In Dawn of War 4, developer King Art Games and publisher Plaion have confirmed that each faction will feature a massive endgame unit. For the Necrons, this unit is the C’Tan Shard of the Void Dragon—a powerful, flying entity capable of turning the tide of battle.
Mechanics of the Void Dragon
Unlike other faction units that typically serve their army, the C’Tan Shard is characterized by its hostility toward the Necrons themselves. Senior game designer Elliott Verbiest notes that the unit acts with clear reluctance, reflecting its status as a shackled god forced into service. Players are limited to summoning only one of these shards at a time.
On the battlefield, the unit functions as a high-damage melee threat with specific capabilities:
- Flight: The unit can bypass obstacles to reposition quickly.
- Ranged Attacks: It wields a spear capable of eliminating large units or clusters of smaller troops in a single strike.
- Self-Healing: It emits green bolts of lightning that damage vehicles and restore a portion of the unit's health.
Lore and Faction Identity
The current iteration of the Necrons in Dawn of War 4 follows a 2024 lore overhaul. According to Verbiest, the Necrons are an ancient civilization that traded their organic bodies for mechanical forms to cheat death, only to find their galaxy occupied by new species upon waking. The C’Tan shards represent the remnants of the star gods that originally granted the Necrons their immortality before being shattered and enslaved by their former subjects.
This history is reflected in the game's audio: when encountering enemy Necron forces, the C’Tan Shard uniquely refers to them as the "Necrontyr," their original name before the transition to mechanical bodies.