Greetings, exterminators!
We're thrilled to finally share a closer look at Survive the Swarm, a tactical bullet-hell roguelite that pits you and your elite squad of solarpunk warriors against an overwhelming alien insect invasion. With its strategic depth, unique characters, and escalating challenge, this game is designed to test your reflexes, creativity, and leadership.
What Is Survive the Swarm?
At its core, it’s about adaptability and synergy. The heart of the game lies in assembling and evolving a custom squad of exterminators, each with their own strengths, elemental affinities, and special abilities. You'll fight through timed events, encounter fearsome bosses, and strategically recruit new members mid-run, allowing you to build a team that complements your style and counters the swarm’s evolving threats. Whether your squad is built for speed, area control, or sheer brute force, the choices you make in each run shape your survival.
Lead your custom squad into the fray. Each run offers new tactical choices.
The Units: Diverse and Deadly
You’ll command a growing roster of 12 unique characters, each aligned with elemental powers — Fire, Ice, Lightning, or Poison — and equipped with a distinctive playstyle. Whether you're drawn to Isla's crushing hammer or Blaze’s precision-engineered longbow, there’s a unit to suit your approach.
Each character unlocks new abilities as they gain experience. This encourages experimentation and mastery. With squad synergy playing a major role, there's huge potential for creative combinations. Mastering individual exterminators is only half the challenge. True success comes from how well your chosen squad members work together.
Build your dream team: each unit brings unique strengths to the battlefield.
The Gameplay Loop
A single run is 15 minutes of high-octane action, broken into timed phases:
Quest Events that offer squad bonuses
Recruit Events to bolster your ranks
Swarm and Boss Events to truly test your strategy
Between these, you’ll explore the map, pick up upgrades, and react to randomised challenges. Every session is a mix of chaos and tactics.
Adapt on the fly as bugs swarm your squad in every direction.
Progression That Matters
Victory isn't just measured by completing a run. You earn Honor Points whether you win or lose. These can be spent on persistent upgrades across your squad, such as increased damage output, faster movement, or reduced cooldowns. These meta-upgrades make each run feel meaningful.
Boost your entire squad’s power between runs with persistent upgrades.
Play the Demo Soon
A free demo of Survive the Swarm will be launching on Steam soon! This is your chance to experience the tactical chaos firsthand, experiment with different squad builds, and give us your feedback.
Add to Your Wishlist
Support the game and stay up to date by adding Survive the Swarm to your Steam wishlist. It really helps us out and ensures you won't miss a beat when the swarm hits.
Wishlist on Steam
What’s Next?
We’ll be sharing more about the world, its characters, and the mechanics in future blog posts. We'll also be offering behind-the-scenes insights from the dev team. And yes, we’ll be answering your burning questions too!
Join the Conversation
Want to connect with other exterminators, share feedback, or get sneak peeks at upcoming features? Join our official Discord server and be part of the community!
Thanks for joining us on this journey. Stay sharp, exterminators. The swarm is only just beginning.
— The Survive the Swarm Team