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Mothership

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This article or section contains information about a StarCraft II unit or structure.

The content may be significantly out of date as StarCraft II experiences a new build weekly and may change substantially as more information becomes available. Please do not add speculation to this article, and remember to cite a published source for details.

"By the heart of Aiur!"
―Protoss mothershipsrc
Mothership
Unit
Race

Protoss

Role

Capital Support Ship

Properties
Hit points

400[1]

Shields

400[1]

Energy

200[2] Energy

Type
Armor type
Production
Minerals

400[5][2] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

Gas

400[5][2] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

Psi

8[2] Psi

Build time

120[2]

Produced at

Nexus[2][6]

Requires

Fleet Beacon[2]

Hot key

M[2]

Combat
Ground attack

8 (x8 attacks)[2] or 2 attacks[7]

Air attack

8 (x8 attacks)[2] or 2 attacks[7]

Armor

2[2]

Attack range

7[2]

Unit speed

Normal[2]

The mothership is a powerful protoss capital ship. It is set to appear in StarCraft II.[8]

Contents

Overview

The Mothership

Motherships are mighty vessels that were constructed centuries ago during the protoss Golden Age of Expansion. They were intended to act as primary command ships to lead vast armadas of protoss explorers through deep space and bring them safely home again. In the aftermath of this period of expansion, the surviving motherships became holy shrines to the protoss, representing an honored way of life and a part of the proud history of the protoss race. As such, they were left in place as titanic monuments at the farthest reaches of protoss exploration. It was believed that their like would not be needed again. After the zerg devastated Aiur however, the surviving motherships were called back into service. Now they are crewed not with mystics and historians, but with warriors.[9]

At the heart of each mothership is a huge khaydarin crystal infused with an incredible amount of psionic energy. By tapping into this energy, a mothership can warp or crack the very fabric of space-time itself. The devastating power of a mothership can wipe out squadrons of enemy ships in the blink of an eye or lay waste to entire planets.[9]

Game Unit

Mothership, after Time Bomb collapse

In the most current development version of StarCraft II, the mothership is unique for balance reasons.[10][7]

The mothership moves very slowly.[10]

The mothership is treated as a support unit with powerful defenses.[11]

The mothership's standard attack consists of eight disruptor pulses that spread out and attack all enemies (ground and air) within range[12] or two beam weapons.[7] These can attack both air and ground units.[12] This makes them quite ideal as support in the back lines of a battle while capable of attacking enemies in the front lines. While the mothership has an immense amount of hit points, it is incredibly expensive and not worth the risk of being exposed to open fire. Players should expect the enemy to throw everything they have in destroying these immense vessels. Overall, it should only be built if one has air superiority and can adequately defend it.[13]


Abilities

Cloaking Field
Usage
Range

10[4]

Notes

Passively cloaks nearby units and buildings.[14] The Mothership had the ability to cloak nearby units and make them invisible without enemy detection abilities.[15][6][16]

Edit
Wormhole Transit[14]
Notes

The mothership can instantly travel to a protoss building.[14]

Edit
Black Hole[17]/Vortex
Usage
Energy

150[18] Energy

Duration

30[18]

Cooldown

3[18]

Notes

The mothership creates a gravity vortex which incapacitates units in the area of effect.[14][19]

Vortex used to do high damage to a single enemy unit (as of February 2009).[10] Units that enter the vortex after it has opened will also be affected.[20]

Vortex used to suck enemy units in and puts them into stasis.[21][6][16]

Previously known as Black Hole.[22] Black Hole could quickly destroy air and ground units in an area of effect.[15]

Edit
Time Rift[23]
Usage
Duration

30 seconds[24]

Notes

Time Rift, also known as Temporal Rift, slows all movement speed, attack speeds and ability cast times in half for 30 seconds.[24] The mothership possessed this ability as of October 2009.[25]

Edit


Upgrades

Air Weapons
Researched at

Cybernetics Core[26]

Hotkey

E[26]

Properties
Level

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Minerals

100[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

150[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

200[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

Gas

100[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

150[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

200[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

Research time

140[26] time

170[26] time

200[26] time

Edit
Air Armor
Researched at

Cybernetics Core[26]

Hotkey

A[26]

Properties
Level

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Minerals

100[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

150[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

200[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

Gas

100[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

150[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

200[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

Research time

140[26] time

170[26] time

200[26] time

Notes
  • Increases air unit armor.
Edit
Plasma shields
Researched at

Forge[26]

Hotkey

S[26]

Properties
Level

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Minerals

200[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

300[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

400[26] Image:Minerals Terran SC1.png

Gas

200[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

300[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

400[26] Image:Gas Protoss SC1.png

Research time

140[26] time

170[26] time

200[26] time

Notes
  • +1 to shields per level.
Edit

Development

The mothership has been switched back and forth from a one-of-a-kind unit to a normal unit, multiple times since its unveiling in May 2007.[27][8][28][29][30][22]

The mothership is hard to test, as it is high in the tech tree.[10]

The mothership used to be able to survive a direct hit from a nuclear missile.[31]

The mothership could be cloaked with Null Shield in earlier builds.[32]

Previous Abilities

Any abilities that do not make it into the final mothership will still be available in the game editor.[33][29]

Time Bomb
Time Bomb[30][34]
Usage
Energy

100[18][35] Energy

Duration

30 seconds[36]

Cooldown

90[18]

Hotkey

T[36]

Notes

Time Bomb slows down enemy unit movement and attacks in the area of effect.[37]

This ability had no effect on beam weapons such as those of the void ray or colossus.[38]

When the Time Bomb collapsed, failed ammunition fell to the ground.[8]

Edit

Time Bomb has been added and removed to the mothership frequently. It was last removed as of April 2009[14] and given to the high templar in the form of Time Rift.[23]

Recharge Energy
Usage
Hotkey

E[36]

Notes

"Recharges the energy of a friendly unit."[36][11][3]

Edit
Summon
Usage
Hotkey

N[36]

Notes

"Summon target ground unit."[36]

The Mothership can teleport an entire army to its location[39] in a manner similar to an Arbiter. Its much higher durability helps it in this role.[30]

The Mothership can either defend a base (teleporting units to its location when the base is attacked) or accompany attack forces, summoning reinforcements.[30]

Edit
Planet Cracker
Usage
Energy

125[40] Energy

Hotkey

C[40]

Notes

"Scorch the ground beneath the Mothership for 15 seconds, causing damage to enemy ground units below."[40] Deals massive damage to an area directly below the mothership's position (ideal for destroying buildings and slow-moving targets such as siege tanks) over a period of time. It has no effect on air units.[8]

Edit


Quotes

Main page: Mothership Quotations

Trivia

If the Blizzard game demonstration video is any indication, not to mention the voice of the quotes on the official StarCraft II website, it is thus far the only protoss non-hero unit to be voiced by a female representative.[41][9]

The mothership's "Planet Cracker" ability is based on the energy beam from the ship in the introduction video for StarCraft I. That ship is the "conceptual anchor" for the mothership idea.[42][43]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Protoss Mothership. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2009-09-07.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-04-04. Protoss Unit Information. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-10.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-04-04. WWI 08 Coverage - Protoss Units. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-06-22.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Protoss Mothership. StarCraft II Armory. Accessed 2009-09-27.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 HDstarcraft et al. 2009-09-01. Starcraft 2/Blizzcon 2009 Podcast p9. Youtube. Accessed 2009-09-03.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 GearvOsh. 2008-10-14. Community Q&A (Batch 1). StarCraft II Armory. Accessed 2008-10-14.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 StarCraft Legacy community. 2009-08-24. BlizzCon 2009 SC:L Member StarCraft II Gameplay Blogs. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-09-01.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 2007-05-19. Gameplay Trailer. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-08-12.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Mothership. Accessed on 2008-03-30
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 1. It's a Terran vs. Zerg game. I promise nothing on what week it will come out. You must continue to suffer and wait.
    2. I don't know much about these.
    3. We have Void Ray, Phoenix, Mothership, Carrier, Warp Prism, Observer. Mothership moves slowly, can teleport to any Protoss building, can do huge damage to a single target with Vortex and cloaks everything nearby on the ground (including buildings). Mothership is build-limit-one. This is done primarily for balance reasons. You use her as a base defense that can be anywhere you want in a flash. Sometimes you push into an enemy base with her. Testing on her remains a pain because she is so high-tech we don't see her in a lot of games. Right now she is reasonably cool, but we are not in love with her yet.
    4. I cannot.

    Please discuss.     Cavez, I know your lurking. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-27.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Karune. 2008-04-16. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 35. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-04-16.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Karune. 2007-12-13. A Flawed Protoss Force. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-12-13.
  13. ↑ INC Games: Zerg Q&A. Accessed on 2008-20-03
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Mothership's ability: Cloaking Field(Passive): cloaks nearby ground units and structures Vortex: creates a gravity vortex that incapacitates units in the target area Wormhole Transit: allows the Mothership to instantly travel to Protoss building Cydra. 2009-04-30. [1]. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-04-30.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-03-16. StarCraft 2 Korean and Chinese Build Summary. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-03-18.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-10-17. BlizzCon 2008: Changes to StarCraft 2. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-10-17.
  17. ↑ StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-06-29. June 22, 2009 StarCraft II Review . StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-06-29.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 Cydra. 2008-11-07. What do you think about Mothership? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-11-08.
  19. ↑ Oversky. 2009-06-29. New SC2 HD Footage w/ Commentary. Youtube. Accessed 2009-06-29.
  20. ↑ HDstarcraft et al. 2009-09-01. Starcraft 2/Blizzcon 2009 Podcast p8. Youtube. Accessed 2009-09-03.
  21. ↑ Chris Sigaty, Samwise Didier. Blizzcon 2008 StarCraft 2 Press Q&A. StarCraft Source. Accessed 2008010-12.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Karune. 2008-03-4. Unique?. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-03-24.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Time Bomb is now known as the Temporal Rift and is cast by the High Templar.

    Plasma Surge is no longer in the multiplayer version of the game, but will still be in the editor.

    The Dark Pylon is now known as the Obelisk - primarily because it no longer cloaks units and no longer provides pylon power/supply. This change was mostly due to balance, since it is relatively easy to spam Dark Pylons everywhere and instantly have a Psi Storm recharge point to decimate incoming forces.     Karune. 2009-06-08. Lack of EMP = more Archons? (post 11) Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-06-09.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 There isn't Time Bomb ability any more in the current game and High Templar has Temporal Rift ability. Temporal Rift creates a distortion field at the target location. Ground units caught inside of this field have their movement speed, attack speed, and ability cast times slowed by half. And it lasts 30 seconds. Cydra. 2009-06-10. Temporal Rift/Time Bomb vs. Bullets, Lasers. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-06-10.
  25. ↑ Cydra. 2009-10-15. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 54. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-10-15. source
  26. ↑ 26.00 26.01 26.02 26.03 26.04 26.05 26.06 26.07 26.08 26.09 26.10 26.11 26.12 26.13 26.14 26.15 26.16 26.17 26.18 26.19 26.20 26.21 26.22 26.23 26.24 26.25 26.26 26.27 26.28 26.29 26.30 26.31 26.32 StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-04-04. Zerg & Protoss Upgrades. SCLegacy. Accessed 2009-06-18
  27. ↑ Karune. 2009-02-18. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 49 (page 4). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-18.
  28. ↑ StarCraft Legacy Staff. 2007-08-09. BlizzCon 2007 First Protoss Impressions. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-18.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Browder, Dustin (Cavez). 2008-02-01. Re: Karune, current mothership status? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-02-01.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 Pardo, Rob and Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-06-29. WorldWide Invitational 2008: Pictures, Presentations, Videos (StarCraft II Panel: Evolving Design) SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-06-30.
  31. ↑ Karune. 2008-04-24. StarCraft II Q&A Batch 36: ScreenCraft. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-04-24.
  32. ↑ You can cloak your Mothership with your Dark Pylon's Null Shield.
    In this case, the enemy can't see anything in your base without a Detecting unit.     Cydra. 2009-03-02. Bue: Question. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-03-02.
  33. ↑ Karune. 2007-09-25. Mothership Abilities. StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-09-26.
  34. ↑ Update: The Mothership has the Time Bomb ability in addition to its previously mentioned 'support' abilities. Karune. 2008-04-17. Karune, is the Time Bomb ability really gone? Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-04-17.
  35. ↑ BlizzCon Statistics 2 Shacknews.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 36.3 36.4 36.5 StarCraft Legacy staff. 2008-07-16. StarCraft: Legacy Internal Q&A. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2008-07-17.
  37. ↑ It seems like Time Bomb, which is in the current build and makes unit's movement speed and attack speed slow. Cydra. 2009-04-24. Instead of anti-grav, make it more-grav. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-04-24.
  38. ↑ Karune. 2007-11-12. Chat with Karune about the Screenshots. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-11-12.
  39. ↑ Lastly, Protoss has 'Warp-In' along with the newest version of the Mothership, which is slower, more hardy (in terms of hit points), and allows for the player to teleport a whole army to its location. Karune. 2008-05-22. Is terran turtling going to be as powerful. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-05-22.
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 BlizzCon Statistics 2 Shacknews.
  41. ↑ 2007-05-20. Gameplay Video. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-07-02.
  42. ↑ Chris Metzen, StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-04-03. SC:L Metzen Interview - Lore Exclusive. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-18.
  43. ↑ Karune, Dustin Browder and Samwise Didier. 2008-11-18. BlizzCast Episode 6. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-11-18.
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