Lore of the Warp

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Nemesis Dreadknight

A huge psychically-powered exoskeleton worn by a Grey Knight, built to fight daemon princes on equal terms.

Grey Knights

Faction
Grey Knights
Related characters
1

Illustrated by Vitaly Perevoshikov (“Warhammer 40K: The Chimeric Knights End the Divergent Sons Civil War”, used with permission)

Lore & origins

The Nemesis Dreadknight is a Grey Knights war machine. It is not a Dreadnought: its pilot is not entombed but rides in a harness at its heart, wearing his own armour. The Dreadknight acts as an advanced exoskeleton, multiplying the pilot's strength and amplifying his psychic power. It was designed to give Grey Knights the size and strength to match greater daemons and daemon princes.

Any Grey Knight trained in its use can pilot a Dreadknight. Because a living psyker drives it, its weapons can channel psychic power directly, making it deadly to creatures of the warp.

Dreadknights are taller and bulkier than ordinary Dreadnoughts, with a humanoid frame. Some are fitted with a teleporter, the personal teleporter, that lets them jump short distances across the battlefield.

The Nemesis Dreadknight is a psychically powered exoskeleton piloted by a living Grey Knight in Terminator armour. It was designed for battles where a single Grey Knight might have to face a Greater Daemon. The pilot's psychic powers feed the machine's movements, letting it match a daemon's strength. It was introduced in the fifth-edition Grey Knights codex.

The neural impulse technology that drives the Dreadknight is of uncertain origin: it may be a fragment of humanity's Dark Age heritage, or recovered alien technology. Mechanicus edicts require all recovered technology to be handed over to Mars. The Grey Knights answer only to the Inquisition, so they can keep it secret anyway. The exoskeleton is built from adamantium alloy and bonded ceramite, with a gravitic forcefield protecting the exposed pilot, and it amplifies the Grey Knight's psychic powers.

Appearance & wargear

The Dreadknight is a towering silver-and-steel exoskeleton, with the pilot visible in a cage-like harness in its torso. It carries a Nemesis greatsword or daemon hammer, or a pair of doomfists. It can mount heavy incinerators, psilencers or psycannons. The frame is decorated with sacred texts and seals.

It is a towering silver-grey walker with the pilot riding inside, a nemesis daemon greathammer or greatsword, gatling psilencers, heavy psycannons or heavy incinerators, and a personal teleporter.

Weapons & Vehicles

Standard Armament & Combat LoadoutThe Dreadknight is a towering silver-and-steel exoskeleton, with the pilot visible in a cage-like harness in its torso. It carries a Nemesis greatsword or daemon hammer, or a pair of doomfists.

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Battlefield role & tactics

The Dreadknight is a monster hunter. It closes with daemon princes and greater daemons and destroys them in close combat, while its guns can thin out lesser foes. Teleporting Dreadknights can strike targets anywhere on the battlefield.

Dreadknights hunt monsters and support Grey Knights brotherhoods. They are tough and hit hard, but they are big targets.

The Dreadknight lets a single Grey Knight face the largest daemons as an equal. It hunts monsters, vehicles and greater daemons, using its personal teleporter to strike suddenly. It is big and draws enemy fire. Grand Masters sometimes pilot Dreadknights themselves when leading strike forces or dueling daemon lords.

Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier

Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary The Dreadknight is a monster hunter. It closes with daemon princes and greater daemons and destroys them in close combat, while its guns can thin out lesser foes. Teleporting Dreadknights can strike targets anywhere on the battlefield. asset of Grey Knights, Nemesis Dreadknight relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.

Notable battles & users

  • Daemon hunts: Dreadknights are deployed against greater daemons too strong for squads of ordinary Grey Knights.

Further reading

Lexicanum · Warhammer 40k Wiki