Torrasque

"Sir, we've just had a whole cargo-ship full of whoop-ass dumped on us! We ran into a new strain of Ultralisk and it took a lot o' pepper to bring it down. To top it all off, our recon squad reports that the critter's been reincarnated by a nearby cerebrate and is on its way back for more!"

- A UED marine on Char



The Torrasque (a.k.a. Tarrasque) is a specialist zerg strain based on the ultralisk.

Overview
Only a few torrasques are known to exist. Larger and faster than the more common ultralisk, whole squadrons of infantry and artillery are required to take it down. Without these, the best one can do is flee. Or, better yet, take to the air. Torrasques are known for resurrecting on the battlefield.

History
"It got back up. Oh that ain't right"

- A marine witnessing a torrasque's resurrection

The Enslaved Torrasque
The first terrans known to have encountered the Torrasque were the Schezar's Scavengers mercenary organization. Schezar's psychics used khaydarin crystal technology to control a cerebrate on Aiur and its brood, along with the Torrasque. The Torrasque had already proven deadly against protoss forces sent against Schezar before a renegade former Alpha Squadron detachment led by Wraith pilot Tom Kazansky and science vessel commander Magellan arrived to arrest the Scavengers' leader, Alan Schezar.

Joining forces with Mojo, the renegade terrans assaulted the rogue brood and its keepers. They discovered that the Torrasque regenerated after being "killed". Magellan noted that the Torrasque's genetic signature was similar to the cerebrate's and Mojo theorized that slaying the cerebrate would prevent the resurrection of the Torrasque. The terrans and protoss destroyed the cerebrate, preventing the Torrasque's reincarnation.

The Torrasque on Char
The Torrasque would appear again during the United Earth Directorate's assault on Char. There one of the three Cerebrates guarding the second Overmind was surrounded by ultralisk caverns that could create the powerful Torrasque. Once again, a cerebrate could resurrect the Torrasque upon its death. The UED's Psi Disrupter, however, prevented the Overmind from resurrecting its cerebrates. As on Aiur, the death of the controlling cerebrate put an end to the Torrasque.

A Torrasque on Braxis
A Torrasque would find its way to Braxis where it would be placed under Sarah Kerrigan's control by a psi-emitter and used to destroy the Psi Disrupter.

Heart of the Swarm
During the Second Great War, the Zerg Swarm under the leadership of Sarah Kerrigan would seek to bolster its strength and recover formerly lost strains of zerg. With the aid of Abathur, Kerrigan could recreate the torrasques. While older torrasques required the power of cerebrates to be revived, new torrasques were genetically modified to use nuclear and radiological components to fuel their regrowth.

StarCraft
Torrasques appear as hero units in StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. They are not produceable by the player, while enemy torrasques are often scripted to re-spawn. A good tactic to deal with the torrasque in To Chain the Beast is to use a speed-upgraded vulture to attract its attention while siege tanks blast away at it. So long as the player is microing the vulture, the torrasque will not be able to catch up to the vulture and will continue chasing it until the tanks finish it off. A defensive matrix can also be used on the vulture to protect it in case it does get hit.

Twilight Struggle
Torrasques appear in Twilight Struggle. The yellow brood defends each cerebrate with one, and destroying a white brood ultralisk cavern causes one to spawn.

Heart of the Swarm Campaign
A torrasque skin is available to zerg players in Heart of the Swarm, provided they purchase the game's collector's edition.

They are also available as an evolution split of the ultralisk in the zerg campaign, appearing along with the noxious after completing the mission Planetfall.

Upon death the torrasque ultralisk will turn into a cocoon, which will rebirth into a new ultralisk. This ability has a 60 second cooldown, so if the ultralisk is killed when it is off cooldown, the ultralisk will die.

Thanks to the reincarnation effect, the torrasque strain can be far more cost-effective than the noxious strain, potentially giving the player two ultralisks for the price of one (provided that the cocoon is not destroyed). The torrasque also has a higher amount of base hitpoints than an Ultralisk, so this plus the reincarnation effect makes the torrasque more endurant than the noxious. However, the torrasque deals inferior damage to the noxious.

Known Torrasques

 * Wise Old Torrasque (leader of a mercenary brood)

Trivia
The Torrasque may have been inspired by the creature from Dungeons &amp; Dragons called the Tarrasque and/or the Tarasque, from which the former creature was derived.