The Tyranids are a fictional race from the Warhammer 40000 tabletop game and its spin-off media. They are known to the Imperium generally as Tyranids, because Tyran is the first known planet they devoured and where they were first encountered. Luckily for the Imperium Inquisitor Kryptman found oral data concealed on one of the databases on Tyran and dedicated the rest of his life to exterminating the new foe.

They are a nomadic alien race

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

 comprising many genetically engineered

Genetic engineering

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...

 forms created from harvested bio-mass. They are known as the "Great Devourer" and also "Shadow In The Warp" (after the effect of their hive mind

Group mind (science fiction)

A group mind, hive mind or group ego in science fiction is a single consciousness occupying many bodies. Its use in literature goes back at least as far as Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel Last and First Men ....

 on FTL

Jump drive

A jump drive is one of the speculative inventions in science fiction, a method of traveling faster than light .Related concepts are hyperdrive, warp drive and interstellar teleporter. The key characteristic of a jump drive is that it allows a starship to be instantaneously teleported between two...

 travel and communications) and pose a severe threat to the Imperium

Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)

The Imperium of Man is a fictional galactic empire of over a million planets that contains the vast majority of humans in the forty-first millennium, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop....

. They seek to consume all in their path, draining all planets of every resource and converting all living and some non-living material into Tyranid biomass.

They are said to be inspired by H. R. Giger

H. R. Giger

Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. He won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for his design work on the film Alien.-Early life:...

's "exo-skeletal nightmares" in the Aliens

Alien (franchise)

The Alien film series is a science fiction horror film franchise, focusing on Lieutenant Ellen Ripley and her battle with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as "the Alien"...

films.

Development

Tyranids were first described in Rick Priestley's Rogue Trader

Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40,000)

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is the first edition rule/source book for the Warhammer 40,000 miniature wargame by Games Workshop. The subtitle refers to a particular class of character within the Warhammer 40,000 universe.-Rule book:...

, the first edition of the Warhammer 40,000. At that time they were not an emphasized race in the game, instead representing a limited number of occasionally encountered alien antagonists. Their physical appearance was not imposing or especially horrific: they were depicted as six limbed, relatively diminutive creatures (an appearance which would later be assigned to Tyranid termagants). In later iterations of WH40K-related products (starting with the release of Advanced Space Crusade) the Tyranids were given a complete makeover and became a major race, popularized by a number of successful expansions. Unlike most Warhammer 40,000 races, the Tyranids do not have a Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop. It is the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting....

 counterpart.

Tyranids typically form a fast-moving close-combat army that relies on overwhelming its enemies through waves and waves of mostly small but infinitely deadly creatures. They may also be bio-morphed to rely heavily on ranged combat, or field an impressive but small array of monstrous titans rather than a typical swarm. Tyranid armies are therefore able to bring a varied threat to bear on their opponents.

Tyranid species include:
- Hive Tyrants
- Tyranid Warriors
- Raveners
- Lictors
- Venomthropes
- Carnifexes
- Harpy
- Hormagaunts
- Termagants
- Genestealers
- Pyrovores
- Ymgarl Genestealers
- Ripper swarms
- Biovores
- Trygons
- Mawlocs
- The Swarmlord
- The Doom of Malantai
- Old One Eye
- Tyranid Shrikes
- Tyranid Prime
- Tyrant Guard
- Dominatrix
- The Red Terror
- Trygon Prime
- Hive Guard
- Gargoyles
- Harpys
- The Parasite of Mortrex
- Deathleaper
- Zoanthrope
- Tyrannofex
- Tervigon
- Mycetic Spore
- Hive Mind

History

The hive fleets

Tyranid Hive Fleets

In the fictional wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Tyranids are a nomadic alien race comprising many genetically engineered organisms that range greatly in size and purpose...

 so far introduced by Games Workshop include Hive Fleet Behemoth, Hive Fleet Kraken, and Hive Fleet Leviathan.(There are also other splinter fleets which are big enough to class as hive fleets) It is noted that these names are those ascribed to the Tyranid incursions by the scholars of the Imperium

Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)

The Imperium of Man is a fictional galactic empire of over a million planets that contains the vast majority of humans in the forty-first millennium, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop....

, rather than the Tyranid civilization themselves. There is no evidence shown in the fiction that Tyranids have language or civilization as understood by the protagonist civilizations native to the Milky Way. In many stories they communicate with a complex array of insectile clicking and buzzing noises, as well as reptilian war cries, growls and hissing sounds. Tyranids are thought to communicate via a strong synaptic link to the hive mind. The synaptic conductors use the link to press the Tyranids onwards, communicating with them telepathically.

There have been three major Tyranid hive fleets to date; Hive Fleet Behemoth and Hive Fleet Kraken of whom both were defeated, and Hive Fleet Leviathan which is one of the current threats to the known galaxy. There are many other Tyranid hive fleets that have been destroyed or are still emerging, such as Hive Fleets Jormungand, Colossus, Tiamet, Scarabus, Ouroboris, Nemesis, Reatherus, among many others.

Games Workshop introduced Genestealer

Genestealer

Genestealers are a fictional alien species in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and the opponents of the marines in the Space Hulk board game...

s in the 1980s in the game Space Hulk

Space Hulk

Space Hulk is a board game by Games Workshop, first released in 1989 and re-released in 2009. The game is set in their Warhammer 40,000 universe and draws a certain degree of inspiration from the Alien movies....

, and later included them in Space Crusade

Space Crusade

Space Crusade is an adventure board game produced by Milton Bradley in conjunction with Games Workshop and was first made in 1990. While produced in the UK and available in some other countries including Finland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand, it was never sold in North America...

, along with the short-lived Genestealer Magus. The first recognizable incarnation of Tyranid warriors appeared in Advanced Space Crusade in 1990, featuring biological weaponry such as boneswords and deathspitters.

Tyranids were first mentioned under the heading Tyranids and the Hive Fleets in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and were illustrated in a form not too different from that of Gaunts.

The first Tyranids used conventional, non-biological equipment such as lasguns and flak armor (although the rulebook stated that these represented organic equipment with similar capabilities). The principal unit available to the Tyranids was the Zoat

Zoat

The Zoats are a race of centaur-like lizard creatures that appear in Games Workshops Warhammer Fantasy. Zoats were also present in the earliest editions of Warhammer's companion Warhammer 40,000 science-fiction setting, but have since been written out of the background.Zoats are large, strange,...

, a centaur

Centaur

In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...

-like creature enslaved to fight on the behalf of their Tyranid masters.

Second Edition Warhammer 40,000, released in 1993, featured the Tyranids in the supplemental books Wargear and Codex Imperialis, and then later in their own devoted army Codex. An extensive model range was released, representing most of the units described in these publications. The army was, however, very different from the factions previously seen in the game.

The Tyranid player now had access to a range of unit types roughly equivalent to that of the other factions, including the Hive Tyrant, Termagants, Hormagaunts, the main adversary in Space Hulk Genestealers, Gargoyles previously seen in Epic 40,000, Tyranid Warriors, the Carnifex, Zoanthropes (a Tyranid psyker

Psyker

Psykers are individuals with psychic abilities in the Warhammer 40,000 fictional universe. Psykers draw their powers from the Warp, an immaterial dimension with huge potential energy, but one that is also full of peril, and hence they are often in danger of daemonic possession and insanity.-...

 in addition to the Hive Tyrant), Lictors, and the Biovore.

In the Tyranid supplement to Third Edition Warhammer 40,000 there was an emphasis on revamping the rules for the various units while maintaining the overall structure of the army, so that veteran players would not find their older collections unusable or less useful in the new edition. The supplement did however add some new units and adjust the behavior of others. A brand-new model range, somewhat different from the older one, was released to coincide with the new publication. New units included: the Tyrant Guard and Raveners.

The Third Edition Codex, as with a number of subsequent publications, included an army list which permitted far greater flexibility to the player than previous army lists, allowing extensive customization of units. Unit types noted as a 'Mutable Genus' in the main army list were permitted to be extensively modified by choosing from numerous options in the 'Custom Hive Fleet' section of the book. The options available bore a resemblance to the random equipment tables featured in Rogue Trader, but were no longer randomized.

The nature of the army list in Third Edition further cemented the Tyranid army's reputation for fielding vast numbers of models, allowing the player to overwhelm an opponent with weight of numbers. This was even more pronounced in the variant Seeding Swarm army list published in White Dwarf and later in Chapter Approved, which represented the initial stages of a massive Tyranid assault and even further emphasized the use of many expendable, 'cannon-fodder' type units. One of the more overlooked abilities is the new "without numbers" rule, which allowed for literally an unlimited number of gaunts in a single game, emphasizing the "cannon-fodder" trait of the Tyranids.

The release of the fourth edition codex added a new model range, new rules, and new units, most notably the Broodlord, and revamped units such as the Carnifex. This new codex also enables Tyranid players to field a grand total of eight large Tyranids to be fielded in a 1500 point battle, although the player would still have to field compulsory troop choices. With this concept Tyranid armies can now boast either the many troops and/or a just few powerful units.

A new Tyranid codex was released on January 16, 2010, written by Robin Cruddace. It included 15 new species of Tyranid, and legendary heroes like the Swarmlord, Old One Eye and the Doom of Malan'tai. In addition, some models saw a point cost reduction, which allowed certain Tyranid armies to field more units, though, notably, this was not the case for all Tyranid units, as several saw point increases in this edition, such as the Carnifex and Hive Tyrant. Carnifex's now costing more than double the amount they used to and they have also been "snubbed" to a weaker monster. The Syanpse rule of immune to instant death has gone, as has Living ammunition. The reduction of strength of the Tyranids has being welcomed with many new shooting weapons, the return of the bonesword and many additions to deep strike such as the Mawlocs, S6 Ap2 ordance blast deepstrike rule. Also Carnifexes now are very susceptible to Terminators with thunder hammers and stormsheilds.

The Battle for Macragge

The tyranids were a main part of the fourth edition of warhammer 40k due to their presence in the boxed game

Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...

 released in 2004. In the set, there was 8 genestealers, 8 termagauts and 8 spore mines. Famed for their close combat attacks, tyranids were chosen to be the aliens who were set about destroying the Ultramarines homeworld of Macragge. Even though they failed in their attempt, they managed to wipe out the 1st company of Ultramarines, a feat never repeated by another race.

In alternative games

The Tyranids are represented in three of the Specialist Games produced by Games Workshop

Games Workshop

Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...

: Battlefleet: Gothic

Battlefleet Gothic

-External links:* - An unofficial, community-driven fan wiki dedicated to providing Official & Un-official content and linking the Battlefleet Gothic community....

, Epic

Epic (game)

Epic is a tabletop wargame set in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. Where Warhammer 40,000 involves small battles between forces of a few squads of troops and two or three vehicles, Epic features battles between armies consisting of dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers...

, and Inquisitor

Inquisitor (game)

Inquisitor is a tabletop miniatures game based in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 Universe. Whereas Warhammer 40,000 is based on squad based tactical warfare, Inquisitor focuses on a small group of adventurers and plays a bit like a Role-playing game...

.

In Battlefleet: Gothic, a game focusing on spaceship to spaceship combat, they are represented by four models that represent the massive ships of the Tyranid Hivefleet. In Epic, the game of large scale combat using smaller miniatures, they are represented by a combination of Titans and standard Tyranid troops. In Inquisitor, the narrative skirmish game using Warhammer 40,000 type characters, the Tyranids are represented by the Genestealer

Genestealer

Genestealers are a fictional alien species in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and the opponents of the marines in the Space Hulk board game...

 and Hybrid models under the generic roleplaying category of "aliens." They are individual members of the Genestealer Cults who work towards espionage and propagating their species in secret to weaken a planet's defenses before an invasion, as opposed to being part of the Hivefleet army that seeks to swarm over all in their path and consume them.