Swarm is a unique real time strategy game. Instead of gathering resources, building or commanding teams of units, you control a swarm of ravenous insects that constantly emerges from your hive.
Your challenge is to guide your swarm through setting waypoints. Your objective is the collection of enough upgrades to raid and destroy the enemy hive.
Waypoints
Waypoints lay out a path for your swarm to follow. They look like a flag with a circle around it. The arrows connecting the waypoints show which way the swarm will go. You can drag the waypoints with the left mouse button.
In order to create a waypoint, click the black flag button on the left. If you want to delete a waypoint, right-click it (or control-click it on Mac). You can connect waypoints to the hive by dragging from the hive to the waypoint.
An advanced way to make waypoints is to SHIFT-drag an exiting waypoint (or the hive). This will make a new waypoint, connected to the one you dragged.
Hive
The hive has 30 health points in the beginning of the game. When its health drops to zero, the owner of the hive loses. Protect your hive with your swarm and watch out for enemy flanking attacks.
Upgrades
Upgrade orbs periodically appear on the field. There are three types, each improving a different aspect of your swarm. The level of your upgrades can be seen on the upgrade meters to the left.
Swarm Upgrades
SPAWN RATE: This upgrade has an icon that looks like a bug. It will increase the rate at which your hive produces the swarm. Getting to level 10 will double your production rate from level 0.
SPEED: This upgrade looks like a lightning bolt. This will increase the speed of your swarm and the speed at which upgrades are taken to your hive.
ARMOUR: This upgrade looks like a shield and will make your swarm tougher. At level 10, your swarm will be twice as resilient as level 0.
In order to capture an upgrade, direct your swarm to it with a waypoint. Some of the swarm will sacrifice themselves to capture the upgrade. Once 20 swarmlings have attacked the upgrade it will start pulsing with your team color. After a short while it will start to move to your hive.
Once it gets there, you will level up in that category. Of course, if the enemy intercepts the upgrade, they can take it back to their base.