Last Stand - Hive Tyrant

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

Overview

The Hive Tyrant is a remarkably versatile heavy hero, capable of summoning minions, fighting adeptly at close or long range, and taking more abuse than any other hero, bar none. Perhaps more than any other hero in Last Stand, the Tyrant is a true multi-role unit, whose power is limited only by one's imagination and wargear. On the downside, the Hive Tyrant is both the largest and slowest hero in Last Stand, easy to hit with templates and with relatively poor agility for most builds. Unequivocally one of the most powerful heroes if used with care and skill, the Hive Tyrant has a lot to offer, especially to those willing to stick with it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to its sheer size, the Hive Tyrant walks through cover - it gains no defensive benefits from hiding in it. The only reason to seek cover at all with the Tyrant is if you want to cut down on the number of shots that can be shot at you from a given direction.

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 the only carapace 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)
    • Reinforced Chitin, if it worked correctly, would be a risky but useful armor that 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. Sadly, in practice, Reinforced Chitin is problematic - whilst the defensive buff does work (it didn't in earlier versions), and indeed, you can stack the defense to be much better than your other armors, it relies on you taking relatively minor hits to kick in. 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. On the right builds, this can be very useful - especially on Feedback Tyrants, which can exploit the defense buildup - but Tyrants looking for more utilitarian armor are encouraged to look elsewhere.

• Thornback Carapace - DLC
  • Armor: 190
  • - 14% Speed
  • 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.

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 Trait lons 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.

• 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 large chunks. As a major side benefit, it heals your minions each time you land a shot. For a support Tyrant, this is an amazing benefit, through it's not quite as good in dirct combat.

Surprisingly weak for when it becomes available, but it can keep minions in the field for an almost embarrassingly long time if used correctly.

• Suppressing Stranglethorn - Achievement: Kill 20 enemies in 1 second
  • Ranged Weapon
  • 16.0 DPS
  • Traits: Suppression (Can suppress enemies)
    • Excellent area-of-effect damage, and excellent synergy with the Toxin Sacs wargear. Works very well if you synergize with other players who don't have suppression otherwise. Has a very high special attack rate for a ranged weapon.

• 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)
    • Wanna kill tanks? Wanna rip open Dreadnoughts? Well, this is your reward after taking down the Superheavies of the Arena of Khorne. It's got monstrous DPS, heavy armor, and the ability to rip. Things. UP. This is the only other weapon the Hive Tyrant gets with Armor Piercing.

• Devourer Cannon - DLC
  • Ranged Weapon
  • 7.4 DPS
  • Traits: Gestate (Units hit by Devourer Cannon take 30 damage over 6 seconds)
    • The gestate ability's the real shining point to this, as it'll decimate all sorts of light infantry - note that the gestate trait effects EVERYTHING IN THE SQUAD YOU SHOOT. Be careful when your fighting yourself in the Shattered Coliseum though, as it can (and will) ruin your day and the days of your allies.

Accessories

• Seismic Roar - Level 1
  • Ability: Seismic Roar (15 Energy, stuns nearby enemies)
    • Cheap and effective, and good for buying breathing room in a fight, but the long lag it has means it's not quite as good as other, similart stun abilities.

• Genestealer Nest - Level 1
  • Ability: Call Genestealer (10 Energy, summons 3 Genestealers as minions)
    • This is it. Your go-to minion for cheap invincibility with Bio-Feedback. They're pretty weak, but there's three of them, and they easily mulch armored infantry due to an unlisted Corrosive trait that makes them weaken enemy armor with each hit, and they attack very quickly. With upgrades, they can actually be quite powerful. With Crushing Talons, they can even act as impromptu medics.

• 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.

• Tyrant Guard Nest - Level 3
  • Ability: Call Tyrant Guard (20 Energy, summons a Tyrant Guard as a minion)
    • The Tyrant Guard is the best tank you can get for a minion, as it takes a LOT to kill. He also gets a neat little bonus, as he can taunt enemies to draw attention from you. Easily the most useful overall minion and a reasonable close-combat combatant. His high HP means that he benefits the most from Toxin Sacs and will do the most damage if blown up with Explosive Decomposition.

• Warrior Nest - Level 7
  • Ability: Call Warrior (15 Energy, summons a Tyranid Warrior with scything talons as a minion)
    • Warriors aren't as tough as Tyrant Guards, but are faster, hit harder, have a useful disruptive attack, and have a built-in low-level Armor Piercing Trait. They're quite versatile, though often under-appreciated due to their tendency to melt under heavy enemy fire.

• Warp Field - Level 8
  • +50 Energy
  • Ability: Warp Field (Force field that makes attacks drain energy instead of health)
    • If you've relied on the Iron Halo in the previous campaigns, then you'll know what this does. The only drawback is that this doesn't turn off once you run out of energy, making it easy to mislead people into thinking the Tyrant's energy is worse than it is.

• Implant Attacks - 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)
    • A great alternative to Toxin Sacs. Works extremely well for the Warrior and Ravener, and boosts the Hive Tyrant's damage considerably as well. The only way to get much effect out of Bio-Plasma. Less-risky to use than Toxin Sacs in Bloodied Coliseum due to the fact that this won't benefit your doppleganger more than you.

• 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 - 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, 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.

• Explosive Decomposition - Level 16
  • +50 Health, +20 Minion Health
  • Trait: Minion Death Throes (When minions die, they explode, dealing damage over an area. Scaled based on minion's max health)
    • If you're more fond of kamikaze minions like Genestealers or Warriors, then this is a very useful item. The higher their HP, the more damage the explosion's poison does. Consider it a mid-level Toxic Miasma whenever one of your minions goes down.

• Ravener Nest - Level 18
  • Ability: Call Ravener (Energy, Summons a Ravener with a Deathspitter as a minion)
    • Absolutely devastating, the Ravener isn't too durable, but with its dual Deathspitters absolutely hurts like hell and it can periodically burrowstrike in order to disrupt crowds. Even better, when upgraded with the right gear, it turns from being a simply good ranged minion into a godless rape machine capable of gunning down a Carnifex in 5 to 7 volleys. Not to be underestimated.

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)
    • This ability gets a lot of shit for being inefficient; most of the shit it gets is deserved. It does no real damage, and 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, isn't all that great for the most part.

• Synapse - Level 15
  • Reduces all energy costs by 50%.
    • 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 Suppressing Stranglethorn) is something that requires the use of either the Devourer Cannon or the Poison Cysts, as they're the only tools the Tyrant owns that can possibly kill 20 troops within a second of each other. Toxic Misma also is efficient- charge into a blob of Banshees on Colosseum, then pop Misma. Timed rightly and with no enemies shooting at the large blob of banshees that spawns in the midgame, it'll earn you the Megakill award easily.

Builds

BUILD 1 - INVINCIBILITY LULZ

Gear you need: Bio-Feedback, Synapse, any minion summoning (Genestealers recommended because of how cheap they are, especially with Synapse), maybe Explosive Decomposition.

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

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

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

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.

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