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"According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyways. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. Humans thought the same thing too for the zombie apocalypse. Zombies don't care about what's impossible, and now they're teaming up with the bees. The humans are just in shock at the many impossible feats happening before them."
―TheSopwithCamel

Walther's Notes - Restored

This note was found covered in honey, inside a beehive. Through careful restoration, this has been rewritten through conjecture.


Of all my time-fighting beasts with clubs, long-tongue freaks and even burning to electrifying anomalies, nothing has ever prepared our convoy for what's to come in the dead of night. Assuming to be a nearby bee's nest in this neck of the woods, we took little notice; only for the buzzing to intensify as it drew closer and closer, until finally coming face to face with a Beekeeper with irregularly sticky honey covering parts of its former uniform with a shattered hive on its mesh-like head, housing a swarm of bees that had considered this thing their home. It still echoes in my mind as it drove our convoy into panic with not just itself in the fray, but also its little henchmen that would bring a world of pain in-defense to its apparent master. My only concern is the worst is still yet to come the more we uncover more of these abominations...

Summary

The Swarmer is just a simple beekeeper, what else do you need other than a helpful beekeeper? Of course, we may never know what's behind that strange mask of his.

Or it could have been another universe that had perished to the SANI Virus... Dark forces collaborate.

Background Story

In the years prior to the apocalypse, bee population dwindled due to climate change, habitat loss and diseases, making modern beekeeping much more important. It was estimated two years before society's downfall that beekeeping made up roughly 5% of the American economy and employed over 250,000 people.

Due to an estimated 98% of the world population being infected, it is theorised that a significant amount of infected would have been in close proximity to beehives for months, creating the possibility of the SANI evolving to take advantage of its vulnerable surroundings. Bees are naturally smart animals - they learn and recall things quite well. If infected, their brainpower could be used to quickly and stealthily spread the virus.

The reasoning for all Swarmers to be wearing their beekeeping suit is likely a result of the poor souls that were trapped inside then being zombified, and it being better suited for a hive. Infected bees dig into the suit and have a spacious interior ready for their queen. These extremely peculiar infected may be fragile, due to minimal protection provided by the suit and the fragile hives they contain, but the toxic, slowing honey and tiny stinging bees are nothing to be trifled with.

Controls

PC Gamepad Tablet Description
LMB
RTrigger XboxButton
Firebuttonn
Honey: Swarmer will throw honey that deals 15 damage and heavily impedes the victim's movement speed. Consumes 25 energy.
LMB Hold
RTriggerHold XboxButton
Rolpe
Beehive: Swarmer will throw a beehive with bees, dealing 2-3 damage per sting to whoever gets close while preventing them from sprinting and using weapons or items. Deals around 30-70 damage, depending on how much you move. Consumes 50 energy.
Hold Shift
XboxStick
Run Control
Sprint: Temporarily increases your walkspeed to 26 regardless of your former speed.Consumes 20 energy per second.
Claw (Passive): On touch, Swarmer will do a basic claw attack that deals 10 damage.

Tips

Survivors

  • If you are hit by honey, you are barely able to move, but you are able to equip weapons and items, jump, punch or kick. This makes you become incredibly vulnerable to hordes of zombies or dangerous mobs, like a Brute or a Skull Champion.
    • You can still use your mount, but it's only useful for jumping.
  • Avoid camping when a Swarmer is active. They can easily hit you with its beehive.
  • If you are in an enclosed area, be aware of any beehives. They can easily take a portion of your health and leave you defenceless.
    • If you are hit with a beehive, remain still at all times. This reduced the duration of the sting.
    • You can also walk into someone else's Molotov or Jerry Can flames to remove the sting effect.
    • You can walk into your own Molotov or environmental flames, but they will inflict the fire effect, damaging you further.
  • You can stand still to take less damage from the bees, but this might not always work and in some cases, risky to attempt.
  • Due to the low health of the Swarmer, automatics, such as the AK-47 and P90, long-range rifles, such as the Winchester and Barrett 50 Cal., or explosives, such as the RPG and Chinalake, are recommended against it.
    • However, short-ranged weapons, such as the Shotty 12 and Flamethrower, are not recommended due to the fact that the Swarmer can respond with its beehive before you can get close enough.
  • Shooting the Swarmer's head will not deal any additional damage due to its hat blocking its head.
    • However, you are able to headshot the Swarmer if you manage to land a shot on the side of its hat.
  • The Beekeeper Suit can be a successful counter to the Swarmer's Beehive.
    • Keep in mind that you can still be damaged by the Swarmer's Honey and Claw.
  • Take advantage of safe water-based maps such as Panama Beach or Campfire Chaos II. Non-lethal water can stop the Swarmer's Beehive from damaging you further.
  • Due to the bees damage they can leave you half hp or worst bring the Grill to keep your teammates healed.

Zombies

  • Avoid gunfire as much as possible. 160 HP is not a lot and survivors will make short work of you.
    • For this reason, ambushing survivors is the preferred method as the Honey will heavily impede their movement speed while the Beehive will completely disarm them within range.
  • The Beehive can damage survivors through walls and ceilings. You can use this to force survivors out of a camping spot.
  • Try not to sprint too much as most of your attacks require stamina.
    • However, you do have 15 more stamina than survivors, which means you can sprint away from danger more quickly than survivors.
  • If possible, try tossing your beehive in a group of survivors as they will lose a portion of their health and will be unable to use items or weapons.
  • You'll know if the survivor(s) is/are incapable of defending themselves, by a lock shown over the tops of their heads. They are also incapable of defense when they are swatting at bees surrounding them.
    • You do not need to attack these people. Wait for other zombies, such as the Brute to attack them.
  • You can easily damage camping survivors with your beehive.
    • You can also block off vital escape routes with your beehive.
    • You pair the Swarmer with a Digger to stun a tripped survivor repeatedly with the Beehive and Charge attacks respectively.
  • You can sprint and jump to throw the beehive further.
    • Remember, you need to aim slightly upwards to do this.
    • If you throw your beehive upward a little too much, then it will not go to your target and land on the ground where you are standing.

Trivia

  • The Swarmer's bees are the first instance of infected/zombified animals in R2DA.
  • Third community submitted zombie, after the Digger and Ticker.
  • This took just under a year to be implemented into R2DA.
    • This is the original thread of the Swarmer.
  • The Swarmer, when it was first added in v1.3.6, had a 0% spawnrate meaning you had to buy it, like the Stalker.
    • This was changed in v1.3.7 however, giving it a spawnrate similar to the Brute.
  • If you zoom into the Swarmer's mask, you will see its face.
    • The face it uses is Dizzy, created by ROBLOX.
  • In v1.4.4, the health was buffed to 160 from 150 and the maximum stamina changed from 100 to 115.
  • In v1.4.5, the beehive projectile speed changed from 60 to 90.
  • In the game Tower Defense Simulator, the Swarmer was made into its own tower.


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