Yamato Cannon: the Battlecruiser Superweapon of StarCraft
The Yamato cannon is the terran battlecruiser's prow-mounted plasma gun, a weapon that focuses a controlled nuclear blast into a single beam. Here is how it works in the lore, which ships carry it, the fights it shaped and what the lore does and doesn't say about the name.
The Yamato cannon, also called the Yamato gun, is the plasma weapon mounted on the prow of terran battlecruisers, and it's the most feared ship-mounted gun in the Koprulu Sector. It takes power from the ship's core and focuses a controlled nuclear blast into a single beam, which is why one well-placed shot can gut another capital ship. The weapon came into service around the start of the Great War and has been the battlecruiser's signature ever since. (StarCraft (manual); StarCraft Field Manual; Battlecruiser (StarCraft II official site))
How does the Yamato cannon work?#
It turns a battlecruiser's reactor output into one huge shot. The gun draws an immense amount of energy from the ship's core, then uses a dense magnetic field to contain a controlled nuclear reaction and shape it into a concentrated blast of energy. A few hits will destroy almost anything, and at full charge a single shot carries the force of a low-yield nuclear explosion. (StarCraft Field Manual; Battlecruiser (StarCraft II official site))
That power comes at a cost. The original StarCraft manual says the gun needs huge energy reserves to fire, and battlecruisers were given a new reactor to keep up with its demands. The Field Manual adds that the gun is so large it has its own conversion generator and a fire-control station crewed by nearly 100 gunnery specialists. That's the closest the lore comes to a size: no source gives a barrel length or calibre. (StarCraft (manual); StarCraft Field Manual)
Which battlecruisers carry it?#
The cannon was described as the product of recent research when the Great War began. In 2499 terran engineers were working overtime to refit existing Behemoth-class battlecruisers with it, and the Dominion kept upgrading the Behemoths in its own fleet. Some older ships never got one, because of the cost and short supply. (StarCraft (manual); Battlecruiser (StarCraft II official site))
The Minotaur-class, in service by 2502, mounts the Type-V Yamato cannon, a stronger version than the Behemoth's. Some Minotaurs also used Behemoth reactors that let them fire Yamato volleys faster. At least some ships of the bigger Gorgon-class carry the gun, and a Gorgon is tough enough to take several Yamato hits, where a single one can cripple a Behemoth. (StarCraft Field Manual; Battlecruiser (StarCraft II official site); StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Flashpoint)
Other factions field their own takes on it. Umojan battlecruisers carry an improved version of the cannon. Mercenaries who rebuilt the reactors of Sovereign-class battlecruisers fitted mini Yamato guns, which hit less hard but fire much faster, and during the End War Egon Stetmann built his own modified version, the Stetmato cannon. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft II: Co-op Missions)
Where has the Yamato cannon been used?#
Raynor's Raiders made good use of it, and their flagship the Hyperion carries one, but the gun was in action years before they ever fired it. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga)
- Bhekar Ro, 2500: When a xel'naga temple released an energy creature, the battlecruisers of Alpha Squadron in orbit fired their Yamato cannons at it. The creature absorbed the blasts and destroyed the ships. (StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga)
- The Tal'darim mothership, 2504: Raynor's Raiders brought Yamato-armed battlecruisers to fight off a Tal'darim mothership while they took the last piece of the Keystone, and the Hyperion itself carries the gun. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)
The novel StarCraft II: Flashpoint, set in the chase after Char, gives a sense of scale: one hit can cripple a Behemoth, while a Gorgon can take several. That chase is part of the Flashpoint Conflict and the Second Great War. The battlecruiser's other weapons and history are on the terran units overview. (StarCraft II: Flashpoint; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)
Where does the name Yamato come from?#
The games and books never say. No in-universe source explains who named the gun or why, and the original manual only calls it the result of recent research. (StarCraft (manual))
There is one oddity in the lore's dating. The StarCraft manual treats the gun as a fresh invention in 2499, but the novel StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga implies Yamato cannons were already in use decades earlier. Most sources follow the manual. (StarCraft (manual); StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga)
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Yamato cannon in StarCraft?
- It is the main gun of the terran battlecruiser, mounted on the ship's prow. It draws power from the ship's core and uses a magnetic field to focus a controlled nuclear reaction into one concentrated blast.
- How powerful is the Yamato cannon?
- Very. The StarCraft Field Manual says a fully charged shot hits with the force of a low-yield nuclear explosion and that the gun has enough power to wreck cities, though a Gorgon-class battlecruiser can take several hits.
- How big is the Yamato cannon?
- No source gives a barrel length or calibre. What the lore does say is that it is big enough to need its own conversion generator and a fire-control station crewed by nearly 100 gunnery specialists.
- Why is it called the Yamato cannon?
- The lore never explains it. No in-universe source says who named the gun or why, and the StarCraft manual simply calls it the product of recent research.
- Which ships have a Yamato cannon?
- Behemoth-class battlecruisers were refitted with it around 2499, Minotaur-class ships carry the stronger Type-V version, and at least some Gorgon-class ships mount one. Raynor's Hyperion has one too.
Sources
- BookStarCraft (manual), Peter Underwood, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn, Blizzard Entertainment, 1998
- BookStarCraft Field Manual, Rick Barba, Insight Editions, 2015
- WebBattlecruiser (StarCraft II official site), Blizzard Entertainment, Battle.net unit page and "Battlecruiser Science", 2010 and 2014
- BookStarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga, Gabriel Mesta, 2001
- GameStarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Blizzard Entertainment, 2010
- BookStarCraft II: Flashpoint, Christie Golden, 2012
- GameStarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, Blizzard Entertainment, 2015 (Collections tab skins, 2016)
- GameStarCraft II: Co-op Missions, Blizzard Entertainment, Mira Han and Matt Horner, and Egon Stetmann commanders
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Battlecruiser
The battlecruiser was the terran sector's capital ship, a heavily armed and armored warship dating back to the early Confederacy that served as both a general-purpose combatant and a fleet command vessel.
Behemoth-class battlecruiser
The Behemoth-class was the most common terran battlecruiser of the Great War, an improvement over the Leviathan-class that could travel through warp space, operate in atmosphere, and land on planets. It was the class of the famed Hyperion and remained in service well into the Second Great War.
Gorgon-class battlecruiser
The Gorgon-class was the most powerful battlecruiser ever fielded by the terrans of the Koprulu sector, larger than the Behemoth-class and able to withstand multiple Yamato cannon hits. Its best-known example was the Bucephalus, outfitted as the Terran Dominion flagship.
Hyperion
The Hyperion was a Behemoth-class battlecruiser that became the flagship of Jim Raynor and his Raiders, a souped-up warship capable of warp jumps from within a planetary atmosphere.
Every Terran Unit in StarCraft and StarCraft II, Explained
Every terran unit from StarCraft, Brood War and the three StarCraft II campaigns, sorted into infantry, vehicles and starships. Each entry covers who built it, what it was for and which games it appears in.
Flashpoint Conflict: the Dominion civil war over Kerrigan
The Flashpoint Conflict was a Terran Dominion civil war fought during the Second Great War. Emperor Arcturus Mengsk hunted the deinfested and weakened Sarah Kerrigan across the sector, while his own son Valerian and Raynor's Raiders fought a running battle to keep her alive and deliver her to the Umojan Protectorate.
Mentioned in5 entries
Battlecruiser
The battlecruiser was the terran sector's capital ship, a heavily armed and armored warship dating back to the early Confederacy that served as both a general-purpose combatant and a fleet command vessel.
Behemoth-class battlecruiser
The Behemoth-class was the most common terran battlecruiser of the Great War, an improvement over the Leviathan-class that could travel through warp space, operate in atmosphere, and land on planets. It was the class of the famed Hyperion and remained in service well into the Second Great War.
Every Terran Unit in StarCraft and StarCraft II, Explained
Every terran unit from StarCraft, Brood War and the three StarCraft II campaigns, sorted into infantry, vehicles and starships. Each entry covers who built it, what it was for and which games it appears in.
Hyperion
The Hyperion was a Behemoth-class battlecruiser that became the flagship of Jim Raynor and his Raiders, a souped-up warship capable of warp jumps from within a planetary atmosphere.
Terran technology
Terran technology was the engineering of humanity in the Koprulu Sector, a paradoxical middle road that advanced through constant conflict and gave the terrans adaptable armies, FTL transmission and sensors, and an ever-growing arsenal of weapons and vehicles.
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