Factorio Forums

I noticed that if you build up the hive with walls, as shown in the picture, the hive stops reproducing enemies. If you clear enemy bases around the area, leaving only one hive every time, and build it up in this way, you can stop the expansion of enemies (since enemies do not create bases next to hives) and at the same time completely lose raids (if pollution does not reach existing enemy bases). This is very useful and unbalanced in the early stages of the game, so it would be better if the enemies spawned near the built-up hives and could to attack walls. See the picture

128208

Good Luck!

neondell wrote: Sun May 31, 2026 6:41 amand at the same time completely lose raids (if pollution does not reach existing enemy bases).

As I understand, nests only have a finite pollution buffer, and if they can't spend pollution to buy biters/spitters, then they stop absorbing more pollution.

That said, I think the buffer is something like 1200 pollution? Which is a lot early game.

(since enemies do not create bases next to hives)

And, as I understand, it's just discouragement, not prevention. You can achieve a similar effect by building player structures. There are options in the debug menu (F4) to show where the enemy will consider expansions if you want to play with it.