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Spider mines

The 52-QDMM spider mine is a type of terran self-propelled, area-denial ordnance.[1]

Overview[]

SpiderMine SCR HeadAnim

A spider mine during the Great War

Technical Details[]

A spider mine burrows into the ground when deployed. When a target enters the range of its motion sensors, it digs itself out and moves above ground to the target and detonates.[2] Groups of mines can share sensor data making it difficult to traverse a spider mine field undetected.[3] Terran infantry traditionally distrust the mine's IFF.[4]

History[]

Spider mines were developed on Earth, and are one of the few technologies to survive the Long Sleep.[4] Mines were deployed during the Guild Wars.[5] One of the most proficient users was Victor Kachinsky, who became a Kel-Morian war hero as a result.[6] Equipping vultures with spider mines became more popular in the late 2490's, especially on border worlds.[2]

SpiderMine SC2 DevGame1

Current spider mine design

The 52-QDMM spider mine was in service by the Second Great War. These mines have occasionally been seen engaging in scuffles with one another.[4]

Culture[]

In 2499, Jaunt Pictures published the holomovie, Spider Mines IV: Death from Below, about sentient mines that turned against their creators. It was the last in the series.[4]

Game Unit[]

StarCraft[]

InterSpiMine Terran SC1
Spider Mine

Gives each vulture three spider mines. Vultures cannot replenish their supply of mines once expended. New mines may only be created with new vultures.

Mines burrow where deployed and are not player-controllable. Each mine causes 125 damage and has 20 hit points. Mines do not benefit from any upgrades. Air and hovering ground units do not activate mines. Mines can sense and attack nearby cloaked ground units such as ghosts or dark templar even without the aid of a detector. They will not, however, reveal cloaked enemy units. It is possible for ranged units to pick out the mines before being hit.

Usage
Hotkey I
Range 3
Acquisition
Purchased from Machine shop
Hotkey M
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 80seconds
ve

Images[]

StarCraft: Ghost[]

SpiderMine Ghost Game1

A spider mine in StarCraft: Ghost

StarCraft Ghost Logo2
This article or section contains information about StarCraft: Ghost, which has been declared non-canon. Elements may be taken as 'flavor lore' however.
The content may be significantly out of date. Please do not add speculation to this article, and remember to cite a published source for details.

In early builds of StarCraft: Ghost, Nova was able to deploy spider mines, allowing her to ambush enemies.[7] It could be detonated on command or burrowed to behave as a proximity mine.[8]

StarCraft II[]

Spider mines are an ability for the vulture in the StarCraft II campaign.

DeploySpiderMines SC2 Icon1
Deploy Spider Mines

Spider Mines pursue enemy units that come in range, and detonate for heavy area damage. Buried Spider Mines can only be seen by enemy Detectors.

Usage
Hotkey E
Notes

Each Vulture stores up 3 charges.

ve

Wings of Liberty[]

Enhances spider mine trigger and blast radius by 33%.

This mine was developed by the Kel-Morian Combine during its siege of New Austin. The increased trigger, pursuit, and blast radiuses were critical to terrorizing the civilian population and protecting supply depots from looters.[9]

Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Hyperion armory for $50,000
ve
ReplenishSpidermines SC2 Icon1
Replenishable Magazine

Vultures can replenish their spider mine. Mines cost 15 minerals each and build one at a time. The ability can be set to autocast.

Enlightened Dynamics have developed a microfabricator that lets vultures create new mines out in the field. This microfabricator uses a small number of mineral crystals each time a mine is created, but this minor hassle is a welcome change from the old system of "three and done."

Usage
Hotkey R
Cost 15 Minerals 12 seconds
Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Hyperion armory for $60,000
ve

Nova Covert Ops[]

In Nova Covert Ops, spider mines may be deployed by siege tanks, ravens and reapers. For tanks and reapers, mines have a set number of uses per deployed unit and cannot be regenerated, unlike some of their other campaign or co-op counterparts.

SpiderMinesReaper SC2-NCO Icon1
Deploy Spider Mine

The reaper can deploy a spider mine at target location. Reapers can carry up to three mines.

Usage
Hotkey E
Range 2
Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Complete "The Escape"
ve
SpiderMinesSiegeTank SC2-NCO Icon1
Deploy Spider Mine

The siege tank can deploy a trio of spider mine at target location in a spread pattern.

Usage
Hotkey R
Range 5.5
Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Complete "Sudden Strike"
ve
SpiderMinesSiegeTank SC2-NCO Icon1
Spider Mines

Creates three spider mines at designated point.

Usage
Hotkey E
Cost 50 Energy
Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Complete "Trouble in Paradise"
ve

Co-op Missions[]

Jim Raynor can deploy spider mines from his vultures in Co-op Missions. Nova Terra can get them as an upgrade for her heavy siege tanks. Unlike in the campaign, these spider mines deal 125 damage.

The mutator "Minesweeper" scatters spider mines throughout that map that deal 250 damage.

Raynor Upgrades and Abilities
DeploySpiderMines SC2 Icon1
Deploy Spider Mines

Spider Mines pursue enemy units that come in range, and detonate for heavy area damage. Buried Spider Mines can only be seen by enemy Detectors.

Usage
Hotkey E
Notes

Each Vulture stores up 3 charges.

ve
ReplenishableMagazine SC2-LotV Icon1
Replenishable Magazine

Allows vultures to construct new spider mines. Vultures cannot hold more than three mines at a time. Can be set to autocast.

Usage
Hotkey R
Cost 15 Minerals 6 seconds
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available
Acquisition
Purchased from Tech lab attached to factory
Hotkey C
Cost 50 Minerals
Mastery: -1 Minerals per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 20 Minerals
50 TerranVespene SC2 Game1
Mastery: -1 TerranVespene SC2 Game1 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 20 Vespene gas
60seconds
ve
CerberusMine SC2-LotV Icon1
Cerberus Mine

Increases the detonation and trigger radius of spider mines by 33%.

Usage
Passive
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Raynor Level 9.
Acquisition
Purchased from Tech lab attached to factory
Hotkey C
Cost 100 Minerals
Mastery: -2 Minerals per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 Minerals
100 TerranVespene SC2 Game1
Mastery: -2 TerranVespene SC2 Game1 per Research Resource Cost: mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 Vespene gas
60seconds
ve
Nova Upgrades and Abilities
SpiderMinesSiegeTank SC2-NCO Icon1
Deploy Spider Mines

Deploys three spider mines near the siege tank.

Usage
Hotkey R
Cost 50 Minerals
Range 3
Cooldown 30 seconds
Notes

Range is approximate (not measured in editor)

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available
Acquisition
Purchased from Tech lab attached to factory
Hotkey M
Basic
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
With Research and Development
Cost 50 Minerals 50 Vespene gas 30seconds
ve

Development[]

The following section contains information from a previous version of StarCraft II which is no longer valid.

The Raven and its predecessors (Nomad and Guardian) could deploy spider mines.

Spider Mine

The Raven's spider mines function much like their equivalent in StarCraft I, but they are unlimited in quantity. Each mine does 50 damage plus an additional 50 damage against armored units. They are effective against massed tier 1 units, such as zerglings or zealots.[10]

ve

Spider mines were removed as of April 2009.[11] They were not implemented in multiplayer due to its buffing of siege tank lines.[12]

For Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard considered giving the thor an aerial spider mine ability, in order to allow it to better defend mineral clusters.[13] This concept did not make it into the game.[14]

Heroes of the Storm[]

Heroes DevLog2
The following section contains information from Heroes of the Storm and is not canon to StarCraft continuity

Spider mines appear in Heroes of the Storm as an ability used by Sergeant Hammer.[15]

Trivia[]

  • Spider mines appear as enemies in the Blizzard legacy game Blackthorne.
  • According to Bob Fitch, the design of the spider mine was inspired by the spider-like robots from the 1984 film Runaway.[16]
  • Spider mines make a high-pitched squeaking when triggered. This, coupled with their burrowed nature, is reminiscent of the titular killer robots from Screamers.
  • Spider mines lose the structure tag when unburrowed.
  • Although they are structures, they are not affected by the building armor upgrade.

References[]

  1. Barba, Rick. StarCraft Field Manual (hardcover). Insight Editions, November 17, 2015.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.
  3. Mesta, Gabriel (July 1, 2001). StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 0-671-04149-5.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Armory units (in English). 2010.
  5. McNeill, Graham (December 30, 2008). StarCraft: I, Mengsk. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 978-1-4165-5083-9.
  6. Blizzard Entertainment staff. 2010-11-12. Cast of Characters: Milo Kachinsky. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-11-13.
  7. 2014-18-12, StarCraft: Ghost Demo Build. Dropbox.com, accessed on 2020-02-16.
  8. 2023-05-16, Spider Mine Demonstration. Youtube.com, accessed on 2023-05-16.
  9. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Armory upgrades (in English). 2010.
  10. Karune. 2008-05-07. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 37. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-05-07.
  11. There have been some changes to the Ghost since the last time everyone has seen it. The Ghost currently does 10 base damage and an additional 10 damage to light armored units as its normal attack with 6 range. The Ghost's snipe ability now does 60 damage, ignoring armor for 75 energy. It also has an EMP ability, in addition to it's cloak ability, which does 100 damage to shields and drains all energy of spell casters in that area of effect. The Ghost also no longer sees spellcasters in the fog of war.

    Many of these changes help make the Ghost a better support unit, used for strategic abilities and harassment of specialty units on the field. On top of all that, firing a nuke every now and then is pretty nice too since it does do 200 damage and an additional 300 damage towards all buildings.

    With the targeting drone currently removed from the Nighthawk, we'll have to wait to see if another unit takes it up as an ability.
    Karune. 2009-03-08. Karune: Questions about the ghost. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-04-08.
  12. 2012-06-15, David Kim Interview - MLG Anaheim 2012. StarCraft Legacy, accessed on 2012-07-19.
  13. Dustin Browder. 2012-04-11. Developer Update: Heart of the Swarm Multiplayer - Starcraft II. Battle.net, accessed on 2012-04-11.
  14. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. (Activision Blizzard) (in English). March 12, 2013.
  15. Blizzard Entertainment. Heroes of the Storm (Blizzard Entertainment) (in English). June 2, 2015.
  16. 2021-09-15, Bob Fitch Twitter. Twitter.com, accessed on 2021-09-15.
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