EPTEDIT: I'm trying to upload the images to imgur but I can't seem to get them to show right now.
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/a/lurker-bug-damage-yw2wGGD)
![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/z6qhZG9)
Here are the URL to the images on imgur.
imgur.com
imgur.com
EDIT: Here is a video of a test
lurker extra damage testing
| Blogs > StaticNine |
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StaticNine
38 Posts
EDIT: I'm trying to upload the images to imgur but I can't seem to get them to show right now. Here are the URL to the images on imgur. imgur.com imgur.com EDIT: Here is a video of a test | ||
Peeano
Netherlands5458 Posts
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/MCgoXpK.png) ![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/HBKswWp.png) ![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/z6qhZG9.png) | ||
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Peeano
Netherlands5458 Posts
Would be interesting to do this test again with marines all around the lurker and create a heat map of which marines should be targeted if so. | ||
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StaticNine
38 Posts
On April 13 2026 18:57 Peeano wrote: Do I understand correctly that the 1x 2x 3x mean all marines in the line took that amount of damage and that you're saying targeting matters? Would be interesting to do this test again with marines all around the lurker and create a heat map of which marines should be targeted if so. 1x means it did normal damage and only refers to that 1 marine. I did this all with 1 race so there wasn't lurker splash.I did consider trying to do it "properly" to see the splash, but that would have been much more difficult to set up, to have all the marines in the proper spot, not move, and not kill the lurker prematurely. I just thought of a set up so I can test the splash and confirm it works the way I had assumed, I'm in the process of doing that now. Thanks for showing the pic, I'm not sure why I couldn't get it to show, I know I've shown pictures in blogs in the past. EDIT: I tested the splash and it behaved like I assumed. I included a video link to the test I just did in the original post. It doesn't matter which marine you target, what matters is the distance. I didn't target different marines in the first video but I made another one where I did target different marines. | ||
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Kraekkling
653 Posts
does the lurker have to die while the spines are propagating? or does it have to die at the very instant the spines start? does it somehow depend on the type of projectile that killed the lurker, e.g. guardian attack vs instant marine dps? does it matter which of the marines is targeted by the lurker? | ||
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Kraekkling
653 Posts
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StaticNine
38 Posts
On April 14 2026 22:45 Kraekkling wrote: this is interesting - so what exactly are the requirements to trigger this? does the lurker have to die while the spines are propagating? or does it have to die at the very instant the spines start? does it somehow depend on the type of projectile that killed the lurker, e.g. guardian attack vs instant marine dps? does it matter which of the marines is targeted by the lurker? It doesn't matter which marine is targeted. It doesn't matter what projectile killed the lurker. As soon as the lurker dies the remainder of the spine is transformed into the potential extra damage spine. I didn't go in depth with the general explanation because I figured everyone already knew about it since it's so common and Terran players complain about it a lot. | ||
Excalibur_Z
United States12244 Posts
On April 14 2026 22:52 Kraekkling wrote: now that I think about it - in situations when marines attack into lurkers, it sometimes seems like surprisingly many marines die at the moment when lurkers die. not sure if real or I'm just pattern matching... I wonder if this is the reason? Yeah that's right. Terran players in particular have been aware of this bug (Lurker spines deal double damage if the Lurker dies) for a very long time. However, what's more interesting to me, and something I didn't know, is that apparently that damage is inconsistent -- and can somehow hit for normal or even triple damage?! Thanks for the test on this, very puzzling behavior. | ||
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StaticNine
38 Posts
On April 16 2026 05:47 Excalibur_Z wrote: Yeah that's right. Terran players in particular have been aware of this bug (Lurker spines deal double damage if the Lurker dies) for a very long time. However, what's more interesting to me, and something I didn't know, is that apparently that damage is inconsistent -- and can somehow hit for normal or even triple damage?! Thanks for the test on this, very puzzling behavior. It's based only on the distance from what I can tell. Something funny I just discovered was that the goliath's attack range puts itself exactly in the triple damage zone. I had a goliath attack a lurker from multiple angles and when triggering the bug it always took triple, 57 damage with no upgrades. | ||
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Peeano
Netherlands5458 Posts
Like BR said, I think everyone in the community just assumed its double dmg upon hitting during death animation. | ||
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StaticNine
38 Posts
On April 16 2026 07:40 Peeano wrote: A heat map would still be nice, just for a simple overview in one picture. (I won't make it myself cuz I refuse to install BW.) Like BR said, I think everyone in the community just assumed its double dmg upon hitting during death animation. The problem with a heat map is that it would take an enormous amount of testing to make an accurate one and would require testing all the diagonals. The most I can say with confidence is stated in the pictures, that given that particular lurker and marine position that is how much damage each marine will take from the bug. I knew it could do triple damage, but I assumed that it would apply to the entire spine. It's counterintuitive to think that different parts of the attack could do a different amount of damage. It's just rarely relevant since a 2x will 1 shot a marine and a medic will still survive a 3x hit. | ||
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Peeano
Netherlands5458 Posts
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Kraekkling
653 Posts
or could a unit with a bigger hitbox get hit more often? | ||
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Kraekkling
653 Posts
very situational one - in ZvP when dropping a single lurker on a mineral line, and there's a cannon shooting, such that the lurker will get off only a single shot, one might stop it from shooting until the very last moment to trigger the bug | ||
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Darkwhite
Norway353 Posts
But from what you are showing here, and from Liquidpedia, it's a bit different. Lurker spines deal damage in a bunch of partially overlapping regions. Some kind of flagging is supposed to make a unit that takes damage from any particular spine region not take further damage from other regions of the same spine. But this behavior just doesn't work with a spine belonging to a dead lurker. So multidamage is always on with a dead Lurker's spine, and doesn't depend on the exact timing, but rather the exact spacing and overlapping of the damage regions. Addendum: if everything works nicely, you would expect the bug to only depend on radial distance, but there could easily be weirdness related to angles or rounding or whatever. Addaddendum: the video from Liquipedia is excellent. However, it also seems like the Liquipedia explanation must be wrong. Marines die at very precise timings. I don't think just three regions are enough to produce the behavior. But it is probably true that triple overlap is the maximum possible. | ||
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Excalibur_Z
United States12244 Posts
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/s0yFERr.png) Now, the Xel'Naga Temple is a 6x4 building. But for standard 4x3 buildings like a Barracks or Nexus, I could see 4 instances of damage happening. | ||
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StaticNine
38 Posts
It 1 shots a vulture lol. | ||
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LUCKY_NOOB
Bulgaria1541 Posts
Also skill issue in real games "Units traveling perpendicular to the Lurker are apt to take no damage at all". Did you factor in the different damage dealt to smol, med and large units? Btw https://imgbb.com/ use this and try the different links to display images.. Use BB Code fully linked or thumbnail: ![[image loading]](https://i.ibb.co/TBf3hZBm/heart-window-drawn-foggy-96039664.jpg) | ||
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StaticNine
38 Posts
On April 25 2026 17:34 LUCKY_NOOB wrote: Did you factor in the different damage dealt to smol, med and large units? lurkers do the same damage regardless of unit size | ||
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Excalibur_Z
United States12244 Posts
On April 25 2026 17:34 LUCKY_NOOB wrote: Not a bug. But cheers for the tests. It's unquestionably a bug. Lurkers can't deal more than one instance of damage per unit when they are alive. I'm pretty confident the way that it functions is via set flags. For example, I create Unit 46, which is a Lurker. Unit 46 sends out an attack which connects with Unit 20 (a Barracks) such that 4 spines hit it. The first time Unit 20 is damaged, the game sets a flag that says "Already Been Damaged By Unit 46 This Attack", and this is what prevents multiple spines from damaging a target. But if Unit 46 no longer exists because it died, then the flag becomes "Already Been Damaged By [null] This Attack", which doesn't resolve, and therefore that limit doesn't apply. So now, Unit 20 takes 4 instances of damage instead of 1 because the spines have no owner. | ||
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Ilikestarcraft
Korea (South)17735 Posts
I never knew that the dying lurker bug could lead to 3x and even 6x the original damage. Heck I didn't even know that 1x the damage could be dealt. | ||
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