The Queen is the highest responsibility role. The choices you make will have a big impact on what your teammates can and can't do – and if you die three times, it’s game over. Don’t take risks, let your workers win the objectives, and do what you can to disrupt the opponent’s formation!
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## Basics
Here are the most important objectives of a Queen:
#### Don’t die (no, really)
Killing you is one of the game's objectives, so you need to stay safe. That doesn't mean cower in the hive, but it does mean not taking dangerous chances needlessly. Especially as a new queen, your priority should be staying alive and letting your workers win an objective.
- Don’t take risks! Especially if you’re down a life, let your warriors win the hard fights. Fly around, pick off drones and vulnerable warriors, but try not to put yourself in dangerous spots.
- Don’t chase the enemy queen around the map! You end up more likely to die, and your workers will lose without your support.
- Don’t attack groups! Aim to pick off single enemy warriors, and avoid being surrounded.
#### Tag Gates
Workers can only enter a gate that’s your color. Keeping “Gate Control” (making sure that enough gates are your color that your workers can use them, and your opponents can’t) is very important as a queen.
- Toe-tagging: If even one part of your body touches a gate, it turns to your color. Try to touch the gate with just the tip of your body by diving into it and immediately dashing away. This helps maintain gate control when the opposing military is trying to hunt you or guard gates.
- Gate-Guarding: If necessary, hang around gates for long enough that one of your drones can enter.
- Call-outs: Announce the gates you’re going to tag! If the opposing team is keeping an eye out, it’s really hard for a drone to get to a gate without dying or the other queen re-tagging it. If you can tell your team which gate you’re going to tag in advance, workers can get to the gate right as you tag it, making the process safe and efficient.
#### Disrupt the enemy.
As a Queen, the easiest way to contribute to the team without putting yourself at risk is to kill enemy drones and prevent them from reaching their objective (whether that’s hopping on the snail, getting berries or entering gates).
- Learn when drones lose their invincibility once they’ve left the hive, and sweep through them to cost the opponents time.
- Notice when an enemy drone is trying to enter a gate and deny them the opportunity by killing them or tagging gates.
## Movement
Movement is key to fulfilling your objectives as queen: the more efficiently you can move through the map, the easier it is to survive, disrupt the opponents and keep your military afloat.
Stay flying as much as possible – being on the ground is a liability: you can’t escape vertically as well, can’t dive, and move much slower.
- Pathing – try to plan out your routes to get from one location in the map to another, disrupting the enemy as much as possible along the way.
- When aiming to kill an opponent, tag a gate, reposition, etc., have an exit strategy (know where you’re going to go immediately after making the kill)
### Movement Techniques:
#### Dash-Canceling
- This technique refers to dashing, then immediately diving to cancel the dash, then flapping back to your original position. It's really useful for controlling space, and for baiting enemy attacks.
- The inputs required to do this (facing right) are: Dash to the right, input moving to the left while quick-tapping dive, then flap quickly while you're moving left.
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#### J-Dives
- This technique refers to diving down beside a horizontal ledge, then releasing the dive and executing a rising dash slightly above and to the side of the ledge.
- When executed properly you will hug the ceiling you drop down, allowing you to have an advantage (this is sometimes referred to as an "L Dive".
- Notable uses: Scraping to get a queen who's guarding an objective or gate, gaining ground in chase sequences, catching warriors and queens hugging the ceiling.
- See the visual guide for some pointers for getting this spacing right! When you dive then dash, your head height is where you'll be when you start moving sideways. Use this to help with the timing!
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#### Slide Dashing
- If you’re diving towards a platform, dashing at the last second will cause you to slide across the platform rather than hit it and start walking around. This helps you quickly navigate platforms, pick off workers, and stay moving rather than getting caught stationary.
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#### Hovering
Try to learn how to move, more or less in place! This can help you control space better.
- One way to try for this is to bounce up and down with double-taps and pauses
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- Another way of diving in this way is to hover and do really short dives
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- This can be a great way to bait warriors when they're hanging out under a platform below you. Dive just under the platform and hover back up, then punish them if they dash at you!
#### Wavedashing
- When you're moving around on or near the ground, make yourself less vulnerable by rapidly dashing and cancelling into dives.
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### Awareness and Positioning
- Know where the other queen is. They shouldn’t be above you, unless there’s a platform between you two.
- To a lesser extent, watch out for enemy warriors, especially if there are many of them. You can get pincered in an instant!
- Don't Get Trapped: Stay away from the bottom of the map (easy dives for the other queen) or from enclosed areas (easy traps for enemy workers)
- Beware the wrap: Enemy workers and queens will hang around the edges of the screen to prey on unsuspecting queens. Pay attention to the other side when you’re wrapping around.
## Killing things
Some general tips:
- SWIPE ONCE AND LEAVE. Repeat this to yourself. Take a swing at an enemy and get out of there immediately, whether or not you connect. This keeps you the safest and prevents you from having tunnel vision on an enemy.
- Dash and Dive cancels are your friends! Every other unit in this game has to COMMIT to their actions -- a jump or dash, once executed, can't be interrupted. You can fake someone out, get them to react, then punish them without them being able to react.
- Try to have a height advantage! Your dive is powerful since you can cancel it, and since only maces can attack upwards.
#### Vs. Drones
Drones can be really annoying to kill as a queen, especially if they know what they're doing! These tips will help you waste less time dealing with them.
- If you're next to a drone on the ground, Dash then flap above them to catch them on the jump
- When you're diving onto a drone, STOP DIVING FOR A SECOND. Watch how they react or jump, then kill them! In general, diving can be better than dashing for sweeping drones
- A drone in the air is much easier to kill! Wait for them to jump onto a platform or fall off a ledge to take them out.
- After you kill a queen or warrior, tag some gates!
- Double-team enemy military, and run if you're getting double-teamed yourself.
#### Vs. Queens
- Dash and dive cancel to bait out responses!
- The Fake Dive. If you're on the ceiling against another queen, do a quick dive cancel.
- If the queen dives and then dashes toward you, be patient and dive to their dash
- If the queen doesn't dive, just go back up
- If the queen dives but doesn't dash, just go back up
- When running from a queen:
- Always dive then dash (never the other way around). If they're close, your dash makes them closer because your hitbox gets bigger.
- Get in good range, and stand still for a second -- you might be able to provoke a response you can exploit.
#### Vs. Guns
- Call the gun out as a priority target for your team. Kill them if you have a chance, but otherwise just try to stay out of range.
- If the gun is on reload, try to kill them before they can shoot again if possible.
#### Vs. Maces
Maces are risky targets as queen, so be careful with them!
- Your best bet is to time them out! Maces are vulnerable during their cooldown, and you're safest.
- If the mace is on a ceiling, you're very likely to get the kill if you dash at them. Go for the kill!
- Send swords to kill maces when you can! They're more effective and less risky
- Never go for a mace from below! If you have to, go in from slightly above
- Avoid diving in on maces, unless you've timed them out! A good mace player will move slightly to the left or right and kill you with the ball- Don't go after retreating maces! You'll often miss your max dash and their mace will come up on you. The farther away a mace is when you dash at them, the lower your survival odds.
- The best way to deal with a mace is to dive down next to them, then dash from mid range
- If you get a clash on a mace, dash again to kill them right away!
#### Vs. Swords
- Don't Dash-Dive on good swords! Instead, Dash cancel to bait their response.
- Watch out for sword angles so you don't get killed!
- Watch out for diagonal paths
- Watch for rising paths into platforms
- Watch out for ledge cancels! (check the visual guide)
- If you find yourself below a sword, don't panic! This is pretty mush a stalemate, since they can't attack below themselves.
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## The Journey to Self-Improvement
Getting better as a queen is hard! It can be intimidating being new and trying to improve without costing your team the game. Here are some ways to level up your gameplay:
- Play the game! Try to team up with 3 others on mic so you can practice communication and running specific strategies. "Try out" different queen roles (killing workers, being aggressive, playing conservatively) to figure out where your strengths lie.
- Watch matches! [The Almanac](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11QHK-mGfUhhHa8OsFZwiYn2da6IXUTPYuVKtXC7mMjU/edit#gid=1154760416) contains videos of top Queens in action. Watch how they move and try to implement their techniques into your own playstyle.
- Try to record yourself, if you can, and watch how the enemy team and queen react to YOUR specific gameplay. This can help you identify your own improvement areas.
## Bee Drills:
#### Bots
Go into custom matches against a full team of drone bots (with or without a queen) and try your best to kill them before they can do anything.
#### Movement: Here are a few ways to practice movement:
- Helix: practice a continuous dive/dash down along the center of the map.
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- Nesting flats:
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#### Efficiency Drills:
As Queen, enter a custom match with three human players. Have them attempt to win in any way possible. Your goal is to hunt individual workers, block berry shots, stop snail movements, all at the same time. If you can last over 3 minutes, you are being very effective and efficient with your engagements. During this exercise, some things to focus on:
- Movement. Be moving around from objective to objective efficiently.
- Awareness. Don't get pulled away too long by a particularly annoying worker so that the other ones can do an objective that is waiting on you not being there.
- Efficient kills. Try to anticipate individual workers' movements and don't overcommit to attacks, as it can waste time if you miss. Work on your technique to get close and more often guarantee kills.