Last Stand - Hive Tyrant

The Hive Tyrant is the Last Stand hero for the Tyranids.

Overview

The Hive Tyrant is a unique, multi-role hero in Last Stand. Capable of summoning minions - and able to fight competently at short or long range, it can accomplish many different roles at once depending on its loadout and equipment, from close-combat bruiser to minion-heavy commander to offensive and defensive support. More so than other heroes of the same ilk, the Hive Tyrant eschews flash and fancy equipment and techniques in favor of being able to get a job done reliably. You won't rain destruction across the battlefield with Eldritch Storms or unleash missile barrages with the Tyrant - you will instead be a centerpoint of offense or defense in and of yourself, capable of devastating enemy squads or vehicles, ripping open threats in close-combat, and wearing opponents down with minions.

The Hive Tyrant excels at two roles in Last Stand, above all others: Battlefield control, and area denial. Control is established through a large number of disrupting, suppressing, stun, knockback, and fear effects the Tyrant gets - whether via the likes of armor abilities like The Horror, or accessory abilities like Seismic Roar, Psychic Scream, and the use of its minions, which are fewer in number than that of the Lord General, but much higher in quality. This makes the Tyrant a virtual master of support, as it can keep a team in the fight by dramatically hindering the ability of enemies to wear down its teammates. Area Denial is a huge advantage of the Tyrant as well - though it lacks an ability like the Mekboy's mines or Shas'O's snare traps, Toxic Miasma allows it to make a sizable patch of ground dangerous or even lethal for enemies to cross for quite some time - by stacking it with itself, even huge hordes of enemies can be dissolved in short order, protecting vulnerable teammates and dealing with clusters of problematic opponents.

Unlike other Heroes with support or minion elements, like the Farseer, the Hive Tyrant is also a superior direct combatant. Even its weakest melee options are perfectly capable of tearing weaker opponents to shreds, and its ranged options contain some of the best AOE, anti-infantry, and anti-armor weapons that Last Stand has to offer. It also boasts a powerful offensive ability in the form of Bio-Plasma. Its strongest melee weapon is capable of turning the Hive Tyrant into the single strongest close-combat fighter in the entire game, bar none, and with one of the largest health and armor pools in the entire game - behind only the Tau Commander kitted-out for durability - the Tyrant is a force to be reckoned with. As an even bigger upside, the Tyrant is permanently Fearless and Unshakable.

However, being as big, tough, and flexible as the Tyrant comes with drawbacks. It's a very big creature, and indeed, the biggest hero in Last Stand. This makes him a very large target and surprisingly vulnerable to area-of-effect weapons. It also means that the Tyrant can't take cover except to reduce the number of shots coming at him from a specific angle. He's also terribly slow and with only two ways to improve mobility (Articulated Carapace and Thornback), he can easily be targetted by enemy firepower for all his durability and utility. Careful balance is required to get the most out of this easy-to-get-into, but hard-to-master Tyranid hero.

Armor

• Carapace - Default
  • Armor: 105
  • Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
    • Standard armor. Like all placeholders, it sucks, but is pretty good as far as default armor goes.

• Poison Cysts - Level 1
  • Armor: 150
  • -14% Speed, +50 health
  • Ability: : Toxic Miasma (25 Energy: Emit a toxic cloud that poisons a large area. Nearby enemies take damage over time equal to half of the Hive Tyrant’s maximum health over 20 seconds.)
  • Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
    • Offering one of the largest armor bonuses and one of the most genuinely useful abilities the Hive Tyrant gets for crowd control, Poison Cysts also offers a massive health bonus as well - it is, without exception, one of the best armors in the game for the Tyrant. Toxic Miasma sprays a cloud that does damage over time; multiple applications of Toxic Miasma stack, so if all else fails, dropping a pair of these can be what ends a horde of charging Banshees or the like. The toxin ignores armor for the most part, as well, giving it limited anti-armor potential.

• Extended Carapace - Level 1
  • Armor: 144
  • -14% Speed, +25 Health
  • Ability: Bio-Plasma (10 Energy, shoots a ball of bio-plasma at a target, does splash damage)
  • Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
    • At a glance, Extended Carapace looks awful - it offers lighter armor, less health, and an ability much weaker than Toxic Miasma. Bio-Plasma, however, is much cheaper than Toxic Miasma, recharges faster, and has absolutely brutal synergy with the Tyrant's other wargear. Bio-Plasma benefits from both Implant Attack and Toxin sacs, enabling it to annihilate infantry targets, and the roiling bio-plasma blast, when upgraded, can easily wreck armored targets. The plasma ball's travel time and AOE take getting used to, and are much less exploitable than the likes of Toxic Miasma, but on the right build, this armor is deceptively powerful.

• Bonded Exoskeleton - Level 6
  • Armor: 134
  • -14% Speed, +75 Health, +50 Health to minions, +2 Minion Health regen
  • Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
    • Bonded Exoskeleton has reasonably heavy armor - enough that the loss from the other two armor types is essentially negligable - and offers the largest health boost, which means it's the best at keeping the Tyrant alive, albeit at the expense of missing out on an ability. The bigger advantage is the absolutely enormous buff to Minion survivabiility it gives; with Bonded Exoskeleton, Genestealers are substantially harder to kill, and Raveners and Warriors are much more survivable - to say nothing of the meaty buff this gives to the Tyrant Guard. It's the single best armor to pair with Toxin Sacs due to the HP bonuses. A great upgrade for a commander Tyrant.

• Articulated Carapace - Level 13
  • Armor: 114
  • Ability: Horror (20 Energy, Forces enemies to fall back)
  • Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity), Swift (+15% Speed), Minion Swift (+25% Speed to minions)
    • This one has less defense and no health boosts, but is one of only two carapaces with no speed penalty - rather, it gives you Swift, instead. Indeed, between the lack of the penalty and the application of Swift, this makes a Tyrant with this upgrade roughly 50% faster than normal - an advantage that carries over to the likes of Thornback and makes the Tyrant much harder to pin down. The availability of The Horror, however, and the version of Swift given to Minions, makes this one of the best overall support armors. If properly used, the amount of control this offers is fantastic, and it allows you to eschew Toxin Sacs on a given build - an enormous advantage when fighting the comp on Coliseum. Use it well.

• Reinforced Chitin - Level 17
  • Armor: 98
  • - 14% Speed, +25 Health, +80 Minion Armor
  • Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity), Reactive Armor (Tyrant temporarily gains +10 Armor each time it is attacked, stacking up until +300)
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: Does not work in Chaos Rising and early versions of Last Standalone. Does in Retribution and current updated versions.
    • Reinforced Chitin gives you increasingly tough armor the more you're attacked, allowing you to become harder to kill as a fight drags on, and which gives a very useful minion defense upgrade as part of the bargain. When maxed out, Reinforced Chitin offers incredible protection - almost 50% more defense than even a kitted-out-for-defense Tau Commander - and it offers a health buff, to boot. Even better, it also gives Minions a substantial defense buff. In practice, however, Reinforced Chitin is incredibly situational. The buff requires several hits before it even equals the basic armor types, and units with Searing, Corroding, or Armor Piercing attacks will continue to deal damage to you normally in spite of your heavy defense. This armor combines well with Bio-Feedback based builds, where tanking lots of hits while invulnerable is commonplace and the extra armor helps between summonings. The minion armor buff also gives you more control over when your minions die- ie, your stealers won't all be killed while they are on cooldown. And if they are, the extra 300 armor helps you stay alive those extra few seconds.

• Thornback Carapace - DLC
  • Armor: 190
  • Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity), Barbed Armor (Any who attack the Tyrant take 20 damage for each attack)
    • This is an armor which doesn't look very good at all when first viewed - it has massive armor - the heaviest of any Tyrant subtype, in fact - but no ability and no Health boost. In exchange, Thornback has one of the most absolutely vicious passives in the game. Anyone attacking the Tyrant in melee takes 20 points of damage - each and every time. This retaliatory damage is enough to easily kill lighter threats like swarms of Hormagaunts and Ork sluggas, and reduces the threat Banshees pose somewhat, since a Banshee can die in hitting a Tyrant with this in about 3 hits - though sadly, this heavy defense isn't so helpeful against opponents with Armor Piercing or Corroding attacks, where the lack of a health boost makes itself especially well-known. Where the Thornback Carapace shines is as part of a caster build or feedback build - pair this thing with Psychic Scream and/or Warp Field, and it can absorb considerable punishment whilst amplifying any damage done, and pairing it with feedback lets you deal damage whilst lounging about, dangerous to touch. As an added bonus, it's the other carapace that lacks a speed penalty, although you still won't move as fast as a Tyrant with Articulated Carapace.

Weapons

All the weapons the Tyrant has take up both hands, so you'll have only one choice out of a rather vast and rather surprising list of weaponry available.

• Scything Talons - Default
  • Melee Weapon
  • 8.2 DPS
    • Default weapon. As per all of them, it absolutely sucks and exists as a placeholder, mostly.

• Enlarged Scything Talons - Level 1
  • Melee Weapon
  • 16.0 DPS
  • Traits: Minion Armor Piercing (Minion attacks can ignore enemy armor up to 100), Minion Combat Expert (+30% Melee and Ranged damage)
    • With roughly twice the damage per second of Scything Talons, and a pair of highly useful upgrades for minions, the Enlarged Scything Talons is a mediocre set of melee weapons in terms of actual quality, but provides immense benefits for your minions. It's your only non-DLC/achievement weapon to start, which kind of sucks, but the high special attack rate and huge bonuses to Minions means this gets better and better the further in your career you go.

• Venom Cannon - Level 4
  • Ranged Weapon
  • 13.0 DPS
  • Traits: Armor Piercing (Melee and Ranged attacks ignore up to 240 Armor)
    • One of, if not the best overall weapons in the entire game for the Tyrant, due to the Venom Cannon's high rate of fire, relatively high damage, and monstrous Armor Piercing trait. Between its huge range and ability to take on all comers, this biomorph delivers. It has a secondary - and highly useful - feature as well - the Armor Piercing trait applies to the Hive Tyrant's melee attacks with this weapon as well - which means that it can out-melee several dedicated melee biomorphs. All of this conspires to make the Venom Cannon an intimidating weapon, with few real drawbacks. It tends to get eschewed for more specialized builds, since pretty much all of the biomorphs are useful on some level or another, but if you lack better options, no Tyrant ever went wrong with a Venom Cannon.

• Heavy Talons - Level 10
  • Melee Weapon
  • 16.0 DPS
  • Traits: Knockdown (Attacks can knock down enemy infantry), Minion Unshakable (Minions are immune to knockback)
    • At a glance, this weapon seems like a tweaked Enlarged Scything Talons - same damage, and a different benefit (unshakable minions) for your minions. Unlike the Enlarged Scything Talons, however, the Heavy Talons offers a number of benefits to the Hive Tyrant, as well. It enables the Tyrant to easily knock foes down, allowing the Tyrant to essentially stunlock enemies that aren't vehicles/unshakable in close combat. Even better, the Heavy Talons boas the second-highest Special Attack rate of all melee biomorphs, which means that the Hive Tyrant is less prone to suffer from being mobbed and is likely to use more attacks that cover an area. It's a very specialized choice, but has a place with several dedicated melee builds. A noticeable downside, each attack will bounce and enemy outside the range of the rest of your attacks so your slow tyrant ass has to waddle back up to it and slap it again, this is especially frustrating and humiliating when fighting the force commander.

• Crushing Talons - Level 14
  • Melee Weapon
  • 14.6 DPS
  • +1 Minion Health Regeneration
  • Traits: Feedback Zeal (Whenever a minion attacks, Tyrant gains back 3 Health)
    • This weapon is weaker than the other two claw weapons seen thus far, but it provides one of the most absolutely amazing benefits for any tyrant who's willing to let their minions do the talking. Feedback Zeal can give the Tyrant back considerable amounts of health from its minions, especially when using Genestealers - it adds immense survivability to what was already an incredibly survivable class. Better still is that it also bolsters the health regeneration of your minions, letting them stay in the fight longer. The Crushing Talons also boast the highest Special Attack rate of any melee biomorph, somewhat eclipsing how big a drawback its lowered damage output could otherwise be. Paired up with Bonded Exoskeleton or Articulated Carapace, this can be one of the most directly-useful weapons a Hive Tyrant can use.

• High-Toxin Venom Cannon - Level 19
  • Ranged Weapon
  • 5.7 DPS
  • Traits: Zealous Leadership (Attacks with Venom Cannon heal minions up to 5% of total Health), Area of Effect (Cannon attack damages over small area)
    • A deceptive weapon. Its DPS seems rather low, but this is because it does damage in an area, and in rather large chunks, potentially applying Searing to several of them at once. As a major side benefit, it heals your minions each time you land a shot. Suffice to say, this is an amazing benefit for a minion-heavy Tyrant; fire into a crowd and you can keep even your most fragile minions in the fight or that much longer. Sadly, it doesn't have the basic Venom Cannon's huge damage or close-combat capability, so it requires much more care to get the most out of...

• Rending Stranglethorn - Achievement: Kill 20 enemies in 1 second
  • Ranged Weapon
  • 16.0 DPS
  • Traits: Suppression (Can suppress enemies)
    • A great ranged weapon, especially early on, with amazing synergy with Bio-Plasma and Toxin Sacs. This biomorph works especially well if you're teamed with other players who would otherwise lack a means of suppressing enemies - its relatively high damage and sizable AOE, paired with indirect-fire capability and huge range makes it an outstanding weapon for ranged support, especially given its relatively high accuracy. Additionally, it has a highly useful secondary feature - in close-combat, the Rending Stranglethorn does knockdown with every melee attack, meaning that in addition to being an excellent fire support weapon, it can be used to stun-lock high-profile threats, like the Lictors on Anvil of Khorne.

• Behemoth Claw - Achievement: Kill 25 Superheavy Units (Avatar of Khaine, Swarmlord, Baneblade, Land Raider, Great Unclean One, Ork Battle Wagon)
  • Melee Weapon
  • 30.0 DPS
  • +50 Armor
  • Traits: Armor Piercing (Attacks ignore armor)
    • The Behemoth Claw is, without exception, the single strongest melee weapon in the game, exceeding even the Sorcerer's Cataclysmic Hellblade and the Mekboy's Zzap Knife. It isn't capable of burst damage like the Staff of Fate or Warp Spear, but it doesn't need to be - unlike these powerhouses, the Behemoth Claw is entirely raw damage - it completely bypasses armor, gives a huge bonus to your own defense, and thus boasts one of the highest DPSes of any close-combat weapon in the game, as well. Nothing survives this beast when the Tyrant has it equipped. Sadly, getting it is quite difficult, but it's definitely worth your time and patience. When you need to punch a rampaging Dreadnought in the balls, accept no substitutes.

• Devourer Cannon - DLC
  • Ranged Weapon
  • 7.4 DPS
  • Traits: Gestate (Units hit by Devourer Cannon take 30 damage over 6 seconds)
    • The Devourer Cannon is relatively weak on its own - it has a sluggish fire rate and does acceptable damage per hit, but without armor piercing or AOE, it's a rather lackluster weapon. Thankfully, the Devourer Cannon has other advantages - if it hits a unit, all units in that squad will be infested and take damage over time. This effect also procs with Searing, allowing you to do considerable damage to squads with every single shot. Unfortunately, it's not an actual AOE weapon and has rather poor damage against armor (the infested damage isn't anything to write home about when targeting the likes of a Dreadnought). It's worth noting that whilst this weapon can be quite powerful, it's also terribly risky to bring to the Coliseum if not prepared - it'll easily wreck the shit of any minion-focused ally you have along, potentially ruining the efforts of allied Lord Generals or Tyrants, and it's a nightmarishly effective weapon against low-HP heroes like the Sorcerer. Be aware.

Accessories

• Seismic Roar - Level 1
  • Ability: Seismic Roar (15 Energy, stuns nearby enemies)
    • Mediocre at the outset. It's a decent ability for one available at the start, but it has a huge lag before properly firing off and a surprisingly small radius of effect. If timed correctly, it's extremely effective for buying a few seconds of breathing room, but it's extremely easy to misjudge the timing on and wind up with a face-full of Banshees or Stormboyz if you screw it up. Synapse makes this ability infinitely better and much more versatile, since it costs bugger all and can be fired off whilst using ranged weapons. It's generally avoided by most high-level builds, but has some use on ranged Tyrants.

• Genestealer Nest - Level 1
  • Ability: Call Genestealer (10 Energy, summons 3 Genestealers as minions)
    • Genestealers are your first minion and the only one you deploy in groups. Individually, they're extremely fragile, tending to die extremely quickly if targeted unless you're packing the likes of Bonded Carapace or Reinforced Chitin. On the plus side, they're fast, extremely inexpensive, available right from the get-go, and have a built in Corroding trait when they attack that temporarily weakens enemy armor with each hit. Paired with their quick attack speed, these vicious little beasts are amazingly powerful with Enhanced Scything Talons and can easily act as impromptu medics with Crushing Talons. They're the go-to minion for Feedback Invulnerability chains. For raw efficiency, they're a tough minion to beat, even if they tend to wither under fire, and they make excellent screeners when dealing with large enemy groups.

• Toxin Sacs - Level 2
  • +20 Minion Health
  • Traits: Searing (Tyrant's attacks deal additional damage over time, scaling with the Tyrant's maximum health. Stacks with itself. Minions also get this trait.)
    • A great upgrade for not only the Tyrant, but all of your minions, especially the Tyrant Guard. Causes both your - and your minions' - attacks to do 10% of the user's max HP over 2 seconds. This burn damage is particularly vicious when from ranged weapons from the Tyrant, and, due to it scaling off HP, it works much better for the Tyrant Guard and Warrior than for the Ravener and Genestealers. Make a note that this biomorph will make your doppleganger in Wave 16 a much bigger threat, due to the comp getting higher max health. Curiously, this upgrade also effects the Bio-Plasma attack from Extended Carapace.

• Tyrant Guard Nest - Level 3
  • Ability: Call Tyrant Guard (20 Energy, summons a Tyrant Guard as a minion)
    • Sometimes called "Pangy" by fans, due to the Tyrant Guard's resemblance to a Pangolin, the Tyrant Guard is the second summon you get, and quite a good one. The Tyrant guard is a competent melee attacker, and more than this, the single toughest minion you get as a Hive Tyrant. It can survive for quite a while between its high health and heavy armor, and it has the ability to taunt enemies to draw their attacks away from the Hive Tyrant. Its enormous healthpool means that the Tyrant Guard benefits more from Toxin Sacs than it does Implant Attack, and that it's the most powerful minion you have if blown up with Explosive Decomposition. Note, however, that its damage output, whilst satisfactory, isn't great, and it's actually the weakest of Tyrant's minions on offense otherewise. Use it well.

• Warrior Nest - Level 7
  • Ability: Call Warrior (15 Energy, summons a Tyranid Warrior with scything talons as a minion)
    • Tyranid Warriors aren't as tough as Tyrant Guards, nor as easily-spammed as Genestealers, but they make up for this with raw damage - in close-combat, they are easily your strongest overall minion, and the fact that they have a built-in minor Armor Piercing trait makes them even better. Seeing these guys eviscerate Space Marines or other heavy infantry isn't uncommon, and the fact that they have a leaping attack with knockdown means they often wind up drawing fire by getting in the enemy's face. Whilst they tend to go down fairly quickly, they're the second-toughest minion the Tyrant gets and probably one of the most consistently useful. Due to moderate health, they benefit more from Implant Attack than Toxin Sacs. Their innate armor piercing stacks with that from Enlarged Scything Talons - this enables them to act as vehicle harassers. Overall, an excellent minion that's usually eschewed for more specialized choices.

• Warp Field - Level 8
  • +50 Energy
  • Ability: Warp Field (Force field that makes attacks drain energy instead of health)
    • Warp Field's easy to ignore; energy shield abilities are normally stunningly mediocre. Warp Field, however, is vastly better than the others. The shield from Warp Field is not only more efficient than the others, and not only is on a class that needs it way more - taking it essentially doubles the Hive Tyrant's energy pool, which otherwise cannot get any improvements. The amount of survivability Warp Field potentially adds is insane - when paired with Psychic Scream, Toxic Miasma, or The Horror, and especially Synapse, Warp Field really comes into its own. Make a note - Warp Field doesn't shut off automatically when your energy runs out, which makes it easy to misjudge how much juice is left in it. Be careful.
      • Important Note: Warp Field demonstrably reduces all incoming damage by 50% when active. However, it is unclear as to whether or not this damage reduction effect is dependent on the Hive Tyrant's energy levels. Gameplay evidence is inconclusive, but strongly suggests that Warp Field converts damage to energy at a 2:1 ratio, meaning that the Hive Tyrant loses 1 point of energy per 2 points of damage while Warp Field is active (meaning that 100 energy effectively represents 200 health). This is consistent with how energy shields of various kinds (such as the Iron Halo) work in Skirmish mode. If accurate, this means that if the Hive Tyrant's energy is depleted, an active Warp Field will not provide any reduction to incoming damage. Any builds incorporating Warp Field should consider this possibility.

• Implant Attack - Level 9
  • +20 Minion Health
  • Traits: Combat Master (Tyrant has +30% Melee and Ranged damage), Minion Combat Master (Minion has +30% Melee and Ranged damage)
    • Implant Attack provides not only much of the benefits of Enlarged Scything Talons (and indeed, stacks with it), but it gives those benefits to the Hive Tyrant, as well. This boost is absolutely amazing for Bio Plasma and gives immense benefits to both the Warrior and Ravener. Implant Attack is much less risky to use than Toxin Sacs, since it does not give disproportionate upsides to your doppleganger like Toxin Sacs does, and the fact that it doesn't require any use of HP-boosting armor means it's viable for more builds.

• Psychic Scream - Level 11
  • Ability: Psychic Scream (10 Energy, reduces attack and defenses of nearby enemies)
    • Without a doubt, one of the most powerful and unsung abilities in last stand. For 10 energy, it all-but-cripples the offense and defense of every enemy in a massive radius around the Hive Tyrant (specifically, it reduces the damage output of effected enemies by 75% and increases the damage they take by 25%) - and it only gets better the more enemies it hits. If you're not a fan of Feedback Invulnerability Spam, and you like an ability which helps all your allies, lean in this direction.

• Bio-Feedback - Level 12
  • +25 Health
  • Traits: Feedback Invulnerability (When a minion dies, Tyrant gains 5 seconds of invulnerability)
    • If you bring something cheap to kill like Genestealers or a Warrior, than this will easily be your uber-tool to glory. Decried as cheese by some, but considering how much Last Stand loves to have its enemies openly fucking cheat, those claims can be safely ignored. Use it for powerful - if risky - invulnerability exploitation and laugh as you simply never die for as long as you can maintain energy.

• Explosive Decomposition - Level 16
  • +50 Health, +20 Minion Health
  • Trait: Minion Death Throes (When minions die, they explode, dealing damage over an area. Damage scales based on the sacrificed minion's max health)
    • If you're more fond of the minions with a tendency to die, like Genestealers, Raveners, and Warriors, this is potentially very useful - it makes your minions generate a potent toxic cloud each and every time one dies - whether because you re-summoned your minions, or because an enemy killed them. If stacked with HP boosting gear and Searing, this can be quite potent - simply re-summon minions for raw damage, or use them as sacrificial damage sources by throwing them at the enemy and forgetting about them.

• Ravener Nest - Level 18
  • Ability: Call Ravener (Energy, Summons a Ravener with a Deathspitter as a minion)
    • The Ravener is the second-most fragile minion, being a little easier to kill than the Warrior despite the Ravener having slightly more health. However, it's by far the strongest minion offensively. Its dual Deathspitters are incredibly powerful, capable of shredding lighter foes in seconds, and it can burrowstrike in order to disrupt and damage groups or get into position. This minion goes from being simply strong to being obscenely powerful with upgrades - with the right ones, this minion is beyond a shadow of a doubt one of the most dangerous ones - if something of a glass cannon. Even a Carnifex goes down in about half a dozen shots from a fully-kitted-out Ravener.

Commander Items

More than any other hero, the Tyrant has perhaps the best Commander Items in the game with the deadliest boosts to his playstyle.

• Thornback - Level 5
  • Ability - Charge (10 Energy, Tyrant charges over to destination)
    • Causes the Tyrant to charge forward, hurling aside enemies in its way. This ability destroys some cover pieces, and has shorter range than it initially appears to. It also does little real damage, and has a reputation for being inefficient. Its main advantages are that it's the only mobility boost the Tyrant has until Articulated Carapace, and the only Commander Item period until Level 15. It can actually be useful all game long even past this if you know what you're doing - after all, it's the only mobility boost a Tyrant gets - but due to its finicky nature and tendency to stop short if you hit level geometry or large enemies, often isn't all that great for the most part.

• Synapse - Level 15
  • Reduces all energy costs by 50%.
    • Simple, simple, simple. Never has such a simple upgrade been so absolutely amazing. Synapse makes everything you do more viable - Toxin Misama spamming, Firing off Bio-Plasma, Psychic Scream, etc - It lowers the cost for absolutely everything and the advantages this provides to almost every build that doesn't specifically require the boost of Evolution or the mobility enhancement of Thornback can and will find a use for it.

• Evolution - Level 20
  • +2 Health Regen
  • Traits: Minion Resilient (+50 Minion Health and +2 Minion Health regen), Minion Swift (+15% Minion speed), Minion Combat Expert (+25% Minion Melee and Ranged damage)
    • It's rare that any Commander Item, let alone another of the Hive Tyrant's - is capable of out-performing the sheer, balls-out amazing power of Synapse, but by god, this one does. Evolution gives absolutely massive bonuses to your minions - roughly equal to having Articulated Carapace, Implant Attack, and Bonded Carapace's passives attached to your minions - ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Even better, it stacks with those, for extra awesome, and provides an always-useful health regen bonus to the Tyrant itself. Boosting survivability, boosting minions, and potentially turning even Genestealers into death machines, Evolution is one upgrade that is not to be underestimated. Unfortunately, you get it at level 20.

Tactics & Strategy

• On Achievements:
  • Heavy Hitter (Which unlocks the Behemoth Claw) is an achievement that tests your skill on the Anvil of Khorne, as that's the only place where you'll be able to take down Superheavy Units. Even if you're only able to kill one or two of them, you'll be making progress. The real bugger is just making it there.
  • Megakill! (Which unlocks the Rending Stranglethorn) is something that requires the use of either the Devourer Cannon, Bio-Plasma, or Poison Cysts, as these are the only tools the Tyrant owns other than the Rending Stranglethorn itself that can kill that many enemies in that span of time. Target a pair of high-number, low-health units with the Devourer Cannon (cultists on Anvil are ideal), cluster up a bunch of enemies into a choke-point for Bio-Plasma, or camp a spawn during an Imperial Guard or Ork Wave with Toxic Miasma. Any of these three will earn you the Megakill award easily.

• On Minions:
  • Genestealers are your first available minion, are close-combat focused, and the only minion you get more than one of. As far as Minions go, they're not much to write home about on paper - they lack the things that make pretty much all of the other Minions better choices. They do less damage, and perhaps most annoyingly, they're excessively fragile. Indeed, they are barely more survivable than guardsmen. What they have in return is that they boast the highest attack rate of any minion creature. They have innate corroding effects on their melee attacks (they temporarily debuff enemy armor when they hit), but the effect is relatively minor and won't usually change the tide of battle. Genestealers as a whole will thus have two main attractions: The fact that you get three of the damned things per cast, and their relatively low cost. In addition: they are comparatively fast AND, as melee units, can lock ranged units in melee, thus potentially shutting down damage from a single ranged squad (though impossible to control directly, they tend to attack nearby enemies when they spawn, so deploying them carefully provides some level of control, though their AI can be unpredictable in this regard).
    • Genestealers become very attractive if paired with sacrificial abilities - Explosive Decomposition or Bio-Feedback. Indeed, they're central to both Feedback Invulnerability and Minion Bomber builds due to their extremely cheap cost and the quick cooldown of their summon. They turn into a very different threat, however, the second you get Evolution and pair this up with literally any other minion buff - keep a keen eye out for Bonded Exoskeleton, Articulated Carapace, Crushing Talons, Implant Attack, and Toxin Sacs. Though Searing damage seems counter-intuitive for them, the fact that they attack so quickly means it builds up quickly and doesn't give a damn about armor. They actually become halfway survivable with a bit of support, especially if you're using the High-Toxin Venom Cannon or Fire on their intended targets with the Devourer Cannon or Stranglethorn to soften them up. If all three Genestealers focus their attacks on one target, they can often do more damage than almost any other minion, but care must be taken given their small size and low health pool; without Evolution and Minion buffs, they're solely useful as screening troops or suicide minions, and don't expect them to do the former very long.
  • Tyrant Guard Are your second minion. These guys are the "tanks" of your minions, having by far the highest HP and defense. In fact, seeing these things stay standing in the craziest of circumstances isn't unheard of. They have strong melee attacks, but with awkward hit rates that render them squarely average as a melee combatant. Their big edge is actually the fact that they refuse to die, and in fact, use a Taunt ability to draw attacks to them and away from you. In Last Stand, this is a very useful feature, since any attacks directed at the oversized pangolin and not your Hive Tyrant is are ones you don't need to worry too much about. His high health pool renders him a natural choice for Searing, but with a mediocre attack rate, he's only so-so as an offensive choice. You choose the Tyrant Guard to be a meat wall that attacks. As an interesting note, The Tyrant Guard is also the most powerful minion to use for a Minion Bomber build due to his massive HP count.
    • Uniquely, the Tyrant Guard doesn't change all that much when given Evolution. His attack power goes way up, as does his mobility and survivability, but none of this really matters to the reason you chose the damned thing to begin with, which is his tanking for you. Thankfully, that goes way up as well, making him one of the better utility minions. The Tyrant Guard may never solo certain high-profile enemies or dominate battles like the Warrior or Ravener, but his role - keeping you alive - is arguably more critical. They tend to shine brightest in the mid-game, where Evolution isn't available yet and the various assets the Tyrant Guard brings to the table make it the most valuable minion by a head and a hair, but they'll start to flag at level 20.
  • Warriors are your first dedicated combat minion that aren't the Genestealers. The Warrior is fast, aggressive, and unlike the Genestealers has a special attack - it can leap into the battle to knock a target down. Even better, it is significantly stronger than the Genestealers and has a minor Armor Piercing trait. However, whilst quite fast and strong, he also is a melee fighter only, and has an abysmal health pool - whilst he is much tougher than a Genestealer, the fact that you get only one of him means that he's easily Tarpitted and worn down. In essence, with this guy you trade the squad numbers of the Genestealers for putting all your eggs in one basket with a single Warrior.
    • Warriors initially are good for squad disruption and single-target damage. They are much more likely to survive close-combat with tougher opposition than the Genestealers, though the fact that you only get one means they tend to melt against ranged units. Early on, they're ideal carriers for Explosive Decomposition (due to their natural tendency to get in the enemy's face), and their high damage output means excellent synergy with Implant Attack. They really come into their own, however, when you have Evolution. Evolution bolsters these guys to an almost absurd degree, making them easily able to butcher enemies and take on small squads of opposition without trouble. Throw on minion buffs and Warriors are the second-most damaging minion, as well as durable enough to take abuse. Do note, however, that they aren't as durable as Tyrant Guard and will die with shocking regularity until fully kitted out. Interestingly, they're one of the rare few units that benefits more from Implant Attack than Toxin Sacs, owing to their high damage, but with their having the second-highest health of your minions, they can use Searing damage just fine as well.
  • Raveners are your last minion and arguably the most powerful. They're the only ranged minion as well, armed with a twin-linked Deathspitter. They do significant damage with this attack, are competent in close-combat, and possess the unique ability to "burrowstrike" and damage and disrupt enemy units. They're also one of the fastest minions. However, what you get in damage and speed with this guy, you lose in durability - it's roughly as durable as the Warrior, whilst being both a larger unit and one that tends to draw ranged fire towards it due to being a shooter. This unit is as high in the level tree of the Tyranids for a reason - it's a staple of most minion builds owing to its considerable power and utility, though it's extremely fragile.
    • Evolution is practically a requirement for getting the most out of these bastards. The amazing part is that they're strong enough that if you load them with literally NOTHING but minion buffs, they can arguably win wave after wave for you. Seeing them gun down entire squads in a few volleys, melt Wraithlords into puddles, and punch gaping wounds out of the errant Carnifex is not unheard of. Without the all-important Evolution upgrade, Raveners struggle heavily; they can do decent damage, but their damage is notably less and not anywhere near as good against armor. With their survivability also taking a hit, their fragility often tends to impress itself on you. As such, the best option for the Ravener is to load it up with Evolution, or shelve it in favor of the other minions, which tend to be more useful in the mid-game (before Evolution becomes available).

Builds

BUILD 1 - INVINCIBILITY LULZ

Gear you need:

• Accessories: Bio-Feedback, any minion summoning (Genestealers recommended because of how cheap they are, especially with Synapse), maybe Explosive Decomposition.
• Commander Item: Synapse

Explanation: The big draw to this build is that you can kill your minions and re-summon them again, not only making them a cheap near-infinite shield thanks to Synapse and Bio-Feedback, but also a walking source of bombs if you decide to equip Explosive Decomposition. Armor, on the meantime, is a largely open choice, though Poison Cysts could help with clearing out some swarms. Weapons are also largely open, but talons and claws better utilize the free invincibility.

BUILD 2 - SUPPORT TYRANT

Gear you need:

• Weapon: Venom Cannon
• Armor: Poison Cysts
• Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Psychic Scream, Tyrant Guard Nest
• Commander Item: Synapse or Evolution

Explanation: If invuln-spamming Genestealers isn't doing it for you, and whilst there's a certain beauty to that to be sure, you may prefer a hands-on approach. Don't worry - /tg/ has your back. There's something to be said for a far more frontline build designed to work with teammates - and good god, does this build deliver. Venom Cannon has absolutely monstrous armor-penetration and high damage, whilst Poison Cysts gives you armor and health to spare - as well as the Tyrant's single greatest crowd-control move. Psychic Scream can effectively turn entire ranged force groups that would otherwise be terrifying (such as the Marine Squads on Wave 6 of Bloodied Coliseum) into a complete non-issue by crippling their attack and defense. This build easily can support an unoptimized team, and turns into complete murder when paired with a Tau Commander that has a shield drone: Bunker down in the shield-field and spam the hell out of Toxic Miasma the second enemies get close. Tyrant Guard is there to draw fire, something it excels at.

BUILD 3 - INFECTION TYRANT

Gear you need:

• Weapon: Devourer Cannon
• Armor: Poison Cysts
• Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Explosive Decomposition, Ravener Nest
• Commander Item: Evolution

Explanation: This is a high-level build well-suited for squad support. Devourer Cannon's gestate affects an entire squad and stacks with Toxin Sacs. Throw in the Ravener for ranged damage and you can kick back and relax as your larvae-shooting gun quickly mulches squads and slowly grinds down even heavy enemies into submission.

BUILD 4 - MORE LIKE RAPE-VENER

Gear you need:

• Weapon: Enlarged Scything Talons
• Armor: Articulated Carapace
• Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Implant Attack, Ravener Nest
• Commander Item: Evolution

Explanation:Every single game needs some kind of "Nutter" build that makes absolutely no sense but somehow works well on its own merits, such as the infamous Krazypantzoff Walker Army of Doom. This is one of the most spetacular in Last Stand, and it's disturbingly powerful. The general gist is simple: create the single most powerful Ravener you can muster, and back off as it kills FUCKING EVERYTHING. With this loadout, the Ravener will kill any conventional enemy in one shot, a Wraithlord in 2-3 bursts, a Carnifex in 6, and a Warboss in less than ten. Vehicles, infantry, nothing can survive more than a few barrages from your hideously over-powered Ravener of doom, and all you need to give up for it is the ability to do much of anything but summon the damned thing. Articulated Carapace is, in a weird case of irony, the best armor for this build - The Ravener benefits from doubled Swift, as well as Fearless, and perhaps most critically, you have one target that you absolutely NEED to use Horror on in Wave 16 - your counterpart's Ravener, to take it out of the fight.

BUILD 5 - NIDZILLA

• Weapon: Behemoth Claws
• Armor: Extended Carapace (provides Bio-Plasma)
• Accessories: Toxin Sacs; Psychic Scream; Explosive Decomposition (for 50 additional health)
• Commander Item: Thornback

Explanation: This build is both effective and ludicrously fun to play. Bio-Plasma spreads Searing, so what it doesn't kill on impact, it kills over time. You're reasonably durable with Behemoth Claws and Psychic Scream, and you're also reasonably mobile with Charge. You don't need Synapse because none of your abilities cost more than ten energy, and you hit like a truck against single targets and against blobs. On the downside, you ARE fragile without support, and Bio-Plasma requires careful aim. Keep this in mind and play conservatively. On the other hand: with support, you are essentially death incarnate.

BUILD 6 - PSYCHIC MONSTROSITY

• Weapon: Behemoth Claws
• Armor: Thornback Carapace
• Accessories: Warp Field; Psychic Scream; (Implant Attack, Toxin Sacs, or Explosive Decomposition)
• Commander Item: Thornback (for mobility) or Synapse (to reduce energy costs)

Explanation: This build is powerful, flexible, and durable. When Warp Field is active your energy effectively provides 200 extra health, and you have ways to deal with both large groups of melee units (which die simply by attacking you) and powerful single targets (which you can dispatch with melee attacks). Be conservative with your energy usage, because your energy is also your health when Warp Field is active. Try to maintain Psychic Scream consistently on a large number of mobs (further enhancing your endurance), and abuse line-of-sight to restore your energy where possible. Use Charge for mobility as-necessary; if your team composition emphasizes stationary gameplay (for example, if your team includes a Lord General), consider swapping Thornback for Synapse to reduce the energy cost of Psychic Scream.

• Though Warp Field and Psychic Scream are mandatory for this build, there is an extent to which your third accessory is more flexible. Toxin Sacs simply adds 10 armor-ignoring damage over two seconds for each melee attack. Implant Attack adds 9 damage (which also ignores armor due to the Behemoth Claws), but the bonus damage provided by Implant Attack transpires instantly; this reduces the number of hits required to kill a mob, thereby allowing you to perform hit-and-run attacks more effectively. Explosive Decomposition provides 50 additional health, which can provide a useful buffer against enemies with attacks that ignore armor, but given that the bulk of your health comes from Warp Field (the damage reduction effects of which may not apply when your energy is depleted; see Accessories section for more information), even 50 extra health is a comparatively small amount. Ultimately, your third accessory tends to vary based on player preference.

BUILD 7 - BOOMSHOT

• Weapon: Rending Stranglethorn
• Armor: Bonded Exoskeleton
• Accessories: Toxin Sacs; Explosive Decomposition (for 50 additional health); Ravener Nest
• Commander Item: Thornback

Explanation: Though its damage output is not necessarily mind-blowing on its own, the Rending Stranglethorn spreads Searing to whatever it hits, and since you have 225 health, it's doing 22.5 damage per hit to EVERYTHING it hits (in addition to suppressing them). You can take out whole mobs in one shot. The Stranglethorn can also fire over walls, allowing you to abuse line-of-sight. With Charge, you're maneuverable enough to survive (this build doesn't work very well with Evolution, since you can't run when caught in melee), and the Ravener is, as usual, pretty gnarly (though not as gnarly as it could be with Evolution). The only drawback to this build is that the Stranglethorn really doesn't like cover, and your shots can start to become extremely erratic as explosions chew up the terrain. Hence, this build starts to become unreliable towards the late game as craters begin to accumulate.

BUILD 8 - MINION BOMBER

• Weapon: Crushing Talons
• Armor: Bonded Exoskeleton (alternative: Thornback Carapace)
• Accessories: Psychic Scream; Explosive Decomposition; Genestealer Nest
• Commander Item: Evolution

Explanation: This build is a variation on the Invulnerable Tyrant, hybridized somewhat with the Psychic Monstrosity mentioned above. The Invulnerable Tyrant relies on minions dying to keep you alive; with the Minion Bomber, your Genestealers heal you while they are still alive. Evolution (and Bonded Exoskeleton, if present) make(s) your Genestealers stronger and beefier, allowing them to do more damage while they're on the field and heal you for longer -- but they are useful even in death due to Explosive Decomposition, which also benefits from their improved health. For this build, both Bonded Exoskeleton and Thornback Carapace are potentially useful; Bonded Exoskeleton provides beefier minions, whereas Crushing Talons can help compensate for the lack of a health buff provided by Thornback Carapace.

BUILD 9 - Toxin Sac Abuse Tyrant

Gear you need:

• Weapon: High Toxin Venom Cannon
• Armor: Bonded Exoskeleton
• Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Tyrant Guard Nest, Ravener Nest
• Commander Item: Evolution

Explanation: This build is about searing damage. Bonded exoskeleton and evolution combined give +100 health to minions and +75 to you. The tyrant guard is in this build because he's very tanky here and he has tons of health to make the most of searing. The ravener is in this build due to high health, great damage output and good mobility. The high toxin venom canon makes the +4.0 regen minions even harder to kill and the AOE damage combined with searing makes it quite useful against nearly any enemy. The minions generally last forever. This build is risky on bloodied colosseum, but it's great on anvil. Health raising items like explosive decomp and bio-feedback were left out because of diminishing returns- bonded and evolution have huge synergy with this rest of this build- taking decomp or bio would force you to drop one of the minions, which means a lot less searing damage and less meat between you and the enemy. Bio and decomp work best when used with CHEAP minions like stealers that you can spam again and again.

This build turns most matches into easy mode. With a boss pole mekboy, it's comedic. I actually saw a tyrant disconnect using this build in wave 2 and the minions stayed alive through wave 20, continuing to mulch pretty much everything from boss units to infantry blobs.

BUILD 10 - Artillyrant

Gear you need:

• Weapon: Venom Cannon
• Armor: Poison Cysts
• Accessories: Implant Attack, Ravener Nest, Psychic Scream
• Commander Item: Evolution

Explanation: Designed for Gunline support, ideally alongside a Tau Commander, Imperial General, or both. Set up amidst your allies, and use the Venom Cannon's monstrous raw power to demolish enemies that get too close. Ravener is there for allied fire support, and is plenty big a threat with just the doubled Combat Mastery of Implant Attack and Evolution. Psychic Scream and Toxic Miasma help keep melee aggressors away from allies. The armor piercing melee of the Venom Cannon contributes beautifully to this in close-combat as well.

BUILD 11 - Support Tank (really unkillable all Arenas) Gear you need:

• Weapon: Crushing Talons
• Armor: Thornback Carapace (DLC)
• Accessories: Psychic Scream; Genestealer Nest; Bio-Feedback
• Commander Item: Synapse

Explanation: Ok easy build, you don't kill like with some other builds, but well you never die, it is quite impossible to die cause you will never run out of energy to spam Genestealer's on quite good positions so your invul is up. Also you can spam Psychic Scream so your even Random Guys or Yourself can easily kill all Targets. When you die with this build you should consider to use hotkeys instead your mouse to spam skills :P. You can easily take aggro from all Melee and even some Range with your melee Attacks, especially behind some range its wise to use the Genestealer's. When Lag or the Delay on Invul hits you, don't panic cause you screamed so no real damage, in Anvil you can easily dispatch while your Teammates lie around the Infantry and then rezz them with Invul on, or just rape the whole Game even if it takes a bit and never Rezz at all, but consider people maybe leave you alone doesnt matter with a bit of skill, time and Target prioritizing you still Solo the whole Last Stand. You survive and while your Invul is up again you get Health back. You also have enough energy to tank wave 20 even without 1 Guy killed from any Map. Have fun and show all, who's the Unkillable, never dying, Immortal Raidboss of the Arena!

The heroes of Last Stand
Space Marine Captain - Chaos Sorcerer - Eldar Farseer - Hive Tyrant Lord General - Ork Mekboy - Tau Commander - Necron Overlord