The Tyranids are an all-consuming alien swarm from beyond the known galaxy. Driven by the vast and ineffable intellect of the Hive Mind, their tendrils drive into fresh systems with every passing hour. These single-minded metapredators cannot be reasoned with, bought off, or put to flight. They seek only to strip each new world they encounter, devouring every shred of biomass to feed the relentless advance of the hive fleets and leaving dead, airless husks in their wake.

Termagants are scuttling predators that attack in huge swarms, armed with living weapons that spit flesh-eating organisms and venomous spines. Originally spawned to roam the tight arterial passages of hive ships and hunt intruders, Termagants harry their prey with a hail of firepower, seeking always to outflank and envelop their victims as they erode their numbers.

Neurogaunts scuttle forward in seething masses, driven on by the parasitic neurocytes that cling to their backs. Their primary purpose is to protect the synaptic node-beasts coordinating invasion swarms, while projecting their command signals throughout the wider swarm. It is a task they go about with single-minded savagery, slashing, biting, and dying with mindless vigour.

The Deathleaper is a rare and advanced development of the Lictor strain, perfectly evolved to act as a terror weapon. This apex Lictor possesses an instinctive understanding of how to spread fear through hostile forces and prey populations alike, using its skills in stealth, infiltration, and assassination to sow paranoia and dread before the hive fleet attacks en masse.

Each Norn Emissary is a purpose-bred beast, spawned by its Norn Queen to accomplish a specific and singular objective – be it hunting a strategically gifted commander, abducting a knowledgeable prey-being, or pursuing some other ineffable goal. These colossal heralds of the Hive Mind's agenda meld terrifying psionic potential with speed, intelligence, and monstrous strength, ensuring that a Norn Emissary is more than equal to its alien task.

Gargoyles are often the first wave of a Tyranid swarm to be seen in battle.

Swooping on leathery wings, Parasites of Mortrex use their barbed ovipositors to drive Ripper gestation pods deep into their victims’ bodies. These swiftly-growing creatures soon chew themselves free from their unfortunate hosts. Such was the fate of the defenders of Imperial planet of Mortrex, the world first cursed by the Parasites’ onslaught. Now they wreak havoc on the foes of the Hive Fleet by soaring over defences and seeding unlucky souls with nascent Rippers.

The Venomthrope's whip-like tentacles drip with a multitude of alien poisons. Indeed, so potent are these toxins that it is believed that a Venomthrope's very touch means certain death.

A Psychophage stampedes into battle at a frightening speed. They devour any prey organism in their paths, but especially favour those victims with psychic abilities. How they metabolise such esoteric powers is unclear, but doing so allows them to project surges of psychocorrosive ash that deflagrate their victims’ minds and souls.

Lictors are a sinister adaptation of the Tyranid Warrior bioform, specialising in infiltration, scouting, and assassination. Hidden by their chameleonic skin, these vanguard beasts stalk their prey beyond the reach of the Hive Mind's synaptic web, leading the greater swarm to fresh targets with a potent pheromone trail. Lictors pick off their prey opportunistically, always looking for a chance to crack open an unwary skull and use their feeder tendrils to suck out the secrets within.

Genestealers are peerless predators, swift vanguard organisms armoured in chitinous plates and possessed of terrifying strength and agility. Their broods move far ahead of the Tyranid hive fleets, to seek out fresh feeding grounds and spread their insidious genetic infection amongst the defenders. When the invasion swarms finally descend, the Genestealers burst from hiding to begin the slaughter.

Commanders of the Tyranid swarm, Hive Tyrants are the enactors of the Hive Mind's will. Massively powerful creatures, every part of their body is perfectly created to maim and kill.

Neurolictors are nightmarish living weapons of psychological warfare, engineered to implant mind-altering parasites and project a neural disruption field that provokes atavistic terror responses in even the most hardened prey. As an offshoot of the Lictor bioform, Neurolictors possess a nigh-supernatural ability to evade notice – which renders their sabotage all the more terrifying, as these insidious effects often seem to emerge from out of thin air.

When Tyranids invade, the Broodlord leads his followers into battle, often appearing from sewers or hidden vents to cause untold carnage amongst the enemy army.

Hive Guard are heavily armoured gun-beasts bound to extremely powerful symbiotic bio-weapons. They are created to guard the Tyranid Hive Ships and capillary towers that stand sentinel over prey worlds, until such time as intruders come within range of their deadly weapons.

The Tyrannofex has the armour and fortitude of a living battle fortress and its weaponry eclipses that of its foes' most powerful battle tanks in both quantity and devastating potential.