Tyranid attack Desert world.

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**iGuy91**

CalgarsPimpHand wrote:They come for the Spice. Duh.

Bahahahahaahhahah! You just made my night sir

**mwnciboo**

I like the idea of the Regolith (sic) bacteria. Equally what kind of element based lifeform are the nids? Does it vary?

On Earth it is mainly carbon based life forms, although recently they have found other independant life on the sea bed against Sea vents which survive based around other elements. Does this mean Tyranids with their absorbing of different life, have Carbon, Sulphur, Silicon etc based life forms?

**Mordiggian**

GreatGunz wrote:Deserts aren't dead, but they do have substantially less biomass than, say, a rain forest or a prarie or a river. So these worlds would, presumably, be a lower priority for the tyranids.

The tyranids are also less likely to encounter stiff resistance, since desert creatures tend to adapt to the terrain, rather than the abundance of predators. Larger, more dangerous predators tend to evolve when there is an abundance of resources.

**CthuluIsSpy**

-Loki- wrote:The problem is, like all 40k fluff, what Tyranids take is just not consistent. They give us a step by step breakdown of the assimilation of a world, including seeding the planet with spores that make the flora and fauna hyper fertile and make them grow super large to give more biomass. Then talk about Tyranids eating the planet down to the bedrock, which means the entire biosphere is stripped, including soil, minerals, water, gases and atmosphere.

Then other short stores mention none of this, and concentrate on how they are only there to kill and eat the population (which is a terrible source of biomass). Then other authors, as said above, have them starve in a situation they shouldn't have.

Basically, every author has a different idea of what Tyranids eat when they invade a planet, and it gives a contradictory view of what happens.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:
nomotog wrote:Because there is a species they want to assimilate? I'm actually not sure if nids work this way or not. Do they want or need to assimilate new species or can they make new ones out of whole cloth?

Considering how raveners were a breed of catachan devils, I would say that they are indeed interested in acquiring new genomes.

Other way around. It's speculated that Catachan Devils are a Tyranid bioform from an ancient hive fleet that struck a long time ago, and went feral on the planet. This lines up well with the way Tyranids seed a planet to make everything super fertile and huge - basically, it was already a lethal jungle, the hive fleet just made it worse and couldn't consume the planet.

Damn, looks like I was thinking of the zerg then

**iGuy91**

The other thing to remember, is that Tyranids absorb even the air, the moisture in the air, and any useful minerals in the earth, any wildlife, ect.

**willhman**

CthuluIsSpy wrote:
-Loki- wrote:The problem is, like all 40k fluff, what Tyranids take is just not consistent. They give us a step by step breakdown of the assimilation of a world, including seeding the planet with spores that make the flora and fauna hyper fertile and make them grow super large to give more biomass. Then talk about Tyranids eating the planet down to the bedrock, which means the entire biosphere is stripped, including soil, minerals, water, gases and atmosphere.

Then other short stores mention none of this, and concentrate on how they are only there to kill and eat the population (which is a terrible source of biomass). Then other authors, as said above, have them starve in a situation they shouldn't have.

Basically, every author has a different idea of what Tyranids eat when they invade a planet, and it gives a contradictory view of what happens.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:
nomotog wrote:Because there is a species they want to assimilate? I'm actually not sure if nids work this way or not. Do they want or need to assimilate new species or can they make new ones out of whole cloth?

Considering how raveners were a breed of catachan devils, I would say that they are indeed interested in acquiring new genomes.

Other way around. It's speculated that Catachan Devils are a Tyranid bioform from an ancient hive fleet that struck a long time ago, and went feral on the planet. This lines up well with the way Tyranids seed a planet to make everything super fertile and huge - basically, it was already a lethal jungle, the hive fleet just made it worse and couldn't consume the planet.

Damn, looks like I was thinking of the zerg then

Its ok zerg took some of their things from tyranids so it all good

**Squidmanlolz**

mwnciboo wrote:I like the idea of the Regolith (sic) bacteria. Equally what kind of element based lifeform are the nids? Does it vary?

On Earth it is mainly carbon based life forms, although recently they have found other independant life on the sea bed against Sea vents which survive based around other elements. Does this mean Tyranids with their absorbing of different life, have Carbon, Sulphur, Silicon etc based life forms?

Probably not carbon, because their ships (which are actually large tyranids) can survive in the vacuum of space. My guess is Silicon, it's the closest to carbon without requiring oxygen for metabolism, Silicon based life would limit the chemical diversity of Carbon based life which would lead to a deficiency of certain chemical compounds ( this may be the cause or a factor of their unending hunger).

**Halmyr**

Well, us as humans do comsume some amount of mineral, Iron being the one that comes up to mind as one of the foremost. (For those of you wondering, its use inside the red blood cell to carry oxygene around the body, hence why your blood is red)

Saying that Tyranide can consume some mineral is not that far off, even if it is something as hard to digest as adamantium).

Don't think it be able to slosh around with the rest of the carbon form gue stuff, but having a couple of specialise rippers or spore for the stockage of mineral running around, made available for carnifex to eat and grow there claws....mhm...

**Iracundus**

Squidmanlolz wrote:
mwnciboo wrote:I like the idea of the Regolith (sic) bacteria. Equally what kind of element based lifeform are the nids? Does it vary?

On Earth it is mainly carbon based life forms, although recently they have found other independant life on the sea bed against Sea vents which survive based around other elements. Does this mean Tyranids with their absorbing of different life, have Carbon, Sulphur, Silicon etc based life forms?

Probably not carbon, because their ships (which are actually large tyranids) can survive in the vacuum of space. My guess is Silicon, it's the closest to carbon without requiring oxygen for metabolism, Silicon based life would limit the chemical diversity of Carbon based life which would lead to a deficiency of certain chemical compounds ( this may be the cause or a factor of their unending hunger).

The description of the insides of Tyranid ships as warm and wet suggests a water based metabolism, and nothing terribly exotic in terms of internal atmosphere either if Marines can take off their helmets as done in BL's Warriors of Ultramar novel.

Tyranid ships are sheathed in a thick carapace. This can be a use for all those silicates and other minerals harvested. Also, gases can be dissolved and directly protein bound within the circulation of such a ship. Whales have large amounts of oxygen directly bound to proteins in their muscles, which is used when they dive deep.

Tyranid ships have also been described as cloaking themselves in frozen gases, from atmospheres of consumed worlds. These elements could also be dispersed throughout the carapace.

What all this amounts to is, that Tyranid ships could still conceivably survive by consuming these stored elements. Added to this is the ability for Tyranid ships to enter some form of suspended animation state, which would reduce their metabolic needs.