Where are the Tyranids Going?

[Lathe Biosas]

I was looking at maps of the Tyranid Invasion... and I can't seem to find a definitive endpoint for the Tyranids.

 

They just seem to be poking their tendrils willy-nilly at the Milky Way Galaxy. 

 

Are they headed somewhere?

[FabiusV4lcoran]

I don't have a lore answer, but as intergalactically nomadic carnivorous organisms, I think it's safe to say they're following the food.

 

I would say that the presence of the GSC supports this.  They need these beacons to know where the food is, and that guides them along their path.

Edited October 27, 2025 by FabiusV4lcoran
Prior answer sucked

[Karhedron]

There was speculation in previous editions that they were actually being attracted to the Astronomicon, rather like a moth to a flame.

[Grotsmasha]

A long, LONG time back I read something, and I don't recall if it was official or not, BUT, it basically said after the Old Ones moved on from our Galaxy, and had traversed many more, they came across a species they couldn't defeat and they created the Tyranids, which turned on the Old Ones when their enemy (food) was eliminated. Now the Tyranids were travelling back along the Old Ones path through the Galaxy in the endless quest to consume, the Milky Way is basically a road trip pit stop.

[phandaal]

3 hours ago, Grotsmasha said:

A long, LONG time back I read something, and I don't recall if it was official or not, BUT, it basically said after the Old Ones moved on from our Galaxy, and had traversed many more, they came across a species they couldn't defeat and they created the Tyranids, which turned on the Old Ones when their enemy (food) was eliminated. Now the Tyranids were travelling back along the Old Ones path through the Galaxy in the endless quest to consume, the Milky Way is basically a road trip pit stop.

 

I cannot recall anything official that has ever said the Tyranids were a creation of the Old Ones, but that is theory that people float when coming up with head canon.

 

Probably because some people want to tie things together into neat packages rather than have unexplained loose ends. Personally, I like the Tyranids much better when the Hive Mind is something that came from somewhere else all on its own.

 

As for where the Tyranids are going - the Great Devourer is already where it wants to be. The Tyranids are just its body parts. To something as massive as the Hive Mind, the galaxy has to be the destination, rather than any particular spot within the galaxy.

[Trokair]

There has also been a hint/sugesstion in some older fullf that the Tyranids were fleeing from something, so the the destination might not matter to them as much as simply getting away from whatever that other threat is. 

[Blissful Brushes]

All of the ‘old’ lore that I read as a youth suggested that the ‘Nids were being drawn to Terra by the Astronomicum’s light, potentially triggered by the pulse of energy from Sothis? Might have the name wrong, during the HH.

 

The motivation in all the old lore (I’m a good 10 years out of date) was that they were at their core animals essentially hunting to reproduce and survive but guided by some extra-galactic force. I always saw them as particularly scary ants who didn’t like psykers much

[kabaakaba]

It's said that nids seen Pharos not Astronomican
 

Spoiler

Into the eternal blackness, a flash of quantum energy shone out at many
times the speed of light; a brief flare, milliseconds in duration, projecting
from an unremarkable spiral of stars.
It was not missed.
In the darkness, something of limitless hunger stirred in a slumber that had
lasted for aeons. A million frozen and unblinking eyes saw the flash, tripping
cascades of stimuli. Their purpose served, the eyes died.
The entity processed the message the eyes provided without ever truly
awakening. Automatically, instinctively, its gargantuan, dreaming mind
analysed the signal, comparing it against all parameters for the one thing it
sought.
Prey.
Slowly, glacially, the great devourer shifted its course.

and yeap that's clearly said they here for feast

[Sonder76]

The Tyranids are just missunderstood. They are coming to our galaxy for a better life. Fleeing oppression and hunger. Its going to be a trying time while we all intergrate but with a little compassion im sure we will all get along.... with the Tyranids.

[Iron Lord]

On 10/27/2025 at 9:05 PM, Grotsmasha said:

A long, LONG time back I read something, and I don't recall if it was official or not, BUT, it basically said after the Old Ones moved on from our Galaxy, and had traversed many more, they came across a species they couldn't defeat and they created the Tyranids, which turned on the Old Ones when their enemy (food) was eliminated. Now the Tyranids were travelling back along the Old Ones path through the Galaxy in the endless quest to consume, the Milky Way is basically a road trip pit stop.

You might be thinking of the Tyranid Power fansite (might have been taken down for infringing GW copyright or Blizzard's copyright or both, by using pics from both Starcraft game and the 40K 2e Tyranid codex to illustrate units and buildings.)

 

There were incarnate forms of the regular Hive Mind (bipedal) and the Greater Hive Mind (centauroidal, and despite the name, a creation of the regular Hive Mind to run really big battles). "Synapse" came in many levels from 1st level (warrior) to 2nd level (tyrant) all the way up to 5th or 6th level (the Hive Minds).

 

 

It was basically what happened when someone who is both a Starcraft fan and a GW Tyranids fan decides to try and combine as much of the lore from both as possible.

 

 

And yes, it said that they were homing in on the Astronomicon specifically, in that.

 

Quote

There has also been a hint/sugesstion in some older fullf that the Tyranids were fleeing from something, so the the destination might not matter to them as much as simply getting away from whatever that other threat is. 

 

The 5e codex mentioned that possibility.

 

They have travelled through the bleak intergalactic space between galaxies for countless millennia. Whether the Tyranids made this perilous journey because they had already consumed everything of worth in their home galaxy or in flight of another, even more fearsome race is unknown. 

 

Quote

I cannot recall anything official that has ever said the Tyranids were a creation of the Old Ones, but that is theory that people float when coming up with head canon.

The 5e codex's very first fluff page (The Great Devourer Is Come, The Destroyer Of Worlds!)  gave them a number of names, one of which was "The Penance of the Elder Gods"

 

Perhaps a hint that, in universe, something called "The Elder Gods" had created them as penance for some kind of offence.

 

If "the Elder Gods" is just another name for the Old Ones, creators of the Eldar, the Krork (ancient Orks) and so forth, they might have created the Tyranids as penance for things like the great Enslaver plague, which was unleashed by the unrestrained use of psychic powers by their servitor races.

 

At least one Tyranid Hive fleet appears to specialise in "daemon-slaying" and being "anti-psyker" - Hive Fleet Kronos. Seems very like the sort of thing that a race that wants to do penance for unleashing daemons all over the galaxy, would make.

 

However, the people calling them "The Penance of the Elder Gods" could just be guilty of in-universe speculation, with there being no actual evidence of this.

 

 

Edited January 18 by Iron Lord