Swarmer

Swarmer
Faction	Reapers
Type	Organic
Armament	Suicide Attack
Abilities	None
Health	Very Low
Locations	Mahavid, Namakli, Utukku, Tuchanka, Thessia, Horizon, Earth

Swarmers are synthetic-organic creatures presumably derived from Rachni Workers and mutated by Reaper technology. Swarmers can be spawned by puncturing one of the large orange sacs found on Ravagers or by destroying Gestation Pods.

Capabilities

Offensive

Swarmers are volatile in large groups and can hinder shield regeneration with constant attacks. Namely, Swarmers attack by a suicide leap at the player, damaging with both the explosion and a little bit of acid damage.

Note: On Multiplayer, if the player is killed by a Swarmer, no kill notification is logged.

Defensive

Swarmers are very weak with only a small amount of health and can be killed by one shot from any gun or any power.

Tactics

• Slow moving and fragile, these small targets are easy to miss. The easiest way to remove them from the field is the biotic attack Singularity, as Shockwave tends to miss them, and a Singularity in place lets you pop a Ravager's sacs while protecting you from the Swarmers.
• Swarmers are so weak that they can be killed with attacks that do not actually inflict damage. Cryo Blast and Stasis, especially if upgraded for radius and Bubble, respectively, are highly effective.
• Swarmers can be killed by the simple expedient of stepping on one, but keep in mind that this will have the same result as being attacked by one.
• Area of Effect (radius) powers or weapons like the Falcon Assault Rifle, the Scoprion Pistol, any kind of grenades, or even overload and energy drain are the next best thing. In fact, the Swarmers are so fragile that merely getting a direct hit with the grenades themselves kills them instantly. Afterwards, the explosions will very easily take out entire armies of Swarmers at once.
• Avoid Swarmers when they are dead, they leave a puddle of acid that damages shields and subsequently health over time.
• Swarmers are not counted as enemies, so they are not required to complete a current wave. Because of this you should always stay vigilant as a pack of Swarmers can quickly eat away at your health or any health recovered, even after the wave is completed.
• Small groups of Swarmers can be killed quickly with Overload if upgraded to have the chain-lightning effect.
• Groups of Swarmers can also easily be dispatched using Dark Channel, as it travels to a new target after its current target is killed.
• It should be noted that if you melee kill a Swarmer, it will NOT leave a puddle of acid. This works best as the host since latency can stop you from hitting Swarmers adequately with melee attacks and instead spill their acid. It should also not be used liberally since there will usually be other things trying to kill you. In addition, their small size makes targeting one with melee difficult, leaving this as a poor overall tactic.