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 and over rocks without the need of a spotter or Medivac Dropship. This 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.

Reapers may enter Bunkers.

The Reaper is the fastest ground unit in the game.

Abilities

 * D-8 Charges
 * This ability must be researched.
 * The Reaper throws a demolition charge on the ground. If the charge is not destroyed in a few seconds, it detonates damaging friendly and hostile ground units and buildings in the vicinity. A red timer bar that shows how long until it detonates. Each mine has only 10 hit points.
 * The mines deal 30 damage + 30 against armored units and buildings. Mine explosions do not detonate other mines.
 * The mines are very small, making them difficult to target. They are visible, but can be hidden by units moving past them.
 * The mines have a 30 second cooldown. A Reaper must wait 30 seconds after throwing a mine before it can throw another mine.

Development
Reapers were produced from the Merc Haven at BlizzCon, 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.

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 demo. By March 2008 Reapers still had not regained the ability to use StimPacks.