Units

Colossus

The towering Colossus is a Protoss robot design dating back to the bloody conflicts of the Kalath Intercession. It strides across the battlefield on four tall, slender legs that allow it to cross steep elevations with ease. The Colossus’ heavily armored hull carries two powerful Thermal Lances, with one on each side of its body. The robot’s beam attack cuts a broad swath across its targets, making the Colossus an ideal anti-infantry weapon. Unlike most other Protoss robots, the Colossus was created purely for destruction. Manufacturing Colossi has been outlawed for centuries, but the increasingly desperate war against the Zerg has forced the Protoss to revive the line.
Heart of the Swarm Wings of Liberty
Unit Statistics

3D Model

Basic information

Race: Protoss
Life: 200
Shield: 150
Armor: 1 (4)
Movement: Normal
Cargo Size: 8
Attributes: Armored - Mechanical - Massive

Production

Producer: Robotics Facility
Hotkey: C
Requires: Robotics Bay
Cost: 300 200
Supply: 6
Build time: 75

Combat

Upgrades:
Weapon:
Ability:

3D Model

Basic information

Race: Protoss
Life: 200
Shield: 150
Armor: 1 (4)
Movement: Normal
Cargo Size: 8
Attributes: Armored - Mechanical - Massive

Production

Producer: Robotics Facility
Hotkey: C
Requires: Robotics Bay
Cost: 300 200
Supply: 6
Build time: 75

Combat

Upgrades:
Weapon:
Ability:

General Strategy

  • Massive armored unit that can attack ground targets.
  • Able to attack from very long range.
  • Devastating to groups of infantry.
  • Cliff Walk allows it to traverse elevations in terrain, like Reapers.
  • It is so massive that it can be engaged by anti-air structures and units.

Upgrades

  • Extended Thermal Lances: Passive increase to the Colossus’s attack range.

Countermeasures

VS Terran
  • Launch Vikings; their long air-to-air range will make it easy to bring the Colossi down.
  • Engage with Banshees.
  • Build Thors and use their 250mm Strike Cannon ability.
VS Zerg
  • Spawn Corruptors or Mutalisks to engage the Colossi safely.
  • Use Infestors' Neural Parasite to control Colossi – after distracting them.
  • Spawn Ultralisks. Their high damage, armor, and health will allow them to survive the Colossi onslaught. Be sure to research Chitinous Plating.
VS Protoss
  • Use Void Rays to engage Colossi safely.
  • Focus-fire them with Immortals.
  • Build Carriers or Phoenix fighters.
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Comments (502)

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Why did the colossus fall over?

Because it was imbalanced.

:D
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imorericei #390
imorericei
5/7/2013
Colossi are very helpful especially against zerg players or terran players. Considering they normally go rines or zlings with something supporting it.
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Clee #755
Clee
4/16/2013
This Colossus are good when I was vising Zerg players and other race. They help me change the battle and also tip the balance in the game.
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jangofet #542
jangofet
4/10/2013
if a unit has 2 attacks, (one air one ground) which one will they use?
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Spike #1576
Spike
4/11/2013
@jangofet: i think whatever is stronger
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Doomreaver #457
Doomreaver
4/6/2013
They should update this to suggest building Tempest against Colossi. Today I built 4 Tempests with 1 air upgrade to 1 shot Colossi. Taking down a Colossos every 3.3 (at 15 range to it's 9!) seconds with units that take less supply (4 supply to Colosus 6) is very powerful.
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Willsaber #690
Willsaber
4/7/2013
@Doomreaver: Blizzard rarely updates things like that. It's a shame, because there's so much that's not in these pages.
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Daikataro #160
Daikataro
5/11/2013
@Doomreaver: To be fair, any air unit with any kind of attack will pwn colossi; even a MS core can bring them down unharmed. Plus, void rays with prismatic alignment are much, much more efficient at taking down colossi (AND tempests).
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GreatGoomba #572
GreatGoomba
3 days, 22 hours ago
@Daikataro: MORE efficient? Nope. Tempests do a LOT of damage to Colossi now.... 95, at full upgrade, at 15 range so you don't have to risk losing them, for the same supply as Void Rays. Tempests are the way to go; it is why they were given that attack (for that and for Brood Lord sniping).
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HDDoubleRaX #389
HDDoubleRaX
3/20/2013
Terran have the least amount of units but they are generally all around damage dealers.
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noct #452
noct
3/12/2013
Please bring back reaver... I've never played such a boring unit in my entire life of RTS games.
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GreatGoomba #572
GreatGoomba
3 days, 22 hours ago
@noct: Maybe in LOTV the Reaver will have some single player play, but I doubt they'll put it in this game for multiplayer. I'd love to see it too, but they'd have to tone its damage down a lot anyway, so it wouldn't be like the Reaver we know and love (125 upgraded damage with Sc2's clumped units.... GG)
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Beowulf #170
Beowulf
11/21/2012
"Be sure to research Chitinous Plating and Anabolic Synthesis."
They forgot that anabolic synthesis doesn't exist anymore.
herp-a derp-a
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Bob #2501
Bob
11/7/2012
*pokes the leg of a colossus* the colossus falls to its death
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EricDragon #789
EricDragon
11/7/2012
I think Blizz was borrowing from War of the Worlds when they made this.

Seems similar to the walker things.
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Reapz #308
Reapz
11/14/2012
@EricDragon: Blizz borrows from alot of things. If you ever watched Game of thrones, there is a similarity between the story and wow (undead army marches from the north).
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Chaotic #627
Chaotic
11/23/2012
@Reapz: Except Warcraft (not wow) was around before the game of thrones books i believe
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ghost #2840
ghost
12/6/2012
@Fastz: Yep. Warcraft was released in 1994 and GoTs was released 2 years later in 1996. And it is Song of Ice and Fire.
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WaterPipeXD #636
WaterPipeXD
11/4/2012
Didnt they remove the anibolyc synithys upgrade?
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Beowulf #170
Beowulf
11/21/2012
@WaterPipeXD: Good eye.
what did it do anyway?
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JamesT #376
JamesT
2/22/2013
@TheGman: upgraded ultra speed to what it is now by default
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Thunderwing #487
Thunderwing
9/22/2012
Colossi v. Colossi is long and boring, in my opinion.
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Seraphim #331
Seraphim
8/28/2012
Oh dear colossi, how I do love thee,
Let me count the ways...

One dead marine,
Two dead marines,
Three dead marines...
*loses count around a hundred*
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defeatable #134
defeatable
8/8/2012
CROSS BEAMS!!!
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defeatable #134
defeatable
8/7/2012
BTW this unit is also good against infantry 5 colossuses can easily kill 50 marines and not even lose 1 colossus
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defeatable #134
defeatable
8/7/2012
THIS IS MY FAVORITE PROTOSS TANK UNIT!
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Zergmeat #608
Zergmeat
8/12/2012
This is not a tank...
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defeatable #134
defeatable
8/29/2012
@Zergmeat: tank unit dude mechanical unit on the ground is how im classifying it
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Thunderwing #487
Thunderwing
9/27/2012
@defeatable: I'd say this is the 'missle-carrier' class, as its role and place on the tech tree is fairly simililar to those of the Thor and Ultralisk, IMO: massive unit that's good against small guys (though the Ultra is a bit higher, I will admit, and Thors can attack air. Colossi got the short end of the stick.) The tanks would be: Siege Tank, Immortal, and proooobably Roach.
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CrysisRT #555
CrysisRT
12/1/2012
@Thunderwing: I actually believe colossus is much better. In the heat of battle, Ultralisks might be stuck behind your roaches, Thors, even worse, behind Marines, doesn't exactly do massive amounts of splash damage. Colossus can walk over cliffs, to save it, can walk over your army, meaning it just walks to the back, and with the Thermal Lance Upgrade, it gets some massive range. So IMO, these units have their pros and cons.
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Bryan #1819
Bryan
8/5/2012
why did the colossus fall over?

BECAUSE IT WAS oh wait that was 2 years ago little late for that ( not talking about you solarr )
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Solarr #962
Solarr
7/26/2012
Why did the colossus fall over?
BECAUSE IT WAS IMBALANCED.
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FreezingRain #776
FreezingRain
7/14/2012
Anabolic Synthesis? why is that not avaliable on the ultralisk?????
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NinjaNoob #597
NinjaNoob
7/11/2012
culossus bording think of tempest :O
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MasterChief #1427
MasterChief
7/10/2012
you know how people say that it would be Very easy to knock over a colossi
well knowing the Protoss, they probably made something that keeps them stabilized and makes them impossible to tip over because in the Brood War the zerg could have just gotten a dozen ultralisks and knocked over like tons of the colossi.
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MappyTinfoil #727
MappyTinfoil
7/25/2012
@ThePraetor: No they do get knocked over. Next time look closer and every time a colossi dies it burns up, falls over and explodes into bits of scorched metals. Beside ultralisks do "knock over" colossi. :D
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TheSlacker #335
TheSlacker
7/8/2012
Colossi: A wonderful concept let down by insane fragility and prohibitive cost.

I mean, really? Everything in the game can hit them, and they don't get any measure of AA? If you aren't running a half dozen stalkers for every Colossi you build, you're screwed, and if you have that many Stalkers, just run Stalkers.
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MappyTinfoil #727
MappyTinfoil
7/25/2012
@TheSlacker: If you are playing monobattles then yes that sucks but... Really build both stalkers and colossi.

General toss deathball
1. charge zealots
2. blink stalkers
3. immortals
4. archons/storm high templars
5. 9 range colossi
6. voidrays/mothership archontoilet IF broodlords

Once you got all of those you are pretty hard to break.
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Seraphim #331
Seraphim
8/28/2012
@MappyTinfoil: Or...if you're late in a team game, and have air cover from an ally, and plenty of gas coming in, make an uber-high DPS ground-only deathball of annihilation using Colossi. Replace Stalkers with Immortals for intermediate fire, and for the melee front, use Dark Templar like you would Zealots. Add upgrades...and then ground armies and bases get shredded FAST.
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MappyTinfoil #727
MappyTinfoil
9/10/2012
@Seraphim: if the game is that late just get 2 warp prism and use 10+ gateways/chargelots to harrass their production.