Motherships are costly and time-consuming to produce. As a result, the protoss have begun constructing them in two stages, with the mothership core being the first step. The core itself is used as a defensive and support weapon until a mothership can be completed.[4]
Game Unit
The mothership core is available to players very early in the game and it is highly recommended that they build one in this stage.[5]
The mothership core was created to solve the problem of multiplayer protoss vs. protoss games, said games rarely going to mid-late game due to the warp-in abilities negating the defender's advantage. Its Photon Overcharge ability is a counter to this,[6] along with countering zerg rush techniques.[7] It is also intended that its Recall abilities will allow protoss players to be more aggressive.[8]
Its unit portrait is the same as that of the standard mothership. It also speaks with a female voice.
Abilities
Photon Overcharge
In Heart of the Swarm, the mothership core uses this ability on a nexus, which gains a photon cannon-like weapon. The weapon has range 13, targets air and ground and deals 20 damage. The weapon lasts 60 seconds and has its own cooldown of 1.25.
In Legacy of the Void, this ability is cast on pylons, dealing 30 damage[9] with a cooldown of .71 seconds.[10]
Time Warp
The mothership core creates a temporal field that slows all ground units’ movement speed within a 3.5 radius by 50%. This ability has a range of 9[13] and costs 100 energy to use.[14]
