The Hive Tyrant is one of the most powerful heroes in last stand, capable of a variety of roles from tank to crowd control. And is an excellent addition to any team.

General Strengths
-Durable. Most builds with the Hive Tyrant will be tougher than other hero's equivalents.
-Minions. The Hive Tyrant has a variety of pets to supplement most builds.
-Always Fearless and Unshakable

General Weaknesses
-Slow. Lacking a jump or teleport the hive tyrant does not run away well and will take time to get where it is needed. Add that to the reduced moving speed caused by most of the Tyrant's armors and you have the slowest hero in Last Stand.
-Only hero without a "nuke" ability, like Orbital Bombardment, Eldritch Storm or Rocket Run.

This section is intended for those who are new to the Hive Tyrant. Skip this if you have experience already.

Hive Tyrant General Play Style
The Hive Tyrant is tougher than most heroes of the same level and is relatively simple to play. However, since there is no jump or teleport available you will need to recognise danger before you're in the thick of it because there will be no quick escape. If you see a large group of enemies headed your way or anything else you can't handle alone, fall back to your teammates.
If you are playing a melee based Tyrant only take on groups of enemies you know you can handle or work together with your teammates to handle more dangerous or larger groups of enemies.
If you are playing a ranged based Tyrant try to keep your distance and/or stay near another ranged teammate so you can support each other.
When you get overwhelmed or are otherwise in danger of death, run away! You may not be fast but you can still buy time for your health and energy to regenerate or at least stay alive long enough for your teammates to help you. At a high level the Tyrant can be the toughest hero in the game but it will never be anything resembling "agile".

This is a list of all the available weapons for the Hive Tyrant, how to aquire them and my opinions on them. THQ made many mistakes regarding the Tyrant's ranged weapon dps in the in game descriptions, this guide contains the correct values as seen on the hero stats on the right side of the wargear selection screen when each is equiped.

Enlarged Scything Talons
Starting equipment
Two-handed melee weapon, [16 dps melee] Gives minions 100 armor piercing and +30% melee and ranged damage.
A decent weapon for minion based builds but overall mediocre. I didn't use it much as I was leveling my Tyrant and never once I reached the higher levels.

Venom Cannon
Unlocks at level 4
Two-handed ranged weapon, [26 dps ranged] [20 dps melee] Gives Hive Tyrant 240 armor piercing.
The in game description of the venom cannon is 13 dps but this is incorrect. As you will be able to see when you equip the venom cannon you do 26 damage per shot and fire 1 shot per second, giving you 26 dps. THQ made a boo boo, the first of many to come.
The venom cannon is one of my favorite weapons for the Tyrant. On top of doing a solid 26 dps with 240 armor piercing in ranged combat, it also gives you 20 dps in melee combat allowing you to defend yourself from most melee squads. Yes that's right, this ranged weapon is a more effective melee weapon than a few designated melee weapons. Overall a versatile weapon that is effective against all targets.

Heavy Talons
Unlocks at level 10
Two-handed melee weapon, [16 dps melee] Gives Tyrant knockdown, Gives minions
unshakable.
Don't be fooled by this weapon, it may always knock opponents down but this is not as effective as it sounds. It allows you to knockdown one enemy again and again, so each time you attack that enemy you also need to step forward again and again to attack it. This lowers dps because you spend as much time attacking the enemy as you do following them after they go falling backwards. This can be used somewhat effectively against individual enemies who are powerful but vulnerable to knockback, but this is mostly limited to the clones on wave 16 and 20 of bloody colosseum. Granting minions unshakable is somewhat helpful against enemies that cause knockdown but ultimately other weapons give better minion benefits. The Heavy Talons can be amusing to knock an enemy across the map, but is overall a weak weapon.

Crushing Talons
Unlocks at level 14
Two-handed melee weapon, [14 dps melee] +1 Minion Health Regeneration. Gives the Tyrant Feedback Zeal; every minion attack heals the Tyrant for 3 health.
The in game description has the dps at 14.6 again another mistake by THQ, it is actually 14 dps. This number while low is only applicable to the Tyrant's regular attacks, this weapon is actually more powerful than it appears since it has a very high special attack of 30%. The special attacks affect an area around the tyrant and do extra damage, I believe this damage to be double but that information is not published. This high chance of the powerful special attack makes the Crushing talons an effective melee weapon against groups of enemies. The real appeal of this weapon is the benefits revolving around minions, making both them and you harder to kill. Overall an excellent weapon for minion based builds.

High-Toxin Venom Cannon
Unlocks at level 19
Two-handed ranged weapon, [11.4 dps ranged] [8 dps melee] Gives the Tyrant Zealous Leadership; heals all minions for 5% of their maximum health and ranged attacks do small splash/AoE damage.
Chalk another dps mistake up to THQ. This is another weapon that sounds better than it is, pretty weak as a weapon on it's own with pitiful damage. The splash radius is very small and the minion healing is less effective than the crushing talons, in my opinion this is the tyrant's worst weapon.

Rending Stranglethorn
Unlocked by achievement “Megakill” (Kill 20 enemies within one second as the Tyranid Hive Tyrant.)
Two-handed ranged weapon, [9.8 damage per ranged attack] [16.0 dps melee] Ranged attacks suppress enemies in the area around impact.
Don't dismiss this weapon based on the seemingly low damage, it suppresses enemies, does damage in a small area and ignores cover. The projectile moves relatively quickly and is capable of hitting even fast moving targets. This weapon is effective against groups of enemies that are vulnerable to suppression and is a decent weapon for support purposes.

Behemoth Claw
Unlocked by achievement “Heavy Hitter” (Kill 25 superheavy units as the Tyranid Hive Tyrant).
Two-handed melee weapon, [30 dps] Gives the Tyrant +50 armor and 100 armor piercing.
One of the best melee weapons in the game, and a personal favorite. With high damage, armor piercing and an armor bonus, this is a fantastic weapon for any tank build. I really can't oversell this weapon, it speaks for itself.

Devourer Cannon
Unlocked via paid DLC pack
Two-handed ranged weapon, [10.4 dps ranged] [8 dps melee] Squads hit by the devourer take 30 damage over 6 seconds.
Yet another dps mistake THQ. The Devourer is very effective for dealing with squads quickly, 2 attacks is enough to put basic infantry down. The damage over time stacks and affects the entire squad, so the more hits you get on a squad the faster it will die. The Devourer is less effective against vehicles but can still kill them reasonably well. But like most ranged weapons you do very little damage in melee.

This is a list of all the available armor for the Hive Tyrant, how to aquire them and my opinions on them.

Extended Carapace
Starting equipment
Armor Rating: 144, -14% Movement Speed, +25 Health. Grants Ability: Bio-Plasma (10 energy: Hurl a blast of bio-plasma, doing area of effect damage. Effective against groups of infantry.) Grants Traits: Fearless, Unshakable.
Basically provides the Tyrant's "grenade" ability and is a decent armor for a low level Tyrant but quickly becomes out-classed by other armors.

Poison Cysts
Starting equipment
Armor Rating: 160, -14% Movement Speed, +50 Health. Grants Ability: Toxic Miasma (25 energy: Emit a toxic cloud that poisons a large area. Enemies in the area suffer damage over time equal to half of the Hive Tyrant’s maximum health over 20 seconds.) Grants Traits: Fearless, Unshakable.
This is very good armor for dealing with groups of enemies and gets more powerful with more health. Synapse (unlocked at level 15) works very well together with this armor to lower the cost of the Miasma. With a high armor value with additional health this is also a good choice for a tank build. Be warned though that the clones in bloody colosseum get a health boost, so no matter how powerful your miasma is your clone's will be more powerful and may be difficult to deal with.

Bonded Exoskeleton
Unlocks at level 6
Armor Rating: 134, -14% Movement Speed, +75 Health, +50 Minion Creature Health, +2 Minion Creature Health Regeneration. Grants Traits: Fearless, Unshakable.
This is the go to armor for minion based builds, with so many benefits your minions will be tougher than ever. The extra health balances the moderate level of armor so you're still relatively durable.

Articulated Carapace
Unlocks at level 13
Armor Rating: 112. Grants Ability: The Horror (20 energy: Force the targeted enemy squad to fall back in terror.) Grants Traits: Swift (+15% Movement Speed), Fearless, Unshakable. Grants Minion Traits: Fearless, Swift (+25% Movement Speed)
This armor makes you very fragile, even with this armor you're still relatively slow and still can't jump. This is as mobile as the Tyrant gets and it's still only a light jog. The Horror ability doesn't help much due to its high cost and only delays your death by a little. This is easily the Tyrant's worst armor.

Reinforced Chitin
Unlocks at level 17
Armor Rating: 98, -14% Movement Speed, +80 Minion Creature Armor, +25 Health, grants traits: Fearless, Unshakable, Reactive Armor (Hive Tyrant temporarily gains +10 Armor each time he is attacked, up to a maximum of +300 Armor.)
This armor sounds good in theory but the Reactive Armor doesn't stack fast enough to be effective, by the time your armor reaches a decent level you don't have any health left. The extra armor for your minions is decent but the the extra health and health regeneration offered by Bonded Exoskeleton is better.

Thornback Carapace
Unlocked via paid DLC pack
Armor Rating: 190. Grants Traits: Barbed Armor (Enemies that attack the Hive Tyrant in melee take 20 damage for every attack), Fearless, Unshakable.
This is an extremely effective armor for any melee based build and some also like it for ranged builds to help them in melee. The Barbed Armor will cause most infantry to kill themselves in 2 or 3 hits. The downside with this armor is that it doesn't give any additional health so if you don't reduce damage by another means you will not last long under pressure.

This is a list of all the available accessories for the Hive Tyrant, when they are unlocked and my opinions on them.

Seismic Roar
Starting equipment
Grants Ability: Seismic Roar (15 energy: Emit a roar which stuns nearby enemies.)
A decent ability for low level builds, good for getting out of swarms of melee enemies, but its short range limits its effectiveness.

Genestealer Nest
Starting equipment
Grants Ability: Call Genestealer (10 energy: Call Genestealer minion creatures whose rending claws reduce the effectiveness of enemy armor.) Can only have one active Genestealer squad at a time.
Genestealers are very fragile, they will die quickly but that's ok since they're cheap to call. They work best with Bio-Feedback since they have a short cooldown and low cost and/or Crushing talons due to there being three of them so they make many attacks.

Toxin Sacs
Unlocks at level 2
+20 Minion Creature Health. Grants Trait: Searing (The Hive Tyrant’s Melee and Ranged attacks deal additional damage over time. Damage scales with the Hive Tyrant’s maximum health. Multiple searing attacks stack.) Grants Minion Trait: Searing (All minion creatures’ Melee and Ranged attacks deal additional damage over time. Damage scales with the attacker’s maximum Health. Multiple searing attacks stack.)
Searing is an effective way for high health Tyrant's to increase their damage but it is most effectively used with the Ravener (Unlocked level 18) because searing does scaled damage per hit and the ravener makes multiple hits per attack causing the the damage to stack quickly. Keep in mind that like the Toxic Miasma ability, your clone on bloody colosseum with its health boost will have more powerful searing, an enemy ravener with searing can quickly kill you and your allies and can be hard to deal with.

Tyrant Guard Nest
Unlocks at level 3
Grants Ability: Call Tyrant Guard (20 energy: Call a Tyrant Guard minion creature. Highly resilient, the Tyrant Guard can also taunt enemies.) Can only have one active Tyrant Guard at a time.
Hive Tyrant's best friend. The Tyrant Guard is the most durable minion available to the Tyrant, when combined with other equipment that makes minions tougher the Tyrant Guard is very difficult to kill. It also has a delightful tendency to taunt enemies who, until that point, were attacking you. This adorable little beasty does a great job at helping you stay alive.

Warrior Nest
Unlocks at level 7
Grants Ability: Call Warrior (15 energy: Call a Tyranid Warrior minion creature armed with powerful Scything Talons and able to knock back enemy infantry.) Can only have one active Warrior at a time.
The Warrior is a good choice for early builds and is a good replacement for genestealers if you aren't using/don't have Bio-Feedback or Crushing Talons. Unlike the Tyrant Guard the Warrior can be knocked back, but will often quickly return the favor. The Warrior is a good all around minion with knockback as a nice bonus, but is ultimately less effective at high levels.

Warp Field
Unlocks at level 8
+50 Energy. Grants Ability: Warp Field (Raise a protective shield which halves incoming damage and causes it to reduce Energy instead of Health.)
A good accessory for temporarily keeping you alive in tough situations. Activating Warp Field will drain your energy quickly under intense fire and thus make it difficult to use other abilities at the same time. If you aren't using your energy for other abilities this is a great way to stay alive, it is important to alternate having the warp field on to allow your health to regenerate when low and turning it off when your health is high/full to allow your energy to regenerate without being eaten up by the the field.

Implant Attacks
Unlocks at level 9
+20 Minion Creature Health. Grants Trait: Combat Master (+30% Melee and Ranged damage.) Grants Minion Trait: Combat Master (+30% Melee and Ranged damage.)
Implant Attacks is good for early builds if you want to increase your own and your minions damage but becomes obsolete as you unlock other accessories.

Psychic Scream
Unlocks at level 11
Grants Ability: Psychic Scream (10 energy: Reduce damage output and defenses of all enemy units within the area of effect of the ability.)
Psychic Scream is extremely powerful if used well. Psychic Scream increases how much damage enemies take and it greatly reduces enemy damage output, I'd estimate by 50% but that information is not published. Psychic Scream affects a large radius around you and turns any army of enemies into weaklings for the duration. Psychic Scream's cooldown is equal to its effect time so you can keep the entire group of enemies under its effects as long as you want. When combined with other damage reducing factors like high armor or Bio-Feedback, you greatly increase your ability to survive under pressure. Psychic Scream's cooldown is rather long though, so it's important to use it efficiently and balance weakening as many enemies as possible without taking too much damage waiting for them to be in range.

Bio-Feedback
Unlocks at level 12
+25 Health. Grants Trait: Feedback Invulnerability (The death of any minion creature briefly makes the Hive Tyrant invulnerable.)
Bio-Feedback is only effective when combined with genestealers, and only activates when the whole squad is dead not when each member is killed. Genestealers have a 3 second cooldown so you can call them while you still have a squad of them alive, which kills the current squad and activates the invulnerability. Bio-Feedback only lasts for about 2.5 seconds so there is a brief window where you can take damage before being able to call the genestealers again. You will not be able to continue this cycle for very long without Synapse (Unlocked level 15) to reduce the cost of the genestealers. Synapse is not required to use this effectively so long as you manage your energy well and have other methods to reduce damage, such as Psychic Scream and/or high armor.

Explosive Decomposition
Unlocks at level 16
+20 Minion Creature Health, +50 Health. Grants minion trait: Death Throes (A toxic cloud erupts upon death of any minion creature, damaging enemies in a large area. The higher the minion creature’s maximum Health, the greater the damage done.)
The description of Explosive Decomposition is misleading, the explosion is small. This accessory can be amusing but isn't very effective on its own because low health minions that die often don't do much damage and high health minions don't die very often and thus won't explode very often. You can call a minion that is already on the field and summon another killing the current one and causing the explosion but this is inefficient. The +50 health can be beneficial for increasing Toxic Miasma's damage, but that's about it.

Ravener Nest
Unlocks at level 18
Grants ability: Call Ravener.
The Ravener has the highest potential damage of the available minions. It is able to burrow under enemies causing damage and knocking them back and is also the only ranged minion. The Ravener really comes into it own when combined with Toxin Sacs, since the Ravener is the only Tyrant minon who attacks multiple times per second. Searing damage will stack very quickly with the Ravener's rapid attacks allowing it to kill any target quickly. It may even be worth spending the energy to resummon a Ravener just to get it out of melee combat and back to rapid fire ranged damage. Keep in mind that your clone in bloody colosseum can be hard to deal with if you are using Toxin Sacs with your Ravener.

This section details the three commander items available for the Hive Tyrant and my opinions on them.

Thornback
Unlocks at level 5
Grants Ability: Charge (10energy: Charge at targeted location, knocking over everything in the charge path.)
The first and least helpful commander item. While it does give the Tyrant some semblance of mobility it is short ranged and hitting anything that cannot be knocked back will stop your charge immediately, this includes enemy vehicles, solid obstacles and even your own Tyrant Guard. The other two commander items are much more useful.

Synapse
Unlocks at level 15
-50% Ability Energy Costs.
This is the perfect commander item for builds that make heavy use of abilities like Psychic Scream, Toxic Miasma and Bio-Feedback. Synapse does not affect Warp Field, but the cost reduction goes a long way to being able to use abilities quickly and often.

Evolution
Unlocks at level 20
+2 Health Regeneration. Grants minion traits: Resilient (+50 Health and +2 Health Regeneration), Swift (+25% Movement Speed), Combat Expert (+25% melee and ranged damage)
Evolution allows any minion based build to reach its true potential. This is one of the best commander items in the game and is a must have for any minion based build, not only does it greatly improve your minions, but adds a large bonus to your own health regeneration! Good for any build except for those that use alot of abilities.

This section details builds I have found to be effective starting from low levels to level 20 with alternate equipment if you don't have any DLC for builds that include it. Each build will detail what it is designed to do, and just because a new type of build is available doesn't mean it's better than the previous ones in every way, just more options for you to try. Keep in mind there is no ultimate strategy for all situations and team makeups, experiment with your builds and playstyle to find what works for you. Use your own judgement.

Level 4

Ranged build with Guard support
Venom Cannon
Poison Cysts
Seismic Roar
Tyrant Guard Nest
Toxin Sacs

Solid ranged damage boosted with searing, Tyrant Guard helps take some of the attention off you while you fire from a distance. Venom Cannon gives decent melee damage. If you run low on energy you may have to choose between using Toxic Miasma to kill nearby enemies while holding your position or Seismic Roar to stun nearby melee attackers to help you escape.

Level 7

Minion build
Enlarged Scything Talons or Venom Cannon
Bonded Exoskeleton
Warrior Nest
Tyrant Guard Nest
Toxin Sacs
Thornback

Let the minions do the work for you and try to stay out of trouble, using Charge to knock over groups of enemies or beat a hasty retreat.

Level 8

Tank build
Venom Cannon
Bonded Exoskeleton
Warp Field
Tyrant Guard Nest
Warrior Nest
Thornback

This build is focused on keeping you alive over dealing damage. The Tyrant Guard and Warrior help keep attention off you while you fire from a distance, activating Warp Field when necessary.

Level 9
Minion build
Enlarged Scything Talons or Venom Cannon
Bonded Exoskeleton
Tyrant Guard Nest
Warrior Nest
Implant Attacks
Thornback

This build maximizes your minions' current damage, if you use the Enlarged Scything Talons try to avoid heavy combat, for the Venom Cannon continue to support them from afar.

Level 11

Melee Tank build
Enlarged Scything Talons
Bonded Exoskeleton
Tyrant Guard Nest
Warp Field
Psychic Scream
Thornback

Work together with your Tyrant Guard with this one, you two fight as a team with you supporting your Guard with Psychic Scream and using Warp Field when necessary. You are unlikely to use Charge very often.

Level 14

Melee Minion build
Crushing Talons (your new favorite melee weapon)
Bonded Exoskeleton
Psychic Scream
Tyrant Guard Nest
Warrior Nest
Thornback

You and your minions are a team, stay close to them and support them with Psychic Scream. With your fancy new Crushing Talons you are finally a decent melee fighter. Replace Thornback with Synapse next level.

Level 15

Tank build
Crushing Talons
Poison Cysts
Genestealer Nest
Bio-Feedback
Psychic Scream
Synapse (Whoohoo!)

Finally you have a decent commander item. This build allows you to wade into your enemies while taking minimum damage and spread Toxic Miasma all over the place making you effective against groups and almost all targets. Toxic Miasma is now much cheaper, just leave enough energy to use Psychic Scream and Bio-Feedback in case of emergencies. Use Psychic Scream on large groups of enemies every time it cools down, constantly resummon your genestealers when things get dangerous to keep that invulnerability shield up as much as possible. This build is similar to my level 20 tank build and some people prefer this build to the evolution version as this build allows you to use Toxic Miasma as a powerful anti-group weapon while still being very tough.

Level 16

Group Damager
Behemoth Claw or Devourer Cannon(DLC)
Poison Cysts
Explosive Decomposition
Bio-Feedback
Genestealer Nest
Synapse

This build is all about dealing as much damage with Toxic Miasma as possible with optional weapons based on preference. This isn't the most durable build but it's the best for dealing damage to entire groups of enemies. Because melting everything is fun!

Level 18

Minion build
Crushing Talons or Venom Cannon
Bonded Exoskeleton
Toxin Sacs
Ravener Nest
Tyrant Guard Nest
Synapse

This is a solid minion build for now, but Evolution makes a world of difference. Let your minions do the heavy lifting and keep them up.

Level 20

Tank build 1
Behemoth Claw
Thornback Carapace (or Poison Cysts if you dont' have the DLC)
Psychic Scream
Genestealer Nest
Bio-Feedback
Evolution

This is my personal favorite tank build, it requires careful energy management but if played well can solo high waves up to 19 in Bloody Colosseum and 20 in Anvil of Khorne. This build has 3 layers of defense, high armor and Psychic Scream to reduce damage and Bio-Feedback invulnerability for emergencies. Scream your enemies into weaklings and keep your genestealers up so you can resummon them in times of emergency to stay alive. This will drain your energy rapidly so be sure to keep enough for Psychic Scream and run away if you're low on health or energy. You won't have much energy to spare on Toxic Miasma but it's the high armor you want.

Tank build 2
Behemoth Claw
Thornback Carapace (or Poison Cysts if you don't have the DLC)
Warp Field
Psychic Scream
Tyrant Guard Nest
Evolution

This tank build is a little easier to use and has the added benefit of a Tyrant Guard to take some attention off you, the disadvantage is that Warp Field drains energy faster than Bio-Feedback under heavy fire. Always keep enough energy for Psychic Scream. Again, you won't have much energy to spare on Toxic Miasma it's the high armor you want.


Ranged minion build
Rending Stranglethorn or Venom Cannon or Devourer Cannon
Bonded Exoskeleton
Toxin Sacs
Tyrant Guard Nest
Ravener Nest
Evolution

This build provides maximum dps, the Ravener provides rediculous amounts of single target damage while the Tyrant Guard does the tanking. Choose your ranged weapon based on what you want your Tyrant's role to be or what role in your team needs filling. Rending Stranglethorn for suppression support, Venom Cannon for anti-armor, Devourer Cannon(DLC) for groups.

Experiment with any of these builds to find what you like, these are just the builds that I used while leveling and my prefered level 20 builds.

Megakill - for Rending Stranglethorn
Kill 20 enemies within one second as the Tyranid Hive Tyrant
This achievement is easy to get using the Poison Cysts armor. The best opportunity is on Anvil of Khorne wave 6, just walk into the middle of a group of guardsmen and drop your Toxic Miasma.

Heavy Hitter - for Behemoth Claw
Kill 25 superheavy units as the Tyranid Hive Tyrant
Superheavies are only on the Anvil of Khorne and include the Swarmlord(wave 13), the Battlewagon(wave 16), the Avatar of Khaine(wave 17), the Great Unclean One(wave 18) the Baneblade(wave 19) and the Landraider(wave 20)
This achievement is simple to get but takes time, some people don't get this achievement until level 20 but the Behemoth Claw is well worth it. It could take you anywhere from 5 games to 50 depending on how far you make it and how many superheavies you kill. Your best bet is to use the venom cannon with some minions to maximize your dps, you may want to read a guide on hotgates to figure out where the superheavies will spawn before they do, there is more than one available. And most importantly tell your teammates that you're going for the achievement most people are nice enough to let you get the superheavy kills.

This is just about all I have to say about the Hive Tyrant. Good hunting, may you devour all in your path and continue to grow ever stronger.