Retro Swarm Challenge (The Classic Event) (2024)

The Retro Swarm Challenge was Bee Swarm Simulator's custom experience for the 2024 Roblox "The Classic" event. It was first released on May 23, 2024, and was accessible for a limited time through a portal next to the Dandelion Field.

During the event, fifteen user-created experiences, including Bee Swarm Simulator, were chosen to create a custom experience, in which players could earn custom event badges that could be used to claim unlockable prizes. Per experience, players could earn 10 badges for Tix and 5 badges for Tokens.

Event[]

Upon entering the portal, the player would be taken to a separate experience called "Retro Swarm Challenge ⚔️ [DEFENSE THE HIVES!!!!] v1.2(fixed)". When spawning in, the player was located on a hub island, with a portal back to the main game, and 5 cubes the player could enter. Upon entering a cube, a 25-second countdown would start. Each cube could hold a maximum of 4 players, and when the countdown reached 0, all the players would be teleported to the minigame. Then, text in the middle of the screen would instruct the players to claim a hive, and explain the rules and strategy of the game.

Objective[]

The objective of the game was to survive as many waves as possible by killing the monsters advancing towards the hive. To do this, the player could unlock their bees or buy weapons using Bricks, the event's currency. Players would keep their gear and bees from the main game, meaning that players who had already progressed far would have a substantial advantage. If a player did not have many bees, they could rent bees that could be leveled up for Bricks.

Gameplay[]

Waves[]

Players spawn in a long, rectangular area. There are hives at the start of the map, a shop to the left, a cave for monsters to spawn in at the end of the map, of them, and four 19x19 fields. Every two minutes, a wave of monsters would spawn in the cave and start advancing towards the hive. The players have to defeat the monsters before they reach their hives. If 10 monsters reach the hive, the challenge ends and players are rewarded based on how many rounds they completed through a score system.

Enemies[]

There were two types of enemies during the event: Slimes and Zombies. Enemies would gradually level up. Like Mobs, if a player's bee is a lower level than the enemy, their accuracy would decrease by 50% per level.

Slimes would move slowly towards the hives. As they increased in levels, they would grow larger, increasing their hitbox and health.

Zombies would also move towards the hives. Unlike Slimes, however, if a Zombie spotted a nearby player, they would attack them instead.

Bricks[]

Bricks could be obtained by killing enemies, through Leaves on the fields, or by destroying Brick Blooms. All Bricks were collected through Tokens.

Brick Blooms were retro-styled flowers that would spawn on any of the four fields. Their behavior is very similar to Puffshrooms. Upon collecting a certain amount of pollen in their radius, Brick Blooms would burst into Brick tokens. The tokens that spawn from Brick Blooms are both local and global; therefore, players would always receive tokens from them regardless of whether they helped destroy it or not. Upon defeating a Brick Bloom, another one would spawn in a random field, one level higher. In higher waves, multiple Brick Blooms could be active at once.

At the shop, Bricks could be used to unlock and level up Bees, as well as buy weapons and boosts that would help defeat the waves of enemies. In addition, players could convert their honey into ten Bricks at a time. Every time a player converted their honey to bricks, the price to convert increased exponentially.

There was a hidden shop located to the left of the cave, where players could have converted their honey into one hundred Bricks at a time.

Rewards[]

After the game ends, a message box appears, telling the player their total damage, bricks collected, rounds completed, final score and rewards. The score system is similar to that of the Stick Bug Challenge, being based on the rounds completed as well as damage dealt and bricks collected. Better score gave better rewards. Rewards would include:

• Tickets
• Gumdrops
• Honeysuckles
• Whirligigs
• Micro-Converters
• Jelly Beans
• Oils
• Enzymes
• Red Extracts
• Blue Extracts
• Marshmellow Bees
• Field Dice
• Smooth Dice
• Soft Wax
• Hard Wax
• Pink Balloons

Tix[]

During the event, players could find various Tix tokens scattered around the map in both the main game and in the Retro Swarm Challenge. Collecting a token would award the player a Tix badge.

Trivia[]

• The Retro Swarm Challenge has many references to classic Roblox content:
  • The lobby utilizes many free models that were commonplace in many classic Roblox games, including the skyscraper from "Roblox World Headquarters", a pillar from "Sword Fights on the Heights", and a tower from "Crossroads".
  • The event was inspired by classic zombie survival games, such as "Build To Survive The Zombies".
    • The zombies share the sound effects, models, and behavior of zombies summoned by the Zombie Staff gear.
  • The announcements that appeared at the start of waves are reminiscent of an old announcement script.
  • The slimes were a common free model used by early Roblox developers, primarily in RPG and fighting games.
  • All the purchasable gears in the shop are some of the oldest Roblox gears.
• Aphids could still spawn during the Retro Swarm Challenge, though it was very unlikely.
• Some consumables, such as Purple Potions, Stingers, Glitter and Cloud Vials could be used during the event. Others, such as Field Dice or Balloons, were prohibited. Players could not interact with their hive during the challenge. The player could use Codes to obtain buffs during the challenge and buffs obtained prior to entering the challenge would stay.