Swarm

OverviewDRG Concepts Swarm

	Time to earn your paycheck, team. We got a doozy of a swarm on the way.
	— Mission Control

A Swarm is an event which occurs in some missions. It involves a period where enemy spawn rates are massively increased.

Swarm Phases

A Swarm is broken up into three phases. In the first phase Mission Control will issue a warning to the Dwarves that a Swarm is currently imminent. This phase lasts approximately 20 seconds to give players a chance to prepare by forming a position and establishing defences.

The second phase is the Swarm proper; enemies will burrow out of the ground and proceed to attack the dwarves. In a Swarm, enemies will spawn in significantly increased numbers and often in tighter groups. The majority of a Swarm will be comprised of a variety of enemies (check Enemies Pool for more details). A Swarm's second phase will persist until the vast majority of enemies have been killed, or enough time passes naturally.

The third phase is the ending of the Swarm, which will be announced by Mission Control. When this happens no further enemies will spawn from it except for those who were already present before the announcement of the end of the Swarm. Once these last few stragglers are dealt with, enemy spawn rates are reduced back to normal. Often times no further enemies will spawn for a brief moment, giving players a chance to recuperate.

The halt period's duration (used for Mining expedition and On-site Refining) depends on the previous Swarm (if there is not a previous Swarm, it will use the Start Delay value after some time) and the Hazard level (being any value within the interval), being a sum of both:

Mining Expedition Values

Start Delay:

• Hazard 1: 150s (2m30s)
• Hazard 2: 150s (2m30s)
• Hazard 3 and 3.5: 112.5s (1m52.5s)
• Hazard 4 and 4.5: 75s (1m15s)
• Hazard 5 and 5.5: 0s

Swarm Type:

• Generic: 103s (1m43s)
• Mactera: 100s (1m40s)
• Grunt: 100s (1m40s)
• Praetorian: 45s
• Swarmer: 35s
• Dreadnought: 0s

Hazard Level:

Swarm delay (Hazards)
Difficulty	Chance	Range
Hazard 1	100%	350-500s (5m50s-8m20s)
Hazard 2	100%	300-450s (5m-7m30s)
Hazard 3	16.66%	180-200s (3m-3m20s)
	83.33%	250-350s (4m10s-5m50s)
Hazard 4	21.05%	180-200s (3m-3m20s)
	78.94%	250-300s (4m10s-5m)
Hazard 5	20%	160-180s (2m 40s-3m)
	75%	230-280s (3m50s-4m40s)
	5%	299s (4m59s)
Hazard 3.5	15.78%	180-200s (3m-3m20s)
	78.94%	250-350s (4m10s-5m50s)
	5.26%	600s (10m)
Hazard 4.5	20%	180-200s (3m-3m20s)
	75%	250-300s (4m10s-5m)
	5%	400-500s (6m40s-8m20s)
Hazard 5.5	20%	160-180s (2m40s-3m)
	75%	230-280s (3m50s-4m40s)
	5%	350-450s (5m50s-7m30s)

Mining Expedition and On-site Refining's Unique Swarm Types

Swarms are usually generic, but some Swarms on Mining Expedition and On-site Refining can have unique properties, spawning in general certain kinds of enemies. These special Swarms will be identified by Mission Control.

• Glyphid Grunt Swarm: This swarm will consist almost entirely of Glyphid Grunts. Grunt Slashers and Grunt Guards are also common sightings.
• Glyphid Swarmer Swarm: This Swarm will feature many Glyphid Swarmers. Spawn numbers are significantly increased during this swarm to compensate for the easy-to-kill nature of the Swarmers.
• Glyphid Praetorian Swarm: In this Swarm, you will face off against many Glyphid Praetorians. Spawn numbers are slightly lower than the average swarm, as Praetorians are tougher than the average enemy. Often, they are accompanied by a Glyphid Oppressor, as well. This swarm type does not occur in solo missions.
• Mactera Swarm: This Swarm summons Mactera enemies almost exclusively. This includes Mactera Spawn and Mactera Tri-Jaw. Mactera Brundle, Mactera Grabbers and Mactera Goo Bombers, are also summoned but not as common. Glyphids and other enemies can still spawn, but they are less common.
• Dreadnought Attack: Though not technically a Swarm, this event is conducted in the same way. Mission Control will announce the incoming threat of a Glyphid Dreadnought. These Dreadnoughts behave exactly the same way as the ones found in Elimination missions.
• Rockpox Swarm: This swarm will consist of rockpox infected enemies.

Swarm Type	Weight	Default		Lithophage Outbreak (or 15% of default missions)
		1P (Solo)	2P/3P/4P	1P (Solo)	2P/3P/4P
Generic	12				80%	73.84%	52.17%	49.48%
Grunt	1	6.66%	6.15%	4.34%	4.12%
Swarmer	1	6.66%	6.15%	4.34%	4.12%
Praetorian	1	N/A	6.15%	N/A	4.12%
Mactera	1	6.66%	6.15%	4.34%	4.12%
Dreadnought	0.25	N/A	1.53%	N/A	1.03%
Rockpox	8	N/A	N/A	34.78%	32.98%

Point Extraction

Pressure Waves

Terms used:

• Pressure Waves: the Waves that constantly spawn
  
• Point Extraction Scaler: variable that is set for each Hazard and determines lowest Pressure Wave frequency
  
• Difficulty: variable that determines Wave/Swarm size
  
• Enemy Count: variable that is set for each player count and Hazard, affects Wave size
  
• Difficulty ratings: How much space an Enemy takes on the Wave/Swarm
  

On Point Extraction, enemies will constantly spawn after some delay in Pressure Waves, first one has a 55s delay and it goes down by 1s after each Wave $(55-SpawnedWaves)$. Lowest value being $40/PointExtractionScaler$ (it is also limited to 40s for lowest value).

the size of the wave is calculated using "Difficulty", it will use the highest value between $80$ or $40+(5*(WaveNumber-1)$, it is later multiplied by the "Enemy Count" modifier. which means that starting from the 10th wave, it will increase in size (equivalent to the Wave spawned after 9 minutes).

Enemies have different "Difficulty Ratings", and the wave will attempt to spawn enemies so the sum is the same as the "Difficulty". Grunts use 10 points, Swarmers use 6 points and Web Spitters use 25 points some Grunts may turn into Slashers or Guards. for Swarmers, the Wave will always spawn a minimum of $8*EnemyCount$ if at least 1 Swarmer is considered. Web Spitters turn into Grunts in Glacial Strata. Grunts will be present on all missions, but Swarmers or Web Spitters may not appear.

Swarm

On Point Extraction, Swarms will not have randomness to its delay, with the only difference between Hazards being the delay for the first Swarm.
Check the table below for the times where a swarm will happen:

Swarm	Hazards 1 to 4 (and 3.5)		Hazards 4.5, 5 and 5.5
	Time since previous swarm	Total elapsed time	Time since previous swarm	Total elapsed time
1	N/A	4m29s	N/A	3m59s
2	5m40s	10m9s	5m40s	9m39s
3	5m30s	15m39s	5m30s	15m9s
4+	5m20s (lowest delay)	20m59s	5m20s (lowest delay)	20m29s

Dreadnought Spawn

If certain conditions are met, a regular Glyphid Dreadnought is scheduled to be spawned during mission. The mission needs a Point Extraction Scaler of 0.9 or lower (Hazard 3 or less) and a 30% chance (checked at the loading screen). The spawn announcement time is between 6min40s and 50min (which starts counting before the mission starts), then 8s after the announcement game proceeds with the spawn.

Unique Swarm Triggers

Asides from happening at random during some mission types, Swarms can also be triggered through unique events or player action.

• Egg Hunts: Some Eggs will trigger a Swarm, with no limit to how many can be triggered at the same time. the number of Eggs that will cause a swarm depends on the total required ammount (with 2/4/6/8 Eggs required, then 1/1/2/3 swarms will occur, respectively).
• Point Extraction: Swarms in this mission type do not have a warning from Mission Control before they occur, only when it starts.
• Escort Duty: A swarm will always spawn once the first wall is drilled into every time the Drilldozer is started up, and will usually continue until the Drilldozer runs out of fuel, and will not have an end of swarm alert from Mission Control. Regular swarm behavior takes over once the Drilldozer has stopped for fuel. Once the final room with the Ommoran Heartstone is reached, no swarms will spawn until the final fight is started. Once the final fight is over, no swarms will spawn until the drop pod is called.

Enemies Pool

The types of enemies that can spawn in each mission is limited by the enemies pool, which will determine which enemies can normally spawn (Special types of swarms or conditions will still allow enemies outside the main pool to spawn). the available slots will vary for each hazard, and then the game will pick different enemies to fill each of the groups (Common, Disruptive and Special). Some biomes will always add their own enemy to the Special group. Some enemies will only spawn as variants of enemies in those groups.

Difficulty	Enemy Slots	Common Enemies	Disruptive Enemies	Special/Biome Enemies
Hazard 1	5	2	0-1	2-3
Hazard 2	5	2	1	2
Hazard 3	6	2	2	2
Hazard 4	7	2	2	3
Hazard 5	8	2	3	3

Groups

Common

Grunts and Praetorians are Common enemies. They will always be part of the enemy pool. (Grunts have a chance to transform into Guards or Slashers; Praetorians into Oppressors).

Disruptive

Menaces, Wardens, Bulk Detonators, Stingtails, Shellbacks, Grabbers and Goo Bombers are Disruptive enemies.

Special

Swarmers, Exploders, Web Spitters, Acid Spitters, Septic Spreaders, Mactera Spawns and Tri-jaws are Special enemies. (Mactera Spawns have a chance to transform into Brundles or Tri-jaws).

Biome

Nayaka Trawlers for Sandblasted Corridors, Q'ronar Younglings for Salt Pits and Naedocyte Shockers for Glacial Strata and Dense Biozone, are Biome enemies.

Veterans

There are two different systems for veterans, Normal and Large. it gives certain enemies a chance to become another enemy.

Grunts can turn into Slashers or Guards (uses Normal veteran system)
Praetorians can turn into Oppressors (uses Large veteran system)
Mactera spawns can turn into Brundles or Tri-jaws (uses Normal veteran system)

Normal Veteran
Difficulty	Weight	Chance	Range
Hazard 1	1	100%	0%
Hazard 2	2	66.66%	0%
	1	33.33%	5-15%
Hazard 3	6	66.66%	0%
	3	33.33%	15-30%
Hazard 4	4	34.78%	0%
	6	52.17%	15-30%
	1	8.69%	40-60%
	0.5	4.34%	75%
Hazard 5	3	20.68%	0%
	9	62.06%	15-30%
	2	13.79%	40-60%
	0.5	3.44%	100%

Large Veteran
Difficulty	Chance
Hazard 1	0%
Hazard 2	10%
Hazard 3	12.5%
Hazard 4	15%
Hazard 5	17.5%