How Much Does Heart Of The Swarm Cost

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Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide --> Heart of the Swarm Guide --> New Units in HotS (you are here)

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is a great game. It surpasses its predecessor—Wings of Liberty—in almost every way. The campaign is fun and constantly keeps you on your toes with new mechanics and boss fights, and the multiplayer is a tight and balanced experience. Heart of the Swarm® Goodies. Represent your love for the Swarm with three Zergified portraits, a Torrasque unit skin, and 12 exclusive decals. You'll also get a World of Warcraft Baneling pet and awesome Diablo III loot - a set of Blade Wings and a Banner Sigil.

Seven new units have been introduced into the multiplayer version of Heart of the Swarm: three for Protoss, and two for Zerg and Terran. Note that while Zerg and Terran players only get two new units each, their old units received more buffs and upgrades than older Protoss units received.

In this guide, you will find a list of new Heart of the Swarm units, their pictures and tooltips, as well as video guides demonstrating all of these units in action. You can click on the name of a specific unit in order to be taken to a full guide on that unit where abilities, stats, and strategies are discussed in detail.

Note: Campaign-only units will be covered in our HotS Campaign Only Units guide, as these units are unavailable in competitive play.

New Protoss Units in HotS

Protoss players get access to three new units in Heart of the Swarm: the Mothership Core, the Oracle, and the Tempest. All three of these are flying units, giving Protoss the most versatile flying fleet in Starcraft 2.

The Mothership Core is a new Protoss air unit that can be produced at the Nexus as soon as you get a Cybernetics Core. Protoss players can only get 1 Mothership Core, as this is a very powerful caster that significantly increases the strength of the Protoss army.

The Mothership Core is designed to fix some primary Protoss weaknesses: namely its susceptibility early attacks, its lack of options for harassing in the early game, and its lack of mobility in the late game.

The Mothership Core is a flying unit with a decent ground attack, so it can harass enemy workers in the early game. As a flying unit, it also provides vision of the high ground, making early Stalker offensives much more viable. Its Photon Overcharge ability is a very powerful defensive skill that is hard to overcome within the first 10 minutes of a game. Finally, its Mass Recall ability gives the Protoss army the ability it needs to defend multiple expansions.

The Oracle is a new Protoss air unit that is produced at the Stargate. It does not require a Fleet Beacon. The Oracle has no attacks of its own but instead has energy and three special abilities.

The first two abilities help provide the Protoss player with more vision. Revelation allows Oracle to see what targeted enemy units see, whereas Envision allows the Oracle to become a detector. The function of these two abilities is to reduce reliance on the Observer. It is only with the Oracle that the Protoss player is able to skip a Robotics Facility entirely in the early game. Note that players still get Observers though in the late game since Observers are cheaper, cloaked, and always active as detectors.

The Oracle also has a third skill, Pulsar Beam which grants it a temporary, powerful ground attack which drains energy while it is active. It does a lot of damage per second, especially to enemy workers, but cannot stay up for long. The Oracle's very low HP but high supply count and resource cost make it not practical to use for damage-dealing in your primary army. Instead, players like to rush to the Oracle and going in for sneak attacks on the enemy's mineral line. If the enemy does not react very quickly, this is a very effective tactic.

The Tempest is a Protoss flying unit introduced in Heart of the Swarm. This massive air unit has a very slow attack with the incredible range of 15. By comparison, the Colossus with Extended Thermal Lance only has a range of 9.

The Tempest is akin to a flying Siege Tank. It does not deal in splash damage or does not hit quite as hard as a Siege Tank, but makes up for that by being a flying unit which does not need to morph into and out of siege mode in order to move.

The Tempest excels at destroying massive anti-air units. It deals nearly 3x bonus damage to massive air units. This includes Carriers, Battlecruisers, Colossi, Brood Lords, the Mothership, and other Tempests. It is a strong counter to all of these units. Since Protoss players have access to many massive air units (Colossi count as air), the Tempest has become an instant staple in late-game Protoss vs Protoss matches.

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This unit is extremely strong for its supply cost. Despite this, the Tempest is not guaranteed to be included as part of the 'Protoss Deathball'. The reluctance of players to adopt this unit is not due to lack of strength, but rather its cost. Tempests require 125 resources invested for every supply point they fill (500 total minerals and gas for a 4 supply unit), whereas a Zealot only require 50 (100 resources for a 2 supply unit). Additionally, the Tempest requires a Fleet Beacon, which comes at a steep 300 minerals and 200 vespene gas!

Due to their very high cost, Tempests usually do not appear on the field until the enemy produces massive air units or when the Protoss player takes their 4th+ base and can afford to invest in the extra infrastructure.

New Terran Units in HotS

Terran players get access to two new units in Heart of the Swarm. Both of these units are produced by the Factory and seem to be designed to give Terran players the option to play entirely mech based builds. In Wings of Liberty, Barracks units were produced heavily in practically every match-up.

Even though the Hellbat is a new 'mode' for the Hellion, it truly is an entirely different unit for the Terran race. Once players build an Armory and subsequently research 'Transformation Servos' (found at the Tech lab on the Factory), players can morph their Hellions into Hellbats and their Hellbats into Hellions for no additional cost.

The Hellbat has a similar fire-based, ground-only attack to the Hellion, but with a much shorter range (but wider) range. The Hellbat deals noticeably more damage per hit and has more health as well. However, it is much slower than the Hellion (too slow to chase down escaping workers for example) and has a shorter range, making it much more likely to take damage.

One thing however that completely separates it from the Hellion is that the Hellbat is biological. This allows the Hellbat to be healed by Medivacs, making it particularly potent when used as for a drop attack.

Hellbats are fragile however due to their lack of armor. This is made up for the fact that they are very cheap to produce and have a very fast build time. They also cost no vespene gas, which provides a nice mineral dump for Terran mech players. Hellbats were deemed too powerful in the beta during drop attacks, so now a single Hellbat fills up 4 of 8 slots in a Medivac. Hellions by contrast only fill up 2 slots.

The Widow Mine is a new unusual Terran unit with no traditional attack of its own. Instead, it burrow in the ground and attacks enemy units that get to close with a powerful, explosive attack.

The Widow Mine is reminscent of the Spider Mine from Starcraft 1 and the Wings of Liberty campaign. Unlike the Spider Mine however, the Widow Mine costs a lot more and does a lot more. The Widow Mine is its own unit and is produced at the factory. It also has a 2 supply cost and requires a modest resource investment. It can move on its own, can burrow and unburrow, can attack air units, and has a bigger range.

The Widow Mine also is not destroyed when it is triggered. Instead, there is a 40-second cooldown between attacks. Given that the Widow Mine's primary attack is strong enough to kill off light units in 1-hit and its splash damage is noticeable, the Widow Mine typically only needs to go off once in order to pay for itself.

The Sentinel Missile deals 125 damage to its primary target, along with +35 damage to shields. The + damage to shields is applied first. For example, a Stalker has 80 Shields and 80 HP. The Sentinel Missile deals the +35 to the shields first, taking the Stalker down to 45 shields and 80 HP. The 125 damage to the primary target then kills the Stalker, allowing a Sentinel Missile to 1-shot a Stalker.

New Zerg Units in Heart of the Swarm

The Zerg gets access to two new units in Heart of the Swarm. These are both high tier utility units that give the Zerg the ability to be much more efficient and strategical in their gameplay.

The Swarm Host is a burrowing unit that regularly produces minions when burrowed. These minions, called Locusts, are short-lived ground units with 65 HP and a very powerful ground attack.

While the Locusts only live for 15-25 seconds (depending on upgrades), they do live long enough to travel remarkable distances before dying. As a result of the distance these Locusts can travel before dying, the Swarm Host is effectively the longest-ranged unit in game.

Prior to the Swarm Host, the Zerg was terribly inefficient at handling players who turtled inside of their natural base and built up a huge army. This was very common in Zerg versus Protoss, where Protoss players would hide inside their natural base, using Force Field to prevent the Zerg from attacking. The Protoss player would then max out before attacking, and there was not much the Zerg could do about it except try to expand all over the map.

With the Swarm Host, the Zerg player now has an option for turtling playstyles: Locusts cannot be kept out permanently with Force Field as eventually Sentries will run out of energy. If they do not use the energy, eventually the Locusts will wear down the turtled player.

The Viper is a new tier 3 flying casting unit with no offensive abilities. Instead, it can grab enemy units and pull them to its current location (Abduct) as well as place clouds on the ground which prevent all units in the area of effect from performing ranged attacks (Blinding Cloud).

The Viper affords players to play an entirely ground-based approach, even in the late game (the Viper does not require a Spire). In Wings of Liberty, Zerg players had to get air units in order to handle large numbers of Colossi or Siege Tanks. Now, the Viper can neutralize the Colossus by using Abduct and the Siege Tank by using Blinding Cloud.

Additionally, the Viper allows Zerg players to fight on equal resource footing with other races should their micro be up to the challenge. Most Zerg players in Wings of Liberty relied on using the power of Zerg macro to overwhelm their opponent in the mid-game through inefficient but overpowering exchanges of units. In the resource lost tab, Zerg players were considered to be doing good if they were not too far behind.

The Viper when combined with the Infestor has changed this - the Zerg can decisively come out ahead in the resources lost tab even when armies of equal strength are pitted together. The Viper can completely neutralize entire armies via Blinding Cloud. Normally, enemy units would simply run out of Blinding Cloud when it was cast on the ground, but if you can root them in a cloud with Fungal Growth, the enemy not only is sitting there taking damage but cannot attack your ranged units.

I have seen 4 Vipers and 6 Infestors allow a Zerg army to take out a massive Marine, Maruader, and Medic ball in this manner without losing a single unit. Once units are trapped by Fungal Growth, Blinding Cloud is thrown down and ranged units like Roaches and Hydralisks can move in to clean up the ball. The ranged units trapped under Blinding Cloud cannot actually shoot back at the Roaches and Hydralisks. Fungal Growth is refreshed to keep the units locked down and everything is cleared by the time this second Fungal Growth wears off.

New Units in Heart of the Swarm - Conclusion

After playing with all of these units, I have to say I am very impressed with how well thought out these changes were made. Each race now no longer 'has' to pick certain units in the late game thanks to the introduction of these units.

Protoss players used to have to get a Robotics Bay in order to get an Observer in order to handle cloaked units. They now can go entirely air for Tier 2 and 3 thanks to the introduction of the Oracle.

Terran players used to have to go Bio in practically every game, as pure Mech ended up with too many unspent minerals in the late game. The Hellbat gives Terran players a Marine-like mineral dump that compliments other mech units very well.

Zerg players used to have to get a Spire when playing Protoss players to handle Colossus, but now Roach, Hydralisk, and Viper is an effective combination against a ground-based Protoss army. Zerg players can also now effectively use a micro-oriented caster-based composition and win games without an economic advantage.

The Heart of the Swarm expansion has released and our Heart of the Swarm strategy guide is now up to date. This expansion introduced 7 new units to the multiplayer version of Starcraft 2, all of which are covered in-depth by this guide.

The HotS campaign also includes 20 new campaign missions, 7 evolution missions, and a host of additional units that are available only in the campaign.

Whether you want info on the multiplayer or single player versions of HotS, we have got you covered! Here are the sections of our HotS guide:

• Heart of the Swarm Overview & Master Change List (Includes brief overview of all the new units, new upgrades, and changes to Wings of Liberty units).

• Heart of the Swarm Strategies (coming soon)

Over time, more HotS-related strategies will be added to this guide, so check back regularly for updates.

HotS Overview & Master Change List

All 3 races see major changes in Heart of the Swarm. Below, you will find a list of all the new units and their functions, as well as an overview of the other changes to each race. Click on the unit names to be taken to a full page with strategies for that particular unit. Videos featuring gameplay and strategies of the new units and changes can be found in the subsections mentioned above as well.

While this page provides a full list of changes to each of the races in Starcraft 2, if you click on the race-specific Protoss, Terran, and Zerg changes listed above you will be taken to an article with a list of specific changes made to each race and the best strategies for taking advantage of these changes.

Quick links to the summaries:

New HotS Units
Protoss Heart of the Swarm Changes
Terran Heart of the Swarm Changes
Zerg Heart of the Swarm Changes
Heart of the Swarm Campaign

More detailed descriptions of the HotS changes can be found in the guides linked at the beginning of the article or by clicking on a particular unit name below. This HotS Guide is just meant to provide a fast overview of all the information and changes in Heart of the Swarm.

New Heart of the Swarm Units

Mothership Core - The Mothership Core is a powerful new Protoss flying unit for the early game. You can only create one of these and it has 3 very powerful skills. As a result, at some point in a game players will always add a Mothership Core to their army.

Oracle - The Oracle is a new Protoss flying caster. It has one ability that allows it to become a detector, another ability that grants an enemy unit's vision for 60 seconds, and another ability that gives it a powerful ground attack. However, all of these skills cost energy and the Oracle has no native attacks of its own. Its ability to become a detector however does allow Protoss to go early air without needing to build a Robotics Bay. Its fast movement speed and high damage output against light units makes it great for harassing enemy workers.

Tempest - The Tempest is a massive Protoss flyer that can attack both air and ground units. While its damage is not particularly impressive, it does have two redeeming qualities. First, this unit's true strength is its range of 15 on both air and ground attacks rather than its damage. This is even longer than a Siege Tank; the Tempest can hit units literally across the screen if there is something to provide vision. Additionally, it does almost 3x damage to massive air units, allowing it to kill other Tempests, Colossi, Brood Lords, Carriers, and Battlecruisers with ease.

Swarm Host - The Swarm Host is a new Zerg unit reminiscent of the Lurker from Brood War. It has no attacks of its own when above the ground - it is only effective once burrowed. However, unlike the Lurker, the Swarm Host does not attack directly, instead spawning 2 Locusts every 25 seconds. Locusts are ground units with a high DPS ground attack with a range of 3. With upgrades, the Locusts can live 25 seconds before they die, allowing the Swarm Host to effectively siege enemy expansions 1/4 of the way across the map.

Viper - The Viper is a new Zerg flying unit. It requires Hive technology but is not associated with any building. This unit is a pure support caster with no damage-dealing abilities of its own. Instead, it has two support skills. The first is Abduct, which lets it pull an enemy unit to the Viper's current location. This is good for pulling Colossi and other powerful units into the midst of the Zerg forces. The Viper's Blinding Cloud ability allows units to only attack from melee range and is a good support skill for Ultralisks and Zerglings. It can also use the Consume ability to restore its energy quickly.

Hellbat - The Hellbat is both a new unit and a new form for the Hellion. The Hellbat and the Hellion are the same unit. Once you build an Armory, you can research the 'Transformation Servos' upgrade at the tech lab on the Factory. With this upgrade, your Hellions can morph into Hellbats (and vice versa) for free. Hellbats have more health and do more damage, but have a shorter attack range and are slower than Hellions. Hellbats are essentially a good resource dump for Terrans in the late-game when using mech, as in the late game Hellions are not beefy enough to soak up damage for Siege Tanks and Thors.

Widow Mine - The Widow Mine is a new Terran unit which is produced from the Factory. It does not require a tech lab despite the gas cost. The Widow Mine is a mobile unit with no native attacks, but it can burrow into the ground over a 3 second period. Once burrowed, it will automatically attack an enemy unit in its range (you cannot select this unit) with a powerful missile attack that deals huge single target damage as well as moderate splash damage. It can only perform this attack every 40 seconds.

The Widow Mine is very similar to the Spider Mine, except that it does not get destroyed when it goes off and instead has a 40 second cooldown. It can also attack air units, move itself, and unburrow itself. Widow Mines also deal +35 bonus damage to Protoss shields.

Protoss Heart of the Swarm Changes

Full article: Protoss Changes in Heart of the Swarm

Outside of the new units, there are very few changes to the old Wings of Liberty Protoss units in Heart of the Swarm. There are really only four changes:

• Void Ray - Void Rays now cost 4 supplies and no longer charge their beam on targets. Instead, they have a new ability called Prismatic Alignment. When activated, the Void Ray's attack does +6 bonus damage to armored units. It costs no energy, lasts for 20 seconds, and has a 60 second cooldown. When activated, the new Void Ray does a lot of damage to armored units. Damage is fairly low against non-armored units and when Prismatic Alignment is not active..

• Phoenix - The Phoenix' range has been increased from 4 to 5. No upgrade required for this range boost. If you have not played in awhile, you should know that in February 2012, a new upgrade was made available at the Fleet Beacon called Anion Pulse-Crystals. This costs 150 minerals and vespene gas and takes 90 seconds to research. This upgrade increases the Phoenix's range by 2. This stacks with the new range increase, giving the Phoenix a potential range of 7. This allows them to thoroughly dominate any short-ranged flyer like the Mutalisk or an enemy's Phoenix without the upgrade. However, it does not seem that this upgrade increases the range of Graviton Beam, which means the Phoenix is still vulnerable when picking up enemy units.

• Mothership - The Mothership is no longer created at the Nexus but instead is upgraded from the Mothership Core. Its total cost (including Mothership Core cost) is still 400 minerals, 400 vespene gas, and 8 supplies. The Vortex ability has been removed and instead has been replaced by Time Warp. While Time Warp is a great skill, nothing is quite as game changing as Vortex was, making this a slight nerf.

• Sentry - The Hallucination ability no longer needs to be researched at the Cybernetics Core. Instead, Sentries will start with this ability. This improves the Protoss player's ability to scout early in the game, as a Phoenix Hallucination is an effective (and free) way to scout the map.

Terran Heart of the Swarm Changes

Full article: Terran Changes in Heart of the Swarm

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While only two new Terran units ended up in the final version of Heart of the Swarm, Terran does have a significant number of changes and buffs to their old units:

• Reaper - Reapers no longer have a special building-only attack and no longer do bonus damage to light units. Reapers now have 60 HP and heal when out of combat. Reapers now also no longer require a Tech Lab. The speed upgrade has been removed and the Reaper's base speed has been increased.

• Raven - Seeker Missile costs 75 energy and no longer needs to be researched.

• Siege Tanks - The siege mode upgrade no longer exists. All tanks are able to go into Siege Mode without any research.

• Hellion - Can morph into Hellbats once an Armory has been built and Transformation Servos has been researched.

• Medivac - Now possesses the Ignite Afterburners ability. This is an energy-free ability with an 8 second duration and a 20-second cooldown. It increases the Medivac's movement speed by 70% while active.

• Ship & Vehicle Armor - Now a single upgrade benefits both types.

• Thor - The cannon ability has been replaced with High Impact Payload, a new anti-air attack. This ability is free to use and takes 4 seconds to activate. Once activated, the Thor's anti-air attack is replaced with a more powerful anti-air attack that does not deal splash damage and does not deal bonus damage to light units. It allows the Thor to be effective versus armored and massive air units. Thors no longer have energy. Thors can freely switch back and forth between Explosive Payload (their original anti-air attack) and High Impact Payload at any time. The transition takes 4 seconds.

Zerg Heart of the Swarm Changes

Full article: Zerg Changes in Heart of the Swarm

In addition to the new units available to the Zerg in Heart of the Swarm, there are some new upgrades and general buffs to the Zerg race in Heart of the Swarm. Here is the list:

• Burrow - Burrow can now be upgraded at the Hatchery and no longer requires Lair technology.

• Spore Crawler - No longer requires an Evolution Chamber.

• Hydralisk - Now have an upgrade at the Hydralisk Den which allows the Hydralisk to move 25% faster when not on creep. Note that this does not boost on-creep movement speed, whereas Zergling speed boosts the Zergling's speed on and off the creep.

• Mutalisks - Mutalisks now heal quickly. They gain back about 1 HP per second, both in and out of combat. Mutalisks also now move slightly faster, up to a movement speed of 4 from 3.75.

• Infestor - Fungal Growth has been re-worked. It is no longer instant cast, but is a fast moving projectile. This makes it a bit harder to land, especially if you are using it in several spots at once. Fungal Growth's range is now slightly longer though. Its duration has dropped from 8 seconds to 4 seconds, but it now does 30 damage over 4 seconds, increasing its DPS noticeably. This also cuts the root duration in half, causing players to consider the changes an overall nerf.

• Ultralisk - Now deals 35 damage per swing to all unit types. In Wings of Liberty, Ultralisks dealt 15 damage per swing to light units and 35 damage per swing to armored units. This is a huge buff for Ultralisk damage versus light units like Marines, Zerglings, Zealots, and Hellbats.

• Overlord - Pneumatized Carapace (fast Overlord speed) is now available at Hatchery tech.

Heart of the Swarm Campaign Guide

Our Heart of the Swarm Campaign guide is now complete. It includes text and video walkthroughs for all the missions on brutal mode as well as their associated achievements. Guides are also added that cover the Evolution Pit as well as the best Kerrigan builds and abilities.

HotS Campaign Differences vs Wings of Liberty

The Heart of the Swarm campaign shows a surprising amount of evolution (yes, I went there, and I will not apologize) from the Wings of Liberty campaign. The two major differences are Kerrigan and the introduction of boss battles.

You get to control Kerrigan (or one of several other heroes) in practically every mission. Kerrigan is a really powerful hero unit, and with each passing mission, she gets stronger and stronger. Most of the timed achievements as well as brutal mode missions depend a lot less on your unit choices but rather your ability to control Kerrigan.

While you did fight some hero units in the Wings of Liberty campaign, the main advancement in Heart of the Swarm is the introduction of true boss battles. There are a variety of bosses in HotS that have very high HP and a host of unique abilities and mechanics. These fights are much more like an action game than they are real time strategy (RTS) game and can be quite intense.

The HotS campaign is noticeably easier than the Wings of Liberty campaign. The Heart of the Swarm campaign has added an extra easy achievement to each mission, moving the tougher achievements over to a new 'Mastery' category. For some reason, mastery achievements are not shown on the mission summary card at the end of a mission, so be sure to check in-game in the achievements tab if you are interested in unlocking those achievements.

HotS Campaign Summary

There are 20 regular missions in the Heart of the Swarm campaign. Unlike the Wings of Liberty campaign, there are no instances where you have to choose between one mission or another (i.e. Haven's Fall versus Safe Haven in WoL).

How Much Does Heart Of The Swarm Cost Per

Additionally, there are also 7 evolution missions. These are short missions where you permanently choose a new unit or evolution for an old unit. Once you complete the entire campaign, you can try out the other evolutions via the Master Archives. In the Evolution Pit, players can choose between small modifications and buffs to alter many of the core Zerg units. These mutations can be changed at any time.

Finally, there is a separate section for Kerrigan. As you complete missions and collect bonus levels, Kerrigan's level will increase. Collecting every bonus level and completing all relevant missions will yield a max Kerrigan level of 70. Based on her level, Kerrigan will unlock new abilities. You can change these any time between missions and it is often advisable to do so in order to match Kerrigan's skill set to the current mission.

Check Back For More Updates

How Much Does Heart Of The Swarm Cost Estimate

While our Heart of the Swarm guide is now complete and fully covers all the new units as well as the campaign, I plan to continue to add HotS specific strategies to this guide over time. Check back regularly to get the latest info and most effective tactics!