Discussion Characters / Warhammer40000Tyranids

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 spin-off games such as Space Hulk 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 Space Hulk 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

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: 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.)
• The Ageless: Genestealer Patriarchs are known to live for hundreds of years, and unless killed, are practically immortal.
• Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: Genestealers reproduce via the "Genestealer's Kiss", an injection of their genetic material into a target via a long, diamond-hard "tongue." Depending on which bit of fluff you read, this is either via a literal, face-biting parody of a kiss, or a slightly less Squicky injection into the torso, under the ribcage. The Ciaphas Cain novels use the latter method.
• Ghost Ship: 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.
• Hive Mind: 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.
• Hypnotic Eyes: A characteristic of Genestealers is an ability to pacify potential prey by maintaining eye contact and moving slowly, though the fluff varies on how much this is used.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: As per the other Tyranid creatures, Genestealers have six limbs. Two for standing upright, two for fine manipulation, and two as rending claws.
• Our Vampires Are Different: 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 lamprey-like feeder tendrils that they use to drain blood of victims. They are able to conceal themselves with limited 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.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: 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).
• Put on a Bus:
  • 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).
• Suspiciously Stealthy Predator: Because Genestealers are actually as intelligent as most sentient species, and are 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.

Hybrid & Cult Specific Tropes

• Aliens Made Them Do It: Literally in the case of those subjected to the 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 horribly misshapen hybrids of the two species.
• Apocalypse Cult: 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.
• Art Evolution: When originally introduced, the Genestealer 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.
• Assimilation Plot: The modus operandi of a Genestealer cult, though downplayed 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 "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.
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: 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.
• Badass Biker: 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. The 8th Edition rules represent this with the Skilled Outriders ability that makes them harder to hit with Shooting attacks.
• Bald of Evil: Genestealer hybrids have a tendency toward baldness (as Genestealers themselves are hairless), though this may or may not be present depending on which traits are inherited from which parent species.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: The Locus bodyguards of the Genestealer Cults conceal a Prehensile Tail 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.
• Breeding Cult: The goal of Genestealer cults is to propagate more Genestealers in secret, gathering higher influence to better hide their growing numbers.
• The Bus Came Back: 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.
• Car Fu: 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.
• Co-Dragons: 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.
• Construction Vehicle Rampage: 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.
• Cool Car: 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 "kiss". These individuals will reproduce 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.
• Destined Bystander: 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 Retcons which relegated the original Genestealer conception with a minor offshoot of the race as a whole.
• Dishing Out Dirt: 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.
• Dumb Muscle: 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.
• Earthquake Machine: 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.
• Exposition Beam: 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.
• 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 Maguses in the 8th Edition rules or defending them from enemy attacks^note by granting extra attacks in close combat with the Familiar's claws.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: If the reveal trailer is anything to go by, then the new Cults seem to have their worship based around a religion that is eerily similar to Buddhist traditions and aesthetics, albeit a very twisted and zealous one.
• The Gunslinger: The Kelermorph, specifically engineered to become a folk hero to attract the oppressed to the Cult, triple-wields Liberator Autostub revolvers. He's a mix between Vaporizer and 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.
• Healing Factor: 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. The 8th Edition rules represent this with the 'Regenerative Flesh' ability that allows the Abominant to heal wounds every turn.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • A few of the Genestealer Cults' weapons and vehicles are originally mining equipment appropriated for use in the battlefield.
  • One Abberant Model uses a road sign torn from the ground (With the concrete still stuck to the base) as a blunt insturment.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: 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 and the Cultists have just enough time to scream. Though it is noted that on some occasions that certain cults are aware of and accept this fate.
• Mad Scientist: Known as a Biophagus, these are cult members who are 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 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 Aberrants. Further, someone connected to the host society's medical establishment can pull strings to keep the cult from being detected before it's ready to operate openly.
• Magic Knight: In all their incarnations, Genestealer Patriarchs are both terrifyingly powerful combatants, able to go toe-to-toe with Astartes leaders, and the psychic hub for their entire Cult's gestalt consciousness, giving it formidable telepathic abilities. The 8th Edition rules for the Patriarch represent this by giving Patriarchs a close combat-orientated stat line, as well as the ability to take multiple psychic powers from the Cult’s Broodmind Psychic Discipline.
• Make Them Rot: The leaders of the Cult of the Rusted Claw are host to numerous metallophagic nano-organisms that cause any metal, including adamantium, to instantly rust with the lightest of touches. The 8th Edition rules represent this with the 'Entropic Touch' Rusted Claw Warlord Trait that can increase the chance of attacks penetrating a nearby enemy's armour.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Genestealer hybrids, particularly first-generation ones, will mix an equal amount of characteristics from the genestealer and the host species. Later generations will downplay the Genestealer traits further with each generation, until around the fifth or sixth generation purestrain Genestealers are born to them.
• The Mole: Genestealer cults fill this role on a strategic level for the Tyranid Hive Fleets.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: 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 upon its body.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: 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 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.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • Invoked 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.
• The Patriarch: 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 larger and more physically powerful. By the time the forth 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.
• Perception Filter:
  • 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 horrified panic before their "gods" find and devour them.
• Portent of Doom: If a Genestealer cult has grown to the point of open insurrection, a Hive Fleet is not far away...
• Power Tattoo: The Mark of the Clawed Omnissiah is a rare electoo used by the Cult of the Bladed Cog. This electronic tattoo surrounds the wearer with a force field of static electricity that protects the wearer from harm and can electrocute nearby enemy models. The 8th Edition rules represent this by giving the bearer an invulnerable save and a chance of inflicting mortal wounds on enemy models in close proximity.
• Psycho Serum: 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
• Puppeteer Parasite: The "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 Agents for the brood.
• Rogue Drone: 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 Hive Mind 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.
• Self-Harm: 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.
• Serial Killer: 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.
• Sigil Spam: 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.
• The Strategist: A Nexos is a late generation hybrid specifically adapted with 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. This strategic ability is represented in the 8th Edition rules with the ability to redeploy Cult Ambush markers and regenerate the Command Points used to purchase Stratagems during battle.
• Straw Nihilist: 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 can only be save when they are absorbed and remade by their unknowable gods.
• Super-Reflexes: 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. The 8th Edition rules represent this with a number of different abilities that allow a Locus to attack enemies before they can be attacked themselves and dodge enemy attacks.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • All Cultists are more than willing to give their lives so that the Cult's leadership can live, throwing themselves in front of attacks that could harm their masters. The 8th Edition rules represent this with the 'Unquestioning Loyalty' ability that allows Cultists and Brood Brothers a chance of taking wounds for a Cult Character. 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. This is represented in-game by the 'Beloved Grandsire' Pauper Prince Warlord trait that gives a bonus to the 'Unquestioning Loyalty' ability.
  • Befitting their role of loyal bodyguards for the Cult leadership, Locuses will willingly lay down their lives so that their charge can live. To represent this, the 8th Edition rules give them the 'Unquestioning Bodyguard' ability that gives them a chance of taking the wounds inflicted on a nearby character.
• Target Spotter: 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.
• Unwitting Pawn: 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.
• Wolverine Claws: 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.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: 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 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.
• Zombie Infectee: 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.