Defiler
SWORD: what Defiler kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 300 pts kill ~162 pts in one activation.Typical unit: 48 per 100
Best against heavy vehicles and monsters, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
In Death Guard
Across the game· units
SHIELD: how hard Defiler is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 300 pts take ~681 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical unit: 306 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
Across the game· units
What reviewers say
4 reviewers- The best long-range shooting platform 1 of 4
- Kills whatever challenges the centre 1 of 4
- Strips cover for later shooters 1 of 4
- High damage, and durable for a vehicle 1 of 4
- Lost its bonus on overwatch 1 of 4
- A second one only works in one list 1 of 4
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defiler300 pts | A | Top 39% | Bottom 16% | 71of 119 |
| Plagueburst Crawler170 pts | A | Bottom 30% | Top 35% | 13of 119 |
| Chaos Predator Destructor140 pts | B | Bottom 25% | Top 44% | 2of 119 |
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Defiler, 300 pts, with 2 Excruciator cannon, 1 Hades battle cannon, 2 Heavy reaper autocannon, 1 Shearing claws - strike, 1 Shearing claws - sweep. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras.
SWORD
Enemy points it kills in one activation, per 100 pts of its own, against a mix of targets weighted like top tournament lists.
300 pts → kills ~162 pts → 54 per 100SHIELD
Enemy points it takes to kill it, per 100 pts of its own: the points of the cheapest units from top lists that kill it 80% of the time. It's per point, so a costly unit has to be much tougher to score the same.
~681 pts → 227 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 935 units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 7 reviewers' newest Death Guard tier lists: The Disgustingly Resilient Podcast (October board) (6 Oct), The Disgustingly Resilient Podcast (July board, daemon allies only) (28 Jul), Goonhammer (Tabletop Battles), faction review and September update (30 Sep), GeneralJannis (1 Oct), Grimdark Breakdown (10 Jul), Zeeto (14 Jun), The Yucky OutBack (three list videos) (3 Aug). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
119 public Death Guard tournament lists, September – November 2026, from grimstat-corpus (CC BY 4.0). Also from Listhammer. Organisers and players: ask us and we'll take a list or an event down. Numbers run 4 Nov.