Honey Ants: a living colony game with a real economy

Abstract

Honey Ants is a colony-building game. It runs as a Telegram Mini App and, in a second edition, in the browser on Robinhood Chain. Players raise ant queens, feed and water their colonies, send workers on expeditions, fight other colonies and team up in clans against a daily boss.

The game has two currencies. AMBER is the play currency and never leaves the game. GRAM is the earning currency: GRAM produced by queens, won from the boss and leaderboards or earned from referrals can be withdrawn to a crypto wallet.

The economy rests on one rule: every paid queen has a hard return limit of 2× her price, counted after the food she eats. Together with daily food costs, one-way AMBER, fees and reviewed payouts, this keeps what the game pays out tied to what it takes in.

This document describes the game as it is live today. It is not an offer of any financial product, and returns are not guaranteed.

1Vision and principles

Most play-to-earn games are spreadsheets with a skin. Honey Ants started the other way round: a cozy, living ant colony that is fun to look after on its own, with a real reward layer on top. Every ant on screen is simulated: it carries food, raises larvae and defends the nest.

Design principles

• Fun first. A free player can play every day, join a clan and climb the leaderboards without paying.
• Effort matters. Care, timing and clan play change how much a colony produces. Two players with the same queen can see very different results.
• Hard limits. No queen can pay more than 2× her price. There are no open-ended yields.
• Clear rules. Prices, odds, fees and limits are shown in the game and in this document.
• Fair play. Battles, the boss and balances are calculated on the server, and every payout is reviewed.

2Getting started

Getting into Honey Ants takes a few seconds:

1. Open the game from @HoneyAntsBot in Telegram (or in the browser for the Robinhood Chain edition). No sign-up.
2. Get a free queen. Every player receives a Tetramorium apprentice queen in a test tube. She lives 30 days and her honeydew pays AMBER.
3. Learn the basics. A short tutorial and eight "First steps" tasks teach feeding, watering, collecting and hunting, each with an AMBER reward.
4. Grow. When you are ready, start a paid queen (or the one-time Starter Pack) to produce GRAM, upgrade your nest and join a clan.

3The colony simulation

Each colony is a small simulation that runs around the clock, also while you are away.

The care loop

Four bars show how a colony is doing:

• Energy: honey stored for the workers, shown in days. Raise it with Honey drops.
• Protein: food for larvae and workers, shown in days. Raise it with Flies, Mealworms and Grasshoppers. Live prey is hunted by the workers.
• Humidity: how moist the nest is. Keep it between 40% and 80% with the Water button; it dries out every day.
• Care: the overall score, calculated from the other three.

Care moves towards this target over a few hours. It multiplies honeydew production, it decides whether new workers are born (below 25% the colony shrinks) and it adds to battle power.

Workers, production and castes

Honeydew production grows with the number of workers. A new queen starts with a handful of workers, so her first days are slow; with good care the colony multiplies daily until the nest is full. Each colony can split its workers into three castes:

• Foragers raise honeydew production.
• Nurses make the colony grow faster.
• Soldiers raise battle power.

The default split is 60 / 25 / 15. Each caste can be set between 10% and 80% in 5% steps.

Nests and equipment

The nest limits how many workers a colony can have. When it is full, workers stop multiplying until you upgrade. Nest prices grow with the size of the queen. Feeders keep food fresh longer and humidity systems slow down drying.

Levels, winged queens and slots

• Levels. Colonies earn XP from care, collecting and battles. Each level adds 8% battle power.
• Winged queens. After day 45, a paid colony with care above 60% can raise one winged queen. Founding her costs 80% of her species price in AMBER and starts a new colony with its own return limit.
• Colony slots. A player can run up to 6 colonies at once, 7 with VIP.

4Queens and the return limit

Paid queens are the heart of the economy. A queen is bought once, with GRAM or with purchased AMBER (100 AMBER = 1 GRAM), and then produces GRAM through her colony's honeydew. Each pack also includes starter food, and the larger packs include equipment.

How the return limit works

Food eaten counts against the return: 1 energy unit is valued at 0.002 GRAM and 1 protein unit at 0.01 GRAM, the same as the shop price of the food. A well-fed colony grows faster, but what it eats is subtracted from the return. When the limit is reached the queen completes her mission.

With good care a queen pays back her price around day 70, then keeps producing until she reaches 2×. The Starter Pack (2 GRAM → 4 GRAM) takes about 50 days. These are typical values with good care, not promises.

Renewal

A queen that completed her mission can be renewed for her full price. The colony keeps its workers, nest, level and equipment, and 2× the new price is added to the limit. Renewal skips the slow start of a new colony.

Limited queens

The 5K Celebration Chest marked 5,000 players: 500 numbered chests with a Founder Queen (5 GRAM, limit 10 GRAM), 30 days VIP, the Premium Season Pass, a Ytong nest, food, a Founder badge and a golden profile frame. Once sold out, it does not return.

5AMBER and GRAM

Deposited and earned GRAM

The game keeps two kinds of GRAM apart. Deposited GRAM comes from a player's own payments and can only be spent in the game. Earned GRAM comes from queens, the boss, leaderboards and referrals, and only earned GRAM can be withdrawn. When a player spends GRAM, deposited GRAM is used first.

6Game systems

Beyond the nest, Honey Ants has a full social and competitive layer.

Foraging map

Workers can be sent to six regions. Longer trips need more workers and carry more risk (some workers may not return), but bring back more energy and protein, rare hats and, from Sky Island, AMBER. Each player can start 3 expeditions a day (4 with VIP).

Region	Time	Workers	Risk	Loot
Green Forest	~4 h	10	5%	Energy and protein
Sand Dunes	~6 h	20	10%	Energy and protein
Ice Valley	~8 h	35	15%	Energy and protein
Dark Cave	~10 h	45	20%	Food, 5% hat chance
Volcanic Field	~12 h	60	30%	Food, 8% hat chance
Sky Island	~17 h	80	35%	Food, 12% hat chance, 5–15 AMBER

Invasions. From time to time a spider, a wasp or a rival colony attacks. Defending in time gives a +20% bonus; ignoring it can cost food.

Colony battles (PvP)

Players stake 100, 250, 500 or 1,000 purchased AMBER and send a colony against a rival of similar strength. The outcome depends on colony power (workers, level, soldiers, species, care, clan tech) and is calculated on the server. The system keeps 5% of the pool. One free training battle per day pays a small reward. After a battle a colony rests for about 3 hours.

Clans

A clan costs 2,000 AMBER to found and holds 30 members, expandable to 60 and 120 with the clan bank. Leaders can appoint up to 3 assistants, accept join requests and send invites.

• Clan bank. Members donate AMBER. The bank pays for capacity (30,000 and 120,000 AMBER) and for technologies.
• Technologies. War Spirit (+1% colony power per level), Rich Chest (+4 AMBER in the daily clan chest per level) and Fast Recovery (−8% PvP rest time per level), up to level 5 each.
• Weekly clan wars. Clans score points from battles, defence and expeditions. Members of the winning clan get 50 AMBER and a grasshopper, the others 15 AMBER.
• Clan quests. Weekly shared goals (hunting, collecting, battles, expeditions, donations) with rewards for every member.

Daily clan boss

Every UTC day a giant bug appears for everyone: a scorpion, a centipede, a rhinoceros beetle, a tarantula or a mantis. Clan members hit it with their colonies, each colony every 2 hours. When the boss falls, the clan that dealt the most damage wins the day's pool, shared among its hitters by damage.

• The pool is set by the team, by default worth 5 TON a day, paid 50% in GRAM and 50% in AMBER.
• An unkilled boss escapes at midnight UTC and its pool carries over to the next day, up to 3× the daily amount.
• A boss killed early comes back stronger the next day; a late kill raises its health only a little.

Season pass

Each monthly season has 30 levels of 120 XP. XP comes from daily logins (+30), expeditions (+8), battles (+6), hunting (+4) and collecting (+3). The free track gives AMBER and food; the premium track (499 AMBER) adds more rewards and exclusive cosmetics: a gold crown at level 10, the Royal theme at level 20 and a legendary helmet at level 30.

Daily rewards, tasks and the wheel

• Daily streak. Seven days of rewards, ending with 30 AMBER, honey, a mealworm and a grasshopper. Missing a day restarts the streak.
• Daily tasks. Collect, feed, hunt, water and battle for AMBER and food. Milestones reward bigger goals such as a second colony or level 5.
• Lucky wheel. One free spin a day; extra spins cost 35 AMBER (5 for 160). The odds are published in the game.

VIP

VIP costs 9.99 GRAM or 999 purchased AMBER for 30 days and stacks if bought again:

• Honeydew is collected automatically when the jar is full
• A 7th colony slot
• +1 expedition per day
• 2% withdrawal fee instead of 5%
• A daily VIP chest (5 AMBER and a fly)
• A golden profile frame

VIP does not speed up production.

7Ways to earn

There are four sources of withdrawable GRAM, and many sources of AMBER.

8Deposits and withdrawals

Deposits

Telegram edition. Purchases are paid in TON from the player's TON Connect wallet (Tonkeeper, Telegram Wallet and others). Each payment carries a unique code; the server finds it on chain, credits it once and delivers the item. The bot then confirms what was bought.

Robinhood Chain edition. The player sends USDG to the game's treasury from the wallet they signed in with. The server reads the confirmed transfer from the chain and credits the balance. Purchases are then paid from the balance. Transfers from unknown wallets are held for manual review.

Withdrawals

• Only earned GRAM can be withdrawn. Minimum 0.5 GRAM.
• Fee: 5%, or 2% with VIP.
• Limits: 500 GRAM per player per day and a game-wide daily limit.
• Every request is reviewed, usually within 24 hours, including checks for multi-accounting and abuse.
• Payouts go to the wallet linked to the account: TON in the Telegram edition, USDG in the Robinhood Chain edition. After the linked wallet is changed, withdrawals wait 24 hours.
• Paid withdrawals are confirmed on chain and proofs are posted in the payout channel.

9Referral program

Every player has a personal invite link. When an invited player buys AMBER or a pack, the inviters earn a commission three levels deep, credited as earned GRAM that can be withdrawn after it is claimed in the Invite tab.

You

10%Level 1

5%Level 2

3%Level 3

Invite milestones pay AMBER at 1, 3, 10 and 25 friends (10, 30, 100 and 300 AMBER). There is no payment per invite on its own: commissions come from real purchases. Commissions from fake or self-referred accounts can be cancelled.

10Monthly leaderboards

Three boards run every month: Strongest colony (total battle power), Most honeydew (honeydew collected this season; the free apprentice queen counts 1/10) and Most invites (invited players who became active this season). The top 10 of each board share 100 GRAM.

Accounts must be at least 7 days old, and results are checked before prizes are paid. A season lasts one calendar month; the launch season ends on 29 October 2026.

25#1

15#2

12#3

10#4

8#5

7#6

6.5#7

6#8

5.5#9

5#10

11Editions and chains

Honey Ants runs in two editions. They share the same game rules but have separate servers, databases, accounts and treasuries. Balances cannot be moved between them.

12Airdrop points and token plans

A Honey Ants token is planned. It has not been launched, there is no token sale, and nothing about it is for sale today. Its timing, supply and distribution are not final and will only be announced in the official channels.

To reward early players, the Robinhood Chain edition already counts airdrop points. They are kept moderate on purpose so they cannot be farmed:

• First activity of the day: +10
• Collecting honeydew: +1 each, up to 20 a day
• Daily tasks: +5 each, up to 25 a day
• Expeditions: +2 each, up to 10 a day
• PvP battles: +2 each, up to 10 a day
• Boss hits: +3 each, up to 15 a day
• All activity together: at most 60 points a day (plus the daily +10)
• Deposits: 10 points for every 1 USDG

13Sustainability

GRAM paid to players comes from the game's revenue: queens, renewals, VIP, packs, AMBER top-ups and fees. Honey Ants has no outside fund that backs payouts, so the design keeps payouts below revenue over time:

• Hard return limit. No queen pays more than 2× her price, and the food she eats is subtracted.
• Deposited GRAM is not withdrawable. Money paid in is spent inside the game.
• One-way AMBER. GRAM can become AMBER, never the other way, so free rewards cannot be cashed out.
• Daily sinks. Food, equipment, decor, the wheel, the pass, PvP fees and withdrawal fees take currency out every day.
• Fixed reward budgets. The boss pool and leaderboard prizes are set amounts, not a share of player balances.
• Reviewed payouts and daily caps per player and for the whole game.

Most queens are paid out over two to three months, so the treasury keeps a reserve for queens that are still producing. The team can adjust prices, pools, fees and caps when needed; changes are announced in the announcements channel.

14Security and fair play

• Server-authoritative. Balances, colonies, battles and the boss are calculated on the server. The app only sends actions, so balances cannot be edited from the client.
• Verified logins. Telegram launch data is checked against Telegram's signature. Wallet logins use a one-time message signed by the wallet; no transaction or approval is ever requested at login.
• On-chain checks. Payments are credited only after they are found on chain, and each transaction can be credited only once.
• Reviewed payouts. Every withdrawal is checked before it is sent. Robinhood Chain payouts are signed by the team's own wallet; no private key is stored on the server.
• Backups. Game data is written to a journal and backed up continuously.
• Anti-abuse. Multi-accounting, bots and referral abuse are checked before payouts and prizes. Accounts that break the rules can be closed.

15Roadmap

Plans can change. Only features that are live are covered by the rest of this document.

16Risks and disclaimer

The full rules are in the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy.

17Appendix

Parameters

Current default values. The team can adjust them; the game always shows the live values.

Glossary

AMBER

The play currency. Cannot be withdrawn or converted into GRAM.

GRAM

The earning currency. Earned GRAM can be withdrawn.

Honeydew

What a colony produces; collected from the jar as GRAM (or AMBER for the free queen).

Care

A colony's overall condition, from energy, protein, humidity and mold.

Return limit

The most a paid queen can return: 2× her price, after food.

Deposited GRAM

GRAM from your own payments; spendable in the game only.

Earned GRAM

GRAM from queens, the boss, leaderboards and referrals; withdrawable.

Reward AMBER

AMBER won in the game; not usable for queen packs, PvP stakes or GRAM conversion.

Castes

How workers are split between foragers, nurses and soldiers.

Winged queen

A new queen raised by a mature colony with good care.

Honey Ants Whitepaper v2.0 · October 2026 · This document describes the game and is not an offer or solicitation of any kind. Questions: support.