The Swarm

"Hurry! It's out here! Let me in! It's coming!"

- A scientist begging for help before being torn to pieces by The Swarm.

"The Swarm" (neuroptera spiculus) is a large team of insects that are encountered in Bryce Canyon, Utah. It is revealed that the Swarm is actually a highly evolved form of the species that nearly infected all of Europe and Asia; the Crawlers. This could be one reason that the Spinners were used as the new main way of infection due to the crawlers evolution. Due to eating an abundant source of metal, the Swarms exoskeleton is immune to regular firearms. Although it's weakness is electricity, such as from generators, a concentrated energy weapon, such as the Pulse Cannon used by Hale in Bryce Canyon, is required to defeat the creature.

Encounter
Nathan Hale first encounters the monstrosity after he and his team activate the controls to the elevator, finding a helpless scientist begging for their help before he is torn into pieces by the said creature(s). The Swarm proceeds by entering the air vent and killing Hale's men while he races back to the elevator. Shortly after, the creature tracks down Hale through the air vents and tries to get him. Hale successfully outruns the creature where he runs into Dr. Malikov and Daedalus. The final time Hale encounters the Swarm is when he tries to escape with Dr. Malikov and they are pursued by the creatures. Malikov discovers that the Swarm's weakness is electricity as it evades the generator shields. With the aid of Malikov, Hale successfully defeats the Swarm and manage to escape. It is assumed that there are more Swarms since they are evolved forms of crawlers but only one has appeared in-game.

Tactics
Generally, the Swarm is invincible. In order to destroy it, you need to get all the way to the three generators near the end of the level. Lure the Swarm inside a Generator and Malikov will activate it, trapping the Swarm inside where you can blast it with your Pulse Cannon. Repeat these steps with the remaining generators (the generators will disable when you hit The Swarm with the Pulse Cannon) and the Swarm will be dead for good. However, as you fight the Swarm, it becomes smarter after luring into each generators, and becomes harder to lure into the last generator.

Trivia

 * If you have the L23 Fareye, you may use the secondary fire and zoom in on the swarm, and see that it looks like a large group of small Chimeran Drones.
 * In The Swarm's scientific name, neuroptera spiculus, "spiculus" means 'sharp point' while "neuroptera" is an order containing insects having biting mouthparts and four large membranous wings with netlike veins. This order includes antlions, green lacewings, and brown lacewings.
 * The Swarm's concept and appearance bear an incredible resemblance to a creature from another one of Insomniac's games, the Tetramites, from Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time.