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This article concerns StarCraft/StarCraft: Brood War gameplay. You may be looking for:
"Go ahead, tac-com."

- Terran goliath(src)

The goliath is a terran unit in StarCraft. It was voiced by Bill Roper.

Overview[]

Capable of firing on both ground and air targets, goliaths are versatile units and can fit in most terran army compositions. They are best suited for an anti-air role, especially against large-sized air units. In StarCraft: Brood War, Charon Boosters allows it to match the range of even guardians.

Groups of goliaths are used by terran players when the opponent focuses heavily on aerial units. Though they can be effective against all air units due to their incredible attack range with Charon Boosters, their high damage is halved against small-sized air units such as mutalisks, scourges, and observers; this becomes less of an issue when paired with marines. Goliaths can also repel capital ship fleets if in significant numbers. Goliaths with Charon Boosters can be used as mobile missile turrets in bases.

The goliath's ground attack, while serviceable, is less impressive for its cost: compared to two or three marines that deal more damage at a similar price tag, the goliath trades firepower for staying power and additional range. Goliaths in numbers can trade fire effectively against the base combat units of each race (marines, zealots, zerglings), but comparatively fare poorly against the explosive ranged attacks of hydralisks, dragoons, and siege tanks, which deal full damage to them.

Notoriously, goliaths have among the worst pathfinding of any Starcraft unit (comparable to the dragoon). This can make them difficult to maneuver in the battlefield.

Goliaths are large, but only take up two slots in a dropship.

Goliaths become available in to the player in the campaign in "Norad II" in Episode 1 and in "First Strike" in Episode V.

Upgrades[]

Acquisition
Purchased from Armory
Hotkey P
Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 267seconds
Level 2
Cost 175 Minerals 175 Vespene gas 300seconds
Required Science facility
Level 3
Cost 250 Minerals 250 Vespene gas 333seconds
Required Science facility
  • +1 bonus to goliath ground attack per level
  • +4 to goliath air attack per level (+2 per missile)
  • +2 to vulture attack per level
  • +3 to siege tank tank mode attack per level
  • +5 for siege tank siege mode attack per level
Acquisition
Purchased from Armory
Hotkey W
Level 1Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 267seconds
Level 2
Cost 175 Minerals 175 Vespene gas 300seconds
Required Science facility
Level 3
Cost 250 Minerals 250 Vespene gas 333seconds
Required Science facility
  • Increases goliath anti-air attack range by 3 (to 8).
Acquisition
Purchased from Machine shop
Hotkey C
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 133seconds

Goliath Heroes[]

Quotations[]

Quotes
Trained
Selected Confirming order
Repeatedly selected
Other lines


Development[]

"The new Goliath the team came up with—it’s so awesome, it makes me feel bad, because I made the original one. I was like, 'Oh my God, did you see how much detail they put into this thing?'"
Goliath ShatteredNations Art1

Walkers from Shattered Nations that would form the basis of goliaths

The concept of the goliath had its origins in the canceled Blizzard game Shattered Nations. The game featured walkers which were relabeled as "goliaths" for StarCraft.[1] Inspiration was also taken from the Robocop franchise.[2]

During the late StarCraft alpha however, they had a different appearance than in the later stages of development. They were capable of using their machine guns, a flame thrower and missiles against ground targets.[3] It was decided that this was too much of an arsenal for one unit, so the flamethrower was developed into its own unit, the firebat.[4]

Goliaths appeared and functioned much the same in the StarCraft beta as they did in StarCraft proper. However, their weaponry consisted of chainguns and scatter missiles instead of autocannons and Hellfire missiles.[5]

The goliath was designed by Brian Sousa.[6] A 3D model was made for the walker when Blizzard began experimenting with 3D modelling—it was actually the first model modeled as such. According to Samwise Didier, "it just looked kind of doink, from the game view. It was muddy, and when you rendered it out, everything looked like it was one or two pixels thick."[7]

Images[]

References[]

  1. 2010-04-28, Shattered Nations (PC - Cancelled). BetaRush, accessed on 2013-05-29
  2. 2018-12-02, 20 YEARS OF STARCRAFT: AN IGN RETROSPECTIVE. IGN, accessed on 2018-12-03
  3. Beta. StarCraft Evolution. Accessed 2011-08-18.
  4. 2018-07-03, StarCraft's 14 Month Crunch. "PC Games.net", accessed on 2018-07-03
  5. 2009-03-19, StarCraft Wire. Artist: Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed on 2010-01-13
  6. 2017-05-04, Behind the Scenes of StarCraft: Remastered. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2017-05-07
  7. 2017-04-27, Rock and Roll Days of StarCraft: a Development Retrospective. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2017-04-29
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