Patriarch
SWORD: what Patriarch kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 80 pts kill ~44 pts in one activation.Typical melee unit: 55 per 100
Best against heavy infantry, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
In Genestealer Cults
Across the game· melee units
SHIELD: how hard Patriarch is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 80 pts take ~263 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical melee unit: 307 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
In Genestealer Cults
Across the game· melee units
What reviewers say
6 reviewers- Devastating wounds for Purestrains 3 of 6
- In most winning lists 1 of 6
- Only works in two detachments 1 of 6
- Lost his psychic powers 1 of 6
- Not satisfying since the update 1 of 6
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patriarch80 pts | A | Bottom 49% | Top 39% | 39of 55 |
| Abominant85 pts | A | Top 40% | Bottom 13% | 28of 55 |
| Reductus Saboteur70 pts | B | Top 32% | Bottom 4% | 25of 55 |
Leading a squad
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 55 | 56 |
| SHIELD | 329 | 311 |
Per 100 pts: on its own, then for it and the squad together.
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Patriarch, 80 pts, with its datasheet's weapons, in Genespawn Onslaught. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: the detachment's rule.
SWORD
Enemy points it kills in one activation, per 100 pts of its own, against a mix of targets weighted like top tournament lists.
80 pts → kills ~44 pts → 55 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.
~263 pts → 329 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 572 melee units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 7 reviewers' newest Genestealer Cults tier lists: Nexos Floof (dataslate review, Las Vegas Open recap, Final Day tier list) (12 Oct), Goonhammer / tabletopbattles.com (Competitive Innovations: 5 full GSC lists and 8 summaries; September balance review) (30 Oct), 40k Rey (unit tier list) (11 Sep), 40k Vtuber: Christian Von Carmian (tier list stream, A to D) (27 Sep), 6 Plus Plus Gaming (London Open 4-1 with his own list; state of GSC) (28 Jul), Hero of Mathematical Wargaming (Brood Brothers Auxilia with Xenocult Masses, own list) (17 Jul), 1d6chan (community 11th-edition tactics wiki, text largely before the dataslate) (30 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
55 public Genestealer Cults 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 2 Nov.