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Big and Small - Xeno Insectoid Hive

This mod adds the Xeno Insectoid Hive. A collection of insectoid xeneotypes centered around a Queen.

The Queen when paired up with a Consort can breed two kinds of juvenile xenos, Nymphs and Alates. It is expected that the former will grow into workers/warrior caste, while the Alates will grow into new Princess or Consorts.

Princess which are of mature age (18+) and have become pregnant will turn into Queens.

Rarely a Nymph or Alate can instead turn into an abnormal "Mutant" or "Emissary". The latter is much more humanlike, and also has access to Insector mutations if VRE Insectors is enabled.


Slightly dated image showing the castes and how they are created


The mod comes with an optional faction of industrialised xeno bugs. They are hostile by default but can be befriended, much like the "Rough Outlanders".

They have 3 general types of raiders. Standard xenos, typically with little to no clothing, and relying on their natural weapons.

Irregulars, which sometimes includes insects from outside the hive. These are properly armed and especially like drop-podding into your base.

Actual normal insectoids (including ones from VRE Insectoids 2). A given raid will tend to one or both of the former with some support from insectoids.


Image of some irregulars getting ready for a fight


The mod comes with a starting scenario. When playing this you will start with two princesses and two consorts.

In this scenario wanderers will typically be xeno hive members themselves, and the odds of xeno hive members (and other odd xenotypes) is a bit more common than usual from other sources.

(This is far from a complete list)


These genes make the carrier somewhat like those with similar sets of genes more, but dislike those different a fair bit, especially if they don't have an "Alien Appearance" gene. This goes both ways.

As for what counts as alike? It is fairly sophisticated, and should be fairly reasonable about what is a similar "alien" or not. The relationship bonus/penalty is fairly granular.


A variety of morph genes for xenotype design. These let you set up conditions which turn a pawn from one xenotype into another.


Carriers will have insectoid parts, including four arms to hilariously stick field hands on!


Aging is very fast. Also uses a new experimental system for aging towards end-of-lifespan.


A long list of changes. Notably they only care about death that they see, and memories only stick around for a short time. Also suitable for robot-like beings with artificial emotions.



The Xeno Queen is the core of the Xeno Hive. She is also the only (normal) mature female of the hive.

By breeding with a Consort she can indirectly produce all other castes of the hive. She will produce large litters of xenos which are all capable of taking care of themselves to some extent moments after being born.

She can also breed with fertile members of the worker caste, but if so she will only produce Nymphs that grow into more workers.

Keeping the Queen and her Consort should be the top priority of every hive.

Note: If VFE Insectoids 2 is enabled they will produce Royal Jelly instead of regular Insect Jelly.


Xeno consorts will typically pair up with xeno princesses or queen and form the core of a xeno hive.

Unpaired Consorts are known to leave their hives to find a princess to pair up with. These hive-less consorts sometimes join up with other consorts.


The Xeno Princess is a potential queen of the xeno hive.

They typically form pairs with Xeno Consorts and a number of drone workers. A princess will transform into a xeno queen once they are both fertilized and mature enough.

Sometimes princesses will hang around their original hive until a consort visits, but they sometimes travel in search themselves, especially if there are many princesses in the hive.

Note that working caste members have a fairly short lifespan. They tend to be easy to keep happy though.


The backbone of the Xeno Hive. Xeno Workers work tirelessly to keep the hive operational. They tend to be fairly competent in most tasks, but struggle to really stand out with any particular work.


The bruisers and miners of the xeno hive, known to often go hand to hand with Scythers and come out on top.


Xeno Predators are the hunters of the hive. They strike fast and they strike deadly.

Predators are relatively frail, and their morphology is ill-suited for even basic clothes, significantly slowing them down if worn.

Although they tend to prefer using the natural weapons they are; along with Consorts; the only standard insectoids which have good enough eyesight to use long-distance weapons.

These xenotypes grow into another one once they reach age 13.


An immature insect which will eventually grow up into a member of the xeno hive's worker caste.


An immature Xeno Hive insect which will one day grow up into either a Consort or Princess.




Mutants are a strange anomaly. They are like a wild unstable blend between the different castes, with the warrior caste being perhaps the most obviously prevalent. Also notable, like queens, they are always female despite being able to mutate from Nymphs.

It is unknown where the Xeno Hive came from, but their genetic composition is quite unstable. Sometimes the insect nymphs mutate terribly when they begin to reach maturity.


A rare and peculiar mutations, that was for a long time thought to be a rare seperate co-existing lifeform among the xeno-hive rather than being born of it.

The current popular theory is that ambient archites or nanomachines somehow set off the metamorphosis into this oddly humanlike xeno hive member.

They look much less horrifying than the rest of the hive, to the point that other xenotypes are often willing to tolerate them, hence their name.

Note: If VRE Insectors is enabled they will have access to some Insector Genes.



Emissaries will have access to Insector Genes

If hostile, the Xeno Hive will sometimes raid using the new insectoids. That includes drop-podding bugs into your base.
The insects can walk on creep.
The queen will produce low amounts of royal jelly.

The mod heavily uses Oops all Bugparts 2 art by Vera. She also created all the pretty icons for the xenotypes.

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