After six years of waiting, Riot Games is introducing a new PvE game mode in League of Legends. SWARM, will be officially launched on July 17 and run until August 19 after several weeks of testing on the Public Beta Environment (PBE). Its aim is to offer a new cooperative gameplay experience unlike anything seen before in the popular MOBA.

SWARM brings League of Legends players back into the world of the Anima Squad skin line with a narrative setting where humanity's last stronghold, Final City, stands against the Primordians. These marine creatures, acting as the "white blood cells of the planet", according to Riot, seek to eradicate humanity. The members of the Anima Squad will fight back using reimagined Primordian technology in hopes of saving the world.

In SWARM, players will use the WASD keys to move, a first in the history of League of Legends. To adapt to this new mode, Riot had to reimagine the champions, focusing on movement to match the strategy and teamwork needed to progress through all the levels of SWARM. Players will engage in continuous battles, level up by defeating enemies, and explore multiple dynamic maps filled with interactive elements and power-ups, much like in a true survival game such as Vampire Survivor.

9 playable champions

But compared to other games of the same genre, SWARM is focused on cooperation. Even though it is fully playable alone, it allows you to play with a group of 4 people maximum with 9 different playable champions.

Riot designer and VFX artist, Riot Sirhaian, shared some insights about the development of SWARM, revealing that the PvE game mode started as a personal experiment two years ago, inspired by survival games and the potential of the League engine. Initially considered risky, the concept was eventually approved, evolving into a highly anticipated game mode set on July 17 at 15:00 UTC for EUW, EUN, RU, MEA and TR regions (18:00 UTC for all other regions). It will run until August 19.