Nova Terra (Co-op Missions)

"Agent reporting for duty. The Dominion’s best Ghost, Nova Terra, joins the ranks as our newest Co-op Commander. Backed by the most advanced Terran technology and the highest tier of trained combatants, Nova controls the battlefield with the speed and power of a nuclear explosion."

- Commander blurb

Nova Terra is a commander in Co-op Missions introduced in Patch 3.7. She takes the field with a hero unit, and has the ability to blink, shield herself and call down nuclear strikes against her enemies. Her army consists of elite special ops units that deploy instantly, but have substantial resource costs over normal units.

Overview
Nova has simplified base and production when compared to other commanders - much of the player's focus will be on combat. She does not require supply depots, and only one of each production facility is available. Her army has a supply cap of 100, and her combat units are called down to the battlefield instantly, without any construction time. Nova herself has high burst damage, but is relatively fragile, and relies on stealth and gadgets to be effective. Part of her covert ops theme is "having all the right toys at the right time." Nova has two different equipment sets and can adapt to any situation by swapping between them on the field.

Nova can only produce one barracks, one factory, and one starport. Each functions the way a mercenary compound does, dropping units onto the field. The units are expensive and generally arrive in batches (for instance, Nova can summon four elite marines). When a unit-producing structure is first created, it cannot immediately create many units, and can only store up to 4 charges.

Info

 * Recommended for experienced players
 * Control Nova and her army of elite units
 * Use advanced tech to sustain and support your forces

Mastery

 * Power Set 1
 * Nuke and Holo Decoy Cooldown: -1s - 30s
 * Griffin Airstrike cost: -10 minerals - 300 minerals (down to a minimum of 700 minerals)


 * Power Set 2
 * Nova Attack Speed: +1% - 30%
 * Unit Attack Speed: +0.5% - 15%


 * Power Set 3
 * Nova Energy Regeneration: +1% - 30%
 * Combat Unit Life Regeneration: +0.2 - 6 life/every second after being out of combat for 10 seconds

Game Unit
Nova is able to switch between Assault Mode and Stealth Mode as a hero unit, changing her weapons and abilities. In Assault Mode she is more suited for frontal combat, wielding a hellfire shotgun and wearing a damage-absorbing phase reactor suit. Her Stealth Mode abilities are geared towards infiltration and subterfuge, equipping her with a tactical stealth suit, ghost visor, and sabotage drone. This allows her to infiltrate the enemy base ahead of her army and take out critical enemy forces before her army commits to an engagement.

Nova takes 4 min to spawn at her base. If Nova is ever killed, she will respawn 90 seconds later at the player's primary command center.

Units and Structures
Nova has the following units and structures unique to her.

Talent Progression
Nova acquires the following talents as she levels up.

Strategies
Nova demands quite a bit of micro of her units to get the most usage out of her. Proper usage of Nova herself to weaken enemy positions before attacking is crucial, utilizing Sabotage Drone and Snipe to destroy defensive structures and soften up stronger enemies. By herself Nova is rather easily overwhelmed and killed, however. Her base management is very simple thanks to her unique mechanics, so the player can build their base, hotkey their structures, and not have to worry about keeping an eye on them while they are busy managing their army in the field.

Power Set 1: Griffin Airstrike Cost
 * Recommended masteries:
 * Even with all 30 points sunk into reducing their cooldown, Nuke and Holo Decoy have a cooldown of several minutes. By contrast Griffin Airstrike can do just as much damage as them and has a rather short cooldown, but its major drawback is its mineral cost.

Power Set 2: Unit Attack Speed
 * Nova by herself has terrible DPS, even with full mastery. Her army benefits from the attack speed increase far more.

Power Set 3: Combat Unit Life Regeneration
 * Nova is rarely strapped for energy unless the player is recklessly spamming Snipe and Penetrating Blast. By giving her combat units passive regeneration their durability is remarkably improved, saving the player resources required to replace them and, if they wish, allowing them to forego ravens which are otherwise their only way to heal damaged units.

Protoss Commanders
All Protoss commanders can use Chrono boost to accelerate the cooldowns on Nova's unit producing structures, allowing her to produce multiple squads of the same type more often.

Alarak synergizes moderately with Nova, as her small army won't give him nearly as much power when he uses Empower Me. Nova can cover for Alarak's anti-air, but neither one is truly strong at defenses (since Alarak's Structure Overcharge has cooldowns on its charges). Both can transport their units quickly across a map using a combination of Nova's Tactical Airlift and Alarak's Death Fleet, creating some redundancy. Alarak's havocs can extend the range of Nova's army and, if microed, can keep them safe from harm with forcefields, while Nova's ravens can heal Alarak's units as needed.

Artanis has decent synergy with Nova, as his Guardian Shield and Shield Overcharge help a great deal in keeping Nova's expensive army alive. Nova can provide better anti-air than Artanis' dragoons, and the two can ravage bases with their abilities if Nova acts as a spotter. Nova's airlift isn't the most helpful to Artanis since he can deploy a power field to any location he wishes.

Vorazun is a perfect match for Nova, with her Strike from the Shadows passive boosting Nova's damage and that of her ghosts, banshees, and any units cloaked by her healing drones. Black Hole can set up Nova's airstrikes, nukes, banshees and ravens for area damage, and Emergency Recall will save any of her costly cloaked units from death. In return, Nova can heal Vorazun's units with her ravens and provide better ground-to-air damage than Vorazun's stalkers are capable of doing. Heavy siege tanks in a dark pylon field in numbers should be almost unstoppable against ground forces given more range than any unit in the whole game and spider mines for proximity foes trying to destroy the dark pylon.

Karax is an effective teammate for Nova. His strong static defenses mean that Nova can focus on securing enemy positions while Karax focuses on holding ground. Combining Karax's Spear of Adun calldowns with Nova's airstrike and/or nuke can quickly decimate a fortified position. As they both have relatively expensive units, Reconstruction Beam, defensive drones, and ravens are invaluable for increasing the longevity of units from both commanders. Finally, Nova greatly benefits from the increased research speed and faster cooldown-rate of her facilities granted by Chrono Wave.

Fenix works well with Nova. Of all commanders, he benefits the most from defensive drones, as it can protect his praetor armor or a small number of champion units and help hold back attack waves of enemy attackers. Both are high damage armies, and both recall and airlift give both armies high mobility. Nova's airstrike and nuke makes up for Fenix's lack of offensive calldowns on heavy enemy waves, while the solarite dragoon can also serve as a more consistent burst damage that allows Nova to spend more minerals on constructing her army.

Terran Commanders
Raynor is the polar opposite of Nova, relying on a strong economy and a large number of standard units as opposed to a small focused army. However, due to Raynor's use of medics to heal both biological and mechanical units, Raynor can aid with sustaining Nova's army while Nova can aid Raynor's units with defensive drones and the ability to move his large army around the field with tactical airlifts.

Swann has decent synergy with Nova, with his vespene harvesters providing Nova much-needed gas to afford her costly units, especially liberators, ghosts and siege tanks. His static defenses also cover for Nova's poor defenses, allowing her to devote herself to offensive pushes. Additionally, Swann's laser drill can contribute to Nova's base-wrecking play.

Han and Horner and Nova have moderate synergy. Both have armies designed to take a beating, and Horner’s fleet is composed of powerful, but difficult to replace units much like Nova's. However, Horner's fleet and Nova's units cover different roles. Han’s units meanwhile can provide a screen for Nova’s smaller unit amount, but their large numbers mean they don’t benefit all that much from defensive drones. However, both have powerful calldowns, with Nova’s airstirike regularly being up while Han and Horner can save theirs for key situations. Horner's strike fighters can benefit from enemies detected with Nova's ghost visor, albeit without the unit identification capabilities of imaging radar. Furthermore, they can spot enemies in the fog of war for Nova's siege tanks or snipe detectors allowing them to clean up positions with a smaller force of cloaked units. However, both have a lack of powerful defensive options, especially on pure defense maps.

Zerg Commanders
Kerrigan has good synergy with Nova, as her Assimilation Aura will let her give Nova precious resources to get off the ground. Her Malignant Creep can also help Nova's army in sustaining itself, while Kerrigan's zerglings and ultralisks tank damage for Nova's troops. The creep can also help Nova by providing vision, letting her use airstrikes and nukes more easily. Immobilization Wave can set Nova up for a nuke, and Nova can provide detection so that Kerrigan doesn't have to get overseers. Kerrigan's Nydus Worms create some redundancy with Nova's Tactical Airlift.

Zagara doesn't have great synergy with Nova, as the two combined field small armies and Zagara doesn't help in keeping Nova's troops alive. However, Zagara's army can attack a position earlier, giving Nova a chance to plan ahead and target-firing down detectors and dangerous enemies. Both are strong at destroying bases, and Zagara can constantly apply pressure with her rapidly-respawning armies while Nova recovers if she suffers a big loss.

Abathur has decent synergy with Nova, with his Mend and Swarm Queens providing excellent healing for her army. Abathur's very tanky units can absorb damage for Nova's forces, allowing her to make use of longer-ranged units like ghosts and siege tanks. Nova also compensates for Abathur's lack of destructive abilities via her nukes and sabotage drones.

Stukov and Nova, in spite of functioning as exact opposites, complement each other fairly well. As with most terran commanders, Stukov can help form a buffer from Nova's high damage units, while Nova's army can take out key area of effect targets that may deal heavy damage to Stukov's forces. Nova and her elite marines can serve as the early game anti-air Stukov lacks while "Infest Structure" can aid in early game attacks. Nova's mobility with her Griffin transportation can allow her to take key targets while Stukov pushes using waves of infested, while the Apocalisk and the Aleksander can aid in pressuring key targets or supporting a position Nova is struggling to take. Finally, Nova can provide early-game mobile detection, one of Stukov's biggest weak points.

Dehaka and Nova overlap in a lot of ways, but are still powerful. Both have a powerful hero unit that can reliably function against group of light enemies or single big enemies, and both have powerful global presence and armies usually on the smaller side (albeit Nova’s much smaller). However, Nova’s tactical airlift ability can move Dehaka’s units around the map, whereas Dehaka, his wurms, creeper hosts and Glevig are the only units that can deep tunnel in Dehaka’s forces. However, this means both players can be anywhere they need to be, with Dehaka’s main army working with Nova and tying up enemies while Dehaka and his calldowns can be in another place. Nukes and holo decoys also allow Nova to clear a landing area for Dehaka's forces to push or deep tunnel into.

Development
When designing Nova as the next commander, the developers knew that she had to be a hero on the field. It was also decided to be a focus of her army composition. The theme of covert ops played a big part of her design (ghosts, nukes, stealth, gadgets), along with the concept of a small but powerful army of elite units, helping bring the feel of espionage.

Data in the Galaxy Editor points to Nova also having access to reapers, cyclones, medivacs, bunkers and orbital commands, and being able to build regular versions of some of her elite units in early stages of development. There is also data indicating that she would have been able to summon an Odin to the field at some point in development. Unused equipment includes a penetrator round, stun grenades, stimpacks for Nova, a monomolecular blade, a psi rifle, pulse grenades, a weapon named the Invictus Longshot, a defensive matrix ability, smoke grenades, and the ability to unequip all weapons.

Trivia

 * Nova's units each have individual randomized names attached to them in place of a kill count rank. These units are given ranks depending on which unit they are.