StarCraft II/Characters/Units

The units of Starcraft II.

For the characters, check the character page. Head this way for the original Starcraft's characters. For the units introduced in Starcraft, go to the respective unit sheet.

Marauder
""Let's have a blast!""

Adapted from the Firebat suit, Marauders act as support troops for infantry. Their armament is a pair of wrist-mounted grenade launchers that slow down enemies on impact.


 * Arm Cannon
 * Awesome but Practical: They're not that expensive and train quickly. In return they do obscene damage for their cost in the early to mid-game, move fairly quick, attack at a decent rate and are easily massed in numbers. Add in their optional upgrades to make them even more Awesome but no less Practical.
 * Badass Baritone
 * Cast From Hit Points: Stimpacks
 * Grenade Launcher
 * Lightning Bruiser: They move fairly fast, pack a punch, and have a good amount of HP. Then you get them their Stimpacks and Concussive Shells, increasing their movement and fire rates and giving any unit they attack a penalty for the same.
 * Powered Armor
 * Soul Brotha: This is their speech pattern.

Reaper
""The Grim Reaper has arrived...""

Reapers are speedy base raiders armed with handguns and explosives, and equipped with jetpacks that let them leap up and down cliffs to quickly infiltrate enemy lines.


 * Dual-Wielding
 * Fragile Speedster: Besides the fact they're innately quick, their ability to jump up and down cliffs lets them escape pursuers that way as well. However they're very weak.
 * Guns Akimbo
 * Healing Factor: As of Heart of the Swarm, they'll be able to regenerate out of combat.
 * Jet Pack
 * Secondary Fire: Chucks explosive charges when attacking buildings.
 * Throw Down the Bomblet

Hellion
""Ready to raise some hell!""

Fast-moving land rovers armed with flamethrowers, they deal damage to clumps of enemies and excell at fighting light units.


 * Divergent Character Evolution: While the Hellion is basically a replacement for the Vulture, in the single-player campaign the Hellion's upgrades focus on enhancing its splash damage capabilities, while the Vulture's focus on enhancing its Spider Mines.
 * As for the Hellion itself, it's a Fragile Speedster normally with low HP but high speed, becomes a Glass Cannon with Infernal Pre-Igniter to boost its damage, and in Heart of the Swarm can transform into the Battle Hellion, a Mighty Glacier with higher HP but low speed.
 * Kill It With Fire
 * Splash Damage
 * Transforming Mecha: In Heart of the Swarm they can change into "Battle Mode" to become a support walker with higher HP but lower speed.

Thor
""Thor is here!""

A massive heavy artillery walker, it is to ground units what the Battlecruiser is to air units--the Bigger Stick. Memorably speaks like a certain Austrian bodybuilder who became Governer of California.


 * The Ahnold: Complete with many Shout Outs to his famous lines.
 * Backpack Cannon: Four of them. Swing forward to become Shoulder Cannons during its artillery barrage.
 * BFGs
 * Humongous Mecha: At one point in development it was built by the SCV out in the field because it was too big to be built in a Factory. When the Thor was moved into the Factory its model was scaled down a bit, but it's still huge.
 * Irony: The Thor is meant to be an anti-air unit. In the campaign, the Thor's Super Prototype Odin is specifically stated to have weak anti-air capabilities.
 * Justified because the Thor is a heavily modified Odin chassis by Raynor's Raiders.
 * Large Ham: When you're impersonating Ahnold, what can you expect?
 * Incoming Ham: "Thor is here!"
 * Leaning On the Fourth Wall:"I'm here! Click me!"
 * Metalhead: "I am heavy metal!" Indeed. Pretty awesome if you imagine him blazing it at 11 volume as he lays waste to all before him
 * Mighty Glacier: Huge offensive power and a lot of HP, not very impressive movement.
 * More Dakka: Its artillery barrage ability. Those Backpack Cannons get used, all at once.
 * One-Man Army: As of Heart of the Swarm, the Thor is getting all-around buffed up, but is limited to one at a time.
 * Splash Damage: With its anti-air barrage, which is designed to chew up clumped light units like Mutalisks.

Warhound
Set to be introduced with Heart of the Swarm, it's armed with area-of-effect anti-air missiles and an anti-armor laser.


 * Armor-Piercing Attack
 * Composite Character: Apparently is about as durable and pricy as the Goliath, but with the Thor's area-attack and the approximate appearance of an SCV with longer arms and legs.
 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Herd-Hitting Attack

Viking
""Ready to plunder.""

An air superiority assault fighter that can change into a ground-based walker to help out its allies in the dirt.


 * Jack of All Stats: Much like the unit it replaces, the Goliath, it's best as an anti-air unit but is also an effective ground support unit and does good damage for its cost. It's also a good base raider and has high versatility, given that it can be an air or ground unit and thus can transform to dodge enemy fire.
 * Gatling Good
 * Rape, Pillage and Burn: They like to allude to this in their quotes.
 * Transforming Mecha

Banshee
""Engines screaming""

A Terran bombardment craft equipped with a cloaking field, it fires barrages of missiles at ground targets.


 * Invisibility Cloak
 * Macross Missile Massacre
 * Splash Damage: Used to deal it normally, it was cut from the multi-player but returned in the single player campaign.

Raven
""Raven on-line""

A support craft equipped with on-board construction facilities that allow it to manufacture machines for various purposes in combat.


 * Attack Drone: Its Auto-Turrets.
 * Painfully-Slow Projectile: Hunter-Seeker Missile. There's even an achievement for dodging one long enough for it to explode without impact.
 * Splash Damage: Hunter-Seeker Missile.
 * True Sight

Medivac
""Ready for dust-off""

The Dropship of the old armada has been equipped with the Medic's healing abilities to allow it to heal troops on the move more efficiently.


 * Divergent Character Evolution: In the single-player campaign the Medic can be ugpraded to heal faster and for less energy, while the Medivac can get the ability to heal two units at once. The Medivac is also more expensive and slower to build, but has better durability and can function as a transport.
 * Drop Ship
 * Escape Pod: Can be upgraded with them, allowing units inside to survive and be deployed on the ground if it gets shot down.
 * In-Series Nickname: They're called "heal buses" by Marines. Some pilots don't take kindly to it.
 * The Medic
 * Nanotechnology

Spectre
""I have awakened...""

Advanced Ghosts, Spectres are even deadlier assassins than their counterparts, but are also more unstable.


 * Death From Above
 * Faceless Goons: Played with. They wear fully concealing masks, like the Ghosts... but only when they activate their Invisibility Cloak. Otherwise, the superior half of their face is unconcealed and visible.
 * Invisibility Cloak
 * Psychic Powers
 * Psycho Prototype: They're not: they don't have implants or brainwashing, and little details (look Faceless Goons above) show they're more human than the Ghosts.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning
 * Super Soldier
 * Telepathic Spacemen
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: According to the novelizations, spectres must regularly consume terrazine to keep their heightened powers. It can cause hallucinations, visions, fits of rage, and other assorted problems, such as it being as addicting as a typical drug and thus you can take too much of it regularly and these problems intensify. Taking the terrazine with jorium helps dull the side-effects a bit though.
 * You Nuke'Em

Diamondback
""What needs killing?""

Originally developed by the Confederacy, they can attack on the move with railgun turrets. They were discovered inactive in the ruins of Tarsonis and pressed into service by the Dominion and Raynor's Raiders.


 * Armor-Piercing Attack
 * Cool but Inefficient: The Diamondback is fast, has the ability to fire on the move, has good hitpoints, and has a strong anti-armor attack. However, their use is extremely niche, and they aren't as versatile as other units, such as the overpowered "campaign" Siege Tank.
 * This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman: The mission that introduces the Diamondback has you tracking down and shooting fast, high-HP armored trains. The Diamondback moves fast, fires on the move, and does extra damage to armored units.

Predator
A robotic fighter, it unleashes a field of electricity whenever it attacks, heavily damaging nearby units.


 * Animal Mecha
 * Cool but Inefficient: It rips apart melee ground units with ease thanks to its electric splash damage ability, but is otherwise fairly forgettable since the Terrans already have the Firebat and Perdition Turret for dealing with Zergling swarms.
 * Shock and Awe
 * Splash Damage

Hercules
A massive dropship, it can single-handedly carry an entire army into battle.


 * Escape Pod: As with the Medivac's upgrade, units inside survive to be deployed should the Hercules be destroyed.

Queen
The successor to the original Queen is an entirely different unit. Now a ground-based unit, she specializes in supporting the development of the base with various abilities and providing a pinche ranged attack against early raids.


 * In Name Only: Bears a very vague physical resemblance to the original Queen...and that's about all they have in common.
 * Mook Maker: Indirectly, she can cause a Hatchery to spawn extra larva.

Baneling
An evolution of the Zergling, they're rolling suicidal bombers that explode on impact.


 * Action Bomb
 * Divergent Character Evolution: In the campaign they can upgrade into Gorgelings or Splitterlings, the Gorgeling rewards the player with a bit of minerals and gas when they kill enemies, the Splitterling splits into two Splitterlings when it dies, then two more from each of them.
 * Glass Cannon: A handful of them can cripple an army, and they move decently fast, but are easily slain. Not a problem though, see Taking You With Me.
 * Hollywood Acid
 * Splash Damage
 * Taking You With Me: In sharp contrast to the Infested Terran, the Baneling still does splash damage when destroyed so simply gunning it down before it gets to you won't guarentee your safety.

Roach
An amptly named tier-one ranged attacker, they spew acid to attack and can move while burrowed. This same abilities allows them to rapidly recovery health.


 * Breath Weapon
 * Divergent Character Evolution: The Zerg campaign allows Roaches to be permanently upgraded into Leeches or Prowlers--Leeches regenerate quicker when burrowed and gain HP as they kill enemies, while Prowlers can move while burrowed.
 * Healing Factor: Properly microed, Roachs definitely live up to their name if the opponent has no detection, because when burrowed they heal very quickly, especially with the Tunneling Claws upgrade that allows them to move while burrowed and increase health regeneration.
 * Hollywood Acid
 * Secondary Fire: A "hidden" melee animation that is otherwise the exact same as their ranged attack.

Infestor
A support caster, they can take over the minds of enemies and spew eggs that hatch into Infested Terrans.


 * Mook Maker
 * Puppeteer Parasite

Swarm Host
A siege unit appearing in Heart of the Swarm, they can burrow underground and unleash hordes of small attackers on enemies.


 * Mook Maker

Overseer
An evolution of the Overlord, they can disable enemy buildings in the process of building or researching something, and spawn Changelings to spy on enemies.


 * The Mole: Their Changelings, which shapeshift into enemy base units to infiltrate them.
 * Put On a Bus: Initially in Heart of the Swarm in favor of the Viper.
 * The Bus Came Back: Then came back when the Viper was retooled and Blizzard decided to tweak the Overseer to be more useful on its own.
 * True Sight

Corruptor
An anti-armor flier, they act as a counter to heavier air units that Mutalisks can't compete with.


 * Armor-Piercing Attack: With their corruption ability.
 * Everything's Squishier With Cephalopods
 * Lightning Bruiser: They move quite fast, do good damage, and have a lot of HP.

Viper
A new anti-air flier coming in Heart of the Swarm, they can lash enemies and pull them out of place, or do the same to allies to pull them to safety. They also function as detectors.

Brood Lord
An evolution of the Corruptor, it produces Broodlings from its body which it then hurls at ground targets, not only damaging them heavily but leaving the Broodling down there to wreack havoc on its own.


 * Abnormal Ammo: Fires broodlings (which then proceed to gnaw on your enemies) instead of simple projectiles.
 * Mighty Glacier: Has much higher HP than the original Guardian and with its broodlings does a lot more damage, but is still very slow.
 * Spawn Broodling

Abberation
An advanced form of Infested Terran appearing in a handful of missions, they attack with claws and are barely recognizable as being human once.


 * Body Horror
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom

Brutalisk
A massive special Zerg breed and terribly powerful, it appears as an optional foe in some missions, yielding valuable dNA for research when killed.


 * Biological Mashup: Your guess is as good as ours what DNA strand(s) the Brutalisk was mutated from.
 * Bonus Boss: As mentioned, whenever it appears its as an optional objective, and for good reason.
 * Elite Mook
 * Spikes of Villainy

Leviathan
An utterly huge breed of airborne Zerg, tasked with defending Char in the final battles.


 * Breath Weapon: Spews slime both as an attack and an ability.
 * Combat Tentacles
 * Mook Maker
 * Units Not to Scale: It is gigantic and definitely one of the biggest units you'll see in the campaign, but according to Heart of the Swarm a Leviathan acts as Kerrigan's base of operations, so they're likely much larger than you see.

Stalker
""I am here in the shadows...""

A ranged support walker based on Dark Templar emulations of the Dragoon, they fire phase disruptors and can use Blink to teleport a short distance.


 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * Flash Step: There's even an achievement for dodging a killing blow with Blink.
 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Jack of All Stats: They move even faster than Zealots until they get their speed upgrade, but compared to other Protoss forces their damage output and HP is mediocre.
 * Man in The Machine
 * Spider Mecha

Sentry
A robotic support drone that specializes in energy manipulation, it can project energy fields to protect allies and block passage over terrain.


 * Barrier Warrior
 * Boring but Practical: A relatively small group of Sentries with good energy reserves can rapidly erect several Force Fields, letting them stop the opponent's retreat, block their reinforcements, and keep melee units at bay. Add in Guardian Shield to defend allies and the support fire it offers normally, and Sentries are a nice addition to any Protoss ground army.
 * Deflector Shields: Besides the standard Protoss plasma shields, it has Guardian Shield to reduce damage to nearby allies.
 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Master of Illusion: They inhereit the High Templar's Hallucination skill from the first game.
 * Squishy Wizard: Keep them alive and they'll more than prove themselves worth the cost. The problem is that first part.

Immortal
""I return to serve""

In the lore, the Dragoons of old can no longer be created, the shrine dedicated to their construction lost with the fall of Aiur. The Dragoons that survived have been adapted into Immortals, anti-armor walkers with hardened shields that resist heavy-hitting blows.


 * Armor-Piercing Attack: As a dedicated anti-armored unit, it gets an impressive damage buff when attacking an armored target.
 * Beehive Barrier
 * Death of a Thousand Cuts: The Immortal's hardened shields reduce the damage it takes from slow-attacking hard-hitting units like Siege Tanks. This the best way to deal with them is with fast-hitting weak units where their shields don't trigger and their armor-piercing attack bonus doesn't apply.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: This also means that the base units of the races are quite good at fighting them.
 * Irony: It also means the Immortal is quite good against other Protoss, and a fight between a pack of Colossi versus a pack of Immortals will result in the Immortals winning if the Colossi try to take them head-on.
 * Man in The Machine
 * Mighty Glacier: Not that fast but high damage output and a lot of HP.
 * Overshadowed By Awesome: Prior to Patch 1.4 the Colossus was almost universally preferable to the Immortal due to higher HP, significantly greater damage output, siege range, and increased mobility, while not being much more expensive. Said patch boosted the Immortals range to make them more viable.
 * Spider Mecha

Colossus
Massive four-legged walkers that can walk up and down cliffs, they were developed centuries ago but sealed away in asteroids. The Protoss have recovered and reactivated them to serve as heavy support fighters.


 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Humongous Mecha: So humongous that air units can shoot them down.
 * Lightning Bruiser: High damage output and a lot of HP, it moves at a fair clip and can walk over cliffs to take shortcuts and outrun ground enemies.
 * Splash Damage

Phoenix
""Teleport successful""

Fast-moving air skirmish units, they can't attack ground units but don't need to--their Graviton Beam lets them bring ground units up to their level instead.


 * Frickin' Laser Beams: Yeah, the Protoss are big on this trope.
 * Beam Spam: During development their ability was "Overload", where they fire a flurry of lasers to attack enemies with a Herd-Hitting Attack, then go off-line for a period of time.
 * Gravity Master

Warp Prism
The new Protoss transport, consisting of a crystal "computer" inside a mechanical structure, the crystal can covert matter into energy, allowing it to transport even the massive Colossus across great distances.


 * Applied Phlebotinum: To elaborate on the above description, the Warp Prism is a crystal lattice controlled by a robotic mind created by psionic manufacturing techniques, capable of converting matter into energy, imprinting the subject's energy signature on the crystal, then reconfiguring that energy signature back into matter... yeah.
 * Drop Ship
 * Mook Maker: its other purpose. It can deploy itself as a floating Pylon, allowing you to power buildings and (if you have Warp Gates) warp in units. These are two of the reasons you Construct Additional Pylons.

Void Ray
""Prismatic core on-line""

A Protoss support ship, it is armed with a prismatic beam that fires a steady stream of energy. The longer it fires at a single target the better the crystals firing the beam align togther, slowly intensifying the beam's energy output and doing more damage.


 * Awesome but Practical: Unless your opponent has significantly large numbers of anti-air units, a relatively small group of Void Rays are incredibly strong once they get their beams charged up.
 * Converging Stream Weapon
 * Evolving Attack
 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Glass Cannon: Surprisingly fragile for its cost and damage output, and are often considered some of the most valuable units in an army to keep alive. If they are kept alive, their charged beams kill even small, massed anti-air units like Marines very quickly.
 * Wave Motion Gun
 * Yin-Yang Bomb: According to the lore, it was designed by combining Dark Templar and Khalai manufacturing techniques, and its powerful energy beam is created by combining the two forms of psionic energy.

Tempest
The new Protoss capital ship set to replace the Carrier in Heart of the Swarm, it has a powerful area-of-effect air attack and a beam attack for ground units.


 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Herd-Hitting Attack
 * The Bus Came Back: The Tempest was in the game in the Alpha phase as a dedicated anti-ground unit, though it had a different appearance. It got cut when the Carrier made it back into the game in Wings of Liberty, only to return in Heart of the Swarm.

Oracle
An aerial support caster debuting in Heart of the Swarm, they can sabotage production by casting a force field to stop mining on mineral patches and temporarily removing buildings from play.


 * Spy Bot

Mothership
""Justice has come!""

The height of Protoss air power, a flying city long used as a mobile base in the lore but not deployed in the field until now.


 * Awesome but Impractical: While its abilities and power are impressive, its long build time, top-tier tech requirements and huge resource cost make it difficult to deploy, and once it hits the field it moves very slowly and needs time to build up a store of energy to use properly.
 * Combination Attack: When combined with Archons, the stacking effect vortex has on air units plus the archons splash damage leads to the splash destroying nearly any air unit caught within the vortex after they emerge.
 * Flying Saucer
 * Frickin' Laser Beams
 * Large and In Charge: Without question the largest unit in multiplayer. In the campaign its rivaled by the Odin and the Leviathan.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * The Mothership
 * Put On a Bus: Absent in Heart of the Swarm.
 * Unrealistic Black Hole: Vortex, which was actually named Black Hole during development.

Hybrid Reaver
A Zerg-attuned Hybrid that attacks at close range with claw attacks.


 * Bonus Boss: In a sense. It appears in the optional secret mission, but can't be destroyed.
 * Fangs Are Evil
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom
 * Mighty Glacier: High HP and power, low speed.
 * Tron Lines
 * Weaksauce Weakness: One of the most efficient ways to win the final Protoss mission where the Hybrids swarm you in waves is to build a fleet of Phoenix and use their Graviton Beams to levitate the Hybrids, taking them out of the fight.

Hybrid Destroyer
A Protoss-attuned Hybrid that fires blasts of psionic energy.


 * Expy: You're forgiven if you mistake them at first glance for Archons.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Power Glows
 * Weaksauce Weakness: See the Hybrid Reaver's entry.