The Ants: Underground Kingdom adds Emerald Damselfly, ends fragment cost for buddy upgrades

A new buddy, and a cheaper way to level one

StarUnion has added a new Insect Buddy, the Emerald Damselfly, to The Ants: Underground Kingdom. It has also changed how buddies are upgraded. According to the developer's release notes, Insect Buddy upgrade no longer consumes Insect Buddy Fragments.

For anyone already building up a squad of buddies, that second change matters more. Fragments used to be spent every time a buddy was upgraded. Now they are not, which leaves players with more of them to put elsewhere. The notes don't say whether upgrades now cost something else instead.

The changes are in version 3.104.0, and the game's Google Play listing shows it as updated on Nov 2, 2026. StarUnion also lists optimisations to the Insect Nest - Buddy Hatch Pool, the pool buddies are hatched from, but gives no detail beyond pointing players to the in-game notes.

What happens to the paid packs

The catch is in the Pack Shop. StarUnion says the Insect Buddy Fragments in the original One Time Offer packs from the Pack Shop will be replaced with the latest [Emerald Damselfly Fragments] after the update. Put simply, whatever buddy those packs used to give fragments for, they now give Damselfly fragments. Players who were saving up to buy a pack for an older buddy will get the new one instead.

Players don't need to do anything for the swap to happen. It applies automatically once the update is installed. The upgrade change works the same way: the notes describe it as a system adjustment, with no opt-in.

A familiar pattern for new buddies

StarUnion has handled a buddy launch this way before. When it released the Lime Swallowtail in May 2025, its maintenance notice said the Insect Buddy fragments in the original "Insect Buddy & Special Ant Fragment Offer" under the One Time Offer tab will be replaced with the newest Lime Swallowtail fragments. In that update the studio also added Buddy Bond effects for the new buddy and an existing one. The latest notes don't mention any bond effects for the Damselfly.

The buddy system has had a lot of attention over the past few months. In an August maintenance notice, the studio said it had expanded the level cap for Insect Buddy Gallery. The App Store version history also lists a change to the logic for "Replenish" when upgrading Insect Buddies, plus work on an Underground Cave Insect Buddy Challenge. The same history shows a Gamera collaboration in an update dated 31 August.

An ant colony strategy game

The Ants: Underground Kingdom is a free-to-play strategy game in which the player controls an ant colony and must grow and defend it against rival colonies. Players dig out and expand an anthill, hatch special ants for combat, and tame other insects. Those insects can either fight or be put to work speeding up the colony. Alliances fight each other over shared objectives on a larger map.