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Ghost

Hit Points: 45
Size: Small
Supply: 1
Cost: 25 75
Build Time: 50
Trained at: Barracks
Requires: Barracks, Academy, Science Facility and Covert Ops add-on
Energy: 200 (Upgrade to 250)
Ground Attack: 10c (Upgrade to +3)
Air Attack: 10c (Upgrade to +3)
Range: 7
Sight: 9 (Upgrade to +2)
Armor: 0 (Upgrade to +3)
Dropship Carries: 8 Ghosts
Production Hot key: G


Ghosts epitomize the height of human evolution and physical conditioning. These brave men and women, born with incredible Psionic potential, are adopted by the Confederate Government and trained from infancy to benefit mankind. The Ghost's uniform combines the latest in personal stealth technology and a sophisticated sensor suite, which can be used to coordinate nuclear strikes from the front lines. The Ghost's C-10 Canister Rifle uses a variety of special munitions to disable or destroy enemy vehicles and personnel. Remember: all children born within Confederate Space must report for a PA Profile within nine months of birth!

Ghosts do 10 Concussive Attack (50% damage to Medium Units 25% damage to Large Units). This makes their attack only somewhat effective, making them do the most damage against smaller units only. While the gun can provide a little supporting fire to your other unit types, Ghosts are best used in their covert operations capacity.

Place Ghosts in Bunkers to defend them until you want to use them. This will hide their presence to the enemy, and allow them to regain their energy until you want to use them again. With a Ghost in a Bunker, you can pop them out, cast a few Lockdowns, then jump back into the Bunker. You do not want to use Ghosts in your Bunkers for defense. They have added range, but their attack is largely useless against most units. Marines and Firebats will do a better job.

Counter

Terran Counters

  • Terrans can use Science Vessels, or Scanner Sweep around the area (easier when hot keyed) to reveal the Ghost. Once revealed, units must be in the area to kill the Ghost.

  • Although it is possible for Vulture Spider mines to detect and kill cloaked Ghosts, they are not an effective defense against a Nuclear strike once it has been launched. This is even the case when you know exactly where the Nuke will land. The small detection range of the Spider mines, and the slow speed at which they are planted, makes this an extremely unlikely counter to Nukes except in killing a Ghost on their way to launch a Nuclear strike. Placing Spider mines around your town should offer some protection against Nukes. Although it is probably not feasible to defend all your controlled areas with mines, mining key spots should offer some protection.

Protoss Counters
  • Protoss can use Observers to find the Ghost but they will also quickly need another unit to kill the Ghost. If you have Templars, you can try to cast Psionic Storm around the area in an attempt to kill the Ghost.

  • Stasis Fields are able to take a full Nuclear strike without facing any damage. An odd strategy might be to Stasis your own units to survive a Nuke, but the more effective strategy would be to move those units out of the way. Cast Stasis on the Ghosts or where you think the Ghosts are. This will freeze the Ghost and the Nuke will be canceled.

Zerg Counters

  • Zerg Players can reveal the Ghost by using Overlords

  • Casting Ensnare around the area with Queens to reveal Ghosts

  • Use a Defiler to cast Plague on an area where you suspect the Ghosts are standing.

Upgrades

Infantry Weapons Infantry Weapons
Level 1: 100 100
Level 2: 175 175
Level 3: 250 250
Researching these three upgrades at the Engineering Bay will increase the weapons of your Ghost by +3 (+1 per Weapons Upgrade).

Infantry Armor Infantry Armor
Level 1: 100 100
Level 2: 175 175
Level 3: 250 250
Researching these three upgrades at the Engineering Bay will increase the armor of your Ghost by +3.
Sight Research Ocular Implants
100 100
(Increase Ghost sight range)
This upgrade is not a necessity but it is very helpful when using Lockdown and for launching Nukes. With Ocular Implants, Ghosts can launch Nukes at a greater distance away from the target. This is incredibly useful as it makes the Ghost even harder to find when they are spotting for a nuke and also keeps them safe from the Nuke blast provided you launched it from a maximum distance.

The relativity cheap price makes it worth researching.

Moebius Research Moebius Reactor
150 150
(+50 Ghost energy)
Moebius Reactor is incredibly useful because it increases the total limit of your energy to 250. When using Lockdown, and for launching Nukes. This is a must have and it also greatly helps the use of Cloaking.

Special Abilities

Nuke Nuke
Cost: Armed silo requirement
Ghosts have the special ability of being able to Launch a Nuclear Strike. To launch a Nuke, first you must build a Nuclear Silo, which is an attachment to the Command Center. Then you Arm the Nuclear Silo. Next you will need a Ghost. To make Ghosts you will need an Academy, Science Facility and Covert Ops add-on. Next you must use a Ghost to spot for the Nuke. Select where you want the Nuke to land, making sure the Ghosts Launches as far away from the target as possible. Once you have launched the Nuke, all players will receive the message and sound: "Nuclear Launch Detected"

The Ghost must continue to spot for the Nuke until it is about to land. When the Nuclear missile is about to land, your Ghost will move out of spot mode and you will have control over it again which is an indication to you that the missile is about to land, and that it can no longer be canceled. If you have not researched Ocular Implants, you should retreat your Ghost away from the target area as quickly as possible before it lands. If you do not, your Ghost will be killed in the blast. By researching Ocular Implants, your Ghost will be able to launch a Nuke at a distance far enough away from the target area that it will not be killed by the blast (if you cast from maximum distance).

To stop a Nuke from landing after it has been launched, select your Ghost and select cancel. The missile will not land and nothing will happen. The missile will be wasted however. Once launched, nukes will either land or not land, but cannot be used again. There is a point right before that missile lands that you cannot cancel the Nuke. To stop the Nuke from damaging the enemy, they must kill your Ghost before it moves out of spot mode and the Nuke lands. Cloaking and Ocular Implants greatly increase the difficulty of the enemy finding your Ghost before it is too late.

Players can detect a Nuke's aiming point by searching for the red spotting dot from the Ghost. If you receive a "Nuclear Launch Detected", search all your buildings for the red dot. Make a good decision about where the Nuke will most likely land, good targets include right in the middle of resource gatherers, key buildings, as well as groups of units that may be standing idle. Once you have located the red dot, move all units away from the blast zone as quickly as possible. If you are Terran, lift-off all buildings capable of flying and move them away. If you find the dot soon enough and if you issue commands quick enough, you can move your buildings out of the way of harm where they will only receive slight damage. When a dot is spotted, select each building and hit L, the hot key for lift off. Then as quickly as you can, direct the buildings to move away from the blast in any direction.

Once you have made sure all units and buildings are heading for safety, attempt to find and kill the Ghost. If it is cloaked you must first reveal the Ghost. You really have several choices as to how to go about dealing with a Nuke. You can plan for not being able to stop the Ghost and move everything you can out of the way. You can go all out trying to stop the Ghost THEN try to move units out of the way. Or you can try to do all at once.

If you cannot stop the Nuke in time, watch the mini-map for a huge flash of Red. When you see this flash on the map, you will know where the Nuke hit. If you don't see any flash of red, search around all your territory for any visible damage. If you don't see any, most likely the Nuke hit someone else. You can always ask the enemy who they nuked. Often, they will be glad to tell you. If you do find that the Nuke hit your units and/or buildings, quickly repair all damaged items. If any Terran buildings are left burning in the red zone, they will burn up if you do not quickly repair them.

Whenever possible try to launch nukes from higher ground on to lower ground. This greatly increases the difficulty of killing the Ghost for the enemy. Unless they have air units nearby, they will have to try to get units up to the higher ground via a ramp or troop transport, which will most likely not reach and kill your Ghost in time.

Cast an EMP on Protoss units and buildings before nuking. This will weaken them enough for one Nuke to take many of them out.

The Nuke does a minimum of 500 Hit points Damage or 2/3s damage, whichever is greater. The damage a nuke does tapers off as the targets get further away from ground zero, the impact area. In other words, the further away units and buildings are from the impact area, the less damaged they will be.

One nuke will kill most units (Battlecruisers with full hit points will survive with hit points equal to its armor level). Two nukes on the same target will kill all buildings, many buildings will survive a single Nuke Strike. If only one Nuke is available, it is best used against units. If two are available, go for buildings. Terran Supply Depots are vulnerable to a single Nuke hit, so a good strategy might be to Nuke a collection of Terran Supply depots, to preventing them from building more units.

If you happen to Lockdown a number of units in a small area, consider using a Nuke to finish them off.

Nukes work very well in clearing out collections of Towers, and defenses such as Bunkers and Siege Tanks.

Burrowed Zerg units receive no protection against Nukes.

Lockdown Research Lockdown - 200 200
Cost: 100 Energy
Lockdown Targets mechanical units shorting out circuitry of target, rendering it immobile for about 60 seconds. The Locked down unit cannot be controlled in any way. You also cannot use any of their special abilities if that particular unit has any. You can repair Terran locked down units.

By far, this is one of the most useful abilities for the Terrans. A Ghost can initiate 2 Lockdowns with the Moebius Reactor upgrade which increases the maximum energy by +50. With a few Ghosts, the Terrans can lockdown an entire army rendering them useless and open to attack. This of course requires some quick and careful clicking making sure to use the hot key L.

Lockdown does not work on any Zerg Units/Buildings, but it works on most Protoss and Terran units. For the Terrans, you can lockdown Factory Units (Vulture, Siege Tank, Goliath), Starport Units (Wraith, Dropship, Science Vessel, Valkyrie, Battlecruiser), as well as SCVs. You cannot lock down any Barracks trained Infantry units (Marine, Firebat, Ghost, Medic) because they are not mechanical. For the Protoss, you can lock down Robotics Facility units (Reaver, Shuttle, Observer), Stargate units (Scout, Carrier, Corsair, Arbiter), as well as Probes and Dragoons.

Lockdown is very effective over more dangerous units such as Battlecruisers, Carriers, Siege Tanks in siege mode, as well as Troop transports (Dropships, Shuttles) trying to land.

If the enemy is protecting higher ground with Siege Tanks in siege mode, you can sneak some cloaked Ghosts in to Lockdown those Siege tanks. This may weaken the enemy defenses enough to allow you to overpower them with a direct assault.

Locking down Arbiters cancels their cloaking ability over nearby Protoss units revealing them.

Cloaking Research Personal Cloaking - 100 100
Cost: 25 Energy to cloak + 1 Energy/second to remain cloaked
Personal Cloaking allows you to cloak your ghosts making them invisible except to cloak detection such as Terrans (Missile Turrets, Scanner Sweep, Science Vessels, Vulture Mines will kill them but won't reveal them until they are dead), Zerg (Overlords, Ensnare from Queens, Spore Colonies), Protoss (Observers and Photon Cannons).

Once the ability is activated, the energy of the Ghost starts slowing running out. When it reaches 0, the Ghost uncloaks. The Ghost cannot cloak again until it builds up 25 or more energy.




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