The Terran Reaper is a new infantry unit introduced in Starcraft 2. The Reaper’s gimmick is a Jet Pack that lets him jump up and down cliffs, so that he can get into enemy bases easily even if the enemy has cut off his choke-point.
The Basics
A Barracks with a Tech Lab add-on is required to produce Reapers. Each Reaper costs 50 minerals and 50 gas to make, and use 1 supply point. With only 50 hit points and a base armor value of 0, they are almost as squishy as a Marine. Reapers are classified as Light Biological units and their Fast move speed is one of their few advantages.
The weapon that the Reaper uses against enemy units is the P38 ‘Scythe’ Gauss Pistol, which does a base damage of 4 with a bonus of 5 extra damage against Light units. Their number of attacks per volley is 2, so they actually do 8 damage/18 to Light per attack. The range on this weapon is 4.5 with a Slow attack speed, so the Reaper has to get pretty close to targets to do damage. The Reaper has a special weapon that is only used against buildings called the D-8. It does 30 damage per shot to buildings at a range of 5, with a weapon speed of very slow.
Available Upgrades For The Reaper
There is only one upgrade available for the Reaper in the Tech Lab. It is called Nitro Packs and it increases the move speed of Reapers. At the Engineering Bay you can get 3 levels of Infantry Weapon and Armor upgrades. Each Weapon upgrade adds 1 base damage to the P38 (which is actually 2 extra damage because the Reaper does 2 attacks), and 3 extra damage to the D-8. Each Armor upgrade adds 1 armor.
Reaper Strengths
With their bonus damage to Light units, Reapers do well against units such as the Zerg Hydralisk and Terran Ghost. They are best suited for early attacks on an enemy’s mineral line. Taking out enemy workers can give you an early economy advantage that will increase your chances of winning the match.
Reaper Weaknesses
The Reaper’s usefulness drops very fast as a match goes on. It can only attack ground units and gets easily destroyed because of it’s low hit points and no armor. Reapers are especially weak against the Terran Siege Tank, Zerg Roach, and Protoss Stalker.
Best Uses Of The Terran Reaper
The best way to use Reapers is with an early rush to harass your enemy and kill his workers, so that you can get an economy advantage. They can also be used as a fast scout to keep an eye on different spots on the map. At this point the value of the Reaper is marginal at best, with the only viable time to use them is early in a match. It remains to be seen whether Blizzard will make them better in future patches.
See also:
Starcraft 2 Beta New Unit Spotlight: Terran Marauder
Starcraft 2 Beta New Unit Spotlight: Terran Hellion
Starcraft 2 Beta New Unit Spotlight: Terran Thor
Starcraft 2 Beta New Unit Spotlight: Terran Viking
