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Not a Tyranid player, looking for some info on their lore.

Played someone with his Nids painted a wild color scheme. He said the colors represent camoflage from the previous planet they destroyed - yellows, purples, neon-green and pink.

Very striking, but it made me think. Aren't Tyranids created in spawning pools on the planet they are assaulting? Don't they have very short lifespans, returning to the pool once their mission is complete? If that's the case, doesn't that mean they would have colors appropriate for the planet they are now on?

Most organisms are spawned on their ships. They might set up some sort of ground 'spawning pool' in a protracted war, but usually they rain down enough organisms in stagges that it isn't much of an issue.

The environment is usually choked with enough spores and nonsense that the planetary ecosystem is dying by the time the assault organisms hit the ground.


Whether they have the foresight (or interest) to make camo-patterns for the next target is vague. Most organisms that bother to hide (like lictors) are several iterations past bothering with something as trivial as a camo-pattern.
For most organisms, they're either big or coming in waves. Hiding isn't really relevant, neither is breaking up the outline as a defense against visual spotting. When there are thousands of gaunts pounding across the field/jungle or whatever, it doesn't matter. Any incoming fire is going to hit something.

 techsoldaten wrote:
Not a Tyranid player, looking for some info on their lore.

Played someone with his Nids painted a wild color scheme. He said the colors represent camoflage from the previous planet they destroyed - yellows, purples, neon-green and pink.

Very striking, but it made me think. Aren't Tyranids created in spawning pools on the planet they are assaulting? Don't they have very short lifespans, returning to the pool once their mission is complete? If that's the case, doesn't that mean they would have colors appropriate for the planet they are now on?

Yes to all, but the genetic 'string' for the previous planet camos would still be in the hive fleet's 'recipe book' - I guess you could do a trial by fire' for a new world, spawn broods with whatever colours available and see what doesn't get killed....

If the nids want to do camuflage they could probably do that, they adapt at will. But they would not do it at random, the hivemind is very smart.

Perhaps the nids have a good reason to look like the plannet they previusly destroyed. Of the topp of my head probably to remind the new plannet they killdd the last one to drive out hope. Nids have been known to use terror tactics to remove resolve.

Different Hive Fleets try Different Things.

There may well be a Hive Fleet out there actively experimenting with camo patterning. If it works, it'll be more successful, and may spread the news to other Hive Fleets for adoption.

The Hive Mind is a very lazy thing. If it isn't broken, it won't try to improve or change it. It will focus its energgy and resources on other things. As long as the hive gets more energy from a world then its spending, it might not change anything. If a swarm had to adopt camo patterns on a world to be more efficient, the entire swarm might retain it in further feeding ground if those proved to be incapable in forcing a change in the swarm at that level.

What are your proof that the hivemind is lazy? It is shown to be very strategic, good at micromanaging forces on an plannet and good at improvicing in the mreting with resistant forces in all published codexes and most other media.

 techsoldaten wrote:
Not a Tyranid player, looking for some info on their lore.

Played someone with his Nids painted a wild color scheme. He said the colors represent camoflage from the previous planet they destroyed - yellows, purples, neon-green and pink.

Very striking, but it made me think. Aren't Tyranids created in spawning pools on the planet they are assaulting? Don't they have very short lifespans, returning to the pool once their mission is complete? If that's the case, doesn't that mean they would have colors appropriate for the planet they are now on?

Tyranids bear the colour pattern of their specific hive fleet/splinter fleet. Kraken red and white, Behemoth blue and red etc...

Does it make sense? No.

But that is 40k fluff in a nutshell.

 techsoldaten wrote:

Very striking, but it made me think. Aren't Tyranids created in spawning pools on the planet they are assaulting?

There are some bits of fluff about tyranids being produced in "factories" on the ground. But it seems that most are spawned and dropped from the hive ships.