Reaper

"Hell, cowboy, we gotta train more of these guys, they're seriously bad ass!"

- Chief Engineer Rory Swann

The reaper is a terran jet-pack equipped infantry unit introduced in StarCraft II.

Overview
"Fear the Reaper man."

- A reaper

Operating in squads, reapers specialize in hit-and-run, close-quarters combat. Classified as foundational units for terran forces, they are more mobile than marines as their jet packs allow them to surmount obstacles independently. Originally these jet packs (alternatively referred to as "jump packs") were capable of full flight. Crashes and fatalities were common among new "recruits" as the unwieldy booster proved difficult to control. The hardware was also known to randomly explode due to poor distribution of fuel lines and air intakes, leading to a complete overhaul. Prototypes of a flightless, twin-turbine jump pack surfaced soon after—which gave reapers enough mobility to carry out their missions and return to base in one piece. However by 2512, Dominion reapers were once again given fully flight capable jetpacks, as more advanced suit designs and better training routines prevented many of these crashes.

Reapers are clad in self-contained body suits and wear polarized plasteel flight goggles. They are armed with either dual P-38 or P-45 pistols. Many reapers also use Deuterium-eight demolition charges despite the Dominion Armed Forces' efforts to curtail their usage. Combat drugs can be administered to reapers within the field.

Dominion Reapers
"If marines were the best of the best, reapers were the worst of the worst."

- Foster Cray

Dominion reapers consisted of individuals that are resistant to neural resocialization&mdash;pirates, petty crooks, murderers, the occasional political dissident, and marine recruits that remain unmanageable after being subjected to resoc. These resistant recruits tended to be among the most hardened of criminals, and were sent instead to the "Icehouse" in the Torus system to be inducted into the Dominion Reaper Corps. Reaper recruits were chemically altered to make them even more aggressive before being subjected to brutal training in close-quarters combat and the use of their jet packs.

Reapers were obligated to serve two years before being discharged. In the first five years the Reaper Corps failed to have a single recruit complete more than six months of service. However, some reapers were allowed to leave the program for reasons such as injury.

Upon coming to the throne, Valerian Mengsk re-organized the Reaper Corps, giving its members better, more humane training. He did away with the requirement to use dangerous stimulants, and focused recruiting on finding candidates who were naturally unpredictable.

Other Reapers
Other terran factions that utilize Reapers include Raynor's Raiders, Tosh's Goons, Moebius Corps, the Defenders of Man, Mira's Marauders, the Umojan Protectorate (which have their own Reaper Corps) and renegade units. Mira's Marauders make use of a particularly large number of reapers, who modify their armor with scrap metals, and are particularly famous for their armor's distinctive metal mohawks.

Game Unit
Reapers can leap up and down ledges (only one tier, however) without the need of a spotter or medivac dropship. This ability makes reapers ideal for scouting and hit-and-run attacks. They cannot leap over obstacles or Force Fields, however.

The reaper's low damage attack ignores the specially hardened shield of the protoss immortal and cannot hit air units.

It does bonus damage against light units. It is strong against zealots, zerglings, and workers with a little maneuvering,.

Reapers may enter bunkers.

Dustin Browder believed the reaper was over-nerfed in the development of Wings of Liberty and intended to correct that in Heart of the Swarm. Blizzard believed the reaper was only strong in a short period of gameplay.

In early game raids, reapers work well in trios. A trio of shots can take out a drone in a single round of firing for instance.

The reaper is not quite as fast as the hellion, but can often get to certain areas faster due to its cliff-jumping capability. Reapers do more targeted damage to light-armored units such as workers but hellions can injure several simultaneously and with the Infernal Pre-Lighter upgrade are capable of dealing greater amounts of damage. However, reapers attack more than twice as fast as hellions do. They have different armor qualities as well, which can factor into the decision as to which raider to use.

Versus
In Legacy of the Void, reapers gained a grenade ability. Here, the reaper launches a grenade that deals damage and knockback.

Wings of Liberty
Reapers are unlocked by playing the mission "The Devil's Playground", available after Gabriel Tosh gave some of them to Raynor's Raiders.

Co-op Missions
Reapers can be built by Mira Han in Co-op Missions. They can be upgraded to engage air units by flying upwards with their jetpacks.

Nova Covert Ops
In Nova Covert Ops, reapers can equip one of various provided upgrades and abilities for each mission.

Development
Main article: Reaper/Development

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Reaper Quotations

Known Reapers

 * Colonel Nero
 * Lieutenant Dennis Halkman
 * Sergeant Stilson Blumquist
 * Boff
 * Kern
 * Samuel Lords
 * Polek
 * Pfaff
 * Rock

Washouts
These reapers "washed out" during training:


 * Gabriel Feltz
 * Henisall
 * Dennis Staton

Specialists

 * Death Head

Trivia
The term "reaper" possibly refers to the Grim Reaper, a personification of death in various cultures.

Reaper is a playable hero in Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch setting. Like reapers, he dual-wields firearms, wears a mask, and is highly mobile but fragile.