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"One hundred and seventy four gigawatts - 'the power of the sun at your fingertips.'"

The Drakken laser drill is a large terran structure. It mounts a large turreted beam emitter which may be used for excavations or, if the need arises, as a weapon. Its laser has an energy output of 174 gigawatts.[1]

History[]

The laser drill was originally designed for excavation projects.[2]

In 2504, the Moebius Foundation assembled a Drakken on Xil to breach the door of a xel'naga temple and retrieve an alien artifact. The excavation was interrupted when the terrans were wiped out by the Tal'darim.

The Foundation hired Raynor's Raiders to complete the dig. The Tal'darim pressed in on the new interlopers. The appearance of archons and warp prisms prompted Captain Matt Horner to grant Commander Jim Raynor manual control of the laser. This allowed the Drakken to be re-targeted against enemy units.

With the temple's doors destroyed, the Raiders extracted the artifact and departed.[1]

LaserDrill Soldiers Comic1

A laser drill being used in the Battle of Camp Pitcairn.

After the End War, Drakken laser drills were utilized by the miners of Cavir in their illegal mining operations on the world. They used these drills against the zerg in the Battle of Camp Pitcairn.[3]

AlliedCommanders SC2-LotV Art1
This article or section contains information derived from Co-op Missions, and should not be considered part of the official StarCraft storyline.

During the End War, Amon's forces used a Drakken Laser Drill against the allied commanders.

Game Structure[]

Wings of Liberty[]

DrakkenLaserDrill SC2 Game1

The drill opening fire

The laser drill is a very powerful weapon, capable of killing archons and collossi in less than a second. It is also the only weapon that can destroy the three protoss research objectives on the map. Though it does massive damage in seconds once it begins firing, locking onto a target and firing the initial laser has a delay, and the laser must swing around to fire at units, further delaying its firing.[1]

Co-op Missions[]

The laser drill is usable by Rory Swann in the Co-op Missions mode of Legacy of the Void.[4]

At the beginning of every mission, the laser drill begins construction automatically near Swann's command center, and takes five minutes to complete. Once completed, the laser drill can be manually controlled, and will otherwise automatically acquire and attack targets anywhere in the player's sight radius. The laser drill has infinite range and can be upgraded at the player's discretion. If the drill is destroyed, it is replaced with an invincible wreckage that takes two minutes to automatically repair itself.

The laser drill appears as an enemy structure in some mutators with 2000 shields and 1000 HP. Like Swann's drill, it will be replaced with an invincible wreckage when destroyed and automatically repair itself after two minutes.

Abilities[]

SC2 Swann AC - LaserDrill
Drakken Laser Drill

Attack with the drakken laser drill dealing 20 damage per second to target unit. Has unlimited range. Drill can be upgraded to increase damage.

Heavy Weapons Specialist: Deals 100% area damage within a range of 1.5, slows the enemy units by 70%, and locks onto target by 70% faster.

Usage
Cost 1 seconds
0.3 (with Heavy Weapons Specialist) seconds
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available
ve
ConcentratedBeam SC2 Icon1
Concentrated Beam

Deals 400 damage to enemy units and structures in a line across the map to the target point.

Heavy Weapons Specialist: Concentrated Beam is unavailable.

Payload Director: Increases the Concentrated Beam cooldown by 50%.

Usage
Range 500 (length)
3 (width)
Mastery: +0.06 width range per Concentrated Beam Width and Damage mastery point. Up to a maximum 4.8 width range
Cooldown 180 seconds
270 (with Payload Director) seconds
Notes

Mastery: +8 ability damage per Concentrated Beam Width and Damage mastery point. Up to a maximum 640 ability damage

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
ve
PulseCannon SC2 Icon1
Pulse Cannon

Deals 600 damage to enemy units and structures in target area after a small delay.

Heavy Weapons Specialist: Pulse Cannon is unavailable.

Payload Director: Increases the Pulse Cannon cooldown by 50%.

Usage
Cooldown 300 seconds
450 (with Payload Director) seconds
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Swann Level 4.
ve

Upgrades[]

DrakkenUpgrade SC2 Icon1
Upgrade Laser Drill Level 1

Increases the drill's damage by 10 and allows use of Concentrated Beam ability.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Cost 200 Minerals
Mastery: -3 Minerals per Laser Drill Build Time, Upgrade Time, and Upgrade Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 110 Minerals
200 TerranVespene SC2 Game1
Mastery: -3 TerranVespene SC2 Game1 per Laser Drill Build Time, Upgrade Time, and Upgrade Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 110 Vespene gas
190seconds
Mastery: -2.85 seconds per Laser Drill Build Time, Upgrade Time, and Upgrade Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 104.5seconds
Required Armory
Effect Damage: 30
ve
DrakkenUpgrade SC2 Icon1
Upgrade Laser Drill Level 2

Increases the drill's damage by 20 and allows use of Pulse Cannon ability.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Swann Level 4.
Acquisition
Cost 300 Minerals
Mastery: -5 Minerals per Laser Drill Build Time, Upgrade Time, and Upgrade Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 150 Minerals
300 TerranVespene SC2 Game1
Mastery: -5 TerranVespene SC2 Game1 per Laser Drill Build Time, Upgrade Time, and Upgrade Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 150 Vespene gas
220seconds
Mastery: -3.3seconds per Laser Drill Build Time, Upgrade Time, and Upgrade Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 121seconds
Required Armory
Effect Damage: 50
ve

Development[]

UpdatedLaserDrill-SamYang

Development render stages

The drill underwent an artistic revision during development, in order to make it look more like hardware and less like a weapon. The artwork was re-textured a few times (construction yellow, to covert-ops black, and then back to construction yellow again with a hint of covert-ops black). There used to be a floor inside the railing which would have had operators maintaining the drill, as well as a seat in front of the monitor bank with an operator behind the keyboard. Time and various other factors eventually phased those features out. The texture on the monitors remained unchanged; they resemble the Windows Blue Screen of Death.[5]

Heroes of the Storm[]

DrakkenLaserDrill Heroes DevGame1

The laser drill in Heroes of the Storm

Heroes DevLog2
The following section contains information from Heroes of the Storm and is not canon to StarCraft continuity

A Drakken laser drill can be summoned by Tychus Findlay in Heroes of the Storm.[2]

Trivia[]

LaserDrill Concept Game

Drakken laser drill concept art

During the Wings of Liberty Mission on Xil, if one were to zoom in the camera on the structure one can see a classic Microsoft Windows "blue screen of death" on the screens of the laser drill itself.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, The Dig (in English). 2010-07-27.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Tychus - Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed on 2014-05-12
  3. Houser, Jody (w), Guzmán,Gabriel (p, i). "StarCraft: Scavengers: Issue 4" StarCraft: Scavengers 4 (7) (October 31st, 2018) Dark Horse Comics.
  4. 2015-9-25, Co-op Missions: Additional Commanders Revealed. Battle.net, accessed on 2015-9-25
  5. 2010, Starcraft 2: Terran Laser Drill. Deviantart, accessed on 2011-07-20
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