Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Genestealer Cults (section)

==Wargear==
===Weapons===
The most important weapons category for you is the ''Industrial'' kind, since you have stratagems and even a custom creed trait that care about them.
====Ranged====
*'''Auto weapons:''' These guns don't have a lot in common rules wise, but are placed here because they shoot fairly normal bullets.
**'''Atalan small arms:''' 12" Pistol 2 S4 AP0 D1
**'''Autogun:''' 24" Rapid fire 1 S3 AP0 D1. Only better than shotguns when firing a enemies outside of 12". If you want your GEQ to have mining lasers or seismic cannons, take these. Otherwise, consider shotguns, as they might serve you better.
**'''Autopistol:''' 12" Pistol 1 S3 AP0 D1
**'''Boltpistol:''' 12" Pistol 1 S4 AP0 D1
**'''Cult shotgun:''' 12" Assault 2 S4 AP0 D1, good for cheap yet mobile neophytes.
**'''Heavy Stubber:''' 36" Heavy 3 S4 AP0 D1, found mostly on your vehicles. These can be taken on your neophytes but you shouldn't because you'll be wasting points on these instead of the industrial weapons.
*'''Flame Weapons:''' All of these automatically hit and have a rolled number of attacks.
**'''Atalan Incinerator<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' 12" Assault 1d6 S5 AP-1 D1, found on the Atalan Wolfquad, which means it's stuck in a unit whose primary gun is a pistol, so you probably won't take this.
**'''Clearance Incinerator<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' 15" Heavy 2d6 S6 AP-1 D1, found on the Goliath Rockgrinder, where it's unfortunately the worst gun choice you can make.  
**'''Hand Flamer:''' 12" Pistol 1d6 S3 AP0 D1, primarily wielded by Acolyte Hybrids and Hybrid Metamorphs.  Usually an auto-buy, since it replaces the strictly worse autopistol, and if you can shoot it after advancing - which Rusted Claw can do, but there's also a custom creed trait for it - it gets even better.  5 of these will guarantee a crossfire token, but since odds are good you'll want fewer in the unit for melee purposes, here's a breakdown of the odds of applying a marker from a set of these:
**#33.33%
**#83.33%
**#98.15%
**#99.92%
**#100.00%
**'''Flamer:''' 12" Assault 1d6 S4 AP0 D1, primarily found on Neophytes, where you can fit 2-4 in a unit.  See above for odds of applying a Crossfire token.  Like the Hand Flamer, good on a unit shooting a unit with no Crossfire already on it (since you wouldn't benefit from +1 to hit anyway) in order to get one on it.
*'''Explosives:'''
**'''Blasting Charges<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' 6" Grenade 1d3 S5 AP-1 D1, Blast, the most common grenade in your army.
**'''Cache of Demolition Charges<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' 6" Assault 1d6 S8 AP-3 D2, Blast, can only be fired while a model is embarked on the wielder (this is only found on Goliaths, and both of them are transports).  If you can get within range, will reliably ruin the day of whatever you're shooting - the only problem is how close you have to get.
**'''Demolition Charge<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' 6" Grenade 1d6 S8 AP-3 D2, Blast, one-use only.  Typically costs points to add to a unit, so always remember the usual caveats for grenades - a model firing it can't fire anything else and without a special rule it can't be fired after Advancing.
**'''Frag Grenades:''' 6" Grenade 1d6 S3 AP0 D1, Blast.  When fired from a '''Grenade Launcher''', 24" Assault instead, but you'll almost always use the Krak profile instead if you're firing one.
**'''Grenade Launcher:''' 24" Assault, 2 profiles: Frag, which is Assault 1d6 S3 AP0 D1, Blast, or Krak, which is Assault 1 S6 AP-1 Dd3, and found on Neophytes and Atalans.  Terrible at applying Crossfire markers, due to the relative cost of the weapon and the BS of what's firing it - Flamers are far more effective, despite the Krak profile's D meaning you only need to land one shot - but still a better overall weapon than the autogun, shotgun, or Atalan small arms it replaces.
*'''Laser Weapons:'''
**'''Heavy Mining Laser<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' 36" Heavy d3 S9 AP-3 D1d6 Blast
**'''Mining Laser<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' 24" Heavy 1 S9 AP-3 D1d6
*'''Seismic Weapons:''' These weapons have two profiles: long and short. Both are 24" range.
**'''Heavy Seismic Cannon<sup>Industrial</sup>:'''
***Long: Heavy 6 S6 AP-2 D2
***Short: Heavy 3 S8 AP-3 D3
**'''Seismic Cannon<sup>Industrial</sup>:'''
***Long: Heavy 6 S4 AP-1 D1
***Short: Heavy 3 S6 AP-2 D2
*'''Web Weapons:'''  This can't be stressed enough: Web weapons ''do not hit'' - they don't hit automatically, as they don't hit in the first place.  Whatever you target with them potentially suffers mortal wounds, but because the target isn't hit, Web weapons '''''can NOT inflict Crossfire markers'''''.  As a result, you should almost always avoid taking these.  They're only carried by Neophytes.
**'''Web Pistol:''' 12" Pistol 1 S1 AP0 D1, instead of rolling to hit roll 1d6 and if the result is greater than the highest Strength in the target unit, deal 1 mortal wound.  Then end the attack sequence.  Can't hurt a target of S6+.
**'''Webber:''' 8" Assault 1d3 S1 AP0 D1, Blast, instead of rolling to hit roll 1d6 and if the result is greater than the highest Strength in the target unit, deal 1 mortal wound.  Then end the attack sequence.  Can't hurt a target of S6+.

====Melee====
*'''Industrial weapons:'''
**'''Atalan Power Weapon<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' S+1 AP-2 D1.
**'''Drilldozer Blade<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' S+2 AP-2 D2, +2A on the charge. 
**'''Heavy Power Weapon<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' S+3 AP-2 D3.
**'''Heavy Rock weapons<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' These weapons all have Sx2 AP-4 but their damage and abilities are what set them apart from each other.
***'''Heavy Rock Cutter<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' Damage 3 with a -1 to hit. Think of this as a Thunder Hammer with double the AP.
***'''Heavy Rock Drill<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' Damage 1, auto-wounds on successful hits, and 6s to hit cause 2 mortal wounds; best used in large numbers to increase the odds of 6s to hit.
***'''Heavy Rock Saw<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' Damage 2, basically a power fist with better AP and no minus to hit.
**** Generally, you want to put saws into MEQ (without a minus one damage mechanic), cutters into TEQ, and drills into ''everything else'' - drills are far and away the best choice if you don't know up front what you're going to get into melee with.
**'''Power Pick<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' S+2 AP-2 D1.
**'''Power Sledgehammer<sup>Industrial</sup>:''' Sx2 AP-3 Dd3+3, a great weapon that's held back by the Abominant only having 3 attacks.
*'''Biological weapons:''' These are claws and blades that can tear through power armor (made of flesh and bone; we are Tyranids after all):
**'''Bio-Dagger (Magus/Sanctus):''' [[derp|S1 AP0 D1]], +1A, wound rolls of 3+ cause a mortal wound against non-{{W40Kkeyword|vehicle}} non-{{W40Kkeyword|titanic}} units.
**'''Cult Bonesword:''' S+1 AP-2 D2; when compared to Metamorph mutations, this is worse against one wound enemies, better against multi-wound enemies, unless they have a damage reduction ability, in which case the sword is worse.
**'''Cult claws and knives:''' SU AP-2 D1, +1A.
**'''Cult claws and talons:''' SU AP-3 D1.
**'''Metamorph mutations:''' S+1 AP-3 D1.
**'''Patriarch's Claws:''' [[Awesome|SU(5) AP-3 D2, you can re-roll wound rolls, and wound rolls of 6 are AP-6(!) D3]], with 6 attacks and the ability to advance & charge it begins to become obvious why our glorious lord and savior is such a monster in melee (and this is before warlord traits, relics and strategems). Have fun.
**'''Toxin Injector Claw:''' SU AP-1 D1, +1A, and this weapon always wounds on a 2+ against non-{{W40Kkeyword|vehicle}} non-{{W40Kkeyword|titanic}} units.

===Relics===
*'''Amulet of the Voidwyrm:''' Provides a 4++ that can auto-save once per game and enemies the bearer charges can't overwatch or set to defend. This is a pretty handy set of tools for a loner hero who might not always be able to rely on a crowd for protection, like a melee Sanctus.
*'''Cranial Inlay:''' Nexos only.  You can recover a CP on a 5+ after using a stratagem while the bearer is on the battlefield and the bearer can use Strategic Coordination twice per turn.
**You can safely consider this an auto-include if you have a Nexos - either you shouldn't be paying the points for a Nexos or you should be willing to pay CP if necessary to get this onto the table.
*'''The Crouchling:''' Replaces a psychic familiar, so Magus or Patriarch only. It can re-roll psychic tests once per turn and if all the rolls are the same for that test, the power cannot be denied.
*'''Dagger of Swift Sacrifice:''' Improves the bio-dagger of a Sanctus or Magus, letting the bearer re-roll one wound roll per fight. If the bearer deals damage to the target but doesn't kill them, you can roll a d6 - on a 3+, that target takes d3 mortal wounds (the mortal wounds kill the target, they don't spill over like mortals normally do).
*'''The Gift from Beyond:''' Replaces a cult sniper rifle (so Sanctus or Jackal Alphus only) with one that goes up from D2 to D3 and from 36" to 48", which is by and large a waste of a relic slot, as the best attributes of a cult sniper rifle don't improve with this - you don't get meaningfully better at handing out a crossfire token and you don't get any better at handing out mortal wounds. On the other hand, most characters are 4 wound models and going from a potential 3 damage/shot to a potential 4 damage/shot is the difference between taking two turns to kill a character vs only one.
*'''Hand of Aberrance:''' Replaces the Primus's toxic injector claw with the same weapon only the AP is improved by 1 to -2 and the D is tripled to 3, which means against targets the Poisoned works on, this is ''better'' than the Sword of the Void's Eye.
**Do note that this advantage over the Void's Eye is mainly due to the poison ability. So, abilities that prevents you from wounding on a 1, 2, or 3 (Read: Transhuman physiology) will cause you to lose the edge over the sword.
*'''Oppressor's Bane:''' Replaces an autopistol.  15" Pistol 3 S4 AP-2 D2, provides {{W40kKeyword|Crossfire}}, and can treat enemies as always having a crossfire token and being exposed, which sounds quite keen. That said, most of the characters that can use it aren't ones that really should be shooting, with the exception of the Reductus Saboteur, who will appreciate gaining crossfire (she will still almost never fire it, as her Remote Explosives are almost always better - you're mostly spending a relic on making her Remote Explosives significantly more useful).
*'''Sword of the Void's Eye:''' Replaces a bonesword or locus blades. With S+2 AP-3 D2 that can re-roll to hit and wound, you've got yourself a superb weapon for any beatstick Locus you're looking to build.  For a Primus, faces ''very'' strong competition from the Hand of Aberrance.
*'''The Unwilling Orb:''' Psykers only. The bearer can deny an extra power and expands their range for Denying [[meme|''to infinity'' (and beyond)]]. On top of that, any Malediction or Witchfire powers that they cast gain +1 to their casting rolls - a useful enough tool since several of them involve giving extra penalties or damage if your roll exceeds an enemy stat. Probably best on the Patriarch as He will usually be using the debuffing/damaging powers, like Mass Hypnosis. But if you're purely using this for the better denies then give this to the Magus and let the Patriarch take a more melee-focused relic.
*'''Voice of the Liberator:''' Clamavus only. All friendly {{W40kKeyword|<Cult>}} units within 12" get +1 to their Leadership and the Clamavus adds +6" to Proclamation Hailer and Voice of New Truths (but ''not'' to Scrambler Array).
*'''Wyrmtooth Rounds:''' Kelermorph only. You can load these into any number of the kelermorph's autostubs, turning them into an 18" Heavy 1 S6 AP-3 D3 gun, a terrifying threat that drops ignoring Look Out, Sir and additional mortal wounds but keeps exploding hits. Though it forces the gunner to sit still for optimal accuracy, these pack enough kick to take down a high-wound target in a single go.  The real value of this relic is surprisingly subtle: since your Kelermorph's aura only turns on when you kill something, against a high-wound poor-invuln target this can really help you successfully turn your aura on. Note that per the Genestealer Cults 22/02/2022 FAQ, you can't fire the Wyrmtooth Rounds and the normal Liberator Autostub shots in the same shooting phase.