Warhammer 40K: What are the Tyranids?

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is dominated by war and strife, but it’s not all calculated Ultramarine battle lines and space dogfights. There is another much more primal force at work, tearing through systems and consuming worlds to sate a never-ending hunger: Tyranids.

The Tyranids may be the main enemy featured throughout Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, but the game only scratches the surface of the lore. The Tyranids are not an organized faction; it’s a hive mind. That is to say, every individual form and creature that’s classified as a Tyranid acts in unison as one organism.

Like the titular creature from the film Alien, Tyranids are the ultimate killing machine. The insectoid-like organisms have evolved into multiple forms and subspecies, and Tyranids still use rapid evolution to counter threats in real-time. Alongside these adaptations and variations, a constant synaptic connection allows Tyranids to coordinate and employ tactics. This can mean sending a lone Genestealer to infiltrate and ready a world for invasion, using a Carnifex to dismantle defenses, or even evolving into living spacecraft to ferry the Tyranids across the stars.

Galaxy-spanning origins

Humanity encountered Tyranids relatively recently, but all indications point to the organisms being around for some time. Tyranids are not native to our galaxy and, as such, arrived at the edges of known space as early as the 35th millennium. What prompted the Tyranid’s long, brutal journey from its home galaxy to ours is not fully understood. Still, some suspect the organism simply consumed everything in its home galaxy and needed to turn its attention elsewhere to survive.

The Imperium’s first encounter with these creatures was on the planet Tyran, which is where it earned the name “Tyranid.” Once a thriving ocean world, Tyran was reduced to a barren rock within a year of its fall to Tyranids. This would become a staple of Tyranid attacks, as the swarm consumes every organic material on the planet until there’s nothing but rocks and dust.

The Tyranid hunger is unending, spreading itself across the galaxy through several Hive fleets, all controlled by a single mind. Each fleet has everything it needs to continue to grow the Tyranid species, including plenty of drones and the ability to transform any raw digested biomass. Tyranids are almost completely indiscriminate in the biomaterial it consumes, meaning even dead Tyranids can be reconstituted. That biomass can be used to create new Tyranid forms, push mutations out to the swarm, or replenish any troops lost in battle.

Bioforms and adaptations

Part of what makes the Tyranids so fearsome is how they can adapt to remain the apex predator. The raw organic materials gained through planetary attacks help keep the never-ending flow of Tyranids coming, and it also allows the organisms to evolve new ways to overtake other life. Tyranids can repurpose the material they consume, so evolutionary traits, adaptations, and even memories are only a meal away. Of course, individual Tyranids don’t have the autonomy to do this on their own. Biomaterials are digested and then returned to the Hive Ships, where they are reconstituted and then redeployed.

With the biomass to create what it needs and the insight gained by battling resistance, Tyranids have taken multiple shapes and sizes, each with its purpose. Take the lowly Rippers, slug or locust-like forms primarily responsible for devouring and returning biomaterial to the swarm. Rippers aren’t a threat alone, but they travel in groups of hundreds or thousands, stripping any usable biomass in their path. More rank-and-file Tyranids are the Termagant and Hormagaunt, ranged beetle-shooting and melee ground troops, respectively. Even then, more exotic variants exist, such as the chameleon-like Lictor. Its purpose is to commit stealthy assassinations and devour brains for intel. 

In genuinely horrifying circumstances, the hive mind has been known to deploy a lone Broodlord, which sits in wait until it can infect an unsuspecting civilian with its genes. When they reproduce, they’ll unknowingly start a new line of Tyranid gene-imbued hybrids that will eventually overthrow the civilization generations later with the underground formation of Genestealer Cults. This process produces an easier arrival of the hive fleet, where the infected populace will greet hungry visitors with open arms, seeing them as angels. Even if the Genestealer Cult takeover is unsuccessful, the Tyranid fleet will reach a substantially weakened world.

The Synapse

Coordinating the sheer size of the Tyranid species is no easy task, especially considering the distance between some Hive Fleets. To remedy this, Tyranids employ a synaptic link where lesser Tyranid forms are connected to a commanding creature. This allows the commanding Tyranid to issue orders more directly or intentionally to a group and allows all of the species part of that specific link to act in sync. The synaptic ability of Tyranids has been viewed as a psychic power of sorts, but only the highest-ranking forms have any ability to bend the energies of the Warp.

Commonly, the synaptic link funnels from the hive mind to something known as a Hive Tyrant. These powerful Tyranid variations connect more closely to the hive mind than most. In this way, the hive mind can push distinct orders to its Hive Tyrants all over the galaxy, which can then direct all of the lesser Tyranids within its synaptic link. Hive Tyrants aren’t the only Tyranids known to command the synaptic link of others, but they are the most common, and among the most feared foes the Tyranids can muster.

However, the synaptic link is as much a weakness as a boon. If the Hive Tyrant, or whichever form controls the lower Tyranids’ synaptic link, is killed, it will send the lower Tyranids into an uncoordinated frenzy. Sometimes, the psychic shock is even enough to destroy them outright.

The Tyranids represent a threat that the Imperium may have recognized too late: the devouring of the galaxy. With its ability to produce a never-ending conveyor belt of foot soldiers and cunning specialists, innately communicate across the stars, and adapt to any problem by eating it, the Tyranids may be the most fearsome threat humanity has ever faced. It’s likely that the species has already consumed at least one galaxy, and now that it’s here, it shows no indications of slowing itself down.