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Revision as of 23:04, 10 December 2010

"Relax, hotshot. I got something useful for ya; Banshees. These babies can blow the snot outta ground forces. Got cloaking too. Gotta love that!"
Banshee SC2-WoL Story1

A Banshee

The AH/G-24 Banshee Tactical-Strike Aircraft[1] is a terran air unit in StarCraft II.

Overview

Banshee SC2 Cncpt2

A Banshee

The Banshee is a terran aircraft designed by Procyon Industries in response to the Terran Dominion's requirement for a dedicated ground attack aircraft. Experience had shown that it was unlikely that adapting an existing design would prove satisfactory. Thus, Procyon designed an entirely new craft.[2] After much experimentation,[3] the Banshee was in use by the Dominion by 2502,[4][5] and within the same year, the Kel-Morian Combine.[6]

The Banshee is heavily optimized for its intended role. Armament was limited to air-to-ground Backlash cluster rockets, eschewing any anti-aircraft weapons. As the Banshee was never intended to operate outside of an atmosphere, only relatively low-thrust turbofans were fitted, wholly unable to achieve escape velocity, but much cheaper than engines capable of achieving space flight. Later Banshees were fitted with cloaking devices taken from Wraiths.[2] By the Second Great War, the Banshee had its own DN51 cloak generator and was one of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in the Dominion's arsenal. Special teams are deployed to recover or destroy generators from crashed aircraft.[1] Wolfe Industries has further increased the Banshee's cloaking prowess through its own Banshee model, which features cross-spectrum dampeners that embed light-dampening materials into the craft's hull. This new hull material requires far less energy to conceal and makes it much easier for the Banshee to maintain cloak once initiated. The Shockwave missile battery is another possible upgrade for the Banshee, which fires multiple missiles in a straight line with each shot, allowing the Banshee to hit multiple ground targets.[7] In contrast to these loadouts, Kel-Morian Banshees have rapid-firing projectile weaponry capable of striking aerial targets.[6]

Banshee SC2 DevCine1

A swooping Banshee

The Banshee has proven successful in service. Easily transported from world to world[2] (even able to be dropped through a planet's atmosphere),[8] its mobility and firepower has proven most useful,[2] in urban and rural settings[1] and especially in inhospitable terrain and against hostile irregular forces. The Banshee has also acquired a reputation as a Dominion terror weapon, a result of a significant number of civilians being killed by Banshees employed in urban combat.[2] However, while its original purpose was to terrorize rebellious colonists, its agile, sneaky capabilities quickly propelled it onto the front lines against zerg, protoss, and terran foes,[1] used as support for light infantry.[3] Banshees can also operate in tandem with Vikings as air cavalry.[9]

Game Unit

Banshees can quickly destroy buildings, even powering through anti-air defenses and are strong against heavy armored ground units like the siege tank, ultralisk, and colossus. Other races should deploy specialized anti-air units like corruptors and phoenixes to keep them in check.[10] Ground unit counters include marines, thors, hydralisks, stalkers equipped with blink, and high templar psionic storms.[11]

In the Wings of Liberty single-player campaign, Banshees can be upgraded to fire their missiles in a straight line, doing splash damage to units in a line similar to the hellion or lurker. They can also be upgraded to consume less energy while cloaked, letting the Banshee remain cloaked longer.

Banshees bank on turns like some other air units.[12]

Abilities

Enables terran Banshees to cloak.

Usage
Hotkey C (cloak), D (decloak)
Cost 25 (+1.26 per second) (or +0.45 per second with Cross-Spectrum Dampeners - WoL-campaign only) Energy
Acquisition
Purchased from Tech lab attached to starport
Hotkey C
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 79seconds
ve

Upgrades

Acquisition
Purchased from Armory
Hotkey S
Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 160seconds
Level 2
Cost 175 Minerals 175 Vespene gas 190seconds
Level 3
Cost 250 Minerals 250 Vespene gas 220seconds
ve

Increases the armor of all terran air units.

Acquisition
Purchased from Armory
Hotkey P
Level 1
Cost 150 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 160seconds
Level 2
Cost 225 Minerals 225 Vespene gas 190seconds
Level 3
Cost 300 Minerals 300 Vespene gas 220seconds
ve

Wings of Liberty

Banshees are unlocked by playing the mission "Supernova".[13] Their cloaking ability is automatically researched.

Banshees deal linear splash damage.[7]

The Shockwave Missile Battery fires multiple missiles in a straight line with each shot allowing the Banshee to hit multiple ground targets. This upgrade is useful when fighting ground targets that are packed close together.

Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Hyperion armory for $110,000
ve
Cross-SpectrumDampeners SC2 Icon1
Cross-Spectrum Dampeners

Doubles the amount of time Banshees can stay cloaked.

Wolfe Industries offers a new model of Banshee that embeds light-dampening materials into the hull. This new hull material requires far less energy to conceal and makes it much easier for the Banshee to maintain cloak once initiated.[7]

Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Hyperion armory for $80,000
ve

Increase starting energy of all units by 100. Increase maximum energy of all units by 100.[14]

This reactor has a larger energy reserve on startup and can hold a much larger charge. Now our specialist units can use their abilities the moment they hit the battlefield, and they can store more energy when idle for long periods of time. All "Specialists units" use energy: such as the medic, ghost, spectre, thor, wraith, banshee, raven, science vessel and battlecruiser.

Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Hyperion laboratory for 20 zerg research points
ve

Damaged mechanical units recover hit points when out of combat, at a rate of 0.6015 each second.[14]

Our ship and vehicle hulls are now made from a material called Regenerative Bio-Steel. This material uses internal nanobots to slowly repair any damage the hull sustains. While this regeneration process is much slower than conventional SCV repairs, it can be the difference between life and death if no SCVs are available.

Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Hyperion laboratory for 20 zerg research points
ve

Development

The following section contains information from a previous version of StarCraft II which is no longer valid.
Banshee SC2 Cncpt1

Banshee concept art

In early builds, the Banshee delivered an area of effect attack, though this has since been removed as of March 2008.[15]

The Banshee was made to be both similar and different to the Wraith, the key difference being the nature of their attack. As many cloak detector units are aerial, this would prevent the Banshee from attacking the units which presented the greatest threat to it. As such, the Banshee fulfills the role of a base raider of a "combined-arms" terran force.[16]

The original portrait was female,[17] but was replaced by a male as of April 2009.[18] By June 2009, the portrait was female again[19] but at some stage, switched back to being male.[20] However, with the release of the StarCraft II beta, the portrait had again gone back to being female. In addition, a variant Banshee profile was available for players in the StarCraft II beta, used instead of the in-game one. The portrait was later updated.

Quotations

See: StarCraft II Banshee Quotations

Known Squadrons

Banshee SC2 CineCardToPlay1

A Banshee squadron

Notes

In in-game videos, the Banshee has been seen over space platforms. These platforms have gravity accelerators,[21][22] which could sustain an artificial atmosphere of sorts and so explain how Banshees can operate there.

When cloaked the pilot's visor in the portrait slides down and covers the eyes.

The Night Elf Banshee portrait is a StarCraft II Easter egg.


References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Armory units (in English). 2010.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2007-08-23. Banshee. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-02.
  3. 3.0 3.1 http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/game/unit/banshee Units: Banshee], Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed on 2010-10-03
  4. April 6, 2010. "Timeline". StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). pp. 311 - 323. ISBN 978-1416-55084-6.
  5. Furman, Simon (w), Jesse Elliott (p, i). "Heavy Armor, part 1." In StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 1 (paperback binding), pp. 140–163. Tokyopop, August 1, 2008. ISBN 978-1427-80721-2.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Furman, Simon (w), Federico Dallocchio (p, i), Milen Parvanov (col). "StarCraft #2" StarCraft 1 (2) (June 24, 2009) DC Comics (Wildstorm).
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Armory upgrades (in English). 2010. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "SC2-WoL_StoryArmoryUpgrd" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "SC2-WoL_StoryArmoryUpgrd" defined multiple times with different content
  8. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Graven Hill's laptop (in English). 2010.
  9. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Ghost of a Chance (in English). 2010-07-27.
  10. Browder, Dustin and Bornakk. 2009-03-30. BlizzCast Episode 8. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2009-03-31.
  11. 2009-07-03,StarCraft II Exclusive Fansite Q&A - StarCraft2.net.pl. Battlenet Network. Accessed on 2009-07-22
  12. StarCraft. 2010-02-02. The programming team has added some impressive new unit movement animations to the game. Air units like the phoenix and banshee bank on turns, roaches and hellions both rise when they start moving, and tanks slightly bob when stopping. Facebook (StarCraft). Accessed 2010-02-03.
  13. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Supernova (in English). 2010-07-27.
  14. 14.0 14.1 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Zerg research (in English). 2010.
  15. Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-03-16. StarCraft 2 Korean and Chinese Build Summary. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-03-18.
  16. PC PowerPlay #153 p42.
  17. 2007-09-13. Gameplay Video - Terran. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-14.
  18. Dustin Browder, Robert Simpson, Matt Cooper, David Kim. 2009-04-16. Battle Report (2). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2009-04-16.
  19. 1) In the current build, for 100 energy, the Queen can heal a biological unit or building by 200 hit points.
    2) For 50 energy, the Terran Orbital Command can increase a supply depot's supply provided by +8 permanently.
    3) Terran Add-Ons, Bunkers, Sensor Towers, and Missile Turrets can be salvaged for 100% of its cost. Salvage currently takes 5 seconds to complete.
    4) Yes, the Banshee portrait is of a female pilot.
    5) Vespene gas can still become depleted from geysers. Most geysers have 2500 gas each.
    Karune. 2009-06-30. Karune: Can the queen heal? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-06-30.
  20. 2010-02-10, New unit portraits? StarCraft Legacy, accessed on 2010-02-15
  21. Neilson, Micky (December 18, 2000). StarCraft: Uprising. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 0-7434-1898-0 (eBook).
  22. Neilson, Micky. "StarCraft: Hybrid." Amazing Stories 601 (Spring 2000): 70-75.