Thor
Historical
Earliest sighting	2502
Physical
Race	Terrans
Type	Siege-walker
Propulsion	Two legs
Political
Role	Heavy assault mech
Personnel
Crew	1 (pilot)

The thor is a huge and powerful terran mechanical walker. Despite the thor being smaller than the Odin, the thor is still heavily armed and armored, and known to be one of the most heavy and powerful mechanical units in the Dominion Armed Forces.

OverviewEdit

Named after the Norse god of thunder,^[1] the thor is a class of siege-walker.^[2]

Thors only require a single crew member,^[1] and those in service during the Second Great War were more maneuverable than the Odin incarnation.^[3]

WeaponsEdit

The thor is equipped with different types of heavy weapons. It is armed with four "Thor's Hammer" particle accelerators (two are fired from each arm) and once possessed Javelin missile launchers for use against aerial opponents,^[4] though these were phased out during the Second Great War.^[5] On its back reside four 250mm Strike Cannons.^[4]

It can optionally be outfitted with 330mm barrage cannons^[2] and ATVX has developed an "immortality protocol," allowing a thor to repair itself in the field as long as its hull remains intact.^[2]

HistoryEdit

The thor stemmed from the Terran Dominion Thor Project, a program that resulted in the creation of the Odin.^[4] By 2502,^[6] the thor had been developed and had become public enough that the Dominion's best thor operator, Sandin Forst, became famous. Forst took part in an anti-zerg operation on Mar Sara that year, where he vanished.^[1] During the Second Great War, the Terran Dominion utilized the thor in defending areas such as New Folsom Prison.^[7]

The Odin, a particularly powerful prototype, was developed by 2503.^[8][9] A Protectorate shadowguard stole intelligence on the Odin, which was later taken to Valhalla.^[8]

This article or section contains information from the optional Rebellion Missions in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

The Raiders' chief engineer Rory Swann reverse engineered a schematic of the thor from examining the Odin prototype. The Raiders received their first thors during the attack on the UNN Studios.^[3]

Game UnitEdit

Thor
Unit
Race	Terran
Role	Heavy assault mech
Armament	Thor's Hammer particle beams 250 mm Strike Cannons Javelin missile launchers (WoL only)
Protection	Neosteel
Properties
Maximum energy	200 (init. 50)
Transport size	8
Sight range	11
Production
Minerals	300 (WoL) 600 (HotS)[10]
Gas	200
Supply	6
Build time	60
Produced from	Factory
Requires	Tech lab/Tech reactor (attached) Armory
Hotkey	T
Movement
Speed	1.875
Acceleration	1000
Lateral acceleration	46.0625
Deceleration	0
Collision radius	0.8125
Protection
Hit points	400
Armor	1
Type	Ground Massive Mechanical
Armor type	Armored
Thor's Hammer
Damage	30
Attacks	2
Targets	Ground
Cooldown	1.28
Range	7
Upgrade/level	+3
Javelin missiles
Damage	6 (+6 vs light)
Attacks	4
Targets	Air
Cooldown	3
Range	10
Upgrade/levels	+1/+1
Meta
Target priority	20
Kill score	2000
Production score	1000
Miscellaneous
Notes	The Javelin missiles have a 0.5 splash damage radius.

The thor can be transported by the Hercules dropship and medivac dropships. One thor fills up the medivac's entire capacity, transforming into a cube-like shape and hanging from underneath.

Combat RolesEdit

A thor's primary role is to act as the spearhead, a big tough unit that can push past an artillery barrage or fortified positions or push into an enemy base and lead marines into battle.

Its other primary role is to defend allied units from air attacks with its powerful anti-air weaponry. It works well against light air units like mutalisks, but the attack is not as effective against heavily armored air units such as battlecruisers.

The thor is countered by range, mobility, and certain anti-armor units. It doesn't deal splash damage to ground units, therefore, it cannot effectively deal with massed units such as marines, zerglings, and zealots.

A popular strategy with the unit is the "thor harass" (sometimes called "thorship"), similar to the reaver harass of StarCraft. It involves pairing the thor with a medivac dropship, combining the thor's power and the mobility of the latter.

AbilitiesEdit

250mm Cannons
Acquisition Minerals 150 Gas 150 Research time 110 Researched at Tech lab attached to factory Hotkey C	Usage Energy 150 Duration 6 Activation/ Build Time 6 Hotkey C
Notes
The thor attacks a single ground unit or structure using the cannons on its back. The thor can only target one unit, which it does continually, stunning a target within 7 range for 6 seconds while inflicting 500 damage. The thor is otherwise rendered helpless while the ability is in use. The thor can immediately use this ability when researched. The thor cannot attack friendly or neutral units or structures (such as destructible rocks) with this ability.
Edit

UpgradesEdit

Terran Vehicle Weapons
Researched at	Armory
Hotkey	E
Properties
Minerals 100 175 250 Gas 100 175 250 Research time 160 190 220
Notes
Increases the attack damage of terran vehicles.
Edit

Terran Vehicle Plating
Researched at	Armory
Hotkey	V
Properties
Minerals 100 175 250 Gas 100 175 250 Research time 160 190 220
Notes
Increases the armor of terran vehicles
Edit

Wings of LibertyEdit

The thor can be unlocked after playing the mission "Media Blitz", and made available after Rory Swann scanned the schematics of the Odin and made it less expensive to produce.^[3]

Immortality Protocol Campaign Wings of Liberty Cost $140,000 Acquisition Researched at Hyperion armory Usage Gas 200 Activation/ Build Time 12 Hotkey I Notes A "destroyed" thor becomes a structure with 400 hit points and 1 armor. The structure may be restored into a functional thor if not destroyed. The restored thor returns with the structure's remaining hit points. ATVX now offers an updated thor model that can repair itself to full working condition if the hull remains intact.[2] Edit

330mm Cannon Campaign Wings of Liberty Cost $130,000 Researched at Hyperion armory Notes Enables thor particle cannon attacks to deal splash damage in a small area and stun enemy units in a larger area.[2] Edit

Ultra Capacitors Campaign Wings of Liberty Cost 5 protoss research points Researched at Hyperion laboratory Notes Attack upgrades at the armory and engineering bay improved cooldown by 5% per level. Self-replicating ultra capacitors reduce the reload time of weapons and systems.[11] Edit

Vanadium Plating Campaign Wings of Liberty Cost 5 protoss research points Researched at Hyperion laboratory Notes Armor upgrades at the armory and engineering bay increase health by 5% per level. Vanadium better disperses weapon impacts than standard armor.[11] Edit

Regenerative Bio-Steel Campaign Wings of Liberty Cost 20 zerg research points Acquisition Researched at Hyperion laboratory Notes Damaged ships and vehicles recover hit points over time.[12] Edit

Cellular Reactor Campaign Wings of Liberty Cost 20 zerg research points Acquisition Researched at Hyperion laboratory Notes Increase starting energy of all units by 100. Increase maximum energy of all units by 100.[12] Edit

Thor vs Siege TanksEdit

Some features that existed on the thor in previous builds led to a concern that its role was overlapping with that of the siege tank. Unlike the siege tank, the thor is an assault unit rather than a siege unit. Its ground attack has much less range than a siege tank's 120 mm cannon, so it is exposed to enemy fire while attacking.^[13]

Another difference from the siege tank is that the thor can also function as a ground to air attacker.^[14]

Heart of the Swarm ChangesEdit

	This article or section contains information from StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
	The content may change substantially over time.

Players will only be able to build one thor in Heart of the Swarm. It will have stronger defenses, will lose its anti-air attack and will deal more anti-ground damage.It will have a powerful area-of-effect bombardment ability, but this will require a setup time.^[15] The thor is being moved into the late game,^[16] requiring a fusion core. The new thor will cost 600 minerals.^[10]

As of April 2012, Blizzard is considering giving the thor an anti-air spider mine ability to defend tight mineral clusters—a problem in previous incarnations of the game in that the thor has trouble manauvering around mineral fields. However, this could potentially overlap with the role of marines.^[17]

QuotationsEdit

See: StarCraft II Thor Quotations

DevelopmentEdit

Main article: Thor/Development

Known PilotsEdit

• Sandin Forst

NotesEdit

• Walter Simonson is a comic book writer and artist who famously worked on the Marvel Comics title The Mighty Thor. It appears the Simonson Munitions Factory was named after him.^[18] Simonson is also the author of the World of Warcraft comic series.

• The unit portrait resembles Chris Metzen, Blizzard's vice president of creative direction, who has used the alias "Thundergod", and "Lemmy" Kilmister. Its voice has a thick, stereotypical Austrian accent and quotes many lines from Arnold Schwarzenegger films. He also wears a Thor's hammer pendant around the neck along with a tauren marine t-shirt and its headband bears the logo from the Mercenaries 2: World In Flames video game.

• A new version of thor, named the "Super Thor", appears instead of the standard version in the Collector's Edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. It is identical in terms of gameplay. The Collector's Edition also offers a mini-thor pet for World of Warcraft.^[19]

• In the game files the thor can be found dancing. He seems to be an expert at "doing the Robot".

• In Norse mythology, Thor is the son of Odin. This is reflected in the StarCraft lore where the thor is derived from the Odin prototype.

ReferencesEdit