Sensor tower

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Sensor Tower
Structure
Race	Terran
Properties
Hit points	200[1][2]
Type	Armored, Mechanical, Structure
Production
Minerals	125[1][2]
Gas	100[1][2]
Build time	25[1][2]
Requires	Engineering bay[2]

The sensor tower is a terran building to be featured in StarCraft II.^[3]

Contents 1 Overview 2 Game Unit 2.1 Abilities 2.2 Upgrades 2.3 Strategies 3 Development 4 References

[edit] Overview

A sensor tower uses passive and active thermal and electromagnetic scanning along with input from seismic sensors and Doppler analysis, enabling it to pinpoint any target within range. Even foes hiding behind terrain features can be detected, although they won't be identified without visual verification.^[3]

The multi-spectrum output enables foes to easily detect the presence of a sensor tower and identify the location of the base that holds it.^[3]

[edit] Game Unit

The sensor tower has a passive radius which exposes enemy movement. It cannot detect cloaked or burrowed units.^[1]

[edit] Abilities

The sensor tower can be salvaged.^[4][1]

Salvage
Usage Duration 5[6] Hotkey V[5]
Notes
"Salvage the structure, removing it and returning 100% of its mineral and gas value. Warning - once salvage is triggered it cannot be cancelled."[5] Salvage enables certain terran structures to be "sold" for their full resource value.[7] This ability takes 5 seconds to use, however.[6] Once activated, stopping the salvaging process is impossible.[8]
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[edit] Upgrades

Building Armor[9][10]
Researched at	Engineering bay[10]
Properties
Level Level 1 Level 2 Minerals 150[9] 200[9] Gas 150[9] 200[9] Research time 140[9] 160[9]
Notes
Increases the armor of terran buildings.[9]
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[edit] Strategies

Some strategies revolve around "spoofing" the tower with decoy units or simply staying outside its range. Terran commanders have been known to counter by erecting sensor towers in fake base locations just to keep enemies guessing.^[3]

[edit] Development

Missile turrets used to rely on sensor towers to detect enemy units.^[11] However, by the GDC 2008 build missile turrets could detect by themselves.^[12]

The sensor tower was canceled and in the WWI 08 build had the name changed to the radar tower.^[13] However, it has been brought back.^[2]

The sensor tower has oscillated between being a detector and not a detector. In early May 2009 it was not a detector,^[4] but in the Seoul Ap-Gu-Jung, event from May 21, 2009 it was a detector.^[14] By November 2009, however, it had lost detection.^[1]

[edit] References

Terran Units and Structures of StarCraft II
Infantry	SCV · Marine · Reaper · Marauder · Ghost
Land Vehicles	MULE · Hellion · Siege tank · Thor
Air Units	Viking · Medivac dropship · Banshee · Raven · Battlecruiser
Basic Buildings	Command center · Refinery · Supply depot · Barracks · Engineering bay
Automated Defenses and Explosives	Auto-turret · Defensive drone · D-8 charges · Missile turret
Support Buildings	Orbital command · Planetary fortress · Sensor tower · Bunker
Add-ons	Tech lab · Nuclear reactor
Advanced Buildings	Merc compound · Ghost academy · Factory · Armory · Starport · Fusion core
Other	Drop pod · Nuclear missile
Campaign-Exclusive Terran Units and Structures of StarCraft II	Infantry	Firebat · Medic · Rebel · Spectre
	Mercenaries	(Kel-Morian Mercenaries — Elite marines) · (Devil Dogs — Elite firebats) · (Hammer Securities — Elite marauders)
	Land Vehicles	Cobra · Diamondback tank · Goliath · Transport truck · Vulture
	Air Units	Hercules dropship · Wraith
	Automated defenses	Perdition turret · Shrike turret
Scrapped	Removed Units	Mine drone · Predator · Spider mines · Targeting drone
	Removed Buildings	Munitions depot · Radar tower · Shadow ops · Star base