Hellion

"For a small investment, your hellions can be the envy of every military organization in the sector."

- ATVX hellion advertisement^(src)

Hellion
Historical
Earliest sighting	2490
Latest sighting	2504
Physical
Type	Terran
Armaments	Infernal flamethrower
Political
Role	Raider
Personnel
Crew	1 (driver)

The hellion is a terran skirmish unit.

Overview

"Hey hotshot! I got schematics to build them hellions you saw on Mar Sara, should be good down there!"

- Rory Swann^(src)

KMC hellions

In use by 2490, the hellion is a high-speed raider built around a lightweight four-wheel chassis. Originally developed as an armored combat vehicle, the hellion was deemed too cumbersome to be effective in its intended scout role. After it was stripped down to a bare-bones neosteel frame, engineers began reconstructing the hellion as a lightly armored vehicle, focused on speed and mobility. The hellion ended up becoming one of the best terran skirmishers in the Koprulu sector and beyond. Taking note of the hellion's good performance record, the Dominion developed the hellbat, a vehicle based on the hellion, but with the ability to transform into a bi-pedal walker.

Armament

Hellions are capable of causing damage disproportionate to their size, particularly against enemy infantry, thanks to their heavy Infernal flamethrowers. Additionally, their remarkable acceleration allows for improvisational tactics in the field. Some hellion drivers will deliberately outrun their enemies only to turn and attack when they have reached maximum range. The low cost, exceptional agility, and devastating firepower of these vehicles have made them extremely popular with mercenary companies.

Propulsion

The hellion is controlled by a driver who sits within a pressurized cabin. Its worn faux-leather seats are lined with fireproof material capable of stopping shrapnel. The pilot is secured by numerous straps and padding. Some drivers opt to personalize their space through trinkets such as hanging dice, bobbleheads, or simple photographs.

For propulsion, the hellion uses a variable burn engine powered by diverse liquid or compressed fuels, with portrenol being the most popular due to its low cost. This high-shift newton engine makes for a very fast vehicle, and is a versatile piece of engineering. Some veteran hellion drivers claim it will run on anything, even a bottle of Scotty Bolger's Old No. 8 Whisky. Four wheels carry the hellion along, and when hellions entered service, they came equipped with all-terrain tires capable of running flat for up to 100 km—supposedly enough to get out of a hot zone. Untraversable locations, however, proved the need for a better tire. Raynor's Raiders developed an armored, non-pneumatic tire with a high shock absorption index. Soon after, the Dominion, thanks to its network of spies, secured the blueprints and upgraded its entire hellion motor pool.

Game Unit

Hellion
Unit
Race	Terran
Affiliation	Terran Dominion Raynor's Raiders (2504–)
Role	Fast scout
Armament	Infernal flamethrower
Properties
Transportcapacity	2
Sight	10
Production
Minerals	100
Supply	2
Build time	30
Produced from	Factory
Upgrades from	Hellbat
Hotkey	E
Movement
Speed	4.25
Acceleration	1000
Lateral acceleration	46
Deceleration	0
Collision radius	0.625
Protection
Hit points	90 (100 in Outbreak)
Armor	0
Type	Ground Mechanical
Armor type	Light
Infernal flamethrower
Damage	8 (+6 vs light), increases to 8 (+11 vs light) with Infernal Pre-Igniter upgrade
Targets	Ground
Cooldown	2.5
Range	5
Upgrade/level	+1
Function
Upgrades to	Hellbat
Meta
Targetpriority	20
Kill score	600
Productionscore	300

Unit profile

The hellion is a replacement for the vulture, albeit retaining the firebat's abilities.

The hellion has movement animations; it slightly rises when it starts moving, and lowers when it stops.

The hellion is a fast-moving unit, fast enough to chase down enemy units and easily reposition itself. Hellions are strong against tier 1 units and workers. They are weak against thors, stalkers, and roaches.

Attacks

The Hellion's weapon targets only ground units. It does splash damage in a line, targeting one unit but striking all units along the line.

The attack is well-suited to destroying weaker units such as marines.

The hellion must stop in order to attack. The weapon strikes targets instantly and can be used for (almost literal) hit and run attacks and "kiting". To do maximum damage, it should shoot once, close the gap, shoot again, close the gap again, and so forth in order to maximize damage and not waste shots. Attacks should not be targeted on the closest opponents, but instead those further back, to ensure the maximum number of enemy units are hit. If the attack is launched at a precise distance, then by the time the flames hit the target the Hellion can be moving away to safety. However, units that move out of the flame take less damage so a player should try to keep the flame on enemy units to maximize damage.

The attack does not damage allied units.

Strategies

A recommended tactic is to use the hellion as an ambush unit, positioning it on high ground to attack units below it. 4 Hellions (ideally upgraded) can be loaded into a medivac dropship for a tactical strike on the enemy's mineral line. Though delicate, hellions are agile, making them excellent hit and run units in the early game, particularly against melee units such as zealots or zerglings.

Hellbat Transformation

A factory can immediately produce hellions directly, and if an armory is present, can also produce hellbats directly. They cannot switch forms into each other unless Transformation Servos are researched at a factory tech lab.

Upgrades

Infernal Pre-Igniter Increases the hellion's attack damage by +5 (to +11) vs light units and the hellbat's attack damage by +12 vs light units. The flame changes to a blue color. The flame color on the icon was changed to blue in patch 1.3.5. Acquisition Purchased from Tech lab attached to factory Hotkey I Cost 100 100 79 v • e Transformation Servos Allows the hellion and hellbat to transform between modes freely. Heart of the Swarm only. Acquisition Purchased from Tech lab attached to factory Hotkey T Cost 150 150 110 Required Armory v • e

Wings of Liberty

Terran Vehicle Weapons +1 damage for cyclones +1 base damage and +1 bonus damage for hellions +2 damage for hellbats +2 base damage and +1 bonus damage for siege tanks (tank mode) +4 base damage and +1 bonus damage for siege tanks (siege mode) +3 ground damage，+1/+3 air base damage and +1 bonus damage for thors (AoE/single-target) Acquisition Purchased from Armory Hotkey E Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 v • e

Terran Vehicle Plating Increases the armor of terran vehicles Acquisition Purchased from Armory Hotkey V Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 v • e

Heart of the Swarm

Terran Vehicle and Ship Weapons Increases the attack damage of terran vehicles and spacecraft. Acquisition Purchased from Armory Hotkey E Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 v • e

Terran Vehicle and Ship Plating Increases the armor of terran vehicles and spacecraft. Acquisition Purchased from Armory Hotkey V Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 v • e

Heart of the Swarm Abilities

• Hellbat Mode (D): With the Transformation Servos upgrade, a hellion can transform into a hellbat. The transformation takes 4 seconds.

Wings of Liberty Campaign

In StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, hellions are unlocked by playing Outbreak, and are made available by Chief Engineer Rory Swann scanning the schematics of hellions Commander Jim Raynor saw on Mar Sara.

Dustin Browder has expressed regret about the handling of the hellion in the campaign. While the hellion's mobility is useful in multiplayer, firebat/medic combinations in singleplayer arbitrarily outshone it.

Twin-Linked Flamethrower Doubles width of the hellion's flame attack. ATVX has developed a twin-linked version of the hellion's flamethrower. This model produces a flame that is twice as wide as the original. Hellion can now literally douse groups of enemy units in overlapping flames with this upgrade. Campaign Acquisition Wings of Liberty Acquired from Hyperion armory for $40,000 v • e

Thermite Filaments Hellions do an additional +10 damage to light armor, and the flames turn blue. This upgrade laces the hellion's flame with small bits of thermite. These thermite fragments instantly burn through light armor, doing additional damage to the target's vitals. For a small investment, your hellions can be the envy of every military organization in the sector. Campaign Acquisition Wings of Liberty Acquired from Hyperion armory for $60,000 v • e

Ultra Capacitors 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. Campaign Acquisition Wings of Liberty Acquired from Hyperion laboratory for 5 protoss research points v • e

Vanadium Plating Armor upgrades increase health of affected units by 5% per level. 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 Wings of Liberty Acquired from Hyperion laboratory for 5 protoss research points v • e

Regenerative Bio-Steel

Damaged mechanical units recover hit points when out of combat, at a rate of 0.6015 each second.

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
Wings of Liberty Acquired from Hyperion laboratory for 20 zerg research points

v • e

Heart of the Swarm

Hellion's portrait in Heart of the Swarm

On the art side, hellions now have a fire paint job.

A variant hellion portrait is available to players via Heart of the Swarm's leveling system.

Civilian Hellions

Flame-colored civilian vehicles

A civilian version of the hellion, with flame paint, was to be available in the single-player campaign during development. They diverged into bike and squad cruisers. In the final production Hellions are not seen used by civilians and no flame print models appear in the game.

The color schemes of the two were derived from Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and The General Lee. Their drivers were the same model as missile turret operators.

Quotations

See: StarCraft II Hellion Quotations

Known Types

• Outback Hunter

References

Terran Units and Structures of StarCraft II v • e

Versus Units and Structures Infantry SCV Marine Reaper Marauder Ghost Terrestrial Vehicles MULE Hellion Hellbat (HotS) Siege tank Cyclone (LotV) Thor Widow mine (HotS) Aerospace Vessels Viking Medivac dropship Banshee Raven Battlecruiser Liberator (LotV) Spawned Units MULE Drop pod Nuclear missile Basic Buildings Command center Refinery Supply depot Barracks Engineering bay Automated Defenses Auto-turret Missile turret Point defense drone Repair drone Support Buildings Orbital command Planetary fortress Sensor tower Bunker Add-ons Tech lab Reactor Advanced Buildings Ghost academy Factory Armory Starport Fusion core Campaign and Co-op Missions Units and Structures Mercenaries Devil Dogs Hammer Securities Siege Breakers Spartan Company War Pigs Hel's Angels Dusk Wings Jackson's Revenge Dominion Elite Guard Sons of Korhal Prometheus Company Death Head Aegis Guard Field Response Theta Outback Hunter Bulwark Company Shock Division Blackhammer Sky Fury Squadron Night Wolves Winged Nightmare Pride of Augustgrad Valor of Vardona Infantry Firebat HERC Medic Rebel Spectre Trooper Terrestrial Vehicles Armored personnel carrier Diamondback Goliath Militarized transport Predator Sensor drone Vulture Warhound Aerospace Vessels Asteria wraith Assault galleon Hercules dropship Science vessel Harvester Special ops dropship Sonar drone Sovereign battlecruiser Strike fighter Tac fighter Theia raven Valkyrie Wraith Spawned units A.R.E.S. Bio-mechanical repair drone Advanced Buildings Dominion starport HERC compound Merc compound Shadow ops Add-ons Tech reactor Support Buildings Laser drill Hive mind emulator Psi disrupter Nuclear silo Strike fighter platform Automated defenses Devastation turret Gun turret Flame turret Perdition turret Sentry gun Shrike turret Spider mine Cerberus mine Canceled Terran Units and Structures of StarCraft II v • e Scrapped Removed Units Anti-air walker Block B Bulwark D-8 charges Guardian Gundam HERC Hercules tank Incinerator Laser drill tank Mine drone Missile launcher Nomad Pillager Predator Prison infantry guard Quantradyne APOD-33 dropship Red Adder Scout Shredder Super crane Targeting drone Valkyrie Zeus battle tank Zeus lander Removed Buildings Drop pod facility Listening post Munitions depot Radar tower Star base