- Raynor's Raiders blurb(src)
The Raven is a terran air unit featured in StarCraft II. It is based on defensive "spellcasting" support via debuffing threats and constructing objects.[2]
Overview
Software
A Raven pilot
The raven is controlled remotely by a terran pilot[3] while the craft's computer houses the main AI core that regulates all critical ship systems and sub-systems. The AI closely monitors variables like overall condition, temperature, energy levels, and external hazards. It processes billions of instructions per second, affording the Raven an ample degree of independent thought and decision making. A few military consultants, speaking on condition of anonymity, have expressed concerns that such a powerful AI could gain sentience, leading to abject disaster. It has been claimed in response that "there's no evidence to back up those claims, and subsequently, no reason to worry."[4]
Hardware
Ravens in flight
Functionally, the raven is a robust all-around air-mobile vehicle and workhorse that combines the functions of a surveillance drone and a combat engineer.[5] Layers of neosteel and synthetic weave make up the bulk of the raven's fuselage, with sturdy, space-grade fabric between each layer to provide insulation for internal components.[4] The raven is built to operate independently in harsh climates[5]—the stabilizer fins and key points of the structure are equipped with microscopic weeping holes, which allow for the release of a multipurpose solution to break down ice buildups or cool the fuselage, depending on the environment the vessel is operating in.[4]
Ravens excel in protection and reconnaissance due to their defensive auto-turrets and their advanced sensors, which can detect cloaked and burrowed enemies,[5] and unmask protoss hallucinations.[1] The craft is equipped with an advanced manufacturing plant, where hundreds of thousands of AI-operated nanomachines diligently assemble a diversity of mission critical equipment, such as the auto-turret, point defense drone, and the seeker missile.[4] The raven can also/alternatively be equipped with an interference matrix and anti-armor missiles.[6] These onboard production capabilities give the raven greater operative flexibility than its science vessel predecessor. Its sensors consist of state-of-the-art surveillance and reconnaissance hardware. Two radars, operating at high/low frequencies respectively, and four high-resolution, multi-spectral cameras allow for target acquisition and tracking at long ranges. When the vessel's low frequency radar detects anomalies, heuristic detection algorithms supported by thermal and electrical imaging sweep the area to find any cloaked threats.[4]
During the Defenders of Man Insurgency, the Terran Dominion deployed advanced ravens in the covert ops crew of Nova Terra. These ravens had the ability to deploy spider mines, and use bio-mechanical repair drones to heal allied biological and mechanical units.[7]
History
A Raven
The Terran Dominion initially designed the raven to give low-level protection to its most isolated outposts, but recently the raven has been used in escalating levels of conflict to replace the older and costlier science vessel.[5] Stunning successes in the afforementioned role brought it into more frontline use as a battlefield support unit.[1] Further upgrades and adjustments were implemented, as the ship transitions into a more active role while conflict levels escalated.[4] Ravens are a common sight among the Fringe Worlds,[5] and have become more common throughout the Koprulu sector. Many wonder if the "protection" they offer is just an excuse the Dominion uses to spy on its citizens.[4]
A mercenary raven
Raynor's Raiders had access to ravens as early as the initial months of the Second Great War.[8] They continued to be used by terran factions throughout the Second Great War and the End War,[9] and advanced versions of the raven were used by Nova Terra and her covert ops crew during the Defenders of Man Insurgency.[7] While uncommon, some mercenary companies utilize ravens, which are just as efficient as their Dominion counterparts.
A Dominion Special Forces raven
The Dominion Special Forces make extensive use of modified ravens, which are rumored to be so effective they could hear a Kel-Morian miner's whispers two kilometers underground. Private militas such as the Knights of Tyrador also utilized a small number of ravens.
The Umojan Protectorate was able to develop its own ravens, which were more sophisticated than any of their contemporaries. These ravens are equipped with a little understood artificial intelligence system that exceeds anything that Dominion engineers would ever approve.[10]
Game Unit
StarCraft II
The Raven is analogous to the science vessel of the original StarCraft, and are "primarily support craft" for the terran factions. They have no standard attack of their own. They are strong against siege tanks.
Versus
- Upgrades and Abilities
This unit or structure can detect cloaked, burrowed, duplicated and hallucination enemies.
Disables a Mechanical or Psionic unit, rendering it unable to attack or use abilities for 11 seconds. Reveals cloaked units.
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| Acquisition | ||||||
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The Raven deploys an auto-turret. The turret has building-type armor and a high rate of fire.[11]
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Deploys a missile which flies immediately to its target unit, reducing armor and shield armor of affected units by 2 for 21 seconds.
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Increases the attack range of automated defenses: missile turrets, auto-turrets, point defense drones, and the planetary fortress by +1.
| Acquisition | ||||||
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Increases the starting energy of the Raven by 25.
| Acquisition | ||||||
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Increases the armor of terran vehicles and spacecraft.
| Acquisition | ||||||||||
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Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
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Wings of Liberty
In the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign, Ravens are unlocked through research. This costs 20 protoss research points, and is an alternative to the science vessel.[12]
- Upgrades and Abilities
This unit or structure can detect cloaked, burrowed, duplicated and hallucination enemies.
The Raven deploys an auto-turret. The turret has building-type armor and a high rate of fire.[11]
| Usage | ||||||
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Missile comes out and stays immobile in front of the Raven for 4 seconds while charging up, then rapidly moves (it’s not dodgeable at this point) and explodes at the target, causing 100 damage to target plus splash damage. Targeted unit lights up red when targeted. If the unit moves 13 range out of where the Seeker Missile is, the missile fizzles.
The missile cannot target buildings.
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Deploys a drone which intercepts missiles and projectile shots, such as those fired by missile turrets. It cannot stop special attacks.
| Usage | ||||
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Increases the armor of all terran air units.
| Acquisition | ||||||||||
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Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
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Unlocks the raven for production.[12]
The raven is an unmanned surveillance drone that can detect cloaked and burrowed enemy units. The raven can also serve as a combat engineer by placing auto-turrets and point defense drones and firing seeker missiles in strategically vital locations.
| Campaign Acquisition | ||
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Armor upgrades increase health of affected units by 5% per level.[12]
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.
| Campaign Acquisition | ||
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Increase starting energy of all units by 100. Increase maximum energy of all units by 100.[13]
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 | ||
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Damaged mechanical units recover hit points when out of combat, at a rate of 0.6015 each second.[13]
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 | ||
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Nova Covert Ops
Ravens are available for use by Nova from the mission "Night Terrors." They have the option to equip spider mines, and substitute bio-mechanical repair drones for point defense drones.[7]
- Upgrades and Abilities
Creates an automated aerial drone that seeks out and heals damaged allied units.
| Usage | ||||||
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Missile comes out and stays immobile in front of the Raven for 4 seconds while charging up, then rapidly moves (it’s not dodgeable at this point) and explodes at the target, causing 100 damage to target plus splash damage. Targeted unit lights up red when targeted. If the unit moves 13 range out of where the Seeker Missile is, the missile fizzles.
The missile cannot target buildings.
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Creates three spider mines at designated point.
| Usage | ||||
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| Campaign Acquisition | ||
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Upgrades raven's auto-turrets to railgun turrets. Railgun turrets deal 30 area-of-effect damage in a line at a rate of fire of 2.
| Usage |
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Passive
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| Campaign Acquisition | ||
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Unit no longer needs an attached tech lab to be built by production facilities.
| Usage |
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Passive
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| Campaign Acquisition | ||
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Replaces the seeker missile ability with the hunter-seeker missile weapon that automatically attacks enemy units and does not cost energy.
Pursues the current target and explodes for area damage upon impact.
| Usage |
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Passive
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| Campaign Acquisition | ||
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Co-op Missions
Nova gains access to the advanced Raven Type-II in Co-op Missions, with enhanced health and abilities. Mira Han and Matt Horner have access to the advanced Theia ravens. The cost is same as that of regular ravens. Theia ravens have same hit points as standard ravens.
Development
During the development of Wings of Liberty, the Raven went through the names Nighthawk, Vulkan[14] and TF-620 Nomad,[15][16]
The Raven received changes during the Call to Action playtest. In August 2012, acceleration increased from 2 to 2.25 and speed increased from 2.25 to 2.5. This was done to improve the micro.[17] In November 2012, the Seeker Missile no longer required an upgrade.[18]
In Legacy of the Void, ravens gained the Explosive Shrapnel Shells upgrade. This was removed in Patch 3.8.
In a patch for Legacy of the Void, ravens were re-designed to turn the unit into more of a supportive caster role. The auto turret and defensive drone were removed, and the seeker missile was redesigned. The changes were designed to de-incentivize producing mass ravens. The raven gained the scrambler missile, repair drone, shredder missile,[19] and interference matrix.[20]
- Removed Upgrades and Abilities
The following upgrades and abilities were removed from the versus multiplayer version of the raven
Increases the damage of auto-turrets and seeker missiles by 30%.
Removed in Patch 3.8.
| Acquisition | ||||||
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Increases the Seeker Missile's unit tracking range by 50% (13 to 19.5) and the damage by 30%.
| Acquisition | ||||||
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Missile comes out and stays immobile in front of the Raven for 4 seconds while charging up, then rapidly moves (it’s not dodgeable at this point) and explodes at the target, causing 100 damage to target plus splash damage. Targeted unit lights up red when targeted. If the unit moves 13 range out of where the Seeker Missile is, the missile fizzles.
The missile cannot target buildings.
| Usage | ||||||||
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Deploys a drone which intercepts missiles and projectile shots, such as those fired by missile turrets. It cannot stop special attacks.
| Usage | ||||
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Deploys a drone that automatically repairs nearby friendly mechanical units for 90 seconds. Repairs life at 12.6 life per second, drains 1 energy for every 3 life repaired.
| Usage | ||||||||
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Increaes the Raven's Anti-Armor Missile explosion radius by 20% and its tracking range by 50%.
| Acquisition | ||||||
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Achievements
 Can't Touch This!
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Dodge a Raven Seeker Missile in a Melee game. |
| Notes | |
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This achievement can only be obtained through creating a custom game in the Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm expansion level. | |
| Edit | |
 Beep, Beep, Boom!
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Destroy 6 units with a single Seeker Missile in an Unranked or Ranked game. |
| Notes | |
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As seeker missiles have been removed in Legacy of the Void, this can only be accomplished in custom games set on Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm expansion level. | |
| Edit | |
 Auto-Kill
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Using Auto-Turrets, destroy 20 workers in a single melee game. |
| Notes | |
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As auto-turrets have been removed from Versus, this can only be accomplished in custom games set on Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm expansion level, in spite of still remaining in the Ranked/Unranked category. | |
| Edit | |
Heroes of the Storm
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The following section contains information from Heroes of the Storm and is not canon to StarCraft continuity
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Ravens appear as mercenary units on the map Braxis Holdout in Heroes of the Storm.[21]
Known Variants
Trivia
- If one looks at the unit portrait in the map editor, one can find that on the back side of some of the monitors there are unit ability icons such as cloaking, lockdown, lift off, load, Hercules dropship's rapid deployment, and Maelstrom. There is even the "unload" command icon behind the machine in front of the user.
- There is an animation where all the monitors explode and the pilot facepalms.
- The pilot has his face angled away from the camera as shown in the photo below, but if seen from the front in the game files he has a generic face with wrinkles and a microphone. He sits with his mouth open. In some regards he can be viewed as a "gamer" because of some of his actions.
- In the unit portrait, a close look at the screens shows what looks like a message from Arcturus Mengsk (there is a picture of his face and some text).
- The name of the Corvid Reactor upgrade is a possible reference to the biological family of corvids, which includes ravens and several other birds.
Images
- Skins
- Portraits
References
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