Ghost (StarCraft II)

"Whenever I see a world untouched by war, a world of innocence, a world of lush forests and clear rivers. (pause) I really just wanna nuke the crap out of it!"

- Terran Ghost

Game Unit
Ghosts are feared terran covert operatives. They are known for their skill, psionic powers, and ability to cloak.

Ghosts take up two slots in a bunker. They have a Hold Fire command, enabling them to hide their presence even when hostile units approach.

Ghosts make good counters against ravens, mutalisks, infestors, and high templar, but are weak against banshees, marauders, zerglings, stalkers, and zealots. They can also be used for mid game mineral line harassment and hydralisk hunting. Their EMP may be used to severely weaken protoss forces.

Ghosts can drop nukes very quickly. When backed up by medivac dropships, they can be moved from one strike zone to another, and heal the cloaked ghost whenever it gets attacked.

Wings of Liberty
In the Wings of Liberty single-player campaign, ghosts do not have the EMP ability. Ghosts are an alternative to spectres. Ghosts are unlocked by playing the mission "Ghost of a Chance", available after Nova offered Raynor's Raiders the technology necessary to train them.

Legacy of the Void
In Legacy of the Void, the Snipe ability is renamed "Steady Targeting" and deals 170 damage to a target biological unit, ignoring armor. This ability has a channeling time of 1.43 seconds, and will be cancelled if the ghost takes damage during this time. Unlike "Snipe," "Steady Targeting" cannot be queued to multiple targets.

Co-op Missions
Nova can build the advanced spec ops ghosts in Co-op Missions, with enhanced abilities, life and damage.

Development
Ghosts used to possess these abilities.

Ghosts were also upgradable with the Full-Bore Canister Ammo upgrade in the single player campaign, which gave ghosts +2 damage against light units. Only the upgrade remains within the editor. The icon texture also remains but is unused, as a button for the upgrade was never made. The ghost model has an unused animation for using a psi blade.

In Legacy of the Void, ghosts gained an anti-armor drone ability. The ghost deploys a flying, destructible drone that channels a beam onto a single target, reducing its armor by 3. This ability was removed in the final version of the game.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Ghost Quotations

Trivia
The ghost is voiced by Liam O'Brien.