Marauder

"I got something new for ya, Cowboy! Marauders - the latest word in big badda boom hardware."

- Rory Swann

The marauder is a terran infantry unit in StarCraft II. It replaced the firebat in multiplayer during development.

Overview
Primarily a support unit for marines, the marauder arose from post- studies by the Dominion Armed Forces, showing a greater need of combat units better able to defeat zerg carapaces. To meet this requirement, the 5-4 Armored Infantry Suit was developed from the firebat's CMC-660 and equipped with two Quad K12 "Punisher" grenade launchers on each arm. The suit's grenade auto-loader is stocked with components that allow it to manufacture and load hundreds of standard Punisher grenades. By 2503,  marauders were being fielded.

The troops manning the suits are quite different to their firebat counterparts. As of 2504, 47% have never been to jail, and only 23% have ever been accused of murder. Marauder fatalities were commonplace prior to the implementation of kinetic foam into their suits, which allowed them to survive impacts that had previously killed operators, even while leaving the suit unharmed.

Game Unit
The marauder can only attack ground targets. Its attack is more powerful against armored units; it may slow units, except for massive units.

The marauder is an early-game support unit, useful for supporting s by slowing fast melee units. It is effective against armored units, like the roach. They are also powerful against stalkers, and, to a lesser extent, s, immortals and thors. Marauders can destroy buildings very quickly. The marauder is vulnerable to s, marines, and s. As a general rule, a player battling zerg should build fewer marauders than usual, while against the protoss, marauders are effective, though work well with medivac dropships as a "commando force" when battling the former.

Marauders without medivac support are not ideal for attacking photon cannons.

Wings of Liberty
Marauders are unlocked by playing the mission "Smash and Grab", available after Rory Swann was able to procure them for Raynor's Raiders.

In the Wings of Liberty campaign, marauders cannot use stimpacks.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Marauder Quotations

Development
The idea behind the marauder was to act as a sort of middleground between marines and vikings&mdash;mechanized infantry, yet not an actual mech.

The marauder was originally equipped with dual concussion-grenade launchers which reduce a biological unit's speed immediately by a set percentage. A charging zealot would still move quickly after being struck by a grenade.

Prior to StarCraft II beta patch #8, Concussion Grenades was an automatic upgrade. It later became a researched ability.

The Kinetic Foam upgrade in the single player campaign was originally known as "Ablative Scales". The original design for the button was even completed but was never used in the final product.

Known Marauders

 * First Sergeant Isaac White
 * Chief Engineer Rory Swann

Specialists

 * Aegis Guard
 * Hammer Securities

Trivia
The name "marauder" is possible a reference to the novel Starship Troopers, recalling the name of the Mobile Infantry's general-purpose heavy infantry suit.

In pre-release versions of StarCraft, the marine was known as the "marauder".