Swarm is a PvP mode in which teams take turns playing as Cleaners and The Ridden to stop one another.
Overview[]
Teams are randomly assigned as either Cleaners or Ridden at the start. After a load-in period for selecting cards and making initial selections in the Zombie Mutation System (ZMS), a brief "Scavenge" period begins in which Cleaners can open crates to find weapons and items. Once the Scavenge period ends, common Ridden will appear and the Ridden team can begin spawning in. The "Swarm" is a Battle-Royale-inspired circle that shrinks, which if Cleaners are outside of they will take constant damage. The Cleaners' goal is to remain alive as long as possible; as long as at least one Cleaner is standing with at least 1 hit point, the clock will count up. Once none are, the clock stops and teams change sides. The round ends after both teams have tried to survive as Cleaners once. Whichever team survived longer wins the round. The match is won by whichever team wins best-of-three rounds.
Cleaners use a Swarm deck of 15 cards. The card pool for Swarm is much smaller than the card pool for coop, but every card is available to all players and no unlocking cards on the Supply Lines is required. When the first round begins, each member of the Cleaner team chooses which Cleaner they will play as for the entire match and selects either one of four premade decks or a custom deck. Then they are granted the first card in that deck and choose the next four cards. At the start of each subsequent round they choose four more. Supply Boxes appear in Swarm and can be unlocked with a Tool Kit. The Ridden team members each select one of twelve playable Mutation Ridden (the boss Ridden do not appear in Swarm), where only two players can choose classes within the same variant set and each player must select a different mutation from all other players. Ridden players can change class any time during the match except when they are spawned in with their chosen class. Whereas the Cleaner team enhances its capability by choosing cards and finding weapons and equipment in the map, the Ridden players become stronger by using the Zombie Mutation System.
Maps[]
There are 18 maps in Swarm. For each match, one of six coop-mission packs of three maps are selected randomly. In each round in a match, a map from the chosen pack is randomly selected.
| Mission Map Pack /
Coop Map Name (on loading screens) |
Internal Map Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1: The Devil's Return | ||
| Resurgence | The Truck Yard | semi-trailer parking |
| Tunnel of Blood | Tunnel of Terror | highway tunnel |
| Pain Train | End of the Line | gravel yard |
| 1.4: Blue Dog Hollow | ||
| Bad Seeds | Cannibal Farm | hayfield |
| Hell's Bells | The Pile-Up | traffic valley |
| Abandoned | Ghost Town | residential street |
| 2.2: Plan B | ||
| Pipe Cleaners | Clogged | sewer |
| Hinterland | Full Auto | garages / junkyard |
| Trailer Trashed | The Trailer Park | trailer park |
| 2.3: Job 10:22 | ||
| Heralds of the Worm Part 1 | Main Street Massacre | gas station |
| Heralds of the Worm Part 2 | Hamburger Hell | burger diner |
| Grave Danger | No Rest, Just Pieces | cemetary |
| 3.1: Dr. Rogers Neighborhood | ||
| Farther Afield | Field of Screams | cornfield |
| Blazing Trails | Scorched Earth | burnt campground |
| Cabins by the Lake | Camp Blood | as titled |
| 3.2: Remnants | ||
| A Friend in Need | School's Out | schoolbus parking |
| Making the Grade | Rumble on the Roof | "SOS" rooftop |
| The Road to Hell | The Quarantine Zone | relief-tent area |
Gallery[]
