Team Signals in Ant Wars

Silent colonies lose queens. In Ant Wars (official title Ant War by Chylan), the Signals menu is how you call danger, mass a lane, escort a dig lead, or demand Feed without flooding chat. This guide covers the R key on PC, the four signal types (Enemy, Group, Follow, Heal), the mobile Signals button, and when each ping wins a nest fight. Pair it with Controls for the full bind map, How to Win for objective timing, Heal the Queen for Feed discipline, and the Queen page for defense and siege jobs. Browse every tutorial from the Guides Hub.

How to open Signals

On PC, press R to open the Signals menu, then pick the ping that matches the moment. You do not need a perfect callout essay — one clear ping beats five typed sentences while a Supermajor is already in the throne room. Mobile clients expose a Signals button that opens the same four intents even when the label is not the letter R. Console players should confirm which face or bumper maps to Signals before the late clock; asking after queen regen cuts off is already too late.

Signals are colony-visible team tools. They do not replace Dig (E), Feed (T), or Bite (right-click). They synchronize those actions so diggers do not break the last Stone block alone, Honeypots do not arrive after the queen is dead, and Trapjaws do not dive a highway nobody else is watching.

The four signal types

Signal	Primary meaning	Best moment
Enemy	Hostiles spotted or a push forming	Scout contact, Supermajor stack on your ring, flank noise
Group	Mass here — lane, breach, or mid node	Pre-breach foyer, defending a choke, reclaiming fungus
Follow	Stick to me / take my path	Lead dig on the highway, escort to an enemy nest, larvae run
Heal	Feed now — queen or key ally critical	Queen under ~3000 HP, any damage after 30:00, medic recall

Enemy

Use Enemy the second you see rival ants, hear a dig approaching your nest ring, or spot a size stack forming on a shared highway. Early Enemy pings let Armored and Acid rotate before the wall falls. Late Enemy pings tell Honeypots to abort vanity Feeds on full-HP diggers and return to the queen. Do not spam Enemy on every distant Minor — reserve it for real threats so the colony still trusts the call.

Group

Group means assemble. Fire it one dig before a breach so fighters stage in the foyer instead of trickling into the queen room one by one. Fire it on defense when you need bodies on a Wood or Stone choke. Fire it mid-map when two colonies collide and your stack should pick a side instead of wandering. Group without a Follow lead can still work if the ping lands on an obvious landmark (breach hole, fungus pocket, dead nest entrance).

Follow

Follow is the digger and escort signal. Lead diggers on the main highway should ping Follow so Majors and Supermajors take the same tube instead of cutting random flanks that never connect. After a queen falls, Follow helps larvae carriers reach the Loot Dropoff as a pack — safer than solo Minim runs through contested dirt. Siege captains use Follow to walk the kill squad from your nest to theirs without losing half the roster in a side cave.

Heal

Heal is the nest-saver. Queen passive regen is 3 HP/s and stops under 30:00. When HP dips under about 3000, or anytime she takes damage after the cutoff, a Heal ping should yank feeders home. Honeypot players treat Heal as their primary radio. Pair the ping with the Feed loop on Heal the Queen: dig fungus → store → T near the queen → restock. Heal is also correct when a Combo Mutation Supermajor is bleeding out on your door and still needed for the counter-dive.

When to use each signal (match phases)

Early game

• Follow on soft Dirt expansion so the nest ring and first highway form together.
• Enemy only for real scouts or early greed dives.
• Group rarely — sizes are still Minor and DNA is scarce.
• Heal if someone already scratched the queen during a chaotic open.

Mid game

• Enemy whenever a rival Major stack appears on your flank.
• Group before Wood or Compact sand projects that need multiple diggers.
• Follow for the player cutting the primary lane toward Fire Nation, Golden Empire, Leaf Kingdom, or Concrete Clan — geography differs, tools do not.
• Heal as soon as queen HP trends down; do not wait for the 30:00 cliff.

Late game (under 30:00 and Combo window)

• Heal becomes mandatory radio. Regen is gone; Feed is the only recovery.
• Group + Follow before the final Stone breach so dual-mutation carriers arrive together.
• Enemy on any reverse dive toward your fungus pockets.
• Chain signals: Enemy (they are here) → Heal (top the queen) → Group (hold the choke) → Follow (counter into their nest).

Coordinating queen defense and sieges

Defense without Signals looks like five ants biting random workers while the queen bleeds out in the back. Defense with Signals looks like: Enemy on the breach, Heal for Honeypots, Group on the choke, then Follow only if you are peeling into a counter-tunnel. Read Queen for mutation jobs on the door (Armored, Honeypot, Trapjaw, Stinger, Acid).

Sieges without Signals look like a lone Supermajor dying in a hole. Sieges with Signals look like: Follow on the highway, Group in the foyer, Enemy when guards appear, Heal if your own queen screams mid-push so half the squad peels home. How to Win still decides the objective — Signals only make the plan executable.

Mobile Signals button habits

On mobile, place the Signals control where your thumb can reach without covering Dig or Feed. Practice opening the menu and selecting Heal in a quiet minute — clutch menus fail under panic. If your HUD is crowded, prioritize Signals next to Feed; missing a Heal call costs more than missing a decorative dig. After each match, ask whether your pings were late, spammy, or clear. Clear beats frequent.

Common Signals mistakes

1. Never pressing R, then blaming randoms for not reading your mind.
2. Spamming Enemy on every Minor so real Supermajor calls get ignored.
3. Follow with no lead path — teammates cannot follow a ping into solid Stone.
4. Heal ping with zero fungus stored and nobody assigned to Feed.
5. Group on three different landmarks at once so the colony splits.
6. Assuming chat replaces Signals while digging; your hands are busy on E and camera.

Practice drill (one live match)

1. First five minutes: only Follow and Enemy — build the highway as a pack.
2. Mid match: add Group before every Wood or Stone project.
3. After 35:00: pre-assign who answers Heal (ideally a Honeypot).
4. Under 30:00: Heal on every queen scratch; Group before every breach.
5. Post-match: note which ping actually moved bodies. Keep that habit.

How Signals connect to the rest of the wiki

• Binds and platform notes → Controls
• Objective timing and roles → How to Win
• Feed thresholds and Honeypot → Heal the Queen
• Nest defense and siege comps → Queen
• Full guide map → Guides Hub

There are still no active promo codes that unlock auto-ping macros for this game — see Codes. Unauthorized scripts that claim team ESP or auto-signal spam risk bans and teach nothing about judgment; stick to fair play on Scripts warnings.

Master Enemy, Group, Follow, and Heal, and your colony stops fighting four private matches inside one shared nest. Signals turn DNA, digs, and mutations into a single plan — which is how Ant Wars rounds are actually won.