Riot Games has revealed a brand new game mode for League of Legends called Swarm, which is effectively a take on the massively popular Vampire Survivors with a League of Legends theme.
The swarm game mode sees you take on hoards of enemies with auto firing weapons as you try to survive as long as possible before meeting one of the bosses. You’ll be playing familiar League of Legends champions, with the likes of Jinx, Leona, Yasuo and more included, but for some of them their kit has been modified somewhat to make them work in the mode. As you take down enemies, you can earn power ups to increase your strength and eventually will have to take down a boss to complete the level.
If you’ve played Vampire Survivors, or a similar game, you’ll know exactly how Swarm plays and what you need to do. Other than the League of Legends lore and art there doesn’t seem to be all that much different from other similar games, which begs the question of why you wouldn’t just go and play Vampire Survivors, which is exactly what I did after first seeing Swarm in action the other week.
But for League of Legends fans who want some downtime from ranked, this looks like a fun distraction for a while, especially with some pals alongside you. Games like this are difficult to mess up, so it would be a surprise if Swarm wasn’t one of the most addictive additions to LoL in years. However, my gut says it might not have as much staying power as Arena, which has proven to be a genuinely great addition to the LoL mode selection.
But for League of Legends lore fans this should be a big addition given it is all themed around the Anima Squad event that sees LoL champions become futuristic defenders of the world. A new attack is coming and some of your favourite champs have to venture out into the attack and save the world. Of course, this means that there’s a brand new Anima Squad series of skins for you to use, including one for brand new champion Aurora.
Both the Sawrm mode and the Anima Squad event are set to launch on July 17, alongside patch 14.14, which is also when Aurora is set to launch. You’ll be able to play the game mode for free, but you’ll have to fork out some cash if you want to use the fancy new skins in your normal games.
