Units

Archon

Although their abilities are already impressive, High Templar and Dark Templar can wield even greater might by laying down their lives to merge their souls and form Archons. These unified Protoss spirits radiate incalculable power, unleashing psionic barrages against cowering enemy forces both in the air and on the ground. With the reunification of the Protoss race, any pair of High Templar or Dark Templar, or even one of each, can be fused together. The Protoss are loath to sacrifice their loyal warriors, but those who make this final commitment are forever honored in the memories of their people.
Unit Statistics

3D Model

Basic information

Race: Protoss
Life: 10
Shield: 350
Armor: 0 (3)
Movement: Fast
Cargo Size: 4
Attributes: Psionic - Massive

Production

Producer: High Templar
Hotkey: C
Cost: - -
Supply: -
Build time: 12

Combat

Upgrades:
Weapon:

General Strategy

Strong Against

  • Psionic warrior that can attack air and ground targets.
  • Their large shield pool allows them to withstand heavy punishment.
  • Excellent against biological units.
  • Costly to create, as they require the permanent merging of two High or Dark Templars (or one of each).
  • They have extremely high shields, but extremely low hp.
  • Only morph into an Archon if your High Templars are out of energy, or there is too much detection around to use Dark Templars.

Countermeasures

VS Terran
  • Train Ghosts and fire EMP rounds at them, as each shot will deal heavy damage to their shields.
  • Build Thors and use their 250 mm Strike Cannons.
  • Deploy Banshees and use the terrain to prevent them from getting in range.
VS Zerg
  • Spawn Infestors to cast Fungal Growth, which will root enemy Archons, or use Mind Control to use them against your opponent’s forces.
  • Use a sizeable force of Hydralisks, and don’t forget to focus fire.
  • Roaches should be effective against them, but remember to burrow your damaged units to allow them to regenerate.
VS Protoss
  • Ranged armored units like Stalkers, Immortals, and Colossi do well against Archons.
  • Launch Void Rays or Carriers, and use the terrain to prevent them from getting in range.
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Comments (436)

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Gyrtop #742
Gyrtop
4/22/2012
Anybody else think that archons seem to be lower ranked in protoss society than templars? Seems so to me
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@Gyrtop: archons are really strong and do a high dps
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Ahmad #146
Ahmad
3/24/2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yNNyw0LZ40

16:50 wow..psionic storm was so devastating to the mass units trapped inside the vortex..
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lonelighters #493
lonelighters
3/13/2012
What I find weird is how bullets damage a being made purely out of energy that and how they are damaged at all. Considering their psionic energy I think there's only one Terran and a handful of Protoss capable of damaging it. Ont the other hand I don't get how they are solid in the fact that they stop units from moving through them. The unit might die if it did but it doesn't make sense to physically disallow them the ability to pass through a being made of energy. xD
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Zyberzz #647
Zyberzz
3/15/2012
@lonelighters:
1st: Terran bullets are much more advanced than what we have right now, and with the bullets going at supersonic speeds, it would probably be able to hit and archon before it gets worn down.
2nd:Protoss would be much to OP against Zerg, if Blizzard put the idea of only having a few units being able to do damage to it.
3rd:Well, 2 templars fused together, would probably still have a body, to control the Psionic bolts or else the Psionic energy would probably go wild, causing the Protoss to turn on their powerful Archons, and losing many of their soldiers.
4th:Yes, the unit would die lol
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Mappy #580
Mappy
3/18/2012
@lonelighters: a even better question... how do infestor's neural parasite penetrate the massive shields of archons?
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blueflame #601
blueflame
1/25/2012
I miss the Dark archons. I hope they come back in the Protoss expansion pack.
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SFuNk #321
SFuNk
12/30/2011
Does anyone miss the shield battery? Ah, those were the days....
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Aladril #534
Aladril
12/31/2011
@SFuNk: YES! I wonder why they decided to get rid of it. It was incredibly useful.
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Thehydralisk #897
Thehydralisk
1/14/2012
@Aladril: well it was useful but they got a extra amount of regeneration to their sheilds they recharge really fast now
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Aladril #534
Aladril
1/14/2012
@Thehydralisk: Ah, I didn't notice that...
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noah #208
noah
2/29/2012
@Aladril: shield battery+archon=EPIC
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Protoblaster #346
Protoblaster
12/28/2011
I would really like Blizzard to go more into who (or what) an Archon really is in the story. Do they fizzle out after awhile? How do they live exactly? A mass of pure energy has to go somewhere doesn't it?
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Aladril #534
Aladril
12/29/2011
@Protoblaster: That's an interesting point, however I think Blizzard doesn't tell us those kind of things because it's not all that important, though it would be interesting to know.
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lonelighters #493
lonelighters
3/13/2012
@Aladril: I think in fact they do continue to live on. At least thats what I think. But at the same time there's the problem that no archon is found as part of the story line that and the line laying down their lives to merge which implies either the ht or dt die as a result of the merge or they die later. then there's the line saying they will be forever honored in their people's memory, that implies that their dead as well cause if they're living they wouldn't exactly need to be honored in the peoples memory. (Might be wrong, probably am)
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Aladril #534
Aladril
12/28/2011
It sucks that they got rid of the Dark Archons...I miss mind control. Oh well the Replicants in HotS will suffice once they are usable.
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NerdFury #309
NerdFury
1/4/2012
@Aladril: I miss being able to use dark archs to mind control a drone/scv and build terran protoss and zerg armies. :(
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Aladril #534
Aladril
1/14/2012
@condeh: I concur
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Crazyperson #721
Crazyperson
3/17/2012
@Aladril: yeah...............
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corllin #941
corllin
12/14/2011
use neural parasite to use them against your opponents forces* fixed
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Exopocalypse #158
Exopocalypse
11/22/2011
If the Archon is made by a DT then it should have some of it's abilities like invisibility and stuff and if it's made by a High Temp. it should have like Psionic storm or something
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Batmanhero #961
Batmanhero
12/13/2011
@Exopocalypse: I love playing as Protoss but even I know that will be way too overpowering... I only wish there were Dark Archons
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ThePraetor #477
ThePraetor
12/26/2011
@Exopocalypse: or at least add the health and Armor
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thecurrupted #246
thecurrupted
12/28/2011
@ThePraetor: lol, No. Health is archons weak spot, have you noticed their sheilds though? also it is a recycle unit so that you can make use of your mana-drained ht and dts when they have detection, its not going to be the most powerful unit in the game.
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SFuNk #321
SFuNk
12/30/2011
@thecurrupted: Indeed. I'm surprised they don't mention the EMP. That's the real way to beat Archons.
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MrGoomba #690
MrGoomba
10/28/2011
fix the "strong vs" section already! in fact mutas are hardly counterable on the ground by anything but blinkers (they just run away or magic box the archon). archons are very good vs marauders and zealots, and i'd say quite good vs many other things (zerglings, tanks, HTs, etc).
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DarkTEMPLAR #930
DarkTEMPLAR
10/16/2011
they r souls of the dark templars when they combine and then they have the mechicals on the dark templars and then it is a archon
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So is an Archon a robot of sorts? I always thought it was a sentient, living being sharing the mind of the 2 templars merged into one o_O.
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mowlord #711
mowlord
10/25/2011
@PTZ: They are sentients not robots. I wish we still had dark archons. Mind Control the enemy archons and they kill each other! LOL.
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Tiger #501
Tiger
10/8/2011
lol archon vs terran pic is a zerg picture
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NerdFury #309
NerdFury
9/23/2011
archon is an okay unit but it sucks for cost. i never use these
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thecurrupted #246
thecurrupted
12/28/2011
@condeh: they are recycle units, better than haveing two hts with no mana in a battle.
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Nymphox #761
Nymphox
9/7/2011
My gosh, just break their shield, they're good as dead.
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Colinmac #495
Colinmac
9/4/2011
I'm a very new player, and I play Protoss. I personally never use these guys. Should I use them, and what is the suggested number of them to have before attacking.
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AkshayMishra #180
AkshayMishra
9/5/2011
@Colinmac: if u r fighint terren going mnm then i go with 2 to 3 if zerg going mutat get like 5 and u r good
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chingster #863
chingster
9/6/2011
@Colinmac: archon cost way too much; two DT's or High templar is expensive. Archons are also only good as support units; as you can see they only have 10 life and not an extraordinary shield. If your bored and trolling, yeah make some, but to me archons are a waste of units.
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Rathmaa #525
Rathmaa
9/9/2011
@Colinmac: Having a well balanced gateway force(sentry's,chargelots,few stalkers, HT) can handle almost any situation fairly well. Fighting terran Bio your butter number is 4-5, make sure you have Guardian shield up and if you are planing to go Archons get shield upgrades along with damage.

Against zerg I primarily use them against infestors builds and they handle it fairly well, again 3-5 is a good amount for a sizable battle. They are usable against mutalisks,however mutalisks far outmaneuver them. It's more cost effective to go with phoenix's to counter muta builds. just remember to micro your unit's properly.
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Philzor #441
Philzor
9/14/2011
@Colinmac: When your high templars run out of energy, and/or when your opponent has created enough detectors to make DT's ineffective. Use it.

Archons do a great amount of damage and is great support backed by zealots
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AKxHuskateer #331
AKxHuskateer
9/20/2011
@AkshayMishra: Dude can you not read? He says hes very new,I doubt new players know what MNM means let alone what it is.
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yodaddy #460
yodaddy
10/31/2011
@Colinmac: Use them agaisnt zerglings or mutalisk!