AI Logic: Ability Usage Conditions
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General Notes
This page lists out abilities available to enemy spellcasters and provides you with information on the conditions the AI uses to determine when and where to cast any ability. For units with multiple abilities, abilities at the top will be prioritized over abilities below them if they are off cooldown.
Usually for ability usage, "Vitality" is a key factor that is taken into consideration. Vitality is simply the sum of the current HP + Shields of a unit.
"Units Within Range" corresponds to the units within the range of the skill + 1, which allows for the unit to move a bit before casting its ability at maximum range.
Sometimes, a Vitality Score may be used for a group of units. A vitality score assigns a score from 0.0 to 1.0 for each enemy unit, spanning from vitality 0.0 to a certain damage value (which will be specified for each individual ability). You may think of a Vitality score as the number of units that an ability is expected to kill. An additional 1.0 points may be added for units with bonus tags. Unfortunately, further details on the Vitality Score calculation cannot be extracted.
Text that have been struck through is logic that is not being followed due to bugs in the code.
SUGGEST implies that an order suggestion will be sent to the AI for further decision-making. It may or may not carry out the order if it deems it unncessary.
Protoss Units

High Templar
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Psionic Storm | Creates a storm of psionic energy that lasts 4 seconds, causing up to 80 damage to all enemy units in the target area. Does not damage friendly units. | 2s | 75 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Archon Merge | Sacrifices 2 Templar to create an Archon. Can attack ground and air units. | - | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Oracle
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Pulsar Beam | Charges the Oracle's Pulsar Beam and allows it to attack enemy ground units. | 4s | 1.4/s |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Stasis Ward | Places a cloaked Stasis Ward at the target location. Once activated by an enemy ground unit, the ward traps nearby enemies in stasis for 15 seconds. Trapped units cannot be attacked or affected by abilities. | 0s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Sentry
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Guardian Shield | Creates a range 4 aura that reduces all incoming attack damage to friendly units by 2. Lasts 15 seconds. | 15s | 75 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Force Field | Barrier that lasts 15 seconds and impedes movement of ground units. Massive units will shatter Force Fields on contact. | 0s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Terran Units
Note: AI Logic surrounding the usage of Ghost Nukes cannot be extracted from the game files.
For Liberators:
Liberators will switch to anti-air mode if:
- There are no ground units to attack
- There are 0-7 air units with less than 3 ground units present
- There are 8 or more air units with less than 12 ground units present
For Siege Tanks:
Siege Tanks will siege up as long as there is a valid ground target within range.

Battlecruiser
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Yamato Cannon | Blasts a target with a devastating plasma cannon, causing 300 damage. | 0s | 100 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Ghost
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Sniper Round | A careful shot, dealing 25(50 vs. Psionic) damage. Ignores armor. Can only target biological units. | 0s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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EMP Round | Deals 100 damage to shields and depletes the energy of enemy units in the target area. Cloaked units are revealed for 10 seconds after being hit. | 0s | 75 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Raven
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Seeker Missile | Deploys a Seeker Missile which activates after 5 seconds and pursues the target unit, dealing 100 (+35 vs. shields) splash damage upon contact. | 0s | 75 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Point Defense Drone | Uses a laser to shoot down enemy missiles. Cannot target special attacks. Times out after 180 seconds. Each shot consumes 10 energy. | 0s | 100 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Build Auto-Turret | Automated defensive turret. Times out after 180 seconds. Can attack ground and air units. | 0s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Science Vessel
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Defensive Matrix | Surrounds the target with a shield that can absorb up to 200 damage. Effect lasts for 20 seconds. | 20s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Irradiate | Damages an enemy biological unit and adjacent enemy biological units, dealing 250 damage over 25 seconds. | 0s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Zerg Units

Brood Queen
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Ensnare | Reduces movement of units in the targeted area by 50% for 6 seconds. Reveals cloaked and burrowed units. | 0s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Spawn Broodlings | Kills target enemy ground or air unit and spawns 2 Broodlings from its corpse. Massive units and heroic units are immune. | 0s | 100 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Corruptor
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Corruption | Covers the target enemy unit in Zerg slime, increasing the damage taken by 20% for 30 seconds. | 45s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Caustic Spray | Emits a stream of acid that deals 5 damage per second for 6 seconds, then increases to 25 damage per second. Channeled ability. Can only target enemy structures. | 45s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Infestor
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Fungal Growth | Immobilizes enemy units and deals 38 damage over 4 seconds. Reveals cloaked and burrowed units. | 0s | 75 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Infested Terran | Spawn an Infested Terran. Infested Terrans last 30 seconds. | 0s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Viper
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Parasitic Bomb | Creates a parasitic cloud of radius 3 that deals 90 damage over 10 seconds to the target and enemy air units nearby. If the target dies, the cloud remains in the air where the enemy died until it expires. Cannot target ground units or structures. | 0s | 125 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Disabling Cloud | Creates a cloud that slows movement speed and prevents enemy units and structures from attacking and using energy-based abilities. Lasts for 10 seconds. | 0s | 75 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Abduct | Pulls target unit to the Viper. Enemy is stunned for 1 second. | 0s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Consumption | Drains up to 75 life from a friendly Zerg unit and gives the Viper 2 energy for each point of life drained. | 10s | 0 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Mission Objective Units
For a lot of mission objective units, the presence of a single enemy unit is enough for it to start spamming its skills, picking random units to target. If an objective unit is not present in this list, it may be assumed that this logic applies.
Additionally, only real abilities will be listed here. Simulated abilities (such as Part and Parcel's Hybrid Abilities) will not be shown.

Choker
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Tentacle Attack | Shoots up to 5 tentacles that pull targets toward the Choker and deal damage over time. | 6s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Slayn
Elemental
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Essence Leech AOE | - | 0s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Essence Leech | Siphons energy from targeted unit. | 0s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Stank
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Headbutt | Deals massive damage to structures. | 5s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Void
Shard
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Void Zone | - | 30s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Void
Thrasher
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Lightning AoE | Launches a lightning based ability that does area-of-effect damage at target location. | 10s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Hybrid Units

Hybrid
Destroyer
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Graviton Prison | Makes the target unit float in the air, disabling its abilities. | 0s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Hybrid
Reaver
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Consume DNA | Absorbs the target unit's life essence. | 10s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Hybrid
Behemoth
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Constricting Slime | Sprays slime on nearby enemies, slowing them for 5 seconds. | 15s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Consume DNA | Absorbs the target unit's life essence. | 10s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Hybrid
Dominator
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Plasma Blast | Shoots a ball of bio-plasma toward a target, causing 260 damage. | 10s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Psionic Storm | Creates a storm of psionic energy that lasts 4 seconds, causing up to 80 damage to all enemy units in the target area. Does not damage friendly units. | 8s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Mutator Units
Note: Amon Karax is not listed as he uses his abilities as soon as they come off cooldown.

Artanis
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Astral Wind | Heals Artanis and all nearby friendly units for 300 life and 200 shields. | 15s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Lightning Dash | Artanis charges forward, unleashing a blast of energy that deals 100 damage to nearby enemies and stuns them for 2 seconds. | 5s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Dehaka
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Mend | Heals Dehaka for 150, and heals nearby friendly units for 50. An additional 50% of the amount healed regenerates over 15 seconds. | 10s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Generate Spawns | Generates two Spawns of Dehaka that deal 100% normal damage but have 50% life. Spawns last 30 seconds. | 45s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Drag | Pulls the target to Dehaka's location and temporarily stuns it (5 seconds). | 10s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Kerrigan
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Apocalypse | Deals 300 damage to enemy units and 700 damage to enemy structures in a large area. | 60s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Leaping Strike | Kerrigan leaps to her target and deals 150 damage. Can be used without a target to travel quickly. | 0s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Psionic Shift | Kerrigan dashes through enemies, dealing 50 damage to all enemies in her path. | 0s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Nova
100 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Nuke | Calls down a Nuclear Strike at a target location. Nukes take 5 seconds to land, but they deal up to 600 damage to enemies in a large radius. | 60s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Snipe | Deals 200 damage to target enemy ground or air unit from long range. Can target biological and mechanical units. | 0s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Raynor
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Penetrator Round | After carefully aiming, Raynor fires a Penetrator Round that strikes enemies along its path, dealing 300 damage. | 20s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Tychus
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Toss Shredder Grenade | Tosses a grenade that explodes for 200 damage in a small radius (2 range). Does not harm friendly units. | 20s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Zagara
200 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Baneling Barrage | Launches 4 Banelings towards the target point. Each Baneling explodes for 40 damage (80 vs structures). | 10s | 50 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Spawn Hunter Killers | Spawns 4 Hunter Killers at the target point that last 20 seconds. | 30s | 60 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Infested Drop | Calls down 10 drop-pods onto the target area, dealing 50 damage with each drop-pod and spawning a total of 10 Roaches that last 30 seconds. | 60s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Mass Frenzy | Grants all friendly units on the map 25% attack speed and 25% movement speed for 15 seconds. | 120s | 25 |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Zeratul
0 Energy
Skills:
Skill | Name | Description | Cooldown | Energy Cost |
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Void Armor | Grants nearby friendly units +100 shields for 10 seconds. | 20s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Blink | Teleports Zeratul to a nearby location. | 3s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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Shadow Blade | Slashes an enemy unit for 500 damage. Can only target ground units. | 6s | - |
Usage Logic | ||||
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