Ancient Hive

General
The Ancient Hive is a more powerful variant of the Alien Hive that was introduced in the event Ascension. Aside from long-range weapons that deal Plasma Damage, they can periodically summon Alien Hives in battle to defend themselves as well.

Ancient Hives closely resemble the Barrage Hive variant of the Alien Hive but do not emit a Stasis Field.

Strategy
Ancient Hives are quite deadly on their own, not to mention when they have additional Barrage Hives nearby. Therefore, you should use cutters and rush them at the very beginning of battle before they get the chance to summon too many Barrage Hives for you to handle. An Agility Field can help your ships to close the distance sooner.

Alternatively, use cruisers to tank the damage and slowly push towards the enemy, but this can become very costly at higher levels.

Trivia

 * Many players complained about the sheer firepower and damage dealt by the Ancient Hive and its summoned Barrage Hives' weapons during the Ascension event.
 * The top of the Ancient Hive crackles with Alien electricity before it summons a Barrage Hive.