Swarm Queen is a quick-to-learn but tactical and challenging tug-of-war strategy game about insectoid aliens trying to murder each other.
The objective is to defeat the enemy commander by building up your own army of insect-like minions and using various strategies and abilities to overpower your opponent.
You control a swarm of self-guided minions that automatically target and attack enemies. Your role as the commander is to make strategic decisions, such as spawning new minion types and mutating your eggs to evolve their capabilities.
Deploying "Harvester" units allows you to gather resources, which you can then use to unlock new minion types and upgrade your existing units through a skill tree system. Upgrading your minions is crucial to overcoming the game's increasing difficulty.
In addition to minion management, you have access to special abilities, like the "Neurotoxin" projectile, which can be used to directly attack the enemy commander. Timing the use of these abilities is key to gaining the upper hand in the tug-of-war battles.
The 21 main levels each present unique layouts and gimmicks, requiring players to adapt their strategies. "Challenge levels" further test the player's adaptability by introducing new modifiers, such as infinite resources or mutating minions.
The game is described as "challenging," and players can choose to replay levels on a "hard mode" for added difficulty. The "New Game Plus" mode allows players to continue their progress with unlocked upgrades and abilities.
The combination of self-controlling minions, upgradeable abilities, and level-specific challenges leads to emergent gameplay, where players must constantly adapt their strategies to overcome the obstacles presented to them.