Once these abominations have eaten all they can, they slowly drag their bloated bodies towards digestive pools formed by the Capillary Towers. Rather than spewing the devoured biomass into the pools, the Rippers hurl themselves in, to be digested along with all that they devoured.

Thanks to the capture of live Tyranid specimens by the Draco Legion Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, it is known that Genestealers are able to feel pain and react adversely to its application, either becoming incredibly aggressive or cowed into temporary submission.

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Tyranid Hive Fleets do not travel through the Warp like Imperial starships. Yet, the hive fleets' incredibly fast rate of advance into the galaxy belies the argument made by some that they do not possess a mode of faster-than-light travel. The Brood Mind of a Genestealer infestation acts as a psychic beacon to draw in a Tyranid Hive Fleet. When a Hive Fleet comes within a few hundred light years of an infected world, a subliminal reaction is triggered within the Brood Mind which forces the Genestealers into a frenzy of killing and breeding, thus collapsing the society in which they were hidden and making way for the full Tyranid invasion. [3] Though their minds are still so alien that they defy analysis, they are still sapient enough to understand their host society. Some are even put to work in the industrial brotherhoods of their kin, their uncanny strength and resilience allowing them to use heavy mining tools and explosives with far more ease than any mere Human. All of these creatures are born to serve the single entity that is the Hive Ship, and the ship itself exists only as part of the entity that is the hive fleet.

Genestealers are capable of using their unique, parasitic reproductive cycle and psychic abilities to establish so-called " Genestealer Cults" on Imperial worlds. These cults are used to support hive fleet assaults by infiltrating the Human world's society and military defences from within. Raveners - The Raveners appear to be related to both Rippers and Tyranid Warriors. These large beasts are designed for fast assaults against lighter enemies, and dig through the ground to perform surprise raids. Angels and Tyranids raged on, but the vast Leviathan fleet orbiting Baal was pulled apart by the empyric storms and devoured by the madness of the Warp. These may include Mawlocs and Trygons. As these creatures burrow, they plant the spores that can later grow into Capillary Towers. Other organisms may use the tunnels these massive bioforms create to access a planet's mineral wealth and subterranean life in the shelter of the tunnels. A Genestealer ( Corporaptor hominis) is a bioform of the multispecies Tyranid race that was genetically designed by the Hive Mind for the infiltration of other intelligent species' settled worlds.During the Declare Battle Formations step, for each Leader in your army, if your army also includes one or more of that Leader’s Bodyguard units, you can select one of those Bodyguard units. That Leader will then attach to that Bodyguard unit for the duration of the battle and is said to be leading that unit. Each Bodyguard unit can only have one Leader attached to it.

While the swarm will readily sacrifice thousands of bioforms to take a single metre of ground, it will not waste them needlessly. Alternative strategies are consistently employed, as the Tyranids are clear masters of adaptation. It is worth noting that the battlefront swarms that cross the planet's surface do not typically devour the planet's defenders. Rather, they leave a swathe of refuse in their wake to be consumed by the next wave of organisms. From the smallest feeder organisms, to the microbes that decompose new biomass; from the sessile and rooted flora-like forms, to the huge tendril-like shoals of the hive fleets, every Tyranid organism has a place within the will of the Hive Mind. The hive fleet will also seed the planet with numerous Tyranid organisms, which will begin to biologically alter the planet's climate, surface and ecosystems to make it easier to consume. The Tyranid genetic taint extends to the microbial level, and all of these xenos bioforms are strongly resistant to biological and chemical toxins. Even the tiniest Tyranid organism could have the potential to spawn more dangerous organisms given time and opportunity. The Tyranids are unlike any other intelligent species encountered by Humanity. They are the ultimate predators; to them, all living things, from the lowliest insect to the most advanced starfaring civilisation, are mere prey. Only now are the inhabitants of the galaxy realising the scale of the threat; unless the Tyranids can be stopped, it will mean nothing less than the extinction of all life.The Genestealer then thrusts its long, whip-like tongue (which also serves as an ovipositor) into the body of the host, where it deposits its DNA in the form of a type of virus that infects the somatic and germ line cells of the host. Genestealers reproduce by introducing their genetic material into a host from another intelligent species; this is normally a Human, but can theoretically be any sentient humanoid race, including the Aeldari or the Orks.