Barbgaunts
SWORD: what Barbgaunts kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 50 pts kill ~24 pts in one activation.Typical shooter: 44 per 100
Best against hordes, weakest against heavy vehicles and monsters
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
Across the game· shooters
SHIELD: how hard Barbgaunts is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 50 pts take ~220 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical shooter: 298 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
Across the game· shooters
What reviewers say
3 reviewers- Slows a chunky enemy unit and stops it advancing and charging 2 of 3
- Cheap 2 of 3
- Good into hordes 1 of 3
- Their guns barely dent armour 1 of 3
- The slowing shot needs line of sight, so it lands late 2 of 3
- Now fragile against common small arms 1 of 3
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barbgaunts50 pts | C | Top 39% | Top 11% | 3of 217 |
| Pyrovores40 pts | A | Top 39% | Top 4% | 60of 217 |
| Von Ryan's Leapers55 pts | S | Top 30% | Top 6% | 132of 217 |
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Barbgaunts, 5 models, 50 pts, with its datasheet's weapons, in Invasion Fleet (Hyper Adaptions: Swarming Instincts). On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: the army rule and 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.
50 pts → kills ~24 pts → 48 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.
~220 pts → 440 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 407 shooters. How we score.
The letter
The average of 4 reviewers' newest Tyranids tier lists: Auspex Tactics (12 Sep), Into the Hive Mind (12 Oct), HivemindHobbies (18 Oct), Maelstrom Gaming Studios (26 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
217 public Tyranids 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.