Carrier

"Carrier has arrived"

- Protoss Carrier


 * For the Terran Carrier, see Mammoth-class Troop Carrier.

The Carrier is a Protoss heavy air unit.

Lore
The Carrier serve as the operations centers for Protoss fleets. They are heavily armored but generally unarmed, relying on flights of robotic interceptors firing plasma charges, flying agilely. When they return, they are repaired.

Terran scientists have long yearned for an opportunity to study just how the smoothly orchestrated operations of a carrier are achieved in detail.

A small number of heavily armed "super Carriers" exist, most famously the Gantrithor, the flagship of former Executor Tassadar.

The Carrier in StarCraft I
The Carrier cannot attack on its own, but it produces light, fast robotic Interceptors, which attack using twin blasters. While one Interceptor is not much of a cause for concern among those being attacked, the Carrier's full complement of four Interceptors (upgraded to eight at the Fleet Beacon) make the Carrier a formidable weapon. The Interceptors are not capable of functioning independently of the Carrier; if the Carrier is destroyed its Interceptor complement will self-destruct.

The Carrier has very heavy armor and is faster than its Terran counterpart, the Battlecruiser. Its weapons system, which has a respectable effective range, is useful for destroying base defenses, especially fixed anti-air weapons (such as the Missile Turret or Spore Colony).

The Carrier must be warped in at a Protoss Stargate, but only after a Fleet Beacon has been built. An internet fad exists relating to Protoss Carriers, saying that "Mass Carriers = Instant Win", in other words marshalling a large force of Carriers is a sure-fire way to win a game as the Protoss. This is not strictly true, as this strategy would take an excessive amount of resources and time to carry out, and a skilled player could repel the assault, or strike while the Carriers are being built and prepared; the Battle.net Carrier profile lists countermeasures for all three races against it, plus some have been found such as using Terran Ghosts' Lockdown ability on Carriers. A zerg player can easily overrun an armada of carriers with a legion of easy to build, cheap scourge that can smash through a wall of carriers before the protoss player knew what was coming. Also, if the carriers do not have a detector unit with them, they can be wasted by a squad of cloaked Wraiths, or worse and even more humiliating, a rival fleet of carriers with one or two escort Arbiters.

Regardless, an attack by several Carriers at once can be damaging if properly supported, and also intimidating due to the havoc that Carriers cause upon deploying their Interceptors.

The Carrier in StarCraft II
The Carrier was originally replaced by the Tempest during the development of StarCraft II but was instead brought back due to "emotional connection with the original unit." Although it keeps the structural design of the Tempest, the 'light' color scheme has been maintained. There will also be the option to set it to automatically produce interceptors.

Upgrades

 * Air Weapons
 * Air Armor
 * Plasma Shields

Carrier Capacity
Increases the number of Interceptors the Carrier can hold at once by 4.
 * Cost: 100 0 100
 * Upgraded at: Fleet Beacon

Trivia
The StarCraft I Carrier page at StarCraft Compendium features a Carrier named "the Tempest". Hold your mouse cursor over the portrait to see the name of the Carrier.