Hello there!

Welcome to the 4th edition of my Tyranid ("nid" from here on out) guide. Ever since i did my last write up a lot has changed so this one is going to be a little different. (at the time of me writing the latest build is 1.7.4)

First of all, i want to specify this is a pvp-focused guide, but you can make use of it vs the AI as well.
With that out of the way, what exactly has changed?
If you recall my older guide it was written from the perspective that tyranid did not have good lategame potential. Well, good news, crew! The nid now have a true "monster" on tier 10, the Scythed Hyerodule, the powerhouse we were missing.

Unfortunately, the price to pay for that is that the really strong nid eco had to receive several nerfs because rushing the tech tiers and then murdering everything had become a real problem. Most significant of these nerfs is to "Grey Matter Dispersion", which went from -3 penalty per city to -1, meaning the old lobster build cannot rely on it as much to bail you out of low loyalty and 4-5 city builds cannot spiral out of control as much.
Also, a whole 2 new factions have been released so that shook the meta up quite a bit (although at the time of me writing this Eldar are still OP to the point of being broken in most matchups). In particular, as far as pvp is concerned, the game has gotten faster and that has to be kept in mind.
Another big change is that zoanthropes have seen several nerfs and i do no longer consider them a viable pick to base your build on but rather a specialist unit that i will occasionally add a few of.
What has *not* changed is the first 18 turn build strat, so i will shamelessly lift it almost entirely from my old guide. Also, since this guide is not about 1 specific build, it will be a little more complex.
Finally, keep in mind i'm not claiming any of this is the absolute best strategy possible for every scenario but merely an attempt to share my own imperfect expertise.

Cheers.

I will now outline the basic frame of almost every tyranid build, the most fixed part of it, later on there will be room to mix it up but this part is almost mandatory.

To begin with your first objective is to get your second city asap, following these steps we will achieve that by turn 18.

Turn 1: One of the most important turns! At the start the most important resource to us is science. To be able to expand on turn 18 we need to satisfy 3 conditions: found a city on 20% (or more) sci bonus, acquire your vaul's outpost and do not lose your termagants.

Ideally, you want to place your city next to the outpost so you can later acquire it but this is not necessary, just capturing it within the first 3-4 turns is sufficient, if you can't do this your expansion will be delayed.

But let's assume you do have the outpost in range: place your city next to it and begin building a +6 science building. Make sure to place your city on a tile with 3 building slots.

Meanwhile your termagants can start roaming around and capturing easy outposts but remember: it's extremely important that they do not die so do not take any fight with wildlife you don't have to, generally the only fight that is worth risking your gaunts on is to keep control of your sci outpost. (remember to turn overwatch off around wildlife you don't want to accidentally aggro)

For research picks see the builds section later.

Turn 2-4: keep building, keep cautiosly grabbing whatever's free with your gaunts.

Turn 5-6: acquire a new tile (also research if possible), get your gaunts back to the city.

Turn 7: start building an infantry building and reclaim 1 gaunt to speed it up. this should line up the settler research with the time required to build. (if your research was delayed wait before reclaiming the gaunts until the research is completed).

Turn 11: with the infantry building completed start recruiting a termagant and begin construction on the settler building, reclaim the other 2 termagants to speed it up (can only be done once per turn). At this point if you lost any termagants just continue following the next steps whenever you get there (each gaunt lost will delay you by 2 turns)

Turn 13: begin recruiting the malanthrope, at this point your population will be insufficient to fully crew all your buildings: disable the research for 1 turn (remember to turn it back on next turn!), afterwards begin construction on your hero building, if you are not adding heroes early (or if you will make a tyrant) instead add a 2nd aedanthropum. Once your termagaunt is completed immediately reclaim it to speed up the malanthrope and que up a hormagaunt.

Turn 17: at this point your malanthrope will be completed, move it towards your chosen expansion location.

Turn 18: expand!

This concludes the initial phase.

So, this time around, i think the most effective approach is to lay out a few possible builds and how to get to them, some are really variations on the classic "Lobster" build.

Where i say, for techs, "from here on it's up to you", remember you want to *eventually* go back to grab extra pop space, Scavenger Adaptation, Coherence Node but also go up the tech tree and pick high tier monsters and eco techs like Efficient Digestion and Grey Matter Dispersion (even nerfed it's still a good pick).
Before i get into the builds proper, a note on the economy: you will need on 3 city builds a dedicated resource city. On that, bio builds are simpler and easier to setup and scavenger adaptation helps make them more efficient. However the highest value for bio you can get is 20% and that is rare, on the contrary, getting 40% influence is very common, so often you'll want an "influence city". Keep in mind however that you will need good terrain to consume (25-35 bio tiles are extremely important for this), try not to waste your influence on 20 or less terrain because you will not be able to sustain your eco on it.
Also, a general note on city placement

anyway, here's a list:

3.1) hybrid lobster - with tervigon
3.2) hybrid lobster - with tyrant
3.3) hybrid lobster - without heroes
3.3) the carni spam
3.4) the barrack spam
3.5) the barrack spam / 2 cities
3.6) the prime push

So, here's a variation of the classic lobster build. I am calling this "hybrid" because you aim to have both monsters and infantry in your army, it is especially suitable to make a strong push around turn 50. Tervigon adds a lot of value to it and is the "basic" choice.

Another advantage of the tervigon as a hero is that it requires no items at all to function so it's often a good idea to buy it a +8 influence item as soon as it is possible. You shouldn't have a need to consume all of your influence that early anyway.
I'll be relatively mechanical here and go a bit more in depth on which choices are made and why in the matchups section.
For techs (in order):

Hormagaunts, Alpha Ovipository, Aedanthropum, Tervigon, Birthing Canals, Toxin Sacs, Brood Haunt, one of: (Gigaborer Hives, Ripper dispersion, Biovores, Carnifex Bone Mace) (Raveners, Gigaborer Hives, Ravener Deathspitters, Carnifex Bone Mace), Carnifex Bio Plasma -> from here on it's up to you.
For buildings (in order), note that when i write bio/inf you want to go with the highest %. As for when to grab a 3rd city it's generally best to do it right away with your second thrope but you can also do it with your 3rd and use the 2nd to begin clearing:

City 1: science, barrack, settler, hero, settler, barrack, bio/inf, barrack/bio/inf (disable hero)

City 2: bio/inf, monster, monster, monster, bio/inf, bio/inf, bio/inf. you can swap a res building for a 4th monster building in the mix if your eco is especially good (for example if you have really good terrain to consume near you)

city 3: barrack, bio/inf *6. the barrack here is to make a few termagants to speed your other buildings up, you can skip it if you prefer. i however suggest to make it especially if you teched the reclaim cost reduction.
Notice that these are builds for up to 7 buildings. This is all you need for a strong turn 50 push but if you wish to build for longevity at this point you can research hybernation marsupia and keep expanding. after expanding population you'll also want to get the +6 loy building... as you can notice this is already a 100 biomass and many turns investment on each city and it will take time to pay for itself, if you feel you can finish off the opponent quickly it's best to invest all those resources into more army now rather than more eco later.

So, for the most part this build works like the previous one but the addition of a tyrant instead of a tervigon. Why not both? Too expensive, that's why.

So what will the difference in actual gameplay be? Well, tyrant will prop up your eco significantly and give you the incredibly scary threat of a speed-boosted frontline (ignore the scream in pvp, you can NOT afford to lose your tyrant, so you can't put it at risk in such a way either) but you won't have any healing for your carnifex and much less chaff to screen them with, in addition to a bigger frontloaded cost.

Also, the tyrant really requires items if it's going to see any fighting at all, further making this choice an expensive one. (at the very minimum you need +2 and +1 armor on it)

Because of this i consider it a more high risk high reward build.

As for science and build refer to 3.1, the main difference being that you won't take tervigon on t2 (duh) and can instead grab hybernation marsupia right away (the high loyalty will make increasing pop more worth it anyway), you will however require 3 techs on t3 as you can't skip either of the other 2.

On the building order actually everything is the same minus one difference: you will not build the hero building as 4th building in your main but instead as your 5th. This is because you are not going to have enough influence to make a tyrant right away so the building would just end up being idle.

So this is the variant for when you positively want to drown your opponent in "stuff", but it is also the option with the least long term viability. Now, it is always possible to add heroes later in the match (and they will gain +1 level on spawn at turn 40 and every 20 more turns) but you won't have as much of a margin for error on your first push.

On the other hand, you also won't have a singular point of failure in your army like you do with the tyrant (not the tervigon, the tervigon will never die if you are careful with it, it's a bulky backline hero with defensive skills and ok mobility).
The only changes here really are that you won't research either hero or hero building allowing you to progress tech faster and giving you *a lot* of extra biomass to spam an army with. For that reason you can not just substitute your hero building for another barrack but you can also most definitely add a 4th monster building early.
you are aiming at 50 biomass upkeep army on turn 50 here, but you can get more.

This variant is for maximising hte number of carnifex on the field and win with a big push. It's more effective than you might think but also less flexible as you won't have the option to add biovores/raveners to support your army.

You can have this variant work with either hero or no hero and it's based on the same principles as the previous ones, essentially, follow the above lists but swap out barracks for monster buildings whenever possible, you want to get at about 6 brood haunts before turn 50. In order to speed things up also research brood haunt before any other t3 tech and on the second city begin with a brood haunt instead of resources.

This is a very resource hungry build so you aren't going to be able to pull it off and add heroes unless you have very good terrain for it.

This build finds longevity in the fact that you can easily transition to higher tier monsters later, i do not however suggest picking up exocrines in this one, there's too much tech/resource conflict. Go from carnifex to carnifex+trygon mix and make a rush for tyrannofex/hyerodule.

Similar to the build above but this time with a focus on infantry. The differences are a bit more pronounced so let's take a look. For one, skipping monsters means saving a lot of resources (infantry is a lot cheaper) so you can much more easily afford mixing in a hero and you can also neglect resources a bit more. You probably want to get to at least 7 barracks before turn 50 in this variant. I must stress this, AT LEAST 7, less is just not viable.

Early on you'll mostly rely on hormagaunt, later add raveners (if they are appropiate in the matchup they should be the preferred choice) or biovores and aim to eventually make lictors. Lictors + tyrant speed boost are one of the hardest combo to counter unless your opponent is very skilled, despite lictors being overall undesirable main army units due to their comparatively low defenses (for their price).

Alternatively you could also stop on 6 barracks and rush t6 for exocrines instead of lictors, adding monster buildings late.

This is also one of the builds where tyranid warriors are viable, but we'll see in the matchup section when are they viable.

One of the advantages of this build is that you are going to have more science to play around with, so let's see the techs (in order). I will show a variant with tyrant but you can skip heroes as well (in which case grab malanthropic gustarflagelli instead of tyrant and synapse archevores instead of alpha ovopository):

Hormagaunts, Alpha Ovipository, Aedanthropum, Toxin sacs, Birthing Canals, Hive tyrant, Raveners, Gigaborer Hives, Ravener deathspitters, Extra infantry armor, Lictors, Bioweapon SYmbiosis -> from here on it's up to you.

This is a departure from the previous builds in that you are only going to stay on 2 cities (with an option to add a 3rd later). The purpose is to have more resources at your disposal early on to survive an expected aggressive push but keep in mind you will not have as many resources later in return for more resources early.

Now, since you are investing a lot less in infrastructure in this setup you will completely ignore heroes and resource buildings and instead just make 6 production buildings in your main and 4-5 in your expansion (after which you can add resources).

Needless to say this is a risky build with poor longevity so capitalise on your early army. If you are going to sit on your city with it and not achieve anything you have already lost.

Finally, a build with the tyranid prime. The nid prime is really only a big bundle of stats (a little broken currently in some way, 75% fnp reduction is ridicolous). That may seem appealing but it's also a *very expensive* bundle of stats because without item it is mostly useless, hence why i mostly avoid it.

But it does have a place and can surprise your enemy so let's take a look at it.

Let's look at buildings first:

City 1: science, barrack, settler, hero, settler, barrack, bio/inf, barrack/bio/inf (disable hero)(same as the lobster build)
City 2: influence, barrack, influence, influence, barrack, influence, influence.

Needless to say, you need a lot of influence for it to work, the extra barracks are to provide some support to your prime (you can meme and go warriors with it but really better to just make hormas) but your expansion *must* be on influence, don't even try it if you spawned in a region with bad influence outposts.

The other reason for all the influence is that you absolutely need a tervigon to support your prime, you can buy a life steal blade but you can't rely on it.
For items, you want +2 armor and +25% attacks as priority, then you can grab a life steal blade, +1 armor, +3 hp then +1 movement/blade of lazaerk/lightning gauntlet/stun grenade/etc depending on your wallet. A stun grenade is an amazing investment if you expect to face another combat hero.

Your prime will be an absolute terror of course, but also a singular point of failure.

To be honest, i don't like this build, too small an army, too risky, but i wanted people to get an idea about it. As for the techs in it just follow the one in barracks build except with tervigon instead of tyrant.

Here i want to analyse a little the challenges in each matchup and which build i consider most appropiate.
vs AM:

AM is currently not in the best shape they have ever been but they share with nids a slow wind up and a powerful lategame. It used to be the case that you could not *allow* AM to reach their lategame but now you can grow alongside them.

It's still best to not allow them to run around with a lemon deathball but you can fight it with tfex and hyerodule now, if you have to.

However, keep in mind that bastions fully counter your basic infantry so you want AP in this matchup, as such any build with carnifex will be a good choice. I don't however advise to go full carnifex as they trade inefficiently with guards and if you end up facing a guard spam + double commissar AM you will lose the grind. Basic hybrid lobster here is probably best.

vs CSM:

This one is probably the most technically messy fight. chaos have ample choice of anti melee units (especially maulerfiend) and chaos lord is an ever present threat. The best option, assuming you are given the time for it, is to get a hive tyrant as currently chaos has no reliable anti air unit (this may change with the next DLC so keep that in mind).

Once you have a tyrant to help you keep your frontline safe (buy those defnsive items!) you probably want to tech up to exocrines as your melee options just won't perform well here. So something along the lines of the barracks build with a tyrant addition to a later exocrine transition is your best bet imho. Adding zoans may also help neutralise the chaos lord but the price tag of your build is already pretty high so it might not always be possible. Overall really tough matchup and might straight up not work in a small map. Remember you can tech spider parlour on t1 as of the most recent patch to help against rushes.

vs Eldar:

Eh, don't even try in the current state lol, they can rush you before you have an opportunity to even expand. But assuming that doesn't happen get a lot of chaff (terma and hormas mix, termas have ow) and then add a bunch of biovores. Maybe it'll work, i dunno, probably not.

vs Necrons:

Not an easy matchup but a doable one, overall you can outvalue necrons but you have to play better than them essentially. The biggest hurdle you face is the +6 armor skill from lord which is extremely effective against tyranids, overcoming it comes down to tactics and terrain choices more so than build. Several builds are viable but personally i think either the base build with raveners and carnifex or a raveners into exocrines works best, tervigon is extremely important here because you really need the termas to draw overwatch with.

vs Orks:

The only real risk here is being rushed early so make sure to have a good amount of barracks early on just in case. If needed you can always reclaim the output of the barracks to get an eco boost later. Overall, an easy matchup though you might want to add 1-2 zoans to debuff their warboss.

Just keep an eye out for a possible dakkajet build, due to the melee nature of nids this one can be a threat. If you see deffkopta and weirdboy you probably have jets incoming. Now, if they went this route there is a very good chance you can overrun them before the plan comes into fruition but if you think this isn't possible you'll need zoans and termas to take the jets down.

vs SM:

One of the hardest matchups, the marines roster is simply a tough one for nids. The most popular build for SM currently is armory spam so it would be tempting to spam carnifex but you also run the risk of being defeated by predators and bikes with mines if the terrain isn't favorable. Approach the matchup with a defensive mindset as you can probably outscale SM in the long run and you don't want to take huge risks early on.

Getting a lot of chaff here helps as SM tends to make a couple of bikes before moving on to predators and once the bikes are cleared getting termas off the field becomes a real chore, kill the bikes as a priority and watch out for mines.

As for build there honestly isn't one that is superior to the rest here, SM have options to counter anything you pick, but personally a barracks spam might work best by offering less targets to the predators.

vs T'au:

Despite the tau having a solid 2nd spot in terms of faction power the nids are actually one of 2 reliable counters to them (other being chaos, for entirely different reason. eldar don't count, they counter everything). The reason being that much of tau power lies in their "morale shenanigans" to which nids are simply immune and their drone spam, which nids are uniquely well equipped to deal with.

Spamming hormas and later raveners is your best option here, the high AP of carnifex isn't required vs tau early on. Should the game get into lategame you will then want to add monsters but that's true of any matchup really.

Just play safe, don't expose yourself unecessarily, make sure to only attack once you are prepared and you should be able to overwhelm the relatively squishy tay roster with your hormas and ravs. Good malanthrope play is essential here to draw some fire and reduce ranged damage (or at least force tau to use markerlights).

Their tanks are dangerous but you can handle them with numbers.

vs Tyranids:

There are a few units tyranid have a hard time self-countering: carnifex (because you need AP to beat their armor and conveniently carnifex are also the main AP source), hive tyrant (because it's immune to melee and it can allow your carnis to engage the enemy carnis first) and finally zoans, to debuff the enemy carni befor ethey counterattack and scare off the enemy tyrant.

Get a combination of those 3 units and you'll beat a nid that hasn't picked them.

So this turned into a giant, confusing wall of text. I hope it's at least somewhat comprehensible and useful for others, although it's not really a beginner guide.

There would be a lot more i could say in terms of small little things to improve your game a bit but honestly this is massive as is.

I suppose i'll just conclude inviting people to join the official discord for some fun pvp action, we don't bite.

Just remember, i make no claims that what i write is the ultimate, perfect strategic guide, merely an attempt to give people pointers on how to have a good time with the faction.

Cheers.