I was testing the lurker extra damage bug and the following images show how much damage a marine would take based on their distance. To make sure there wasn't error introduced by my methodology I will describe it in full. I set up the lurker and marines in the following position with a guardian nearby. I altered the damage of the guardian and the HP of the marine to be able to see a triple damage spine. I set the guardian to attack the lurker and saved the game before it attacked. I manually timed the lurker attack for each friendly marine and recorded the damage. For most marines, especially the closest ones to the lurker, I did multiple attempts to ensure I was getting the bug. For marines right on top of the lurker it's possible that I mistimed the lurker shot despite multiple attempts because I had very little time to get the lurker attack off before it touched the marine. I did multiple attempts on the 1x results since a 2x or greater tells me I definitely got the bug. The 1x results were the only ones where there was a possibility of mistiming the attack.

EDIT: I'm trying to upload the images to imgur but I can't seem to get them to show right now.

Here is the URL to the images on imgur.

imgur.com

imgur.com

EDIT: Here is a video of a test

Peeano

Netherlands5406 Posts

April 13 2026 09:46 GMT

Peeano

Netherlands5406 Posts

April 13 2026 09:57 GMT

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.

StaticNine

36 Posts

April 13 2026 19:37 GMT

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.

Kraekkling

648 Posts

April 14 2026 13:45 GMT

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?

Kraekkling

648 Posts

April 14 2026 13:52 GMT

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?

StaticNine

36 Posts

April 14 2026 20:17 GMT

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 States12242 Posts

14 hours ago

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.

StaticNine

36 Posts

13 hours ago

On April 16 2026 05:47 Excalibur_Z wrote:

Show nested quote +

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.

Peeano

Netherlands5406 Posts

12 hours ago

#10

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.

StaticNine

36 Posts

12 hours ago

#11

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.

Peeano

Netherlands5406 Posts

12 hours ago

#12

Yeah, I can see that being a 3-4(+) hour project

Kraekkling

648 Posts

9 hours ago

#13

is x3 the highest possible damage?

or could a unit with a bigger hitbox get hit more often?

Kraekkling

648 Posts

8 hours ago

#14

also, are there any real situations where this bug could be used intentionally? maybe even reduce lurker hp as a setup? idk

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