Faebund

Faebund is a popular strategy RTS game centered around warring color coded Fairy colonies known for its extreme complexity and longform driven play.

Gameplay

Faebund has two main modes- Campaign and Freeplay. In Campaign, the player is against the map and predetermined AI enemies in a ramping difficulty, often with specific goals for each of the maps. Freeplay allows the player to create their own campaign, either in single player or in multiplayer, adjusting the map, enemies, resources, and hazards. Freeplay can be competitive or team based, pitting teams or individual players against one another. Freeplay can also be divided into arcade style one time matches, or online competitive longform campaigns.

Victory Conditions

There are many ways to win the game, often dependent on the map and campaign being played. The most common victory type is Conquest, requiring the player to eliminate all other colonies, either through direct combat or by wasting their resources and forcing them to starve. Biomass victories are achieved by reaching a certain threshold of units and development around the hive. Biomass victories often require a fair amount of combat in order to keep control over resources in order to grow the colony, but do not require as much leveling of units as conquest victories. Influence makes use of pacifist gameplay, allowing for the player to win by trade and happiness. Survival is an additional win condition, where the player can win by any means as long as they can run out the timer and are still alive when it ends, regardless of enemy presence on the map.

Units

Queen

Queens are the leader unit and the one the player takes actions through. They have the highest health, but next to no damage or mobility. The player can only have one queen, and when killed, unless they have a larva ready to pupate into a queen, will end their session and kill their entire colony. Without a queen, the colony will fall into panic and other units will abandon their orders, falling into disarray. Queens control all other units, giving them orders on what they should be doing, whether to gather food or enter combat, and to build structures. Queens also birth new worker and soldier units regularly.

Worker

Workers are the backbone unit of the game, performing the majority of functions. Workers are primarily used for building structures, managing resources, and in maintaining other units such as soldiers.

Soldier

Soldiers are the combat oriented units of the game, taking less damage than other units and dealing signifgantly higher damage.

Drone

A unique unit in the gameplay, Drones are not a unit the player can directly order, and are classified as a hazard. Drones will distract workers and soldiers from their duties if left alone, and can steal away other units to become enemy AI colonies. If left unattended, a drone can decimate the player's supply lines and overwhelm the map with enemy colonies that will overharvest resources, forcing the player to run out of food. Despite this, drone units are a necessity in order to maintain populations. Drones that are old enough can become enemy queens themselves, but captured drone units can also be used to replace the player's queen should she die.

Classes

There are 4 different types of hives for the player to choose from that have different mechanics depending on their specialty. Classes can be set randomly or picked at the beginning of a game. DLCs often add other class types that are reskins of the 4 main classes, with smaller additional mechanics and requirements to meet.

Venom Specialist

A combat oriented class, specializing in the venom ability. Venom classed hives primarily deal damage through their stings, making more more use of soldier units than any other, that will stun and incapacitate enemies for a short period of time, allowing for increased physical damage during stuns.

Agriculturalist

A farming based class that gets bonus resources from all nodes captured, and can get bonus materials from them. Agriculturalists make more use of worker units, who will take reduced damage and have higher speeds.

Economist

Unlocks luxury chambers early, as well as at a lower cost. Economist class hives can win through trade much easier and have the ability to buy out enemy colonies, but are at a significant disadvantage in combat with much higher cost to produce soldiers, that are much weaker. Happiness is at a much higher drain when in combat, affecting all units rather than just the units in combat.

Survivalist

A utilitarian class that receives no buffs from luxury chambers, but receives massive buffs to disease resistance and combat on natural maps with few utilized resources. Survivalist players are penalized the more the map is developed, both by the player and enemies, and considered at their strongest in the early game.

Resource Management

No matter the game mode chosen, controlling and making use of resources across the map is the key to success.

Food

Food resources are divided into three types: Plant matter, meat, and fungus. Plant matter and meat can be harvested from nodes across the map and will deplete over time if not carefully managed to prevent over harvesting. Meat and plant matter can feed adult units directly, but cannot be used for larva. Fungus is grown by fairy colonies and produced from plant and meat, requiring a dedicated fungus farm. Fungus can only be used to feed larva and pupae, to grow into adult units.

Moisture

Moisture is critical to gameplay. Without enough water, the player's colony cannot produce fungus or hatch out larva and pupae. Too much moisture and the colony can be infected by disease that will kill their fungus stores and decrease production speed of workers. Maintaining a careful balance of moisture is one of the first and most important actions for the player to take.

Larva and Pupae

Officially classified as a resource, larve and pupae will grow into worker and soldier units. Larva can be set to grow into workers or soldiers by putting them into a worker or soldier chamber respectively, and once they grow into pupae, their unit type cannot be changed. Both larva and pupae must be fed by workers, their moisture levels maintained, and moved around the colony to appropriate chambers. Larva are produced from eggs made by Queen units. It is possible to have too many larva and pupae, outstripping the colony's resources and creating dead bodies within the colony when the larva and pupae die.

Building materials

Building materials is a broad category, and what materials are available depends heavily on the map being used. Most often, building materials are soil, wood, stone, and nest fiber, although specialty materials do exist as rare resources, often for decoration or specialty cosmetic items. Building materials such as nest fiber and soil can be produced by the colony itself in specialty chambers by workers, but can be more quickly harvested from limited nodes in the environment. These materials are necessary for producing fungus and building chambers to create units and maintain moisture and food.

Colony Function

Colonies have to be maintained, both for player and enemy hives. This is done through building and creating specialty chambers within the player's hive and within their territory. Many key stats must be maintained in order to keep a colony functioning, and there are mechanics that are set to specifically make maintenance more difficult.

Stats

Happiness

Failing to maintain a hive's happiness will reduce all units effectiveness, their health, and their speed. Happiness is maintained by having sufficient break chambers, allowing units to rest, having enough food and moisture, and keeping units alive. If a hive's happiness is too low, the units can go on strike. Striking units will not produce resources, and striking soldiers may allow for enemies to pass into the player's territory, posing a risk to the queen. Most often, strikes will occur due to insufficient resources or the colony's needs not being met, and can be resolved by meeting their needs as well as paying dues to the striking units. Notably, dues will become higher and higher and often demand much more luxurious resources the more often and longer they have been on strike.

Hunger

All units will get hungry over time, and working units will get hungrier more quickly. Hungry units must return to the hive in order to refill their hunger. If hunger gets too low, units can starve to death. Queens that are starving will not produce larva, and starving soldiers and workers will abandon their orders to hunt, risking overharvesting resources.

Thirst

Functions the same as hunger as a separate stat. Drier maps will drain thirst more rapidly.

Lifespan

Units are not immortal, and will die of age over time. Lifespan can be increased by upgrading chambers, providing higher quality food, and maintaining happiness.

Rest

Rest is drained over time, but at a much more rapid pace by performing orders. Tired units will not work, and may take breaks in dangerous areas or conditions, such as combat. Overly tired units will drain happiness rapidly. Rest is also drained by environmental hazards, such as overheating or freezing units.

Buildables

Break chambers

Key mechanic: Maintains happiness and rest, preventing units from striking or abandoning the hive

Pupation chambers

Key mechanic: Hatching workers and soldiers

Fungus chambers

Key mechanic: Breaks down food into fungus, to feed larva and pupae

Food storage

Key mechanic: Stores food for feeding fungus and units. Can be upgraded to preserve food for long term use

Trash heap

Key mechanic: Removes trash from other chambers, increasing happiness and preventing disease. Also functions as a graveyard for dead units to be processed into fungus.

Luxury chambers

Luxury chambers all give massive boosts to happiness of other units and maintain their rest. It is possible to reach any win condition without the use of luxury chambers, however they often give massive buffs depending on the map and may help avoid or mitigate certain hazards.
Sauna

Key mechanic: Lowers risk of disease, increases happiness and moisture, refills rest. Requires a source of moisture within the hive and a form of heating, as well as workers to maintain. Often considered the key to surviving desert and tundra maps.

Trade hub

Key mechanic: Increases happiness, allows for production of luxury materials and access to trade.

Kitchen

Key mechanic: Produces higher quality food.

Training hall

Key mechanic: Specifically increases Soldier happiness and lifespan.

Graveyard

Key mechanic: Increases happiness by removing bodies from other chambers and massively prevents disease. Units are signifgantly happier using a graveyard rather than a trash heap, despite the same function.

Library

Key mechanic: Increases worker lifespan and happiness. Workers set to maintain larva will read to them, boosting their hatching speed and giving the next generation massive buffs to lifespan and happiness. Occasionally produces an easter egg where a worker reads a bedtime story to a larva, and the larva has a nightmare.

Game studio

Key mechanic: Massive boost to rest and happiness of all units. Occasionally will produce the easter egg that a worker has developed Faebund II.

Salon

Key mechanic: Reduces disease and unlocks cosmetic changes to units as well as producing clothing. Considered key to surviving tundra and plagued maps.

Hazards and Environment

Almost all functions of the environment in Faebund also function as hazards to various degrees, and are one of the most frustrating functions of the gameplay for new players.
Deserts

Devoid of most food sources, but high in stone. Incredibly low moisture. Cold variants are labeled as tundra, but function identically.

Forests

Provides wood, hunting opportunities, and shelter from weather events as well as the ability to build hive tiles at a relatively low cost. Forests also have the risk of predator animals such as bears, wolves, and obscuring large enemies such as dragons and other hives.

Jungles

Identical to forests, aside from aesthetic. Workers carrying items from a forest will notably have a more tropical flair, such as pineapples, parrots, or bananas.

Rivers and lakes

Provides the ability to fish as well as gather water. Depending on the current weather effect, can cause flooding.

Swampland

A combination of the river and forest tile, with all the same benefits as well as risk associated. Swamplands also have a massively increased chance of causing disease in any unit that enters them. Most diseases found in swamp tiles will have long incubation periods, causing the units to be infectious but not noticed until much later in a session long after a hive-wide outbreak has occurred.

Mountains

Can provide high amounts of stone resources. Come with the hazard of landslides and earthquakes, which were notably patched out of volcanoes due to difficulty. Can be named by the player upon discovery.

Hot Springs

A rare environmental tile, that functions as a free sauna. A significantly higher chance to spawn near volcanoes.

Volcanoes

A rare environment tile that notably, can affect the entire map. Volcanoes can be either active or dormant, but never extinct. Dormant volcanoes look similar to mountains, and most often can not be differentiated from them until they become active, which happens based on random chance. Active volcanoes produce miasma, destroy forests, and inflict disease on all units outside the hive. Sufficiently upgraded hive tiles may be protected from ash and miasma, but it is an extremely rare occurrence that players will notice a volcano before it erupts. DLC maps such as Laramidia have a much higher spawn chance for volcanoes. Like mountains, can be named on discovery, but notably, can have their name changed if a mountain reveals itself to be a volcano. Naming a volcano 'Etna', 'Pompeii', or 'Yellowstone' causes the volcano to instantly erupt again, regardless of cooldown.

Lava flows

Created by volcanoes. Kills anything that touches it instantly, and produces miasma. Can be blocked by stone structures temporarily, and if it touches water, will create stone. Creates a wildfire weather condition when touching forests, jungles, or swamps.

Weather events can occur sporadically, with multiple weather events occurring at different areas of the map at once.
Rain

Increases moisture on the entire map. Can cause rivers, lakes, and swamps to flood. Flooded swamps will temporarily cause any other water source they touch to convert into a swamp.

Storms

All storms will cause flooding, and drastically increase the moisture across the map. Storms will flood any area below sea level, including hives. Has a chance to cause lightning strikes, killing any unit it touches and setting it and the surrounding area on fire.

Wildfire

Causes fires across the map and drastically lowers moisture. Forests and jungles burn quicker than other tiles.

Tornadoes

Destroys any tile it touches. Rarely spawns in conjunction with storms, with a higher chance on desert tiles.

Popular Reception

Faebund is a massively popular game, and notorious for its extreme complexity and difficulty. Its notoriety is what led to the game's popularity. Campaigns are often over exaggerated to take months to complete, and PVP campaigns have been known to stretch for weeks with little progress over one another. It is often jokingly said that actually playing through a campaign is an achievement itself, regardless of if the player has won or lost. Succession games, in which different players will act as leader of the player type colony, are immensely popular with numerous succession games having earned near legendary status and reputation.
Due to the game's sheer complexity in code, creating mods for it is often used as a course in programing spaces. Those that create mods for the game are often held in high regard, due to the notoriously frustrating process of making one that remains stable and doesn't break other aspects of the game.
Speedrunning Faebund is well known to still take several hours and require a massive amount of restarts and failed runs. The current world record is 11:42:23, though notably used a glitch to bypass happiness meters and ignore striking units.