Swarmer

Swarmer

ARTICLE

GALLERY

HISTORY

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Event Content

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Swarmer has been made unobtainable from the game as of the 26th of May 2020 as it was part of the Spring 2020 Event.
Players with the item in question can continue using it, but you cannot obtain this item anymore, outside of limited-time promotional sales.

Similar Article

This article is about Swarmer. You may be looking for Swarm.

Swarmer
Unlock Cost	Triumph Eggy Island (Hard Mode)
Base Cost	$300
Base Selling Cost	$100
Type	Offensive
Placement	Ground
Statistics
Base Damage	2
Damage Method	Sting Splash (Ability)
Base Firerate	4.008
Base Range	12
Hidden Detection	N/A
Lead Detection	Level 4+ (Splash Damage only)
Flying Detection	N/A
Immunities	None
Placement Footprint	Average (1.5)

"OH NOES, THE BEES! Attack enemies with bees that do damage over time. Won Spring 2020."

―Inventory Description

"OH NO THE BEES!"

―Former Inventory Description

Description

The Swarmer is an event tower that could have been obtained by triumphing Eggy Island hard mode as part of the Spring 2020 Event. It could have also been bought via a gamepass for 350.

The Swarmer is a tower deals damage in a rather unusual way. It throws globs of honey, which fire bees at an enemy, with the struck enemy taking damage over time, even though the Swarmer may not be directly attacking it. The enemy will be damaged every Tick, which is the interval between each sting for a given amount of time, known as the Sting Time. This functions similarly to other forms of Tick damage, such as Pyromancer's Burn Damage.

The Swarmer will not an attack an enemy that is currently being stung as long as there are other enemies without the effect. If there are no enemies that are not being stung in its range, it will keep attacking enemies based on its targeting. If that enemy has sting effect applied from it, it will apply that effect again, effectively stacking it, also extending the effect in the process. Other Swarmers attacking it will not be able to apply the effect, only the Swarmer that applied the first effect can stack it. When the effect ends, all the stacked stinging damage will disappear and the Swarmer will have to reapply them. While other Swarmers do not contribute to the stack, they will build up their own stacks in the background, though they will not do anything unless the stinging effect that is currently dealing damage ends.

Due to its cheap cost and moderate DPS, the Swarmer is considered to be an early game tower, also having good crowd control potential. It, however, is heavily hindered by its lack of hidden detection and subpar DPS for later parts of the game, unless given multiple targets to attack and stack its effects onto.

Upgrades

Level 1 - Aggressive Bees - $300
1 > 0.75 Tick Sell Price changes to $200

Level 2 - Improve Handling - $350
+4 Range 4.008 > 3.008 Firerate Sell Price changes to $316

Level 3 - Bee Gun - $500
+2 Range 3.008 > 2.008 Firerate Sell Price changes to $483

Level 4 - Beehive of Madness - $1,400
+2 Bee Damage 0.75 > 0.5 Tick 4 > 6 Sting Time +Beehive Grenade Ability Sell Price changes to $950

Level 5 - Beekeeper of Death - $4,000
+2 Range +2 Bee Damage 0.5 > 0.25 Tick 6 > 8 Sting Time 2.008 > 1.008 Firerate Sell Price changes to $2,283

Ability

Beehive Grenade
Level 4+ 15s Cooldown Throws a grenade that deals 10 damage and inflicts the stinging effect on every enemy that is not already being stung. Explosion range is 10.

Stats Table

To see all the previous statistics of this tower, see the history page, while for the statistics without the Firerate Bug, visit the Firerate Bug page.

Level	Total Price	Bee Damage	Firerate	Range	Tick	Sting Time	Total Elapsed Damage	DPS	Cost Efficiency
0	$300	2	4.008	12	1	4	8	2	$150
1	$600	2	4.008	12	0.75	4	10	2.67	$224.72
2	$950	2	3.008	16	0.75	4	10	2.67	$355.81
3	$1,450	2	2.008	18	0.75	4	10	2.67	$543.07
4	$2,850	4	2.008	18	0.5	6	48	8	$356.25
5	$6,850	6	1.008	20	0.25	8	192	24	$285.42

Strategy

• The Swarmer, being an early game tower, is generally decent at dispatching weaker enemies such as the Abnormal or Quick, though it is still quite weak against higher health enemies like the Elite Abnormal, especially at lower levels.
  • It can, however, become a quite strong tower once its stacking capabilities are utilized properly.
• The Swarmer will reapply the stinging effect to an enemy if it attacks the same enemy, also extending it, allowing it to be stacked.
  • This allows it to reach quite high DPS values after a certain amount of time.
  • All the stacks disappear once the effect ends. This makes the Swarmer quite vulnerable to stuns, as they can easily remove all of its stacks.
    • This makes the Medic and the Festive Tree quite useful with the Swarmer.
• The Swarmer will prioritize enemies that are not being stung over enemies that are being stung. This means that, if there are many enemies on the path, the Swarmer will never be able to stack. Having multiple Swarmers allows it to apply the effect to more enemies, making it easier to stack.
• The Commander can be quite useful with the Swarmer, as it allows it to apply its effects faster, making it stack faster.
• The Beehive Grenade can be used to quickly apply the stinging effect to multiple enemies, allowing the Swarmer to start stacking faster.
  • While the Beehive Grenade can stack the effect, similarly to the main attack, this is not exactly ideal as the Beehive Grenade cannot be thrown at an enemy which already has the effect.
• Keep in mind that the Swarmer does not have hidden detection at any level. For this reason, other towers with cheap hidden detection are recommended when Hidden enemies initially spawn.
  • Do note that Hidden enemies can still be harmed and stung by the Beehive Grenade, if the enemy is near one that is detectable, allowing Swarmer to still damage hidden enemies, albeit indirectly.
    • This also applies to Flying enemies, such as the Balloon, with the Beehive Grenade's explosion radius being large enough to hit them, though another detectable enemy must be present near the Flying enemy.
      • Furthermore, a Level 4+ Ace Pilot and the Firework Technician can allow the Swarmer to detect Hidden enemies (and also Flying enemies with the Firework Technician) if the Swarmer is within their effective ranges.
• You can use the Beehive Grenade ability even if there are no enemies in its range, or when all the enemies in range are currently being stung, and the Swarmer will wait 5 seconds for an enemy that it can use its ability on. If 5 seconds have passed with no enemies targeted, the ability will be cancelled.

Trivia

• The Swarmer is based on R2DA's Swarmer in name and appearance.
  • Additionally, the Swarmer's Level 5 outfit is very similar to R2DA's Beekeeper Suit.
• The store description is taken from a scene involving Nicholas Cage in the film The Wicker Man.
• Immediately after the Swarmer's addition, it could have been bought for 2,500.
  • However, this was soon removed, and anyone who acquired the Swarmer this way was refunded.
• The damage statistic of the Swarmer will always remain at 1 whenever you open the upgrade box, no matter the level of the Swarmer.
  • This is because the Swarmer deals Bee Damage, and the stated damage is never used.
• Currently, most of the statistical changes on Levels 1–3 are not shown on the Swarmer's upgrade descriptions, with the exception of range and firerate.
  • Because of this, the Swarmer's Level 1 upgrade description is empty.

Update History

For previous cosmetic variations, see the gallery page.

• 6 April 2020 - Release v1.9.0
  • Swarmer added.
    • Later the same day, the Swarmer can no longer be bought for 2,500.
  • Bug: Swarmer can use its Beehive Grenade ability on an enemy that is currently being stung.
  • Bug: Swarmer's stinging effect can stack.
  • Bug: Selling a Swarmer allows other Swarmers to attack an enemy the sold Swarmer applied the stinging effect to, with the normal attack and Beehive Grenade ability.
• 7 April 2020 - Release v1.9.0b
  • Beehive Grenade will now always target the first enemy.
• 26 May 2020 - Release v1.11.0
  • Swarmer can no longer be obtained by triumphing Eggy Island hard mode or obtained via the gamepass.
• 29 October 2020 - Overhaul v1.0.0
  • Splash damage equation reworked.
  • Firerate decreased due to the Firerate Bug being made less severe.
  • Statistical changes:
    • Base
      • Firerate decreased from 2.05 to 2.03.
    • Level 3
      • Firerate changed from 2.05 > 1.05 to 2.03 > 1.03.
    • Level 4
      • Beehive Grenade ability can now damage lead enemies.
    • Level 5
      • Firerate changed from 1.05 > 0.55 to 1.03 > 0.53.
  • Bug: All upgrade descriptions except Level 3 do not list any changes made to the stinging effect.
• 8 May 2021 - Overhaul v1.3.0
  • Swarmer's splash damage now ignores Defense.
  • Splash damage reworked. Now the explosion is separated into two spheres. Inner sphere deals 100% of the stated damage while the damage in the outer sphere decreases linearly.
  • Bug: The Swarmer's total damage counter will continue to rise even if all enemies are dead, until the sting time ends.
• 16 May 2021 - Overhaul v1.3.1
  • Bug: The Swarmer's bee stinging animation is broken.
• 4 December 2021 - v1.0.0
  • Bugfix: The Swarmer's bee stinging animation now works again.
• 8 December 2021 - v1.0.0c
  • Bugfix: Swarmer can no longer use its Beehive Grenade ability on an enemy that is currently being stung.
• 12 March 2022 - v1.1.0
  • Firerate decreased due to the Firerate Bug being made less severe.
  • Statistical changes:
    • Base
      • Firerate decreased from 2.03 to 2.008.
    • Level 3
      • Firerate changed from 2.03 > 1.03 to 2.008 > 1.008.
    • Level 5
      • Firerate changed from 1.03 > 0.53 to 1.008 > 0.508.
  • Bug: Swarmer will attack enemies even if they are being stung with its main attack.
    • This was fixed a few hours later.
  • Bug: Swarmer's Beehive Grenade ability does not damage enemies and does not apply stinging effect on them.
• 13 March 2022 - v1.1.0b
  • Bugfix: Swarmer's Beehive Grenade ability now works properly.
• 21 December 2022 - v1.6.0
  • Skin rarity added to the Default skin.
• 21 March 2023 - v1.6.3e
  • Bugfix: Level 4 and 5 upgrade descriptions now list changes made to the stinging effect.
• 28 October 2023 - v1.9.0
  • Bug: Swarmer attacks enemies that are currently being stung.
  • Bugfix: Stinging effect no longer stacks.
• 2 August 2024 - v1.27.0
  • Statistical changes:
    • Base
      • Bee damage increased from 1 to 2.
      • Damage increased from 1 to 2.
      • Sting time increased from 3 to 4.
    • Level 1
      • Cost increased from $250 to $300.
      • Sting time changed from 3 > 4 to 4.
    • Level 2
      • Cost increased from $300 to $350.
      • Firerate changed from 2.008 to 2.008 > 1.508.
    • Level 3
      • Firerate changed from 2.008 > 1.008 to 1.508 > 1.008.
    • Level 4
      • Cost increased from $1,200 to $1,400.
      • Bee damage increased from +1 to +2.
  • Bug: Firerate is now twice as long.
  • Bugfix: Level 1, 2 and 3 upgrade descriptions now list changes made to the stinging effect.
• 5 February 2025 - v1.52.0
  • A single Swarmer now can stack its stinging effect on enemies.
  • Bugfix: Swarmer will now target enemies in its range that are not being stung over enemies that are being stung, though once there are no more enemies without the effect in range it will keep attacking enemies that are being stung.

Notes