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Reading the who would win 40k article made me start thinking about nids and the eating all the biomass. Do the buggers eat metal? Do they strip the planet of oxygen and other minerals, and if so, when do they draw the line of consume don't? if not eating metal the hives and tec should still be left. Meaning the post bid planet would be easy to resettle. IIRC the bugs pack up everything even their spores and toxins when they move on. Leaving a just as before planet just kick the atmosphere scrubbers back on and plant seeds. Wait a few years and your good again. Nids can't enter the warp so a whole planet could evac into warpspace ahead of the bugs and just circle them back home. Letting the military forces string out hive fleets and crush them for the Emperor!!!

It was mentioned that they eat the metal and the atmosphere of the planet, leaving it a dead rock. Seems like the only thing they don't eat are rocks.

I guess they use the metals for normal organic function (our blood is red because it has iron in it, Fe3+), to make ammunition for their weapons, to make the carapaces.

All oraganic material is gone, so there's no soil to plant seeds. I guess they would even take some sand to add silica to their carapaces or whatever.

Its mentioned that they suck up the atmosphere, probably for respiration, and maybe to combine with other elements, or for chemical processes. Its not mentioned what its used for, just that the atmosphere is gone.

Nids can enter the warp. Nids are the most powerful creatures in the warp, so large they cast a "shadow". Hence you get the ability shadow of the warp in the tyranid codex, which has been nerfed to oblivion.

I was under the impression that they cause a wave and screw with the warp but had no way to slip realspace. The old codex says they use gravity slingshots to move from system to system, then slow down and set fleets for invasion. Do they mine the planet? I mean fluff mentions all the time deep veins of such and such as to why planet x is important. All gases? Phosgene chlorine ect ect some things are inimical to all life. How large a creature do you need to eat a hive city? Metal concrete copper rubber? I guess for me the idea of a useless planet is crazy. That would also mean they scavenge asteroids space dust the ship parts after space battles. If they were that interested they would spend way more time on a planet.

It's not one creature. It's billions upon billions of Rippers and Haruspex and other big mouthed folks that burrow, fly or walk around, eat until they're bloated and then throw themselves in acid to be digested by the fleet itself and begin life reborn to do it all over again. Ever seen a time lapse video of ants eating a beetle or mouse? Same concept.

They don't consume EVERYTHING, but they consume enough that there's near as makes no difference nothing left. Skeletons of buildings, debris that crumbles to rusty ash, all sorts of crap get left behind for the sake of not being perfect in the story. But there isn't enough to revitalize a world. The ecosystem is beyond shattered and the effort to remake the world would be beyond reckoning.

Tyranid fleets do eat ships. Sometimes literally. The Nid ships consume other ships. There's some old art of Nid ships biting Imperial craft in two with spores doing the actual eating. And I remember something about space type Termagants that were closer to the original Hunter Killers. They absolutely have the ability to scrap a ship in space.

You're right about that they don't travel in the warp, my bad. However, the hive mind casts a massive shadow in the warp that stops travel. Also, to hide a planet in the warp, you need a planet-sized gellar field, and I don't think anyone has those.

Also, phosgene and chlorine can be used as weapons.

They don't harvest normally, they use capillary towers seeded all across the world. Its mentioned that they even drain the oceans of water.

Everything in 40k is over the top. Its like how exterminatus can crack a planet apart, or that they keep a nercon god in a planet-sized dyson sphere, or an entire region of the galaxy is in the warp. Eating a whole planet seems pretty tame compared to all those.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:

They don't consume EVERYTHING, but they consume enough that there's near as makes no difference nothing left. Skeletons of buildings, debris that crumbles to rusty ash, all sorts of crap get left behind for the sake of not being perfect in the story. But there isn't enough to revitalize a world. The ecosystem is beyond shattered and the effort to remake the world would be beyond reckoning.

Shattered is the wrong term, with all organic matter, soil, water and atmosphere gone, there isn't an ecosystem left.

Fair enough I just thought that a resource hungry as the IoM is that mining would be a thing they might consider viable and if there was anything of merit to trying to reclaim say a forge world. And would nids gather radioactive materials? since in the rules and fluff nukes seem to do a solid job maiming them.

 ThirstySpaceMan wrote:
Fair enough I just thought that a resource hungry as the IoM is that mining would be a thing they might consider viable and if there was anything of merit to trying to reclaim say a forge world. And would nids gather radioactive materials? since in the rules and fluff nukes seem to do a solid job maiming them.

Maybe, maybe not as the Nids could have eaten the minerals that interested the IoM.

And Tyranids are space capable, and that means that they must be very well at dealing with radiation.

 ThirstySpaceMan wrote:
Fair enough I just thought that a resource hungry as the IoM is that mining would be a thing they might consider viable and if there was anything of merit to trying to reclaim say a forge world. And would nids gather radioactive materials? since in the rules and fluff nukes seem to do a solid job maiming them.

As for Mining, most of the minerals that would be highly sought after are used in a lot of lifeforms biology. I'm sure there could be a use for psuedo-organic radioactive material as well. Could be used to create the plasma that some Tyranids can spit, or perhaps allows them to evolve more advanced forms of electrical-based weaponry. Who knows. All that we know is that the world is dead, in all intents and purposes, and without use.