Nuclear missile

"Thank God for cold fusion!"

- Terran Marine

The nuclear missile, or Nuke, is a Terran weapon of mass destruction, fired from a structure. It must be guided to its destination by a Ghost.

History
The Terran Confederacy had access to more advanced technology than the other main Terran factions, the Kel-Morian Combine and Umojan Protectorate. They also exhibited a greater willingness to apply it to applications of war.

During the Korhalian Rebellion, which took place on Korhal IV, the Korhalians drove the Confederates from their world. Assassinating the Korhalian leader simply replaced him with his more dangerous son, Arcturus Mengsk. When Mengsk was visiting his secret ally, the Umojan Protectorate, the Confederates fired one thousand Apocalypse-class Missiles at Korhal, destroying virtually all life on the world. Millions of Korhalian colonists were killed, although the rebel movement still survived - with very small numbers. As a political consequence of this extreme action, the Confederates limited their use of nuclear weaponry to tactical nukes. These nukes would be guided to their destinations by Ghosts.

The Nuke in StarCraft I
Nukes are built within a Nuclear Silo, an add-on to the Command Center. Each Nuclear Silo can only hold one Nuke at a time.

When enough resources have been budgeted (200 minerals, 200 Vespene gas and 8 supply), the silo can construct a nuke, which takes about 100 seconds. Once it is done building, a Ghost can target the missile. When this occurs, the Ghost will then be uncontrollable (and "frozen") until the missile is within range. The message "Nuclear Launch Detected" will be displayed to all players and a flashing red dot will be displayed to the point where the Missile will impact. Once the missile is "in range" it cannot be diverted, the Ghost is "un-frozen" and within about 10 seconds, the nuke will land and explode.

The Missile itself has a large blast radius and will usually kill any units and critically damage buildings in one shot. It deals 500 damage or removes two thirds of the victim's total hit points, whichever is greater; thus, two nukes will destroy almost any unit or building, if the building was the one targeted point.

The dot indicating the point on which the nuclear missile is about to fall can be hidden by various methods. The easiest way is to place an air unit over the point so that the dot is effectively hidden. When fighting against the Zerg, targeting a missile on a bleeding Zerg structure will also disguise the dot as some of the blood from the structure, and it will be impossible to distinguish the dot. Another easy alternative is to use Firebats, whose flames can actually hide the dot as long as both the missile and the Firebat are targeting the same structure.

The Nuke in StarCraft II
In StarCraft II, nuclear missiles are once again directed by Ghosts. The player launching the nuke will see a large nuclear emblem 'closing in' on ground zero, where the nuke will strike. Other players will still see the traditional small red dot. When the Ghost is aiming the nuke, it will be frozen, but it can still be given the order to "move away", which it will do the moment it is unfrozen.

The StarCraft II nuke deals a fixed amount of 800 damage. It will only do 10 damage to an Immortal with the Hardened Shields upgrade. As such, Motherships will be able to survive a nuke but Battlecruisers will not.

Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.