Faction Guide
Tyranids
A living swarm from beyond the galaxy, driven by a single psychic will: consume everything. No mercy, no malice, no individual thought. Just hunger on an extinction-level scale. One of the most unique and visually striking armies in the game.
Playstyle
Fast Swarm
Painting
Easy ✓
Rules
Medium
Starter Cost
~$160–$220
Who are the Tyranids?
They don't come from the Milky Way. They come from the void between galaxies — the lightless space where nothing lives. Nobody knows what drove them here. Nobody knows how many more are coming. What's known is that the first Hive Fleets to arrive were not the main fleet. They were the scouts.
A Tyranid Hive Fleet is a living organism on a galactic scale. Every creature in the swarm — from the smallest ripper to the towering Hive Tyrant — is a cell in a single body, controlled by the Hive Mind. There are no generals, no orders, no dissent. Every being acts with perfect coordination toward a single purpose.
That purpose is consumption. When a Hive Fleet reaches a planet, it doesn't destroy it — it eats it. Every tree, every animal, every human, every microbe is broken down into raw biomatter. That biomatter is processed back into the fleet to birth new creatures, new weapons, new adaptations. Nothing is wasted. When they're done, the planet is a lifeless rock.
The most terrifying thing about the Tyranids isn't their numbers. It's that they adapt. If a weapon kills them effectively, the next wave is immune to it. They study every enemy, evolve a counter, and keep coming. There is no "winning" against the Tyranids. There is only surviving long enough to matter.
Pick your Hive Fleet
Like Space Marine Chapters, Hive Fleets give you distinct colors and special rules. This is your biggest aesthetic decision — Tyranids can look wildly different depending on your scheme.
Hive Fleet Leviathan
White & PurplePainting: MediumThe largest and most dangerous Hive Fleet currently threatening the galaxy. Classic, striking color scheme — pale bone body with deep purple chitin plates. The "official" look from GW's marketing.
Hive Fleet Behemoth
Red & BluePainting: EasyThe first Hive Fleet to breach Imperial space at scale — it devastated Ultramar and wiped out the Ultramarines' entire 1st Company at the Battle for Macragge. Bold red and blue is easy to paint and looks aggressive on the table.
Hive Fleet Kraken
Red & BonePainting: EasyKnown for speed and overwhelming multiple-front attacks. Warm red chitin with bone-colored flesh — one of the easiest schemes to execute and looks fantastic with contrast paints.
Custom Hive Fleet
Your choicePainting: VariesMany players invent their own Hive Fleet with completely custom colors — green and black, orange and bone, teal and white. Tyranids reward creative schemes more than almost any other faction.
How they play on the table
Tyranids are a fast, aggressive swarm. They flood the table with cheap fast troops — Hormagaunts, Termagants, Rippers — while bigger creatures like Warriors and Carnifexes support and lead the charge.
The army's key mechanic is Synapse. Larger Tyranid creatures (called Synapse creatures) project a psychic field that keeps nearby smaller units focused and effective. Push your Synapse creatures forward and your swarm operates like a machine. Lose them and smaller units start acting on instinct — still dangerous, but less controlled.
You have two main army styles to choose from.Swarm lists flood the board with 50–80 small models and overwhelm opponents with sheer numbers.Nidzilla lists go the opposite direction — fewer, bigger creatures. A Hive Tyrant, several Carnifexes, a Screamer-Killer. Slower but terrifying to face and far fewer models to paint.
Tyranids are for you if...
- ✓ You love the alien, biomechanical aesthetic
- ✓ You want a fast, aggressive playstyle
- ✓ You want total creative freedom on colors
- ✓ You want big impressive monster models
- ✓ You want an army that feels genuinely alien — no guns, no mercy
Maybe look elsewhere if...
- ✗ You want a strong shooting army
- ✗ You don't want to assemble and paint 50+ small models
- ✗ You want a disciplined, structured playstyle
- ✗ You prefer human or humanoid armies
How to paint Tyranids
Using Hive Fleet Kraken (red chitin + bone flesh) — the easiest scheme for beginners.
Tyranids are one of the best armies for contrast paints. The organic shapes — muscle, chitin plates, tendons — are exactly what contrast paints were designed for. You can paint a Hormagaunt to a great tabletop standard in under 15 minutes.
Spray Wraithbone
The warm cream base coat is essential for Contrast paints to look their best. Don't substitute grey — it'll change all your colors.
Blood Angels Red Contrast on all chitin plates
The hard, raised armor sections. One coat self-shades — darker in the recesses, brighter on the raised areas. Looks great immediately.
Skeleton Horde Contrast on flesh and muscle
The soft, organic body areas — legs, torso, head. Bone-colored with instant shadow in all the muscle crevices. One coat.
Casandora Yellow shade wash on talons and claws
Optional but striking — gives the claws a distinct amber color that reads well from a distance and breaks up the red/bone.
Drybrush Wraithbone over the flesh areas
Light drybrush on raised muscles brings the highlights back and gives the flesh a dry, sinew-like quality. Takes 30 seconds per model.
Pick out eyes with Moot Green, base the model
A single dot of bright green in each eye socket makes the model pop from across the table. Base with a brown or grey texture paint and a tuft.
Batch painting is everything
With Tyranids, you'll often paint 10–20 identical small models at once. Line them all up on a strip of cardboard. Do step 1 on all of them. Move to step 2 on all of them. Each pass takes minutes and you finish a squad in the same time it takes to do one model carefully. This is how Tyranid players paint 60-model armies without losing their mind.
What to buy first
One box. Paint it. Then decide if you're going swarm or monsters — they need very different second purchases.
Combat Patrol: Tyranids
Includes a Parasite of Mortrex (fast, terrifying winged leader), 10 Genestealers (lightning-fast melee shock troops), 3 Tyrant Guard or Hive Guard (heavy support), a Biovore or Pyrovore (ranged or melee artillery), and 3 Spore Mines. A compact assault force that hits fast and hits hard.
See price on Amazon →If you want to go swarm → ~$55
Termagants (24-model box)
Your core troop. Flood the board with them. Fast to paint in batches and exactly what opponents don't want to deal with.
If you want to go monsters → ~$70
Carnifex
A tank on legs. One of the most iconic 40k models. Customize with different bio-weapon arms. Incredibly satisfying to paint and play.
Paints you need (Kraken scheme)
~$32 for the essentials. Contrast paints are slightly more expensive but do the work of three paints in one.
Honest cost breakdown
Combat Patrol: Tyranids
Parasite of Mortrex, Genestealers, Tyrant Guard, Biovore
Essential paints (4 Contrast + spray)
Wraithbone spray + 3 contrast paints
Basing supplies
Texture paint + tufts
Clippers + hobby knife
One-time purchase
Superglue
Multi-part models need glue
All-in starter total
~$229Swarm players: budget for Termagants next (~$55 for 24). Monster players: budget for a Carnifex (~$70). Both are very different second purchases — paint the patrol first to know which direction you want.
The Hive hungers.
Pick your Hive Fleet colors, grab the Combat Patrol, and start painting in batches of ten. The swarm builds itself one model at a time.