Attributes

In StarCraft II, units are tagged with one or more Attributes that determine bonus damage, affect targeting, and/or can influence spells and abilities; as opposed to in StarCraft, where damage may be reduced depending on what unit type is being damaged. Damage is added on a "per hit" basis, and bonuses are calculated before armor is subtracted.

Attack types are more varied than in StarCraft, and can gain bonuses towards light, armored, biological, and massive units. Most units are either light or armored, which roughly corresponds to non-large and large unit sizes of StarCraft, respectively. Buildings are treated as armored and have the "structure" property. Some units, such as the, are neither light nor armored.

Shields are subject to the bonus damage of the unit underneath them.

Overview
There are restrictions on which Attribute combinations are valid. All units aside from SCVs, Ghosts, Hellbats, Banelings, Queens and Archons have exactly one Attribute from the following 4 categories: Units can then have two additional attributes from the following: detector, massive, psionic, structure. In the Campaign, some units are marked by a Heroic attribute; this identifies that the unit is resistant to "control-effects" and/or has significant "plot-armor" within the Campaign story.
 * Common
 * 1) All units are either ground or air.
 * 2) All units are either melee, ranged, or have no attack.
 * 3) All units are either light or armored 1.
 * 4) All units are either biological or mechanical 1.
 * Special
 * Notes:
 * 1) The exceptions are Archon, Ghost, Ravager, Baneling, Queen, and Cocoon, which are neither light nor armored.
 * 2) The exceptions are Archon and Infested Terran Egg, which are neither, and SCV and Hellbat, which are both.