Reaper

The reaper is a terran jet-pack equipped infantry unit introduced in StarCraft II.

Overview
Reapers specialize in hit-and-run, close-quarters combat. They are more mobile than marines as their jet packs allow them to surmount obstacles independently. Reapers are clad in self-contained body suits, and are armed with dual P-45 "Scythe" gauss pistols and deuterium-eight demolition charges.

Reapers are drawn from marine recruits that could not be successfully subjugated by neural resocialization. These resistant recruits tend to be among the most hardened of criminals, and are sent instead to the "Icehouse" in the Torus system to be inducted into the Reaper Corps. Reaper recruits are chemically altered to make them even more aggressive before being subjected to brutal training in close-quarters combat and the use of their jet packs.

While theoretically a reaper who survives two years of duty will be pardoned and released back to civilian life, in its five years of operation the Reaper Corps has yet to have a single recruit survive for more than six months.

Game Unit
Reapers can leap up and down ledges (only one tier, however) without the need of a spotter or medivac dropship. They cannot leap over obstacles or Force Fields, however. This ability makes reapers ideal for scouting and hit-and-run attacks. The reaper's low damage attack ignores the specially hardened shield of the protoss immortal and cannot hit air units. It does bonus damage against light units and is especially effective against zerglings and workers with a little maneuvering, though are not as effective against the zerg as a whole as they are against other opponents and as such, it is inadvisable to build reapers en masse when battling zerg.

Reapers may enter bunkers.

Reaper vs Hellion
The reaper is not quite as fast as the hellion, but can often get to certain areas faster due to its cliff-jumping capability. Reapers do more targeted damage to light-armored units such as workers but Hellions can injure several simultaneously. They have different armor qualities as well, which can factor into the decision as to which raider to use.

Strategies
Reaper mines are multifunctional. They are useful against clumps of units, stationary defenses and choke points. Against a weakly defended base, reapers can quickly enter, destroy the stationary defenses and damage the economy before enemy units can return.

Development
Reapers were produced from the merc haven at BlizzCon 2007, using a different technique than other terran infantry units. The haven housed up to four reapers. The entire supply could be bought at once, with the supply recovering over time. Reapers could be built very quickly. However, this was later changed with reapers being built at the barracks like other infantry unit.

Reapers are supposedly "enthusiastic users" of StimPacks and could be upgraded with them at one time but they did not possess them in the BlizzCon 2007 demo. By March 2008 reapers still had not regained the ability to use StimPacks.

Known Reapers

 * Nero
 * Kern