Tips for playing as queen?

[NeverLoseHope]

ive never been a queen before but i would like to try it! seems to look easy but you know, once you try it its not as easy as it seems lol, anyways what i was wondering was if one of you could give me some hits and tips on playing as queen, what are all the things i should know?

[Sulaboy]

Here is the queen's wiki page if you haven't read it.
wiki/Queen

Read up on her abilities just so you know what's at your disposal. A Queen is meant to spend most of her round in their ovipositor laying eggs, and allowing burrowed larva to emerge. While in the ovipositor mode you can overwatch your Xenos, and provide useful things to them, over watching a Xeno gives them your pheromones, and marking a Xeno as leader also gives them your pheromones so these are both useful things to do. You can also heal Xenos at the cost of plasma, if you are quick this could be the difference between one of the Xenos living or not.

Dying as a queen is a big setback for Xenos so avoid that. It should be pretty simple in theory, your Xenos are meant to do most of the work, and they're fairly self sufficient. You may need to point out some things that need to be done for them, like having a drone plant eggs, or ordering your Xenos to capture hosts instead of killing them.

[FGRSentinel]

One of the most important parts of being Queen is knowing when you should and shouldn't do certain things. On Ice, knowing when you should go up and when you shouldn't can be the difference between walking into LZ1 and a line of bald drones taking your place until there's someone more competent than you. Likewise, knowing when to de-ovi is important since if you do it too early you have a lot of weak Xenos with no healing, but too late and you might not be able to react in time. A good rule of thumb is that if the hive's growing and the nests are safe, you should only de-ovi to find a nest closer to the front line (rarely) or to assist in the final assault on LZ1.

Know tactics that can benefit the hive. Two (or more!) Boilers staggering their fire can basically lock down a position indefinitely. A Boiler, Crusher or two, and Ravager is probbably all it takes to destroy a tank if you can keep the Marines distracted (the boiler to blind it, the Crushers to immobilize it, and the Ravager to help shred it) while two Boilers behind high-level defender are a near unstoppable siege engine.

Heal at every opportunity. If you're the Queen, you should have the Hive Status window open at all times so you can switch to badly wounded Xenos at a moment's notice to heal them the instant they need it.

If you aren't the roundstart Queen, make note of where the nest was originally. The Marines now expect you to use this location probably, so it's best to find another place on the map that's far away from there and easy to protect. This goes double if the same general area was used by successive Queens or the previous Queen was forced out of the initial hive and set up shop a short distance away or returned to that spot. On Ice, you basically just have to walk to the other side of the underground and find a decent spot to set up.

If you want to be evil, there's a power the Queen has that lets her telepathically communicate with any character, which you can use to taunt people or try to unnerve/demoralize people, if not cause them to slip into a panic and run if you're lucky.

[zoboomafoo]

In three words:

Lock the dropship.

Failing to do so can and will cause marine victories and is a huge meme.

[Sulaboy]

In three words:

Lock the dropship.

Failing to do so can and will cause marine victories and is a huge meme.

Dropship locks when you use the computer.

Changed how Xenomorph hijacking works. The Queen using the groundside console now immediately locks the shuttle.

Atleast I think.

[zoboomafoo]

I thought it was this way my first queen round. This was immediately prior to the devs introducing the lovely messages you get in the hivemind now.
Using the groundside console calls the dropship and unlocks the doors. You have to use the console in the cockpit to actually lock it, else it can be called back up.
Messages go something like:
Using groundside console to unlock dropship or call it down -> We have unlocked the doors of the bird
Touching the console in the cockpit -> We have wrested control of the metal bird away
Telling the dropship to take off -> We have commanded the metal bird to depart for the metal hive in the sky (this gives the hijack message for the marines)

For a short while it was locked from outside, but people were generally unhappy when a bird full of marines that would have just escaped got trapped and slaughtered, so it was changed to how it is now.

Moral of the story: sprint to the cockpit and touch that fukken console like you life depends on it.

[ThePiachu]

You need to wrangle your hive at times. Remember the three golden words: WEED, SLASH, MELT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH1QnqsiAgg) - Weed the colony, slash the APCs and lights, melt the doors. For the first ~25 minutes of the game, you own the colony, so whip your xenos to leave the hive and be productive. Ideally you'd have one drone and one sentinel in the hive, taking care of eggs, nests and hosts. Everyone else should be out wrecking the whole place.

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

Some simple tips I'd like to provide as a filthy xeno main:

1. Stay ovi'd as long as possible - Remaining in your positor means it gives your babies more time to evolve into more powerful castes, which, in turn, means a more powerful hive. Having access to a HUGE amount of eggs is also a +, as they are INSANELY effective on the defence.
2. If deovi'd, focus on captures - As Queen, you have access to a plethora of long stunning abilities that greatly improve your chances to capture things (Frenzy, Neurotoxin, Screech, High tackle chance, etc.) Making use of it to bolster your hive is an excellent way to have more larvae at your disposal.
3. Think of yourself as a strategist - Try to consider what's the best strategy you should be performing at the moment.
If the marines have a large force attacking, should you hit them head-on with your Tier threes, or harass their flanks with your Lurkers and Warriors? Usually it depends on what types of castes you have available which determine what strategy you can perform, which leads to the most important tip of all.
4. CONTROL YOUR HIVE'S COMPOSITION. - IT is SUPREMELY important that your hive's composition fits around what you need them/want them to do. Do you want a hive that's capture-focused, defensively based, and effective at attrition warfare? Get boilers, Hivelords, Drones and Carriers en-masse. Do you want a fast, hard-hitting flanker-hive? Get Runners, Warriors, Ravagers and Lurkers. Your 'playstyle' can shape the entire hive, and it SHOULD. Doing this lets you stay in your element more, and gives your babies more reason to coordinate with you with a domineering control on both their evolution and their method of fighting.

[NeverLoseHope]

thank you all for your help! not today, not tomorrow but i will try playing as queen xd

[Mirvra]

In three words:

Lock the dropship.

Failing to do so can and will cause marine victories and is a huge meme.

.... It was the ONE mistake i made... >.> Now i'm almost scared of being Queen again... Hive was pretty upset when we went from 40 to 20'ish because of that.... there was just so much stuff happening all at once that i missed doing that XD

[ThePiachu]

Hah! Don't worry! We all make mistakes. Sometimes having an "o shit" moment is just what it takes to make you remember it the next time .

If you got your hive to 40, then you did a really good job!