Giant Ant |
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| Location | Ainsel River Nokstella, Eternal City Deeproot Depths Miquella's Haligtree |
| Drops |  122 - 2268 RunesFormic Rock Rune Arc Numen's Rune |
Giant Ant is an Enemy in Elden Ring. Giant Ants are large red ants found in underground areas. Many of them have variations of the markings on their abdomen, and some in Nokstella, Eternal City have hardened phragmotic heads that function as a shields. In Nokstella, one may even find some Nox Swordstresses riding Giant Ants as their battle mount.
Elden Ring Giant Ant Locations
Where to Find Giant Ants:
Elden Ring Giant Ant Drops
Item |
Drop Rate |
Additional Info |
| Runes | 100% | 122 - 2268 |
| Formic Rock | 1.50%-8.00%* | *Bloated Ants (queens) have higher drop rate. |
| Rune Arc | 100%* | *Bloated Ants only |
| Numen's Rune | 100%* | *Bloated Ants only |
Elden Ring Giant Ant Subtypes
| Appearance |
Subtype | Notes |
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Worker Ant | The typical ant variant with basic moveset, with suggested counters in parentheses: *Single bite (backstep and attack) *Triple bite (double backstep or roll) *Acid spray (move sideways) *Grapple + Stab (don't stand still in front of giant ant) |
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Winged Ant | Same as worker ant but with wings. Same moveset as worker ant and officer ant while on the ground. Has a few additional attacks while airborne, but is limited to a set distance hovering above ground which can be used to your advantage. |
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Shield-Headed Ant |
Larger ant variant with extremely large and armored head. The thick skull forms a nearly impenetrable shield and the player is advised to attack the abdomen behind the head. |
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Bloated Ant |
An ant with an extremely bloated and enlarged abdomen. These are stationary enemies with no real way of defending themselves. Often guarded by other ants. Usually drops valuable items such as Rune Arcs and Numens Rune. These do not respawn when you die or rest at a grace. This is the only variant of the ants that has separate set of resistances. It is not as weak to fire as the other ants but can be easily killed with one arrow shot in the massive ballooned abdomen. |
Giant Ant Notes & Tips
- Each ant has different meshes for their abdomen, meaning that some ants are functionally the same, but can look slightly different.
The mesh for the Bloated Ant is called “Honey,” further signifying the resemblance. - Ants are easily staggered, even by small amounts of damage such as stepping into fire created by a Steel-Wire Torch or magic.
- Giant Ants are weak to fire and resist slash-type damage.
- The spray attack deals Standard physical damage, but has a special 'Guard bypass rate' of -60. This means the spray attack will damage you while guarding, even with a shield at 100% physical resistance.
This means you want to avoid being hit by the spray in the first place. Strafing or rolling are better options than guarding, even for shield users. The attack can also hit you multiple times and can easily drain through your health if you're not careful. - When you get closer to Giant Ants, they will prioritize biting attacks. If you get even closer, you're in danger of getting grabbed (a special grapple attack where the ant will grab the player, raise them up high, and stab them with their stimger before slamming them on the ground).
- Due to the fact that they drop Formic Rocks, it seems to be implied that the acid spray is indeed formic acid, the same acid deployed by real ants.
- The spurs (stingers) on the ants do not cause Scarlet Rot, unlike the Antspur Rapier, which is an ant's spur that has been modified and augmented by a scarlet rot fanatic, Maleigh Marais.
- Some Worker Ants are mounted by a Nox Swordstress. They can be encountered in the upper region of Nokstella, Eternal City. They have glowing purple eyes, which are believed to be caused by a sort of mind control utilized by the Nox to subdue the ant. If the player successfully initiates the Sleep Status Effect on the mounted Ant, it will eject the Nox rider from its back and proceed to attack her. One should note that the Nox Swordstress is a somewhat stronger enemy and that it might pay off to stagger/damage the Nox to help the ant kill her. These ants will also attack Silver Tears in their vicinity if they survive.
- The Giant Ants in question have a Sleep threshold of between 130 to 140, a considerably low value. This means that it should be possible for any character to proc Sleep on them. A sleep pot will be overkill and you should be able to proc sleep with 2-3 sleepbone arrows instead. The Pulley Crossbow with sleepbone bolts is another good alternative due to it's 3-shot burst, but be aware of recoil.
- Giant ants are susceptible to status ailments Sleep, Frostbite, Blood*, and Scarlet Rot/Poison, in that order. (Weakest to sleep and stronger against rot or poison). However, they are immune to Madness and Death Blight.
*If one decides to use bleed weapons on the Giant Ants, they should keep in mind the Giant Ants are strongest against Slash-type physical damage (see the table below). - The various ant subtypes are references to references to different castes and species.
Winged Ants are alates, mature ants that grow wings to fly off and find mates to begin new colonies.
Shield-Headed Ants are likely phragmotic ants based on Turtle Ant soldiers, as they use their large and flat head to block colony entrances from invaders
Bloated Ants are based on Honeypot Ant repletes, who store honey and sugar in their abdomens for the colony to use. The mesh for their bloated body is named “Honey” to prove this.
Giant Ant Image Gallery
Giant Ant Resistance Sheet
| Damage type | Resistance |
| Standard | 10% |
| Slash | 35% (Strong against slash) |
| Strike | 10% |
| Pierce | 10% |
| Magic | 0% |
| Fire | -20% (Weak against fire) |
| Lightning | 0% |
| Holy |
0% |
| The absorption numbers are the % of your damage that gets blocked. For example, if an absorption is 60, 40% of that damage by that type will go through and 60% is absorbed. Bigger number = less damage. An absorption of 100 means no damage goes through, and a resistance of -100 mean the enemy takes 2x damage from that source. 0 means damage goes pretty much as is. |
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Anonymous
- Anonymous
The bloated ants are actual called repletes. They act as living food storage for the ant colony.
The winged ants are called alates and are the colonies reproductives. These are male and female ants that leave the nest to mate and start new colonies. Males can be identified by their smaller heads.
Just a little ant knowledge!
- Anonymous
It feels like this hasn't been "well designed". Not really aggressive unlike the dogs, projectile attack can barely reach 3 metres unlike lobster ICBM. If somebody put it in skyrim it will fit really well.
- Anonymous
Locations:
Regular Ants/ The Slightly Bloated ones: Area near Deep Ainsel Well, Lower Nokstella, Between Ainsel River Main and Nokstella, Deproot Depths (Specifically on the roots and in the bloated ant cave), and Haligtree (not Elphael)
Mind Controlled Regular Ants: Lower Nokstella
Winged Ants: Two betweeen Ainsel River Main and Nokstella, and a bunch in deeproot depths
Shield Ants: Two near the Avatar at the start of Deeproot, One near the Across the Roots grace at a similar elevation in the place above the cave with the runebear that drops the prince of death's cyst, One on the way to Nokstella from Ainsel Main, and 2 in an further away bit of lower Nokstella.
Bloated Ants: One near the Deep Ainsel Well, One on the path from the frenzied flame area to deeproot, and five in the semi-hidden cave near the start of deeproot depths where elden stars is found
- Anonymous
Fun fact: shield-headed ants actually exist in the name of "doorhead ants". Their colonies have these specialied units with a large, flat plate on their head. They use it to block off openings and tunnels in their home when enemy ants attack. Technically their purpose is being a door.
- Anonymous
51 vigor here. Got absolutely destroyed by two flying ants doing the acid spray attack at the same time while on torrent in Deeproot depths. The legends are true, watch out for that acid, especially while on torrent.
- Anonymous
Quick shout-out to giant ants for ruining 80% of underground sections
These thing's collisions are hilariously badly designed, they will push you away by a mile with every attack even if you dodge through them, so of course FS decides to spam them all over platforming areas, nothing says non-artificial difficulty than getting push down of haligtree's branch for the million times by these janky ****s
- Anonymous
Thank you, tseldora, for curing me of panic towards giant insects.
- Anonymous
these things genuinely make me sick to my stomach whenever i see them. **** whoever greenlighted this, and big ups whoever can tolerate it
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
The flying ones make my mild wasp phobia go off. Do not like these things at all
- Anonymous
Surprising detailed depiction of ant colony including worker ants, soldier ants, male ants and ant queen.
- Anonymous
i am really disturbed from their appearances since i have insectophobia, therefore i generally have to avoid regions like deeproot and nokstella as much as i can do. wish there was an option to change their appearance to something else
- Anonymous
The one single trash mob that will absolutely just one shot you no matter how tanky you are
- Anonymous
For the bunch of flyers in Deeproot Depths, summon Latenna and bait them in one at a time with a bow, then let her handle them if you're not a ranged build. You're welcome. Also f**k these things and whoever put them in the game.
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Haha, this comment section quite surprised me. I don't find ants scary or repulsive in general and wasn't expecting to see so much terror people display towards them.
On the other hand I'm familiar with these creatures since Fallout 2 where they were lowest tier foes, so this might be the reason i just got used to the concept a long time ago and regard them totally unconcerned.
- Anonymous
The ants are so cute i love them hoping for a big ant colony with ant bosses in the dlc
The Bloated Ants have jiggle physics when you hit their bloated abdomen
- Anonymous
Soooo am I supposed to be able to get BEHIND the shield-head at some point? Because that fukcer locks on to me from three miles away and spins faster than a politician at a fundraiser, wtf am i supposed to do with this?
- Anonymous
I reckon the big-headed ones are more like Supermajor Soldier Ants rather than the doorhead worker ants, since they are bigger, stronger and more aggressive than the other ants, and of course Supermajors also typically have massive heads.
- Anonymous
Just for your information: Never EVER fight the winged ones up close when on horseback !!! It seems it always triggers the spray attack, without fail. (And I tried !) Also, on your mount, for some reason, you take EVEN MORE damage from that ! Why ? Nobody knows ! But after killing endless amounts of them without problems (Dex/Arcane Eleonora´s Poleblade build with Dragon incantations - I eat them for breakfast with my fire) those flyers in late Deeproot insta-kill me with that acid spray XD My Char is ca. Lv. 125, over 1250 HP. Not extremely beefy, but tanky enough. Also : 40 % physical resist. I mean, what the hell. This attack seems to do some dozens of times the damage of all other ant attacks. Insane. So, you have been warned. If anyone ever survived that: Please comment on your Hitpoints. Also, how much you keep afterwards. I just NEED to know how much damage they do with that actually. More than 1250, apparently, that much is for sure -.-
- Anonymous
They really went out of their way to make so many enemies disturbing/disgusting as all hell, didn't they
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
As someone who is not scared of ants unlike alot of people apparently, I'm glad that they're atleast not something horrible like huge scary ass centipedes or something
- Anonymous
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don't quote me on this, but doesn't also that one queen ant in southern Ainsel River drop a Golden Rune 10, rather than a Numen's Rune or a Rune Arc? i just don't remember it dropping either of the last two, though i'm not entirely sure
- Anonymous
Ant fact: only male ants have wings, and they don't stick around in the nest. They kinda do their own thing. Ants are cool.
- Anonymous
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I spent 2 days mentally preparing to fight this things... just to one shot them and not even feel slightly terrified. Guess I'm not as insectaphobic as I thought.
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wish they added giant centipedes too. like the collectable ones you find at some marikas churches
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I do like it how they become freed if you kill the rider and start attacking everything else, seen an ant grab one of the swordstresses and throw them around
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
These ants seem to inhabit near the root of erd-trees and possess an amalgamation of different traits from real-world ants.
The worker and "soldier" are probably the same minor worker caste in the colony only some has its abdomen stuffed with food. Shield-headed ants are probably what we would typically call major workers or soldiers. It's interesting as the ants have a more defensive major as opposed to offensively armed ones. It either means that they often squabble with neighboring colonies or perhaps they defend against creatures that predate upon them. The bloated individual we find is most likely not the queen of the colony. They are most likely the caste of repletes whose sole purpose is to store food and water for the colony. Ant queens are typically larger, but not bloated like termite queens are.
The reason we do not encounter what I would think to be a queen in the game probably lies in the existence of the winged individuals;
Not all ant species have a designated "Queen" ant, some species have what we call a "Gamergate" system and any alate in the colony is able to reproduce. The winged individuals we encounter in the game are all female alates as males are harmless and do not have stingers. That means every winged ant is potentially the "Queen" and if we happened to kill her, another would take its place. Eggs are often seen around the winged alates and in the room with the minor workers and replete, probably in preparation to feed the larvae once they hatch. This is ultimately speculation as I don't know how in-depth with the concept they were in or any creative freedoms were taken, but from what I observe it is very plausible! Well, plausible given the existence of giant ants at least.
- Anonymous
99 vigor lv 432 at least 29% reduction in all dmg types 2184 hp journey 8 acid spray oneshots the damage is bananas on all difficulties could be bugged like the blood dogs used to be
- Anonymous
They look like those gear repairing ants in The Gutter from DS2
- Anonymous
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okay, most of Elden Ring isn't that scary, but THIS made me take a 10min break, i almost threw up when i was in their nest
- Anonymous
They must have a unique damage type, their spray isn't physical, magic, fire, lightning or holy as no matter what shield you use it goes right through it. Shields do reduce some of it but nothing that matches % wise with a shields damage negation stats, it's almost like it's physical but cuts a shields guarded dam negation by around %50.
- Anonymous
just a heads up, the winged ones have an incredibly rare but horrifying attack where they grab you with their mouth and stab you through your back with the stinger.
have fun :)
- Anonymous
I'm not even that squeamish and these things are disgusting
- Anonymous
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Fun fact: If you put the Ant rider's ant to sleep itll drop the Maiden from its back and attack her
- Anonymous
I'm not afraid of ants, but these guys look more like hornets than ants themselves, and that makes me terrified.
- Anonymous
The sheer amount of damage from the spray is utterly insane, it's like the blood dogs all over again...
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
So for the shield ants an easy way for sorcerers to deal with them is the ambush shard spell. It spawns a shard behind them rendering their shield useless
- Anonymous
I was like, "oh ok, overly detailed ants, could be worse." and then I killed one, and, that death animation, please, no more.
- Anonymous
Were the shield head ants buffed or bugged in the recent patch? Because they are completely destroying me (2h melee in heavy armour) now. I get the point is to avoid their head and hit their body, but they seem able to instantly turn if I roll/jump/run around them. If I can actually hit the body I two tap them, but when their head blockes me I do almost nothing and they kill me in a few hits. Sometimes I luckily clip through their head while doing a combo, which is the only reason I can kill them at all.
- Anonymous
I'm on NG+5 and these things seem to have an ability that one hit kills me? I have 40 vig, and at least 45% defense for every damage type with the help of ritual shield talisman. It's a ranged attack that inflicts scarlet rot and it does 3000 damage???
- Anonymous
Holy shitballs. I'm running through deeproot depths and when I had just enough runes for a level up, I finally got hit with that spray attack and it one-shotted me. I was at full health 1,450 HP. Be VERY careful to avoid that attack.
- Anonymous
Holy shitballs. I'm running through deeproot depths and when I had just enough runes for a level up, I finally got hit with that spray attack and it one-shotted me. I was at full health 1,450 HP. Be VERY careful to avoid that attack.
- Anonymous
The big ones are NOT queens, those are inspired by real ant behaviour where some ants live only to be bloated with food and act like a food barrel for other ants to drink
- Anonymous
Like real ants, they take more damage in the abdomen, dont aim for the head
- Anonymous
I had one of the ones on that first wall of the cave opening in Ainsel River drop an item the first time i killed it, but the item stuck too high up on the wall for me to get, and ive killed dozens and dozens since then and none of them have ever dropped anything else
- Anonymous
Every time I go into a cave and I think I hear bugs I freeze until I realize it's all ambient noise. When going to the Ainsel river I didn't think anything of it tho when I heard bug noises figuring it was still ambient noise. I got so scared facing these things I closed out of the game I have such a bad fear of insects it's not even funny.
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I don't have a fear of insects in particular, and even I am disgusted facing these things. Now, if there comes a time cockroaches are made into common enemies, especially if they look realistic, I WILL skip that location, even if it has a hundred of the best items in the game.
- Anonymous
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The fact that they look hella similar to bullet ants explains why the butt attack does alot of damage
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These things give me ptsd, it's not a joke, my brain hurt seeing these things to the point I have to look away spamming my attack, it's not like I haven't fought spiders, ants in other games before but these things strike me heavily. Please next time do not make it like that. Just give me no furry ant and don't squirm like crazy when they die jesus.
Very disappointed we can't get a Spectral Ant Steed, such a missed opportunity smh
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I've killed probably 100 of these things now with ease, and getting to the bottom of deeproot area, I got one hit killed by ones stinger, wtf lol. I'm lv 190 almost, weren't expecting that
- Anonymous
I've killed probably 100 of these things now with ease, and getting to the bottom of deeproot area, I got one hit killed by ones stinger, wtf lol. I'm lv 190 almost, weren't expecting that
- Anonymous
I like how they look, especially the flying ones, they look so graceful and there is something beautiful about them. One of my favorite creatures in the game
- Anonymous
So if you manage to knock the swordstress off the Ant without killing either (such as using sleep) they will be hostile towards each other. The ants being ridden have glowing purple eyes, but that disappears when you knock off the rider suggesting some sort of mind control.
- Anonymous
These comments are so weird. The game literally has disgusting enemies like Basilisks and Wormfaces that vomit worms all over you and give you Death Blight, and people complain about ants? The swordstresses riding the ants is also a very nice touch
- Anonymous
There are normal (soldier) ants, flying ants, ants with a giant shield and queen ants with huge white bellies that drop golden runes. I was really happy when I saw they have added these in the game, I loved ants in Fallout games and these are even better
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The skull-shield version of these ants are so tricky to fight, I haven't found a way to consistently hit their backs at all, only hoarfrost stomp works right now.
- Anonymous
The way that they queens don't really attack you and kind of click at you when you're nearby makes me question if they are interact-able in some way. Maybe with a gesture or something? They really fascinate me.
- Anonymous
Wolfhound Fang weapon art is insanely effective against these. Just be careful not to use the follow up strong attack if fighting more than one at a time.
- Anonymous
Wolfhound Fang weapon art is insanely effective against these. Just be careful not to use the follow up strong attack if fighting more than one at a time.
- Anonymous
These mfers are making me seriously consider the Frenzied Flame ending to burn the whole goddamn world just to make sure they're exterminated
- Anonymous
didnt expect the sort of people that enjoy dark souls to be afraid of bugs lol. bugs are cool
- Anonymous
They seem pretty weak to fire. I was nearly 1-shoting them with the base level fire ball using an un-upgraded finger seal
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honestly I hate these guys more than spider hands, I'm alraedy digusted by big flying ants irl
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
To save our Lands Between from any alien attack,
From vicious giant insects that have once again come back,
We'll unleach all our Ashes, we won't cut them any slack!
The Elden Lord deploys!
- Anonymous
Call me a pussy but gigantic bugs just gives me the shivers real bad and makes me want to rush through the area asap.
- Anonymous
For any faith builds, they are extremely weak to fire. Have fun. **** these guys.
- Anonymous
To save our mother Earth from any alien attack
From vicious giant insects who have once again come back
We'll unleash all our forces
We won't cut them any slack
The E.D.F deploys!
Least grotesque fromsoft insect
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