A swarm.
The swarm is a discontinued RuneScape random event. It used to randomly attack a player, hitting one or two points (10 or 20 life points) of damage. The swarm would hit infrequently however and was not a threat to most players. Players could not attack the swarm, instead they needed to walk or run away from it to stop the swarm from attacking. Swarms would "steal" a player from combat if they were encountered in a non-multicombat area.
On 25 February 2009, the swarm was removed as a random event. The swarm itself was moved to Musa Point, east of the banana trees on Karamja. Although it is no longer aggressive, it will follow any player who walks past. In the 2007 version of the game, the swarm random event could not be attacked or leave. The only way to get rid of a swarm in this game is to wait until it will leave. This could take around 2-3 minutes.
History
Upon being released, the swarm was actually attackable, however it had an incredibly high Defence and only a few 1s and 2s (or 10s and 20s life points) were able to pierce through. It also had an amazing amount of hit points] and healed faster than normal. The ring of recoil also worked against it for some time, however this ability was eventually removed. If the player had a familiar out in a multicombat area, it would attack the swarm, although it would only rarely be able to deal any damage. It was considered one of the most annoying random events by many players since the only way to get rid of it, assuming they were unwilling to wait for their familiar to finish it off, was to flee the area and return.
Trivia
- Insect repellent found in a house at Catherby, will not work on the swarm.
- If a swarm occurred underwater, the examine text would be "A swarm of vicious plankton!" instead of the usual "A swarm of vicious insects!"
- The swarm was very hard to see with low detail.
- The new examine text for a swarm when examined on Musa Point is "Insects buzzing around", while when it popped up as a random event the text was "A swarm of vicious insects!".
- Even though a player could not directly attack a swarm, his or her Summoning familiar could.
- The swarm is very similar to the sweetflies encountered during Trouble Brewing minigame.
See also
- Mosquito Swarm
- Mosquito Jar
- Proboscis