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 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)
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: Does not work in Chaos Rising and early versions of Last Standalone. Does in Retribution and current updated versions.
    • 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 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.

• 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 the highest Special Attack rate of any ranged weapon, meaning it's also got acceptable Melee damage, though not as high as dedicated melee weapons or the Venom Cannon.

• 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.

• 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 - 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.

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. 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; Implant Attacks; Psychic Scream
• Commander Item: Thornback

Explanation: Because Warp Field reduces damage by 50%, you have essentially 300 health with Warp Field engaged, and Psychic Scream only amplifies that. Against single targets, you hit like a spiky freight train, and mobs of melee units simply kill themselves by attacking you. It can be tricky to manage, though; know when to hide and let your energy regenerate.

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.

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