Greenskins

Biodata

Power Progression

Biology and Life Cycle

Greenskin Castes

Reproduction and Colonization

• Spore-based growth: Greenskins emerge from underground fungal growth rather than requiring conventional recruitment or training. Scattered biological fragments can establish Orks, Gretchin, and Squigs on another planet 27 85.
• Cultivated production: Clever Git’s Euronia IV mushroom farm produces Squigs and Gretchin before its first new Ork Boy emerges. Nutritious mucus from immature mushrooms accelerates fungal growth 30.
• Battlefield propagation: Waaagh! energy stimulates spores in blood-soaked soil, allowing fighting to support further population growth 83.
• Persistent contamination: Wherever Greenskins travel, they spread spores. Kester fears that newly grown Orks could cover Number 3 within months 161.
• Interdependent specialization: Cheng concludes that the four castes form an adaptable whole: Snotlings reshape environments, Squigs supply diverse biological tools, Orks provide strength, and Gretchin bind their efforts together 140.

Appearance

• Green coloration: Orks, Gretchin, and other Greenskins collectively form the visually distinctive “Green Tide” 1 38.
• Size as status: Larger Orks are generally tougher and stronger; judging an Ork’s strength by size works more than ninety percent of the time 350.
• Variable builds: Gretchin are much smaller than Orks, while Mekboys can be less imposing than ordinary fighters without being less useful 1 4.
• Hair Squigs: Orks do not naturally grow hair. Fashionable crests and ponytails come from symbiotic Squigs that bite into the scalp and draw nutrients 140.
• Mechanical augmentation: Mechanical claws, limbs, armour, and oversized weapons are common distinguishing features among fighters and specialists 4 350.

Abilities & Skills

Waaagh! Field

The Waaagh! Field links Greenskins through shared emotion, knowledge, and psychic energy 5 58.

• Collective amplification: More Greenskins and greater excitement produce a stronger field 5.
• Shared learning: Connected Greenskins unconsciously exchange experience and knowledge, becoming more orderly, intelligent, and creative 58 301.
• Emotional leadership: A focal Boss’s courage strengthens the surrounding army; Cheng realizes that his fear or retreat could instead spread panic 59.
• Reinforcement attraction: A powerful Waaagh! draws distant Greenskins toward its emotional center. On Euronia IV, millions flow toward Cheng’s underground battle and further empower him 60.
• Battlefield awareness: The field can transmit what Greenskins see to their leader. After uniting Number 3, Cheng receives so much information that he must cut off the feed 169.
• Recovery: An exceptionally strong field supplies healing power that restores Sneaky Boss’s damaged flesh and soul 306.

Belief-Driven Reality Distortion

Collective conviction can make Greenskin bodies, weapons, and machines exceed ordinary physical limits 44 59 60.

• Protection: Boyz cross molten terrain under a belief-fuelled field, while Nobz withstand contact with otherwise devastating Necron weapons 44 59.
• Machinery: Big Diggas drill through obstacles because the Greenskins believe they can drill through anything 60.
• Weapons: Green power enables Greenskin gunfire and psychic attacks to injure the Void Dragon 94 95.
• Status and evolution: Recognition of an achievement can awaken inherited knowledge and alter an Ork’s genes, as shown by Cheng’s Big Mek advancement 30.
• Emotional stimulation: Stirring music and coveted rewards increase excitement, strengthening the Waaagh! and improving battlefield performance 269 294.

Psychic Powers

Gifted Orks draw psychic power from the Waaagh! Field 5.

• Psyker Boys and Weirdboys: Use collective energy for attacks such as green lightning; Kuka also redirects incoming missiles against human defenders 6 60.
• Faith-based strengthening: Kuka’s belief that he is Gork and Mork’s Divine Messenger, reinforced by other Orks’ faith, increases his power 61.
• Manifestations: Mass psychic activity produces a towering apparition of Gork capable of crushing Necron Heavy Destroyers 60.
• Limits: Although ordinary use is initially described as having practically no side effects, sudden surges can overwhelm some Psyker Boys 5 83.

Engineering and Industrial Adaptation

Mekboys turn scrap, scavenged technology, and inherited mechanical knowledge into increasingly advanced equipment 3 29 191.

• Rapid modification: Cleverhead rebuilds a human Plasma Gun to fit Cheng’s Ork hands and fighting style 3.
• Battlefield manufacture: Gretchin assemble cannons from scavenged parts during the Necron battle 60.
• Escalation through war: Pex describes tribes progressing from stones and bows to gunpowder, plasma weapons, armored machines, Titans, and spacecraft through continued conflict 27.
• Industrial organization: Mines, hauling Squigs, workshops, and orbital shipyards provide the Screw Clan with steadily improving equipment 191.
• Resource constraints: Scarce minerals, poor workshops, and blowing sand delay sophisticated construction on Euronia IV 29.

Combat and Infiltration

Greenskins combine physical resilience and instinctive fighting ability with specialist tactics 66 301 374.

• Durability: Ordinary Orks can survive prolonged machine-gun fire or rise after being knocked down by shells 66.
• Close combat: Orks know how to use a Choppa immediately upon emerging from a mushroom farm 229.
• Covert operations: Goldtooth’s camouflaged Gretchin cross minefields and barbed wire, silently kill sentries, and clear routes for the main army 68 116.
• Specialist discipline: Rambo’s Kommandos carry out prisoner capture and technically demanding infiltration missions 42 374.
• Tactical adaptation: Iron Claw uses feints, tunnels, captured railways, and urban fighting to exploit human weaknesses 64 68 155.

Warp Travel

Greenskin fleets use Warp Drives, but their navigation and protection can depend on Gork, Mork, and the collective Waaagh! Field 219.

• Guidance: Cheng sees green threads guiding his five-thousand-ship fleet through the Warp 219.
• Protection: The fleet-wide field disperses most of a violent Warp surge, though a few poorly built Roks are still affected 219.
• Battle-seeking custom: Rottooth considers any destination acceptable if it provides a fight; some Bosses deliberately enter the Warp to seek daemons 219.

Weaknesses and Limits

• Leadership dependence: Powerful Bosses are drawn to front-line fighting, making them targets for decapitation attacks. Tyranid assassination of a Warboss accelerates the collapse of an already fragmented Greenskin force 85 180.
• Uneven coordination: Scattered Greenskins can be routed by organized armored forces; the Tyranids exploit their lack of a unified strategic objective 113 180.
• Heavy firepower: Narrow corridors, plasma weapons, tanks, air strikes, and orbital bombardment can inflict severe losses despite Greenskin toughness 6 7 102.
• Recklessness: Inaccurate explosives cause friendly casualties, while uncontrolled tunnel expansion produces cave-ins that kill hundreds or thousands 60 102.
• Hostile environments: Ork IV’s airless surface, poisonous spores, aerial Tyranids, and buried defenders annihilate early landing forces 306.

Society and Culture

Hierarchy and Reputation

Strength governs traditional Ork society. Physical dominance establishes authority, and even accidental deaths among their own kind can become occasions for mockery and looting 2 4.

Greenskins openly admire impressive fighting. Crooked Mouth wins over disappointed spectators by demonstrating his mech’s destructive power, while Number 3’s native Orks accept Sneaky Boss over Iron Claw simply because he is visibly stronger 169 294.

Clans and Tribal Customs

Faith

• Shared foundation: Belief in Gork and Mork unites tribes whose customs and personalities otherwise differ sharply 94.
• Collective existence: Cheng discovers that Gork and Mork exist alongside the Greenskins rather than simply as distant Warp gods; their manifested forms contain Ork, Gretchin, and Squig faces 94.
• Finite manifestations: Their strength depends on available Greenskins, and increasingly powerful manifestations face stronger rejection from the material realm 94 95.
• Sneaky Boss’s legend: In the epilogue, Kuka describes Sneaky Boss as a third Greenskin god. Screw Clan adherents worship his statues, although a skeptical Ork says he has never sensed him 489.

Economy and Labor

• Teef: Teeth serve as currency for weapons, vehicles, construction, and luxury goods. Crooked Mouth’s merchants forcibly extract teeth from customers who cannot otherwise pay 4 115 140.
• Work points: The Screw Clan links productive labor to participation in Waaaghs, establishing the principle that Greenskins who build well can fight well 321.
• Corruption: Some Bad Moons purchase points from Union Boys. By year 50,000, theft of Gretchin work points and their resale to Orks has helped trigger a civil war 321 489.
• Gretchin equality movement: The Gretchin Revolutionary Committee demands recognition, fair work points, and access to the great Waaaghs after ten years of exclusion from visiting fleets 489.

Entertainment and Fashion

• Blood Bowl Squigball: Teams fight over a vicious Bitey Squig, score by carrying it into the opposing goal, and claim teeth knocked loose during play 102.
• Mass spectacle: The Slick Cup tournament becomes popular enough to temporarily halt the Green Tide’s outward expansion 346.
• Racing: Speed Freeks turn dangerous terrain into impromptu racetracks. A distorted rumor about a Mighty Big Boss prize launches an unauthorized Webway race 398.
• Fashion: Rare Hair Squigs can cost as much as a Trukk Tank; especially desirable styles may not be obtainable even with teeth and a Battlewagon 140.

Equipment and War Machines

• Infantry weapons: Choppas, Big Choppas, Sluggas, Shootas, Big Dakkas, Stikkbombs, flamethrowers, and modified plasma weapons 3 4 60.
• Squig support: Explosive Squigs, hauling Squigs, mounts, and Giant Squig Warbeasts 1 39 66.
• Vehicles: Motorcycles, Trukks, Trukk Tanks, rocket-pack troops, and improvised aircraft 44 115 398.
• Walkers: Killa Kans, Mekboy Dreads, Gorkanauts, Morkanauts, Stompas, and Gargants 44 61 306.
• Power Armour: By the Euronia counteroffensive, the deployed Screw Clan armies equip every Ork with Power Armour and even provide Gretchin with basic models exceeding elite Astra Militarum armour 306.
• Big Diggas: Underground drilling machines used to seed mushrooms, open attack routes, and deliver reinforcements 42 60.
• Krakka Teleporters: Devices ranging from small-group transport to legion-scale reinforcement systems 29 229.
• Mighty Big Boss mechs: Exceptionally powerful machines used against Tyranid bio-ships and Chaos warships; Sneaky Boss also offers them as prize-draw rewards 294 409.
• Space infrastructure: Warships, Roks, orbital shipyards, Space Fortresses, and Battle Moons. Mork’s Grin houses more than a hundred billion Orks and a reserve fleet of 200,000 vessels 191 294 409.
• Skull of Gork: A battle star with an unstable teleportation engine capable of near-instant interstellar jumps 321.

Relationships

• Cheng Mingrui / Boss Slick / Sneaky Boss — Warboss, Big Mek, and leader of the Screw Clan; becomes a major focal point of Greenskin collective power and later a subject of religious legend 30 60 321 489.
• Gork and Mork — Shared divine protectors whose connection to the Greenskins sustains their manifestations 5 94 95.
• Kuka — Weirdboy and preacher who strengthens faith, connects Sneaky Boss to the field, and travels to recruit followers for larger Waaaghs 61 155 321.
• Iron Claw — Major warboss whose campaigns combine brute force with tactics learned under Boss Slick; his emotions drive a planet-wide Waaagh! 39 64 83.
• Clever Git — Cheng’s Gretchin follower, ammunition supplier, farmer, and organizer. His unrecoverable death prompts a full-scale retaliation against the Tyranids 2 30 148.
• Goldtooth — Gretchin leader whose scouts, infiltrators, looting networks, and railway plans support Iron Claw’s campaigns 39 68 83.
• Kidd and Crooked Mouth — Prominent engineers responsible for armour, heavy walkers, mechs, and large construction projects 29 61 116 294.
• Rambo and Kundra — Disciplined commanders entrusted with large-scale campaigns across the Octarius Sector 42 274 321.

History and Major Arcs

Origins and the Krork Legacy

The Old Ones created the Greenskins and their Waaagh! system. Cheng later searches Necron records for ancient krork samples, hoping to reverse the Orks’ diminished strength. The Void Dragon remembers a Krork legion that destroyed rebellious machinery barehanded, formed weapons from Waaagh! energy, and wounded his manifestation 62 116 140 317.

Shipboard Fighting and Settlement on Euronia IV

The Greenskins first appear fighting human troops aboard a ship. Cheng’s emergence as Boss Slick turns a disorderly mob into an armed force of more than a thousand Boyz. He later crashes the Glory Knight onto Euronia IV, sacrificing the vessel and some Orks to gain concealment and time to develop 1 4 27.

Mushroom cultivation and workshop construction establish a growing colony. Its concealed underground army eventually surrounds Pioneer Base and breaches all four defensive fronts in just over thirty minutes 29 30 42 44.

Necron Tomb War

Cheng’s underground fighting draws millions of Greenskins into the tomb complex. Boyz grow into Nobz, Gretchin build cannons, and Psyker Boys unleash escalating attacks. Gork and Mork ultimately manifest against the Void Dragon, whose weakened body collapses under their blows and sustained Greenskin fire 59 60 61 94 95.

Number 3 and the Green Tide

Iron Claw expands through raids, feints, tunnel assaults, and captured railways. Mushroom farms continually reinforce the invasion, while human counteroffensives struggle to contain its increasingly organized forces 39 64 68 132.

Sneaky Boss later unites the planet’s native Orks, removes the obstruction within their collective field, and redirects them against the Tyranids. The Green Tide overruns Pioneer City, flattens Capello, and drives Tyranid ground forces toward the sea 169 170.

Octarius Campaign and Industrial Expansion

Greenskins in the Starting Point System suffer from fragmented command and Tyranid decapitation attacks. Under the expanding Screw Clan, mines, workshops, and shipyards support a more heavily equipped force 180 191.

Sneaky Boss’s Warp journey brings a five-thousand-ship fleet toward the threatened Octarius war effort. Later reinforcements include Rambo’s fleet of more than a million ships. After the Euronia counteroffensive, Sneaky Boss delegates sector-wide sweeps and consolidates Octaria’s Greenskins into the Screw Clan 219 306 321.

Webway Expansion

A Squigball collision activates the Squig Webway Gate, prompting a mass Greenskin charge. Their advance brings battles with the Hrud and Drukhari, while improvised flying machines and a spontaneous race defeat attempts to control their movement 352 370 398 399.

Chaos Wars

Mork’s Grin supplies overwhelming forces against Perturabo’s fleet, destroying or boarding his ten thousand warships. Greenskins later treat the apocalyptic fighting in Commorragh as another opportunity for entertainment, pouring into battles against endless daemons 409 437.

Their faith also becomes a strategic target: Magnus attempts to rewrite Kuka’s memories so that Greenskins attribute Sneaky Boss’s legends to Gork and Mork instead. Meanwhile, Screw Clan attacks on Aeldari territories supply souls for Sneaky Boss’s struggle against Slaanesh 443 444.

Year 50,000: Gretchin Rebellion

After the Warp’s shattering, Greenskin civilization persists. On Gorkamorka, stolen work points and exclusion from extra-galactic Waaaghs spark a Gretchin rebellion lasting more than a year. Kuka continues spreading Sneaky Boss’s legend and leaves with a new Gretchin companion named Clever Git while the civil war continues behind them 489.