League of LegendsThe summer event is always the highlight of the year. In recent years, we’ve seen visual novels and deep dives into alternate universes like Soul Fighter, Spirit Blossom, and Star Guardian. This year, the Anima Squad skin line takes center stage along with a recent survival-style bullet heaven game that can be played cooperatively or solo.
Anima Squad debuted in 2022 and presents League heroes as animal-themed cybernetic warriors defending humanity. This year we’re getting recent crew members like Battle Bunny Aurora, the debut skin of a recent hero; Illaoi’s Battle Bear; and Cyber Cat Yuumi.
Throughout the history of the Anima Branch, humanity has been relegated to a few strongholds. Earth’s primordial white blood cells have become hostile to humanity. These kaiju-like creatures emerge from the oceans, and only a few heroes carrying the original repurposed technology can protect what remains.
The recent game mode is called Swarm or Operation: Anima Squad. Players can queue solo or play with up to three friends. This game mode plays completely differently than standard mode League of Legends; it’s much closer Vampire survivors with WASD control scheme. The player must survive the Final City game by mowing down waves of Originals. Each match provides rewards that lead to more power over time, so even a failed match can pay off and ultimately support you survive longer, kill more Originals, and earn more rewards.
We also get a huge list of recent skins: Seraphine, Yuumi, Leona, Xayah, Illaoi, Aurora and Yasuo join the Anima Squad, while Briar, Rek’Sai and Bel’Veth play antagonistic Originals (though Briar defects to join the good guys, which makes her a bit of both). This year, the summer event will last from July 17 to August 19. As with previous game modes, it is possible that Swarm will return to League of Legends in the future – we’ll first have to wait and see what Riot thinks about welcoming players to Operation: Anima Squad.
