Why haven't the tyranids just adapted to everything yet?

At this point they've encountered pretty much every race and beat all of them at least a few times. Why haven't they adapted to everyone's weapons and tactics yet? Why even bother with shitty ass gaunts when they can just spam space marine legion style swarms of warriors and zoanthropes. Hell, why even bother with weapons beasts at all? Massive clouds of those toxic spores and phage cells would kill everyone and render the world fit for consumption without any need for war at all.

They don't just transmit genetic data.

All those 'nids dead by flamer?
Dead, can't adapt.
Those who survive?
Adapted.

The other fleet the other side of the galaxy?
Has no idea about it.

I never understood this part, if the hive mind is one being and can create the same beasts across hive fleets, why do they need to physically obtain the genetic material?

unless you are a creationist you cant just EVOLVE! all your problems away like some kind of mgic serum, otherwise the tyranids would basically be the kid from cops and robbers who yells "wow you missed by a mile" despite having your gun up at his chest

because that's how it works.

the internet allows everybody to know everything. but not everyone has access to the raw materials in order to benefit from all that knowledge. and you still have to practice making the new thing you learned about.

so the hivemind could transmit the idea of making heat resistant carapace. but until the extreme temperatures are experienced, and evolved to counter, the bugs of that fleet will continue to melt/burn.

and aren't different fleets essentially different minds. so they would need to meet up - to a certain degree, in order to communicate?

because being perfect at one thing leaves you weak to other things, EG. If you become perfect swimmers, you suck at land combat.

>different minds
Does that mean one fleet would try to eat another fleet?

This has happened before. When two distinct hive fleets encounter each other, they fight to the death.

The stronger survives and no material is lost, so from an evolutionary perspective it's a no-lose scenario.

Wouldn't kill Orks. They're literally made of toxic spores.

In fact, there's a world where Orks and Tyranids are locked in a seemingly-endless stalemate of evolution. Purportedly some of the Orks are large enough to be seen from space.

Probably because they were both design by an intelligent creator (the Olds ones) to fight creepy metal skeletons, warp parasites and star gods.

Rather a lot of energy would be consumed in the fighting and digesting and so on, though, wouldn't it? And that translates to loss of biomass in the form of fat stores and such.

Tyranids run off of space magic, they have near complete conservation of matter when they eat. The biomass of a dead gaunt consumed is enough to make another gaunt

It's canon that Tau are better adapters than the Tyranids. Why haven't the blueberries just adapted to everything?

No it isn't, the blueberries got bailed out by the imperial guard and the tyranids lacked the reproductive beasts needed to produce new waves. Everyone likes to paint gorgon as a huge tyranid job, but really that's the worst the Tau have ever been BTFO in the fluff.

>Gorgon shits itself and flees
Yeah, you're right. The Tau toooooootally got BTFO and you're not just a butthurt nid apologist.

Just face it. The most adaptive Hive Fleet got out adapted by the Tau despite having every advantage. This is canon and you will have to accept the fact eventually.

Not him but the Tau had a rough time with it. The Tau's adaptability is what allowed them to hold on long enough for IG to show up and add that mess to the mix. Gorgon's big strength can be used against it as it requires a much higher expenditure of biomass and energy to completely adapt between 2-3 waves. Had Gorgon hit a less improvising foe it would have been a slaughter instead it ended up as a phyrric victory for the Tau.

The Tau lost several worlds as a result, that almost never happens to them in the fluff. Their adaptability just made sure they weren't BTFO too badly, but they were still being pushed back until a huge imperial fleet showed up and helped the Tau destroy most of the bioships. It's their reproductive capabilities limited it was harder to adapt to both the imperial guard and the Tau tactics. Also didn't help that by that point they were relying almost entirely on gaunts because adapting the more complex creatures took more time and biomass. Gorgon over specialized it's individual organisms and was too small to spam monstrous creatures like leviathan can. Had the Tau been invaded by the cryptus tendril and the guard didn't show up tonbsil them out. They would have been wiped out

What would happen if hive fleets kraken and leviathan were allowed to combine? The eldar seemed very keen on stopping that from happening because they thought the resultant fleet would be OP. Would that really be the case?

Tyranids don't need to eat for energy. They can just convert all of their biomass into plants and park near a sun for a while and get all the energy they need.

A Hive fleet is an ecosystem, not an organism. An ecosystem doesn't lose biomass when something burns fat.

>An ecosystem doesn't lose biomass when something burns fat.

What is thermodynamics for 400, Alex?

They are too stubborn and only use biological tech.

It would be cool if they followed the example of their genestealer cousins and started using the raw minerals of all those 12 galaxies of dead planets to build some metal weapons and war machines in conjunction with the stored knowledge of all the races they've eaten and the infinite labor they have from all the multilimbed creatures that could follow orders.

I just want Carnifexes driving around in even bigger hovercraft tanks because why not.

Anything the other races do with technology, the tyranids can do with biology. The only thing they'd really benefit from are warp drives, but even then That seems like something they would grow rather then build.