Riot Games is introducing a new PvE game mode, Swarm, to League of Legends, set in the Anima Squad universe. The highly anticipated co-op mode promises a fresh, story-driven experience that will challenge players to overcome a variety of challenges, including an intentionally difficult first mission designed to teach essential survival skills.

Riot has taken a bold approach with Swarm’s first mission, deliberately setting players up for failure. The goal is to familiarize players with the mechanics of survival and the importance of building up strength over time, just like any other game in the bullet heaven genre.

In an early look at Swarm, Riot emphasized that even experienced players will struggle at first, as part of the survival genre is "understanding that you have to build up your strength."

In the first mission of the story-driven mode, it’s expected that players will likely die, and “that’s okay,” said Swarm product lead Sope May, as he introduced the deadly initiation to the new PvE mode. This will help players learn Swarm’s mechanics, which include earning coins to unlock “global power-ups” that can help players in future runs.