Measured by walking unit to flingy to sprite to image to iscript and reading that script header's GndAttkInit and AirAttkInit slots. A zero means there is no attack animation at all, and arming such a unit produces a dolmen on its first attack.
This covers 202 of the 228 units. An iscript header holds a different number of animation slots per type, and on a two-slot type reading slots 2 and 3 reads script bytes that look like plausible offsets - which is why an earlier version of this page said Start Location has an air attack animation. The slot count per type was measured directly from the installed game's iscript.bin, and only the two types too short to hold those slots (0 and 1) are excluded. The 26 left out are Start Location, the beacons, the powerups, Scanner Sweep, Map Revealer, Dark Swarm and the Disruption Field - nothing anyone arms.
| 부속 유닛을 가진 몸통 | Goliath (3), Siege Tank (5, 30), Alan Schezar (17), Edmund Duke (23, 25). The turret attacks and the body has no animation, which is why these look wrong on this list and are not. |
|---|---|
| 캐리어와 리버 계열 | Carrier (72), Gantrithor (82). The interceptors do the hitting, not the Carrier, so the Carrier itself has no attack motion. |
| 지원·수송 유닛 | Science Vessel (9), Dropship (11), Civilian (15), Magellan (22), Medic (34), Overlord (42), Yggdrasill (57), Shuttle (69), Observer (84). |
| 알·라바·고치 | Larva (35), Egg (36), Cocoon (59), Lurker Egg (97), Mature Crysalis (150), Overmind Cocoon (201). |
| 크리터 여섯 | Rhynadon (89), Bengalaas (90), Scantid (93), Kakaru (94), Ragnasaur (95), Ursadon (96). |
| 테란 건물 | Command Center (106), Comsat (107), Nuclear Silo (108), Supply Depot (109), Refinery (110), Barracks (111), Academy (112), Factory (113), Starport (114), Control Tower (115), Science Facility (116), Covert Ops (117), Physics Lab (118), Machine Shop (120), Engineering Bay (122), Armory (123), Bunker (125), Norad II (126), Ion Cannon (127), Infested Command Center (130). |
| 저그 건물 | Hatchery (131), Lair (132), Hive (133), Nydus Canal (134), Hydralisk Den (135), Defiler Mound (136), Greater Spire (137), Queen's Nest (138), Evolution Chamber (139), Ultralisk Cavern (140), Spire (141), Spawning Pool (142), Creep Colony (143), Overmind (147, 148), Extractor (149), Cerebrate (151, 152). |
| 프로토스 건물 | Nexus (154), Robotics Facility (155), Pylon (156), Assimilator (157), Observatory (159), Gateway (160), Citadel (163), Cybernetics Core (164), Templar Archives (165), Forge (166), Stargate (167), Stasis Cell (168), Fleet Beacon (169), Arbiter Tribunal (170), Robotics Support Bay (171), Shield Battery (172). |
| 지형지물·중립 | Khaydarin Crystal Formation (173), Protoss Temple (174), Xel'Naga Temple (175), Mineral Fields (176-178), Vespene Geyser (188), Warp Gate (189), Psi Disrupter (190), Power Generator (200). |
| 핵과 문 | Nuclear Missile (14), Floor Hatch (204), the four level doors (205-208). |
For buildings the rule beats the list. A building that was meant to shoot has an attack animation - Photon Cannon, Missile Turret, Sunken and Spore Colony - and every other building has none. The Bunker is on this list for the same reason: the Bunker does not shoot, the units inside it do.
The row that matters most in practice is the critters: “make a Bengalaas attack” is a common ask and all six are on this list.
Going the other way, exactly five units have an attack animation and no weapon. All five are spellcasters sharing the attack animation with their cast, and all five work the moment you give them a weapon.
- Zerg Queen (45)
- Defiler (46)
- Matriarch (49)
- Unclean One (52)
- Dark Archon (63)
If a unit with no attack animation really has to attack, there is at least a fully worked-out way round it for the air case: replace its attack order with a spell-cast order and point that spell's animation at the ground attack.
- 1Give it the air weapon and replace its attack order with one of the spell-cast orders: 113, 115, 119, 120, 121, 122, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 180, 181, 185, 186. One spell is sacrificed, so pick one the map will never use.
- 2In orders.dat copy Attack Unit's settings onto that spell: targeting weapon set to the unit's weapon, Animation set to Ground Attack - Repeat, and the unnamed field set to 173.
- 3The spell path does not handle repeat attacks, so it fires once and jams - set orderState back to 1 every frame when it reads 2.
- 4Hold Position goes down a different path, tries the real air attack animation and leaves a dolmen - force it back to Guard.
Three limits come with it. Damage follows the unit's ground weapon while only range and cooldown follow the weapon named in the order, so an air attack cannot have its own damage. And two unit types sharing one sacrificed spell share its range and cooldown - sacrifice a different spell per unit.
The same shape gives a pseudo-attack to something with no attack motion at all but a cast motion, such as a Medic or a Science Vessel - set the animation to 7, Cast Spell, instead.
Four go the other way - armed with no attack animation: Spider Mine (13), Infested Terran (50), Scarab (85) and Independent Starport (184). The first three attack by dying, so they never play an attack motion; disassembling their scripts confirms both slots are genuinely 0. The last is an editor-only building that was given a weapon and never an animation. They are not an exception to the rule so much as an illustration of it.