Cloaking is an ability available to terrans and protoss through both technological and psionic means.
Overview[]
Through the personal cloaking device, terran ghosts and spectres are able to cloak.[1] The device is based on the stealth technology utilized by Wraith starfighters, which are also able to cloak.[2] This technology was later applied to the banshee[3] and specialized Liberators and battlecruisers.[4]
Some protoss aerospace craft are able to cloak the units around them; examples include the Khalai Arbiter[2] and mothership,[5] while the observer remains hidden through an in-built micro-cloaking field.[6] The Dark Templar are able to cloak themselves through psionic means. This ability has been described as "bending light" and "merging with shadows."[7]
Gameplay[]
A cloaked unit is a unit rendered invisible to enemies, unless an enemy detector is nearby. These include burrowed units. Cloaked (and a few burrowed) units may attack without uncloaking; terran cloaked units require energy to maintain their camouflage, and the cloak will be disabled when it is depleted.
The ability to approach unseen, attack while invisible, and fade away makes cloaked units ideal for ambushes, raids on worker lines, and scouting.
Detectors are the normal method of revealing cloaked units.
When invisible, cloaked and moving burrowed units may be tracked by their slight "rippling" distortions. Invisible units retain their collision radius; their position may be given away if visible units must move around an invisible one. Detectors are still needed to target invisible units even if they are found these ways.
Detectors aren't the only way to deal with cloaked units. Some special abilities affect or reveal cloaked units. Cloaked units are affected by splash damage; it is possible to attack a friendly unit with splash damage attack to damage surrounding invisible cloaked units.
This unit or structure can detect cloaked, burrowed, duplicated and hallucination enemies.
StarCraft[]
Cloaked units include:
- Observer
- Dark templar
- Any unit near an arbiter (but not the arbiter itself).
- Any unit that is burrowed.
StarCraft II[]
- Observer
- Avenger
- Blood hunter
- Dark templar
- Any unit or structure near a mothership (but not the mothership itself)
- Any unit near an Arbiter and the Cybros arbiter itself
- Any unit or structure near a dark pylon (but not the dark pylon itself) (Co-op Missions)
- Corsair (Co-op Missions) with Stealth Drive upgrade
- Oracle (Co-op Missions) with Stealth Drive upgrade
- Havoc (Co-op Missions) with Cloaking Module upgrade
- Disruptor (Co-op Missions) with Cloaking Module upgrade
- Void templar (Co-op Missions)
- Ghost with Personal Cloaking upgrade
- Banshee with Cloaking Field upgrade, in Nova Covert Ops it can be upgraded with Advanced Cloaking to maintain cloaking
- Spectre with Personal Cloaking upgrade
- Wraith with Cloaking Field upgrade
- Liberator (Nova Covert Ops only)
- Battlecruiser (Nova Covert Ops only)
- Reaper (Nova Covert Ops only)
- Griffin
- Spec ops ghosts (Co-op Missions) with permanently cloaked
- Covert banshees (Co-op Missions) with Advanced Cloaking field upgrade
- Asteria wraiths (Co-op Missions), can be permanently cloaked with Unregistered Cloaking System upgrade
- Theia ravens (Co-op Missions) with Silent Mode (Grants the Raven cloaking but removes its ability to move and use other active abilities. This ability can be canceled after activation)
- Any units healed by Bio-mechanical repair drone from Raven Type-II
- Emperor's Shadows with the Labyrinth Cloak ability
- Imperial intercessors with the Scatter Veil upgrade
- Burrowed units have similar properties.
- Creep tumors once they finish building. They were usually uncloaked in the Wings of Liberty campaign.
- Infested banshee
Trivia[]
Cloaking in StarCraft was possibly inspired by the Giant Sea Turtle and the Gnomish Submarine from Warcraft II. These underwater units could not be detected without air units, nearby towers, or other underwater units.
Super Cloaking[]
This article or section contains information derived from Co-op Missions, and should not be considered part of the official StarCraft storyline.
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Super cloaking is a variant of cloaking, but units that are super cloaked cannot be detected by ordinary detectors. Some special units and structures (like the Void shards or Zenith stones) will still throw attack/abilities against super cloaked units.
References[]
- ↑ Ghost. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2009-02-08
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.
- ↑ 2007-08-23. Banshee. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-02.
- ↑ Valerie Watrous (w), Carlos Rodríguez (i) and Sandra Molina (c). (February 14th, 2018). StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 12. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Shadow Wars: Part 12 Accessed 2019-02-14.
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard) (in English). July 27, 2010
- ↑ Observer. Blizzard Entertainment. Official StarCraft II website. Accessed 2007-11-13. Retrieved 2009-01-12
- ↑ Golden, Christie (November 27, 2007). StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga #2: Shadow Hunters. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 978-0-7434-7126-8.