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Shakurus SC1 Art2
This article concerns StarCraft/StarCraft: Brood War gameplay. You may be looking for:

Archons are heavy protoss units in StarCraft.

Overview[]

Archons can attack both ground and air units and its attack causes minor splash damage (50% within 15 pixels, 25% within 16-30 pixels).[1] Attacking groups of enemy air units greatly increases the efficiency of archons.

An archon has most of its "health" invested in its shields. This means that they take full damage from all attack types and are vulnerable to terrans who have the science vessel's EMP Shockwave. With such a reliance on shields, shield upgrades at the forge as well as shield batteries are a great boon for heavy archon use.

Archons have quite specific properties in the game mechanics. They are neither biological nor mechanical and are therefore immune to a number of abilities, such as Lockdown, Spawn Broodlings, and Irradiate. They also count as hovering and do not trigger spider mines. Their attack is actually short ranged, and not melee. Archon attacks and splash damage bypass the defiler's Dark Swarm.[2]

Archons can be countered by siege tanks in siege mode and mass ultralisks.

Archons become available to the player in the campaign with the mission "The Hunt for Tassadar" in Episode III and "Dunes of Shakuras" in Episode IV.

Production[]

ArchonWarp Icon SC1
Archon Warp

Two high templar can sacrifice themselves, transforming into an archon.

Usage
Cost 20 seconds 2 high templar

Unsurprisingly archons are expensive, especially in gas. Each effectively costs 100 minerals, 300 gas, and 4 psi, the combined price of the two sacrificed high templar. The cost necessarily limits the number of archons that can be used, ensuring that lesser units like zealots remain a vital part of protoss strategy.

Upgrades[]

Acquisition
Purchased from Forge
Hotkey A
Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 267seconds
Level 2
Cost 175 Minerals 175 Vespene gas 300seconds
Required Templar archives
Level 3
Cost 250 Minerals 250 Vespene gas 333seconds
Required Templar archives
ve
  • +2 cumulative bonus per attack per level for zealots and dragoons.
  • +3 cumulative bonus per attack per level for dark templar and archons.
Acquisition
Purchased from Forge
Hotkey W
Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 267seconds
Level 2
Cost 150 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 300seconds
Required Templar archives
Level 3
Cost 200 Minerals 200 Vespene gas 333seconds
Required Templar archives
  • +1 armor bonus to shields per level for all units and structures.
Acquisition
Purchased from Forge
Hotkey S
Level 1
Cost 200 Minerals 200 Vespene gas 267seconds
Level 2
Cost 300 Minerals 300 Vespene gas 300seconds
Required Cybernetics core
Level 3
Cost 400 Minerals 400 Vespene gas 333seconds
Required Cybernetics core
ve

Development[]

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

During the StarCraft Alpha, three or more high templar were required in order to form an archon.[3][4]

Quotations[]

Quotes
Trained
Selected Confirming order
Repeatedly selected
Other lines


Images[]

References[]

  1. Protoss Strategy: Archon. Battle.net StarCraft Compendium. Accessed 2010-01-19.
  2. Units: Defiler. Battle.net StarCraft Compendium. Accessed 2008-02-18.
  3. Beta image 44. StarCraft Evolution. Accessed 2019-08-28.
  4. Beta image 44. Blizzard Archive. Accessed 2019-08-28.
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