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Massive Swarm System

Unity asset for large enemy swarms: bullet heaven, survivor-style, zombie hordes. Drop it in, configure a few settings, and get 1000+ agents running.

New here?

Start with Getting Started to build your first working swarm.

What's in this manual

  • Getting Started: your first working swarm, step by step.
  • Sample Scenes: what each demo scene shows and which one to open first.
  • Samples & Cleanup: removing the demo content once you no longer need it.
  • Concepts: the mental model: Manager, Archetype, Behavior Profile, Movement Profile, Settings.
  • Core Setup: Swarm Manager, Targets, Settings, Archetype, the tuning profiles, and wiring combat and input into your own game.
  • Spawners: Shape Spawners, the Spawner Director, and the Pressure Recycler for waves and encounters.
  • Behaviors: every steering behavior, what it does, when to use it.
  • Navigation: Surface Flow Field for levels with walls and uneven floors.
  • Animation: VAT and Animator-based animation.
  • Performance: measure, tune, and ship 1000+ agents at frame rate.
  • Updating: how to move an existing project to a newer version.
  • Troubleshooting: common first-run issues and fixes.
  • FAQ: the questions that come up before you buy and just after.
  • Reference: the public API, component by component, plus the glossary.
  • Help & Support: Discord, email, and how to report a bug.
  • Changelog: what changed in each release, kept online so it is always current. The version you installed also ships a CHANGELOG.txt next to this manual.

What it is

  • A centralized swarm simulation for classic GameObject projects.
  • A manager / spawner / settings workflow for large enemy groups.
  • A performance-first horde movement system.
  • A small set of opinionated default behaviors.

What it is not

  • Not a broad gameplay framework.
  • Not a DOTS/ECS package.
  • Not a NavMeshAgent-based system.
  • Not a full physics crowd solver. Physics & Colliders explains how agents relate to your colliders and Rigidbodies.
  • Not a general AI behavior framework.

Requirements

  • Unity 2022.3 LTS or later (Unity 6 LTS supported).
  • Universal Render Pipeline (URP): required for the included swarm visuals. The VAT shaders are URP-only; Built-In RP and HDRP are not supported (agents will render magenta without it). The simulation itself is render-pipeline-agnostic, so if you supply your own materials you can run the core in any pipeline.
  • No extra packages for the core runtime. It references no Unity package beyond the engine modules, so it compiles in a bare project.
  • The samples ask for more. StarterKit needs TextMeshPro for its floating combat numbers. Full Demo needs TextMeshPro, Cinemachine 3.x and the Input System: its scenes store Cinemachine 3 components, so on Cinemachine 2.x the demo cameras load as missing scripts, and its player controller, hotkeys and drag-target script all compile only when the Input System package is present. None of this reaches the core runtime, so removing a sample tier removes its requirements with it. Full Demo depends on the StarterKit, so remove Full Demo first. See Samples & Cleanup.
  • If you use either sample, import the TextMeshPro resources once from Window > TextMeshPro > Import TMP Essential Resources. The Full Demo HUD uses the default TMP font; the StarterKit's floating numbers ship their own font but still draw through a TMP shader. Either way the text stays blank until those resources exist in the project.
  • Unity Input System is optional for the core. Nothing in the simulation needs it, but the package ships a small input assembly that only compiles when the package is installed: the Input System move-input adapter, the twin-stick aim and fire source, the on-screen stick, and the mobile touch joystick. Without it, the core still ships DefaultTargetMoveController for moving a test target with WASD or a gamepad stick, and your own controller feeds movement in through IMoveInputSource. See Input Integration.