Battlecruisers fire rapid low damage shots from laser batteries, with the anti-ground attack being more powerful than the anti-air attack. This makes them better able at handling groups of weaker, low armor, units. Battlecruisers are heavily armored. This makes them good against marines, liberators, phoenixes, carriers, hydralisks, mutalisks, and sentries. However, they are weaker against vikings, corruptors, tempests and void rays. Like in the original StarCraft, battlecruisers can withstand a single nuclear missile strike. They can shoot while moving. Terran players often use battlecruisers to draw fire from weaker units allowing those weaker units to survive longer to destroy the threat.
Yamato Cannon
The Yamato cannon out ranges defensive structures and may be used to clear out defenses. It may also be used to soften up tougher units or thin enemy ranks quickly. This is especially useful in numbers against void rays, potentially eliminating several before they can charge up.
Tactical Jump
The tactical jump allows for tactical flexibility and to travel great distances quickly:
Immediately counter-attack unprotected areas anywhere on the map after winning an engagement at your base
Immediately reinforce troops in remote location across the map right after a BC is created (with energy start upgrade)
Retreat for repairs or when losing the engagement, instead of losing a costly unit
Do a bunch of damage in a "base trade" only to come back to your base in time to defend against the enemy army
Grants the battlecruiser the Missile Pods ability. Missile Pods deals 40 splash damage (+50 damage to light units) to air units over an area of effect.
Laser batteries are fearsome weapons across wide stretches of space, but they leave a battlecruiser vulnerable to small interceptors. The ATVX Missile Pod can show up this weakness by instantly bombarding an area with a massive barrage of anti-air missiles.
The battlecruiser produces a shield which absorbs 200 damage. The ability is not smartcast.
The defensive matrix is a temporary deflection field that helped save countless assets from a premature death during the original Brood War. Now the minds at LarsCorp have adapted this technological marvel to protect the massive hull of the Minotaur-class battlecruiser.
Attack upgrades improve attack cooldown of affected units by 5% per level.
These self-replicating ultra capacitors reduce the reload time of weapons and systems. Now each of the weapon upgrades at the armory and engineering bay increases attack speed by 5% in addition to increasing damage.
Armor upgrades increase health of affected units by 5% per level.[3]
We have created a new lightweight alloy called vanadium. Vanadium diffuses weapon impacts much more efficiently than traditional armor plating, and it better preserves the life of our units. Now each of the armor upgrades in the armory and engineering bay increases unit life by 5% in addition to increasing armor.
Damaged mechanical units recover hit points when out of combat, at a rate of 0.6015 each second.[4]
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.
Increase starting energy of all units by 100. Increase maximum energy of all units by 100.[4]
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.
All player Co-op battlecruisers can shoot while moving, the only exception being the Sovereign Battlecruisers if outfited with the Mini Yamato Gun upgrade (even after the upgrade the weapon can betoggled off to go back to regular battery attack).
Regular Battlecruisers are exclusive to Raynor once he reaches Level 6. They are sightly slower than those from multiplayer but compensate with a superior Tactical Jump. Raynor can also call down the hero battlecruiser Hyperion to the field temporarily.
Stukov can call down infested hero battlecruiser Aleksander to the field temporarily.
Enemy Battlecruisers appear in a few enemy compositions, notably on Dominion Battlegroup, where they appear in sidable numbers starting on Tech level 6. Classic Mech and Shadow Tech compositions also possess Battlecruisers, but in much lower numbers. The Raiding Party composition also has Battlecruisers, but they are a rare sight as they only appear on waves of Tech 7 and on low numbers.
Enemy Battlecruisers are a unique variant that mixes different elements of Battlecruiser stats and abilities from the multiplayer build of Heart of the Swarm and early Legacy of the Void. They are unable to fire while moving, their Yamato Cannon deals 300 damage and costs energy (which also notably renders them vulnerable to energy destruction from Special Ops Ghosts, High Templars, High Archons and Emperor's Shadows), and has a cooldown of 1.5 seconds. Their spell logic is coded to immediately fire upon any unit with 225 vitality or more (including buildings and non combat units), which makes them very dangerous to commanders whose playstyle includes small numbers of elite units, like Mengsk, Zeratul or Nova, as the the enemy Battlecruisers will immediately focus fire several rounds of Yamato, which is deadly even to incredibly durable units such as Tyranosours. However, they are coded to not fire their Yamato on heroic units at all. They are also capable of using Tactical Jump, and albeit their AI is not coded to utilize the ability, the player can it if they are mind controlled with Dark Archons, Energizers, Vega or the Aleksander
Enemy Lokis appear on on the final shuttle wave on Void Launch, on Hard and Brutal. Unlike regular Battlecruisers, Lokis will fire Yamatos onto Heroic units and also possess and will use Missile Pods ability.
100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 60
Effect
Basic
Movement Speed: 3.76 With Rough Rider Movement Speed: 2.82 Attack Speed: 0.12
0.1 (with Mercenary Munitions)
Mastery: +1% per Mech Attack Speed mastery point. Up to a maximum 0.08
200 Mastery: -4 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 80 200 Mastery: -4 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 80 120
100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 160
Effect
Damage vs Ground: 9 Damage vs Air: 7
Level 2
Cost
175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 190
Effect
Damage vs Ground: 10 Damage vs Air: 8
Level 3
Cost
250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 220
100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 160
Effect
Hit points: 495 Armor: 4
Level 2
Cost
175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 190
Effect
Hit points: 540 Armor: 5
Level 3
Cost
250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 220
Battlecruisers are available for use by Nova starting from the mission "Dark Skies." They possess the Yamato Cannon and tactical jump abilities.[5] They can attack while moving.
Upgrades and Abilities[]
Internal Tech Module
Unit no longer needs an attached tech lab to be built by production facilities.
The quotes and voice can be compared to Captain Henry Gloval of Robotech.
Notes[]
Horace Warfield in StarCraft: Ghost, very similar to the StarCraft II battlecruiser portrait
In Wings of Liberty, battlecruisers appear as level 3 mini-bosses in the Lost Viking arcade game.[6] They use the Jackson's Revenge model, but with extra cannons. Their Yamato cannons are replaced with ports capable of launching seeker missiles.
The portrait of the battlecruiser in StarCraft II bears resemblance to the appearance given to Horace Warfield in early builds of StarCraft: Ghost.[7]
Yamato Master Blaster
