The Swarm Horde is a Swarm armada target that appears at levels 40 and 44. You take it down with one strong ship or a formed armada rather than a standard single-hostile hit, and it has no hull-class variant, so there is no counter class to juggle. It carries an enormous hull and no shields, drops Swarm Advanced Biotics, and turns up across a wide list of systems at warps that change by level. Bring your hardest-hitting ship and enough armor to outlast it.
How to beat the Swarm Horde
The Swarm Horde is an armada target, not a roaming Interceptor, Battleship, or Explorer, so the usual hull-counter triangle does not apply. There is no class to swap between and nothing to counter. What matters is raw damage output and staying alive. You can start the fight from the target, send in one strong ship as the leader and have other players join with a ship each, or take it solo if your ship can survive the stat wall at your chosen level. The Horde runs with no shields but a very large hull pool, so armor and hull tanking outlast it better than leaning on shield mitigation, and steady weapon damage matters more than burst. Match the warp of the band you are hitting (it changes by level) and pick a ship you can keep alive through a long fight. For other solo and formation targets, see the solo armada hub.
For crew, lean on a captain that boosts weapon damage against hostiles and officers that add damage or mitigation. Levels 40 and 44 sit well past the early cadet stage, so build from your mid-game roster rather than a starter crew. The Officer Tier List tracks the current best picks. Crews shift with the meta, so treat any single recommendation as a starting point and adjust to what you have unlocked.
Where to find the Swarm Horde
The Swarm Horde does not hold one spot. It appears at level 40 at warp 75 and level 44 at warp 100, and each band spreads across several systems. Pick the band that matches your ship’s strength and set the listed warp before you head out.
| Level | Warp | Systems |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | 75 | Araxian, Estar, Huik, Iusum, Kiju, Miset, Nobeau, Siieqa, Uyik, Vahok |
| 44 | 100 | Begekou, Hedex, Hobu, Vugef |
Rewards and what it drops
The steady reward is Swarm Advanced Biotics, which drops in the 40 to 60 range on every band, plus ship XP that climbs with the level you fight. Ship XP runs 912 at level 40 and 1,097 at level 44, so the higher band pays more per kill once your ship can handle it.
| Drop | What it is |
|---|---|
| Swarm Advanced Biotics | A Swarm resource used to advance Swarm-arc research and upgrades |
Swarm Horde stats
These figures are the level-40 and level-44 anchor rows. Stats climb steeply with level, and an armada-style target hits far harder than a roaming hostile of the same level. Note the shield line reads zero across the board: the Horde runs on hull alone.
| Level | Total strength | Hull HP | Shield HP | Attack | Defense | Ship XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 254,905,719 | 500,000,000 | 0 | 3,200,099 | 1,705,620 | 912 |
| 44 | 510,082,816 | 1,000,000,000 | 0 | 4,965,956 | 5,116,860 | 1,097 |
Swarm Horde firing pattern
The Swarm Horde fires three weapon groups. Two energy weapons and two kinetic weapons keep up steady pressure, but the real threat is a single heavy kinetic weapon that fires once every 15 rounds for over twelve million damage a shot. Time your repairs and mitigation so you are not caught low when that heavy volley lands.
| Weapon type | Count | Damage per shot | Fires | Crit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 2 | 133,714–160,461 | Every round | 10% (1.5x) |
| Kinetic | 2 | 267,424–320,912 | Every other round | 10% (1.5x) |
| Kinetic | 1 | 12,402,726–14,883,269 | Every 15 rounds | 10% (1.5x) |
The Swarm in Star Trek Fleet Command
The Swarm are not drawn from a classic Star Trek series. They arrived as an original threat in the game’s Swarm arc: bio-mechanical ships that move and attack in large numbers rather than as a named faction with a homeworld or a reputation track. Their vessels lean on sheer mass, heavy hull, and volume of fire instead of shields, which is why a Horde reads as a wall of hull points with no shield layer to strip. In the game’s fiction they act as a spreading infestation that commanders push back one system at a time.
Is the Swarm Horde worth grinding?
It works best as an armada-style farm for ship XP and Swarm Advanced Biotics once your ship can clear the level-40 band, and the higher level-44 band pays more XP if you can survive it. There is no counter class to fuss over, so it comes down to a strong hull and steady damage. Match the listed warp for the band you want, bring a ship that tanks with hull rather than shields, and gather an armada if a solo run stalls.