours of Force of Tides, Desert, Nature or Life, speed-up bundles become the most-traded item in the Pack Shop.
Special Ant Evolution: three deterministic branches, no gacha
The strategic spine of the game is Special Ant Evolution, and it is not gacha ā there is no pity counter, no banner, no 50/50 and no random chance of a limited unit dropping. Progression is deterministic and runs through three branches, each fed by its own materials. Pioneer requires Exotic Leaf and Meteorite Crystal; Explorer needs Red-veined Leaf and Pyroxene Crystal; Conqueror only unlocks once your server has been live for a set time and your Queen has reached level 20. Each branch holds six slots, one Special Ant per slot. Mutation Chests are a separate system that hands out materials for ant mutations; the chests have weighted drop tables, but there is no pity guarantee on top-tier mats ā it is a material pool, not a lottery. In April 2026 StarUnion raised the Conqueror evolution level cap and added new Conqueror Exploration floors.
Empire NNN servers, Sunday SvS and end-game challenges
Servers in The Ants follow the "Empire NNN" format and ship with roughly 300 free slots for new registrations ā once a server fills up, StarUnion closes it to newcomers and opens the next one. The Player ID is a 7- to 10-digit numeric UID, unique across the whole game, while progression sticks to the specific server. To find your Player ID, tap the Combat Power readout in the centre of the main screen ā the profile window will display the UID. That is unusual: in most games the UID lives in a settings or profile menu. Server vs Server pairs neighbouring servers and runs on Sundays, the main cross-server PvP cycle. Migrating between servers is gated: Newbie Teleport works only in the first three days and below Queen level 5, while the Server Migration Event opens every few weeks and demands a set Anthill level, Combat Power and an alliance-free state.
The weekly content loop rotates four Force events: Force of Tides, Force of Desert, Force of Nature and Force of Life. Each one runs for a week, hands out event tokens that convert into ranking points, and finishes with rewards such as Ornaments and Skin Fragments. End-game stretches across two ladder modes: Underground Cave Cell Challenge, currently capped at level 120, and Special Ant Challenge, capped at 140, both of which drop Advance Crystal and rare evolution materials. Between 26 and 29 April 2026 the StarUnion forum ran a drip-marketing campaign for a new species, but the studio held back details and the event itself had not launched at that point. The game's bigger collaborations from the past include Godzilla vs Ants in December 2022 ā January 2023 and the Lucas the Spider crossover that ran across five chapters in late 2024, with Bodhi the Chameleon, Maizie the Bee and Findley the Fly joining the colony.
Platforms: emulators rather than a native PC client
The Ants is mobile-first and has no native PC client. Every "PC version" in community guides is in fact an Android emulator: BlueStacks, NetEase MuMu Player, LDPlayer or GameLoop. Cross-platform progression is handled through binding the account to Star Union ID, Google Play, Apple ID or Facebook ā phone and emulator sync to the same server-side state. The game ships through the App Store, Google Play and Russia's RuStore (com.allstarunion.ta.soe), which is unusual for a major mobile strategy. For players in regions where the official store has limited card support, direct Ant Coin purchases through App Store and Google Play have been blocked since 2022, which is why a Player ID top-up route fills the gap.
If you enjoy the 4X strategy genre
- Call of Dragons ā Farlight's fantasy 4X with alliances, cross-server PvP and its own VIP ladder, the closest direct cousin to The Ants in terms of mechanics.
- Lords Mobile ā IGG's genre staple with VIP tiers, guilds and cross-server warfare on the same blueprint The Ants follows.
- Rise of Kingdoms ā Lilith's history-themed 4X with Kingdom vs Kingdom wars and Gems as the premium currency rather than Ant Coins.
The Brawl Games catalogue lists ten Ant Coin denominations for The Ants: Underground Kingdom, ranging from the entry-level 22 pack to the top-tier 20,000, alongside positions for VIP progression and Insect Growth Plan activation. Checkout only needs the Player ID, which appears when you tap the Combat Power readout in-game; the form does not require a server entry. Payment is accepted from Russia and the CIS. The on-site chat is available before checkout for questions about a specific denomination or order status.