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Kronikle's StarCraft Brood War Strategy Guide
DISCLAIMER
BEFORE READING ANY FURTHER IN THIS GUIDE, READ THIS
1) I, Ryan Kurlish (Kronikle), the author of this guide, am not in any
way liable for harm that came from reading this.
2) If you are to use some of the strategies in this guide, you must at
least give me partial credit
3) This guide may not be sold. If any companies want to buy this I must
get the money.
4) I allow permission for websites to post up this strategy guide, but
you must include the entire strategy espescially, including the
disclaimer.
END OF DISCLAIMER
1. Introduction
2. General Strategies
3. Terran Units
4. Zerg Units
5. Protoss Units
6. Terran Strategy
7. Zerg Strategy
8. Protoss Strategy
9. Cheats
10. Secrets (glitches)
11. Credit
1. Introduction
My e-mail address is RyanK55@aol.com. I hate AOL but it is all I
have. E-mail me strategies, corrections, or hints. Title the subject
"Starcraft Guide", that's how I know it is not trash and I will not
delete it immediatly. I go online about 6 times a month or more.
Please don't ask questions about this game because I can't keep up on
answering questions.
I am Kronikle, the maker of this strategy guide. This is my first
one. This is also version 1.0.
I have never been beaten by any of my friends and after awhile 5 Comps
Melee (I can easily take out 7 comps in free-for-all). I still don't
consider myself a master or god of StarCraft. On a scale from 1 to 10,
10 being the master, I am about a 7. I don't use BattleNet much. My
computer is VERY slow (66 mhz)! My name is Kronikle66. My record now
is somewhere around 30-9-15. Half of the 15 were backstabbers and the
other half was when I was a newbie. There was about one or two times
when I was just careless. When I was a newbie and was going to rush I
always built 9 workers before I even thought about building my attack
unit producer. I am going to get a new computer very soon, so I will be
on BattleNet a lot more often. I train myself by going to my friend
Jon's house (he has a fast computer). I go on BattleNet at his house
for somewhere around 8 hours. I learn about 3 strategies and then
challenge Jon til I master them! You can challenge me anytime when I'm
on BattleNet. Chances are by that time I am still getting used to
playing StarCraft on a fast computer. I don't play ladder games because
I hate the fact that if you lose you lose points, and BattleNet doesn't
perminently store your points. Even though I have never lost, I still
don't play those games. The one time I did play on BattleNet was when I
fought 3 opponents. One quit, the other one wasn't very good. We were
both Terran. Suddenly in the game he messages me "I'm going to have to
watch out for those 3 BattleCruisers!". I realized he used his Comsat
Station and I just ignored him. It was a no rush for 30 minutes (I was
pretty new back then) game. I built up 12 BattleCruisers and swarmed
into his base. I saw him on the way with only 12 Wraiths. He didn't
want to fight me so we passed each other and started destroying
eachothers base. For some reason he cloaked all of his units when I had
no defense. I had so many supply depots it took him awhile, while I
obbliterated his base in seconds. Then I couldn't find his other base.
I searched all around but I had SLOW BattleCruisers. I had only 4
Supply Depots left. Suddenly I found his base in the center and blew it
to shreds right before he finished my last building. When I see records
like 400-30-50 I know that they always play ally against computer. The
only reason I could ever think of people joining a 7vs1 comp stomp game
would be to gain wins. I joined like two of them just to get my ten
wins to play ladder.
For all of you who need training out there, I recommend you play a
2vs2comp games on random. Watch your ally and see his strategies. If
he pulls off some crazy kick ass shit then ask him how he did it and
most likely he will tell. I learned a good deal of my strats by
watching a person by the name of ComputerMaster. I think that was his
name. He was the one who taught me the BattleCruiser rush, blocking
your entance with Supply Depots, Terrans are the worst race, and he told
me if I want to train I should play games on Random until I can win
anytime with any race. He most likely will not remember me. Another
way of training is on custom maps. Choose 3 opponents, 1 of each race.
Then, set your race to random. For all of you who want to learn quick,
goto the StarCraft University (in the credit sections), and take the
classes. Zerg is the easiest computer race to beat. Terran are the
hardest! The strategically use Tanks to their advantage, they cloak
their Wraiths, they Nuke, and their early swarm is 15 marines 5 Firebats
and 10 Medics! Protoss is second hardest, mostly because of their
strength and power. Their early rush is about 10 Zealots!
By the way, do any of you people out there have Gundam Century?
That is phreaking awesome!! Terran and Protoss are completely
different! The start-up screen is cooler, the units are WAY cooler, and
the strength is WAY better. Although sucks for Zerg, they have no
changes. If you can, e-mail me if there are any other patches for
StarCraft or BroodWar.
2. General Strategies
Workers - At the beginning send your workers to seperate patches. Once
you have all of your workers mining on different patches continue making
workers. Send them 2 to a patch.
Multiple Bases - It is not needed or recommended if you have lots of
minerals and gas like Big Game Hunters. Unless there is not much
mineral patches/geysers or if you only have 1500 minerals and 5000 gas
and you are planning on playing a long game, at around 600 minerals left
start a new base. Extensions off your base are good. Most people don't
do this but, protect your other bases as well as you do your main. Some
people don't even protect their 2nd and 3rd bases at all. Those are the
people who wind up losing all minerals. I personally don't like playing
on maps other than maps with lots of minerals. If I have more than 1
base I'd have to protect it, watch it, produce in it, and more, along
with my other base(s).
Spider Mines now land mines - Usually Spider Mines unburrow and attack
any unit in the range of about 3. Now any non-melee unit can take out
one of these before they explode on the enemy. If you blind them, as
soon as somewhat walks over them, then they explode. This is also bad
for you cause the enemy can walk around them.
1 at a time - When attacking in groups and defending against groups have
your group always attack one unit at a time. If four mutalisks being
controlled by a player who haves them attack one by one fight 5 mutalisk
left for the computer AI to control the 4 mutalisks would probably win.
Protection - Don't just build protection at the front of the base. Make
it surround your parimeter. You don't know what side he's gonna attack
from (most of the time) if he uses air. Also, protect your mineral
field in case of worker hunts or drops. Putting a little defense in the
middle is not a bad idea, but it could get in your way.
Trees - Most people don't even know what trees can do in StarCraft.
They hide units. It's best to put small long-ranged units (Marine,
Hydralisk, Dragoons) behind these because their long range can easily
hit units without blowing their cover. Detectors don't cut it here.
Cliffs - You can easily take the advantage on a mountainous map. All
units on cliffs do what they do better than what the people on the
ground do. Put up say a tank on top of a cliff. The tank can now see
everything far away. Now say you put him in Siege Mode. If he attacks
someone standing still they will not know where you are. They will run
away. If they decide elsewise they will head towards the mountain.
While on the ground they can not see what is above them unless they
scale the mountain and reach the very top. HA HA!! By then your tank
could easily take him out. This can be countered if an air unit comes
by. DAMN!!
Choke Points - These are the connecters. They connect the bases or
whatever. They are usually bridges but can turn the tide of war. If
you block them off as well as you do your front-line defense usually
noone can enter your base by ground (and if the choke point is huge
enough and well protected, even by air!). For Terran block it off with
Bunkers filled with 3 Marines and a Firebat, backed up by Siege Tanks, a
few Ghosts if the big boys come in, and some Missile Turrets for
detection and air protection. Zerg should mostly consist of Sunken
Colonies with some Spores for air defense and detection added with tons
of burrowed Hydralisk and Lurkers. Protoss uses Photon Cannons blocking
entrance backed up with High Templars ready to Psionic Storm them.
Don't forget Carriers. Choke points can also be defeated. This is
espescially easy with Zerg. Their Guardians can take out the ground
forces from a far enough distance away. Send in about 5 Siege Tanks in
Siege mode backed up with Valkyries. For Protoss mind control a heavy
flying unit and send in some Reavers.
Build Order - If you've done strategies a lot you should not rely
strictly on build orders so much cause over time the enemy will know
you're strategies and counter them. Also, you never know if the
situation will be different and they actually attack before you are
ready. Try to do long strategies with a sort of freestyle. Since I
don't know what map you are using, if it is a short build order, it is
better to do it freestyle.
Multi-Player Messages - If alliances are to be set within the game say
something direct but not to mean to make him say no just nicely be
direct and ask a tough lookin player for an alliance. If they reject in
a mean way, take him out first. If they say they are not sure, help
them out. If they say yes but they sound fishy, don't rely on them
much, they may be backstabbers, but if they are very helpful and nice
later on don't worry much about their loyalty. If someone offers you
alliance always accept. Sometimes acting like a newbie will be a good
chance of winning! Yeah, say something like "How do you get those
ships?" or "What do the colors on the map at the bottom mean?". This
works in 2 ways. One, they will feel pity for you and slaken their
defense, or two they will bully you and send in light swarms, and once
they see you were lying, kill that bastard! The funniest and probably
best use for messaging is to get in a 2-vs-2 or 3-vs-3 game and set
messaging to everyone. Then get a message to say "has left the game"
and send. If my name was Master5, what will come up is "Master5: has
left the game". This rarely works. It worked with my friend a few
times. The opponent will most likely leave you alone now if you don't
make any activity. Use this on big maps so they don't pass by you by
chance. Set Messaging back to Allies. Explain you were just taunting.
Attacking buildings - With structures like Photon Cannons, Sunken/Spore
Colonies and Missile Turrets, a lot of people will mass produce them for
protection without units. The biggest problem with these is that they
can't move, making them an easy target for Disruption Web, long-range
units, or if the building specifically attacks ground or air only, use
the opposite. I swear I see people all over who build about 40 Sunkens
(with no Spores) or 40 Cannons. Then I see one Siege Mode tank take
them out. An experienced player would deal with attack buildings mixed
with units. A nuke in the center of a group of these buildings is
probably enough, use Tanks, or Yamato Gun them. With Zerg, use
Guardians. With Protoss use Reavers, or use Carriers (AI really only
attacks Interceptors). Use them along with units. If I were playing a
human I would only put up about six to 8 Sunken Colonies/Photon Cannons
at most for early rush protection. Sometimes after a rush attack, the
human may rely mainly on air. So then I would build some Spores about 8
all around and about 4 more sunkens. Altogether about 14 or 16 Photon
Cannons (they have air and ground and not as much life as the colonies).
I would also build up on units. If I was fighting computer, I would put
up some more because they repeatidly perform the same rushes over and
over until they get higher in the Tech Tree.
Parasite Detected - If you find a parasite on a unit, immediatly send it
attacking. A parasite can mean the downfall of your base. They can
watch your every move, prepare for an attack, and find a flaw in your
defense. Don't worry if computer casts it on you as they can see the
whole map anyway.
Upgrades - Speed upgrades are usually the best. Certainly better than
attack or defense. With capacity upgrades, you should always get them
first.
3. Terran Units
SCV - The strongest worker of the 3 races. Still this is just a worker.
It has the ability to repair which is different.
Marines - Longest range basic unit. Since it can attack both air and
ground, these are actually pretty good. If you are going to mass
produce these in mid games, research Stim Packs and have Medics backing
the marines up.
Firebats - I have found Firebats only work really good on Zerg and OK on
Protoss. These also have Stim Packs, but they are a lot less useful.
Medics - They are good with marine swarms. They have 3 spells, Heal,
Restoration, and Optic Flare. Heal is the most useful and used. Heal
automatically heals an organic unit 2 life per 1 energy until they are
completely healed. Restoration restores status. Optic Flare makes the
targeted unit have a sight range of 1 and makes them become blind. If
you ask me this is a lot more uselful if you use it on a Spider Mine.
Usually Spider Mines unburrow and attack any unit in the range of about
3. Now any non-melee unit can take out one of these before they explode
on the enemy. If you blind them, as soon as somewhat walks over them,
then they explode. Put Medics in the back line ready to heal. Have
your marines use Stim Packs. The medics can heal them right after.
Ghosts - Sucky attack. I only use them for their spells. 1) Personnel
Cloaking - This is awesome! You can sneak in a base invisible (asuming
there is no detectors). 2) Lockdown - This is the best strategy for
Battle Cruiser/Carrier swarm prevention. It makes all non-biological
units unable to do anything. It's better than statis field in the fact
that you can actually kill the unit that is locked down. 3) Nuke - :-)
This is best used with the help of their other 2 spells. The nuke is
the strongest attack in the game (500 damage) and has the widest splash
(about 6 spaces away!). The only problem with it is that nukes need the
help of ghosts and they can only be created 1 at a time if you have only
one Nuclear Silo.
Vultures - Use them as scouts or for base defense. With defense, plant
spider mines around the outside of your base.
Siege Tanks - These are the bomb! This is the long range unit for the
Terran. Put them in Siege mode and they are unstoppable (almost)! They
are awesome in base defense with their long range, splash damage, and
powerful blasts. In offense, back them up with Goliaths and you got a
nice team. Siege Tanks are, however, easily destroyed alone. An air
unit could easily take one out alone or a quick Zealot or Zergling
(something that attacks close up).
Goliaths - Use them for air defense. Ground attack is a little too slow
for me. A deadly combo are Goliaths backed up by Siege Tanks in the
mode. Upgrade the Goliath's air attack and they can attack from range
as far as the Guardians'.
Wraith - These would be a much better unit if there were no detectors.
Their air-to-air attack is great but their ground attack... well it's
not so good. Use their cloaking to defend your base if someone
foolishly didn't add a detector in their swarm. Cloaking doesn't do
much against mid/late Terran computer or any Zerg. The Terran computer
uses the Comsat Station and the Zerg have that Overlord.
Dropship - Simply a transport. Nothing special about it. For
strategies with it, defensive matrix it, if you are going for a drop.
Science Vessel - A detector and spell caster makes a great combo. They
have 3 spells: Defensive Matrix, EMP Shockwave, and Irradiate. 1.
Defensive Matrix - This is awesome. The Vessel comes with this, and it
makes any unit used on, temporarily invincible! 2. EMP Shockwave -
Really only useful on the Protoss. This drains shields and magic down
to zero. Use it on Archons, as they are 97% Shields. 3. Irradiate - On
such a useful unit as the Science Vessel there has to be such a lame
spell. It only works on organic units and it takes barely anything
away.
Valkyrie - My favorite air-to-air unit. Upgrade maximumly. 25 of these
fully upgraded can take out 100 mutalisks not upgraded.
Battle Cruiser - The absolute best air unit in the game. They are
better than Carriers, because they have the Yamato Gun and they fire a
hell of a lot faster! These can take out Photon Cannons in one hit if
you use the Yamato Gun! Scourges are almost useless against 12 Battle
Cruisers, unless they are heavily mass produced. The only flaw with the
Battle Cruiser is it is slow in moving.
4. Zerg Units
Larva - These are the core of the Zerg. If you have the right
buildings, these can morph into any Zerg unit available (except for ones
that must evolve e.g. Lurkers, Guardians)!
Drone - The basic worker. Relies on mutating itself into a building,
sacrificing it.
Overlord - A pretty good non-attacking unit if ya ask me! It is the
only supply holder that can actually move. Use them in the beginning of
the game as a scout (if the map is not too big). These guys are also
your transport. If you are getting the shit beat out of you by someone,
use your Overlord to pick up some Drones and move to an allies base or a
safe spot in the map.
Zergling - The quickest attacking ground unit in the game. They are
very fast and for 50 minerals, 2 are produced making it very cheap.
Fully upgrade these, and they can take out units and buildings extremely
fast. These are great in mass swarms when defending against tanks or
when using Dark Swarm. Zerglings can burrow.
Hydralisk - These are pretty good. Hydralisks are the most versatile
unit in the game. They can attack air and ground quite fast, they can
burrow, they have nice HP and decent damage. These get destroyed quite
quickly alone. Unless you mass produce these by the hundreds, don't
rely on them so much for late attacking.
Lurker - These are awesome! These are perminently cloaked burrowed.
They can use the hydralisk range upgrade to their advantage. They are
very strong They come with burrow. They are the Lurkers, the cloaked
portable sunken colony!
Mutalisk - Weakest air unit (besides interceptors). If I were to only
use these units, I wouldn't even think of trying to win a long game with
less than 40 of these unupgraded. Use these as worker hunters or
produce these by the 100s and swarm!
Guardian - Ohh... yeah!! These are awesome. They are like a Siege Tank
in Siege Mode but airborne. These are out of the range of all the
attack buildings, making them great on newbies (who only rely on attack
buildings). They have an attack of 20 (unupgraded) dealing some heavy
damage. The only problem with these are that they don't have any air
support.
Devourer - A cool air-to-air unit. So slow in attacking, though. They
do have a useful ability, their Spores slow down the enemy's firing rate
down 1/8. The coolest thing about this is that the spores on an enemy
can build up, but are not perminent.
Scourge - These are the best air-to-air unit in the game. They are
produced in doubles for the cheap 25 minerals and 75 gas! They are
excellent scouts. Their damage is 110 without any upgrades! Use these
on transports, Carriers, and other slow attacking air unit. Don't
attack a group of 6 Battle Cruisers or more with these unless you send
them 8 or more. Battle Cruiser attacks are much too fast for Scourges.
Queen - OK spell caster. They have 4 spells, Infest Command Center,
Spawn Broodlings, Parasite, and Ensnare. Infest Command Center is not
that useful. Sure you can pump out some of the best ground units in the
game, but if you destroyed enough of their base to infest this, chances
are their won't be much left to destroy. This can be useful if you are
allied with a Terran player and he allows you to infest his Command
Center. Spawn Broodlings is an okay to good spell. It turns targeted
unit into 2 broodlings. Use this on heavy artillery (tanks) or on
workers. Parasite is a great spell but is useless if it is spotted. It
lets you see everything that is in the sight range of the targeted unit.
Ensnare is not good! All it does is slow down a unit to half it's speed
temporarily. Whoopie!!
Ultralisk - Not that good. With a price 200 minerals and 200 gas you'd
think that they'd be great. No. They can't burrow, they are slow, they
take way too much time to make, they can only attack ground units, and
they are fat so they can't fit between gaps in yours or the enemies
base. If you plan on maximumly upgrading them, then they are half
decent. With life of 400 and fully upgraded armor of 6, any damage 6 or
under is reduced to 1 (haha Carriers, Marines, Zerglings, Broodlings!).
Combined with a Dark Swarmed area, they are pretty good!
Defilers - These have great spells, Consume, Dark Swarm, and Plague.
Consume which destroys one of your units to gain 50 magic energy, and
Plague which brings life (Unit and Building) down to 1, but this will
never kill. Hatch a few Zerglings and use Consume to gain tons of
energy. Then use Plague on units or what is really cool, is use Plague
on Terran buildings. Terran buildings in red gradually lose life, so if
you Plague the building to 1 life, it will destroy itself in one second.
Dark Swarm makes long-range attacks in the orange area useless, making
Zerg rushes very useful. Ultralisks with a Dark Swarm is extremely
powerful.
5. Protoss Units
Drone - Average worker. These, however, can build multiple buildings at
the same time.
Zealot - Strongest basic attack unit in the game. These are about as
good as a Firebat strength wise. But, Zealots are better than Firebats
because they don't need gas and they have shields. These are awesome
with the speed upgrade!
Dragoon - Don't use these for foward assualts alone. They are not so
good alone, but combined with Zealots to take out ground and the
Dragoons to take out air they are pretty decent. These should be used
as heavy aircraft destroyers. 2 of these can take out a Carrier or
Battle Cruiser. Upgrade their range and they become a lot more useful.
High Templar - My favorite spell user! These have 3 awesome spells,
Psionic Storm, Hallucination, and Summon Archon. Psionic Storm, the
swarm stopper. This spell is incredible! For only 75 energy you attack
a 3 by 3 space with 127 damage quite quickly! Hallucination creates two
duplicates of the targeted unit. The duplicates only look different to
you, with a blueish shadow. What your opponent sees looks exactly like
the real unit. They eventually lose power and get destroyed. All
normal attacks do double damage on hallucinations. Hallucinations will
attack but they will never deal any damage. This is good to scare your
opponent. Send in about 50 (hallucinated) Carriers and it might just
scare him to quit. Or, use on Shuttles. Make about 12 duplicates of
these and put the real one in the middle. Drop it in his base. You can
do this with Arbiters and Recall. You can also make tons of
hallucinated Probes to go into an open spot on the map, making sure your
opponent sees you. Your opponent will most likely follow a group of
Probes with some Wraiths, Scouts, or Mutalisks. Now, while some of his
fleet is attacking hallucinations, send in an attack swarm. The third
spell is Summon Archon. This is good if you are in mid battle and your
Templars have run out of magic. Turn your non-attackers into killer
ground and air attacking units.
Dark Templar - One of my favorite ground units! This is the true
assassin of StarCraft. They are perminently cloaked, they attack with
40 damage unupgraded! They do have a few features I don't like about
them. Their attacks are melee. They have only ground attacks. They
require a lot of structures before you can begin construction of them.
They are practically useless on Zerg, as their detectors are flying.
Dark Archon - My second favorite spell caster. They have 3 spells, Mind
Control, Maelstrom, and Feedback, but only 1 of them make them the most
avoided unit in the game, Mind Control. Instead of killing a unit, you
actually make him join your fleets. Use this on an Arbiter supporting a
gigantic fleet, a different race worker, or any vital unit your opponent
has. If you use it on an Arbiter all the fleets will be uncloaked. The
fleet will now worry about the Arbiter and take it out, buying you time
to either run or attack them. If you Mind Control a worker of a
different race, you can actually start up a new base of a different
race. Imagine having a fleet of Carriers, Battle Cruisers, and
Guardians! Maelstrom freezes an area of biological units for about 5
seconds. Use this on Zerg, as all of their units are biological.
Feedback is somewhat weak. It drains all energy down to zero and uses
the amount of magic the target had as damage inflicted upon them.
Archon - One of the best ground units ever! These have ground and air
attack of 30! Mass production is not recommended. Recall these units
and you have an awesome attack. These are great melee unit killers.
Watch out for the EMP Shockwave. If you get hit you're scewed!
Shuttle - Just a transport. With the speed upgrade, they are the
fastest transport.
Reaver - Yeah! These are the bomb! These are also the best droppers in
the game! They have a 100 damage that splashes almost 3 spaces! With a
good number (4+) of Reavers, it only takes a few scarabs to wipe out all
of your opponent's workers. These do have a few problems though. They
can only attack on their elevation and can't attack over water, they are
slowest unit in StarCraft, they can't attack air, and they require you
to build ammo. These should be used with Shuttles unless you want to be
their waiting an hour.
Observer - The best spies in the game! They are perminently cloaked,
they fly, they are detectors and they are fast! These should be your
primary scout/spy and detector.
Scout - Pretty damn good flying unit. This is the fastest basic flying
unit (Mutalisk, Wraith, Scout) and the strongest. Even though these
can't cloak, they are still awesome. If you have over 40 of these in
the sky you will most likely win.
Corsair - Pretty good air-to-air flyer. Even though their attack is 5,
they are very fast. They have a spell called Disruption Web. This is
pretty useless on units. It freezes all ground units' weapons in the
web and buildings' weapon system. The unit can however walk out of the
web and continue normally. These should only be used on attacking
buildings.
Carrier - Above average heavy air fighter. The problem with this is
that they are slow and have to launch Interceptors which you must build.
Once you get Carriers available, then you (should) upgrade the capacity.
As soon as you get the most expensive unit in StarCraft online, they are
useless. You have to buy 200 minerals worth of interceptors to fully
maximize the Carriers strength. If you have less than 6 then they are
practically useless. Say you have a Carrier filled with 8 Interceptors
and you want to attack. You send him in and then you click on an enemy
unit to see what upgrades they have. You see their armor strength at 6.
You launch your Interceptors and all of them hit with their 5 damage. 5
damage for all 8 Interceptors makes forty damage right? Wrong the armor
reduces all unupgraded Interceptor attacks to 1, so all your
Interceptors deal 8 damage total. A Zergling can only be upgraded to 3
armor, so it would take 3 rounds of Interceptors to take out one measly
Zergling!
Arbiter - A must for almost any late game Protoss swarm! Arbiters have
3 abilities, Recall, Statis Field, and they can cloak all of your units
4 spaces away. Recall warps a group right next to your Arbiter. Sneak
your Arbiter into the enemy base and then Recall an army (that should at
leasy consist of about 4 Reavers and tons of other units) and you have
all of your army cloaked inside the enemy base! Statis Field can be
good depending on who you use it on. It freezes a group of units for a
little bit. These units can't be hurt, can't move, and can't attack.
Use it on some attacking Carriers or Battle Cruiesers to stop them, then
charge up some magic and kill them. Lockdown can be better. Their
ability to cloak all units within 4 spaces away rocks! Send in a couple
Arbiters with a massive Carrier fleet and you have a nice cloaked army.
Then recall an army.
6. Terran Strategies
Mass production - If someone does not use this strategy they are sad.
Simply put, build more producing structures if you are going to mass
produce! If you are going all out marines, build up about 6-10
Barracks.
Nuke Prevention - Cast Defensive Matrix or run.
SCV Rush - On an unsuspecting opponent this will almost always win.
Completely useless if not used at the very beginning of the game:
-Build one SCV
-Send 4 attacking
-Have 3 attack each worker one at a time. Have the 4th repair. The 5th
should provide the minerals for repairing.
Marine Drop - This is not the marine rush. Use this in medium length
games.
- Send SCVs mining
- Build 4 more SCVs
- Have SCV 8 build a supply depot
- Build 2 more SCVs
- Once SD done build barracks
- SCV 10 build refinery
- Build 3 SCVs
- Send 2 of them to the Refinery and the third to making another supply
depot
- Build 1 SCV. Send him to work on Factory
- Barracks should now be done
- Have SCV 8 (finished barracks) build bunker
- Train 5 marines
- Add a machine shop to the factory and have that SCV build a starport
- Build 3 SCVs
- 1st SCV builds barracks
- 2nd builds academy
- 3rd builds barracks
- Control Tower on Starport
- Pump out lots of marines and six medics
- Build 3 dropships each filled with 6 marines and two medics
- Drop into open spot in enemy base
This trick works very well on human opponent long games. Don't try it
on computer, as they will have already attacked by then.
Marine Rush - This is a rush! This is to be used at the beginning of
the game. Anytime after is pratically useless. This is different from
the Marine Drop.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Train first and second marine
-Send 1st Marine scouting
-Train third marine & build second Barracks
-Start Marine pumping and attack!
Ghost Rush - Don't even think this rush is for attacking only! Use this
for a nice early nuke along with a cloaked (weak) attack.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery & build Academy
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Build second Supply Depot & build Factory
-Build thirteenth and fourteenth SCV
-Gather with thirteenth SCV
-Gather gas with fourteenth SCV & build Starport
-Train first and second marine & build Bunker
-Train third and fourth marine & build Science Facility
-Enter marines into Bunker & build second Bunker
-Train fifth and sixth marine & build Covert Ops
-Train seventh and eight marine & build third Supply Depot
-Upgrade Personnel Cloaking & build Nuclear Silo
-Enter marines into Bunker & train first ghost
-Arm Nuclear Silo & upgrade Ocular Implants
Use the nuke to take out detectors and then send in the Ghosts cloaked
to make an attack
Vulture Rush - Use this in mid games.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Bather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Bather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV & build Factory
-Build second Supply Depot & build second Factory
-Build first vulture & build Machine Shop
-Build second and third vulture & research Spider Mines
-Build fourth and fifth vulture & build third Factory
-Build third Supply Depot & research Ion Thrusters
-Build sixth, seventh, and eight vulture & plant spider mines
Siege Tank Rush - Use in long games.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build a Marine and scout. Kill him after he's done.
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV & build Factory
-Build second Supply Depot & build second Factory
-Build first Machine Shop
-Research Siege Tech & build first siege tank
-Build third Supply Depot & build second Machine Shop
-Build second and third siege tank
-Build forth and fifth siege tank
Wraith Rush - Use in long games
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV & build Factory
-Build second Supply Depot
-Build thirteenth and fourteenth SCV
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth SCV
-Build first and second Starport
-Build third Supply Depot
-Build first wraith & build first Control Tower
-Send first Wraith scouting
-Build second and third wraith & research Cloaking Field
-Build fourth and fifth wraith
-Build sixth and seventh wraith
Supply Depot Ultimate Defense Trick - Very useful strategy. A lot of
people say "Oh, if I put my supply depots blocking my entrance the
computer will just destroy them!" (newbies). True, to some extent if
you don't put any defense behind it!!! You should make two layers of
supply depots BLOCKING your entrance to your base (if your scv gets
trapped outside your base use him as a scout). (Most important part)
Build two bunkers behind them, filled with marines and put about four
Siegetanks in Siege mode next to the bunkers. Last step, put 2 missile
turrets behind the supply depots to detect for any cloaked units (also
helps defend airborne wise). This strategy should really only be used
against the computer. If you need help, read the Battle Cruiser rush.
Battle Cruiser rush - This is a VERY good strategy! Within about
fifteen minutes you can be rushing in with twelve BCs. This is GREAT
for computer and great for an inexperienced human opponent. This strat
should only be used on custom maps (ones with 50,000 minerals and gas
and lots of mineral patches and vespine geysers).
- Send workers to mineral patches and build an SCV
- Send that SCV mining and keep building SCVs until you have 9
- Send 9 to build a supply depot blocking entrance.
- Build 10th and have him construct a barracks
- After 9 is done, pump out a few more SCVs and build more supply depots
until your entrance is blocked double layered
- After 10 is done have him build a bunker behind your Supply Depots
- Build another SCV and have him build a refinery.
- After refinery, if you have more geysers build refineries over them.
- Start pumping out marines until you have 8
- 3 SCVs (if you have enough supply depots, if not take a mining SCV and
have him build one) and send them to the refinery(s) if you have more
refineries than one, send three more to each other refinery.
- After 10 is done have him build another bunker next to your other one
- Fill bunkers
- By now the computer already attacked so if needed repair anything
damaged.
- If 9 is done and is inside your base have him move to an open area and
keep building supply depots
- Some SCVs
- Once enough cash for Factory, build!
- While factory building, pump out more SCVs
- After Factory build machine shop
- After machine shop build 4 tanks, research Siege mode and build more
SCVs.
- Put tanks at front of base in Siege mode
- Build SCVs and stop at around 22 to 20.
- Take 6 SCVs and have each one build a Starport (leaving enough room
for control towers)
- Attatch Control Towers
- Send 5 finished SCVs mining and have the 6th build a Science Facility
with attatched Physics Lab.
- If you want, research Yamato Cannon
- Start pumping out BCs!
- Once you have about 12 attack
- While attacking build 6 more BCs or until you run out of supplies
- If you were fast enough you should be able to creame the enemy. If
not, send the six at your base to attack and build twelve more BCs (6
for defense the other 6 for attacking).
Worker Hunt - Get about 1 tank, 3 dropships, and 3 science vessels.
Fill the first Dropship with 4 Goliaths, the second with 7 marines and a
ghost with a nuke, and the third with 2 Siege Tanks. Defense Matrix the
three Dropships and send in your tank (attack in Siege Mode). This
should keep him busy for a few seconds. At that time drop your units in
the back of his base (where the minerals are).
Big ship prevention - If they have no detectors simply cloak and
destroy, use Lockdown for help. If the enemy is Protoss and they have a
detector, it is obviously an Observer. Try to find it's outline and use
your Comsat Station to decloak it, then destroy it! If it's Terran then
it gets a little bit more tricky. Cloak a ghost and try to Lockdown the
Science Vessel from far away. Then cloak and destroy and use Lockdown
to your advantage.
Mass swarm prevention - About 10 Tanks in siege mode should do it. Nuke
front of your base if you must.
Zealot Prevention - Block off your entrance with bunkers filled with 1
Marine and 3 Firebats. Or don't even let it happen at all. Rush in
with 6 Marines and you can probably take him out before they can do
anything.
ATTACK
Against Terran - Use the battle cruiser rush. Build lots of Missile
Turrets in case of drops or aircraft rushes. If you are not going to
use the BC rush then just try to get some air units, because the Terrans
have Siege Tanks. DONT USE FIREBATS! Fire does not do well on metal.
Against Zerg - Nukes are not very effective here unless you can hit the
Hive/Lair/Hatchery. All the units reproduce fast with Zerg also, their
buildings gain life. BC rush is pretty good here and the marine drop is
good. A good strat here is to take about 6 tanks in Siege mode and put
them outside the Zerg base. Right behind the tanks have your BC's (and
a science vessel to uncloak Lurkers) ready to gun. While your tanks
blast away, you should be able to do a good amount of damage when the
enemy starts coming out. When the enemy starts pouring out, have your
tanks take care of some of it, and have your BC's take care of the rest.
If the enemy is too overwhelming, run away, repair, build greater
numbers and attack again.
Against Protoss - Nuking is only truly effective on this race. Do a
Battle Cruiser rush with Science Vessels. Decloak any Dark Templars and
EMP Shockwave the Templars or Archons.
DEFENSE
Against Terran - No real strategy here. If you have cloakable units
cloak them and defend. Try not to use Firebats. Build lots of Turrets
around your base they can defend against and Battle Cruisers amd some
drops. If you know you are going to lose, use your comsat station and
make a sweep then lift all your buildings and land on a safe spot. Send
an SCV or two to every building and be ready to repair. This may or may
not work depending on who you're defending against. Have Ghosts ready
to use lockdown to disable Battle Cruisers.
Against Zerg - If they are attacking with Zerglings and you have
airunits just blast each unit once and they'll go away. If you have
tons of attacking airunits try to take all the zerg units out. If you
have no air units and you know you will lose, lift up your buildings and
either wait till they run away or move to another spot. If they do a
Lurker rush, 90% of the time you are screwed. If you know they are
going to do it, build a think layer of supply depots at the entrance of
base. This should give you about a minute to prepare your defense. A
typical Lurker rush is very early in the game, so chances are you won't
have any air units along with science vessels. If the attack is late
and you have a comsat station or Science Vessel and some air units, the
comsat or Science Vessel decloak while the air units take out the
Lurkers. If it's any other unit have a group of defending units all
attack one unit at a time.
Against Protoss - A VERY USEFUL strategy is to have a science vessel
with EMP Shockwave. It brings Protoss shields and Magic down to 0.
Archon's shields are 97% of it's life, Templars need magic to attack,
and Arbiters need magic etc. If they are attacking with Zealots just
put 3 Firebats in the Bunkers and a marine in each bunker. When the
Zealots get hit with the gun fire, they will move towards the bunker and
get burned by the Firebats. Be prepared to have lots of missile turrets
around your base. This will protect against the Carrier Swipe pretty
good but mainly against the Arbiter Warp Attack. You may want to build
defense near the back of your base. Reaver drops, Arbiter Warp Attack,
and other attacks that go for specifically SCVs will be useless if you
are cautious. If you have cloaked units use them to hit the enemy once
to make him run. If they have an Observer in your base try to find it's
outline and use comsat to destroy it (or Missile Turrets). Have ghosts
ready to use Lockdown to disable Carriers.
7. Zerg Strategies
Build mutiple Hatchery/Hive/Lairs if you are going to mass produce.
If you are going for mass Zergling Hydralisk production try this: After
morphing in your ninth drone, you normally would not be able to morph
another one till you morph in your second overlord. But that is so
untrue. Morph your ninth drone into an Extractor to decrease your
"supplies used" by one. NOW morph in your tenth drone, then CANCEL the
creation of the Extractor. Proceed as you normally would.
Zergling Rush - This is the most used rush in StarCraft b/c it is so
easy. Remember, this is useless in games other than rush games.
-Send Drones to minerals
-Hatch Drone and send mining
-Send Overlord as scout (not on big maps)
-Once 150 minerals start spawning pool
-Hatch 6th Drone to mine
-After Spawning pool pump out about 6 Zerglings
-While they attack, build 6 more Zerglings and send
If you can't master this then you are sad...
Hydralisk Rush - This is not as fast as the Zergling rush. In fact,
this will probably take three times longer.
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Hydralisk Den with thirteenth drone
-Morph second Hatchery with fourteenth drone
-Morph third overlord & morph first and second hydralisk
-Morph fifteenth Drone and have him turn into third Hatchery
-Have any extra Geysers? Extract them with three drones
-Upgrade Hydralisk Range then Speed
-Morph 16-22 Drone and mine
-Morph fourth Overlord
-Pump out Hydralisks from all Hatcheries
-Everytime you have excess minerals (600+) build another Hatchery
-After you start pumpin 15 Hyrdalisks (5 Hatcheries) at a time, send
each wave by the thirties
Lurker Rush - Not to be used against Zerg. Not to be used in early rush
games either. This takes about 7 minutes.
-1st to 6th drones go to minerals
-7th does Spawning Pool
-Get an Overlord
-8th Drone transforms into Extractor
-Get 6 to 12 Zerglings for defense
-9th to 12th drones mine gas
-Get two more Drones and a Lair
-15th Drone makes Hydralisk Den
-Get a few Drones, about 6 Hydralisks, and evolve Lurker Aspect
-Turn 4 Hyrdralisks into Lurkers
-Evolve range for Hydralisks
-Attack!
Burrow in the longest range and the Terrans don't have a chance and most
likely the Protoss don't either.
Mutalisk Rush - Not for early rushes. This is just a start. Do
whatever you want after you follow these steps:
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Lair from Hatchery
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph second Hatchery with thirteenth drone
-Morph Spire with fourteenth drone
-Morph first three mutalisks
-Morph next three mutalisks
Guardian Rush - One of the coolest rushes. This is best used against
the Protoss. The Photon Cannons are no match for this long-range rush,
basic Zealot defense is nothing to this, Dragoons don't even have a
great chance at survival cause of the Guardian range. Templars won't be
able to get in close enough to launch a storm. This is also great on
Terran and Zerg. Only if the enemy is going strictly air will this be a
problem.
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Lair from Hatchery
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Spire with thirteenth
-Morph Queen's Nest with fourteenth drone
-Morph Hive from Lair
-Morph first three mutalisks & morph Greater Spire from Spire
-Morph next three mutalisks
-Morph mutalisks into Guardian
Ultralisk rush - Hmm... I never really liked Ultralisks that much.
They are expensive, slow, and with a name Ultralisk you'd think they'd
have a stronger attack than 20. Besides they can only attack ground.
But, some people like them. Here it is:
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Lair from Hatchery
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Queen's Nest with thirteenth drone
-Morph Creep Colony with fourteenth drone
-Morph Hive from Lair & morph Sunken Colony from Creep Colony
-Morph fifteenth and sixteenth drone & morph third overlord
-Morph fifteenth and sixteenth drone into Creep Colonies
-Morph seventeenth drone
-Morph Sunken Colonies from Creep Colonies
-Morph Ultralisk Cavern with seventeenth drone
-Morph first six zerglings
-Morph first three ultralisks
Worker Hunt - Mutalisks are the best worker hunters in the game. They
have their acid which hits multiple units at a time. They are also
pretty quick to get up. Upgrade speed and transporting ability for
Overlords and enter through the side of their base with a drop of
Hydralisks.
Big ship prevention - Plague the bastards! Or Dark Swarm and hit em
with anything you got (Hydralisks, Mutalisks, etc.). Slow them down
with Devourers or Ensnare.
Mass swarm prevention - Lurkers, Sunkens, Spores should do it. Plague
or Dark Swarm will also help. Use Guardians to attack out of the range
of the Hydralisks or Dragoons.
Zealot Prevention - Prevent it! Send in 12 Zerglings before they can
rush you.
ATTACK
Against Terran - Try not to use the Zergling rush, as the Terran tend to
lift buildings. Instead, use the Hydralisk rush. Guardians do wonders
espescially teamed up with Scourges. Their long range and air attack
should be able to take out SCVs or tanks from good distances away.
Lurkers are the best against Terran. Early on, take about 6 Lurkers
upgrade their range and they are almost invincible. If you attack from
far enough the Turrets can't decloak you. The only problem with this is
if they have a comsat station or a Science Vessel and air units. The
comsat or Science Vessel decloak while the air units take out the
Lurkers. To prevent this bring about 14 Scourges. Best used early.
Spawn Broodlings on workers. Plauge is awesome here on buildings! Once
your Mutalisks take out the Starport and all air units, replace them
with Guardians.
Against Zerg - Use Guardians backed up with Scourges to attack the front
line to distract them. Then drop some Lurkers and Hydralisks in the
back of their base. Or, build about 10 Hatcheries and pump out
Hydralisks by the 30's. But, you must have about 50 workers on rich
maps.
Against Protoss - Attack early! Don't worry about defense too much,
just keep attacking. Most likely the Protoss will be too busy to attack
you. After attack after attack, your opponent will finally not be able
to keep up and you will eventually win (most of the time). If it is
going to be a long game. Use Plague and Dark Swarm with Ultralisk or
tons of Hydralisks. Or, use Guardians to take out Photons and then rush
in with Zerglings. Plague is good on this race. It reduces life (not
shields) down to 1 and Protoss life can't be recovered.
DEFENSE
Against Terran - If they are using a Tank swarm, a very large number of
Zerglings should work. Or, you can use Ultralisks. If they are going
straight Battle Cruiser then Ensnare them and use your Devourers to slow
them down. Then send in some Scourges.
Against Zerg - Air attacks are useless against Scourges. No unit can
take out a Scourge in one hit. For ground defense, Plague usually
doesn't work because of the speed of Zerg units. Try to Spawn
Broodlings on their strong units. If they are swarming, other units
around them will be attacking the Broodlings giving you time to get in a
Plague.
Against Protoss - Most of the time they will use mass Carrier rushes.
Don't worry about this too much. Just upgrade the Zerg armor to maximum
and charge them with Scourges! If they are not going straight Carrier,
put Guardians behind your baracade of Sunkens/Spores to block better.
Sunkens are really effective against Protoss.
8. Protoss Strategies
Swarm Prevention - Simply put, High Templars can easily eliminate swarms
with their Psionic Storm. Reavers are also good in their long range,
high attack, but mainly their splash damage.
Nuke Prevention - If a nuke is coming at your probes, either run, or use
Statis Field. Statis Field prevents ANY thing. No spells, damage, or
abilities affect Statis Field units.
Zealot Rush - Once again this is an early game rush. Don't try this
late in a game.
-Warp fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Warp sixth probe
-Warp seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Warp first Pylon & gather with seventh probe
-Warp eight probe & warp first Gateway
-Warp second Gateway & gather with eight probe
-Warp first and second zealot & warp second Pylon
-Scout with first
-Warp third and fourth zealot
-Warp second Pylon & warp fourth and fifth zealot
Dragoon Rush - If you are playing Terran, sometimes they just lift there
buildings and let allies rid of you. This rush is more effective, since
it attacks both air and ground units.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Warp first Pylon & gather with seventh probe
-Build eight probe & warp first Gateway
-Gather with eight probe & warp Assimilator
-Build ninth probe & warp Cybernetics Core
-Build tenth and eleventh probe
-Gather gas with ninth, tenth, and eleventh probe
-Warp first and second dragoon & warp second Gateway
-Warp second Pylon & warp third and fourth dragoon
Archon Rush - A cool rush, but often hard to pull.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Warp first Pylon & gather with seventh probe
-Build eight probe & warp first Assimilator
-Build ninth, tenth, and eleventh probe
-Warp second Assimilator & warp first Gateway
-Gather gas with ninth, tenth, and eleventh probe
-Build twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth probe
-Warp Cybernetics Core & warp second Pylon
-Gather gas with twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth probe
-Warp first zealot & warp Citadel of Adun
-Warp second zealot & warp second Gateway
-Warp third Pylon & warp Templar Archives
-Warp third and fourth zealot & warp fourth Pylon
-Warp third Gateway & train first and second high templar
-Summon first archon & warp third and fourth high templar
-Warp fifth zealot & warp fifth and sixth high templar
-Summon second archon & warp seventh and eighth high templar
-Summon third archon & warp first Shield Battery
-Summon fourth archon & warp second Shield Battery
-Warp ninth and tenth high templar & warp sixth zealot
Reaver Rush - Pretty cool. Don't use it in early rushes.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Gather with seventh probe & warp first Pylon
-Build eight probe & build first Gateway
-Build Assimilator
-Build ninth and tenth probe
-Gather with ninth and tenth probe
-Build eleventh and twelfth probe & build Cybernetics Core
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth probe
-Build second and third Pylon
-Build Robotics Facility
-Warp first zealot
-Build Robotics Support Bay & warp shuttle
-Warp second zealot
-Warp first and second reaver
Scout Rush - This works only really works good on Zerg. Take out their
Overlords and you have a giant advantage over them.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Gather with seventh probe & warp first Pylon
-Build eight probe & build first Gateway
-Build Assimilator
-Build ninth and tenth probe
-Gather with ninth and tenth probe
-Build eleventh and twelfth probe & build Cybernetics Core
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth probe
-Build second and third Pylon
-Build build first Stargate
-Upgrade air weapons
-Warp first scout & build second Stargate
-Warp second and third scout
Corsair Rush - Use this on big island maps against Zerg only.
-Probes 1-6 mine
-Have 7th build Pylon then mine
-While Pylon building build probe 8 and 9
-Send 8 mining and 9 to build a Gateway
-Build about 3 probes for mining
-Once you obtain 100 minerals build an Assimilator
-Build 2 probes for Assimilator
-Build a Cybernetics Core
-Don't stop constructing Probes (building Pylons when necessary)
-Build a Stargate
-Construct 1 or 2 Dragoons
-Construct about 3 or more Corsairs
-Scout
-Make a Robotics Facility
-Build 2 shuttles filled with Dragoons
-After Corsairs find the enemy attack their Overlords
-If they have no air defense stay in their base taking out any new
Overlords, but if they do have air defense take out Overlords and run
-Once Overlords out drop Dragoons
Arbiter Warp Attack - This is a strategy designed for safetly getting a
cloaked army into the enemy base. To do this build up an army (Dark
Templars/Carriers/Reavers/Archons/High Templars) and rush your Arbiter
(If you have Terran allies Defense Matrix it) into the middle of the
base or to the back of the base with all the workers. Now quickly use
Recall on your army. Your army will warp in next to your Arbiter. All
your units will be cloaked! At that point, use your Dark Templars to
take out workers, Carriers to take out units, Reavers take out attack
buildings, Archons take out detectors or units, and High Templars use
Psionic Storm on bunches of units.
10 Gate Push - Every 50 seconds you rush in with 6 Zealots and 4
Dragoons. This is a VERY good rush! I can not tell you step by step as
it would take way too long!
- Block off entrance with Photons leaving enough room for ground units
to leave
- Build Gateways, Probes, and Pylons
- Put up about 6 cannons in the back of the base for protection against
worker hunts
- Stop at 5 Gateways, 3 Forges, 40 Probes, and about 20 Pylons
- Build Observatory and Templar Archieves
- When you feel safe get another base and another 40 Probes and 5
Gateways
- Upgrade Zealot speed then Dragoon range then weapons and armor
- Get 12 Zealots and scout
- When enemy found attack and maybe it might be enough to kill your
enemy
- Get Observers and Zealots at every expansion to make it hard for your
enemy to expand
- Start pumping up 6 Zealots and 4 Dragoons and attack every time you
get all of them
- Take out any expansions if they have them first
- Don't stop attacking
Cannon Rush - This strategy is much feared. It's quite a cheap way to
win, even worse than rushing. The idea is to sneak a probe into your
opponent's base unnoticed at the very start of a game. You want to make
sure you go with the forge first build order. Quickly throw up a pylon,
and construct 3 or 4 cannons when your forge is done. Don't neglect your
own base, so you want to put 2 or so cannons up at home too. Each cannon
you create should be a little closer to your opponent's mineral patch
(if you came in through the back door). Once you have 2 cannons up, you
can build cannons right next to their working probes, and once finished,
these will open fire, disrupting the player's economy and forcing him to
either quit or flee. One very important thing to remember is NOT to lose
the probe. If you see resistance coming, make sure you move your probe
to a hard-to-access spot so your opponents zealots/marines/zerglings
can't get to it. You may also consider sending additional probes later
on. YOU CAN'T LET YOUR OPPONENT SEE YOU OR ELSE YOU'LL SCREW THE WHOLE
THING UP!!! -Obtained from SCU
Worker Hunt - Use the Arbiter Warp Attack, drop Reavers or Templars to
use Psionic Storm, or use Scouts.
Big ship prevention - Psionic Storm
Mass swarm prevention - Psionic Storm
Zealot prevention - Get more Zealots than him! Use Photons to help. If
it is later then use air units.
ATTACK
Against Terran - Try not to use the Zealot rush here. They can easily
lift up buildings and let allies finish you off. Use the Dragoon rush.
Or, you can fill the air with Scouts. A large number of Scouts can take
out any air unit. Use your Scouts to take out any air units and then
have them take out their Starport(s). Then use them to take out tanks.
After that rush in with Zealots.
Against Zerg - Use Corsairs early on to take out Overlords. Once that
is done, then you have an easy win! Don't want to play like that? Then
try sending in Reavers to take out Sunkens and when the calvary arrives
use Templars Psionic Storm to take out the units.
Against Protoss - If you are playing against Photon Cannon obsessed
people, then use Reavers to open up a path. Then rush in with Zealots.
If not, use the Arbiter Warp Attack. Protoss are a tough race to beat
so use the strongest strats you got.
DEFENSE
Against Terran - Most players who use Terran only use Battle Cruiser
rushes. Now get ready for a laugh when you hear how easy it is to
counter this. OK, build an Arbiter, 5 High Templars, and upgrade
Psionic Storm. Done! Your Arbiters far away should just be able to
cloak your High Templars. Have your Templars use Psionic Storm until
they run out. The Cruisers are worrying about the Arbiter and what's
underneath it's Cloaking field. The Arbiter should not move because the
BCs will move right after it. When they destroy the Arbiter the storms
will be halfway done already. The BCs will most likely try to chase
down the High Templars but are not fast enough. If they survive, by the
time they get out of the storm they will not be surviving. If anything
gets past this just send a few Scouts. By the time it takes to get
another few BCs you should be recharged. This however can be countered
with Science Vessels. The Science Vessels decloak the Templars and EMP
Shockwave them. But if you see Science Vessels try to blast them with
Psionic Storm before they can Shockwave you.
Against Zerg - Block your entrance with Photons just to detect Lurkers
and use Psionic Storm and you have defense.
Against Protoss - If they are using the 10 Gate Push try to mass produce
Carriers. This really helps but does not assure a victory. Use Psionic
Storm to prevent against any rush. If it's too early to get up
Templars, use Reavers. If it's too early to get them then just use
Photons.
9. Cheats
To use these cheats start a single player game. Press enter and a text
will come up at the bottom of the playing screen that looks like
"Message:". Enter a cheat then press enter and a text message saying
"Cheat Activated". Press Enter and type in the cheat again and press
enter to deactivate the cheat. A message will say if you successfully
deactivated it. The computer automatically has the map cheat.
Cheats are very cheap. They take the fun out of the game. Unless you
are starting out and don't know much about the game, I don't recommend
using cheats. If you are training don't use cheats as you will not get
any better using them. If you get rushed too early for you to be ready,
and you become invincible, you are not going to get any better. Well
here they are:
Power Overwhelming - Invincibility
Black Sheep Wall - Reaveal the entire map
Operation cwal - Upgrades and researches done immediatly. Units and
buildings construct super fast!
Show me the money - Gives you an additional 10,000 minerals and gas
Breathe deep - Gives you an additional 500 gas
Food for thought - Supply limit ignored (still can not go over 200
supplies).
Modify the phase variance - Build anything
Noglues - No magic allowed for enemy
Medieval man - Have all spells
Something for nothing - Upgrade weapons, armor, and all other upgrades
besides spells up one level
The gathering - Unlimited energy
Game over man - Instant loss for you
There is no cow level - Instant win for you
Staying alive - No end to the game
Ophelia - Warp to any level. After you have entered in Ophelia type in
the race then a space then the number of the level you want to be warped
to. E.G. "Terran 5" warps you to the 5th Terran level in the campaigns.
"Zerg 11" warps you to the 11th Zerg level, and "Protoss 8" warps you to
the 8th Protoss level.
War aint what it used to be - No Fog of War
Radio Free Zerg - If you are playing as Zerg you hear some funny music.
This is the only Brood War cheat.
10. Secrets
I need a lot of help with this. What I'm looking for is glitches that
can make you do extraordinary things. Please e-mail me with any secrets
you have! I will give you credit!
Invisible Tanks - This is a hard trick to master. If you have tanks
with Siege mode you can do this. First put a control group on your tank
and a liftable structure. Switch to your structure and lift off.
Switch to your tank and make get near the airborne structure. Take a
deep breath now. Are you ready? Switch to the structure and make him
land. QUICKLY switch back to the tank and have him move underneath
where the structure is going to land and immediatly put him in Siege
mode. If done fast enough the tank will remain under the structure able
to blast enemies long distances away. If the enemy attacks, they will
have to take out the structure the tank is underneath before the tank
can be harmed. Although, this only works against melee units. I am not
sure if this works for certain versions of StarCraft.
These bugs do not work anymore because they have been fixed...they only
work with version 1.00.
Sliding Command Center:
And now for the amazing sliding comm center trick!Uh, ok, play as
terran. now, lift off the command center, and land it as close to the
nearest minerals as you can, right as its doing it's landing animations,
hold shift+s+m (really hard on ergo keyboards :( ) and click closer to
the minerals. Your comm center will slide ovver to the minerals and
start mining. Here's a screen shot. Notice I'm building an SCV in the
comm center so it's not floating there. If you don't believe me, go try
it yourself, it may take a couple tries to get it just right, but
sliding the comm center around is fun! :) this CC slide is very easy to
do, and can be done on the first try with a some practice. However it
messes up the game. If you slide, you cannot build on the land where
your CC was. Meaning you can really abuse this by sliding all over the
map, therefore making it impossible to build any structure at
expansions, especially islands.
Zergling to Mutalisk:
taken from the GX forum...........
Extremely important bug discovered. This is most serious among the bugs
ever founded. All units & structures can morp into Lurkers and Mutas.
I'm NOT kidding and this is NOT a StarDraft patch. You can use this bug
in Multiplayer games like IPX or Battle.net. To use this bug, you must
have Hydrarisk Den(with Lurker developed) and some hydrarisks. First,
make some zerglings and set them to group #1. Second, select one or more
hydrarisks. As last, press L and number 1 at the same time. If it is
successful, Those group #1 zergling will be Cocoons(not zerg egg) and
they will become Lurkers. And if you cancel Cocoons, they will become
Mutalisks. This applies to any units and any structures. you can morp
even 'Protoss Nexus' and 'Zerg Hatchery' into Lurker and Mutalisks. More
seriously, this bug doesn't costs any resources and bug units have
abilitys of original units. For example, if you make Lurkers or Mutals
with cloaked wraiths, they can use cloaking. If you use Arbiters with
this bug,the bug units makes cloaking fields for other units. If you use
observers, the bug units have full-cloaking ability and observer's
speed. If you use 'Zerg Hatchery', the bug unit have even 'Larvaes'.As I
said above, This bug is NOT KIDDING. This bug is discovered by one of
Korean players, and already known to many many Korean players. Maybe you
had better avoid Zerg(or even Protoss) players until the patch released.
Yes it does work....
- [o]Qwerty
Remember! Sliding Command Center and Zergling to Mutalisk only work on
earlier versions of Starcraft!
If you have something that could go here, I need it. Drop it off at the
Principal's Desk.
11. Credit
First off I would like to thank Blizzard with this game and the website
for the tricks. StarCraft University (http://starcraft.strategy-
gaming.com/) gave me a lot of the strategies. Visit the site it is
awesome! I would like to thank Joseph Christopher for some of the
tricks used in this. My biggest thanks goes to Scott Lee as he provided
a lot of this strategy. I would also like to thank Code for the
Invisible tank trick.
Kronikle's StarCraft BroodWar Strategy Guide Copyright 2000 Ryan Kurlish
DISCLAIMER
BEFORE READING ANY FURTHER IN THIS GUIDE, READ THIS
1) I, Ryan Kurlish (Kronikle), the author of this guide, am not in any
way liable for harm that came from reading this.
2) If you are to use some of the strategies in this guide, you must at
least give me partial credit
3) This guide may not be sold. If any companies want to buy this I must
get the money.
4) I allow permission for websites to post up this strategy guide, but
you must include the entire strategy espescially, including the
disclaimer.
END OF DISCLAIMER
1. Introduction
2. General Strategies
3. Terran Units
4. Zerg Units
5. Protoss Units
6. Terran Strategy
7. Zerg Strategy
8. Protoss Strategy
9. Cheats
10. Secrets (glitches)
11. Credit
1. Introduction
My e-mail address is RyanK55@aol.com. I hate AOL but it is all I
have. E-mail me strategies, corrections, or hints. Title the subject
"Starcraft Guide", that's how I know it is not trash and I will not
delete it immediatly. I go online about 6 times a month or more.
Please don't ask questions about this game because I can't keep up on
answering questions.
I am Kronikle, the maker of this strategy guide. This is my first
one. This is also version 1.0.
I have never been beaten by any of my friends and after awhile 5 Comps
Melee (I can easily take out 7 comps in free-for-all). I still don't
consider myself a master or god of StarCraft. On a scale from 1 to 10,
10 being the master, I am about a 7. I don't use BattleNet much. My
computer is VERY slow (66 mhz)! My name is Kronikle66. My record now
is somewhere around 30-9-15. Half of the 15 were backstabbers and the
other half was when I was a newbie. There was about one or two times
when I was just careless. When I was a newbie and was going to rush I
always built 9 workers before I even thought about building my attack
unit producer. I am going to get a new computer very soon, so I will be
on BattleNet a lot more often. I train myself by going to my friend
Jon's house (he has a fast computer). I go on BattleNet at his house
for somewhere around 8 hours. I learn about 3 strategies and then
challenge Jon til I master them! You can challenge me anytime when I'm
on BattleNet. Chances are by that time I am still getting used to
playing StarCraft on a fast computer. I don't play ladder games because
I hate the fact that if you lose you lose points, and BattleNet doesn't
perminently store your points. Even though I have never lost, I still
don't play those games. The one time I did play on BattleNet was when I
fought 3 opponents. One quit, the other one wasn't very good. We were
both Terran. Suddenly in the game he messages me "I'm going to have to
watch out for those 3 BattleCruisers!". I realized he used his Comsat
Station and I just ignored him. It was a no rush for 30 minutes (I was
pretty new back then) game. I built up 12 BattleCruisers and swarmed
into his base. I saw him on the way with only 12 Wraiths. He didn't
want to fight me so we passed each other and started destroying
eachothers base. For some reason he cloaked all of his units when I had
no defense. I had so many supply depots it took him awhile, while I
obbliterated his base in seconds. Then I couldn't find his other base.
I searched all around but I had SLOW BattleCruisers. I had only 4
Supply Depots left. Suddenly I found his base in the center and blew it
to shreds right before he finished my last building. When I see records
like 400-30-50 I know that they always play ally against computer. The
only reason I could ever think of people joining a 7vs1 comp stomp game
would be to gain wins. I joined like two of them just to get my ten
wins to play ladder.
For all of you who need training out there, I recommend you play a
2vs2comp games on random. Watch your ally and see his strategies. If
he pulls off some crazy kick ass shit then ask him how he did it and
most likely he will tell. I learned a good deal of my strats by
watching a person by the name of ComputerMaster. I think that was his
name. He was the one who taught me the BattleCruiser rush, blocking
your entance with Supply Depots, Terrans are the worst race, and he told
me if I want to train I should play games on Random until I can win
anytime with any race. He most likely will not remember me. Another
way of training is on custom maps. Choose 3 opponents, 1 of each race.
Then, set your race to random. For all of you who want to learn quick,
goto the StarCraft University (in the credit sections), and take the
classes. Zerg is the easiest computer race to beat. Terran are the
hardest! The strategically use Tanks to their advantage, they cloak
their Wraiths, they Nuke, and their early swarm is 15 marines 5 Firebats
and 10 Medics! Protoss is second hardest, mostly because of their
strength and power. Their early rush is about 10 Zealots!
By the way, do any of you people out there have Gundam Century?
That is phreaking awesome!! Terran and Protoss are completely
different! The start-up screen is cooler, the units are WAY cooler, and
the strength is WAY better. Although sucks for Zerg, they have no
changes. If you can, e-mail me if there are any other patches for
StarCraft or BroodWar.
2. General Strategies
Workers - At the beginning send your workers to seperate patches. Once
you have all of your workers mining on different patches continue making
workers. Send them 2 to a patch.
Multiple Bases - It is not needed or recommended if you have lots of
minerals and gas like Big Game Hunters. Unless there is not much
mineral patches/geysers or if you only have 1500 minerals and 5000 gas
and you are planning on playing a long game, at around 600 minerals left
start a new base. Extensions off your base are good. Most people don't
do this but, protect your other bases as well as you do your main. Some
people don't even protect their 2nd and 3rd bases at all. Those are the
people who wind up losing all minerals. I personally don't like playing
on maps other than maps with lots of minerals. If I have more than 1
base I'd have to protect it, watch it, produce in it, and more, along
with my other base(s).
Spider Mines now land mines - Usually Spider Mines unburrow and attack
any unit in the range of about 3. Now any non-melee unit can take out
one of these before they explode on the enemy. If you blind them, as
soon as somewhat walks over them, then they explode. This is also bad
for you cause the enemy can walk around them.
1 at a time - When attacking in groups and defending against groups have
your group always attack one unit at a time. If four mutalisks being
controlled by a player who haves them attack one by one fight 5 mutalisk
left for the computer AI to control the 4 mutalisks would probably win.
Protection - Don't just build protection at the front of the base. Make
it surround your parimeter. You don't know what side he's gonna attack
from (most of the time) if he uses air. Also, protect your mineral
field in case of worker hunts or drops. Putting a little defense in the
middle is not a bad idea, but it could get in your way.
Trees - Most people don't even know what trees can do in StarCraft.
They hide units. It's best to put small long-ranged units (Marine,
Hydralisk, Dragoons) behind these because their long range can easily
hit units without blowing their cover. Detectors don't cut it here.
Cliffs - You can easily take the advantage on a mountainous map. All
units on cliffs do what they do better than what the people on the
ground do. Put up say a tank on top of a cliff. The tank can now see
everything far away. Now say you put him in Siege Mode. If he attacks
someone standing still they will not know where you are. They will run
away. If they decide elsewise they will head towards the mountain.
While on the ground they can not see what is above them unless they
scale the mountain and reach the very top. HA HA!! By then your tank
could easily take him out. This can be countered if an air unit comes
by. DAMN!!
Choke Points - These are the connecters. They connect the bases or
whatever. They are usually bridges but can turn the tide of war. If
you block them off as well as you do your front-line defense usually
noone can enter your base by ground (and if the choke point is huge
enough and well protected, even by air!). For Terran block it off with
Bunkers filled with 3 Marines and a Firebat, backed up by Siege Tanks, a
few Ghosts if the big boys come in, and some Missile Turrets for
detection and air protection. Zerg should mostly consist of Sunken
Colonies with some Spores for air defense and detection added with tons
of burrowed Hydralisk and Lurkers. Protoss uses Photon Cannons blocking
entrance backed up with High Templars ready to Psionic Storm them.
Don't forget Carriers. Choke points can also be defeated. This is
espescially easy with Zerg. Their Guardians can take out the ground
forces from a far enough distance away. Send in about 5 Siege Tanks in
Siege mode backed up with Valkyries. For Protoss mind control a heavy
flying unit and send in some Reavers.
Build Order - If you've done strategies a lot you should not rely
strictly on build orders so much cause over time the enemy will know
you're strategies and counter them. Also, you never know if the
situation will be different and they actually attack before you are
ready. Try to do long strategies with a sort of freestyle. Since I
don't know what map you are using, if it is a short build order, it is
better to do it freestyle.
Multi-Player Messages - If alliances are to be set within the game say
something direct but not to mean to make him say no just nicely be
direct and ask a tough lookin player for an alliance. If they reject in
a mean way, take him out first. If they say they are not sure, help
them out. If they say yes but they sound fishy, don't rely on them
much, they may be backstabbers, but if they are very helpful and nice
later on don't worry much about their loyalty. If someone offers you
alliance always accept. Sometimes acting like a newbie will be a good
chance of winning! Yeah, say something like "How do you get those
ships?" or "What do the colors on the map at the bottom mean?". This
works in 2 ways. One, they will feel pity for you and slaken their
defense, or two they will bully you and send in light swarms, and once
they see you were lying, kill that bastard! The funniest and probably
best use for messaging is to get in a 2-vs-2 or 3-vs-3 game and set
messaging to everyone. Then get a message to say "has left the game"
and send. If my name was Master5, what will come up is "Master5: has
left the game". This rarely works. It worked with my friend a few
times. The opponent will most likely leave you alone now if you don't
make any activity. Use this on big maps so they don't pass by you by
chance. Set Messaging back to Allies. Explain you were just taunting.
Attacking buildings - With structures like Photon Cannons, Sunken/Spore
Colonies and Missile Turrets, a lot of people will mass produce them for
protection without units. The biggest problem with these is that they
can't move, making them an easy target for Disruption Web, long-range
units, or if the building specifically attacks ground or air only, use
the opposite. I swear I see people all over who build about 40 Sunkens
(with no Spores) or 40 Cannons. Then I see one Siege Mode tank take
them out. An experienced player would deal with attack buildings mixed
with units. A nuke in the center of a group of these buildings is
probably enough, use Tanks, or Yamato Gun them. With Zerg, use
Guardians. With Protoss use Reavers, or use Carriers (AI really only
attacks Interceptors). Use them along with units. If I were playing a
human I would only put up about six to 8 Sunken Colonies/Photon Cannons
at most for early rush protection. Sometimes after a rush attack, the
human may rely mainly on air. So then I would build some Spores about 8
all around and about 4 more sunkens. Altogether about 14 or 16 Photon
Cannons (they have air and ground and not as much life as the colonies).
I would also build up on units. If I was fighting computer, I would put
up some more because they repeatidly perform the same rushes over and
over until they get higher in the Tech Tree.
Parasite Detected - If you find a parasite on a unit, immediatly send it
attacking. A parasite can mean the downfall of your base. They can
watch your every move, prepare for an attack, and find a flaw in your
defense. Don't worry if computer casts it on you as they can see the
whole map anyway.
Upgrades - Speed upgrades are usually the best. Certainly better than
attack or defense. With capacity upgrades, you should always get them
first.
3. Terran Units
SCV - The strongest worker of the 3 races. Still this is just a worker.
It has the ability to repair which is different.
Marines - Longest range basic unit. Since it can attack both air and
ground, these are actually pretty good. If you are going to mass
produce these in mid games, research Stim Packs and have Medics backing
the marines up.
Firebats - I have found Firebats only work really good on Zerg and OK on
Protoss. These also have Stim Packs, but they are a lot less useful.
Medics - They are good with marine swarms. They have 3 spells, Heal,
Restoration, and Optic Flare. Heal is the most useful and used. Heal
automatically heals an organic unit 2 life per 1 energy until they are
completely healed. Restoration restores status. Optic Flare makes the
targeted unit have a sight range of 1 and makes them become blind. If
you ask me this is a lot more uselful if you use it on a Spider Mine.
Usually Spider Mines unburrow and attack any unit in the range of about
3. Now any non-melee unit can take out one of these before they explode
on the enemy. If you blind them, as soon as somewhat walks over them,
then they explode. Put Medics in the back line ready to heal. Have
your marines use Stim Packs. The medics can heal them right after.
Ghosts - Sucky attack. I only use them for their spells. 1) Personnel
Cloaking - This is awesome! You can sneak in a base invisible (asuming
there is no detectors). 2) Lockdown - This is the best strategy for
Battle Cruiser/Carrier swarm prevention. It makes all non-biological
units unable to do anything. It's better than statis field in the fact
that you can actually kill the unit that is locked down. 3) Nuke - :-)
This is best used with the help of their other 2 spells. The nuke is
the strongest attack in the game (500 damage) and has the widest splash
(about 6 spaces away!). The only problem with it is that nukes need the
help of ghosts and they can only be created 1 at a time if you have only
one Nuclear Silo.
Vultures - Use them as scouts or for base defense. With defense, plant
spider mines around the outside of your base.
Siege Tanks - These are the bomb! This is the long range unit for the
Terran. Put them in Siege mode and they are unstoppable (almost)! They
are awesome in base defense with their long range, splash damage, and
powerful blasts. In offense, back them up with Goliaths and you got a
nice team. Siege Tanks are, however, easily destroyed alone. An air
unit could easily take one out alone or a quick Zealot or Zergling
(something that attacks close up).
Goliaths - Use them for air defense. Ground attack is a little too slow
for me. A deadly combo are Goliaths backed up by Siege Tanks in the
mode. Upgrade the Goliath's air attack and they can attack from range
as far as the Guardians'.
Wraith - These would be a much better unit if there were no detectors.
Their air-to-air attack is great but their ground attack... well it's
not so good. Use their cloaking to defend your base if someone
foolishly didn't add a detector in their swarm. Cloaking doesn't do
much against mid/late Terran computer or any Zerg. The Terran computer
uses the Comsat Station and the Zerg have that Overlord.
Dropship - Simply a transport. Nothing special about it. For
strategies with it, defensive matrix it, if you are going for a drop.
Science Vessel - A detector and spell caster makes a great combo. They
have 3 spells: Defensive Matrix, EMP Shockwave, and Irradiate. 1.
Defensive Matrix - This is awesome. The Vessel comes with this, and it
makes any unit used on, temporarily invincible! 2. EMP Shockwave -
Really only useful on the Protoss. This drains shields and magic down
to zero. Use it on Archons, as they are 97% Shields. 3. Irradiate - On
such a useful unit as the Science Vessel there has to be such a lame
spell. It only works on organic units and it takes barely anything
away.
Valkyrie - My favorite air-to-air unit. Upgrade maximumly. 25 of these
fully upgraded can take out 100 mutalisks not upgraded.
Battle Cruiser - The absolute best air unit in the game. They are
better than Carriers, because they have the Yamato Gun and they fire a
hell of a lot faster! These can take out Photon Cannons in one hit if
you use the Yamato Gun! Scourges are almost useless against 12 Battle
Cruisers, unless they are heavily mass produced. The only flaw with the
Battle Cruiser is it is slow in moving.
4. Zerg Units
Larva - These are the core of the Zerg. If you have the right
buildings, these can morph into any Zerg unit available (except for ones
that must evolve e.g. Lurkers, Guardians)!
Drone - The basic worker. Relies on mutating itself into a building,
sacrificing it.
Overlord - A pretty good non-attacking unit if ya ask me! It is the
only supply holder that can actually move. Use them in the beginning of
the game as a scout (if the map is not too big). These guys are also
your transport. If you are getting the shit beat out of you by someone,
use your Overlord to pick up some Drones and move to an allies base or a
safe spot in the map.
Zergling - The quickest attacking ground unit in the game. They are
very fast and for 50 minerals, 2 are produced making it very cheap.
Fully upgrade these, and they can take out units and buildings extremely
fast. These are great in mass swarms when defending against tanks or
when using Dark Swarm. Zerglings can burrow.
Hydralisk - These are pretty good. Hydralisks are the most versatile
unit in the game. They can attack air and ground quite fast, they can
burrow, they have nice HP and decent damage. These get destroyed quite
quickly alone. Unless you mass produce these by the hundreds, don't
rely on them so much for late attacking.
Lurker - These are awesome! These are perminently cloaked burrowed.
They can use the hydralisk range upgrade to their advantage. They are
very strong They come with burrow. They are the Lurkers, the cloaked
portable sunken colony!
Mutalisk - Weakest air unit (besides interceptors). If I were to only
use these units, I wouldn't even think of trying to win a long game with
less than 40 of these unupgraded. Use these as worker hunters or
produce these by the 100s and swarm!
Guardian - Ohh... yeah!! These are awesome. They are like a Siege Tank
in Siege Mode but airborne. These are out of the range of all the
attack buildings, making them great on newbies (who only rely on attack
buildings). They have an attack of 20 (unupgraded) dealing some heavy
damage. The only problem with these are that they don't have any air
support.
Devourer - A cool air-to-air unit. So slow in attacking, though. They
do have a useful ability, their Spores slow down the enemy's firing rate
down 1/8. The coolest thing about this is that the spores on an enemy
can build up, but are not perminent.
Scourge - These are the best air-to-air unit in the game. They are
produced in doubles for the cheap 25 minerals and 75 gas! They are
excellent scouts. Their damage is 110 without any upgrades! Use these
on transports, Carriers, and other slow attacking air unit. Don't
attack a group of 6 Battle Cruisers or more with these unless you send
them 8 or more. Battle Cruiser attacks are much too fast for Scourges.
Queen - OK spell caster. They have 4 spells, Infest Command Center,
Spawn Broodlings, Parasite, and Ensnare. Infest Command Center is not
that useful. Sure you can pump out some of the best ground units in the
game, but if you destroyed enough of their base to infest this, chances
are their won't be much left to destroy. This can be useful if you are
allied with a Terran player and he allows you to infest his Command
Center. Spawn Broodlings is an okay to good spell. It turns targeted
unit into 2 broodlings. Use this on heavy artillery (tanks) or on
workers. Parasite is a great spell but is useless if it is spotted. It
lets you see everything that is in the sight range of the targeted unit.
Ensnare is not good! All it does is slow down a unit to half it's speed
temporarily. Whoopie!!
Ultralisk - Not that good. With a price 200 minerals and 200 gas you'd
think that they'd be great. No. They can't burrow, they are slow, they
take way too much time to make, they can only attack ground units, and
they are fat so they can't fit between gaps in yours or the enemies
base. If you plan on maximumly upgrading them, then they are half
decent. With life of 400 and fully upgraded armor of 6, any damage 6 or
under is reduced to 1 (haha Carriers, Marines, Zerglings, Broodlings!).
Combined with a Dark Swarmed area, they are pretty good!
Defilers - These have great spells, Consume, Dark Swarm, and Plague.
Consume which destroys one of your units to gain 50 magic energy, and
Plague which brings life (Unit and Building) down to 1, but this will
never kill. Hatch a few Zerglings and use Consume to gain tons of
energy. Then use Plague on units or what is really cool, is use Plague
on Terran buildings. Terran buildings in red gradually lose life, so if
you Plague the building to 1 life, it will destroy itself in one second.
Dark Swarm makes long-range attacks in the orange area useless, making
Zerg rushes very useful. Ultralisks with a Dark Swarm is extremely
powerful.
5. Protoss Units
Drone - Average worker. These, however, can build multiple buildings at
the same time.
Zealot - Strongest basic attack unit in the game. These are about as
good as a Firebat strength wise. But, Zealots are better than Firebats
because they don't need gas and they have shields. These are awesome
with the speed upgrade!
Dragoon - Don't use these for foward assualts alone. They are not so
good alone, but combined with Zealots to take out ground and the
Dragoons to take out air they are pretty decent. These should be used
as heavy aircraft destroyers. 2 of these can take out a Carrier or
Battle Cruiser. Upgrade their range and they become a lot more useful.
High Templar - My favorite spell user! These have 3 awesome spells,
Psionic Storm, Hallucination, and Summon Archon. Psionic Storm, the
swarm stopper. This spell is incredible! For only 75 energy you attack
a 3 by 3 space with 127 damage quite quickly! Hallucination creates two
duplicates of the targeted unit. The duplicates only look different to
you, with a blueish shadow. What your opponent sees looks exactly like
the real unit. They eventually lose power and get destroyed. All
normal attacks do double damage on hallucinations. Hallucinations will
attack but they will never deal any damage. This is good to scare your
opponent. Send in about 50 (hallucinated) Carriers and it might just
scare him to quit. Or, use on Shuttles. Make about 12 duplicates of
these and put the real one in the middle. Drop it in his base. You can
do this with Arbiters and Recall. You can also make tons of
hallucinated Probes to go into an open spot on the map, making sure your
opponent sees you. Your opponent will most likely follow a group of
Probes with some Wraiths, Scouts, or Mutalisks. Now, while some of his
fleet is attacking hallucinations, send in an attack swarm. The third
spell is Summon Archon. This is good if you are in mid battle and your
Templars have run out of magic. Turn your non-attackers into killer
ground and air attacking units.
Dark Templar - One of my favorite ground units! This is the true
assassin of StarCraft. They are perminently cloaked, they attack with
40 damage unupgraded! They do have a few features I don't like about
them. Their attacks are melee. They have only ground attacks. They
require a lot of structures before you can begin construction of them.
They are practically useless on Zerg, as their detectors are flying.
Dark Archon - My second favorite spell caster. They have 3 spells, Mind
Control, Maelstrom, and Feedback, but only 1 of them make them the most
avoided unit in the game, Mind Control. Instead of killing a unit, you
actually make him join your fleets. Use this on an Arbiter supporting a
gigantic fleet, a different race worker, or any vital unit your opponent
has. If you use it on an Arbiter all the fleets will be uncloaked. The
fleet will now worry about the Arbiter and take it out, buying you time
to either run or attack them. If you Mind Control a worker of a
different race, you can actually start up a new base of a different
race. Imagine having a fleet of Carriers, Battle Cruisers, and
Guardians! Maelstrom freezes an area of biological units for about 5
seconds. Use this on Zerg, as all of their units are biological.
Feedback is somewhat weak. It drains all energy down to zero and uses
the amount of magic the target had as damage inflicted upon them.
Archon - One of the best ground units ever! These have ground and air
attack of 30! Mass production is not recommended. Recall these units
and you have an awesome attack. These are great melee unit killers.
Watch out for the EMP Shockwave. If you get hit you're scewed!
Shuttle - Just a transport. With the speed upgrade, they are the
fastest transport.
Reaver - Yeah! These are the bomb! These are also the best droppers in
the game! They have a 100 damage that splashes almost 3 spaces! With a
good number (4+) of Reavers, it only takes a few scarabs to wipe out all
of your opponent's workers. These do have a few problems though. They
can only attack on their elevation and can't attack over water, they are
slowest unit in StarCraft, they can't attack air, and they require you
to build ammo. These should be used with Shuttles unless you want to be
their waiting an hour.
Observer - The best spies in the game! They are perminently cloaked,
they fly, they are detectors and they are fast! These should be your
primary scout/spy and detector.
Scout - Pretty damn good flying unit. This is the fastest basic flying
unit (Mutalisk, Wraith, Scout) and the strongest. Even though these
can't cloak, they are still awesome. If you have over 40 of these in
the sky you will most likely win.
Corsair - Pretty good air-to-air flyer. Even though their attack is 5,
they are very fast. They have a spell called Disruption Web. This is
pretty useless on units. It freezes all ground units' weapons in the
web and buildings' weapon system. The unit can however walk out of the
web and continue normally. These should only be used on attacking
buildings.
Carrier - Above average heavy air fighter. The problem with this is
that they are slow and have to launch Interceptors which you must build.
Once you get Carriers available, then you (should) upgrade the capacity.
As soon as you get the most expensive unit in StarCraft online, they are
useless. You have to buy 200 minerals worth of interceptors to fully
maximize the Carriers strength. If you have less than 6 then they are
practically useless. Say you have a Carrier filled with 8 Interceptors
and you want to attack. You send him in and then you click on an enemy
unit to see what upgrades they have. You see their armor strength at 6.
You launch your Interceptors and all of them hit with their 5 damage. 5
damage for all 8 Interceptors makes forty damage right? Wrong the armor
reduces all unupgraded Interceptor attacks to 1, so all your
Interceptors deal 8 damage total. A Zergling can only be upgraded to 3
armor, so it would take 3 rounds of Interceptors to take out one measly
Zergling!
Arbiter - A must for almost any late game Protoss swarm! Arbiters have
3 abilities, Recall, Statis Field, and they can cloak all of your units
4 spaces away. Recall warps a group right next to your Arbiter. Sneak
your Arbiter into the enemy base and then Recall an army (that should at
leasy consist of about 4 Reavers and tons of other units) and you have
all of your army cloaked inside the enemy base! Statis Field can be
good depending on who you use it on. It freezes a group of units for a
little bit. These units can't be hurt, can't move, and can't attack.
Use it on some attacking Carriers or Battle Cruiesers to stop them, then
charge up some magic and kill them. Lockdown can be better. Their
ability to cloak all units within 4 spaces away rocks! Send in a couple
Arbiters with a massive Carrier fleet and you have a nice cloaked army.
Then recall an army.
6. Terran Strategies
Mass production - If someone does not use this strategy they are sad.
Simply put, build more producing structures if you are going to mass
produce! If you are going all out marines, build up about 6-10
Barracks.
Nuke Prevention - Cast Defensive Matrix or run.
SCV Rush - On an unsuspecting opponent this will almost always win.
Completely useless if not used at the very beginning of the game:
-Build one SCV
-Send 4 attacking
-Have 3 attack each worker one at a time. Have the 4th repair. The 5th
should provide the minerals for repairing.
Marine Drop - This is not the marine rush. Use this in medium length
games.
- Send SCVs mining
- Build 4 more SCVs
- Have SCV 8 build a supply depot
- Build 2 more SCVs
- Once SD done build barracks
- SCV 10 build refinery
- Build 3 SCVs
- Send 2 of them to the Refinery and the third to making another supply
depot
- Build 1 SCV. Send him to work on Factory
- Barracks should now be done
- Have SCV 8 (finished barracks) build bunker
- Train 5 marines
- Add a machine shop to the factory and have that SCV build a starport
- Build 3 SCVs
- 1st SCV builds barracks
- 2nd builds academy
- 3rd builds barracks
- Control Tower on Starport
- Pump out lots of marines and six medics
- Build 3 dropships each filled with 6 marines and two medics
- Drop into open spot in enemy base
This trick works very well on human opponent long games. Don't try it
on computer, as they will have already attacked by then.
Marine Rush - This is a rush! This is to be used at the beginning of
the game. Anytime after is pratically useless. This is different from
the Marine Drop.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Train first and second marine
-Send 1st Marine scouting
-Train third marine & build second Barracks
-Start Marine pumping and attack!
Ghost Rush - Don't even think this rush is for attacking only! Use this
for a nice early nuke along with a cloaked (weak) attack.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery & build Academy
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Build second Supply Depot & build Factory
-Build thirteenth and fourteenth SCV
-Gather with thirteenth SCV
-Gather gas with fourteenth SCV & build Starport
-Train first and second marine & build Bunker
-Train third and fourth marine & build Science Facility
-Enter marines into Bunker & build second Bunker
-Train fifth and sixth marine & build Covert Ops
-Train seventh and eight marine & build third Supply Depot
-Upgrade Personnel Cloaking & build Nuclear Silo
-Enter marines into Bunker & train first ghost
-Arm Nuclear Silo & upgrade Ocular Implants
Use the nuke to take out detectors and then send in the Ghosts cloaked
to make an attack
Vulture Rush - Use this in mid games.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Bather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Bather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV & build Factory
-Build second Supply Depot & build second Factory
-Build first vulture & build Machine Shop
-Build second and third vulture & research Spider Mines
-Build fourth and fifth vulture & build third Factory
-Build third Supply Depot & research Ion Thrusters
-Build sixth, seventh, and eight vulture & plant spider mines
Siege Tank Rush - Use in long games.
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build a Marine and scout. Kill him after he's done.
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV & build Factory
-Build second Supply Depot & build second Factory
-Build first Machine Shop
-Research Siege Tech & build first siege tank
-Build third Supply Depot & build second Machine Shop
-Build second and third siege tank
-Build forth and fifth siege tank
Wraith Rush - Use in long games
-Build fifth SCV
-Gather with four other SCVs
-Gather with fifth SCV
-Build sixth SCV
-Build seventh SCV
-Gather with sixth SCV
-Gather with seventh SCV & build first Barracks
-Build eight SCV & build first Supply Depot
-Build Refinery
-Build ninth and tenth SCV
-Gather with ninth and tenth SCV
-Build eleventh and twelfth SCV
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth SCV & build Factory
-Build second Supply Depot
-Build thirteenth and fourteenth SCV
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth SCV
-Build first and second Starport
-Build third Supply Depot
-Build first wraith & build first Control Tower
-Send first Wraith scouting
-Build second and third wraith & research Cloaking Field
-Build fourth and fifth wraith
-Build sixth and seventh wraith
Supply Depot Ultimate Defense Trick - Very useful strategy. A lot of
people say "Oh, if I put my supply depots blocking my entrance the
computer will just destroy them!" (newbies). True, to some extent if
you don't put any defense behind it!!! You should make two layers of
supply depots BLOCKING your entrance to your base (if your scv gets
trapped outside your base use him as a scout). (Most important part)
Build two bunkers behind them, filled with marines and put about four
Siegetanks in Siege mode next to the bunkers. Last step, put 2 missile
turrets behind the supply depots to detect for any cloaked units (also
helps defend airborne wise). This strategy should really only be used
against the computer. If you need help, read the Battle Cruiser rush.
Battle Cruiser rush - This is a VERY good strategy! Within about
fifteen minutes you can be rushing in with twelve BCs. This is GREAT
for computer and great for an inexperienced human opponent. This strat
should only be used on custom maps (ones with 50,000 minerals and gas
and lots of mineral patches and vespine geysers).
- Send workers to mineral patches and build an SCV
- Send that SCV mining and keep building SCVs until you have 9
- Send 9 to build a supply depot blocking entrance.
- Build 10th and have him construct a barracks
- After 9 is done, pump out a few more SCVs and build more supply depots
until your entrance is blocked double layered
- After 10 is done have him build a bunker behind your Supply Depots
- Build another SCV and have him build a refinery.
- After refinery, if you have more geysers build refineries over them.
- Start pumping out marines until you have 8
- 3 SCVs (if you have enough supply depots, if not take a mining SCV and
have him build one) and send them to the refinery(s) if you have more
refineries than one, send three more to each other refinery.
- After 10 is done have him build another bunker next to your other one
- Fill bunkers
- By now the computer already attacked so if needed repair anything
damaged.
- If 9 is done and is inside your base have him move to an open area and
keep building supply depots
- Some SCVs
- Once enough cash for Factory, build!
- While factory building, pump out more SCVs
- After Factory build machine shop
- After machine shop build 4 tanks, research Siege mode and build more
SCVs.
- Put tanks at front of base in Siege mode
- Build SCVs and stop at around 22 to 20.
- Take 6 SCVs and have each one build a Starport (leaving enough room
for control towers)
- Attatch Control Towers
- Send 5 finished SCVs mining and have the 6th build a Science Facility
with attatched Physics Lab.
- If you want, research Yamato Cannon
- Start pumping out BCs!
- Once you have about 12 attack
- While attacking build 6 more BCs or until you run out of supplies
- If you were fast enough you should be able to creame the enemy. If
not, send the six at your base to attack and build twelve more BCs (6
for defense the other 6 for attacking).
Worker Hunt - Get about 1 tank, 3 dropships, and 3 science vessels.
Fill the first Dropship with 4 Goliaths, the second with 7 marines and a
ghost with a nuke, and the third with 2 Siege Tanks. Defense Matrix the
three Dropships and send in your tank (attack in Siege Mode). This
should keep him busy for a few seconds. At that time drop your units in
the back of his base (where the minerals are).
Big ship prevention - If they have no detectors simply cloak and
destroy, use Lockdown for help. If the enemy is Protoss and they have a
detector, it is obviously an Observer. Try to find it's outline and use
your Comsat Station to decloak it, then destroy it! If it's Terran then
it gets a little bit more tricky. Cloak a ghost and try to Lockdown the
Science Vessel from far away. Then cloak and destroy and use Lockdown
to your advantage.
Mass swarm prevention - About 10 Tanks in siege mode should do it. Nuke
front of your base if you must.
Zealot Prevention - Block off your entrance with bunkers filled with 1
Marine and 3 Firebats. Or don't even let it happen at all. Rush in
with 6 Marines and you can probably take him out before they can do
anything.
ATTACK
Against Terran - Use the battle cruiser rush. Build lots of Missile
Turrets in case of drops or aircraft rushes. If you are not going to
use the BC rush then just try to get some air units, because the Terrans
have Siege Tanks. DONT USE FIREBATS! Fire does not do well on metal.
Against Zerg - Nukes are not very effective here unless you can hit the
Hive/Lair/Hatchery. All the units reproduce fast with Zerg also, their
buildings gain life. BC rush is pretty good here and the marine drop is
good. A good strat here is to take about 6 tanks in Siege mode and put
them outside the Zerg base. Right behind the tanks have your BC's (and
a science vessel to uncloak Lurkers) ready to gun. While your tanks
blast away, you should be able to do a good amount of damage when the
enemy starts coming out. When the enemy starts pouring out, have your
tanks take care of some of it, and have your BC's take care of the rest.
If the enemy is too overwhelming, run away, repair, build greater
numbers and attack again.
Against Protoss - Nuking is only truly effective on this race. Do a
Battle Cruiser rush with Science Vessels. Decloak any Dark Templars and
EMP Shockwave the Templars or Archons.
DEFENSE
Against Terran - No real strategy here. If you have cloakable units
cloak them and defend. Try not to use Firebats. Build lots of Turrets
around your base they can defend against and Battle Cruisers amd some
drops. If you know you are going to lose, use your comsat station and
make a sweep then lift all your buildings and land on a safe spot. Send
an SCV or two to every building and be ready to repair. This may or may
not work depending on who you're defending against. Have Ghosts ready
to use lockdown to disable Battle Cruisers.
Against Zerg - If they are attacking with Zerglings and you have
airunits just blast each unit once and they'll go away. If you have
tons of attacking airunits try to take all the zerg units out. If you
have no air units and you know you will lose, lift up your buildings and
either wait till they run away or move to another spot. If they do a
Lurker rush, 90% of the time you are screwed. If you know they are
going to do it, build a think layer of supply depots at the entrance of
base. This should give you about a minute to prepare your defense. A
typical Lurker rush is very early in the game, so chances are you won't
have any air units along with science vessels. If the attack is late
and you have a comsat station or Science Vessel and some air units, the
comsat or Science Vessel decloak while the air units take out the
Lurkers. If it's any other unit have a group of defending units all
attack one unit at a time.
Against Protoss - A VERY USEFUL strategy is to have a science vessel
with EMP Shockwave. It brings Protoss shields and Magic down to 0.
Archon's shields are 97% of it's life, Templars need magic to attack,
and Arbiters need magic etc. If they are attacking with Zealots just
put 3 Firebats in the Bunkers and a marine in each bunker. When the
Zealots get hit with the gun fire, they will move towards the bunker and
get burned by the Firebats. Be prepared to have lots of missile turrets
around your base. This will protect against the Carrier Swipe pretty
good but mainly against the Arbiter Warp Attack. You may want to build
defense near the back of your base. Reaver drops, Arbiter Warp Attack,
and other attacks that go for specifically SCVs will be useless if you
are cautious. If you have cloaked units use them to hit the enemy once
to make him run. If they have an Observer in your base try to find it's
outline and use comsat to destroy it (or Missile Turrets). Have ghosts
ready to use Lockdown to disable Carriers.
7. Zerg Strategies
Build mutiple Hatchery/Hive/Lairs if you are going to mass produce.
If you are going for mass Zergling Hydralisk production try this: After
morphing in your ninth drone, you normally would not be able to morph
another one till you morph in your second overlord. But that is so
untrue. Morph your ninth drone into an Extractor to decrease your
"supplies used" by one. NOW morph in your tenth drone, then CANCEL the
creation of the Extractor. Proceed as you normally would.
Zergling Rush - This is the most used rush in StarCraft b/c it is so
easy. Remember, this is useless in games other than rush games.
-Send Drones to minerals
-Hatch Drone and send mining
-Send Overlord as scout (not on big maps)
-Once 150 minerals start spawning pool
-Hatch 6th Drone to mine
-After Spawning pool pump out about 6 Zerglings
-While they attack, build 6 more Zerglings and send
If you can't master this then you are sad...
Hydralisk Rush - This is not as fast as the Zergling rush. In fact,
this will probably take three times longer.
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Hydralisk Den with thirteenth drone
-Morph second Hatchery with fourteenth drone
-Morph third overlord & morph first and second hydralisk
-Morph fifteenth Drone and have him turn into third Hatchery
-Have any extra Geysers? Extract them with three drones
-Upgrade Hydralisk Range then Speed
-Morph 16-22 Drone and mine
-Morph fourth Overlord
-Pump out Hydralisks from all Hatcheries
-Everytime you have excess minerals (600+) build another Hatchery
-After you start pumpin 15 Hyrdalisks (5 Hatcheries) at a time, send
each wave by the thirties
Lurker Rush - Not to be used against Zerg. Not to be used in early rush
games either. This takes about 7 minutes.
-1st to 6th drones go to minerals
-7th does Spawning Pool
-Get an Overlord
-8th Drone transforms into Extractor
-Get 6 to 12 Zerglings for defense
-9th to 12th drones mine gas
-Get two more Drones and a Lair
-15th Drone makes Hydralisk Den
-Get a few Drones, about 6 Hydralisks, and evolve Lurker Aspect
-Turn 4 Hyrdralisks into Lurkers
-Evolve range for Hydralisks
-Attack!
Burrow in the longest range and the Terrans don't have a chance and most
likely the Protoss don't either.
Mutalisk Rush - Not for early rushes. This is just a start. Do
whatever you want after you follow these steps:
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Lair from Hatchery
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph second Hatchery with thirteenth drone
-Morph Spire with fourteenth drone
-Morph first three mutalisks
-Morph next three mutalisks
Guardian Rush - One of the coolest rushes. This is best used against
the Protoss. The Photon Cannons are no match for this long-range rush,
basic Zealot defense is nothing to this, Dragoons don't even have a
great chance at survival cause of the Guardian range. Templars won't be
able to get in close enough to launch a storm. This is also great on
Terran and Zerg. Only if the enemy is going strictly air will this be a
problem.
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Lair from Hatchery
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Spire with thirteenth
-Morph Queen's Nest with fourteenth drone
-Morph Hive from Lair
-Morph first three mutalisks & morph Greater Spire from Spire
-Morph next three mutalisks
-Morph mutalisks into Guardian
Ultralisk rush - Hmm... I never really liked Ultralisks that much.
They are expensive, slow, and with a name Ultralisk you'd think they'd
have a stronger attack than 20. Besides they can only attack ground.
But, some people like them. Here it is:
-Morph fifth drone
-Gather with four other drones
-Scout with overlord
-Gather with fifth drone
-Morph sixth, seventh, and eight drone
-Gather with sixth drone
-Morph Spawning Pool with seventh drone
-Gather with eight drone
-Morph ninth drone
-Morph Extractor with ninth drone
-Morph second overlord & morph tenth drone
-Scout with second overlord & morph eleventh and twelfth drone
-Gather gas with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth drone.
-Morph thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Lair from Hatchery
-Gather with thirteenth and fourteenth drone
-Morph Queen's Nest with thirteenth drone
-Morph Creep Colony with fourteenth drone
-Morph Hive from Lair & morph Sunken Colony from Creep Colony
-Morph fifteenth and sixteenth drone & morph third overlord
-Morph fifteenth and sixteenth drone into Creep Colonies
-Morph seventeenth drone
-Morph Sunken Colonies from Creep Colonies
-Morph Ultralisk Cavern with seventeenth drone
-Morph first six zerglings
-Morph first three ultralisks
Worker Hunt - Mutalisks are the best worker hunters in the game. They
have their acid which hits multiple units at a time. They are also
pretty quick to get up. Upgrade speed and transporting ability for
Overlords and enter through the side of their base with a drop of
Hydralisks.
Big ship prevention - Plague the bastards! Or Dark Swarm and hit em
with anything you got (Hydralisks, Mutalisks, etc.). Slow them down
with Devourers or Ensnare.
Mass swarm prevention - Lurkers, Sunkens, Spores should do it. Plague
or Dark Swarm will also help. Use Guardians to attack out of the range
of the Hydralisks or Dragoons.
Zealot Prevention - Prevent it! Send in 12 Zerglings before they can
rush you.
ATTACK
Against Terran - Try not to use the Zergling rush, as the Terran tend to
lift buildings. Instead, use the Hydralisk rush. Guardians do wonders
espescially teamed up with Scourges. Their long range and air attack
should be able to take out SCVs or tanks from good distances away.
Lurkers are the best against Terran. Early on, take about 6 Lurkers
upgrade their range and they are almost invincible. If you attack from
far enough the Turrets can't decloak you. The only problem with this is
if they have a comsat station or a Science Vessel and air units. The
comsat or Science Vessel decloak while the air units take out the
Lurkers. To prevent this bring about 14 Scourges. Best used early.
Spawn Broodlings on workers. Plauge is awesome here on buildings! Once
your Mutalisks take out the Starport and all air units, replace them
with Guardians.
Against Zerg - Use Guardians backed up with Scourges to attack the front
line to distract them. Then drop some Lurkers and Hydralisks in the
back of their base. Or, build about 10 Hatcheries and pump out
Hydralisks by the 30's. But, you must have about 50 workers on rich
maps.
Against Protoss - Attack early! Don't worry about defense too much,
just keep attacking. Most likely the Protoss will be too busy to attack
you. After attack after attack, your opponent will finally not be able
to keep up and you will eventually win (most of the time). If it is
going to be a long game. Use Plague and Dark Swarm with Ultralisk or
tons of Hydralisks. Or, use Guardians to take out Photons and then rush
in with Zerglings. Plague is good on this race. It reduces life (not
shields) down to 1 and Protoss life can't be recovered.
DEFENSE
Against Terran - If they are using a Tank swarm, a very large number of
Zerglings should work. Or, you can use Ultralisks. If they are going
straight Battle Cruiser then Ensnare them and use your Devourers to slow
them down. Then send in some Scourges.
Against Zerg - Air attacks are useless against Scourges. No unit can
take out a Scourge in one hit. For ground defense, Plague usually
doesn't work because of the speed of Zerg units. Try to Spawn
Broodlings on their strong units. If they are swarming, other units
around them will be attacking the Broodlings giving you time to get in a
Plague.
Against Protoss - Most of the time they will use mass Carrier rushes.
Don't worry about this too much. Just upgrade the Zerg armor to maximum
and charge them with Scourges! If they are not going straight Carrier,
put Guardians behind your baracade of Sunkens/Spores to block better.
Sunkens are really effective against Protoss.
8. Protoss Strategies
Swarm Prevention - Simply put, High Templars can easily eliminate swarms
with their Psionic Storm. Reavers are also good in their long range,
high attack, but mainly their splash damage.
Nuke Prevention - If a nuke is coming at your probes, either run, or use
Statis Field. Statis Field prevents ANY thing. No spells, damage, or
abilities affect Statis Field units.
Zealot Rush - Once again this is an early game rush. Don't try this
late in a game.
-Warp fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Warp sixth probe
-Warp seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Warp first Pylon & gather with seventh probe
-Warp eight probe & warp first Gateway
-Warp second Gateway & gather with eight probe
-Warp first and second zealot & warp second Pylon
-Scout with first
-Warp third and fourth zealot
-Warp second Pylon & warp fourth and fifth zealot
Dragoon Rush - If you are playing Terran, sometimes they just lift there
buildings and let allies rid of you. This rush is more effective, since
it attacks both air and ground units.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Warp first Pylon & gather with seventh probe
-Build eight probe & warp first Gateway
-Gather with eight probe & warp Assimilator
-Build ninth probe & warp Cybernetics Core
-Build tenth and eleventh probe
-Gather gas with ninth, tenth, and eleventh probe
-Warp first and second dragoon & warp second Gateway
-Warp second Pylon & warp third and fourth dragoon
Archon Rush - A cool rush, but often hard to pull.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Warp first Pylon & gather with seventh probe
-Build eight probe & warp first Assimilator
-Build ninth, tenth, and eleventh probe
-Warp second Assimilator & warp first Gateway
-Gather gas with ninth, tenth, and eleventh probe
-Build twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth probe
-Warp Cybernetics Core & warp second Pylon
-Gather gas with twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth probe
-Warp first zealot & warp Citadel of Adun
-Warp second zealot & warp second Gateway
-Warp third Pylon & warp Templar Archives
-Warp third and fourth zealot & warp fourth Pylon
-Warp third Gateway & train first and second high templar
-Summon first archon & warp third and fourth high templar
-Warp fifth zealot & warp fifth and sixth high templar
-Summon second archon & warp seventh and eighth high templar
-Summon third archon & warp first Shield Battery
-Summon fourth archon & warp second Shield Battery
-Warp ninth and tenth high templar & warp sixth zealot
Reaver Rush - Pretty cool. Don't use it in early rushes.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Gather with seventh probe & warp first Pylon
-Build eight probe & build first Gateway
-Build Assimilator
-Build ninth and tenth probe
-Gather with ninth and tenth probe
-Build eleventh and twelfth probe & build Cybernetics Core
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth probe
-Build second and third Pylon
-Build Robotics Facility
-Warp first zealot
-Build Robotics Support Bay & warp shuttle
-Warp second zealot
-Warp first and second reaver
Scout Rush - This works only really works good on Zerg. Take out their
Overlords and you have a giant advantage over them.
-Build fifth probe
-Gather with four other probes
-Gather with fifth probe
-Build sixth probe
-Build seventh probe
-Gather with sixth probe
-Gather with seventh probe & warp first Pylon
-Build eight probe & build first Gateway
-Build Assimilator
-Build ninth and tenth probe
-Gather with ninth and tenth probe
-Build eleventh and twelfth probe & build Cybernetics Core
-Gather gas with eleventh and twelfth probe
-Build second and third Pylon
-Build build first Stargate
-Upgrade air weapons
-Warp first scout & build second Stargate
-Warp second and third scout
Corsair Rush - Use this on big island maps against Zerg only.
-Probes 1-6 mine
-Have 7th build Pylon then mine
-While Pylon building build probe 8 and 9
-Send 8 mining and 9 to build a Gateway
-Build about 3 probes for mining
-Once you obtain 100 minerals build an Assimilator
-Build 2 probes for Assimilator
-Build a Cybernetics Core
-Don't stop constructing Probes (building Pylons when necessary)
-Build a Stargate
-Construct 1 or 2 Dragoons
-Construct about 3 or more Corsairs
-Scout
-Make a Robotics Facility
-Build 2 shuttles filled with Dragoons
-After Corsairs find the enemy attack their Overlords
-If they have no air defense stay in their base taking out any new
Overlords, but if they do have air defense take out Overlords and run
-Once Overlords out drop Dragoons
Arbiter Warp Attack - This is a strategy designed for safetly getting a
cloaked army into the enemy base. To do this build up an army (Dark
Templars/Carriers/Reavers/Archons/High Templars) and rush your Arbiter
(If you have Terran allies Defense Matrix it) into the middle of the
base or to the back of the base with all the workers. Now quickly use
Recall on your army. Your army will warp in next to your Arbiter. All
your units will be cloaked! At that point, use your Dark Templars to
take out workers, Carriers to take out units, Reavers take out attack
buildings, Archons take out detectors or units, and High Templars use
Psionic Storm on bunches of units.
10 Gate Push - Every 50 seconds you rush in with 6 Zealots and 4
Dragoons. This is a VERY good rush! I can not tell you step by step as
it would take way too long!
- Block off entrance with Photons leaving enough room for ground units
to leave
- Build Gateways, Probes, and Pylons
- Put up about 6 cannons in the back of the base for protection against
worker hunts
- Stop at 5 Gateways, 3 Forges, 40 Probes, and about 20 Pylons
- Build Observatory and Templar Archieves
- When you feel safe get another base and another 40 Probes and 5
Gateways
- Upgrade Zealot speed then Dragoon range then weapons and armor
- Get 12 Zealots and scout
- When enemy found attack and maybe it might be enough to kill your
enemy
- Get Observers and Zealots at every expansion to make it hard for your
enemy to expand
- Start pumping up 6 Zealots and 4 Dragoons and attack every time you
get all of them
- Take out any expansions if they have them first
- Don't stop attacking
Cannon Rush - This strategy is much feared. It's quite a cheap way to
win, even worse than rushing. The idea is to sneak a probe into your
opponent's base unnoticed at the very start of a game. You want to make
sure you go with the forge first build order. Quickly throw up a pylon,
and construct 3 or 4 cannons when your forge is done. Don't neglect your
own base, so you want to put 2 or so cannons up at home too. Each cannon
you create should be a little closer to your opponent's mineral patch
(if you came in through the back door). Once you have 2 cannons up, you
can build cannons right next to their working probes, and once finished,
these will open fire, disrupting the player's economy and forcing him to
either quit or flee. One very important thing to remember is NOT to lose
the probe. If you see resistance coming, make sure you move your probe
to a hard-to-access spot so your opponents zealots/marines/zerglings
can't get to it. You may also consider sending additional probes later
on. YOU CAN'T LET YOUR OPPONENT SEE YOU OR ELSE YOU'LL SCREW THE WHOLE
THING UP!!! -Obtained from SCU
Worker Hunt - Use the Arbiter Warp Attack, drop Reavers or Templars to
use Psionic Storm, or use Scouts.
Big ship prevention - Psionic Storm
Mass swarm prevention - Psionic Storm
Zealot prevention - Get more Zealots than him! Use Photons to help. If
it is later then use air units.
ATTACK
Against Terran - Try not to use the Zealot rush here. They can easily
lift up buildings and let allies finish you off. Use the Dragoon rush.
Or, you can fill the air with Scouts. A large number of Scouts can take
out any air unit. Use your Scouts to take out any air units and then
have them take out their Starport(s). Then use them to take out tanks.
After that rush in with Zealots.
Against Zerg - Use Corsairs early on to take out Overlords. Once that
is done, then you have an easy win! Don't want to play like that? Then
try sending in Reavers to take out Sunkens and when the calvary arrives
use Templars Psionic Storm to take out the units.
Against Protoss - If you are playing against Photon Cannon obsessed
people, then use Reavers to open up a path. Then rush in with Zealots.
If not, use the Arbiter Warp Attack. Protoss are a tough race to beat
so use the strongest strats you got.
DEFENSE
Against Terran - Most players who use Terran only use Battle Cruiser
rushes. Now get ready for a laugh when you hear how easy it is to
counter this. OK, build an Arbiter, 5 High Templars, and upgrade
Psionic Storm. Done! Your Arbiters far away should just be able to
cloak your High Templars. Have your Templars use Psionic Storm until
they run out. The Cruisers are worrying about the Arbiter and what's
underneath it's Cloaking field. The Arbiter should not move because the
BCs will move right after it. When they destroy the Arbiter the storms
will be halfway done already. The BCs will most likely try to chase
down the High Templars but are not fast enough. If they survive, by the
time they get out of the storm they will not be surviving. If anything
gets past this just send a few Scouts. By the time it takes to get
another few BCs you should be recharged. This however can be countered
with Science Vessels. The Science Vessels decloak the Templars and EMP
Shockwave them. But if you see Science Vessels try to blast them with
Psionic Storm before they can Shockwave you.
Against Zerg - Block your entrance with Photons just to detect Lurkers
and use Psionic Storm and you have defense.
Against Protoss - If they are using the 10 Gate Push try to mass produce
Carriers. This really helps but does not assure a victory. Use Psionic
Storm to prevent against any rush. If it's too early to get up
Templars, use Reavers. If it's too early to get them then just use
Photons.
9. Cheats
To use these cheats start a single player game. Press enter and a text
will come up at the bottom of the playing screen that looks like
"Message:". Enter a cheat then press enter and a text message saying
"Cheat Activated". Press Enter and type in the cheat again and press
enter to deactivate the cheat. A message will say if you successfully
deactivated it. The computer automatically has the map cheat.
Cheats are very cheap. They take the fun out of the game. Unless you
are starting out and don't know much about the game, I don't recommend
using cheats. If you are training don't use cheats as you will not get
any better using them. If you get rushed too early for you to be ready,
and you become invincible, you are not going to get any better. Well
here they are:
Power Overwhelming - Invincibility
Black Sheep Wall - Reaveal the entire map
Operation cwal - Upgrades and researches done immediatly. Units and
buildings construct super fast!
Show me the money - Gives you an additional 10,000 minerals and gas
Breathe deep - Gives you an additional 500 gas
Food for thought - Supply limit ignored (still can not go over 200
supplies).
Modify the phase variance - Build anything
Noglues - No magic allowed for enemy
Medieval man - Have all spells
Something for nothing - Upgrade weapons, armor, and all other upgrades
besides spells up one level
The gathering - Unlimited energy
Game over man - Instant loss for you
There is no cow level - Instant win for you
Staying alive - No end to the game
Ophelia - Warp to any level. After you have entered in Ophelia type in
the race then a space then the number of the level you want to be warped
to. E.G. "Terran 5" warps you to the 5th Terran level in the campaigns.
"Zerg 11" warps you to the 11th Zerg level, and "Protoss 8" warps you to
the 8th Protoss level.
War aint what it used to be - No Fog of War
Radio Free Zerg - If you are playing as Zerg you hear some funny music.
This is the only Brood War cheat.
10. Secrets
I need a lot of help with this. What I'm looking for is glitches that
can make you do extraordinary things. Please e-mail me with any secrets
you have! I will give you credit!
Invisible Tanks - This is a hard trick to master. If you have tanks
with Siege mode you can do this. First put a control group on your tank
and a liftable structure. Switch to your structure and lift off.
Switch to your tank and make get near the airborne structure. Take a
deep breath now. Are you ready? Switch to the structure and make him
land. QUICKLY switch back to the tank and have him move underneath
where the structure is going to land and immediatly put him in Siege
mode. If done fast enough the tank will remain under the structure able
to blast enemies long distances away. If the enemy attacks, they will
have to take out the structure the tank is underneath before the tank
can be harmed. Although, this only works against melee units. I am not
sure if this works for certain versions of StarCraft.
These bugs do not work anymore because they have been fixed...they only
work with version 1.00.
Sliding Command Center:
And now for the amazing sliding comm center trick!Uh, ok, play as
terran. now, lift off the command center, and land it as close to the
nearest minerals as you can, right as its doing it's landing animations,
hold shift+s+m (really hard on ergo keyboards :( ) and click closer to
the minerals. Your comm center will slide ovver to the minerals and
start mining. Here's a screen shot. Notice I'm building an SCV in the
comm center so it's not floating there. If you don't believe me, go try
it yourself, it may take a couple tries to get it just right, but
sliding the comm center around is fun! :) this CC slide is very easy to
do, and can be done on the first try with a some practice. However it
messes up the game. If you slide, you cannot build on the land where
your CC was. Meaning you can really abuse this by sliding all over the
map, therefore making it impossible to build any structure at
expansions, especially islands.
Zergling to Mutalisk:
taken from the GX forum...........
Extremely important bug discovered. This is most serious among the bugs
ever founded. All units & structures can morp into Lurkers and Mutas.
I'm NOT kidding and this is NOT a StarDraft patch. You can use this bug
in Multiplayer games like IPX or Battle.net. To use this bug, you must
have Hydrarisk Den(with Lurker developed) and some hydrarisks. First,
make some zerglings and set them to group #1. Second, select one or more
hydrarisks. As last, press L and number 1 at the same time. If it is
successful, Those group #1 zergling will be Cocoons(not zerg egg) and
they will become Lurkers. And if you cancel Cocoons, they will become
Mutalisks. This applies to any units and any structures. you can morp
even 'Protoss Nexus' and 'Zerg Hatchery' into Lurker and Mutalisks. More
seriously, this bug doesn't costs any resources and bug units have
abilitys of original units. For example, if you make Lurkers or Mutals
with cloaked wraiths, they can use cloaking. If you use Arbiters with
this bug,the bug units makes cloaking fields for other units. If you use
observers, the bug units have full-cloaking ability and observer's
speed. If you use 'Zerg Hatchery', the bug unit have even 'Larvaes'.As I
said above, This bug is NOT KIDDING. This bug is discovered by one of
Korean players, and already known to many many Korean players. Maybe you
had better avoid Zerg(or even Protoss) players until the patch released.
Yes it does work....
- [o]Qwerty
Remember! Sliding Command Center and Zergling to Mutalisk only work on
earlier versions of Starcraft!
If you have something that could go here, I need it. Drop it off at the
Principal's Desk.
11. Credit
First off I would like to thank Blizzard with this game and the website
for the tricks. StarCraft University (http://starcraft.strategy-
gaming.com/) gave me a lot of the strategies. Visit the site it is
awesome! I would like to thank Joseph Christopher for some of the
tricks used in this. My biggest thanks goes to Scott Lee as he provided
a lot of this strategy. I would also like to thank Code for the
Invisible tank trick.
Kronikle's StarCraft BroodWar Strategy Guide Copyright 2000 Ryan Kurlish