League of Legends’ new summer event includes a survivor-style game mode

League of Legends’ summer event is always a highlight for the year. In past years, we’ve seen visual novels and deep dives into alternate universes like Soul Fighter, Spirit Blossom, or Star Guardian. This year, the Anima Squad skin line gets the spotlight, along with a new survivor-style bullet heaven game that can be played co-op or solo.

Anima Squad debuted in 2022, and depicts League champions as cybernetic, animal-themed warriors defending humanity. This year, we’re getting new crew members like Battle Bunny Aurora, the new champion’s debut skin; Battle Bear Illaoi; and Cyber Cat Yuumi.

In the lore of Anima Squad, humanity has been pushed back to a few bastions. Primordials, the white blood cells of Earth, have become hostile to humanity. These kaiju-like creatures are swarming out of the oceans, and only a few heroes wearing repurposed Primordial technology can protect what remains.

The new game mode is called Swarm, or Operation: Anima Squad. Players can queue up solo, or play with up to three friends. This game mode plays very differently than standard League of Legends; it’s much closer to Vampire Survivors with a WASD control scheme. The player must survive a showdown in Final City, mowing down waves of Primordials. Every match gives rewards that lead to greater power over time, so even a failed match can pay off down the road and eventually help you survive longer, kill more Primordials, and earn more rewards.

We’re also getting a huge list of new skins: Seraphine, Yuumi, Leona, Xayah, Illaoi, Aurora, and Yasuo join Anima Squad while Briar, Rek’Sai, and Bel’Veth play the antagonistic Primordials (although Briar defects to join the good guys, making her a bit of both). This year, the summer event runs from July 17 to Aug. 19. As with past game modes, it’s possible that Swarm could return to League of Legends in the future — we’ll have to wait and see what Riot thinks of player reception to Operation: Anima Squad first.