History Characters / Warhammer40000Tyranids

{{T|ropeCodifier}}he ''[[Characters/StarcraftZerg other]]'' HordeOfAlienLocusts.

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000XenoRaces Xeno Races]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000LeaguesOfVotann Leagues of Votann]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000OrksCharacters Characters]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000TauEmpire T'au Empire]] | '''Tyranids''' ([[Characters/Warhammer40000GenestealerCults Genestealer Cults]])]]-]]]

* PlanetLooters: They consume entire biospheres, stripping planets of all organic life lifeforms, water, atmosphere, and useful surface mineral deposits. While the planet itself survives, by the time the Tyranids move on, all will remain of it is an airless, infertile sphere of bedrock.

* PlanetLooters: They consume entire biospheres, stripping planets of all organic life lifeforms, water, atmosphere, and all surface minerals. While the planet itself survives, the time the Tyranids move on, all that remains of it is an airless, infertile sphere of bedrock.

* AchillesHeel: At least in the fluff, the one massive weakness that any Tyranid swarm will have regardless of whatever it has evolved to combat is that the smaller forms need the larger synapse creatures around to organize them and relay orders from the Hive Mind. Kill the synapse creatures, and the smaller forms they were controlling go berserk and get disorganized, making them easier targets. It's notable that in a book filled with misinformation or outright lies, ''The Infantryman's Uplifting Primer'' does mention that taking out the larger 'nids first is generally the most effective way to defeat a swarm.
** Another significant weakness they possess is a marked vulnerability to [[KillItWithFire fire]], and not just because every single Tyranid unit, weapon and ship is biological. Tyranids need to consume biomass, both from enemy casualties and their own dead, in order to both strengthen the Hive Fleet and replenish their losses. Thus, incendiary weapons that incinerate biomass leave nothing for the Tyranids to use, depriving them of a vital resource.
** The Necron are one to them on a faction-wide level. The Necron can't be consumed for biomass, have no vulnerability to moral damage or genestealer infiltration, and their gauss weaponry atomize biomass of the Tyranids. On a strategic level, the Necron Tomb Worlds can be barren rocks unable to sustain life, which means the Tyranid gain nothing from fighting some dynasties, [[PyrrhicVictory even if they win]].

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* EatingOptional: Most Tyranid organisms don't actually have a functioning digestive system, as they're bio-engineered killing machines and such a thing would take space and energy away from muscles, reinforced endo- and exoskeletons, weapon-biomorphs, etc. If they aren't killed by the enemy first, they will eventually starve to death. Many of them still have instinctive behaviour to feed, though, as it makes them attack the enemy even when not under control of the synapse creatures. The Ripper swarms are the most obvious example, as their whole purpose is to eat any biomass they come across in order to transport it to the reclamation pools to be digested and fed to the Tyranid hive ships. The one major exception is the Haruspex, which is specifically designed to eat everything in its path as part of the Hive Mind's strategy to consume as much biomass as possible.
* EldritchAbomination: The Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines remarked that the Tyranids are merely avatars of the Hive Mind, and at its very core is something that he described as an [[HorrorHunger 'immortal hunger']]. They can kill swarms of Tyranids, drive away and destroy Hive Fleets, but he is at loss at how could they possibly fight, let alone kill, such an entity ultimately behind the Tyranids.

* HiveDrone: The bulk of the Tyranid forces consists of drones under the HiveMind's control and with animal-level intelligence at best. Averted by synapse creatures, which receive a greater degree of independence in order to control sections of the swarm or operate behind enemy lines.
* HiveMind: This is the Tyranids' most dangerous aspect; the entire race, at least from the Norn Queens through the synapse creatures, have a shared mind that is incredibly intelligent and has enormous psychic power. Chief Librarian Tigurius of the Ultramarines is the only human pysker who has made contact with it and survived (everyone else died or went insane), and could only describe it as "an immortal hunger."
** While the Hive Mind of the Tyranids is immensely intelligent and able to coordinate enormous actions across entire systems and subsectors with terrifying efficiency, it tends to have some limitations, at least on the strategic level. Hive Fleets seem to operate under general orders and objectives and are relatively inflexible in how they carry out those actions. Kryptmann essentially tricked an entire Hive Fleet into attacking in a controlled direction by capturing and using as bait several specimens of genestealers that were drawing the fleet forward. If a Hive Fleet is damaged enough that it can no longer form any sort of coherent force, then it will fall apart into splinter fleets whose sole purpose is to simply attack and consume inhabited worlds with no further strategic goal in mind.

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000XenoRaces Xeno Races]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000LeaguesOfVotann Leagues of Votann]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000OrksCharacters Characters]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000TauEmpire T'au Empire]] | '''Tyranids''']]-]]]

!!Genestealers

[[folder:Genestealers & Their Cults]]
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Vanguard organisms of the Hive Fleets, Genestealers are deployed well ahead of the fleet's advance to undermine potential prey worlds. Once a Genestealer arrives on a world, it will introduce its genetic material into portions of the populace. This drives them to breed and spread the infection, creating a cult of hybrids that slowly but surely undermines the world's social structure, military, and government while creating a psychic beacon that draws a Hive Fleet to the world to harvest its biomass.

Because of this mission, Genestealers are bred to be much more independent than the Hive Fleets, a Genestealer brood being almost a separate hive intelligence unto itself. Capable of hibernating in wait for centuries, Genestealers were likely by far the first Tyranid organisms in our galaxy, their numbers maintained and expanded via their parasitic preying on other species for reproduction. With great strength packed into a compact body and claws capable of rending through even the toughest armor, Genestealers are deadly whether they are acting subtle or overt.

Genestealers were have been a part of ''Warhammer 40,000'' since the 1st Edition of the game, where they were an alien race originally unrelated to the Tyranids, and have appeared in a number of [[GaidenGame spin-off games]] such as ''TabletopGame/SpaceHulk'' and ''Advanced Space Crusade''. Later lore made Genestealers a vanguard organism of the Tyranid Hive Fleets and they have been inseparable from the forces of the Great Devourer ever since. Genestealer Cults were initially introduced in ''TabletopGame/SpaceHulk'' before being introduced to the 1st Edition of ''Warhammer 40,000''. The Genestealer Cults were included as an appendix army list in the 2nd Edition ''Codex: Tyranids'' but, although they received a few unofficial and fan made army lists, they were relegated to a background-only faction until February 2016's board game ''Deathwatch: Overkill'' saw them face off against the alien hunters of the Deathwatch. The Genestealer Cults were reintroduced into the core ''Warhammer 40,000'' game in October 2016 with the release of their first codex sourcebook and a full range of models. The 8th Edition ''Warhammer 40,000'' version of ''Codex: Genestealer Cults'' was released in February 2019 with additional rules published in the February 2020 {{sourcebook}} ''Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good''.

!!General & Hive Fleet Genestealer Tropes

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* AbsurdlySharpClaws: Genestealer claws are Absurdly Sharp, even by the standards of the setting, and the muscles on their limbs are much more powerful than they look. Stories abound about Genestealers able to rip open the armor of a Space Marine Terminator like it was a tin can (though in practice the Genestealer can only do that if it gets a really lucky grip on the victim.)
* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: Genestealers reproduce via the "Genestealer's Kiss", an injection of their genetic material into a target via a long, diamond-hard "tongue." [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending on which bit of fluff you read]], this is either via a literal, face-biting parody of a kiss, or a slightly less disturbing injection into the torso, under the ribcage. The ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novels use the latter method.
* GhostShip: The Hive Fleets are fond of leaving first generation Genestealer broods on space hulks, where they will go dormant and wait. Eventually the space hulk will arrive in a populated system, or it will be investigated by explorers, and there the brood will find their hosts.
* HiveMind: Like the Hive Fleets, the Genestealers have a hive mind. This mind is generally independent of the Hive Fleet, and is specific to particular broods, which is necessary considering that they often operate far from any other Tyranid organism and thus need to better think for themselves. However, when the Hive Fleets are inevitably drawn to a location where Genestealers have been reproducing successfully, those Genestealers will begin to become affected by the Hive Mind of the fleet, and will be spurred into more overt and aggressive action against their host populations. By the time the Hive Fleet arrives, the Genestealer brood will have been mentally re-absorbed into the Hive Mind of the fleet and function as their elite shock troops when overcoming its defense.
* HypnoticEyes: A characteristic of Genestealers is an ability to pacify potential prey by maintaining eye contact and moving slowly, though [[DependingOnTheWriter the fluff varies on how much this is used]].
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: As per the other Tyranid creatures, Genestealers have six limbs. Two for standing upright, two for fine manipulation, and two as [[AbsurdlySharpClaws rending claws]].
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The first recorded contact with Genestealers came from the moons of the planet Ymgarl. Originally though to be native to there, it was only later revealed that they were a specific mutation of the wider Genestealer species and a vanguard of the Tyranids. Instead of the maw found on other Genestealers, they have [[LampreyMouth lamprey-like]] feeder tendrils that they use to drain blood of victims. They are able to conceal themselves with limited [[VoluntaryShapeShifter shape-shifting]] abilities, but this requires them to feed often to maintain. Though their shape shifting is powerful, the Hive Fleets display no desire to re-absorb them, leading to speculation that the mutation might be unstable if assimilated back into the hive.
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Possibly moreso than any other specific example in [=40K=], the power of a Broodlord as a psyker. In the fluff he's a supernatural powerhouse rivaling even the best Space Marine Librarians, as strong in the ways of the Warp as he is with his claws and muscles. On the tabletop he's one of the weakest psykers available to ''any'' faction (level one, with only one actual power he can use).
* PutOnABus:
** The Ymgarl Genestealers became a "special character unit" in 5th edition's codex, but were removed in the 6th edition codex.
** The introduction of the Broodlord in 4th edition was supposed to make all-Genestealer armies a possibility. 5th edition instead made Broodlords into unit sergeants, once again making you unable to field pure-Genestealer armies. 6th and 7th edition has flipflopped on this, retaining the Broodlord as a unit commander but also releasing several independent formations that can be composed entirely of Genestealers, making it possible to field legal armies of them again (with the release of Shield of Baal, there is now a Genestealer that can take a Warlord trait, coming full circle again).
* SuspiciouslyStealthyPredator: Because Genestealers are actually [[ItCanThink as intelligent as most sentient species]], and are [[HiveMind psychically connected]] both to each other and to the members of the host species they prey on, they tend to have a pretty good idea of the technological means by which others might identify or track their presence. Since they exist to infiltrate and spread as widely as possible before they are detected, they tend to be very good at this.
* XenoNucleicAcid: Genestealers infest people by injecting small nodules into the target and releasing it into the population (the target doesn't remember what happened, but sees their wounds and assumes they got in a fight). From then on, every generation starting from that individual is entirely devoted to the HiveMind and acquires ever more Tyranid traits such as needle teeth or extra arms until they give birth to purestrain genestealers, who cannot pass for human and are hidden by the cults.

!!Hybrid & Cult Specific Tropes

* AliensMadeThemDoIt: Literally in the case of those subjected to the [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong Genestealer's Kiss]]. Their altered hormones will drive them to find a partner to mate with and produce offspring. Said offspring will incorporate the genetic code of the Genestealer who administered the kiss and will be [[MixAndMatchCritters horribly misshapen hybrids of the two species]].
* ApocalypseCult: The Genestealer cults, who prepare the planet for the Tyranid invasion. Their apocalypse involves the Tyranids devouring anything that offers resistance, then turning everything alive on the planet (including the Tyranid forces and surviving Genestealers) into soup so it can be absorbed by the hive fleet.
* AssimilationPlot: The modus operandi of a Genestealer {{cult}}, though {{downplayed|Trope}} to the extent that they do not necessarily want to get ''everyone'' in. The early stages of a Genestealer population infiltration will have the brood lurk around the outskirts of society, careful to avoid detection and "[[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong kissing]]" a few lone individuals who will not be missed. As the cult adds new generations and grows in size, they will start fronts to allow them more freedom of movement and resources, becoming more selective as they go about who they bring into the "family" to groom themselves for more influence and avoid discovery. Eventually as a Hive Fleet approaches, they are driven to be more aggressive and will try to stage a coup, which may or may not be successful, but either way will divert attention and resources away from the oncoming threat.
* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: For what counts as a civilian vehicle, the Goliath Truck is packed with firepower and can tag along several Genestealer Cult members. It is like a beefed up Ork Trukk for just less than double the points, but with more armour and bigger guns.
* BadassBiker: The fourth generation hybrids known as Jackals ride rugged Atalan bikes, acting as scouts and outriders for their Cult. Jackals use their xenos-enhanced senses and reactions to perform serpent-fast manoeuvres to dodge enemy fire before getting in close to attack their foes in close combat. Their Skilled Outriders ability makes them harder to hit with Shooting attacks.
* BaldOfEvil: Genestealer hybrids have a tendency toward baldness (as Genestealers themselves are hairless), though this may or [[DependingOnTheWriter may not be present]] depending on [[MixAndMatchCritters which traits are inherited from which parent species]].
* BattleTrophy: Cults often fashion their standards from, or at least adorn them with, trophies taken from defeated enemies. The Cult of the Bladed Cog, for instance, adorns its primary war-banner with the skeleton of the Tech-Priest Dominus Ovid Thrension, the ruler of their homeworld before the cult's revolt overthrew him, while the Cult of the Rusted Claw fashioned its banner from the cloak of one their world's primary mine overseers and decorate it with coins taken from the bodies of those who opposed the cult.
* BewareMyStingerTail: The Locus bodyguards of the Genestealer Cults conceal a PrehensileTail tipped with a deadly toxinspike beneath their flowing robes. The 8th Edition rules allow the Locus to make an extra attack with this hypermorph tail every time it fights in close combat.
* BreedingCult: The goal of Genestealer cults is to propagate more Genestealers in secret, gathering higher influence to better hide their growing numbers.
* TheBusCameBack: Genestealer cults, introduced during the earliest days of the game, were removed as playable units in 4th edition. In February 2016 they were re-released as part of the board game ''Deathwatch: Overkill'', with an accompanying dataslate containing rules for the very specific Ghosar Quintus cult featured in the board game. The release of ''Codex: Genestealer Cults'' brought them back in full.
* CarFu: The Goliath Rockgrinder, a Goliath Truck with a Drilldozer Blade shoved up front, is designed to ram other vehicles into oblivion and hopefully turn enemy infantry into meaty chunks.
* CoDragons: In a Genestealer Cult, if the Magus is the chief psyker and manipulator of a Patriarch then the Primus is the Patriarch's warmaster and chief lieutenant. While the Magus' role is to corrupt, the Primus serves to lead the cult into war.
* ACommanderIsYou: The tabletop army stradles the line between ''Ranger'' and ''Espionage'', having many abilites that allow them to deploy from hiding, mess with terrain features, pin down opponents with suppressive fire from multiple angles, and utilize HitAndRunTactics to always try and catch their opponents flat-footed and off-guard for when the Day of Ascencion comes. They have relatively little staying power in their base rules, and the rules for taking cult-infested Astra Militarum units puts a limit on how many of their larger and more durable units a cult can take, meaning that the best way to play Genestealer Cults is to be constantly moving, utilize your stratagems well, and always try to think two steps ahead of your opponent.
* ConstructionVehicleRampage: Being rebellious Imperial citizens, Genestealer cults repurpose heavy mining loaders and mining equipment into military vehicles. They also turned a heavy mining drill into a device to create localized earthquakes for military purposes.
* CoolCar: The Genestealer Cult army from the 1st Edition of ''Warhammer 40,000'' included a gothic-styled limousine for the Cult leaders to ride in incognito. Although the Coven Limo hasn't been a part of the game since then, many veteran Genestealer Cult players still hope for its return.
* {{Cult}}: When Genestealers infiltrate a population, they will go underground and look for isolated victims to "[[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong kiss]]". These individuals will reproduce [[HalfHumanHybrid Genestealer Hybrids]] and love them like their own. In order to maintain their "family" they will often find some kind of front or cover story to keep the nature of their children concealed. Such will usually adopt certain aspects of the host culture, twisting it around to center about the Genestealers, creating a secretive sect devoted to spreading their seed.
* DestinedBystander: The Genestealers were introduced early into the setting as a small piece of background lore. Once the Tyranids arrived, their role in the narrative was greatly expanded as being early elements of the Hive Fleet seeded into our galaxy. This was most likely a {{Revision}}, which involved a few minor {{Retcon}}s which relegated [[CharacterizationMarchesOn the original Genestealer conception]] with a minor offshoot of the race as a whole.
* DishingOutDirt: The Undermine {{psychic power}}, made available to Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor psykers by the late 8th Edition {{sourcebook}} ''Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good'', allows the caster to open holes beneath the feet of an enemy unit, reducing their Movement as they carefully pick their way through the changing terrain.
* DumbMuscle: Genestealer Aberrants are massively muscled creatures capable of wielding heavy weaponry with ease. Though dim-witted, their instinctive need to defend their brood makes them valuable assets to the cult. Abominants, Aberrants further mutated by the Patriarch, are a more extreme case of this -- they're even bigger and stronger than aberrants, but have at best the intellects of infants and are mostly useful to the cult as something to throw at particularly tough enemy emplacements.
* EarthquakeMachine: The Tectonic Fragdrills employed by the Genestealer Cults create localised earthquakes by way of localised assaults on the most volatile parts of the planet's crust.
* ExpositionBeam: The 8th Edition background material for the Nexos Hybrid mentions that their unique connection to their Cult's Brood Mind allows them to absorb the memories of any Cult member with nothing more than a touch, allowing them to instantly gain knowledge of an ongoing battle and the overall strategic situation.
* FaceHeelTurn: Once someone is infected by a Genestealer, they are completely under the control of the cult, though they'll generally still act normally to hide their infection until it is time to spread. Nonetheless, an infected individual will immediately turn on their allies with no warning if it means protecting the cult.
* {{Familiar}}: High-ranking Cult members are often accompanied by a Genestealer Familiar, small alien creatures created from the solidified psychic residue of a Patriarch or Magus. These Familiars perform a variety of functions, depending on the type of familiar, including enhancing their master's psychic abilities[[note]]by granting an extra psychic power to Patriarchs and Magi in the 8th Edition rules[[/note]] or defending them from enemy attacks[[note]]by granting extra attacks in close combat with the Familiar's claws[[/note]].
* HealingFactor: The process that turns an Aberrant into an Abominant increases the monstrous creature's already rugged constitution considerably, so that its flesh can regenerate all but the most serious of injuries. In 8th Edition, the Abominant's Regenerative Flesh ability heals its wounds every turn.
* ImprovisedWeapon: A few of the Genestealer Cults' weapons are originally mining equipment appropriated for use in the battlefield. Likewise, their vehicles (Dirtcycles, Achilles and Goliaths) were manufactured by the Imperium for civilian purposes, but in their hands are modified and upgraded to ad hoc military vehicles--outside of the Genestealer Cults army list, they only show up as generic vehicles available to the gangs of TabletopGame/{{Necromunda}}, and are not used by any part of the Imperial military.
* LotusEaterMachine: Genestealer Cultists, tragically, are not actually aware the Tyranids view them as useful but temporary tools that will be eaten once they have sabotaged their world's defenses. To them, they're the servants of an enlightened and angelic race that will bring salvation to the universe, and see all the Genestealer traits as angelic features. This lasts until the Hive Mind re-assimilates the Patriarch and Purestrains, at which point it is no longer efficient to keep the cult around and the Cultists have just enough time to scream. However, on some occasions, certain cults are aware of and accept this fate.
* MadScientist: Biophaguses are cult members trained in medicine and genetic manipulation. Because they need to pass as sufficiently like their host species to receive training from them, they tend to only be found in the later generations of cult development. Their education becomes extremely useful to the cult, as many of the random {{Mix And Match Critter|s}} traits of the cult's hybrids benefit from someone who can surgically and chemically alter them to better suit the cult's needs, particularly the [[DumbMuscle Aberrants]].
* MakeThemRot: The leaders of the Cult of the Rusted Claw are host to numerous metallophagic nano-organisms that cause any metal, including [[FantasyMetals adamantium]], to instantly rust with the lightest of touches. Their Entropic Touch Warlord Trait in 8th Edition increases the chance of attacks penetrating a nearby enemy's armour.
* MixAndMatchCritters: Genestealer hybrids, particularly first-generation ones, will mix an equal amount of characteristics from the genestealer and the host species. Later generations will {{downplay|edTrope}} the Genestealer traits further with each generation, until around the fifth or sixth generation purestrain Genestealers are born to them.
* TheMole: Genestealer cults fill this role on a strategic level for the Tyranid Hive Fleets.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Many members of the Bladed Cog are Cyborgs who view the blending of the machine in their ranks to be sacred, much like the Cult Mechanicus, going so far as to have painful surgeries in order to demonstrate the extent of their faith. Many in their ranks are even members of the Adeptus Mechanicus' own armies, the Skitarii. They worship the Clawed Omnissiah, a twisted cyborg Patriarch with mechanical limbs and cyborg enhancements interwoven into its body.
* NonhumanHumanoidHybrid: Half any-sentient-species hybrid. Genestealers have a curious reproductive cycle, where only a few early broods are birthed directly by the Hive Fleets, and all later members of the brood are born to host species that the Genestealers prey on. After infecting a host organism, that organism will be driven to reproduce, but any such offspring will be half the host species and half Genestealer. Naturally, such a creature is usually very misshapen as it [[MixAndMatchCritters combines traits of both species freely]]. However, later generations of hybrids will look progressively more like the host species, until by about the fifth or six generation they are completely indistinguishable from them. The children of ''that'' generation will then be more "pure" Genestealers and the cycle begins again.
* ParanoiaFuel:
** {{Invoked|Trope}} by the Genestealers. Their infiltration of planets has the primary effect of destabilizing them militarily from within so they cannot effectively mount a defense, but secondarily by making it difficult for the planetary authorities to conclusively determine which individuals have been subverted by the Genestealers or not, continuing to make it difficult to mount a unified defense as the population and chain of command falls into a pattern of distrust and fear.
** Their 2016 playstyle invokes this, with many units having the ability to drop back into Ongoing Reserves and using the "Cult Ambush" rules to appear literally anywhere on a good dice roll. With many of them being armed with demo charges or incredibly powerful short ranged weapons, spamming this ability can induce the same paranoia in your opponent. In addition their Broodmind Psychic Discipline is also focused on playing mindgames with the enemy, from weakening the opponent to outright taking control of them (one of the powers is literally "Mind Control").
** Their 8th edition codex reveals that the cults have now found a way to spread their corrupting taint even without any actual Genestealers on hand to perform the Kiss. All they have to do is introduce certain chemical contagions into the water supply, then sit back and wait.
* PerceptionFilter:
** The Amulet of the Voidwyrm allows its bearer to tap into the Shadow in the Warp of the wider Tyranid race, allowing them to conceal themselves from the minds of their enemies. In the 8th Edition rules this is represented by a bonus to the bearer's saving throw and immunity to Overwatch fire.
** The genestealer cultists themselves suffer from one of these. After being brainwashed by the Patriarch's broodmind, the cultists perceive Tyranids as angelic, superior beings. This only lasts until the Patriarch is subsumed back into the overall hive mind, whereupon the local broodmind breaks down and the illusion dies with it. The remaining cultists usually have just enough time to fall into a [[AwfulTruth horrified panic]] before their "gods" find and devour them.
* PortentOfDoom: If a Genestealer cult has grown to the point of open insurrection, a Hive Fleet is not far away...
* PowerTattoo: The Mark of the Clawed Omnissiah is a rare electoo used by the Cult of the Bladed Cog. This electronic tattoo surrounds the bearer with a [[ElementalBarrier force field of static electricity]] that protects the wearer from harm (taking the form of an invulnerable save) and can electrocute nearby enemy models, inflicting mortal wounds.
* PrimitiveClubs: Aberrants and Abominants are mutant Genestealer hybrids characterized by immense strength, aggression and stupidity, and tend to fight with mining equipment and uprooted street signs used as improvised mauls.
* PsiBlast: The psykers of the Hivecult are able to collect the psychic residue released by their brothers and unleash it in a powerful blast of energy. Known as a Synaptic Blast, this {{psychic power}}[[note]]introduced by the 8th Edition {{sourcebook}} ''Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good''[[/note]] can cause numerous [[UnblockableAttack mortal wounds]] against enemy units depending on the number of Hivecult members close to the psyche when they manifest it.
* PsychoSerum: The Elixir of the Prime Specimen is one of the greatest achievements of the Cult of the Twisted Helix's Biophaguses. Created from the corpse of a powerful Tyranid organism, the Elixir boosts the muscle mass of those who ingest it (represented in the 8th Edition rules by a boost to the drinker's Attacks, Toughness and Wounds stats) but fills their mind with near uncontrollable bloodlust[[note]]although this isn't represented in the rules[[/note]]
* PuppeteerParasite: The "[[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong Genestealer's Kiss]]" initially causes confusion and amnesia in the host organism, which renders them placid and can take several hours to resolve fully. However, after that time it brings the host under the thrall of the Genestealer brood, altering their hormones and perceptions so that they come to love the Genestealers and any children they have by them. Some puppets may not even realize that they are being influenced by an external intelligence, becoming {{Manchurian Agent}}s for the brood.
* RogueDrone: Somewhat downplayed, but not all Genestealers are as willing as other Tyranid morphs to be recycled into bio-matter, and many will flee infected planets just before the hive fleet arrives. In an odd twist, Ymgarl Genestealers are forced to be this against their will -- their shapeshifting abilities are too unstable for the HiveMind to want them back in its gene pool, so they are abandoned after their use is over. Despite this, they still want to rejoin the Hive Mind, so they keep rejoining the swarms, just to always be ejected later. Presumably, this is what's happening if the Patriarch fights against the Tyranids -- he is, after all, a pure Genestealer himself, so by all rights he should just be letting himself be recycled after eating his share of biomass. If he's fighting to defend his cult, then something has gone very wrong for the Hive Fleet.
* SelfHarm: Cultists of the Behemoid Undercult often ritually scar themselves around their right eye in honour of the infamous Carnifex Old One Eye, with the most devout even going so far as to gouge out their eye in imitation of the beast that they consider to be a prophet of their god.
* SerialKiller: The background material for the Hivecult mentions that when they were first establishing themselves in the hive cities of New Gidlam the cult's Magus, Vockor Mai, posed as a serial killer known as the White Creeper to kill those that stood in the way of the cult's rise to power.
* SigilSpam: An early sign of a Cult is the distinct Tyranid "wyrm", a curled representation of a limbless Tyranid bioform that resembles an {{Ouroboros}}. Inquisitors are thankful that ''all'' Cults seem to have it as a sacred symbol, and they emblazon it on everything they own.
* SmashMook: Aberrants and Abominants are mutant hybrids characterized by immense strength, aggression and stupidity. In battle they're equipped with giant hammers, mining equipment or uprooted street signs and used as shock troops and linebreakers, relying on their armor and tough flesh to soak up incoming fire and their immense strength to break apart enemy formations, fortifications and armored vehicles with crude, sweeping blows of their weapons.
* TheStrategist: A Nexos is a late generation hybrid specifically adapted with [[ExpositionBeam psychometric powers]] and a portion of the Patriarch's otherworldly intellect to act as a rear echelon general, coordinating the numberless members of the Cult so that the uprising succeeds. In 8th Edition, a Nexos can redeploy Cult Ambush markers and regenerate the Command Points used to purchase Stratagems during battle.
* StrawNihilist: Members of the Cult of the Rusted Claw are described as extreme nihilists, thinking that all creatures in the universe are nothing but moving scraps of flesh destined to decay into the nothingness of the void. The Cult believe that they can only be saved when they are absorbed and remade by their unknowable gods.
* SuperReflexes: The Locus bodyguards of the Genestealer Cults have inherited the preternatural reflexes and combat speed of their gene-father, reacting with blistering speed to defend their charges. In 8th and 9th Editions, Loci can attack enemies before they are attacked themselves and dodge enemy attacks.
* TakingTheBullet: All Cultists (especially Cult Loci) are more than willing to throw themselves in front of attacks, receiving wounds and giving their lives so that the Cult's leadership can live. The Cult of the Pauper Prince take this dedication to the extreme, willing to create barricades with their own bodies so that their leaders have even the smallest of chances of surviving.
* TargetSpotter: The bike-mounted snipers known as Jackal Alphuses will relay the position of any enemy that they cannot handle themselves to better equipped Cultist forces. The 8th Edition rules represent this with the 'Priority Target Sighted' ability that grants a nearby Cultist unit a to hit bonus against an enemy unit that the Alphus can see.
* TelephonePolearm: One Aberrant model uses a road sign torn from the ground (with the concrete still stuck to the base) as a blunt instrument.
* ThrowDownTheBomblet: Those Cults that infiltrate munition factories have ready access to explosives and grenades, becoming extremely skilled in their use. The late 8th Edition ''Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned'' {{sourcebook}} allows such Cults to take the Munitions Experts Cult Creed that boosts the Strength characteristic of any Grenade type weapons their units are equipped with.
* UnwittingPawn: Even if they don't know it, after their planet comes to the Hive Fleet's notice, the destiny of a Genestealer Cult is sealed, because all surviving members will become food like the rest of the planet. Some stories indicate that at least some cults are aware of this, though, and accept it.
* WolverineClaws: Genestealer Cult Primuses are often armed with toxin injector claws. These viciously sharp metal blades fitted to the Primus' fingers inject those they cut with powerful toxins distilled from the blood of the Primus and, in the 8th Edition rules, are able to wound almost any living enemy.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Once the Genestealer cults have fulfilled their purpose and attracted the Tyranids at large, the cultists become food for the Hive Mind just like all other living things. {{Averted|Trope}} on at least one occasion, though, where the victorious Tyranids consumed the planet but spared the Genestealer Cult. The cultists then piled onto bulk transports and aided the Hive Fleet in conquering the remainder of the solar system. It's speculated in-universe that it might be some sort of psychic imperative from the cult's Patriarch.
* ZombieInfectee: The Imperium and other factions learned the hard way to carefully inspect anyone who survived an encounter with a Genestealer cult, especially those who somehow miraculously survived overwhelming odds. Quite often the survivors of a battle with such cults were covertly infected and left to "escape" and spread the cult elsewhere.

!!!Patriarchs
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/genestealer_patriarch.png]]
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The bloated, monstrous rulers at the heart of each cult, the Patriarchs are the original Genestealers who crept into society and fathered the first hybrids. Patriarchs cease to be very active once their cult reaches a good size, after which they retreat into the shadows to rule over and be worshipped by their growing broods.

* TheAgeless: Patriarchs are known to live for hundreds of years, and unless killed they are practically immortal.
* ArtEvolution: When originally introduced, the Patriarch looked like a big fat bastard sitting on his chair. With the revamped and revived Genestealer Cults in 2016, it now looks like a regular old Genestealer, albeit bigger and more robust.
* LargeAndInCharge: Mature Patriarchs grow to immense sizes, reaching twice the height of a typical SpaceMarine and towering over every member of their brood save the vary largest Abominants.
* MagicKnight: In all their incarnations, Genestealer Patriarchs are both terrifyingly powerful combatants, with a close combat-orientated stat line that allows them to go toe-to-toe with [[SuperSoldier Astartes]] leaders, and the psychic hub for their entire Cult's gestalt consciousness, giving them the ability to take multiple psychic powers.
* MyBrainIsBig: A Patriarch's cranium becomes visibly engorged and distended as its telepathic powers grow.
* ThePatriarch: The actual title of the first Genestealer to found a brood among a host species. As the brood of hybrids grow, the Patriarch will slowly grow progressively [[LargeAndInCharge larger and more physically powerful]]. By the time the fourth generation of hybrids comes about and new Genestealers are being born, the Patriarch will be a massive beast. As every member of the brood is psychically connected with the Patriarch, the more the brood grows in number the more the Patriarch's psychic potential grows to accommodate them, eventually becoming a fantastically powerful psyker in its own right.
* PositionOfLiteralPower: Patriarchs grow bigger and stronger as their cult develops, in a manner compared to the leader of a troop of apes becoming visibly tougher than the others to mark its ascendant status. Eventually, a Patriarch becomes by far the largest and most dangerous member of its cult.

!!!The Kelermorph
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kelemorph.png]]
%%
The Kelermorph is a masked gunslinger, a figure of legend and the face of rebellion against the Imperium's crushing tyranny -- and a cunning, calculated ruse meant to drawn the masses into the cults' embrace.

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* BulletTime: The Kelermorph's accelerated metabolism allows it to live in this all the time, viewing normal humans as moving in constant slow motion, which makes a deadly gunfighter.
* DualWielding: The Kelermorph wields a gun in each of its two main hands.
* FolkHero: The Kelermorph was created by the cults specifically to fit the image of a mysterious, elusive figure standing against oppression, appearing from nowhere to defy figures of power, coolly making mincemeat of his foes and then vanishing into the shadows. This is, however, all a ruse, and the Kelermorph is largely intended to trick the Imperium's oppressed masses into aiding the designs of the Cult without realizing what they're actually working for.
* TheGunslinger: The Kelermorph was specifically engineered to become a folk hero to attract the oppressed to the Cult, [[DualWielding triple-wields]] Liberator Autostub [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]]. He's a mix between [[MoreDakka Vaporizer]] and [[ImprobableAimingSkills Trick Shot]], given his extremely high Ballistic Skill, six normal shots per turn and an extra shot for every one of those initial six that hits.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: The Kelermorph is a terrifyingly good shot, thanks to reflexes that allow it to calmly line up a dozen shots in the time it takes for its foes to unholster their own weapons, enhanced senses that allow it to fire with pinpoint accuracy in pitch darkness, and superhuman balance and coordination.
* MoreDakka: Besides being a very good shot, the Kelermorph can also count on a combination of its reflexes and high-quality weapons to down scores of foes in a hail of bullets.
[[/folder]]

!!Others

[[folder:Zoats]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zoat_40k.png]]
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The Zoats first appeared in the galaxy as heralds of the Tyranid hive fleets, as a centaur-like slave race engineered by the Tyranids to serve as scouts and information-gatherers and to subvert target civilizations in order to lesser their resistance to the swarms. To do this, the Zoats were given a much greater degree of independence and intellect than common drones; however, this also tended to lead to their rebelling against the Hive Mind, their greater sense of self-preservation balking at the thought of reabsorption, and breaking free to pursue their own independent goals.\\
\\
Eventually, however, the Hive Mind ceased to produce Zoats altogether, giving their old role to the more reliable Genestealers. The majority of the fledgeling Zoat states and civilizations were either consumed by the swarms or wiped out by the Imperium, and in the modern day these creatures are all but extinct. Only a handful of individuals survive, enduring in hidden corners of the galaxy and pursuing unknown agendas.\\
\\
In real life, Zoats were an early unit type in the game's First Edition, during which nearly half a Tyranid force had to be made out of Zoats. They were never popular and didn't make the transition to the next edition, with only a few references to them being dropped in the background of the third edition. They afterwards remained entirely absent from the franchise until 2018, when a Zoat character was released for the board game ''Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress''.
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* TheBusCameBack: After being absent from the tabletop for nearly 30 years, 2020 saw the release of an updated Zoat model for the ''Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress'' GaidenGame.
* TheChessmaster: In ''Liber Xenologica'', zoats are described as subtle beings who manipulate other societies from behind the scenes, enacting complex schemes and seeding double and secret agents in order to guide worlds towards goals only they understand.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: They were quietly dropped when the second edition was released. Details about their removal went unremarked until a footnote in the third edition explained their fate: being consumed by the Hive Fleets as they have [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived their usefulness]].
* ContinuityNod: Hive Fleet Colossus, given a few references in various rulebooks, is described as having centaur-like organisms, conch-like hiveships, painfully grafted symbiotic weapon organisms, technological weaponry absorbed and incorporated from other races it has overrun, and the ability to telepathically community with each other and with other races. Though not explicitly called Zoats, the description fits, and [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080411104249/uk.games-workshop.com/tyranids/forgotten-fleets/6/ Games Workshop's own (old) conversion guide]] makes it pretty clear that is what they represent.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: The Tyranids created them as a semi-independent group to go ahead of the Hive Fleets as vanguards and disrupt targets for consumption. Their independence led to them [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters revolting against the Tyranids]], but they were quickly wiped out as the Hive Fleets caught up to them. The few who survived were spotted in Tyranid swarms, but their numbers dwindled as the Hive Fleets evolved to no longer need them.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: They never made it past the first edition, as the [[CharacterizationMarchesOn March of Characterization]] from the Tyranids made them incompatible.
* GasMaskMooks: Zoats can only breathe in very specific atmospheric conditions, and thus when not in a controlled environment like their ships they wear rebreathers.
* MouthOfSauron: The Zoats were to be harbingers of the Hive Fleet, letting others know that the Tyranids were coming for them and encouraging prey planets to surrender to the inevitable.
* OrganicTechnology: They use much of this, although to a less animated extent than the Hive Fleets. For example, their ships are organic, but not {{Living Ship}}s, having their hull grown like a shell, then hollowed out and having more conventional technology built into it. Their ability to freely combine both organic technology and conventional technology allowed the Tyranid forces to employ things like bolters and missile launchers, in addition to their more usual fare.
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: The Zoats follow the typical centaur body form, but are reptilian creatures whose quadruped lower body resembles a short-tailed sauropod dinosaur.
* ServantRace: They originated as lizard-like slaves to a HordeOfAlienLocusts.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Due to their possessing much more independence than common Tyranid biomorphs, Zoats often rebelled against the Hive Mind and attempted to establish their own realms in the galaxy, often actively coming into conflict with Tyranid swarms seeking to consume them.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: The Hive Fleets phased them out due to the Zoats being too independent-minded to make good agents.
[[/folder]]
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* TunnelKing: Raveners tunnel underground to bypass static defenses and literally undermine entrenched positions. For high value and seriously hardened targets, groups of Raveners will often be led by a Trygon, their far-larger cousin.

* TunnelKing: Mawlocs have a greater emphasis when it comes tunneling. These things are like [[Film/{{Tremors}} Graboids]] turned up to eleven.

* TunnelKing: The Tyranid Ravener is a slithering creature capable of tunneling under the surface to bypass static defenses and literally undermine entrenched positions. For high value and seriously hardened targets, groups of Raveners will often be lead by a Trygon, their far-larger cousin.

* EyelessFace: From 3rd Edition onwards, the models and artwork for Zoanthropes, and the later introduced Neurothropes, lack eyes as their monstrous [[PsychicPowers psychic abilities]] allow them to perceive their surroundings.

* ArtEvolution: The original Biovore and Pyrovore models had similar designs in that they both had an ape-like appearance and posture. Come 10th edition, both species now have an arachnid design whilst retaining the symbiotic bio-weapons on their backs.

* DumbMuscle: Tyrant Guard, who are biological {{Stonewall}}s, have small brains for the same reason Carnifexes do: [[JustifiedTrope less vulnerability to careful shots]]. The fact that they always operate in close proximity to a synapse creature (a Hive Tyrant) means that they can benefit from its intelligence via PsychicLink, and thus do not need to be very smart.

* EpicFlail: The Stone Crusher breed of Carnifex sometimes grow a large bio-flail in place of one of their claws. Consisting of hardened bone at the end of muscular tendrils, the Carnifex is able to use this bio-flail to [[HerdHittingAttack crush multiple prey with a single sweeping attack]]. This is represented in the 8th Edition rules by the Stone Crusher gaining an Attack for every model in close proximity.
* TheJuggernaut: This is the function of the Carnifex unit. It acts as a line breaker, plodding forward implacably as attacks waste themselves against its exceptionally dense carapace, cutting down or bowling over anything that stands in its path like a living battering-ram.

* BulletSeed: A literal case, the Tyrannofex has the Rupture Cannon which fires two rounds: a bloated tick... and a seed case. Fluff says the two react in a [[MadeOfExplodium catastrophic fashion]] when their chemical fluids are mixed upon impact.

* EnemySummoner: The Tervigon is a walking Termagant factory, birthing them directly from its belly to go into battle. Throughout all editions, Tervigons can create new Termagant units and/or replenish existing ones, with the specific details varying depending on the edition.

* MageHuntingMonster: Psychophages are Tyranid organisms designed to hunt down and devour enemy pyskers, which they quickly metabolize into "psychocorrosive ash" that they project from vents on their backs.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Patriarchs grow bigger and stronger as their cult develops, in a manner compared to the leader of a troop of apes becoming visibly tougher than the others to mark its ascendant status. Eventually, a Patriarch becomes by far the largest and most dangerous member of its cult.

* SuspiciouslyStealthyPredator: Lictors are the Tyranid's primary scouting units. They are able to stay perfectly still for days at a time, capable of changing their color to perfectly blend with the surrounding, and can alter their own body temperature to match the ambient level so as not to show up on infrared. Further, because they feed on the BrainFood of individuals in the area they are operating and gain some of that creature's knowledge by doing so, they know what things like security systems are and possibly where they are likely to be located as well. All this combines to make them creatures that are very hard to find if they do not wish to be found, and easily able to slip past even alert defenses.

* EyelessFace: Adapted to be the perfect guardians, Tyranid Guard bio-forms, such as the Hive and Tyrant Guards, have a thick carapace covering their heads where their eyes and other sensory organisms should be, as such organs would be an obvious vulnerability. While this would normally prove a disadvantage to their role of guardians, all such bio-forms have a PsychicLink that allows them to perceive the world through the senses of lesser Tyranid beasts.

* SuperSpit: The Screamer-Killer breed of Carnifex, are able to produce a ball of bio-plasma within their stomachs that the creature can vomit at their prey. Although relatively short ranged, these balls of plasmic vomit do a comparable level of damage to the [[PlasmaCannon plasma weaponry]] of other races.

* TunnelKing: Mawloc's have a greater emphasis when it comes tunneling. These things are like [[Film/{{Tremors}} Graboids]] turned up to eleven.

* AntiAir: The Hive Crone, the Tyranid equivalent of a fighter jet, is armed with tentaclids that can reroll failed hit rolls against flying enemies.

* SuperSpit: The Hive Crone's main offensive weapon against ground targets is the Drool Cannon. This bio-weapon allows the flying monstrosity to vomit its highly-corrosive digestive juices onto its target, doing more damage than a [[FireBreathingWeapon heavy flamer]].

* HorrifyingTheHorror: The Shadow in the Warp is so potent and terrifying it's been known to drive men as jaded and wicked as Chaos Sorcerers to insanity.
** Ironically, the Necrons are believed to be capable of inflicting this on the Tyranids. Given that they represent the ultimate antithesis of the Tyranids, it's not hard to imagine why.

!!Warrior Prime

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/winged_tyranid_prime.jpg]]

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[[folder:Small Creatures]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Medium Creatures]]

!!Venomthrope

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/venomthrope.jpg]]

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[[/folder]]

[[folder:Large Creatures]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Flying Creatures]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Bio-Titans]]
Bio-Titans are the largest Tyranid organisms (so far) that have been seen and fought against, and can go toe-to-toe with Imperial Titans and Ork Gargants.

* {{Kaiju}}: The largest Tyranid organisms, such as the Hierophant, Dominatrix, Hydraphant, and Viciator, are classified as "bio-titans" as they are dozens of meters tall and wide and pack firepower and melee weapons comparable in strength and destructive power to their mechanical equivalents in other armies.

* HighlyVisibleNinja: Norn Emissaries are noted for being the personal assassins of the Norn Queens and the Hive Mind itself, created to silently infiltrate behind enemy lines to either take and hold positions of strategic importance or annihilate individual leaders of the enemy opposition... while being creatures that are over a story tall, on the same scale of size as an Imperial [[HumongusMecha Armiger-Pattern Knight]] or an Aeldari [[LivingStatue Avatar of Khaine]].

* HighlyVisibleNinja: Norn Emissaries are noted for being the personal assassins of the Norn Queens and the Hive Mind itself, created to silently infiltrate behind enemy lines to either take and hold positions of strategic importance or annihilate individual leaders of the enemy opposition... while being creatures that are over a story tall, on the same scale of size as an Imperial [[HumonogusMecha Armiger-Pattern Knight]] or an Aeldari [[LivingStatue Avatar of Khaine]].

[[quoteright:600:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/norn_emissary.jpg]]

[[quoteright:600:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/norn_assimilator.jpg]]

[[quoteright:673:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/norn_emissary.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:673:Norn Emissary]]
[[quoteright:656:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/norn_assimilator.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:656:Norn Assimilator]]

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChaptersFirstFounding Chapters of the First Founding]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\

* MyBrainIsBig:Like the Zoanthrope and other psychic Tyranids, the Neurotyrants possess an increíble large brain.

* ArtEvolution: The original Biovore and Pyrovore models had similar designs in that they both had an ape-like appearance and posture. Come 10th edition, both species now have an arachnid design whilst retaining the symbiotic weapons on their backs.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lictor_10th.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Lictor]]