Where to Play League of Legends Swarm: Full PvE Mode Breakdown

So where to play League of Legends Swarm? Right inside your normal LoL desktop client. So no extra launcher, no separate app. Just open the client on PC or Mac, go to Play, and pick it from Event Modes when Riot flips it on. The problem? Swarm is not permanent. But it showed up on patch 14.14 (July 17, 2024) with the Anima Squad event and got pulled on August 19, 2024. And Riot has been quiet about bringing it back ever since.

I no-lifed Swarm for the entire month it was up. Best time I had in League since my first ranked grind, honestly. Basically, picture Vampire Survivors but with LoL champions. If you missed it live, you have probably seen clips floating around Reddit and YouTube. So below I cover how it actually works, all 9 champions, every map, and whether Riot is bringing it back.

This video from Skill Capped breaks down the Swarm mode and how it plays.

What Is League of Legends Swarm and Where to Play It?

League of Legends Swarm is basically Riot’s take on a bullet heaven PvE game baked into the LoL client. They built it under the codename “Strawberry” and set it in the Anima Squad universe. Instead of laning on Summoner’s Rift, you grab 1 to 3 friends (or run solo) and try to survive 15 minutes of alien hordes called Primordians before a boss shows up to ruin your day.

League of Legends Swarm gameplay has nothing in common with regular League. Instead, you hold WASD to kite around, your weapons shoot automatically, and upgrades pop out of dead mobs. And if you die? No big deal. Instead, you keep the gold, buy permanent buffs in the lobby, and go again stronger. So runs take about 15 to 20 minutes.

The Swarm mode impressed Riot internally too. Modes team lead Eduardo “Riot Cadmus” Cortejoso confirmed in a September 2024 dev blog that Swarm outperformed every previous PvE mode in League’s history, beating Star Guardian (2017) and Odyssey (2018) in sustained engagement. And Reddit went crazy for it. Within a week of launch, the top posts on r/leagueoflegends were all “make Swarm permanent” threads.

Where to Play League of Legends Swarm: Step by Step

Loading into Swarm when it is live takes like 30 seconds:

1. Fire up the League client on your PC or Mac.
2. Hit Play up in the top-left.
3. Find Swarm in the mode list (might be under “Event Modes” depending on the patch).
4. Pick your champion and difficulty setting.
5. Queue up solo or invite up to 3 friends.

Also, quick heads up: your account needs the basic LoL Tutorial done or Swarm will not show up. Takes maybe 10 minutes if you have never played.

Platform and System Requirements

League of Legends Swarm runs on the same client as standard LoL, so if your PC or Mac can handle League, it can handle the Swarm mode. No extra hardware is needed. But there are hard limitations on where you can play it:

Platform	Swarm Available?
Windows PC	Yes
macOS	Yes
Mobile (iOS/Android)	No
PlayStation / Xbox	No
Nintendo Switch	No
Wild Rift	No (though teasers appeared on Wild Rift social media)

If you are a mobile player looking for League content, our console availability breakdown covers the full picture of which platforms support League.

Every Playable Champion and How to Unlock Them

Once you figure out where to play League of Legends Swarm, the next question is which champion to pick. There are 9 (Riot calls them “fighters”). Each one rocks an Anima Squad skin and has reworked abilities. You start with Jinx and Seraphine. But everyone else you have to earn through in-game objectives.

Champion	How to Unlock	Playstyle
Jinx	Free (default)	High damage carry with AoE, great for solo
Seraphine	Free (default)	Support with shields and heals, better in co-op
Leona	Upgrade Searing Shortbow to Lv2	Tanky frontliner with crowd control
Illaoi	Upgrade Radiant Field to Lv4	Bruiser with area denial tentacles
Briar	Complete The Outskirts (Story mode)	Aggressive melee with lifesteal
Yasuo	Complete Subterranean Lab (Story)	Mobile melee with crit scaling
Riven	Complete The Outskirts (Hard mode)	Combo-heavy melee, needs movement speed
Aurora	Defeat 25 elite enemies on Hard	Mage with stealth for safe escapes
Xayah	Complete 20 Bel’Veth Trials on Hard	Hardest to unlock, feather-based damage

From my runs in League of Legends Swarm, Jinx felt like the best solo carry by far. Because once you kill 75 enemies, her passive kicks in with bonus movement speed and ability haste, so she just gets faster and stronger the longer you survive. However, if you are playing with friends, go Seraphine. Because her shields and heals carry the squad through rough boss phases where everyone is dodging for their life.

Aurora was the newest champion in League when Swarm launched (she debuted on the same patch). Her stealth ability on E makes her one of the safest picks for beginners who struggle with positioning in the later maps.

All 4 Maps, Bosses, and Difficulty Tiers

League of Legends Swarm has four maps, each harder than the last, and every map ends with a boss fight against a Primordian. Knowing where to play League of Legends Swarm matters less than knowing which map you are ready for. Also, you unlock them sequentially by beating the boss on the previous map. Every map follows the same loop: survive 15 minutes of escalating waves, then a boss spawns.

Map	Boss	Difficulty	What to Expect
Warehouse District	Rek’Sai	Easy	Starter map with open layout, good for learning WASD controls and the Warehouse District layout
The Outskirts	Briar	Medium	More chokepoints, tighter corridors
Subterranean Lab	Bel’Veth	Hard	Dense enemy spawns, punishing boss fight
The Beachhead	Aatrox	Extreme	Final map, Aatrox is the hardest boss in the mode

After completing all four League of Legends Swarm maps on Story mode, a Matchmade queue unlocks. This puts you in random lobbies on Hard difficulty with other players. It is the closest thing to an endgame that Swarm offers.

Beating Primordian Aatrox on Extreme difficulty across all 9 Swarm champions grants the permanent profile title “Swarm Conqueror.” That grind took me a solid two weeks of on and off playing. Xayah on Extreme Aatrox was probably the hardest challenge because her damage requires precise positioning that gets punished in tight situations.

Controls, Weapons, and the Roguelike Progression Loop

If you are used to clicking to move in League, League of Legends Swarm will feel weird at first. The entire League of Legends Swarm control scheme is built around WASD movement instead of mouse clicks. The whole control scheme is different:

• Movement: WASD, feels like a twin-stick shooter
• Aiming: press C to swap between auto-aim (locks to closest enemy) and manual aim (follows your cursor)
• Abilities: you only get E and R, and those unlock at level 3 and 6
• Weapons: fire automatically based on cooldown timers

If you know Hades or Dead Cells, same loop. Gold from your run does not vanish when you die. You take it back to the lobby and dump it into permanent stat boosts (HP, damage, move speed, pickup radius) that carry over to every future attempt.

Weapon and Passive System

Each League of Legends Swarm champion starts with one unique weapon. Then when you level up during a run, you pick from three random choices: grab a new weapon, a new passive, or upgrade something you already own. You can hold 5 weapons max and up to 6 passives (though you start with only 3 passive slots and earn the rest through objectives).

The real power spikes come from weapon evolutions. If you hold the right weapon and passive combination, the weapon evolution triggers, turning it into a stronger version with different visual effects and damage. Figuring out which combos evolve is part of the fun. The scoreboard (Tab key) shows a legend for evolution requirements.

Spires and Special Missions

During League of Legends Swarm runs, optional spire missions pop up at random. A character announces the mission and a spire appears on the map. Standing inside the spire’s radius captures it. Multiple teammates capturing at once speeds it up. Completing spires grants temporary buffs called Battle Bunny Boons that last about 15 seconds and give a massive combat boost.

There are also Bel’Veth Trials scattered across maps. These are timed challenges with specific objectives. Completing 20 of them on Hard mode is how you unlock Xayah, so they serve double duty as content and progression gates.

Is the Swarm Mode Coming Back to LoL?

Will League of Legends Swarm ever come back? That question shows up on Reddit and Twitter/X constantly. Short answer: Riot has not said yes or no.

Riot’s dev blog from September 2024 flat out said League of Legends Swarm would not become permanent because there was not enough content. But then they also admitted it was their best-performing PvE mode ever and said they were “looking into how Swarm will fit into our ecosystem.” The TL;DW dev update repeated the same line: not permanent, but we hear you.

And since then? Radio silence. Nothing in Season 1 2026. Nothing in Season 2 either. Riot Games has been rotating Arena, Brawl (that team deathmatch thing from patch 25.10), and Ultimate Spellbook instead.

Wild Rift’s socials dropped some Swarm-related teases a while back, and people got hyped about a possible mobile port. But that went nowhere. If Swarm does come back, it will probably be attached to another Anima Squad event with new content. The Riot dev blog is the place to watch for that.

Beginner Tips Worth Keeping (If the Mode Returns)

After grinding League of Legends Swarm for weeks, I picked up a few things. So once you know where to play League of Legends Swarm, these tips will save you a lot of failed runs:

Stack movement speed first. Because late-game waves get so thick that damage means nothing if you are too slow to dodge. Because move speed is what separates Hard clears from Extreme clears.

Do not ignore the permanent upgrades. Your first few runs will feel rough. That is by design. The gold you earn funds stat upgrades that apply to every run after. In League of Legends Swarm, prioritize the Anima Power upgrade early because each level gives +1 ability haste, +1% damage, +1% movement speed, and +1% pickup radius combined.

Mix damage and survivability. Also, going full offense sounds good on paper. But if you skip all the HP recovery options, you just slowly bleed out around minute 12 and die before the boss fight even starts. Because Subterranean Lab taught me that lesson the hard way.

Stay in open areas. Chokepoints and corners are death traps in League of Legends Swarm. When a wave stacks up in a narrow corridor, even the tankiest champion gets overwhelmed. Keep moving in wide circles through open map sections.

Use E abilities aggressively. Unlike regular League where you might save cooldowns, Swarm rewards spamming E whenever you are in danger. Jinx’s E creates space. Aurora’s E gives stealth. Briar’s abilities provide sustain. Just hit the button.

Need a fresh LoL account for trying different modes? our LoL smurf accounts come ready at level 30 with instant delivery. We also have EUW accounts if you play on European servers.

PvE vs PvP: Comparing LoL Game Modes

If you know where to play League of Legends Swarm, you already know nothing else in League feels like it. Look at this side by side:

Feature	Swarm	ARAM	Arena	Summoner’s Rift
PvP or PvE	PvE	PvP	PvP	PvP
Controls	WASD	Click to move	Click to move	Click to move
Team size	1 to 4	5	2	5
Match length	15 to 20 min	15 to 25 min	15 to 25 min	25 to 40 min
Permanent	No	Yes	Rotating	Yes
Roguelike upgrades	Yes	No	Augments	No

The WASD controls alone make League of Legends Swarm feel like a completely different game. If you have played Vampire Survivors or Holocure, you know the genre. Honestly, Riot nailed it. Since having actual champion kits with unique passives and evolutions makes it way more interesting than any Vampire Survivors clone I have tried.

Hidden Easter Eggs and Secrets

Since most people were too busy dodging Primordians to notice these:

Each League of Legends Swarm map has hidden strawberries. The mode’s internal development codename was “Strawberry,” and the devs scattered references to it across every map. They are small and easy to miss but they are there.

The recall button from Summoner’s Rift still exists in the Swarm UI. YouTuber Vandiril discovered that pressing B actually works and teleports you back to spawn. So it is super clutch for getting out of a bad corner. Taking damage cancels it though, same as on the Rift.

Beating Aatrox on Extreme with every single champion awards the “Swarm Conqueror” profile title. And barely anyone has it because the League of Legends Swarm event ran for like five weeks total.

For more League content and guides, check out our ranked system explainer if you are getting back into competitive play after a break. And if you want to change your client language before jumping into any mode, we have a guide for that too.

Where to Play if League of Legends Swarm Is Offline

If you are wondering where to play League of Legends Swarm right now, the answer is: nowhere. It is offline. But if you want a break from ranked in April 2026, your options look like this.

Brawl is probably your best bet for a chill mode in LoL right now. Riot added it on patch 25.10 (May 2025) and brought it back March 2026 for another two months. Basically a tiny Bandle City map, 5v5. You get kills and shove minions into a portal to drain their team HP bar. So about 10 minutes per game. It is PvP, sure, but it has that same “whatever, just vibing” energy that League of Legends Swarm had.

ARAM remains the permanent casual mode. One lane, random champions, 15 to 25 minute games. If you just want to relax and fight without caring about macro strategy, ARAM is always there.

Vampire Survivors itself is the standalone game that inspired Swarm. It costs a few dollars on Steam, runs on basically any PC, and has years of content updates. If you loved the Swarm gameplay loop but want more of it right now, Vampire Survivors (or Holocure if you want a free alternative) is the move.

If you scroll r/leagueoflegends, “bring back Swarm” threads pop up every few weeks since League of Legends Swarm ended. Riot said in September 2024 there was not enough content to keep it permanent, but they know people want it. The bigger question floating around Reddit is whether the next Anima Squad event could ship an expanded Swarm with more champions and maps.

LoL Rotating Modes: How Swarm Fits the Timeline

After Swarm ended, Riot started trying to keep at least one alternative mode running at all times. Since the question of where to play League of Legends Swarm depends on Riot’s schedule, here is the full mode rotation:

Period	Mode	Type
July to Aug 2024	Swarm (Anima Squad)	PvE bullet heaven
Late 2024	Arena (rotating return)	PvP 2v2v2v2
Early 2025	Ultimate Spellbook	PvP with borrowed ults
May to Jun 2025	Brawl (debut)	PvP team deathmatch
Mar to Apr 2026	Brawl (return)	PvP team deathmatch

Notice something? Swarm is the only PvE entry on that list. Everything Riot has rotated since has been PvP. That is a pretty big gap, and it explains why the “bring back Swarm” posts on Reddit never stop. Whenever Riot gets around to PvE again, bringing Swarm back (or shipping Swarm 2.0) feels like the no-brainer move.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I play League of Legends Swarm right now?

Right inside your regular League of Legends client on PC or Mac. Look under Event Modes when Riot turns it on during events. No extra download needed.

Is LoL Swarm a permanent game mode?

No. The mode launched as a limited-time event during the Anima Squad 2024 summer event (July 17 to August 19, 2024) and was removed after the event ended. Riot has not confirmed a return date as of April 2026.

Can I play Swarm on mobile or console?

No. Swarm is exclusive to the desktop League of Legends client. It is not available on mobile devices, consoles, or through Wild Rift.

How many champions are playable in Swarm?

League of Legends Swarm features 9 playable champions: Jinx, Seraphine, Leona, Illaoi, Briar, Yasuo, Riven, Aurora, and Xayah. Jinx and Seraphine are unlocked by default, while the rest require completing specific in-game objectives.

What kind of game is LoL Swarm?

League of Legends Swarm is a bullet heaven PvE mode inspired by Vampire Survivors. You use WASD movement to dodge enemy waves, collect weapon upgrades, and fight bosses across four maps. It supports solo play or co-op PvE with up to 3 friends.

Will Swarm come back in 2026?

Nothing confirmed. Riot said Swarm did great numbers but has not committed to a return date. They mentioned “exploring how it fits into future events,” which could mean anything. Best bet is to follow patch notes and Riot’s dev blog.

How do I unlock all champions in Swarm?

Jinx and Seraphine are free from the start. After that, Leona unlocks when you get Searing Shortbow to level 2, and Illaoi needs Radiant Field at level 4. The rest (Briar, Yasuo, Riven, Aurora, Xayah) all come from beating certain maps on certain difficulties.

Last updated: April 2026