So.

I need some denizens that are fun to fight. I need ones that will make the delvers shout “Oh, yes!” rather than “Oh, no…” I have some pretty strong ones, sure. I couldn’t have beaten the Maw otherwise, but there was also a bit of a tactical outmaneuvering in that victory, too.

So, can I adjust any of my current denizens to fit the bill of a good fight? My dragons are certainly qualified for that. In the lava labyrinth, the delvers seem to love fighting the wyrms and the basilisks, even with the significant burns they can inflict. The problem is I don’t know how good of an idea it will be to have those magma affinity dragons cutting loose in the forest. While I’m pretty sure Titania and Poppy can keep conflagrations to a minimum, I don’t want one mistake to set the whole forest ablaze. I might let a couple into winter, but I think, for the most part, my dragons are going to be staying in the labyrinth.

My other good potential for a good fight are the twinsnakes. The default variety has a good combo with the poison magic head and kinetic other head, and it gets even better when upgraded with the metal transmutation and electric affinity potion. I bet they’ll be able to wander three of the four seasons without much difficulty, and the tree shouldn’t be a problem for them, either.

The only real problem is they’re slow to spawn, and the alchemically boosted ones are even slower. They keep some of the buffs between spawns, but need pretty regular maintenance to keep everything going. I’ll probably try to encourage Queen to step up production of alchemy soon, which I doubt she’ll be upset about. I can also upgrade the spawner to speed up the twinsnake rate, and maybe even get whatever’s next! I think I still have a type before the semi-intelligent capstone denizen, too. I’ll wait to upgrade the spawner until I get the tree growing or grown, I think. I want to make sure there’s more than enough room for them to wander around.

Unfortunately, I don’t think snakes are going to do it for the entire forest. They’ll be good anywhere except winter, but I want a bit more variety. Bears will be the bruisers for their season, probably fall or maybe spring. Maybe even both. They could be a big presence on the ground with my noodles more in the tree. Wolves will also be big on the ground, I expect, and especially prevalent in Winter. In fact, I take a moment to upgrade the wolf spawner to get more tundra wolves to fill the place out a bit.

Let me see… can I do anything with my other established spawners? It’s kinda tempting to buy more, but I shouldn’t buy some fancy shiny new thing when I already have something that can do the job.

Let me see… rats? No. Spiders? No. Or… maybe? They’ve been living in the tunnels and caverns, but they could certainly have a good place in the forest, on the ground and in the canopy. They’re not tough enough to be full frontline fighters, but they should be good for ambushes and skirmishes. I might even get them to weave safety nets so delvers don’t plummet to the ground from the branches.

What else? Snakes? Just did that. Birds? Hm… it has been a while. I think the bird spawner has two new denizens before the capstone. They’re specialized towards resources, so they probably won’t be the best fights. On the other hand, there should be rewards for the best fights, too. They go on the list to upgrade once the tree is up.

Ants? Leafcutters will help, otherwise it's maxed already. That does remind me to take a look at the enclave, and they’re starting to change a lot now. I think their earlier lack of change was just a lack of obvious change. I think they were rearranging their innards, as they’re starting to stand up. I’d call them bipeds now, but they still walk on four legs, with one set of arms with their crude hands. They keep the two legs on each side pretty close most of the time, only really spreading their stance out if they need stability or leverage for something heavy.

That aside, they’re still building their enclave out, and occasionally chatting with the leaders of my other enclaves. It’s good to see them all working together like that. It makes me feel better about focusing on the forest, knowing they’re all fine.

Other spawners to check on… my three undeads? The skeletons and zombies will fit right in with spring, thanks to their verdant and fungal natures, respectively. It’ll be good to let them play with people besides just the Shield followers. They’re not the only ones who need experience with the undead. Sure, anyone can head into the crypt complex to rumble, but the Shield definitely has a strong presence in there. In the forest, I think there will be a bit less of a monopoly.

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The hands will probably spend a little time in the forest, but I don’t think they’re going to be a major force there. My slimes? Nah, they can stay in the underground, helping my nodes and veins. In fact, I should upgrade them and see if there are bigger ones that can significantly boost the limestone quarry.

Wolves? Already planning on using them. Dragons? Already planning on not using them. Earth elementals? Hmm… maybe. When preparing for the Maw, I was considering upgrading them to be heavies to plop on the front line and really mess with whatever it might do, but I ended up using the basilisks for that instead, and never did upgrade or specialize them. Those would be easy to slot in as good tough opponents, and they should be able to handle any of the seasons, too. I keep them in mind as I continue down my list.

Bats? Already specialized for resources, though I should probably upgrade the spawner. The forest is going to be gigantic, so I’m going to want plenty of fruitbats to keep things running smoothly for herbalism nodes. Their spawner is also pretty woefully out of date. I basically specialized it and forgot about it. But even that is better than what I’ve been doing with my bees.

When I took Neverrest’s territory, I immediately swapped the wasp spawner he had over to bees, made Honey my scion, then… never touched it again. Maybe an upgrade or two, but it’s not even specialized! They make honey just because that’s what they do, but they’re not actually specialized towards resources at all!

I could change that right now… or I could try something. I don’t want to move them away from making their honey, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be specialized towards fighting, too. I could even specialize them towards magic, and as fun as it would be to have spelling bees, the idea of fighting bees is growing on me the more I think about it.

And I can’t forget my two newest spawners. If I upgrade the fruitbats, they might be able to handle all the nodes out there with the help of the leafcutter ants, leaving my fey to potentially be specialized towards fighting or magic, and similar with the vines. I think it’s too early to plan ahead for them just yet, though. They’re going to be major parts of the forest, but I don’t need to cram them into a niche just yet. For now, I’ll wait and see how they develop, and fill the gaps with my other spawners.

Alrighty… sneks and birbs are on the list for upgrades, but need to wait for the tree. I can let some of the twinsnakes migrate to the forest, along with probably most of the widow spiders, too. Undead for spring, but that can wait until I actually buy the land for spring. Earth elementals, bats, and bees, however… are all on the short list for upgrades. Earth elementals are classic tanks for a reason, and even if I specialize the spawner for bruisers, I should still get plenty of my sneaky little rockslides to scout out any other things like the Maw, that might need to be dealt with.

I take a closer look at the spawner to see if there’s anything that catches my eye for options on that path, and see something interesting: soil elementals. While they don’t have the raw defense of their rockier cousins, they seem to have a lot of regeneration and gain life affinity, too. The more I look at them, the more I like them. Rockier elementals basically require things like hammers or picks, and are a hard counter to any kind of blade. These, though, can take a good beating no matter the weapon.

I smile to myself and spend the mana, before watching a soil elemental flow out of the earth elemental spawner like it just emptied a wheelbarrow. It mounds itself up and starts wandering the caverns for now, and I let it find its bearings. I’d poke Titania and Poppy to come take a look, but I’m not done upgrading yet!

I pump mana into the bat spawner, too, upgrading it until it gives me a new spawn as well: a rainbat. It looks a lot like the flying foxes I already have, but a dull blue color. It also seems to like the day more than they do, and it takes off from the belfry, leaving a faint colorful trail behind it. My new bat has water affinity, which is cool, and it’s not difficult to guess what it will do with that. It starts with a circuit of the manor, watering the herbalism nodes and perking them up, before it makes its way towards the forest. Good bat, you know what you’re doing. Keep it up!

And for my last trick for now, I specialize the bee spawner for fighting, and upgrade it until I get a new bee, too: the bumblebee. Back on Earth, they don’t even get as big as a thumb, but my bumbles are about the size of a fist… and also have the kinda derpy adorability bumblebees entail. They start meandering around the cemetery as I finally nudge Titania and Poppy to come take a look at the new friends for their forest.

Titania radiates excitement as she rushes to meet the new bees, and I can already picture the pixies riding them into battle. Poppy works her way toward the caverns, quickly digging her way toward the soil elementals with great interest. I watch them both as they go, wondering if I might specialize their own spawners to harmonize with the bees and elementals.

My two new scions make it to the denizens quicker than I would have expected, but watching them makes it easy to see why they were so eager. Poppy starts digging through the soil elemental once she gets there, which doesn’t seem to harm it, while Titania is trying to help the bumblebees find good places to make their own little hives. I hum to myself as I watch them all, enjoying how life sometimes can just… fit together.