Tyranids are one of the biggest threats in Warhammer 40,000 and there’s a reason for that

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In Space Marine 2, the Tyranids are your first enemies and you’ll be fighting them almost the entire time. But the game never really explains who these strange insect aliens are. MeinMMO explains who this xenos species actually is.

What are Tyranids anyway? Imagine these insect species like a swarm of locusts: countless creatures devastate entire areas of land, destroying everything they can somehow eat.

Tyranids are about the same thing, just a few billion times larger. Guided by a hive mind, the biomechanical “Hive Fleets” fly through space and consume every planet and everything else they find.

Tyranids maintain their connection to individual drones through psionic activity – which is also the reason why they came into the world of Warhammer 40,000 in the first place. A fleet has “weathered” the Emperor, the strongest psyker of all time in the human realm. The Tyranids first attacked the Empire at the planet Tyran – hence their name.

Since then, the Tyranids have been a constant threat to the Empire and, in principle, the entire world. Because they don’t really differentiate between what they get in front of their teething tools. The main thing is that the fleet can grow.

The trademark of the Tyranids: enormous hordes of drones in various designs. It is generally said that their number is legion:

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 shows you the Tyranids

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There is only one goal: to eat

Tyranid fleets don’t conquer worlds, they eat them. Very literally, if a world is infested with Tyranids, everything there is converted into “biomass.” It is then pumped out via hoses and brought back to the fleet.

In Space Marine 2 you can see how this works in one of the campaign missions. The Tyranids need the biomass to create new drones and develop. Because like any good swarm, they are constantly adapting to dangers.

Tyranids don’t build ships, weapons or armor, they simply grow what they need from biomass. Even ammunition consists of living organisms, because there is enough biomass available.

Accordingly, they focus on quantity instead of quality. Enemies are often simply pelted with drones until they literally suffocate in their guts. This can all be reused afterwards anyway.

Once a world is the target of an invasion, there is little chance of saving it. Space Marines often just try to get as many people away as possible and then leave themselves. The famous Ultramarines have one of the few documented victories over a hive fleet. However, Tyranids also have something like “natural” enemies:

  • The Necrons’ Gauss weapons disintegrate everything they hit at the nanoparticle level. Accordingly, no biomass remains. There is also the assumption that Tyranids cannot utilize the Necrons’ metal.
  • Chaos hates Tyranids because they have no souls to corrupt them. Accordingly, there is a conflict between Tyranids, who want to devour everything, and Chaos, who want to corrupt everything.
    • Also enemies of the Tyranids: Space Marines. Here Lieutenant Titus is taking out a Carnifex.

    Smart Beetles: Invasions with Decades of Preparation

    Tyranids are not mindless husks, at least not all of them. A few of the beetles have evolved to control lower drones, a “smaller,” mobile hive mind, so to speak.

    Additionally, each fleet has a Norn Queen, the only female Tyranid in a fleet, who is responsible for the literal production of new drones. The Queen always sits in the best secured ship in the middle of the squadron, because without her the entire fleet would be lost.

    But Tyranids have developed a few other tricks that make them so dangerous, specifically: the “Genestealer” cult. Humans are infected by some Tyranids and suddenly have the urge to reproduce.

    Through reproduction, the infection spreads and becomes stronger and stronger until a generation emerges that no longer has anything to do with people. These then obey the fleet hive mind and work their way into important positions of planetary defense in order to make it easier for the other Tyranids to attack. A few important types of Tyranids:

  • Norn Queen – The mother of a Tyranid fleet
  • Carnifex – The Tyranids’ strongest unit, literally a living tank
  • Biovores – Flying Tyranids that explode in the face of enemies
  • Genestealers – Infected humans who become Tyranids and infiltrate human society
  • Hive Tyrants – One of the few Tyranid forms with minds of their own, serve as commanders in battle
  • Lictors – Cloaked assassins and hunters
  • Rippers – Small maggots that digest everything and turn it into biomass, which is then transported away
  • Zoantrophs – Psionically active Tyranids who, among other things, pass on orders from the hive mind, essentially the magicians of the army

    • By the way: If simple Tyranids lose contact with a hive mind, they become wild and only follow their baser urges. That’s why there are creatures like zoantrophs, which serve as a kind of distributor for the will of the swarm.

    Tyranids are dangerous – But not the greatest danger

    There is always debate about whether the Tyranids are the biggest threat in Warhammer 40,000. This is supported by the fact that they not only threaten humans, but also Eldar and Drukhari. The rule of thumb is: everything will be devoured by Tyranids, the only question is when.

    However, there are two major opponents who pose an equal or greater threat, at least to the Empire itself. The first is the Warp, i.e. the four chaos gods and their cultists, who want to sacrifice all souls to the demons.

    The second, and according to many considerations, greatest danger is the empire itself. Many fans agree: If the empire ever falls, it will not be due to an outside power, but through corruption and war from within.

    By the way, if the Tyranids sound familiar to you: yes, they are pretty much the direct template for the Zerg from Starcraft. This is hardly surprising, because the makers of Warcraft originally planned a Warhammer idea: In a perfect world, the largest MMORPG today would be World of Warhammer

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