The Carrier is the Protoss capital ship capable of dealing massive damage to opponents. It is a flying factory that builds and stores Interceptors to attack its enemies. The Build Interceptor ability can also be set to Autocast so the Carrier will always be building Interceptors when it has less than the maximum. Carriers will deploy with 4 Interceptors ready to fight and can hold up to 8 at a time. Thus the true cost of a Carrier will cost additional Minerals to become fully armed. Carriers are still powerful as they unleash swarms of Interceptors on their enemies. They also have the ability to continue attacking while moving so long as they remain in a decent range of their target. However, since it fires with multiple weak attacks, the Carrier tends to be less effective against high armored targets. Note that they can begin their attack at a pretty far range, even outside the range of defensive structures.
Interceptors will make their attacks in a dive bomb fashion over their targets. They are attackable by the enemy, which is generally an advantage since enemies usually attack Interceptors rather than the Carrier and losing a few Interceptors is much cheaper than losing the entire ship. If an Interceptor loses all of its shields, it will retreat back to its Carrier. The Carrier will instantly recharge the shields and send the Interceptor back into the fight. If the Carrier is destroyed, then all of the Interceptors it held will self destruct.
When the Carrier attacks, it will only launch one Interceptor at a time every .5 seconds. This means it will take a few seconds before all Interceptors are in the field attacking the enemy. Getting this upgrade will allow the Carrier to launch the Interceptors twice as fast into combat. Consider getting this upgrade as it grants the Carrier much more burst damage at the start of the fight.
The massive carriers serve as operations centers for leaders of the protoss fleets. Heavily armored and shielded, carriers can punch their way through enemy blockades by unleashing flights of robotic interceptors at vital enemy targets. These maneuverable, computer-guided craft tear through enemy flight formations and relentlessly strafe slower ground targets with potent plasma charges.
Interceptors are automatically manufactured and serviced inside the carriers' bays, and a number of prepped interceptors can be launched in rapid succession. In battle, carriers appear to be virtual hornets' nests of activity as their agile offspring dart out to launch their attacks and retreat just as rapidly to repair any damage they sustain. Terran scientists have long yearned for an opportunity to study just how the smoothly orchestrated operations of a carrier are achieved in detail.
Most carriers have no weapon batteries of any kind, but their deployment of interceptor flights makes them devastating in a ship-to-ship battle. However, a handful of heavily armed "super carriers" exist, most famously the Gantrithor. This was the flagship of Executor Tassadar when he led a protoss expeditionary force in its attempts to eradicate the zerg in terran space. The Gantrithor was powerful enough that it single-handedly defeated an entire terran battlecruiser squadron under the command of General Edmund Duke. Tassadar later sacrificed himself and his ship to destroy the zerg Overmind when it manifested on Aiur.
