Warhammer 40k Land Raiders aren’t subtle; from the Redeemer to the Chaos variants, the Crusader and more, see which variant is the best!
Updated June 27th, 2025, by Rob Baer with new information and links to relevant content.
Ask any Space Marine commander what makes their enemies sweat harder than a Salamanders’ flamestorm. Odds are they’ll point a power-armored finger at the Land Raider. This beast has been rolling across battlefields for millennia (in lore, not model releases), and it’s got more versions than the Codex Astartes has footnotes.
In this guide, we’re breaking down the core 40k Land Raider and its most popular variants since 2000 — the Land Raider Crusader, Land Raider Redeemer, Land Raider Helios, and Land Raider Proteus — with a side of Chaos Land Raider flavor for the heretics among you. If you’ve ever wondered what makes these rolling fortresses tick, you’re in the right warzone.
Which Land Raider Is Right for You?
Here’s a simple breakdown of the best Land Raider Tank variants ranked against each other.
- Need anti-tank power and classic looks? Go Phobos.
- Storming trenches with melee monsters? Grab a Crusader.
- Burning out hordes or bunkered enemies? The Redeemer is your guy.
- Firing from the backline or tough terrain? Say hello to the Helios.
- Going full traitor? Build a Chaos Land Raider and don’t hold back.
- Playing Horus Heresy or want retro vibes? Proteus all the way.
What Is a Land Raider in Warhammer 40k?
So what’s the big deal with the Land Raider 40k model? Simple: it’s a tank. A transport. A shrine to overkill.
It’s been around since the earliest days of the Imperium, and it’s still crushing skulls and running over heretics in the 41st millennium like it’s just another Tuesday.
It’s not sleek. The tank is not subtle. It’s a giant slab of armored hatred with enough firepower to ruin a small continent and the carrying capacity to deliver an entire squad of Space Marines straight into the heart of whatever’s left.
Where it Came From: Land’s Raider
The design came from a Standard Template Construct (STC) — basically humanity’s version of a “press here to build apocalypse” button. Back in the Dark Age of Technology, STCs were used to print off everything from plows to plasma guns. One of the rarest and most valuable things in the galaxy.
Arkhan Land, a techno-archaeologist working for the Adeptus Mechanicus, uncovered the blueprint for the Land Raider in the dusty archives of Mars. Naturally, they slapped his name on it — Land’s Raider — because “Experimental All-Terrain Heavy Armored Battle Brick” doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.
At first, the design wasn’t exclusive. Various Imperial factions used the Land Raider: the Space Marines, obviously, but also the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Inquisition, and even Rogue Traders with the right connections (or enough blackmail material). And of course, some got stolen or corrupted, leading to the unholy Chaos Land Raider — same firepower, but with more tentacles and fewer safety protocols.
Why It’s Still a Thing
Plenty of vehicles have come and gone across 10,000 years of war, but the Land Raider stuck around because it just works. It’s sealed tighter than a Death Guard’s hygiene kit, and if that doesn’t tell you something about its survivability, we don’t know what will.
It’s fully pressurized, so it can roll across the vacuum of space or straight onto the ocean floor without a hiccup. Toxic atmosphere? No problem. It’s got integrated life support, reinforced environmental shielding, and armored treads that scoff at terrain other tanks won’t even try to cross.
And then there’s the firepower. The Land Raider isn’t just a ride — it’s a gun platform that happens to be carpooling. It’s armed to the teeth (and a couple of hunter killer missiles) and can still carry a kill team inside. That means you’re never wasting its potential: you’re shooting while you’re moving, and delivering reinforcements directly into the fight.
Tucked inside that hunk of ceramite and machine spirit fury is the Cyclops M32 battle cogitator, which sounds fancy because it is. It’s basically a built-in targeting brain that helps the crew coordinate weapons, movement, and defensive systems all at once. Think of it like having an AI tank commander who hates xenos as much as you do.
In short? The Warhammer 40k Land Raider is the Space Marine equivalent of “get in, loser, we’re purging the unclean.” It’s ancient tech.
It’s brutally effective. And it’s still the gold standard for mixing transport duty with devastating fire support.
Land Raider Crusader – Up Close and Personal
The Land Raider Crusader is the tank you roll out when you’re done playing nice. Forget precision strikes. Forget sitting back and shooting.
This is the “kick in the teeth, kick in the door, and then kick what’s left” variant. Built for charging headfirst into fortified positions, it’s the go-to for Space Marines who think subtlety is for xenos.
Birth of a Brawler: The Jerulas Crusade
Back in 645.M39, during the Jerulas Crusade, the Imperium needed something with a bit more punch than the standard Land Raider Phobos. Enter Simagus, a tech-savant with more ambition than sense, who stumbled across some long-buried techno-arcana while spelunking through a captured Hive City’s basement.
He tinkered, reforged, and rewired his Chapter’s Land Raiders until something new rolled out of the manufactorum gates: the Land Raider Crusader. It didn’t take long for word to spread.
It was devastating. Reliable. Practically unstoppable. By 763.M39, the Adeptus Mechanicus begrudgingly admitted it was “acceptable,” which in Mechanicus terms is the equivalent of a standing ovation.
By then, of course, half the Space Marine Chapters in the Segmentum already had one parked in their motor pool.
Weapon Swap: Bolters Over Beams
The Crusader ditches the classic lascannons for something a little more… enthusiastic. On the sponsons, you’ll find hurricane bolters — three twin-linked bolters per side that just won’t shut up. Out front, a twin-linked assault cannon chews through infantry like a buzzsaw through parchment. And if that wasn’t enough, the Frag Assault Launchers shower the front arc with shrapnel right before the doors open.
It’s not subtle, but it works. Enemies near the ramp usually don’t get a chance to be enemies much longer.
Later models added a pintle-mounted multi-melta, thanks to feedback from the Black Templars who learned (after several very loud battles) that even zeal has its limits when you’re facing enemy armor.
Bigger Boot Space
Thanks to removing the power-gobbling lascannon systems, the Crusader frees up enough room inside to carry a whopping 16 Space Marines or 8 Terminators — more than any other Land Raider variant. It’s like an angry steel clown car: just when the enemy thinks it’s empty, another thunder hammer swings out.
To support the extra weight and stress, it comes kitted with Extra Armour and reinforced structural supports. Yes, it’s a bit slower. No, you won’t care when it’s rolling through enemy lines like a brick with a grudge.
Land Raider Redeemer – Flamethrower First
If the Crusader is a riot squad in a box, the Land Raider Redeemer is a mobile crematorium. Designed for one job — burning everything that looks at you funny — it’s the spicy variant you roll out when bolters just feel a little too polite.
Flamestorms for the Win
The Redeemer takes the Crusader’s hull and swaps out the hurricane bolters for Flamestorm Cannons — superheated short-range flamethrowers capable of liquefying whole squads. These things aren’t for crowd control. They’re for crowd elimination.
Whether it’s a trench line full of cultists, a hive tower entrance, or a swarm of Tyranids trying to dogpile your objective, the Redeemer clears the path with fire and fury.
Combine that with the assault cannon and frag launchers, and what you’ve got is a vehicle that can burn, suppress, and deliver troops — all while looking like it’s been dipped in righteous vengeance.
Born in the Fires of Grissen
The Fire Lords Chapter cooked this one up during a lovely vacation on Grissen, a planet gripped by civil war. Turns out orbital bombardments weren’t doing much (pesky civilians kept hiding underground), and Exterminatus was frowned upon by local bureaucrats.
So Chapter Master Jaric Phoros told his techmarines to “build something that’ll really turn up the heat.” The Redeemer was the result, and it roasted the rebellion into submission. Once the campaign ended and the ashes settled, other Chapters caught wind and quickly asked for the blueprints.
Land Raider Helios – The Artillery Option
Tanks with guns? Cool. Tanks that carry dudes and launch missiles across the battlefield? That’s Land Raider Helios territory.
It’s the hybrid no one asked for, but everyone respects — the siege platform of choice for Chapters that like their fire support armored and angry.
Built for the Siege of Helios
In 857.M38, the Red Scorpions found themselves bogged down during the Siege of Helios. Artillery? Nope. No backup. No chance they were going to ask the Imperial Guard for help.
So they did what any stubborn Chapter would do: retrofitted all twelve of their Land Raiders to act as makeshift artillery tanks.
And just like that, the Helios Pattern was born. The main draw? A Whirlwind missile launcher bolted right to the roof. Add that to twin-linked lascannons on the sides, and you’ve got a gun line on treads.
The trade-off? Troop space goes out the missile bay door. It holds just six power-armored Marines or 3 Terminators, which is tight even by Deathwatch kill team standards.
But in exchange, you get a mobile siege unit that can go where standard artillery can’t. Magma fields, warp-tainted jungles, collapsed cities — the Helios doesn’t care. It just rolls in and starts launching death from a distance.
Air Defense Mode: Hyperios Launcher
If you’re tired of enemy flyers dancing around your fire lanes, the Helios can swap its missile pod for a Hyperios Launcher — an anti-air system that turns your tank into a flak-blasting menace.
Suddenly, all those pesky Tau flyers, Eldar jets, and Heldrakes aren’t laughing anymore. Well, Heldrakes might still be laughing, but now they’re doing it while crashing into the dirt.
Chaos Land Raider – Heresy With Style
Take everything great about the standard Land Raider, add a dose of warp corruption, spikes, and demonic screaming, and you’ve got the Chaos Land Raider.
Daemon Engines and Corrupted Spirits
Chaos doesn’t just use Land Raiders. They defile them. Sure, it’s still got the twin-linked lascannons and the big troop capacity, but now it’s covered in chaotic glyphs, blasphemous runes, and spiked plating sharper than your chances of surviving a visit to Commorragh.
Some of these tanks have possessed machine spirits — literal daemons bound inside the engines, steering with hatred and making horrible noises in machine-code. Imagine your car actively hating you, but still getting you to the supermarket. That’s the Chaos Land Raider in a nutshell.
Custom Builds Galore
Chaos players don’t just run Land Raiders — they remix them. You’ll see everything from screaming daemonic faces molded into the armor to Helbrutes fused into the hull like twisted hood ornaments.
Some folks even magnetize weapon swaps and throw on trophies from their last game. Want a Nurgle Land Raider oozing plague and covered in flies? Do it.
Prefer one with Khornate spikes and a Berserker party inside? Also valid.
The only thing worse than a Land Raider is a Land Raider that’s mad at reality itself — and that’s the Chaos version in a nutshell.
Land Raider Proteus – The OG Returns
You know those dusty old blueprints that Forge World nerds won’t shut up about? This is one of them. The Land Raider Proteus is the classic version, the one from the Great Crusade days, before everything had purity seals and extra skulls glued to it.
What Makes the Proteus Different?
The Proteus Land Raider ditches the towering silhouette of modern Land Raiders for something lower, sleeker, and sneakier. It’s the stealth ninja of the Land Raider family — if a 70-ton tracked vehicle can qualify as stealthy.
It typically runs heavy bolters, autocannons, or lascannons, depending on your loadout. There’s no fixed template, which makes it a great canvas for tinkerers and Heresy-era army builders.
It doesn’t show up much in standard 40K games unless you’re dipping into Forge World rules or running a Horus Heresy army, but lore-wise, it’s a huge flex. Pulling one of these onto the tabletop is like showing up to a modern gunfight in full Roman legionnaire gear — stylish, maybe impractical, but undeniably cool.
And like all Land Raiders, it’s got thick armor, enough guns to ruin a bunker, and a bad attitude. Sometimes old-school is the best school.
Comparing the Land Raider Variants
Let’s put these war machines side by side:
The Land Raider Phobos is your bread-and-butter tank. It’s the classic look: all ceramite and firepower, built for busting other tanks and hauling a squad of up to 10 Space Marines or 5 Terminators. It comes armed with twin-linked lascannons on each side and a heavy bolter up front, making it ideal for taking down armor while keeping your troops relatively safe inside.
The Land Raider Crusader ditches the anti-tank role and goes full-blown assault boat. It’s got hurricane bolters on the sides (basically bolter miniguns), a twin-linked assault cannon on the front, and frag launchers to soften up anything outside the front door. Thanks to dropping the power-hungry lascannons, it can carry 16 Marines or 8 Terminators — the biggest transport capacity of the bunch. Think of it as the party bus for close-combat specialists.
The Land Raider Redeemer takes the Crusader’s assault focus and cranks the heat — literally. Instead of bolters, it has flamestorm cannons on the flanks, plus the same assault cannon up front. It holds 12 Marines or 6 Terminators, and it’s made to incinerate anything in cover or swarming your lines. Perfect for armies that think fire solves everything (looking at you, Salamanders).
The Odd Balls
The Land Raider Helios is the oddball — more artillery than transport. It’s armed with a Whirlwind missile launcher bolted to the top and twin-linked lascannons on the sides. Troop space takes a hit, with room for only 6 Marines or 3 Terminators, but the trade-off is long-range support in a chassis that won’t crumple like a Whirlwind when something looks at it funny.
Then there’s the Land Raider Proteus — the classic, old-school variant from the Horus Heresy era. It’s smaller, stealthier, and customizable. You can outfit it with lascannons, heavy bolters, or whatever makes sense for your Legion’s style. Troop capacity varies depending on your wargear loadout, but it’s great for those who like flexibility and vintage flair.
Last but never least: the Chaos Land Raider. It keeps the same core stats as the loyalist versions — same troop capacity, same basic weapons like twin-linked lascannons — but it throws in corrupted machine spirits, warped armor, and all the spiky, daemon-infested nonsense Chaos fans love. It’s not just a Land Raider. It’s a blasphemous war shrine on treads.
Final Thoughts on the Land Raider From Us
No matter how you field it — loyalist, heretic, or somewhere in between — the WH40K Land Raider is a rolling symbol of armored defiance. It’s a pain to kill, a joy to paint, and a reliable way to say, “My guys are getting to the objective, no matter what.”
From Land Raider Crusaders mowing down xenos to Redeemers melting cultists into puddles, there’s something weirdly satisfying about a model that can transport troops and ruin battle lines in the same turn.
So go ahead. Build one. Field it. Name it. Paint it like a cathedral on tracks or a daemonic siege engine.
There’s no wrong way to run a Land Raider — only different ways to leave a crater where the enemy used to be.
Check out the Lore & Playstyles of the Space Marines Here!
