Swarm Agent Archetype¶

Defines one enemy type. An archetype binds together the visual prefab, the agent's physical radius, and the steering and movement profiles that govern how this enemy moves. Spawners reference archetypes, so the same spawner shape can serve different enemy types.

Archetype Wizard¶

Use the wizard for your first archetype

The wizard creates an archetype plus fully wired Behavior, Movement, and optional Attack profiles in one step. It is the fastest way to get a new enemy type into your scene.

Open it from either menu path:

Tools → Massive Swarm System → New Archetype…
Right-click in the Project window → Create → Massive Swarm System → Agents → Agent Archetype (Wizard)… (opens with the selected folder pre-filled)

The wizard walks through four steps:

New Swarm Archetype wizard window showing the four numbered steps — Identity, Visuals, Preset, Combat — with a prefab assigned and an auto-suggested Agent Radius, plus the output preview and Create Archetype button — The Archetype Wizard. The four numbered sections match the steps below. In Visuals, assigning a prefab auto-detects its renderer and suggests an Agent Radius from the prefab bounds; the Preview at the bottom lists exactly which assets will be created before you commit.

Identity — name and output folder. Choose Separate .asset files (a new folder with one file per profile) or Single .asset file (all profiles nested as sub-assets inside the archetype).
Visuals — assign your prefab. The wizard reads prefab bounds to suggest an agent radius automatically. If the prefab contains a SkinnedMeshRenderer, instanced rendering is disabled and a link to the VAT Baker is shown.
Preset — pick a starting point from the built-in presets (described below). Each preset ships independent profile copies, so editing one archetype's profiles never affects another.
Combat — use the preset's attack profile, create none (Pacifist), or configure a Custom profile with Swing and/or Contact enabled.

Click Create Archetype to write all assets at once. On success the wizard pings the new archetype in the Project window and offers shortcuts to the inspector.

Built-in presets¶

Preset	Movement feel	Combat
Zombie Horde	Slow, dense. Lumbers toward the target in a tight pack.	Contact (bites on touch, no swing animation)
Sword Mob	Medium speed. Surrounds the target and queues for melee strikes.	Swing (melee with windup, recovery, and animation)
Ranged Skirmisher	Fast. Orbits at range, retreats when crowded.	None — wire your own projectile logic
Skittering Bug	Very fast and twitchy. Small radius.	Contact (rapid light bites on touch)
Custom (Defaults)	Medium speed, balanced acceleration.	None — tune everything in the inspector

Restoring the built-in presets

The wizard only creates preset assets that are missing — it never overwrites edits you've made to them. If you want to revert all five built-in presets back to their shipped values, run Tools → Massive Swarm System → Restore Default Wizard Presets. A confirmation dialog explains what will change. Archetypes you already created from those presets are not affected.

When to use the wizard vs. creating assets manually¶

Use the wizard when you are creating a new archetype from scratch. Use the manual Create → Agent Archetype flow (documented in the field reference below) when you want to duplicate or variant an existing archetype and only change one or two fields — in that case duplicating the existing .asset files is faster.

Field reference¶

Create a bare archetype via right-click → Create → Massive Swarm System → Agents → Agent Archetype.

Field	What it does
Agent Prefab	The visual GameObject instantiated into the pool. If left empty, the `SwarmVisualManager`'s Fallback Agent Prefab is used instead — out of the box this points to the bundled `MSS Default Agent` so agents are visible while you work on your own art.
Use Instanced Rendering	Render using `Graphics.DrawMeshInstanced` instead of one renderer per agent. Much cheaper at high counts; requires non-skinned meshes. See Animation.
Agent Radius	Collision and separation radius for this archetype.
Behavior Profile	Which `SwarmBehaviorProfile` controls steering for agents of this type.
Movement Profile	Which `SwarmMovementProfile` controls speed and turn rate.

Mixing archetypes in a single swarm¶

Multiple archetypes work in one scene. Spawners and the Swarm Spawner Director accept weighted archetype lists, so a single encounter can mix runners, tanks, and harassers.

Behaviors — what the Behavior Profile controls.
Movement Profile — the speed/turn settings the archetype links to.
Spawners — how archetypes are spawned into the scene.