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 against heavy ground targets, the marauder arose from post-Brood War 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.

A more powerful version of the CMC-660s used by marauders was approved for field testing, and any marauder who volunteered were compensated with credits.

The Dominion Special Forces surveyed marauders on how to improve their hardware, and the resounding answer was to increase the size of their guns. This feedback was taken in account when creating a Special Forces variant of the marauder's armor.

Marauders make up some of the original crew of Mira's Marauders. It has been speculated that these marauders are either extremely loyal compared to other mercenaries, or Mira just has exceptionally compelling blackmail on them.

StarCraft II
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.

Versus

 * Upgrades and Abilities

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. A variant of the marauder appears in the mission "The Great Train Robbery," designated as a Dominion kill team. They deal slightly more damage than normal marauders and have a unique color scheme, but are otherwise identical to the normal marauder.
 * Upgrades and Abilities

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


 * Upgrades and Abilities

Co-op Missions
Marauders appear in Co-op Missions on the Miner Evacuation map as part of the infested. These Marauders are identical to regular Marauders, except with a neural parasite attached to their model.

In Co-op Missions, marauders are able to be constructed by Jim Raynor. Nova gains access to the advanced Marauder commando, with enhanced life, damage and abilities.


 * Raynor Upgrades

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.

In Legacy of the Void, the marauder's attack was modified; it now deals 2 hits per attack instead of 1, but has the same DPS - this makes armor more effective against them. This was primarily meant to nerf marauders versus Protoss, but also makes the marauder much less effective against fully-upgraded ultralisks than in Heart of the Swarm.

Heroes of the Storm
Marauders appear as melee minion units on the maps Braxis Holdout and Warhead Junction in Heroes of the Storm.

A marauder skin for Muradin also appears in game, and references the Hammer Securities marauder mercenaries.

Known Marauders

 * First Sergeant Isaac White
 * Chief Engineer Rory Swann
 * Specialist Cranston

Specialists

 * Aegis Guard
 * Hammer Securities
 * Marauder commando

Trivia

 * The name "marauder" is a possible 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".


 * Most in-universe sources regard the marauder as a support unit. However, Radio Liberty referred to the marauder as a "foundational unit."