Swarmers are tiny Necromorphs that appear to be composed only of re-animated bits of flesh that attack in large numbers and attempt to latch onto Isaac and overwhelm him. These little critters can overwhelm you easily. They are a minor threat, but if 6 or 7 get on you they will drain your health quickly. Swarmers often reside inside Pregnants and only come out when the stomach is ruptured, but are also encountered from time to time in independent swarms or, bizarrely, inside boxes.
Strategy
Dead Space
- A swarm moves in a coordinated, general direction; they will never break off from the group, which makes them easier to track down in the long run.
- Swarmers can jump a considerable distance despite their small size. The moment one (or several) latch on to your back, you should shake them off as soon as possible as health can be drained at an alarming rate should more than one Swarmer get onto your back.
- If even one Swarmer from a large horde latches onto you, you will move much more slowly, leaving you open for more to jump on. Should this happen, you are likely to lose a large amount of health - or even be killed outright - as it is hard to get lots of Swarmers off, and they can drain health surprisingly quickly when more than a few are latched on.
- The best way of eliminating a swarm is by using splash-damage weaponry. The Line Gun's mine is a good initial weapon to use against a swarm until you receive more weaponry, although it has to be carefully timed in order to make sure that it hits the Swarmers. Some single-burst shots from the Pulse Rifle are more than enough for taking care of remaining Swarmers. The Flamethrower can often prove to be effective, and the Plasma Cutter will also do in a pinch.
- A single, well-placed shot from the Force Gun, Line Gun, or the Contact Beam's secondary fire can wipe out an entire swarm. It's not recommended to use the Contact Beam though, given the scarcity of its ammo, and the fact that you have to get close to the Swarmers to use it.
- The Flamethrower is also a good choice for clearing a swarm. Due to the low health of the individual Swarmers, between two to three bursts can burn the whole group while using up very little ammo.
- A single Ripper blade can wipe out an entire swarm as well, provided you keep your aim steady and around the midst of the swarm. Using Stasis to slow them down will make this task easier.
- It's possible to use Stasis to slow down an entire swarm if it's aimed for the dead center of it. Doing so allows you to either skip the Swarmers (useful as they do not drop any items), drop a Line Gun mine into the middle of the swarm, or pick them off one by one with your Plasma Cutter if it's all you have at your disposal. If you want to conserve ammo or have none available then it is possible to stomp on the swarm and even melee them mid jump while they are in stasis.
Dead Space 2
- A decent weapon to use in Dead Space 2 is the Javelin Gun, due to the cheap price of and the general high amount of ammo you can find. If you don't want to get near a group of Swarmers, fire a Javelin in their path and activate the Secondary Fire, which will destroy all Swarmers in a single burst easily.
- Swarmers can also be found on normal and enhanced Slashers, as they crawl over its flesh, and this makes both the Slasher and the Swarmers a much more dangerous encounter. In the case of 'Hosts', use the Javelin gun - it'll kill the Swarmers and slow down the Necormorph Host as well, if not kill it outright.
- On rare occasions, Swarmers will attach themselves to other Necromorphs, so they can get to their target faster. This is extremely dangerous, especially if there's more than one Necromorph around, since the Swarmers can latch onto you while their companions take out chunks of your health.
- An interesting observation is that sometimes Swarmers burst from corpses-destroying the torso and leaving only the head and limbs behind as they move to attack. This can be observed in the Unitologist church, when one is in the 'residential' section near the start, signified by a sound that roughly matches when one stomps a body. This potentially suggests they can also form from internal organs and bone structure, or may simply use the body as a means of ambush. The body mentioned above cannot be pulled with kinesis until after the Swarmers burst out of it.
- As a last resort, the alternative of the contact beam will kill any swarmers within range, including those already attached to the player.
- On harder difficulties, throwing items with Kinesis to kill Swarmers without wasting scarce ammo is viable, but beware if there are other Necromorphs in the room.
- As one would expect, Swarmers are very weak - if you want to conserve ammo and are only facing a few Swarmers, you can Stasis the group and stomp them to death.
Dead Space: Extraction
- Swarmers will attack the player from time to time; the best strategy to do is shake the controller/remote up and down very rapidly. Though not causing much damage, it gives the other Necromorphs time to get in place.
- If a Pregnant is attacked using the PFM-100 Hydrogen Torch Flamethrower, the Swarmers inside of it will likely die as well, making this weapon handy against them at closer range.
- A very effective weapon is the Arc Welder, as it will usually kill a large group of Swarmers quickly. If you use controlled bursts and if surrounded, use the secondary mode.
Trivia
- In the movie, Dead Space: Downfall, if you look closely at the Swarmers, they appear to be frog-like in appearance.
- Swarmers are the smallest Necromorphs in the games and movies, second being the Swarm in Dead Space 3.
- It is unknown what forms a Swarmer, though it is possible that they are composed of small bones such as from the fingers and connecting tissue or cartilage. If you look closely at some screenshots, you can see that they appear to be made out of human hands, albeit the Necromorph infection has made the fingers longer and thinner than an average hand, as well as the entire hand being noticeably smaller in proportion. They could also be made of random bits of flesh of pieces of the Corruption that got close to the Marker's signal and reanimated, the way these pieces could be made is them being torn off Necromorphs or suvivors/corpses. The Pregnant's Swarmers could have been an infant's rotting corpse that has been morphed after the Pregnant has been infected.
- Swarmers possible method of attack could be a concealed proboscis that is located underneath the body of an individual swarmer. The proboscis is normally retracted within the body of the Swarmer, and extended to puncture through their victims. The proboscis can be observed when a Swarmer is stationary and not engaged. These give them a similar look to an Infector.
- Swarmers make high-pitched screeching noises and barks when encountered. It is unknown how they do this, as they seemingly have no way to emit sounds. It is possible, however, that Swarmers create these sounds by rubbing certain "body" parts together, much like real-world Grasshoppers and Cicadas.
- In some areas with doors, Swarmers can't seem to pass through. Use this to easily take them all out to avoid damage on higher difficulties.
- Swarmers do not count towards achievements/trophies such as "My Boom Stick", "Necro Flambe" and "The Lawnmower Man". This is more then likely due to how easy they are to kill.
- Swarmers DO count towards the "Shock therapy" Achievement/Trophy, as long as one impaled is any other Necromorph. The Slashers with Swarmers latched on them work well.
- When Swarmers have no target in sight, they stay in place and flail their bodies around.
- In Dead Space 2, there is a glitch in Chapter 10 when you encounter Swarmers and some Slashers in the tram station. If you leave one Swarmer, then go into the previous room (let the Swarmer follow you) and use the store, after you are done the Swarmer will not be able to attack you and can only follow you. The Swarmer cannot follow you into the tram. It is unknown if this can be done with more than one swarmer, or with other encounters, or even in the first game.
- It's possible that swarmers are able to infect victims they kill, as yellow liquid can be see coming from them when they attack. This is possibly the same liquid that Infectors inject into corpses to turn them into Necromorphs, increasing their "Infector Feel".
- One little known (yet horrific) fact about Swarmers is that they can apparently travel via septic lines. In the second chapter of Dead Space, one can be observed leaping out of the toilet in the women's restroom. Also in Dead Space Extraction they can be seen as the protagonist crawls through the septic pipes. This does not mean that they are formed inside Human feces, but more likely that they use the septic lines to travel great distances, just as most regular Necromorphs use air vents to move around.
Death Scene
Should Isaac fail to get the Swarmers off his back before his vitality gives out, he will drop to his knees, still trying to get the Swarmers off. He then finally succumbs and falls on his back as the Swarmers continue tearing into his flesh.
Gallery
Swarmers approaching Isaac
A pack of Swarmers attacking Isaac.
A Swarmer, Proboscis Extended
Appearances
Sources
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