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Strategy Guide Version 3.7
November 10, 1999
StarCraft Strategy Guide
Written by Scott Lee
(SLTxAzN895@hotmail.com)
E-mail me with anything you can tell me about the game that isn't
included in this guide, I will add you to the credit. But please read
this guide first, cause I don't want to receive something that is
already included on this guide.
My old E-mail was R415aZn895@aol.com and TrueAsian143@mailcity.com, but
the both of those are no longer available, so please use the new E-mail
above. Thank you. By the way, since I check my mail around once
every year or so, don't be mad if your E-mail isn't replied right away
or even sometimes a few weeks or so, maybe even more. I'm really busy
with my schoolwork these couple of month, since this is my junior year
in high school (and also I'm just plain lazy), but I will reply it once
I have read it. Again, I'm sorry if I don't reply your E-mail right
away, I'm just a bit busy and I change my email addresses often.
Unpublished work Copyright 1999 Scott Lee
StarCraft is published by Blizzard, and here I give thanks to Blizzard
for making this great game. Also for providing Battle Net, it is the
best place to play StarCraft. Catch me there under the name of
DaOnEnOnLee and MoNeY-{IS}, my stats are just average, it's something
like 210-50-50, feel free to whisper me for a game anytime. However,
now I don't play that much anymore, but you can still find me playing
sometimes here and there.
This guide is written by me, so I should get the credit for it. So
please don't take this and claim it yours. And this is just a guide to
help new players to get an idea on how to play the game. Hopefully
this guide will aid those who will spend time reading this. This guide
should not be sold, and if any company or publisher will pay for this
guide, I better get the money!
If you want to use this guide for your site or something, just post the
whole thing including my disclaimer (especially my disclaimer). All
though please E-Mail me first before you do. I probably let you
anyway. (If I don't reply back, just go right ahead and post it, if I
got a problem with it, I will E-mail you, and I probably won't).
I got my copy of StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood Wars for a while, so I
consider myself to be an above average player. I am not saying that I
am the greatest one, but I do okay against most people. Also I'm
familiar with all 3 races, and I just know a lot of basic things you
need to know in order to become good. This is my third completed
Walkthrough/Guide I have written. E-mail me with any problem that you
may have in this document.
I'm a really nice person, so if any players who wants to know anything
about StarCraft or game play can email me, and I will help the best I
can. I can help improve most people's game play since it's easier to
criticize than actually doing it, but first please contain the race you
want to use, the map you are using, the problem(s) you've been having
playing against someone, and the most important thing, your Battle.Net
name. Also please have some info on which one you are playing
StarCraft or Brood Wars.
Version History 3.7 Added new Counter section.
Version History 3.6 Added the new Protoss, Terran, Zerg section, and
the new trick section.
Version History 3.0 Correct several mistakes, added some information.
Version History 2.9 Added new info on various units.
Version History 2.8 Added Multi Player section.
Version Hisotry 2.3 Added a few things, fixed some small bugs.
Version History 2.2 Added styles of play, and some small changes.
Version History 1.2 Added how to improve your game play section.
Version History 0.7 Apply some small changes, added credit and
corrections.
Version History 0.6 Change a little text, fix the mistake on Devour's
attack name from Corrosive Venom to Corrosive Acid.
Version History 0.5 I added Brood War units and buildings.
Version History 0.1 I just started on this today, I sure hope that I
can finish this soon.
This FAQ is based on StarCraft Brood Wars Version 1.07
(Patch downloadable from www.blizzard.com or www.battle.net)
Introduction
If you are reading this guide, I assume you have the game and know the
real basic idea of the game. In case you don't, the game is you
building an army, and killing your opponent(s), unless you are playing
a trigger map, then I can't help you unless I played that map before.
This guide is used for players who don't use cheat, if you use cheat,
than you really shouldn't play this game, there isn't much of a point
then.
StarCraft is very much like WarCraft; similar ideas since they are both
created by Blizzard. Those of you who played WarCraft before will able
to fit right into StarCraft. StarCraft is more difficult than
WarCraft; it has many more elements in the game other than making more
troops and start bum rushing your enemy(s).
This guide will help you in the game, but I can't promise you that you
will always win if you follow my strategy, I can promise you, you will
win against computers, but maybe not against human players. And you
should practice against the computers to improve your game play, even
though to me, computer are really idiots, and they just don't think
sometimes. I got okay stats for StarCraft in Battle.Net, so my style
is better than the computers at least. This guide contains information
for all units, but overall this guide is more based on strategy than
plain info.
I recommend you try out different maps, and have more than one CPUs
against you (3-4 recommended). This will improve your game play, and
also play against friends that are better than you, you can learn from
them by watching how they play. You shouldn't worry about combos or
advanced things like that, to me (and most other people), those are
easily countered and won't cause much damage while you spent a lot of
money trying to pull it off.
Also I won't be updating this guide much unless there is a major
mistake, if there is just a small typo, I probably won't update it for
some time. However I will be updating during the first few days after
the guide has been posted. Which is before end of August of 1999.
Index
Part 1: Basic Strategy
Part 2: Advance Strategy
Part 3: Terran Units, and Buildings
Part 4: Zerg Units, and Buildings
Part 5: Protoss Units, and Buildings
Part 6: Various hints, useful ideas on playing StarCraft.
Part 7: Cheats for the game (please try not to use any of it)
Part 8: How to improve your game play
Part 9: Styles of Play
Part 10: Multi Players
Part 11: Terran strategy section
Part 12: Zerg strategy section
Part 13: Protoss strategy section
Part 14: Tricks
Part 15: Credit
Part 1: Basic Strategy
This is more of an introduction to each race, rather than strategy.
The basic idea is to kill your opponent(s) with your troops. You have
to choice of three different races, each have their own advantages and
disadvantages. I will start with the Protoss race, since they are the
most popular race.
Protoss has the highest technology in all three races, so they will
last out in a long game. The one major problem with Protoss are that
they builds very slow, especially with their troops, and their lack of
long range troops (Reaver's just have terrible speed, it's basically
dead if a flyer finds it in open ground). Protoss have high power
units, their most basic fighting unit, the Zealots are not just
powerful early on in the game, they can be upgraded and be very useful
in the later stage of the game. Protoss possess one major weakness,
their buildings can be only built within short range of their Pylons
(all buildings other than the Nexus). That can really affect the speed
of expending sometimes, and it can really slow down the your early game
rush. But the Pylons are also used to provide PSI food supply that
feed your troops, so you will need to build them anyway. Another thing
is if the Pylon is destroyed, the buildings nearby that require this
pylon to be built will not function until you have built another Pylon
to replace it (the building will have red letters "Unpowered" on it).
The best way to avoid this is to build Pylons by twos or more and next
to each other, so if one is destroyed, the other one can power the
buildings while you replace the Pylon. However, the early game, enemy
will usually go for your only Pylon, and if that is gone, your Cannons
or Gateways will be useless until another Pylon finishes. One thing
great about the Protoss building is once the building warp-in starts,
the worker can go back to work, unlike the other two races where the
worker has to stay at the site until the building is finished. Protoss
has shields and HP; their shields can be recovered in time, however
Protoss HP will never recover other from ally's Terran Medic. But
Protoss shields can recover pretty fast, comparing to Zerg's healing,
not to mention with the help of Shield Battery.
Terrans are people like us with medium technology, average troops and
mediocre speed. The Terran have units like our army today, e.g. tanks,
airplanes. Their weapons are also very much like what we have today,
rifles, cannons, rockets, nuclear missiles, etc. The Terran is a below
average race for a new player, but with an experienced player, Terran
can be very dangerous. Their Siege Tanks have the best range in all
ground units, and it deals 70 damage to its target and various other
damages to units near by the explosion. And in the hands of a pro, it
can just wipe out your entire army before you can get close to the
Tanks. Terrans also have some awesome air units, and the Battle
Cruisers are probably the best air unit anyone can have. However,
Terran has slow building speed, so Terran doesn't work well in a rush.
The Terran buildings have a great ability, the buildings are able to
lift off and fly over to another part of the map. Even though the
building's movements are quite slow, they are however fast enough to
expend in short period of time. You should know that not all Terran
buildings are able to lift off, only big buildings with the same size
as the Commend Center has this ability. Terran buildings catches fire
if they are damaged for 2/3 of their total possible HP, the building
will slowly burn down if it catches fire and have red hit points, you
will need a SCV to repair the damaged building, or it will be burn down
quite fast. It would be easy for you if you keep a few SCV near your
front line, also have a few SCV when attacking with Tanks and other
Mech. units, these units can be repaired with your SCVs. Terran
computer is the most powerful, they take full effect of their ability
to control multi units at the same time, and if you can do that, you
will be one of the best player ever. Terran is more flexible in
building since they can build anywhere the map allows, unlike Zerg on
Creeps and Protoss on Pylons.
Zerg are creatures with low technology, they fight with brutal force,
and they will win no matter the sacrifice that needs to be made. Their
fast production speed makes them a great race used for rush or wave.
But the Hatchery (evolves into Lair, and then Hive) are the only place
where the Zerg units can be produced (so I suggest you build 3 or 4
maybe even more later on when you have the extra minerals). The
Hatchery will slowly produce Larva that evolves into other units, and
Larva that evolve into Drones that can mine and morph into different
Zerg buildings. The Drone will die when evolve into any buildings
(actually it becomes that building). All Zerg buildings and units will
slowly regain HP when it has been damaged, it can take a while but it
is automatic and free. The Zergs are very easy to use, and I suggest
to newbs that you begin playing as Zerg, once you master this race, you
can go on ahead to play as other races, Zerg is simple to use, and
there isn't that many things you need to master in Zerg. Zerg players
should always be on the offensive side, keep attacking until you have
won, Zergs are very hard to defend, since a Zealot rush can put your
base back into the stone age if done correctly. The early game
Zergling rush will be very useful if you can find your opponent fast
enough, if not, your Zerglings will fry under Zealots and Bunkers.
However, the Zergling rush will slow down your mineral production if
you plans on something expensive.
*Note* The only way to move your unit is using the attack key (unless
you want them to ignore any enemy unit on the way). When you are
attacking the enemy's base, don't just right click, enemy units on the
way will attack your units, they can keep attacking along the way until
you notice it. So press A, then select any ground on the enemy's base
(not on a building, click anywhere near the building, your troop will
attack all enemy it sees on the way, meaning everything in it's sight
range). You should only use the right click if you are going for a
direct building, (like Barrack or Pylon) but remember your troops will
ignore enemy attack if you just right click.
The most basic win is a fast rush game that overwhelms your opponent.
This is easily achieved by making more units than your opponent, and
then just over powers them through out the game. While you are
creating chaos in their base, you should be preparing another army in
your base ready to finish off your opponent. The basic idea is have
all workers mine minerals only, get more production buildings like
Barrack/Gateway/Hatchery, and build your fighters faster than your
opponent. If the enemy has some good defense, find some way to get
around it, don't face it head on, you will not only lose all your
people, you won't able to break through the defense. The most basic
rush idea is find your opponent before you attack, Zerg can use their
Overlord to scout, but if you are using the other two races, you will
have to use your workers.
The Protoss building order is four Probe start to mine, while you are
making the fifth as soon as the game starts, when the probe finish, you
should have around enough money to make another Probe, make it and have
the fifth Probe mine. The sixth Probe should wait for 100 minerals and
build a Pylon, and go into mining. Then once you have 50 minerals,
make another probe while your Pylon is still building. The seventh
Probe will make your Gateway and go into mining. Then you should make
another Probe (your eighth), and build another Gateway and Pylon while
scouting for your opponent with this Probe or the seventh Probe. Your
first Gateway should finish and should start on Zealots, then you just
make up to 10 or 12 Probes, possibly making more Gateways and more
Pylons then go into mining. Gas isn't that important yet, but you can
go into it if you feel you have enough money, than a Forge should be
built, if you got enough extra money left, get the upgrades and
possibly get Cybernetic Core. By the time you have around 6 Zealots,
you should prepare your first rush, while making more Zealots. Your
first rush with your first group of Zealots will only able to break
through your opponents' base at most, they probably won't able to
finish off the job against most opponents. The time they all died, you
should have around 8 new Zealots ready to go, rush with those while
producing more. This should finish off a Zerg opponent with no
problem, unless they got around 10 Sunkens, then you should go for
their workers and avoid direct contact with the Sunkens. Terran might
give you some trouble if they have Firebats in Bunkers, but your second
rush should able to finish them off if you go for their SCVs. If you
are playing against a Protoss player, then expect them to have a few
more Zealots than you. Then you should ignore the Zealots and try to
stop their mineral production, and then concentrate on the Zealots.
Your Zealots in your base should then rush in (and of course, you are
making more while all this is happening) and help out. Zealots are
very powerful, one Zealot can take on 2 Zerglings or 2 Marines with no
problem, and a group of 12 can break through almost any ground defense.
Zealot takes awhile longer to make, but they can really finish the job
with their high damage and HP. If you see that Zealots aren't getting
the job done, go into gas and build your Citadel of Adun, and improve
Zealot speed, and also make another Forge for both Photon Cannons and
faster ground unit upgrades. Watch out for enemy flying units and
cloak units (Dark Templar and Lurker), if you see that they have these
units (you are in big trouble). First protect your base, and then
climb your tech tree and see if you can have an army (fully upgraded
Carriers and 3 Arbiters would do it) powerful enough to break through.
If you keep rushing you will be just losing troops, if this is a multi
exit map, try the other exit. And about then, you should start
expending. Anyway, against some Terran opponents that build Bunkers
too out from their main base, just ignore the Bunkers and just run past
them. If the Marine come out the Bunker after you, than go back and
finish them, if they don't come back, take out their Barrack or take
out their SCVs, sometimes even better take out the Commend Center if
you can. 6 Zealots can run pass 4 Bunkers easily if the path is clear
enough. And remember once the Marines exits the Bunker, they are no
match against your Zealots with their pity 6 damage and 40 HP. When
you have the chance go take out important units, like workers or HQ,
remember workers provide money and gas for the entire base, and when
the HQ is gone, the workers can't produce any more minerals. Take note
that all HQ takes an extremely long time to build.
Zerg is a basic rush race, so they don't do very well in late games.
Zerg units can be created fast and they can rush faster than any other
race. Zerglings are hatched 2 per Larva, and that means 6 at a time
with a full Hatchery. Another advantage that Zerg possess is their
Overlord (you start a game with an Overlord), they can scout for the
enemy while you mine (however, your opponent will know where you are if
they see your Overlord). The basic building order is 4 Drones mines,
make Drone as soon as the game starts, and your Overlord should start
scouting. The fifth Drone should start to mine minerals, any of the
mining Drone will build the Spawning Pool once you got the 150 minerals
required. You can morph in another Drone when the Spawning Pool is
still building. Then you just start making Zerglings, you should rush
with your first six and hope that your opponent haven't got any kind of
defense yet. If they got any defense, go for their workers and try to
stop their mineral production as much as you can. Since each worker
cost 50 minerals, and if you kill 3 worker units, your Zerglings have
done the job for their cheap 150 mineral cost. Once you got enough
money, build another Hatchery near your base where it can be protected.
While you are making more Zerglings and keeps rushing them (even though
you know they won't finish off the enemy, as long as they can stall
their mineral and technology, the sacrifices should be made), as all
the fighting is going on, your base should be flooded with Zerglings.
Eventually you will kill your opponent by just sending enough Zerglings
to his/her base. This strategy works well against all races, however
Zealots are powerful enough to take on 3 Zerglings by himself, so with
the help of Probes, your Zerglings will fry! The best way to avoid
this is going for the Probes instead of the Zealots since Zerglings
have better speed, six Zerglings should take out around 5 or 6 Probes
before they all die. This should send your opponent back to where they
start, they will have to replace all the Probes, and they won't have
any money to make new Zealots. Then a 12 Zerglings should able to
finish off the enemy, if not, go for gas and Mutalisks, they can wipe
out the weakened Protoss base. Cloak units or flyers shouldn't be a
problem, so don't go into Mutalisks unless your opponent has a large
group of Zealots or some Bunkers in good choke points. A quick Lair
then Spire would be good and easy done, and Mutalisks can shred the
Zealots or take out the Probes while your Zerglings finish it off after
your flyers. During this, your Lair should be evolved to a Hive and a
Greater Spire should be on the way. Then just morph your damaged
Mutalisks to Guardians, and that's pretty much game over for your
opponent. Protoss Scouts and Terran Wraith shouldn't be much of a
problem since Scourge can take care any of the flyers they might have
without much effort. This early cripple strategy works well, also your
Zeaglings can stop your opponent from expending anywhere, you can
basically take over the entire map if you have them pinned like this.
Terran have a weak early game rush, their Marines are weak, their
attacks are a pitiful 6 damage, and they will die very fast under any
kind of attack, Marines will die one on one against almost any other
attacker. However Firebats are extremely powerful, but they require
Gas and Academy to be built. Then that isn't a rush anymore, however I
have seen players that rush with a combination of 8 Marines and 4
Firebats in less than 3 and half minutes. But just a simple 3 Cannon
or 3 Sunken block stops that kind of rush cold. I would just recommend
that you use another race if you are rushing, Terran just don't have a
good early game rush unit, enemy Zealots and Zerglings are just faster
and more powerful against Terran Marines. Also if you are playing
Mutiplayer with allies, don't rush with Firebats, because their splash
damage with hurt your ally's troops too. Terran can however block in
an opponent easily, with Siege Tanks, Bunkers and Missile Turrets, not
many units can get through easily. Only Guardians, Carriers, Battle
Cruiser's Yamato Gun, and Queen's Spawn Broodling can cause you any
serious trouble. However, a few Dark Swarms with Ultralisks, Zealots,
Dark Templars, and Archons can shred your front line with Queens taking
out all your Tanks. Unless you have Firebats in Bunkers, it's pretty
much over for your frontline, and unless you got a lot more Firebats in
the background you've already lost that base to your enemy. And
remember that Firebats will only deal 4 damage to Archons and
Ultralisks since they are large units. Stim Pack is very important
here, Firebats without them are quite useless.
Part 2: Advance Strategy
The Advance Strategy is how you are going to win a late game. The idea
is similar to basic strategy, kill your opponent with your troops.
Except this is probably no longer a ground only war, it's now involved
with air units. Knowing this, you should protect your base with both
anti ground and anti air units.
Also, cloaking units comes into the game, your cloakers can deal some
free damage, but that can go for your opponent too. So you should
really protect your base well, meaning just one or two
Cannons/Spores/Turrets aren't going to cut you a break when 20 plus
Wraith with cloak attacking your mineral line.
For Terran, have a Bunker with 4 Marines right next to your Commend
Center, also build four Missile Turrets around your mineral field.
Marine and Goliath are also good at protecting against early worker
hunters. Especially Goliath with their attack range upgrade, then they
will have the same range as Guardians.
Zerg is however more easier, first have 3 or more Spores and 2 Sunken
right next to your mineral line. Hydralisks and Mutalisks aren't that
important, but keep them there just in case. Spores have 400 HP, so
Wraith and Scouts aren't going to kill them that fast. The Sunkens can
prevent Tank and Reaver drop before they really hurt you. A hot key of
Hydralisk should be kept there at all the time, burrow them and call
them out when you need them. Watch out when fast flyers go for your
workers directly instead of your Spores. Then your Hydralisks will be
your best protection with their fast and decent attacks.
Protoss is much simple in worker protection since their Photon Cannon
attacks both air and ground, first 2 Pylons that can support your
cannons near your minerals. Then build 4 or more cannons right next to
your Nexus, if you don't feel that is safe, build more if you got the
extra minerals to spare. Then have some Dragoons and Scouts, and that
is one good mineral protection, however a big swarm of Hydralisks and
Zeaglings with a good number advantage can overtake that base easily.
However, 3 Reavers and a few High Templars can easily overturn the tide
of the battle with their extremely high damage and their awesome range.
The Protoss most powerful late game unit is the Carrier, and a fully
upgraded Carrier with 8 Interceptors deals 72 damages. The Carrier
possess 300 HP and 150 shields, they are very difficult to destroy (but
they are also the most expensive unit in the game), and they takes a
long time to make. Also, the Protoss has some awesome magic spells and
technology, they should be researched and put into use. Your best bet
at winning a late game is 12 Carriers (fully upgraded!), a few Arbiters
to cloak the Carrier and a few Observers to detect cloak units (the
Observer is useless against Zerg since they can't cloak any air
attackers, just add another Carrier or Arbiter). This will require a
large amount of time, money and gas, and you will probably need to
expend to a lot of other mineral spots to get gas faster. The best way
to speed up this is to build 4 or 5 Stargates (maybe more), and have
only Fleet Beacon and Stargates early on, once you have your 10 or so
Carriers, then go into Arbiter, Observers, and your upgrades. However
I would recommend you to have a group of Zealots and Dragoons to rush
the enemy base before you attack, so you can see what they have before
you attack with your main forces. You can also use a few Scouts to
check out the enemy base but the odds are they will not come back.
Your base should be well defended through out the game, build Photon
Cannons around your base, and a few near your buildings and Mineral
fields is really important. Scatter Dragoons and Scouts around your
base in case of transport drop attack. Also Protoss Archons work well
in both attacking and defending. The only thing you should really
watch out for are Terran Siege Tanks, Zerg Guardians, and Protoss
Reavers, and against all of these units, a group of 8 Scouts with speed
upgrade should do the job. However, if you are doing this, you will be
really poor if your opponent is attacking you non-stop with Zealots and
Dragoons, the money to keep your front line Cannons can just drain you
dry. And with help of Reavers and Drops, you probably won't have the
time and money for Carrier/Arbiter push. So when that happens, switch
to more ground troops, since ground troops are cheaper and the
attack/armor upgrades aren't that important. However, Zealot walk
speed and Dragoon attack range must be upgrades. Scouts are just too
expensive, so you should just get something else instead. High Templar
and Dark Templars are also quite good, High Templar is one of the most
feared units for Protoss. Their Psi Storm deals over 200 damage if the
unit stays in the storm. And with the cheap cost of only 75 energy, a
High Templar can fire 3 times before drained dry. Even then, 5 seconds
later, two drained Templars will form a powerful healthy Archon which
splashes 30 damage without any upgrade (and with Shield Battery nearby,
it will be very difficult to kill off the Archon). Dark Templar's free
cloaking is quite annoying, unless you have multi-detectors nearby,
your opponent will just go for your single Science Vessel or Overlord
with Scouts and then their Dark Templars will murder your army
completely before your backup detector arrives. Remember to hot key
some High Templars near your front line, they can shred almost any
incoming units with their Psi Storms.
Terrans have some great mid/late game units, their Siege Tanks have the
best range in all ground units, and their damage is awesome, too.
Basically, 6 plus Siege Tanks in Siege mode with 4 Bunkers and some
Missile Turrets can stop almost any incoming ground attack. The Terran
Battle Cruisers are the best air unit (Carriers slow firing rate make
them the second best air unit), their 34 upgraded damage for both air
and ground make them trustable, and their Yamato Gun dishes out 260
damage with great range. The best way to win against a computer is
just build a few Supply Depots to block off the exit to your base.
(This don't work in maps that have multi exits and against Terran CPU,
since their Siege Tanks will attack your Supply Depot, you can still
pull it off if you get Wraith fast enough), and build Bunkers with
Marines with Tanks in Siege Mode to back up the fire power. The
computers don't attack the Supply Depot, but they can't get to your
bunker, so they just run around while you are shooting them down. But
watch out for Hydralisk and Dragoons, they can attack your bunker
straight, so have a few SCVs near by to repair it as soon as it gets
damaged. You should get Tanks fast or your bunker will be crash fast,
since Marines deal pitiful damage even if you upgraded to the max.
Once you have secured your base with Missile Turrets and ground units
around your base, start on making Starports (6 or 7 recommended),
however an early 4 plus Reaver drop on your workers can cripple you
greatly. Once your base is secure, go on ahead to Armory (build three
since upgrades takes awhile, but for those of you who wants Battle
Cruisers fast, and build the Science Facility first, then go into
Armory. Another thing I found out that might be useful is when a SCV
is building, you can cancel it on the SCV and have it do something
else, and you can come back later and finish it off with another SCV.
So that means you can block off your exit faster now that you don't
have to finish off the buildings. A 12 Battle Cruiser fleet and a few
Science Vessels can probably take out any enemy base, but than Psi
Storm and mass Hydralisk swarms can easily counter these expensive
fleets. The Science Vessel's Emp Shockwave is great against Protoss
since it drains all energy and shield from that unit (make a Protoss
Archon with only 10 HP, your SCV can finish off the Archon). If you
are fighting against Zerg, don't bring the Science Vessel, just bring
another Battle Cruiser. If you are fighting against multi enemies,
repair your Battle Cruiser before charging into another enemy base.
While defending your base, have Vultures lay Spider Mines outside your
base, it can act as a detector for an attack. Spider mines also
workers well in major chock points on the map, but you have to really
know the map if you are blocking choke points. Science Vessels are a
good target for both Lockdown and Yamato Gun, so be sure to bring 4 or
more when going up against a cloak happy opponent. Remember once your
only detector is destroyed, Wraith will shred your Battle Cruiser fleet
and because of Cruiser's slow speed, they won't able to run away. Your
Comsat Scanner isn't that useful, it loses effect in 2 or 3 seconds,
your Battle Cruisers won't able to take out any more than 5 or 6
Wraith, the rest will just completely destroy your very expensive
fleet. (12 Cruisers fleet cost 4800 minerals and 3600 gas without
upgrades, and lets not mention the time and effort put into it.) Tank
push is also good way to go, with protection from other units, Tank's
11 range can drill your way to victory, but flyers and close-up melee
attackers can really damage your Tanks unless proper backup is
available.
Zerg have some weak late game units, their Guardians are your best bet
at winning, protected by Scourge and Mustlisk (Devours for Brood Wars),
they can win the game. Another easy way to win is fully upgrade your
Hydralisk, and rush them by the 100s. They can just over whelm your
opponent and since they attack both land and air, you can just leave
everything to them and just watch as they tear up your opponent's base,
but Reaver and Psi Storm easily counters those. But remember this
won't work unless you have a large amount of Hydralisks (above 80
recommended), and you should have some flyers to back up Hydralisks in
case they can't finish it off. They are great targets for Terran
Spider mines and Siege Mode Tanks, Reavers works wonders on mass
Hydralisk rush, I would recommend have an Overlord there to detect and
a few Guardians to take out the Tanks before charging in. And of
course send a few Zerglings to rush to see how the enemy's base is
defended first, Queen's Parasite is also good here. Zerg has some
great attacking buildings, their Sunken Colony has 400 HP and deals 40
damage, but unless they are built together, they won't work that well.
The Spores are however weaker, they only deals 15 damage, but your
Hydralisks can patrol your base and they can take out almost any air
unit with their cheap cost and large numbers. Spread your Overlord
around for cloak detection. Also send a Zergling to a further exit to
your base, it can be used as early warning of an enemy attack, and have
it burrow so enemies wont know about it. But against the computer it
might not work, since they always know where to scan and they have
everything perfect with their detector. You should build your Sunkens
and Spores close together, if built too far apart, they won't work very
well, since they might not all attack because they just can't move at
all. When playing against another human player, send your Zerglings to
all the mineral fields and have them burrow right next to the crystals.
If your player color is blue, it will work wonders in Twilight and
other dark maps. When your opponent decide to expend, and have all
their main troops guarding their new base, attack their main base. If
their troops go back trying to save their main base, have your
Zerglings attack the new base. Both way you get something out of it.
Remember map control is very important, unless you are willing to be
rushed non stop by your opponent, you should take good care of the map.
*Note, an easy way to win against a Zerg computer is a Sunken Colony
rush, this is easily accomplished by first have a Drone morph into a
Spawning Pool, and while the Spawning Pool is still building. Than
have another Drone build a Creep Colony on enemy Zerg's Creep, upgrade
the Creep Colony to Sunken and rush with your Zerglings, and this
should be a very easy win. This Strategy works for Protoss also, but
their Photon Cannon only has 200 HP and require a Pylon and are easily
killed by enemy workers. Photon Cannon requires a Forge and a Pylon,
but one Probe can build multi Cannons in a matter a seconds. However I
don't recommend you doing this, this is for a pro player using a new
name to rack in 10 wins, so he or she can play ladder without wasting
any time on long boring games.
Note- I swear I see these 7 vs 1 zerg comp rush games everywhere on
B.net. What is the point of playing this, there isn't even any kind of
challenge here, you just run all your workers there and you will win.
It doesn't really matter that you have a lot of wins, if you can't take
on against a good human player, it means you suck in StarCraft. So
when playing against other people, don't be scared of their records,
I've seen people with 200 wins who can't stop a simple and quite slow 6
Zerglings rush if they know about it coming. One time I've saw this
guy with 120 wins and 10 lose, he don't even protect his main mineral
base, I scout with a Shuttle, and found nothing. Than I dropped on him
and I won with only 6 Reavers, non of them are even damaged. So record
doesn't really mean anything, so don't be a fool and ban anyone with a
decent record.
Personally, I got over 200 wins, and I don't think I'm that good. I've
lost a lot of games (actually I've lost over 100 and won only around
500 with all my records add together), and still sometimes when I play
2v2 or 3v3, people would boot me because of my record.
Part 3: Terran Units and Buildings
Keys
Unit name: the unit's name, it's how you tell what it is
Unit HP: how much life it has
Unit armor: how much it can stand abuse
Unit ground attack: how much abuse it can deliver
Unit air attack: how much air abuse it delivers
Unit cost: how much it cost
Unit supply cost: how much the unit eats
Unit size: how fat it is
Unit attack range: how far the abuse can go
Unit upgrade: how much improvement it has for it's abuse
Unit ability: the unit's special abuse
Unit requirement: what the unit needs to be built
Unit best usage: what the unit should be used on
Unit summary: what the unit is about (mostly abuse wise)
Building name: building's name, what do you think
Building ability: what can the building do
Building HP: amount of abuse the building can stand
Building cost: building's cost
Building Summary: about the building
Damage Types*Important! I repeat, this is very important!
Normal-Unit always deals the amount of damage after the armor. The
most seen type of damage.
Concussive-Concussive Damage does 50% damage against Medium units and
25% against large units. Very bad against buildings since they count
as large units. This type of damage is only seen in Terran units.
Explosion-Unit does 50% damage against Small units and 75% against
medium units. Much better than Concussive since they hit buildings for
full damage, most mid game units have this damage type.
Splash-All unit within the blast suffers half or one fourth of the
damage, however the main enemy unit will suffer the full damage. The
best type of damage, because it attacks many units with one hit.
However, some Splash will also damage your units nearby (Siege Tanks),
and all Splash type damage hurts ally's units within the damage range.
1. Unit name: SCV
Unit HP: 60
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Fusion Cutter, 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: Infantry Armor Upgrade
Unit ability: build various buildings, mine minerals, mine gas
Unit requirement: Commend Center
Unit best usage: SCV are obvious used for mining, however they are also
used in repairs, keep a few around with your Mech units
Unit summary: this is the worker unit for Terran, the SCV builds all
the building for the Terran race. The SCV also repairs any damaged
Mech. units and buildings. SCV's can repair one another if damaged.
SCV stands for something like Space Construction Vehicle, this counts
for both organic and machine. Both Lockdown and Mealstrom works on
this unit. SCVs are pretty good attackers compared to Probes, they
have high HP, but they don't heal like the other workers.
Unit name: Marine
Unit HP: 40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Gauss Rifle 6 (normal)
Unit air attack: Gauss Rifle 6
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 4/5
Unit upgrade: attack, armor and range
Unit ability: Stim Packs, Marine takes 10 damage, but it now fires
twice as fast, and deals a bit more damage.
Unit requirement: Barrack
Unit best usage: Marines are used in large groups against almost any
enemy unit
Unit summary: the basic troop for the Terran race, with a Bunker,
Marines can be very useful. However, it's low HP and low damage makes
them less useful later on when in small numbers. Stim Packs should be
put into use, since dropping with 8 Marines is useful and can be
accomplished fast. Marine alone is very useless, however together,
they can more useful. Zealots and Zerglings won't able to get to them
in time to attack. Marines attacks are quite fast, but not as fast
like close up units like Zealots and Zerglings.
Unit name: Firebat
Unit HP: 50
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Flame Thrower, 16 (concussive)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 25 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 2
Unit upgrade: attack and armor
Unit ability: Stim Packs (see above for Marine's ability)
Unit requirement: Barrack, Academy
Unit best usage: Firebats are only used early on against Zealots and
Zerglings, their use decreases as the game progress
Unit summary: a good unit used for protect your base, it can only
attack ground, but it deals 16 damage without any upgrades, that is
very good against Zerglings and Zealots rushes. The Firebats also have
splash damage, and that is very useful for a rush or going up against
tightly grouped up enemies. Keep in mind that Firebats will also
damage your ally's troops if they are near, although not dealing the
full 16 damage, but enough to kill ally's Zealots and Zerglings in
time. Firebats in Bunkers is the only way for Terran to stop Dark
Swarm/Zergling combo. The Firebat's use decrease in time because of
their Concussive type damage. But always keep a Firebat in a Bunker
unless it's a island, since Marines and Ghost can't cut it against mass
close up swarm attacks. Stim Packed Firebats will shred Zealot swarms
like a hot knife through butter, 12 Stimed Firebats can take out 20
Zealots grouped together without a problem. Once Stim Packed, Firebats
will basically have close to 0 recovery, they will almost keep firing
non-stop until the effect is over.
Unit name: Ghost
Unit HP: 45, 200 energy
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: C-10 Canister Rifle, 10 (concussive)
Unit air attack: C-10 Canister Rifle, 10 (concussive)
Unit cost: 25 minerals, 75 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 7
Unit upgrade: Lock Down, Cloaking, Sight Range, +50 Energy, attack and
armor
Unit ability: Lock Down stops a Mech. unit from moving and attacking,
Cloaking cloaks the Ghost, Nuclear Strike nukes where ever you point,
you will lose the Nuke if the Ghost dies.
Unit requirement: Barrack, Science Facility with Covert Orps.
Unit best usage: Ghost is used for their abilities, Nuke and Lockdown
mainly.
Unit summary: The Ghost is a good unit to have, their low HP make them
very easy to kill, but they have a great set of ability. Lockdown
works only against Mech. units in Terran and Protoss, all Zerg units
are unaffected by that, and Nuclear Strike will Nuke a large area for
500 damage in a 18x18 matrix area. Overall this is a good unit to have
even if you don't plan to using Nukes. Ghost's attack is rather weak,
since all buildings counts as large units. So meaning Ghost will only
deal 25% of it's total possible damage. Ghost is not meant to be used
as an attacker, Ghost's ability is what it is for. Cloaking isn't
important unless you are nuking, since Lockdown as about 10-11 range
and your Ghost won't be killed that fast anyways. Stoping enemy
transport is great way to use Lockdown, since once the transport dies,
the cargo goes with it. Cloaking and attacking isn't meant for Ghost,
since just one Siege Tank will take a Ghost 45 hits to kill and a
healthy Hive will take a Ghost 750 hits, and during this time the Hive
will probably heal for 600 plus, which means another 200 hits for the
Ghost. And that should take around 30 minutes, possibly more, I think
your Ghost will die because of old age by than.
Unit name: Vultures
Unit HP: 80
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Fragmentation Grenade 20 (concussive)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 75 minerals
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 4
Unit upgrade: speed upgrade, spider mines, attack and armor
Unit ability: Spider Mines are mines that you plant, it deals 125
damage when enemy steps on it, but a Dragoon or other long range units
can shoot it down before it fires.
Unit requirement: Factory
Unit best usage: Vultures are used most as fast scouts for enemy
expansion, Spider Mine comes in handy against ground swarms and Ghosts
Unit summary: Vulture isn't that useful other than their Spider Mine
ability, they can't really attack and are quite useless in rushes.
Their good speed makes them good scouts, their 20 damage might look
powerful, but they attacks are quite slow, and will get destroyed fast
by enemy units. Spider Mine will also attack cloaked units like Dark
Templar and Ghost, but Spider Mine doesn't detect cloaked units. (sent
in by s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com) And basically, Vulture only has two
uses, scouting and anti-Ghost nukes with their mines. However Vultures
can just run right pass Bunkers and take very little damage with their
awesome speed. Spider Mines comes with the Vulture once it's
researched, each Vulture has 3 mines, once the mines are used, you will
need new Vultures to get new mines. Once upgraded, Vultures have the
best speed in StarCraft, but they are hard to stop when they usually
over run the point you chose, usually into a busy Cannon field or
Sunken field.
Unit name: Siege Tanks
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor:
Unit ground attack: Arclite Cannon 20 damage (explosive)
Siege Mode Arclite Shockwave 70 damage (explosive/splash)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5, Siege Mode 11
Unit upgrade: Siege Mode, attack and armor
Unit ability: Siege Mode
Unit requirement: Factory, Machine Shop
Unit best usage: Siege Tanks are best at attacking, even if they are
good at defense. Tank push one of the most important aspect any Terran
player must know how to perform.
Unit summary: The Siege Tanks is one of the best ground unit in
StarCraft, it has the best range when in Siege Mode (11), it has one of
the best damage (70 without upgrade), but it is slow when switching
from Tank mode to Siege Mode. But this is one of the best ground unit
you can have, with support from other close range units, Siege Tank is
your best bet at a win. When it is in Siege Mode, it can't attack
units too close, so bring along a few Marines, Firebats, Goliaths and
or Wraiths to give Siege Tanks close up supports. Siege Tanks also has
splash damage up to 2 space away. Siege Tanks next to Bunkers are
awesome in your base protection, most opponent will try to avoid Siege
Tanks when they are rushing (human players only), so this can be used
to your advantage. For opponents that relying mostly on Photon Cannons
and Sunken Colonies, your Siege Tanks can shred those in no time.
However practice guessing your Tank's range before changing them from
mode to mode. Also Siege Tanks only has around 10 sight range but with
11 attack range, so they can actually fire on targets out of their
sight range.
Unit name: Goliath
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Twin Auto Cannon 12 (normal)
Unit air attack: Hellfire Missile Pack 20 (explosive)
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 4 ground, 6/9 air
Unit upgrade: attack, armor and air attack range
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Armory, Factory
Unit best usage: Goliaths are used as protection units, their slow
ground attack makes them useless against mass swarm attacks. Goliaths
are best as ground to air protection against Guardians or other slow
moving air units.
Unit summary: this is a very good unit to have in both protecting your
base and attacking. Goliath have both good ground attack and air
attack, a group of fully upgraded Goliath can easily protect your new
expended base. The only Weakness that the Goliath have is their low HP
and their slow ground attack rate, but overall this is a good unit to
have and you should have them patrol your base for protection. Goliath
makes great Siege Tanks escorts, and with SCVs repairing, your troops
should break through any defense. Goliath have great ground to air
range once upgraded, it will than have the same range as Guardians, and
with level 3 attack, it deals 32 damage. But Goliath bad ground fire
recovery makes them useless against Zerglings or Zealot swarms. But
you got your Firebats in Bunkers to help out against those. Goliath
can replace your Missile Turrets in anti-air protection for your base,
since they can actually move, but keep Missile Turrets for cloak
detection.
Unit name: Wraith
Unit HP: 120, 200 energy
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Burst Laser 8 (normal)
Unit air attack: Gemini Missile 20 (explosive)
Unit cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: attack, armor, cloaking, and +50 energy
Unit ability: Cloaking, cloak your Wraith, requires 25 energy to
activate, and uses 1 energy per second.
Unit requirement: Starport
Unit best usage: Wraith, more a protection unit than attacking unit,
weak ground attack. However, Wraith are excellent worker hunters and
air-to-air attack units with their cloaking ability. These are also
great Overlord Hunters.
Unit summary: The Wraith is a basic air unit, it has good air attack,
but weak ground attack. It cloaking ability makes it a good unit to
stop opponent's mineral production early on in the game, just cloak it
and go into the mineral fields (does not work against Zerg, since their
Overlord detects, but you can go Overlord Hunting then). This strategy
works well, but only early on. Your opponent can get detectors before
you get your Wraith, but some just people just don't. So make them
suffer for their mistake. Wraith are good escorts for Siege Tanks and
Drop Ships, their air to air attack is quite damaging and with their
cloaking ability Wraith should last quite long. But once detected,
they are pretty much dead with their low HP and weak ground attack.
Wraith are excellent Overlord hunters with their decent speed and air-
to-air attack damage. And you can start your hunt as soon as you have
6 Wraith, add more to your hot key later on. Wraith also makes good
Bat
Unit name: Drop Ship
Unit HP: 200
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor
Unit ability: Load, Unload units
Unit requirement: Starport, Control Tower
Unit best usage: like it's name, the Drop Ship drops off units.
Unit summary: this is a transport ship, it has medium speed, and make a
lot since these will die when you make drops. Drop Ship has a slow
building speed compare to other Transports, but it can be repaired fast
by your SCVs. However, Drop Ship is the slowest transport in all three
races, but it starts with one armor. But just one armor won't make
much of a difference since most unit's air-to-air attack is over 20.
These are pretty much dead once confronted by Scouts, Wraith, Scourge
or Goliath in open ground, and with because the game slow reaction
speed, the cargo will be pretty much gone for sure too. Drop Ship has
pretty bad startup speed, but once it makes the drop in enemy's base,
100 mineral and 100 gas has been put to good use already.
Unit name: Science Vessel
Unit HP: 200, 200 energy
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 225 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor, Irritate, Emp Shockwave, +50 energy
Unit ability: Defensive Matrix, Emp Shockwave, and Irritate
Unit requirement: Starport, Science Facility
Unit best usage: the only Terran unit able to detect, their range and
abilities are great, and is a must for any base you might have. This
is a must get for Brood Wars, since Lurkers, Dark Templars and Wraith
can easily avoid Missile Turrets or just destroy the single Turrets
with their attacks.
Unit summary: Science Vessel is a very useful unit to have, Emp
Shockwave drains energy from a enemy (it also drains Protoss Shields!
And that can make a Archon have only 10 HP). Irritate is a useful
spell against Zerg, cast that on a unit and the unit begin to grow in a
gas, the unit will run around and damage all units near him. Defensive
Matrix will add a defensive shield to a unit for a short period of
time, the shield has 250 hit points, all damage assign to that unit
will be reduced to 1 until shield runs out. The Science Vessel is also
a detector, so bring to them along on an attack. Compare the Science
Vessel to the other Detectors, the Science Vessel stands out with it's
decent HP and good speed. Defensive Matrix with Ghost will not work,
since Ghost's cloak ability will not be there if he is shielded.
Science Vessel can get killed fast in battle, so remember to bring more
than just one.
Unit name: Battle Cruiser
Unit HP: 500, 200 energy
Unit armor: 3
Unit ground attack: ATA Laser 25 (normal)
Unit air attack: ATS Laser 25 (normal)
Unit cost: 400 minerals, 300 gas
Unit supply cost: 8
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 8
Unit upgrade: Yamato Gun, +50 energy, attack and armor
Unit ability: Yamato Gun, a beam attack, deals 260 damage
Unit requirement: Starport with Control Tower, Science Facility with
Physic Lab.
Unit best usage: best in large groups, Battle Cruisers gets beaten down
easily when out numbered by other units. Battle Cruisers are extremely
powerful, they take a while to get wear down, so they are best used in
combat or base defense. Their poor speed makes them terrible when need
to move to a far place.
Unit summary: this is the best air unit in the game, the Battle
Cruiser's Yamato Gun can take out a Photon Cannon in one shot, so these
make great attackers. Scourge doesn't work against Battle Cruisers
unless you sent in a very large number, since one hit from a Battle
Cruiser is just enough to kill a Scourge. The biggest reason that the
Battle Cruiser is the best air unit is because it's high firing rate,
the Battle Cruiser can get in around 3 hits or maybe more before a
Carrier can finish launching. (Also, Carrier's damage will be reduced
to only 24 against Battle Cruiser's armor, if no one got any upgrades
and the Carrier has 8 Interceptors). Battle Cruisers movements are
quite slow, but they can scare the hell out of the opponents when in
large numbers. And people tend to avoid direct contact with large
Battle Cruiser fleets since their 500 HP is difficult to get rid off,
not to mention the number of death they'll receive for their units.
Also most damaged Battle Cruisers will get repaired by SCVs (unless the
owner is a complete idiot, or a really lazy person), so in matter of
seconds they will have full 500 HP and high armor again. And that
means, unless you kill a Battle Cruiser before it gets away, the Battle
Cruiser will come back at full HP in a few seconds.
Unit name: Nuclear Missile
Unit HP: 0
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: 500 (splash)
Unit air attack: 500 (splash)
Unit cost: 200 mineral, 200 gas
Unit supply cost: 8
Unit attack range: 9
Unit upgrade: none
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Missile Silo, Science Facility with Covert Orps
Unit best usage: used against a large portion of buildings, like a
Cannon Field or Sunken Field.
Unit summary: this is the bad boy of StarCraft, it deals 500 damage (or
2/3 of the units total possible HP, which ever is more damaging),
enough said right there! This can knock out any unit near by and
totally damage all buildings near the explosion. It has a great damage
range (9), and if used right, Nukes are your best weapon. You use your
Ghosts to launch your Nukes, and you can cloak your Ghost to make the
job easy and fast. However the Nuke will take around 10 or so seconds
to be fired, and during that time your Ghost dies, you will not only
lose your Ghost, you lose your Nuke too. However, the spot the Nuke is
firing will show a red flashing dot, so your opponent will very likely
know where your Ghost is. But with some protection from Battle
Cruisers and Medic, your Ghost should finish off the job easily, just
remember to move out fast enough so the nuke won't damage your Cruisers
too.
Terran Buildings
Building name: Commend Center
Building cost: 400 minerals
Building ability: Build SCV, Comsat Station, Nuclear Silo
Building HP: 1500
Building Summary: The Head Quarter for Terran race, it provide 10
supply unit for you, and it can fly like most other Terran Buildings.
Commend Center can easily help you expend, since lifting them off and
flying them to the island takes a lot lesser time to build one.
Lifting off Commend Center and flying them off to islands is a great
way to go in most island maps.
Building name: Comsat Station
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Comsat Swipe (you scan target area) 50 energy per use
Building HP: 500, 200 energy
Building Summary: you will need one of these for both easy fast
scouting and for cloaked enemy units. The scan last for about 2-3
seconds, so it's not that useful against cloak detection unless you
have a large army stationed very close by. Use this for scouting more
than cloak detection, since the scan just don't last long enough.
Remember to scan the enemy's base to find out about their gaming
method.
Building name: Nuclear Silo
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: arm nuke
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: you get this if you want nukes. Have 3 Nuclear Silos
if you plan to use nukes since the nuke takes quite some time to build.
If you are playing a cheap map, try not to go into Nukes, since Nukes
are expensive and time consuming. Don't lift off a Commend Center with
an armed nuke, since you will lose it once the building lifts off.
Building name: Supply Depot
Building cost: 100 minerals
Building ability: provide 8 supply units
Building HP: 500
Building Summary: just a boring old farm for you.
Building name: Refinery
Building cost: 100 minerals
Building ability: allow you to collect gas
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: just a boring old gas collector.
Building name: Barrack
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: create Marines, Firebats, Ghosts, and Medics
Building HP: 1000
Building Summary: this is where you make all your infantry units, you
will need more than one Barrack if you plan on making large numbers of
infantry units. Keep in mind that all these units have low HP and will
die very fast against Dark Templar, Lurkers, Siege Tanks, Reavers, and
especially Psi Storm from High Templar. Infantry units don't really
have a good chance when going up against a large Battle Cruiser fleet,
a Guardian swarms, or a Carrier fleet. They tend to die on you before
they get there to deal any damage. Scatter all these units around and
they can be more useful, when grouped together, one Psi Storm will take
out 10 or more infantry units before they move out. Medics will
automatically heal all units built here if damaged, but not fast enough
against large enemy swarms or high damage units like Reavers.
Building name: Engineering Bay
Building cost: 150 Minerals
Building ability: Upgrade Infantry Attack, Upgrade Infantry Armor
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: the Engineering Bay is where you upgrade all your
Infantry units. The first level of upgrade doesn't have any
requirements. The next two levels of upgrade requires a Science
Facility, but you will need it to build Missile Turrets anyway. This
building should come the same time you get your Factory if not earlier.
This is very important against early Lurker or Dark Templar rush,
unless you have a few Missile Turrets before the cloaked attackers
comes, you pretty much lost the game.
Building name: Missile Turrets
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: Long Bolt Missile 20 damage (explosive)
Building HP: 200
Building Summary: this is a detector as well as an air defense
building. Build these close together and have a few Firebats around
cause enemies can do a 3-4 drop ship at once, and have has a Protoss
Archon running loose in your base. Missile Turrets will get damaged,
so have a SCV to repair it as soon as it gets damaged. Remember all
Terran buildings will burn down if hit points are red. Missile Turrets
have a decent firing rate, but the Long Bolt Missiles they fire don't
get to the target for half a second or so. So a drop is easily
accomplished when one is dropping with a Defensive Matrix transport.
However, units in Missile Turret's range will at least get hit twice if
not more.
Building name: Factory
Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: build Vulture, Siege Tanks, Goliath, add-on Machine
Shop
Building HP: 1250
Building Summary: this is where all Terran Mech. units are built. This
is a good building, Goliath can replace Marines in defending against
air units with their powerful attack. This can be built right after
the Barrack, but don't get it too early since all units here are
expensive compare to your infantry units. The units here are more
powerful then those from the Barrack, but both have their own use.
Building name: Machine Shop
Building cost: 50 mineral, 50 gas
Building ability: Vulture speed upgrade, Spider Mines, Siege Mode
Upgrade, Goliath air attack range upgrade
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: it's cheap so get it, beside, this is the whole point
of getting the Factory. All Mech. Unit's ability are researched here.
Siege Tank Siege Mode upgrade is the most important one here. Goliath
air range is only useful against air units, so don't get it unless you
have a rather weak air defense system. Vulture's abilities are quite
useful, Spider Mines can stop most ground melee attackers with a
problem, and once upgraded in speed, Vultures can run past almost any
defense with a clear path ahead.
Building name: Starport
Building cost: 150 minerals, 15 gas
Building ability: build Wraith, Drop Ship, Science Vessel, Battle
Cruiser, and control tower add-on
Building HP: 1300
Building Summary: this is where you get all your air units for Terran.
I usually get around 6 Starports or more once I have enough money, and
all units here takes quite a long while to build. Units here are a bit
expensive, but they are flyers that can move more freely around the
map.
Building name: Control Tower
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Wraith Cloaking, +50 Wraith energy
Building HP: 500
Building Summary: you will need this if you plan on building any other
flyer units other than the Wraith, also you can get the Wraith ability
upgrades here too. It's cheap anyway, so get it. The Wraith cloak
ability is very important if you plan on using any Wraith at all.
Building name: Science Facility
Building cost: 200 minerals, 150 gas
Building ability: Emp Shockwave, Irritate, +50 Science Vessel energy,
Covert Orps add-on, and Physic's Lab add-on
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: you really have to build this for a 20 plus minute
game. Get the Physic's Lab first to get Battle Cruiser, then get
Covert Orps to use Ghosts and Nukes. This building also allows you to
upgrade beyond the 1 level armor and weapon. This building also allows
you to make Science Vessel, the only moving detector for Terran.
Building name: Covert Orps
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Lockdown research, Personal Cloaking, Ghost Sight,
Ghost + 50 energy
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: something you need if you plan on nuking someone.
Get cloaking and sight range if you want to nuke. Lockdown and +50
energy should be researched later on, and only against Terran or
Protoss, Lockdown doesn't work against any Zerg units. The plus 50
energy isn't that important, the nuke takes a bit long to launch but a
Ghost with 100 or so energy should be more than enough on almost any
map.
Building name: Physic's Lab
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Yamato Gun, +50 Battle Cruiser energy
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: get this if you want Battle Cruisers, Battle
Cruiser's ability are also researched here, they are quite fast, so
don't make two. And of course, get the gun researched first, then get
the energy increase. Battle Cruiser's gun ability isn't really that
useful since they are take a bit time to aim and fire, but they can
help you blow a big hole in almost any defense with their 11 range and
high damage.
Building name: Armory
Building cost: 100 mineral, 50 gas
Building ability: Mech. attack, Mech. armor, air attack, air armor
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: this is where all non-organic units are upgraded, get
3 or more to make upgrades faster. Remember to upgrade armor first if
you are playing defense, upgrade attack if you are planning to attack.
This building is also required for Goliath's to be built.
Brood War Units and Buildings
Unit name: Medic
Unit HP: 60, 200 energy
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 25 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor, Restoration, Optic Flare
Unit ability: Heal, heals any organic unit for 2 HP every energy spent,
Restoration removes all status ailments, and Optic Flare reduce a
unit's sight range to 1, given that unit the Blind status.
Unit requirement: Academy, Barrack
Unit best usage: useful all around, but best with large Infantry
swarms.
Unit summary: the Medic is hard to use for human players, but the CPU
takes full advantage of this great unit. Medic will automatically heal
all organic units that were damaged nearby, have a few of these if you
are attacking with all Infantry units. One Medic and one Marine can
kill a Sunken Colony. Medic can only heal one unit at a time, so bring
more than one. Optic Flare is great against opponent using only 1
detector, and they won't know that it's blind unless they pay close
attention. Medic also heals ally's organic units, so all Zerg units
and some Protoss units will get healed by your Medic.
Unit name: Valkyrie Frigate
Unit HP: 200
Unit armor: 2
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: Halo Rockets, 5 (explosive)
Unit cost: 200 minerals, 125 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: attack, and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Stargate, Armory, and Control Tower
Unit best usage: decent air-to-air attacks, but Valkyrie Frigate isn't
that useful. Valkyrie can replace Wraith in air protection.
Unit summary: only attacks air, but still a good defensive unit, as
well as supporting other attacking units like Siege Tanks. The
Valkyrie has splash damage up to 2 spaces away. If you upgrade their
attack up to level three, Valkyrie will deal 64 damage (8 Halo Rockets
times 8 damage). These make great Overlord Hunters, 12 can shred
Overlords before they run away. These also makes good air swarm
counters, Guardians/Carriers/Battle Cruisers don't stand a chance
against them since they splash their damage and have a decent 200 HP
and 2 armor. When going up against 12 Mutalisk/Wraith/Scout worker
hunters, 10 Valkyries can take out all of them out and take every
little damage.
Part 4: Zerg Units and Buildings
Unit name: Larva
Unit HP: 25
Unit armor: 20
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 0
Unit supply cost: 0
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: 0
Unit ability: Evolve into other Zerg units
Unit requirement: Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Unit best usage: needs this little thing to start your swarm
Unit summary: this is a little bug that evolves into big bugs. These
little things comes out pretty fast, so Zerg can make more workers fast
than the other races. Don't worry much about the Larva, they have the
best armor in StarCraft and almost all attacks to them will be reduced
to one. These comes out pretty quick, about the same amount of time
for a Drone to morph in. But there can be only 3 Larva at a time at
each Hatchery, so you need a few Hatcheries to pump out your swarm.
Unit name: Drone
Unit HP: 50
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Spines 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 2
Unit upgrade: Carapace
Unit ability: Evolve into various Buildings, mine minerals, mine gas,
and burrow
Unit requirement: Larva
Unit best usage: worker unit, so get lots to speed up your mineral
flow.
Unit summary: the basic worker unit for the Zerg race. These are
actually better attackers than the other two races since they almost
have 2 range. Remember to use damaged Drones to morph into buildings,
keep the healthy ones. A Drone that is Parasite should morph into
something so it don't go into waste. Burrow can save stranded Drones
and be used later on. If you see a large army coming to your new base,
cancel your Drone's morph and burrow them, call them out later when the
enemy is gone.
Unit name: Zergling
Unit HP: 35
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Claws 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: speed, attack speed, Carapace, melee attack, carapace
Unit ability: burrow
Unit requirement: Spawning Pool, Larva
Unit best usage: great unit early on, even useful sometimes late in the
game. Great with Dark Swarm, Consume, and Defilers with their cheap
cost and large numbers.
Unit summary: this basic ground unit for Zergs, each Larva will hatch
into two Zerglings. These are great for an early game rush, since the
other two races need a Barrack or Gateway and it will only able to
produce one or two attacker. While you will have 6 Zerglings.
Zerglings are quite useless later on, so don't bother with their
upgrades unless you are planning on mass Zergling swarm or Dark
Swarm/Zergling combo. Remember 3 Zealots can stop your Zergling rush
cold, you won't even able to take out a single Zealot. So I say, you
go for working Probes instead. Stopping their mineral production is a
great way to use Zerglings early on. But later when Lurker, Dark
Templar and Firebats are available, they will destroy almost any
Zergling swarm without any problems. Zerglings have really good speed,
and they make great scouts early on if you don't want to use a Drone
instead. And because they are so cheap, they can be sacrificed to your
Defilers and use as decoys to attract enemy's firepower. And remember
a group of 36 fully upgraded Zerglings can swarm a semi-defended base
and it would only cost you 650 bucks, and your opponent will likely
lose around 2000 mineral and many gas if they protect the base or try
to rescue it. Your large swarm will very likely have a hot key of
Zerglings left after the battle.
Unit name: Overlord
Unit HP: 200
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals
Unit supply cost: 0
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: speed, sight, transport, Carapace
Unit ability: transport, detector, 8 supply units
Unit requirement: Larva
Unit best usage: used as a detector, transport, and food supply, so
protect these. Overlord are targets for enemy air units, so protect
these from Overlord Hunters.
Unit summary: this is a unit for Zerg, the Overlord is a Supply unit, a
Detector, and a Transport. However the Overlord is not all that useful
since all the upgrades for it takes time and money, but you have to get
them in order to have a transport that moves faster than a Reaver.
Your Overlord shouldn't be cramped all together, since Valkyries and
Corsairs can kill your Overlords fast if they aren't protected well.
Scatter your Overlord around, don't crowd them into a small section
when 12 Valkyries comes in and you find yourself 50 controls below
normal. Overlord is an average Transport, they have good start-up
speed once the speed upgrade is there. But overall, Shuttle and Drop
Ship are still better since they have no other use other than
transporting units, but Overlord is also needed to detect and control.
Overlord has a better start-up speed in transporting, but Overlord
doesn't start with any armor, and unless you get the speed upgrade,
your Overlord is basically useless in moving your units.
Unit name: Hydralisk
Unit HP: 80
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Needle Spines 10 (explosive)
Unit air attack: Needle Spines 10 (explosive)
Unit cost: 75 minerals, 25 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 5/6
Unit upgrade: movement, attack range, missile attack, carapace, Lurker
Evolve
Unit ability: burrow
Unit requirement: Hydralisk Den, Larva
Unit best usage: Hydralisks are good protection units, good attacking
units, good scouting units. Since they are really cheap, you won't
mind much if 12 Hydralisks deals enough damage when they die. These
are great all around, however, unless a large number advantage is
present, Hydralisks gets beaten down fast.
Unit summary: a good defense unit as well as an offense unit, a group
of fully upgraded Hydralisks can be quite dangerous. Have a few burrow
a bit further out in front of your Sunkens and Spores, they can pop up
and do a quick kill. These are great units since they are really cheap
and spawns almost the same speed as a Marine. A large group of
Hydralisks can stop basically any large flyer fleet, meaning Battle
Cruisers or Carrier fleet can't go up against large Hydralisk swarms
without suffering large fleet damage themselves. Hydralisks are really
cheap, since spending 75 mineral and 25 gas for a 80 HP unit dealing a
decent 10 damage with good range and speed is a great way to invest
your money.
Unit name: Multalisk
Unit HP: 120
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Glave Wurm 9 (splash)
Unit air attack: Glave Wurm 9 (splash)
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 4
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: evolve Guardian/Devour
Unit requirement: Spire, Larva
Unit best usage: the best worker Hunter, their splash damage is poor,
but great on weak worker units. These are the decent protection
against worker Hunters or overlord hunters.
Unit summary: a basic flyer unit for Zerg, this can be quite good in
groups, their attack will damage another enemy unit near by when fired.
Mutalisks is however quite useless when alone, and will get killed by
many other units. The whole point of getting Mutalisk is evolving them
into Guardians and Devours later on. Mutalisks are actually quite
decent if you get them early enough, a quick Lair and a Spire won't
take anymore than 6 minutes. And very likely, a Protoss player won't
have any more than 2 or 3 Dragoons. Also, Mutalisks are quite good
against Marines, since Mutalisk's splash damage is put into good use
against crowd up Marines. Mutalisk's movement is quite fast, so a
group of 12 will give you good control of the map and taking out
enemy's expended base early on. Mutalisk also make a good worker
hunter, since a single Bunker with 4 Marines won't able to take out the
Mutalisks fast enough to stop against worker hunting.
Unit name: Scourge
Unit HP: 25
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: 0
Unit air attack: Suicide 110 (normal)
Unit cost: 25 minerals, 75 gas
Unit supply cost: 1/2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Spire, Larva
Unit best usage: Scourges are good against Carriers, Scouts, and all
transports. Their cheap cost and fast spawning make them useful, and
also you can sent 5 Scourge and see your opponent's base, you won't
mind since they are really cheap.
Unit summary: Scourge is great against Carriers and other slow big air
unit, two Scourge hatch from one Larva. Scourge is especially good
against Carrier since Carriers takes a bit of time to launch and deal
damage. Scourges can also scare away enemy Carriers, since Carriers
will die against Scourge unless they have Arbiter. Scourges are also
good units used to cripple your enemies air force, 3 Scourge kills a
Scout and a Scout cost 300 minerals and 150 gas. Only use Scourge to
cripple opponent when you have large amount of gas and no mineral. If
that happens, your opponent shouldn't have much minerals either.
Scourge have very low HP, so if your opponent have some fast firing
ground units near by, your Scourge will probably die from their attacks
before getting close enough to damage the air units. Scourge can also
be used to attract firepower when used to drop on a opponent, and
because all attack buildings (Photon Cannon, Missile Turrets, and Spore
Colony) takes at least 2 hits to kill a single Scourge. That can
provide you with the time to drop a Defiler and 6 Zerglings into your
enemy's base, and Defiler can Plague/Dark Swarm to badly damage your
opponent's base.
Unit name: Queen
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: 0
Unit air attack: 0
Unit cost: 100 mineral, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor, Spawn Brooding, Ensnare, +50 energy
Unit ability: Infest Commend Center, infests a damaged Commend Center
with HP750 or below, allowing you to make Infested Terran. Parasite
lets you see what target unit sees. Spawn Broodling, destroy target
unit and make two Broodling units for you. Ensnare slows down target
unit and units near by, Ensnare will also detect cloaked units.
Unit requirement: Queen's Nest, Larva
Unit best usage: Spawn Broodling is best against Terran's Siege Tanks,
Ensnare is a must against large Battle Cruiser fleets. Queen is used
mostly against Terran, but they are also useful against Protoss with
Ensnare. Parasite is great for spying.
Unit summary: A good unit to have, but the Queen is hard to use against
a well defended base. Use Queen against Terran base, since Spawn
Broodling is awesome against Terran Siege Tanks when in Siege Mode.
Ensnare will also detect cloaked and burrowed units near by when fired,
that includes your units. Parasite is great against almost all units,
use it on an expensive unit like Carrier or Arbiter, Battle Cruiser and
Science Vessel makes good targets too. However, if you Parasite a
worker unit, most people tend to just send the worker to your base.
They won't mind a 50 mineral lost as much as letting you see his/her
base. The Broodlings created by the Queen will last around 60 seconds,
once their energy runs out, they will die automatically. Remember
Ensnare can actually turn the tide of a losing battle for you, if you
Ensnare a fleet of Carriers or Battle Cruisers, your Devours and
Scourges will have a much better chance of taking out the fleet.
Unit name: Ultralisk
Unit HP: 400
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Kaiser Blade 20 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Unit supply cost: 6
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: speed, attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Ultralisk Cavern, Larva
Unit best usage: Dark Swarm with Ultralisk is very powerful, but takes
a large amount of time and money. Ultralisk is a good investment if
used correctly, if you don't have anything planned for the Ultralisk,
don't get them at all.
Unit summary: good attacker, but doesn't worth the time and money put
into it. You should get Hydralisks instead. It high HP allows it to
last long, but Ultralisk can not attack air. Ultralisk will also shred
under Siege Tanks with Bunkers. And Ultralisk is too fat, so it can't
burrow. However, a fully upgraded Ultralisk will have awesome speed, 6
armor and 400 HP, and deals a good always 29 damage. Ultralisk is
great against Carriers, since Carriers would only deal 8 total damage
against it when it has full armor. Carrier's only deal 6 damage at a
time and 6 armor means it deal only 1 damage. Ultralisks are good with
Dark Swarm, they make a great combo, and against Terran, Firebats will
only deal a mere 1 damage after the armor. So if you take out all the
Tanks with Guardians and Queens, your Ultralisks can shred the base
without suffering any major damage from the Infantry units.
Unit name: Defiler
Unit HP: 80, 200 energy
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: Plaque, Consume, plus 50 energy, carapace
Unit ability: Dark Swarm nullify target area, best with Ultralisk and
Zerglings with attack speed upgrade. Plaque reduces HP of units in
that area slowly to 1, this also works on buildings too, Plaque will
not kill the units but you should finish them off once the Plaque had
taken with Mutalisk since they splash damage. Consume sacrifice a unit
to add 50 energy to Defiler, and burrow
Unit requirement: Defiler's Mound, Larva
Unit best usage: Plague is good against any expensive units worth the
price, Plague is great against Carrier and Battle Cruiser Fleet because
of their slow speed. Dark Swarm can be used during both defense and
offense, Dark Swarm and stop Guardians and worker hunters for a good 60
seconds, and Dark Swarm Zergling combo is just the best around.
Consume will provide all the energy your Defilers might need. Overall,
this is a great unit and is a must get against all type of enemies.
Unit summary: they can be quite good in a hand of a pro, they take
quite long to make but are quite useful. Plaque is very useful against
Terran, since all Terran units require a SCV or a Medic to heal.
Plaque is also good against Protoss, since their HP can't be recovered
at all, but Plaque will not damage their shields. Dark Swarm and
Zergling combo is awesome, have 5 Hatchery, 2 Evolution Chamber
upgrading Melee attack and Carapace, and have Defiler Dark Swarm, rush
in with your Zerglings and tear up the place. Consume a few Zerglings,
and just have 2 or 3 Defiler will do the trick. With this you won't
even need much gas, and 25 mineral Zerglings are probably the cheapest
unit ever. Plague is good against a Battle Cruiser fleet or Carrier
fleet, their slow speed will likely land them right into the Plague,
and Devours or Scourges can easily finish them off after the Plague.
And with Consume, your Defiler will never need to charge energy, just
use a few Zerglings and your Defiler can Plague and Dark Swarm for a
long time.
Unit name: Guardian
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Acid Spore 20 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 10
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Greater Spire, Mutalisk
Unit best usage: Guardian's 9 range is their use, you use Guardians to
break open choke points against Bunkers, Cannons, Sunkens, Siege Tanks
and other units your Hydralisks or Zerglings can't reach. Even
Guardians are powerful and deals good damage, they should be used as
part of an attack, not completely the attack. Use other units to
finish off after the Guardians.
Unit summary: the Guardians have the best air to ground range in
StarCraft, it's heavy damage and long range makes it a good unit.
However the Guardian can't not attack air, and it easily killed by
Scouts, Wraiths, and other air units. It's best if you have Guardians
in large number, and have some anti-air unit defending your Guardians.
Marines and other low HP units don't stand a chance against Guardians,
Guardians will finish them off before they get close enough to fire
back. Guardians aren't that good at taking out Missile Turrets or
Spore Colony, since they tend to float a little bit and be under attack
by the building. Early Guardians rushes are great against almost any
opponent, but they are hard to pull off and require a lot of practice.
*Note all Zerg buildings requires a Drone, so the building really
requires 50 minerals more.
Building name: Hatchery
Building cost: 300 minerals
Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Lair Upgrade, produce Larva at a slow
rate
Building HP: 1250
Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units
are produced. Be sure to have 3 or 4 Hatchery so you can produce more
and faster. Hatchery only provides one supply for you, but it extends
the creep for 8 range. Hatchery is need for any expansion, and since
it takes so long to build, prepare a decent army to protect your new
base when expending.
Building name: Lair
Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Hive Upgrade, Overlord transport,
sight, speed upgrade, and produce Larva at a slow rate
Building HP: 1750
Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units
are produced. Lair only provides one supply for you. This allows any
level 2 upgrade for your swarm, this also opens up some advance
buildings for you.
Building name: Hive
Building cost: 200 minerals, 150 gas
Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Overlord transport, sight, speed
upgrade, and produce Larva at a slow rate
Building HP: 2500
Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units
are produced. Hive only provides one supply for you. Hive allows all
upgrades and buildings to be built, and the Hive also has a bit faster
Larva production rates.
Building name: Creep Colony
Building cost: 75 minerals
Building ability: evolve into Sunken Colony, Spore Colony
Building HP: 400
Building Summary: the basic Zerg base defense building, the Creep
Colony can't attack, but can be upgraded into Sunkens and Spores.
Creep Colony also extends the Zerg creep for 4 ranges. Creep Colony is
useless unless you upgrade them to either Sunken or Spore.
Building name: Sunken Colony
Building cost: 50
Building ability: Subterranean Tentacle, 40 damage (explosive)
Building HP: 400
Building Summary: a good defense unit, build these close together and
it will protect your base quit well. Sunkens deal 40 damage and has
400 HP, it is good against any early game rush. Sunken Colonies will
die rather fast against Terran Siege Tanks, but have some Zerglings
burrowed further out, so it can take out the Tanks when they do attack.
Sunken Colony has 400 HP, but they can't have any shields or
protection. Their attack speed is also quite slow, so 2 fully upgraded
Zealot can take out a Sunken easily. It's 40 damage might seem big,
but actually it greatly decreases since it's explosive damage. That's
why Zerglings can take out Sunkens, it will take Sunken 2 hits to kill
a Zergling even when Zergling has only 35 HP. Sunken will further
expend your creep for another 4 ranges after your Creep Colony.
Building name: Spore Colony
Building cost: 50 minerals
Building ability: Seeker Spores, 15 damage (normal)
Building HP: 400
Building Summary: the air defense building for Zerg, the Seeker Spores
deals poor damage but it is also a detector (you won't really need this
since you got your Overlords). However, Spore Colony has a lot faster
fire rate than Missile Turrets and Photon Cannons. Spore Colonies are
important to stop Wraith and other Overlord hunters or worker hunters.
They are also good against Terran units, since Yamato Gun doesn't kill
the Colony off, and that will give you a chance to go after the slow
moving Battle Cruisers. Spores will further your creep for another 4
ranges after your Creep Colony.
Building name: Extractor
Building cost: 50 minerals
Building ability: Gas collector
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: just collects gas, and nothing special here.
Building name: Spawning Pool
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: upgrade Zergling attack speed, Zergling movement
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: this is the first building you should get. This
allows you to make Zerglings and Sunken Colony. However a second
Hatchery can also be your first building. This is quite important
since once this is gone, you won't able to make Zerglings or upgrade
any Sunken until you replace it, also the Spawning Pool takes a bit
long to finish building itself so you can actually squeeze in another
mining Drone when it's being built.
Building name: Evolution Chamber
Building cost: 75 minerals
Building ability: upgrade melee attack, missile attack, carapace
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: the upgrade place for Zerg ground units, you should
have two so you can upgrade faster. This is really a must get building
later on, this allows Spore Colony to be built, and Spores are really
important to your base defense and cloak detection. You don't need this
early on, get these later at a Lair or even maybe Hive stage if your
opponent isn't using any cloaking units. Otherwise a Dark Templar rush
with Scouts taking out your Overlord means death for you.
Building name: Hydralisk Den
Building cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: upgrade Hydralisk speed, range, Lurker Aspect
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: get this if you want Hydralisks and Lurkers. You
should only build one of these since all upgrades are rather fast and
there are only 3 upgrades total. First upgrade the Range, then the
speed, the Lurker Aspect is only for Brood Wars. Have some Hydralisk
patrol your base and have 12 of them burrow in front of your Sunkens
and Spores, they can do quick pop up and destroy enemy units fast.
Building name: Spire
Building cost: 200 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: upgrade air attack, armor, evolve into Greater Spire
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: this is another must get building for Zerg is you
plan on using any air unit. Have two Spire since the upgrade time is
long and one will needed to be evolve into Greater Spire. Spire can be
built right after a Lair, so a early Mutalisk rush can easily be done
and be great to counter against mass Zealot rushes.
Building name: Greater Spire
Building cost: 100 mineral, 150 gas
Building ability: same as Spire
Building HP: 1000
Building Summary: this allows you to get Guardians and Devours. A
group of 36 Guardians and 24 Devours that are fully upgraded can really
wipe out almost any well defended base (but watch out for Psi Storm and
a really mass group of Valkyries). This is how I win with Zerg later
on, it's either this, Dark Swarm Zergling/Ultralisk, or 180 Hydralisks
swarm, and Guardians seems more fun.
Building name: Queen's Nest
Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: Spawn Broodlings, Ensnare, +50 energy
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: you need this to get the Hive, you can get a few
Queens here, but Queens are really hard to use. Get Queens early so
they can charge their energy. Queen's nest allows you to upgrade your
Lair to Hive.
Building name: Neduls Canal
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: create Canal Exit on Creep
Building HP: 250
Building Summary: this is a good building to have, but only when you
are playing against a computer when used offensively since human
players tends to be more careful. This building can build a canal exit
on any Creep (Creep are the purple ground that Zerg requires to build
on), and once the exit built, you can send any unit there as long as
the exit remains alive. This can be used to your advantage when
playing against computer, build the exit near their mineral fields and
just send a large group of Ultralisks and Hydralisks there. This will
badly damage your opponent and you will have a good chance of winning
the game if you pull this off. But computer will very likely have some
unit burrowed right there, and once the building starts, they will
attack it, also once the building starts, you can't cancel. And, once
the exit or entry is destroyed, the other end of the exit or entry dies
along with it. This can be both a defense or offense building, use
your Queens to Parasite some unit there to see and use the Canal to
your advantage.
Building name: Ultralisk Cavern
Building cost: 150 mineral, 200 gas
Building ability: armor and speed
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: this give you access to Ultralisk, but I would rather
use the money on Hydralisks. Some people can do a Devour Ultralisk
rush pretty good, but it's hard to pull off. In Brood Wars, you can
upgrade your Ultralisk's armor and speed in here.
Building name: Defiler Mound
Building cost: 100 mineral, 100 gas
Building ability: Plaque, Consume, +50 Defiler energy
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: this is used for Defilers. Just like Queens, Defiler
is very hard to use. But I have to say, Defiler is a very good unit.
Get Defilers early so they can charge their energy, but once you get
the Consume upgrade, they will basically have no energy problem by
consuming your Zerglings.
Brood War Zerg Units
Unit name: Lurker
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Subterranine Spines, 20 (splash)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 6
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: burrow
Unit requirement: Hydralisk, Hydralisk Den, Lurker Aspect
Unit best usage: Lurkers are great defenders, 4 Lurkers on a choke
point can stop any incoming ground swarm. However, if a detector is
available to your opponent, expect to lose all your Lurkers.
Unit summary: a good Zerg unit, good damage, and attacks while
burrowed. The Spines deals good damage against rushing enemies (splash
damage). However Lurkers can only attack when burrowed, also it deals
damage to your ally's ground units near by when attacking. So don't
have anyone else attacking when your Lurkers are burrowed and
attacking. The Lurker can't attack air and it's attack has a slow
recovery rate, so Lurkers are more of a defense unit than a offense
unit. Also, Lurkers takes quite long to burrow. Lurker is perfect
against any kind of ground swarm attack. However don't use Lurker at
choke points since they will attack the enemy when you just want see
the map. Against people without cloak detection, your Lurkers can
shred their base without them doing anything about it. Also Dark Swarm
and Lurker combo is great if you pull it off fast enough. Dark
Swarm/Lurker can cripple a enemy easily by following up with Guardians
if your opponent gets all melee attackers to counter your Lurker combo.
Against Terran, this works beyond wonders, since Firebat and Siege
Tanks are the only units that can deal damage. Siege Tanks will be all
gone from Queens and Firebats would only deal 3 damage since they are
concussive damage. Lurkers can actually hit a single unit many times
with one hit, each Spine will deal 20 damage, and a Commend Center will
get hit 3 times or 60 damage if the Lurker is placed on a good spot.
(I've seen a Ultralisk getting hit 6 times by a single Lurker, after
getting hit by the first Spine, the Ultralisk turned and run and get
hit by every single Spine after the first one, ended up taking 100
damage.)
Unit name: Devour
Unit HP: 250
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: Corrosive Acid, 25 (splash)
Unit cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 6
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Greater Spire, Mutalisk
Unit best usage: great against large Fleets, since the Spore Counter
left behind on the ship can provide better damage dealt from your
supporting units like Mutalisk and Hydralisk. Devour fires slow,
unless you are a large group of these flying skulls, one or two won't
able to kill anything fast enough. The Spores they leave behind are
able to slow the affected unit's weapon system, slowing it 1/8 of it's
total recovery speed. So as long as the Devour fires and leave behind
it's Spores, it accomplish what it's used for.
Unit summary: good anti air unit, if the enemy unit is hit by the
Devour, it will slow down in attacking speed. But since the Devour
attacks are quite slow, it is best to have them in large groups. Their
slow attack rate makes them quite useless against fast attacker like
Wraith, Scout, Corsair, and Mutalisk, but when in large numbers like 20
plus, they can be quite useful. Also the Devour can't attack ground,
so just one Marine can kill your Devour. Always have Guardians before
Devours when attacking, since you can use Scourge to defend your
Guardians and Devour takes a lot more resources and time. Devour also
splash poison spore when attacking, enemy unit will slow down in
attacking depending on how many spore it has. These spores will go
away slowly in a few minutes, you can tell by clicking the unit or just
by the purple stuff on the unit. Spore Counters also adds damage
received for current unit, every extra spore the unit has, the unit
takes one extra damage every time. Think Devour and
Corsairs/Valkyires. Devour also spores cloaked units near by. (Thanks
to s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com for some of the information on the
Devour.)
*Note, Devour splash only poison spore, it doesn't splash any damage.
On a side note here, have you ever tried fighting two Devours under the
effect of Ensnare with level 3 armor and level 0 attack, it took years
for these two to get killed. Any unit can have no more than 9 Spore
Counters. Devour doesn't make good Overlord hunters unless you have 12
or more, since Devour has the slowest attack speed in StarCraft, and if
it's been Ensnared and have 9 Spore Counters, I think they will attack
around once every minute or so.
Part 5: Protoss Units and Buildings
Unit name: Probe
Unit HP: 20/20
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Particle Beam 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 2
Unit upgrade: armor and Protoss shield
Unit ability: warp in various buildings, collect minerals and gas
Unit requirement: Nexus
Unit best usage: the worker for Protoss, these are weak attackers, but
you won't have anything else you can use against early Zergling rush.
Unit summary: your basic worker unit. Probes smaller size makes them
better in mineral collection than Drones and SCVs. Protoss Probes have
a good ability, when they build a building, instead of waiting there
like the other two races, it can return to work once the building
starts. Probes are terrible at attacking, they won't be much help
against Zerglings rushes or Zealots rushes.
Unit name: Zealot
Unit HP: 80/80
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: PSI Blades 16 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: speed, attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Gateway
Unit best usage: Zealots are powerful units, they are good early on and
later in the game. They deal high damage, they can take quite some
punishment before going down, and they are useful through out the game.
Their best use is for attacking hard frontal assaults with their high
damage and HP.
Unit summary: your basic fighting unit for Protoss, great damage and
HP. Zealots have terrible speed, and enemy Marines can actually do hit
and run against Zealots. But with upgraded speed later on, Zealot will
have almost the same speed as Zerglings. Zealots have great damage, 3
hits kills a Marine or Zerglings, so a early on 5 or 6 Zealot rush will
be great if it's under 3 minutes. Zealots takes a bit longer to make
comparing to Zerglings and Mariens, but they have over 4 times the HP
than those two units and also deals 3 times the damage.
Unit name: Dragoon
Unit HP: 80/100
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Phase Disrupter 20 (explosive)
Unit air attack: Phase Disrupter 20 (explosive)
Unit cost: 100 mineral, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5/6
Unit upgrade: attack range, attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Gateway, Cybernetic Core
Unit best usage: good protection units, weak attackers. Dragoons fires
slow, but they are excellent Battle Cruiser killers on open ground.
Dragoons are also good against close up attackers if a clear number
advantage is present.
Unit summary: attack both air and ground, however Dragoons attacks are
very slow. So have these in large groups, Dragoons make very good anti
air unit with their heavy damage. Once you get their range upgrade,
Dragoons gets a lot more useful. However, Dragoons can get killed fast
by attacker like Zerglings and Zealots with their melee attacks.
Dragoons' explosive attack isn't useful on small units, but they are
good Battle Cruiser and Carrier killers when have a decent number
advantage. 3 Dragoons easily kills a single Carrier or Battle Cruiser
with their powerful attack. A group of 30 plus can easily overpower
any large flyer fleets, and with help from your Scouts and Psi Storms,
you should able to take out any large fleets without any problem.
Unit name: High Templar
Unit HP: 40/40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: Psionic Storm, Hallucination, armor, Protoss shield, plus
50 energy,
Unit ability: Psionic Storm deals heavy damage (127 damage I think) on
target area. Hallucination makes two clone of target unit, the clones
will not able to deal damage, the clone will die when the power runs
out on it's stats, also the clone suffers the double the damage dealt
to it. Two High Templars can transform into one Archon.
Unit requirement: Templar Archive, Gateway
Unit best usage: Psi Storm can stop any kind of rush cold in it's
steps. High Templars is a must get against any opponent.
Unit summary: good decent unit, Psionic Storm is very useful against
slow enemy that are together. Badly damaged High Templar can transform
into a semi healthy Archon with full shields. Hallucination can scare
away enemy by pretending you have a large number of Carriers or make
fake units to take damage for your real unit. (I scared the heck out
of one person by Hallucination 50 something fake Carriers, I said I
will kill him with 100 Carriers, I sent all my fake things there, that
guy got scared and he quit). Psi Storm is one of the most useful
spells in StarCraft, since they can instantly kill a 100 plus HP unit
if it don't move out the way. With 5 High Templars storming one spot,
it can kill just about any unit in the storm. Learn how to hot key
your High Templars, so they can storm faster.
Unit name: Protoss Archon
Unit HP: 350/10
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Psionic Shockwave 30 (splash)
Unit air attack: Psionic Shockwave 30 (splash)
Unit cost: 2 High Templar
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 3
Unit upgrade: attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Gateway, Templar Archive, 2 High Templar
Unit best usage: Archon is a very expensive unit in gas, but if you
have a lot of extra gas, than use it on Archons. Archon can take a lot
of punishment and is easily healed by Shield Battery nearby. These are
excellent attackers against mass Zergling swarm, Zealot swarm or
Firebat swarm. Archons are also useful when used during Recall and
Drops since they take quite some time to kill.
Unit summary: Archon is one of the most powerful ground unit in
StarCraft, enough said right there. These can really kick some behind,
drop these with a Reaver and you can just watch the two tear up the
enemy's base from the in side. Also Archons have slash damage, however
the splash range is only 1 space, but its still splash. Archon warp in
is quite fast, so drained High Templars can merge and be in the fight
in no time. However, once the Archon warp-in starts, you can't cancel
it. Archons with ally's Defiler Dark Swarm is one of the most
powerful, and very easily accomplished combo in the book.
Unit name: Shuttle
Unit HP: 60/80
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 200 minerals
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: speed, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: load, unload
Unit requirement: Robotic Facility
Unit best usage: Shuttles are good transports with speed upgrade, but
they have low HP and is easily killed, so have some protections nearby.
Unit summary: an expensive transport, but with good speed once
upgraded. Shuttle is the fastest transport once upgraded, but it has a
bit of start up and slow down. When it actually starts moving, than
it's fast. You will need these for both expending and moving your slow
units like Reavers and High Templars.
Unit name: Reaver
Unit HP: 80/100
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Scarab 100 (splash)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 200 mineral, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 10
Unit upgrade: Scarab Capacity, Scarab damage, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: build Scarab
Unit best usage: The Reaver is the best unit used to Drop and Recall, a
pair of Reavers can take out all the mining workers with just a few
Scarabs.
Unit requirement: Robotic Facility, Robotic Supporting Bay
Unit summary: a good anti ground unit, great damage, but need Scarab to
fire. Each Scarab is 15 minerals, but they don't take long to build.
Reaver probably has the slowest speed in StarCraft, so use Shuttles and
do the all famous Reaver drop. Reaver also attacks quite slow, but it
deals great damage. Also Reavers have almost 3 space splash damage,
probably more than a Tank. Reaver's have great range, so taking out
Bunkers and Sunkens is their best use. However, unlike the Siege Tank,
Reaver can only fire on units with the same elevation and a clear path
between the two units. Scarab can't fire across water or mountains or
cliffs, so the Reaver is not that useful when fighting over a ledge,
water or cliff.
Unit name: Observer
Unit HP: 20/40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 25 mineral, 75 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: sight, speed, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Observatory
Unit best usage: since the Observer is cloaked all the time, they are
the best spies in the game. Once you sneaked one into your opponent's
base, the odds are they won't know it. their detection ability and 11
sight range once upgraded can show you the entire screen they are on,
so the Observer is an excellent units, especially in Brood Wars against
Lurkers and Dark Templars.
Unit summary: a good scouting unit, the Observer is always cloaked, and
if you hide it in the corner, it will be very hard for human enemy to
see, put them rite next to the minerals if your color is blue, best
next to a gas site. Observer is a bit slow moving, but once speed
upgraded, they can scout a lot more faster. Remember to keep a few
Observers in all your bases, since they get killed a bit fast with
their low HP. If you got a extra hot key, than use it on the Observer,
since it's bit hard to see even for you when a lot of your units are
moving around. These makes excellent spy on your opponent's base, if
you aren't able to sneak one into his base, or just over look part of
his base is good enough. Have these spies spread all over the map, and
you will have excellent map control and you will able to take out any
expansion your opponents might have.
Unit name: Scout
Unit HP: 100/150
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Dual Photon Blaster 8 (normal)
Unit air attack: Anti-Matter Missile 28 (explosive)
Unit cost: 300 minerals, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: speed, sight, attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Stargate
Unit best usage: Scouts are hunter units, they can take quite a beating
before passing away and with Shield Battery, you can keep your Scout
fleet healthy. Scouts have excellent speed, and with 12, you can
easily check for any possible enemy expansion easily and still able to
get back fast enough to protect your base nearby.
Unit summary: this is a very expensive flying unit compare to Mutalisk
and Wraith. Scout has a lot of useful upgrades and in large groups,
these can really kill. I don't use Carriers a lot, I rather use Scout
since Carrier is slow and is a good target for Scourges. And Scouts
can scout, their fast speed is one of their main advantages, you can
just do a few hits and run. With 36 Scouts, you can rule the air,
there is nothing that can go up against a high number of Scouts, other
than Psionic Storm, Plague or air splash units. Carriers and Battle
Cruisers can't go up against Scouts since you will be outnumbering them
with 3 to one.
Unit name: Carrier
Unit HP: 150/300
Unit armor: 4
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 350 minerals, 250 gas
Unit supply cost: 8
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 9
Unit upgrade: Carrier Capacity, attack, Protoss shield, and armor
Unit ability: build Interceptors
Unit requirement: Stargate, Fleet Beacon
Unit best usage: Carrier is a good decent unit, but since the
Interceptors aren't useful against units with high armor, they aren't
as good in attacking as they are made out to be. Carriers make good
defending unit with Photon Cannon blocking off, and some Shield Battery
to keep the Carriers healthy. Carriers are okay attackers, but it's
impossible to avoid Psi Storm, Ensnare, Plague, Lockdown, Spore
Counters, and especially Scourge.
Unit summary: the biggest unit for the Protoss race, very powerful, but
attacks quite slow. These will crack from Scourge, Wraith and Scout.
But with Arbiters, these can really kill. Carrier itself doesn't have
a weapon, but it can build Interceptors to attack. Also Carrier cost
just a bit too much, 350 minerals and 250 gas to start off, 200 more
minerals later for Interceptors, that comes up to 550 mineral and 250
gas. And I would rather get 2 Scouts instead, but Carrier is still a
very good unit, and if your money allows you to build them, I would
recommend you to get some Carriers.
Unit name: Interceptor
Unit HP: 40/40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Phase Cannon 6 (normal)
Unit air attack: Phase Cannon 6 (normal)
Unit cost: 25 minerals
Unit supply cost: 0
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 9
Unit upgrade: Air attack, armor, Plasma Shield
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Carrier
Unit best usage: must get with Carriers.
Unit summary: Interceptors are small units within the Carrier.
Interceptors can be destroyed like all other units. When the Carrier
is destroyed, all Interceptors for the Carrier will be destroyed too.
However, Interceptor can be rebuild when destroyed. Interceptors are
built fast, but you still need time, since a Carrier with 1 or 2
Interceptor is really useless.
Unit name: Arbiter
Unit HP: 150/200
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Phase Disrupter Cannon 10 (explosive)
Unit air attack: Phase Disrupter Cannon 10 (explosive)
Unit cost: 100 mineral, 350 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: Recall, Stasis Field, plus 50 energy, attack, Protoss
shield and armor
Unit ability: Recall let you select a small section of the map and warp
all units within the section warp next to the Arbiter. Stasis Field
will freeze a group of units, these units will not deal any damage, as
will as receiving any damage. Stasis Field will also affect up to 2
spaces away from target unit.
Unit requirement: Stargate, Arbiter Tribunal
Unit best usage: Arbiter's ability to cloak all nearby units is what
the Arbiter is used for. Arbiter's ability is also useful, but the
cloaking ability is good enough.
Unit summary: the Arbiter will cloak all units near by controlled by
you. This is a very useful unit for both defending and attacking.
Recall is prefect for a sneak in attack when used correctly, Stasis
Field is useful for attacking and defending. Have a few Arbiters
follow your attacking unit, this works well with Carriers and Reavers.
Arbiter is quite annoying when it's cloaking big Carrier fleets, so
remember to go for the Arbiter to stop the cloaking or just have a
detector nearby.
Building name: Nexus
Building cost: 400 minerals
Building ability: make Probes
Building HP: 750/750
Building Summary: the HQ for Protoss units. Nexus is the weakest HQ
out of the three races, since Terran Commend Center provide 10 supply
while Nexus provide 9, not to mention the ability to lift off. Zerg
Hatchery will eventually evolve into Lair and than Hive, Hive has 2500
HP compare to Nexus 1500 and only 750 recoverable.
Building name: Pylon
Building cost: 100 minerals
Building ability: provide 8 Psi for Protoss unit
Building HP: 300/300
Building Summary: you have to build a lot of these, and remember if
this gets destroyed, all buildings that are powered by this one will
not function. So build 2 Pylons together, and if one gets destroyed
the other one will still power the buildings until you replaces it.
Building name: Gateway
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: build Zealot, Dragoon, High Templar, Dark Templar
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: the place where Protoss makes their basic ground
units. Get more than one if you are planning to rush.
Building name: Forge
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: upgrade ground attack, ground armor, and Plasma
Shields
Building HP: 550/550
Building Summary: get this so you can have Photon Cannons. Also the
upgrades are good for a ground attack.
Building name: Photon Cannon
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: STA Photon Cannon 20 damage, STS Photon Cannon 20
damage
Building HP: 100/100
Building Summary: a good defense unit, this will detect, attack both
air and ground for good damage, so surround your base with these and
only Reavers, Carriers, Guardians, and Siege Tanks have better range
than this. And all of those can be countered easily by 12 Scouts or 12
Zealots with speed upgrade.
Building name: Cybernetic Core
Building cost: 200 Minerals
Building ability: upgrade air attack, air armor, upgrade Dragoon attack
range
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: get two to make upgrades faster. This upgrades all
your air units and also your Dragoons attack range. You need to build
this to wrap in any advance buildings. The Dragoon attack range is
quite important if you plan on using any Dragoons to attack and defend.
Building name: Shield Battery
Building cost: 100 minerals 300 energy
Building ability: charge shields 200 energy
Building HP: 200/200
Building Summary: not really useful since Protoss Shields recover quite
fast. The battery will charge target Protoss unit's Shield. This is
only good for Archons and units with high Shields. A Dark Archon after
Mind Control will need a Shield Battery to recharge.
Building name: Robotic Facility
Building cost: 200minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: make Shuttles, Reavers, Observers
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: where you make some unit with special ability.
Building name: Stargate
Building cost: 150 minerals, 150 gas
Building ability: make Scouts, Carriers, Arbiter, and Corsair
Building HP: 600/600
Building Summary: this is where all the flying units are made for
Protoss, you should get 4 or 5 Stargates when playing a long game, all
units here takings awhile to make.
Building name: Citadel of Adun
Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: upgrade Zealot speed.
Building HP: 450/450
Building Summary: you need this if you are planning on doing Zealot
rush, the upgrade increase Zealots walking speed greatly. This is also
needed for Templar Archive.
Building name: Robotics Supporting Bay
Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: Reaver damage, Reaver Capacity, Shuttle speed
Building HP: 450/450
Building Summary: this is for Shuttle and Reaver upgrades. None of
these are really important, get this later in the game unless you are
trying to pull of some kind of drop.
Building name: Fleet Beacon
Building cost: 300 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: upgrade scouts sight, scout speed, Carrier capacity,
Disruption Web, plus 50 Corsair energy
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: here you can upgrade your Scout's movement and sight,
also you can upgrade your Carrier's capacity to 8 (you really should
get this if you are planning on using Carriers). In Brood Wars, you
also upgrade your Corsair's ability.
Building name: Templar Archive
Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: Psionic Storm, Hallucination, +50 energy High
Templar, Mind Control, Maelstrom, +50 energy Dark Archon
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: all Templar and Dark Archon spell upgrades. Psionic
Storm is the most important upgrade here.
Building name: Observatory
Building cost: 50 mineral, 100 gas
Building ability: upgrade Observer sight range, speed
Building HP: 250/250
Building Summary: get this for Observers upgrades. This isn't that
important unless your opponent is a real cloaker freak. However, get
this just in case of any cloak units during your attack. This is a
must in any Brood War game against Protoss or Zerg, since Lurker and
Dark Templar are always in those bases.
Building name: Arbiter Tribunal
Building cost: 200 mineral, 150 gas
Building ability: Recall upgrade, Stasis Field upgrade, +50 energy
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: this is the last building you should build when using
Protoss, most games you won't need this since this building has a lot
of requirements. The Arbiter, it takes the longest to make (160), but
however Arbiter can cloak all near by unit controlled by you, so it is
very useful with Carriers and Reavers.
Brood War Protoss units
Unit name: Dark Templar
Unit HP: 40/60
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Warp Blade 40 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 125 mineral, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: attack, armor, Protoss Shield
Unit ability: Dark Archon Merge
Unit requirement: Templar Archive, Gateway
Unit best usage: Dark Templars are assassin units, they are best early
up when detectors isn't available yet. They deals very high damage,
but they aren't that good in attacking. Use them as a surprise rather
than frontal assault, but include a few Dark Templars in attacking just
for their 40 damage.
Unit summary: the Dark Templar is always cloaked, this is a very good
unit against Terran, since their Detector is Missile Turrets, and you
can easily avoid them. Their strong attack make them good in defending
against ground rush, however they can not attack air, so have Dragoon
defending. Also Dark Templar attacks are quite slow, so when going up
against high numbers of enemies, they become less useful. Remember
that Dark Templars are an assassin unit, they work with the element of
surprise. However if you rush 40 fully upgraded Dark Templars, they
will have some rather good results.
Unit name: Dark Archon
Unit HP: 200/25
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 2 Dark Templar
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: Mind Control, Maelstrom, plus 50 energy, Protoss shield
and armor
Unit ability: Mind Control allows you to take control of target unit,
so it is possible to control all three races at the same time. Mind
Control takes a lot of energy and drains Dark Archon's Shield empty, so
have a Shield Battery when you are using Dark Archons. Maelstrom
freezes a group of organic units, make it very easy for you to kill,
but Maelstrom only last for about 5 seconds tops. Feed Back will drain
all energy from a unit and deal that much damage to that unit equal to
the amount of energy drained to it.
Unit requirement: 2 Dark Templar
Unit best usage: Dark Archon is a good units to have, it's ability is
decent all around. But this is a hard and expensive unit to use, so
use at your own risk.
Unit summary: a good unit, hard to use for human player. Only use Mind
Control on something that is worth the heavy price, like a Battle
Cruiser, Carrier, or Arbiter. An enemy worker will allow you to build
a new race, but it's rather useless since the time and money required
for it. However, Arbiters and Battle Cruiser with Scouts and Guardian
does sound good.
Unit name: Corsair
Unit HP: 80/100
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: Neutron Flare 5 (splash)
Unit cost: 150 mineral, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 4
Unit upgrade: Disruption Web, plus 50 energy, attack, Protoss shield
and armor
Unit ability: Disruption Web, freeze all ground units including
building's weapon system within the web, this will stop all attack from
the spot, however units can move out of the web and attack normally
Unit requirement: Stargate, Fleet Beacon
Unit best usage: Corsair are good air to air attackers with their
splash damage against Mutalisk and other low armor flyers. Their Web
can help you sneak in Drops and Recalls without taking too much damage.
Unit summary: Corsair only attacks air, even though their attack is
only 5 damage, their attack is very fast, and it's splash damage.
Corsair can get in around 10 attacks for Devour's one. Remember to use
the Web wisely, this way you can get past the Cannons and Spores
easily.
Part 6: Various hints, useful ideas on playing StarCraft
It is very important that you defend your base with troops and not with
all buildings. E.g. Protoss Photon Cannon is used to back up your
defense, your real defense should be Dragoons and Scouts line up with
Photon Cannons. Another important thing is be prepared for a unit with
long range (Tanks, Reavers, Guardians), have something that can take
out those unit fast before they can really put major damage into your
base. Against Tanks and Reavers, have Zealots with speed upgrade and
have them station near your front line defense, when Tanks come, just
rush with your Zealots. Don't forget to replace your Zealots once you
got the money. Against Guardians, just have a few Scouts, but watch
out for Scourge and other anti air units. Remember to think further,
and also don't just get 8 Scouts, since players will rush with 12
Guardians with 30 plus Mutalisk, and you can't stop them with just a
small amount of Scouts.
If you are playing rush, don't stop even if you know that all your
troops will die, as long as they can make things easier for your next
rush, you should do it. The most important rush is the first one, if
done correctly you will able to make your opponent either lose a
Barrack/Gateway, or kill a large percent of enemy workers. Both of
these is a successful rush, if they lose the Barrack/Gateway, it will
take them time to rebuild while you can finish them off. If they lose
their worker, they won't have any money to build up their troops. The
most important element in the game is mineral control, if you control
more fields, you get more money and you will able to make more troops.
When playing with Battle.Net approved maps(other than Big Game Hunter,
all map have resources of 1500 on crystals and 5000 on gas), it is very
important that you move to another resource field way before your first
field empties. You should expend when you feel you have half of the
money to start a new base while your first base is well defended. If
you are using any race, take advantage of their long-ranged units and
get some free hits off your opponent. If their base is next to yours,
use your long range unit and hit building that they built near you. If
they don't know that you are right next to them, have a few troops
attack their front line, and that should divide their attention. While
the attack is still going on, have some kind of drop, best with big
powerful units( Ultralisk, Archon, Dark Templar, Siege Tanks, Ghost
with a nuke). When your units is running lose in their base, you
should prepare to attack, right there is your best chance of winning.
First have all your units break through their front line defense, and
just rush everyone in. However, if their front line is powerful enough
to stop you, don't stop swarming. Get more Gateway/Barrack/Hatchery if
needed, just don't stop because your opponent is not some idiot that
will let you keep making Drops on them.
You should take advantage of your opponent's mistake, when you know
that they have a small gap where you can get through, use it before
they seal it up. You should not expect to win with your first set of
attackers, while attacking, keep pumping out more. Taking a choke
point is very important, if you can block in your enemy, and you are
very likely to win against them. When playing as Zerg, sent out
Zerglings and have them burrow around the map, that way you can take
good control of the map and know when your opponent is planning to
attack you.
One of the most important thing is you should practice against some
computer controlled opponents, best is you against 3 or more CPUs, at
least one of each race. Don't cheat during the practice, not even the
map code, one of the most important idea is to find your opponent and
have control over the map. And also you can use map setting, set
trigger to computer AI Script to Insane for all the comps, then you
will really know how a pro is like. (I can defend against 6 comps set
to insane, but I will die once Carrier and Guardians comes out. I just
can't defend and get Scouts for those units fast enough, and trust me
that you will be occupied by the comp all the time.)
Part 7: Cheats for the game
You enter the codes in single player game during game play, press
return, enter the code and press return again. Saved games will not
save your cheats. However I recommend you not to use any of these
cheats, cheating takes away the fun in the game. Remember cheats will
affect all other players, so if you use Power Overwhelming in a free
for all, you will be the only person that can kill enemy units (other
than Queen's Spawn Broodlings, and Dark Archon's Mind Control).
Power Overwhelming-This code is for unlimited HP for all your units.
Black Sheep Wall-This allows you to view the entire map, but not any
cloak detection unless you've got a detector there.
Operation CWAL-This is the code for super fast building.
Show Me The Money-This gives you 10,000 mineral and 10,000 gas.
Breathe Deep-You will get 500 gas.
Food For Thought-You will not need any Supply buildings or units to
support your troops.
Modify The Phase Variance-This code let you build anything you can
afford.
Noglues-this will prevent your enemy from using Psionics.
Medieval Man-this allows one second upgrades.
Something for Nothing-get all free upgrades right here.
The Gathering-all units will have unlimited energy.
Game Over Man-you lose right away.
Staying Alive-you won't win any game, you won't get the victory sign.
There Is No Cow Level-instant win.
Ophelia-level select, after you have entered this code, enter desire
level. E.g. Protoss 8 for Protoss level 8, Terran 3, for Terran level
3.
War Aint What It Use To Be-this removes the fog of war, you still can't
really see that well, map will only show parts where you have already
scouted.
Whats Mine is Mine-this will give you 500 minerals.
Radio Free Zerg-this code allows you to listen to a different music,
this code only works when using Zerg.
Part 8: How to improve your game play
The most important thing you should know is how to at least defend your
base.
First of all lets pretend you are playing a game, it's around 30
minutes into the game, it's one on one, you playing as Protoss against
a Terran opponent and both of you are on top of the tech tree. You
base is well defended with both troops and Photon Cannons, you know
where your opponent is and he also know where you are. The map is a
small and not very rich and both of you really can't afford to lose
much of anything. You so far got a decent base and let's pretend he
has a better one than you, you can't break through, and you are just
playing defense, waiting to build up a strike force. All your previous
attacks have proven unsuccessful and now you are just really making
units of all kind.
Pretend that he attacks you with a Siege Tank push, a group of 12 Siege
Tanks, 30 or so Marines, and 10 or so Wraith with cloaking ability.
How can you defend yourself? The best way to defend is have Dark
Templar to take out the ground units, and have a Observer and Scouts to
take out the Wraith. Keep in mind that this attack will at least break
through your front line, give yourself around 3 minutes to replace
everything, move all available troops you can spare to the spot until
the defense is replaced. If Dark Templar isn't there, just rush with
your Zealots and any other ground units, Reavers are also good here.
High Templar and Psionic Storm is also good here. High Templar is good
for almost any mass rush.
Or he attacks with 12 Tanks and 12 Battle Cruiser, accompanied with
Ghosts and Science Vessels. The Emp Shockwave and Lockdown is really
messing up your front line troops, what can you do to defend your base?
The best way is with a few High Templar and Psionic Strom the spot
until everything dies, before the Emp shockwave or you won't have
enough energy, an Arbiter will be also good here. An Observer with
sight range upgrade should be stationed near at all times, move it in
and have Scouts or Dragoons to finish off the enemy. The Battle
Cruiser will be also a good target for Mind Control, the Science Vessel
will be also good for a Feedback, and Stasis Field is also good here.
Don't hesitate to use your magic spells, once the High Templars are
drained, go ahead and merge them into Archons.
Be prepared for anything that opponent throws at you, expect them to
have a better army than they really do. When playing against a very
offensive player, use Hallucination and scare away his troops. Than
use high speed Scouts to shoot down any units left behind or just slow
moving, don't be forget Scout's high speed once upgraded, their 150
shield can be recovered fast so they will last quite some time. So a
few Battle Cruisers slowly moving away is a great target for them. If
their main force is just charging at you, abuse your Pisonic Storm, the
high damage will shred the charging enemies. Don't give them a chance
to breathe, once their main force is gone, charge with the extra units
you have, their base is at the weak point right there, if you see a
chance to break through and get into the base, don't hesitate and just
start swarming. You are very likely to win if you break through,
however if you break through the defense but you wasn't able to take
advantage of that and all your troops dies. Don't wait long and have
another group rush in and destroy. Then it's the best time to box in
your opponent, remember to scatter troops all around the place and
don't leave anything to chance.
If a battle must take place, try to get it as close to your base as
possible, so not only your troops are attacking, your Photon Cannons
can chip in too. And this will let you run away to charge your shield
a lot easier, the enemy will be under heavy fire power if they choose
to chase after you. Remember that Photon Cannon cost only a cheap 150
mineral.
Always go after Detectors first, once the Detectors are gone, you can
use your cloaked units to their fullest.
Whenever you are playing against any opponent, never rely on purely
Photon Cannon or other attack buildings, every race has a long ranged
unit so be prepare to take those out any time you are under attack.
Never let your opponent know how many troops you have, it doesn't
matter if you have more than him/her.
When playing as Zerg, have all your troops hot keyed and just burrow
them, call them out when needed only. If you see you have enough to
take out the opponent, do it, don't wait or hesitate. A diversion is
prefect when you are doing this, a group of Zerglings or Ultralisk
going after a different base will create a great diversion. Box in
opponent when needed, when boxed in, don't forget to keep attacking the
base, never give the opponent a chance to regain control of their base
again.
Another important thing is never let yourself get into a bad situation
where you know you will either be badly damaged or even get killed.
You should never rely on anything, the only thing you should depend on
is your army of troops, and not army of attack buildings.
When playing, expect the attack, have patience and don't get careless.
Think what can break through into your base, what can cause trouble for
you? Then find something to stop that. If you can tell that a tank
push can break through your base, your opponent will probably know how
to do a tank push and use it on you. Think further, small things can
make a difference. Small things like placing a Pylon can win you a
game.
The next important thing will be knowing how to win a game when the
opportunity knocks. A lot of players limit themselves to a certain
kind of win, for example, a lot of Protoss players can't win without
Carriers. Or Terran can't win without Battle Cruisers, and Zerg can't
win without Guardians. Remember to be creative, know how to use other
units.
The most important element in the game is mineral control, with more
minerals and gas, you get more options open to you. Try to prevent
your opponent from getting to easy new bases, put up a fight for the
base. It is very important than you have control of the map and when
playing 1 vs 1, usually whoever has more map and mineral control wins.
When attacking, don't go for an empty mineral base, you would only
knock off some useless like some attacking buildings and not so
important troops. People leave their used up base, and you would just
force them to build back something like a Supply Depot or Pylon. Go
for either their main base, or a newly formed mineral collecting base.
The main base usually holds the important buildings and supply units,
if all those are taken out, you win the game. But expect the base to
be very well protected, and also expect high causality from your army.
Taking out a newly formed base, will very much likely pin your opponent
to find a new mineral base, and with some high speed units, you should
able to take out any new base if you have good map detection. Your
opponent will than be in real trouble and won't able to produce any
troops that threatens your existence.
Your new base is also important to you, an island mineral field is a
good spot for a new base. Also a mineral field nearby your first base
is also a good choice. Also, on any islands, don't just build anti air
buildings, get some ground attack units in case of drops. Zerg can
have a very early new base, this is easily accomplished since you can
have 11 workers mining without making an Overlord. This is a bit
cheating, but it's allowed by Battle.Net. First keep making Drones
until you reach your max which is nine, than have to mining workers,
morph into a Extractor and a Creep Colony. Your Overlord control will
be set to 7/9, than just make two new Drones and as soon as the two
Drones start evolving, cancel your Extractor and Creep Colony, you will
have 11 worker mining. And in around 3 minutes or less, you will have
enough money for a new Hatchery. And if your opponent don't find you
early enough, he or she will be behind on mineral and gas from you from
the very start of the game. And your 7 minute Mutalisks rush will just
destroy his base before he gets a chance to fight back. A Terran won't
have much of anything unless they place their bunkers in all the right
places, a Protoss won't have anymore than 2 or 3 Dragoons at most. A
Zerg opponent shouldn't have as much as you, if they do, get some
Zerglings to help out your Mutalisks, they are cheap and fast, and they
deal some decent fast damage.
Part 9: Styles of Play
People usually limit themselves to one way of winning, e.g. Protoss
players usually win with Carriers! Carriers might be powerful, but try
to be more creative. Don't just force yourself to a single style,
learn about other styles. It's also important to learn how to switch
from a Zealot rush to a Carrier push, like I was saying, be creative.
Protoss Styles of play contains the famous Reaver Drop, Carrier and
Arbiter combo, Scout/Dragoon Wave, Zealot Swarm, and Archon/Reaver
Recall.
Reaver Drop is simple to do, a Reaver with a few Scarab drop in
opponents base, the Reaver should able to stop enemy mineral production
and take out a few buildings before getting destroyed. Most human
players intend to building defense only around the base and they don't
protect their mineral fields, than a simple drop from the side can win
you the game. A diversion of a weak attack is useful here, a 4/5
Zealot attacking the front line should be more than enough.
Carrier and Arbiter combo is accomplished easily as long as you have
the resources and time, since both units takes a long time to be built.
A large number of Stargates is required for this combo, and I would
recommend 8 Stargates or more with a mucho money map. When doing this,
upgrade your armor since you will need to keep your carrier alive as
long as possible. Arbiter's Stasis Field ability should be researched
and put into use, this will able to allow you to avoid direct contact
with enemy's main force.
Scout/Dragoon wave is very simple, 10 Stargates or 10 Gateways with 70
plus Probes mining/gasing should do the trick. Keep pumping out
Dragoons or Scouts, have them fully upgraded with either 3 Forge or 2
Cybernetic Core, Scout's sight and speed upgrade and Dragoon's attack
range upgrade is required and when you are attacking, don't stop
producing more troops. 40 Dragoons or 36 Scouts should able to knock
off any base, Drops and Arbiter Recall can be used here also.
The Zealot Swarm is the most basic Protoss win, Zealot high power and
HP allow them to last long, and once with their speed upgrade they can
really damage your opponent. This is very simple and I believe all
Protoss players needs to know how to perform this. There is another
name for this, a lot of people call this the 3 Gate rush, and you
should see how people do this. The Zealot Swarm will able to finish
off any computer opponent with no problem. You will mine minerals only
until you have 10 plus Zealots, then you make your Citedal of Adun, you
should attack once the speed upgrade is complete. The attack should
contain around 18 or more Zealots, the more the better. You should
leave behind just a few Zealots, 2 or 3 will be fine, they can stall
your opponents attack and allow you to recover. Have your Zealots hot
keyed and rush them out, pay no attention to Wraith/Scout/Mutalisk,
since they all deal poor damage. Your Zealots will able to finish off
a Zerg opponent with no problem. When attacking Terran, ignore Bunkers
and go straight for the mineral fields, a Firebat in a bunker can take
out a very large amount of Zealots. When I play and my opponent have
just a few Wraith or Scout, I wouldn't go into Dragoons, my Zealots can
rampage through your opponents base before the air units can put a stop
to all the Zealots. Remember, after the first rush, swarm in when you
see the chance. And when you do get it, don't stop, and just keep
swarming until your opponent dies.
The Archon/Reaver Recall is very similar to the Reaver Drop, however
Arbiter's Recall can transfer a much larger amount of units quickly.
First make your Arbiters, Reavers and Archons, than have a few
Observers sneak into your opponent's base, third find a decent path for
your Arbiter to sneak in. Once you have your Arbiter in place, ready
to sneak in, but first have a diversion, just a few Zealots should do
it. Once your opponent is busy with your Zealots, sneak your Arbiter
in, Recall your Reavers and Archons, if you have the gas and money,
make extra Arbiters, stack them on top of your Archons and Reavers. So
each time you Recall you should have a new Arbiter in your opponent's
base, Recall again with the new Arbiter. You can repeat when needed.
Reavers and Archon's high power should shred your opponent's base
easily, and right then is the best time to have your Carriers to attack
directly.
Terran Styles contains the Defensive Matrix Drop Tank, the Tank push,
Nukers, Yamato Gun Push, and Infantry Wave.
Defensive Matrixed Drop Ship will able to survive the front line
attack, and you can drop 4 Goliath, a few Ghosts with a Nuke, 2 Tanks,
8 Marines or 8 Firebats into opponent's base. Science Vessel is need
for both cloak detection and it's wide range of useful spells. This
can be done whenever you have your Science Vessel since Defensive
Matrix comes with the unit. Stim Pack is also quite useful here, 8
Firebats can take out quite a few important buildings before your
opponent put a stop to them.
The tank push is easily done since Terran Siege Tank is one of the most
useful unit in the game. 12 Siege Tanks protected by Marines, Wraith,
and Firebats can push your way into your opponent's base. Siege
Tank's150 HP will allow them to at least deal some damage before
passing away. The only worry you should have is a large number of
Zealots, or a very large number of Zerglings, and Ultralisks will crush
Tank push. All of the following is easily countered with Firebats and
Wraith, however if you wait too long and your opponent have large
flying units like Battle Cruiser or Carriers, have Ghosts and just
abuse your Lockdowns on them.
Nuker Heaven is a happy nuker nuking everywhere. But against Zerg or
Terran, this is easily countered, and you will lose a nuke with the
Ghost. A diversion is useful here but I would really suggest you
practice against another human player. And I have to tell you, ever
since I played I only been nuked on 3 times, 1 time I was just
careless, and the other 2 times, I just lost my detectors in battle.
So if you are planning on nuking against another human player, I
suggest you don't rely on nukes too much. I have lost count of how
many Ghost I have spotted trying to nuke me.
Battle Cruiser's Yamato Gun ability is very useful, 12 Battle Cruiser
with 250 energy will very soon Gun you 24 times. And each gun is 260
damage, so this can break through almost any base with no problem. If
you are planning on doing this, first watch out for the following, Emp
Shockwave, Wraith with cloaking, Mind Control, Lockdown, Stasis Field,
Psionic Storm, and nukes. You shouldn't rely on this and you should
have your Battle Cruisers attack your opponent once the base is broken
through.
Infantry Wave means, a lot of Infantry units, Marines, Firebats, Ghost,
and Medics. Rush them by the hundred and with the help of Stim Packs
and Medic Healing, you should able to easily over power an opponent.
Zerg is however a much more simple race to manage, I only know a very
few style for the Zerg race. The 6 Zergling rush, Dark Swarm with
Zerglings, 150 Hydralisk Bum Swarm, Guardian push and Mutalisk swarm.
The early 6 Zergling rush is the most basic win, 5th Drone will make
Spawning Pool and once it finished, you make 6 Zerglings and rush.
This only works if you find your opponent early enough, since one
bunker is more then enough to fry your Zerglings with 2 Marines inside.
Dark Swarm with Zerglings means cheap free hits, you Dark Swarm a spot
and just rush your Zerglings in, when you finish attack one spot,
Consume a few Zerglings and Dark Swarm again. Zerglings only cost 25
mineral each, and you only need 1 upgrade for your Defiler. And since
Consume can provide all the Dark Swarm you need, you would only need 2
Defilers for the entire game. Ultralisk will work here also. But
watch out for Zealots, Dark Templars and Bunker Firebats, those are
just too powerful and your Zerglings don't stand a chance against them.
The Hydralisk bum Swarm is really boring, you make 6 or more Hatcheries
and you get only Hydralisks. Then once you max out, you rush. Sound
pretty simple but this requires a large amount of money, a very
defensive opponent since you will mess up if some one keep attacking
you. Watch out for long range units with Splash damage, meaning
Reavers and Siege Tanks, these can shred your Hydralisks. Also a few
well placed Spider Mine can really damage your Swarm. Now look up at
Zergling/Dark Swarm combo, that can just send your Hydralisks packing,
if that happens, run, try to save as much Hydralisks are you can.
Guardian Push is similar to the Terran Tank push, you protect it with
air to air combat units like Devour and Scouge, you just push your way
into your opponent's base with Guardian's long range. But Scouts and
Wraith with cloaking can really damage your push. And if you are
pushing a Terran opponent, bring along 5 or 6 Overlords, if you just
bring one, they can just pop your Overlord and start killing your slow
moving Guardians.
Mutalisk Swarm is just like the Hydralisk Swarm, however Mutalisks are
more powerful than Hydralisk and they should last longer, but they will
be is real trouble with Valkyeries and Corsairs. Note that 24 fully
upgraded Valkyeries can take out 100 Mutalisk without a problem.
Remember Valkyeries 5 by 8 damage, meaning 40 if you get your level 0
armor upgrade. So 12 Valkyeries fires and you say bye-bye to all your
low armor flyers.
Part 10: Multi Players
Those of you who play on Battle.Net knows the importance of teamwork in
multi player games. 2 people working together can easily win against 3
other separate players. This part of the guide I will show different
tips on teamwork and other hints. And also, I give curses to all the
following back stabbers for back stabbing me, or attempting to back
stab me. If you know who they are or what their E-mail address is,
tell me or you can send them some hate mail or mail bombs.
Sir-Fag-Alot
Frozen_Blood
Big-Ass-Jugs
BS-Traitor
Y`A bastard
Each and every race has something that is powerful in their own
element, for example Shuttle is the fastest Transport, Terran Science
Vessel is the best detector and Zerglings as the best cheap basic unit.
From here on I will show different ways to win with the help of your
partner(s).
Terran-Protoss partners, the best way to Reaver Drop, Hallucination the
Shuttle, have your ally's Science Vessel Defensive Matrix the real
Shuttle and drop. Follow up with Carriers and Battle Cruisers to
finish off your opponent.
Defensive Matrix also works well with Arbiter and Recall.
Hallucination and Ghosts can trick players into thinking they already
destroyed the Ghost while the real Ghost is still alive.
Scout/Siege Tank Push works well also, and two good players should able
to pull this off in less than 15 minutes. 24 Tanks and 24 Scouts can
really grind their way into almost any base.
When playing against a Zerg opponent, 12 Battle Cruiser and 12 Carriers
can win you the game with no problem. And even if Zerg has 100
Mutalisk, they are still no match for the 24 super powered capital
ships.
Zerg-Protoss partners, Dark Swarm with Zealots and Dark Templars works
extremely well. And with the help of Reaver (only use Reaver early on,
since Reaver will damage your ally's troops) and Ultralisks, this can
easily bust open any choke point. The way to stop against this kind of
attack is 2 Bunkers with 8 Firebats, but this can be easily countered
by using a few Dragoons to take out the Bunker first. Queen's Spawn
Broodling can take out the Tanks further down when needed.
Zerg-Terran partners, first of all, have the Terran build a Commend
Center and let the Zerg player have it. Than start pumping out
Infested Terran. Defensive Matrix the Infested Terran and boom goes
the enemy front line.
Defiler and Defensive Matrix can make Plague so much easier. Follow up
with Mutalisks to finish off the Plague.
Lurkers with Dark Swarm with Guardians helping out and can take out
everything on the ground, have either Scouts/Wraith to protect against
air and it will win you the game.
All three races can be very rewarding if you all work together. Start
things off by keeping your opponents busy, Plague/Spawn Broodling/Psi
Storm/Irritate or any long range units works well here. Unlike the
computer, human players can only do one thing at a time, so with all
the free spells, you can easily keep them busy while you build up your
army. Now that your opponent is occupied, start on big units and
upgrades. The next part is the killing part, all three of you should
able to have a large army now, so start things off by getting rid of
all the long range units your opponent have. Terran's Comsat Scan
should be used to scan the base before charging in. Tanks and large
annoying units should be Spawn Broodlings and Scourge should take care
of all the Carriers. Don't worry much about Guardians unless you have
mainly ground units. Anyway, first have the Zerg partner use their
Guardians to break through the side defense, it's okay that the
Guardians dies as long as the damages are made. Next have Protoss use
an Arbiter with Defensive Matrix and a few Hallucinations taking damage
for it to get into the base and Recall some high damage units, in any
case, Archons, Reavers, Carriers all work well here. Next have the
Terran partner do a Tank push on the front line, so basically the
opponent have to deal with 3 major big problems all at the same time.
The 20 plus Guardians will without a doubt break open the side before
anything can be done about them. The Arbiter from the other side will
break in and Recall without a problem since it now has an extra 250 HP
and other fake Arbiters taking damage for it. The unlucky opponent
will have a base that is really screwed up right now and a Tank push
with Battle Cruisers guiding them is more than enough to finish him/her
off. If a Tank push isn't there, just use the Dark Swarm/Zealot combo
instead. Even if your opponent survived the attack, he/she won't be in
any shape to expend or attack you for a long time. Also, all
strategies above such as Infested Terran and Defensive Matrix can also
be used to start thing off too.
Another important thing here, you don't need a partner that is a
different race than you. For example, 2 Protoss player both going for
Zealot swarm will have a much higher chance of winning if you rush all
your Zealots in together. So what I am saying is, working together is
more than races and advantages.
Part 11: Terran strategy section
Here I will try to list all the strategies I know for the Terran race,
I still need a lot of help on this section since my weakest race is
Terran. If you know something you believe is a good strategy or just
anything you believe that can be useful during any game, E-mail me with
it and I will give you credit for helping me out.
I've seen a lot of Terran players out there, however, I never seen
anyone who is exceptionally good with the Terran race. I'm not saying
that Terran is a weak race, but seeing someone who is actually good
with Terran is quite rare. A lot of new people use Terran, and what
can I say, they just aren't that good. They either are slow enough to
get killed by a late 3 minute Zergling rush, or they just have to go
Battle Cruiser, and if you take away Battle Cruiser with something of
your own, he or she can't simply win the game.
One of my friend who is quite good with the Terran race, he showed me
some stuff that I believe Terran player should practice and learn.
First off, unlike Protoss and Zerg who have building that can attack
ground, Terran must use an army to protect themselves. So meaning
either you can waste a good portion of your people and protect your
base and expansions, and you will not able to use all your people to
attack. (If you attack early on with everyone you got, you can have a
chance of winning, but your opponent can counter attack and you will
basically lose since all your people aren't protecting your base.)
Then again, if you don't sent all the possible people you have, the
odds are you won't able to take out your opponent.
Let's put it this way, you are going up against a Protoss, you have
total of 3 bases, you are around 25 minutes into the game, and you
pretty much have a decent map control and mineral flow so far. Pretend
you are using a map like Hunters or Killing Field, both are quite rich
and quite big, your opponent attacks with 12 Dragoons and 12 Zealots on
one of your base. You can one, not sent anyone there and lose the base
and cripple your own mineral flow by 1/3. You can two, save the base
and lose a large amount of people, also not knowing if you are able to
save the base at all. You can three, take the advantage of your
opponent's main force being away and try to take their base while they
are occupied with your expansion.
The first option, not saving the base can be used only if you have
enough minerals stocked up, meaning 10,000 mineral and 5000 gas or
more, which you probably don't have.
The second option, saving the base, is not so wise, since going head to
head combat against a large Protoss army is quite dangerous. Unless
you have an extremely large Battle Cruiser Fleet with Science Vessel's
Defensive Matrix fleet or large Siege Tank army with good close-up
protection, you will suffer major loses and will very likely lose most
of the up and coming battles. Zealots can easily over power your
Marines and ranged units, while Dragoons are able to shoot down your
air fleets and other in close units. So unless you can find some way
to take out the Protoss army without taking high damage yourself, I
believe it's more safe just to let go of one base.
The third option going for your opponent while they are attacking your
base is a decent option. Since the 12 Zealots and 12 Dragoons makes up
for a good portion of their army, and if you can badly damage their
main base, you have a good chance of winning. A Tank push isn't what
you are looking for here, since if you give them time to retreat their
Zealots and Dragoons, your Tank push probably won't work, or deal
minimal amount of damage. What you will be looking for is something
big, a large drop, a few Nukes, or a large swarm will be good. You
want to attack your opponent fast and hard, and force them to retreat
their army to protect their base. A small 6 Tank, 12 Marine, tank push
on an enemy expansion will be a good distraction and god know, might
even take out that base. While your opponent is dealing with the Tank
push, you should try to fire 2 Nukes on your opponent, spread out the
Nukes out, and target things worthwhile. This will very likely land
you at least 1 Nuke if not both, and your Tank push will do quite some
damage to the expansion. Your expansion being under attack is now
safe, you have the upper hand in the game, and now you can easily win
with either a large Battle Cruiser fleet or a large Tank push.
Part 12: Zerg Strategy section
Need help with this, I just not that good with Zerg. I can win with
Zerg, but I have some weak strategy, I just get a lot of Hatchery and
keep rushing with Hydralisk and Zergling. The strategy is similar to
the 10 Gate wave, but it's again different. I go more diverse things
like I actually go into every type of Zerg units sometime during the
game. I get 2 Queens, 3 Defilers, and a lot of Mutalisks, but I most
attack frontally with Hydralisk and Zergling swarms. It's basically 3
mining bases with around 80 plus Drones on minerals, 3 Gas sites with 3
to 4 Drones on each. 10 plus Hatchery and non stop violence.
Part 13: Protoss Strategy section
Personally, I'm the best with Protoss race, it's my ladder race, and I
play the most with this race. I have many ways of winning with this
race, but however I prefer a mass 10 gate push. 10 gate push? You
might ask. This is however one of the best way of winning and it's
very flexible and very useful against all opponents. This however
requires a lot of practice, a mucho money map, and you being extra
aggressive.
This is my favorite strategy, I tell you one thing, this works. First
off, make a lot of Probes, and I mean a lot, over 40 on minerals alone
in each base. It's best if you have at least 2 base, the more the
better, however just 2 base should be enough with 80 Probes mining.
Protection with Photon Cannons isn't that important, if you are able to
work this strategy. The best map for this is the most popular map on
Battle.Net, Big Game Hunters, other versions of the Big Game Hunters
work, too.
First you block your base exit with some Photon Cannons, just a few to
stop any early incoming rushes, but leave a nice clear path for your
big ground units to get out is very important. Next you build
Gateways, Probes and Pylons, have around 6 Photon Cannons protecting
your mineral fields from worker hunters. You build up to 10 Gateways,
3 Forge, climb your tech tree to Observer and Templar Archieve, also no
Stargates, since it isn't needed. You can start expending whenever you
feel safe, get another base and just stock up on Probes, protection
there should be big, a 10 Cannon field is good enough. It will be best
if you can get 3 bases, but if you are only able to grab 2, just stay
with that. Then you build up on Zealots and scout for you opponent
when you have 12, sometimes this can actually take out some opponent if
they really weak. But treat these 12 Zealot as your scout, finding
your opponent won't be that hard since your army is quite big. One
thing to note here, if you scout a bit late and your Zealots have
increased walking speed, you can just run them pass your opponent's
front line and check out what they have. On your way, take out a few
of their workers and 12 Zealots have done the job. Next you want
Observers or Zealots on every possible expansion on the map, once you
got this down, your opponent won't able to expend easily. Begin your
non stop 10 Gate push once you have the Gates in place and your rally
point on a good spot, go all Zealots if your opponent don't go air, get
some Dragoons if you see Mutalisks or other air units. If an opponent
only have 1 or 2 Wraith/Scout, ignore it and keep attacking with
Zealots. Your Zealots and ground units must be always upgraded to the
highest possible, Zealot walking speed and Dragoon attack range is
really important and you should get them as soon as you can. Basically
you keep rushing non stop with 6 Zealot and 4 Dragoons, expect to take
out 1 or 2 Cannons, etc, tops, you keep attacking non stop until your
opponent dies. Since 80 plus Probe working on minerals can easily
support your Gateways all the time. So your 10 Gateways should never
stop on making troops and you just keep swarming in until your opponent
dies. If your opponent has an expansion, go for the mining expansion
first to stop mineral flow for that person. This works great, and
there aren't that many good counters for these kind of swarms. If your
money seem to be increasing, add in more Gateways, basically each base
can support a non stop 5 Gates, 2 bases can support 10, 3 bases can
support 15 Gates, and so on.
So far, only mass Carrier fleet is able to stand up against my 15 Gate
push, but on the other hand, that person won't able to finish me off
since I got around 10 charged High Templars waiting for his Carriers
with Psi Storm. When this happens, it's basically a draw on max money
maps, even if one person wins, it will take a long time. If you are
playing a game and you feel you must win, and your opponent have big
Carrier Fleets. Try taking out the Carriers with Carriers of your own,
Arbiter with Stasis Field is also useful here, use your Psi Storm
offensively, storm the Carriers and rush in with your ground troops.
Drops are useful if you are able to find a good spot.
Part 14: Tricks
I'm opened up for any possible suggestion for this section. If you got
a trick you would like to share with the rest of us, please email me
and your help is greatly appreciated.
There are various tricks to the game, some are useful in a game, some
however are just for fun. You should learn some of these for fun, it
will also help you win some games if you are able to work it correctly.
First trick, Parasite a critter near you opponent's base. The critter
will still be a neutral unit, your opponent won't know it have been
Parasite unless they click on the critter. If you critter is going the
correct way, you will able to see your opponent's base and have a quiet
neutral spy in your favor. However, critters will wonder around and
sometimes get in the way, your opponent will very likely kill the poor
critter and your spy might be gone. So the best way is not to rely on
the critter spy, your Queen can spare the extra energy, you shouldn't
cry over it. However, when you are playing against some players like
me, it might not work, I kill off all the critters near my base. One
for the possible Parasite, two the critters will get in the way, three
it opens up the path better for my ground troops, and four I get 10
points add to my kill. I'm not saying you should waste time killing
all the critter on the map, but if you are just waiting, take out the
annoying critter just to stop the possible spying and get some extra
points.
Part 15: Counter
This section is to help you to take advantage after your opponent's
attacks.
The first counter is anti 2 minute 6 Zergling rush. The 6 Zerglings
rush is one of the most annoying rushes in the game, and because it is
also one of the hardest to counter against since the game just started,
a lot of people will die against this. This rush is useful, but I
don't recommend you to use it everytime, since people will call you
cheap. The best way to counter against this is stall the Zerglings
with your workers, and hopefully, you can minimize the loss of workers
by running around your HQ while your Zealots or Marines come out. When
using Terran, just attack with your SCV, since SCV has 60 HP and able
to take out the Zerglings with the help of a few Marines. When using
Protoss, you can get an early Gateway, and wait for your Zealot to come
out, or get Photon Cannons. However, a smart rusher will ignore the
Zealot and Marines and go straight for your workers, when that happens,
just run your workers around your base and hopefully you won't lose
anymore than 4 workers.
If you are able to put up your defense fast enough, counter attack with
your remaining Zealots and hopefully you can deal some damage before
your rusher can recover.
The second counter, how to defend against mass capital ship fleets.
Since most people use Carrier or Battle Cruiser Fleets to finish off
their opponent, I think this is a pretty important and useful counter.
With Zerg, Plague, Dark Swarm with Hydralisk, Ensnare, Devour and
Mutalisk will able to easily take out the expensive fleets. However,
the best way to counter against those fleets is Dark Swarm with
Hydralisk, a few Ensnare and Plague to help out, Devour's Spore Counter
and Mutalisk's splash damage are optional.
With Protoss, just Psi Storm, 5 High Templars will able to take out the
entire fleet if they stay in the storm. And if you don't get all the
ships, just storm again, your High Templars can storm 3 times in a row
with the energy upgrade. Scouts with good upgrades can chase after the
damaged ships if they try to escape. Stasis Field can also provide you
with extra time to Psi Storm, when you needed it.
With Terran, take out the Fleet's detectors with Yamato Gun or Optical
Flare, and then mass Wraith with cloak to finish the fleet. Lockdown
can take a few ships to easy the job for you, Goliath with attack range
upgrade can chip in some heavy damage, and Emp Shockwave and take out
any possible Yamato Gun and drain all the Protoss shields.
The third counter is against mass Hydralisk/Dragoon swarms, a lot of
people will get a whole bunch of these units and swarm when they max
out. I used the mass Hydralisk swarm, but it simply takes a lot of
money, time but it is really hard to stop.
With Protoss, use Reavers and Psi Storm. Stasis Field can block off
the entrance a little bit, the swarm will stumble around, and basically
acting dumb while you attack with your long ranged units. Carriers are
extremely useful, since it's hard to control all the units to target
your Carrier, instead of the Interceptors.
With Terran, just a decent number of Tanks in Siege Mode can easily
overcome those swarms, but if the swarm continues, use a Nuke in front
of your base, target it front enough so it won't damage your frontline.
The odds are your opponent will have no chance of pulling back all
their units since there are just so many. Your Nuke will make up for
it's cost if you kill 3 Dragoons or 5 Hydralisks.
With Zerg, simply Lurkers and Dark Swarm, Zerglings and Dark Swarm,
Plague and Ensnare can also be used here but isn't required. Guardians
can provide and further ground attack you might need if your Defiler is
taken out.
The next counter is for mass Zealot rush, Zealots are extremely
powerful early on, and Marines or Zerglings won't able to stand a 12
Zealot rush unless a large number advantage is available.
With Protoss, you should have more Zealots than the attacker, if not
your Cannons will take care of them when needed. Remember to get the
enemy Zealots in your Cannon's range before attacking with your
Zealots.
With Terran, 2 Firebats in Bunkers can take out all the Zealots if they
attack the Bunker. Don't have a open path where the Zealot can easily
run past the Bunker, have something like a Barrack to seal off the
path, and you can simply lift off the building when needed.
With Zerg, best bet would be Sunkens and Mutalisks, if your opponent
have 12 Zealots, you should climb your Tech tree high enough to
Mutalisks. 6 Mutalisks and 4 Sunkens can easily take out 12 Zealots,
but expect to lose the Sunkens.
Part 16: Credits
First of all, I want to thank Blizzard for making this game.
I want to thank Ray2001@Juno.com for giving me a lot of hints on the
game. And from playing against him, I learn some tricks too.
Then I want to thank AzNxKaNgTa@aol.com for hooking me up with this
game, keep on selling. When you going to hook up with some new things?
I have to really thank my friend Mike (XU) here for telling me many
trigger keys, hot keys, and other things, thanks a lot, man.
s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com, thank you for giving me a lot of info and
correct some of the mistakes I have on this guide.
Thanks to Alexis@warstrike.com, for telling me about the Firebat
correction.
And I have to thank LiLsHy for sending me the code about the Zerg sound
trick.
Another thing I need to mention here is Rcarlos's FAQ, I fixed some
small bugs from reading his/her FAQ (all the mistakes are small like a
unit's starting armor, I put down a wrong number).
Also I want to thank my clan on Battle.Net, Imperial Spy. Wut sup, you
all. Check out our web page at
Http://members.tripod.com/ImperialSpy/win.htm.
Sorry, but the clan page is currently down due to school works and no
one updating the web site at all. I should take the job of updating
the web page, but no, I'm too busy just like Inferno, who should be
updating it!
A lot of information I obtained is from the game and Blizzard's
official StarCraft stats site in Battle.Net.
Mostly I thank myself for having too much free time and writing this
guide. Lolz. Just kidding.
Copyright 1999, November 10, 1999 Scott Lee
November 10, 1999
StarCraft Strategy Guide
Written by Scott Lee
(SLTxAzN895@hotmail.com)
E-mail me with anything you can tell me about the game that isn't
included in this guide, I will add you to the credit. But please read
this guide first, cause I don't want to receive something that is
already included on this guide.
My old E-mail was R415aZn895@aol.com and TrueAsian143@mailcity.com, but
the both of those are no longer available, so please use the new E-mail
above. Thank you. By the way, since I check my mail around once
every year or so, don't be mad if your E-mail isn't replied right away
or even sometimes a few weeks or so, maybe even more. I'm really busy
with my schoolwork these couple of month, since this is my junior year
in high school (and also I'm just plain lazy), but I will reply it once
I have read it. Again, I'm sorry if I don't reply your E-mail right
away, I'm just a bit busy and I change my email addresses often.
Unpublished work Copyright 1999 Scott Lee
StarCraft is published by Blizzard, and here I give thanks to Blizzard
for making this great game. Also for providing Battle Net, it is the
best place to play StarCraft. Catch me there under the name of
DaOnEnOnLee and MoNeY-{IS}, my stats are just average, it's something
like 210-50-50, feel free to whisper me for a game anytime. However,
now I don't play that much anymore, but you can still find me playing
sometimes here and there.
This guide is written by me, so I should get the credit for it. So
please don't take this and claim it yours. And this is just a guide to
help new players to get an idea on how to play the game. Hopefully
this guide will aid those who will spend time reading this. This guide
should not be sold, and if any company or publisher will pay for this
guide, I better get the money!
If you want to use this guide for your site or something, just post the
whole thing including my disclaimer (especially my disclaimer). All
though please E-Mail me first before you do. I probably let you
anyway. (If I don't reply back, just go right ahead and post it, if I
got a problem with it, I will E-mail you, and I probably won't).
I got my copy of StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood Wars for a while, so I
consider myself to be an above average player. I am not saying that I
am the greatest one, but I do okay against most people. Also I'm
familiar with all 3 races, and I just know a lot of basic things you
need to know in order to become good. This is my third completed
Walkthrough/Guide I have written. E-mail me with any problem that you
may have in this document.
I'm a really nice person, so if any players who wants to know anything
about StarCraft or game play can email me, and I will help the best I
can. I can help improve most people's game play since it's easier to
criticize than actually doing it, but first please contain the race you
want to use, the map you are using, the problem(s) you've been having
playing against someone, and the most important thing, your Battle.Net
name. Also please have some info on which one you are playing
StarCraft or Brood Wars.
Version History 3.7 Added new Counter section.
Version History 3.6 Added the new Protoss, Terran, Zerg section, and
the new trick section.
Version History 3.0 Correct several mistakes, added some information.
Version History 2.9 Added new info on various units.
Version History 2.8 Added Multi Player section.
Version Hisotry 2.3 Added a few things, fixed some small bugs.
Version History 2.2 Added styles of play, and some small changes.
Version History 1.2 Added how to improve your game play section.
Version History 0.7 Apply some small changes, added credit and
corrections.
Version History 0.6 Change a little text, fix the mistake on Devour's
attack name from Corrosive Venom to Corrosive Acid.
Version History 0.5 I added Brood War units and buildings.
Version History 0.1 I just started on this today, I sure hope that I
can finish this soon.
This FAQ is based on StarCraft Brood Wars Version 1.07
(Patch downloadable from www.blizzard.com or www.battle.net)
Introduction
If you are reading this guide, I assume you have the game and know the
real basic idea of the game. In case you don't, the game is you
building an army, and killing your opponent(s), unless you are playing
a trigger map, then I can't help you unless I played that map before.
This guide is used for players who don't use cheat, if you use cheat,
than you really shouldn't play this game, there isn't much of a point
then.
StarCraft is very much like WarCraft; similar ideas since they are both
created by Blizzard. Those of you who played WarCraft before will able
to fit right into StarCraft. StarCraft is more difficult than
WarCraft; it has many more elements in the game other than making more
troops and start bum rushing your enemy(s).
This guide will help you in the game, but I can't promise you that you
will always win if you follow my strategy, I can promise you, you will
win against computers, but maybe not against human players. And you
should practice against the computers to improve your game play, even
though to me, computer are really idiots, and they just don't think
sometimes. I got okay stats for StarCraft in Battle.Net, so my style
is better than the computers at least. This guide contains information
for all units, but overall this guide is more based on strategy than
plain info.
I recommend you try out different maps, and have more than one CPUs
against you (3-4 recommended). This will improve your game play, and
also play against friends that are better than you, you can learn from
them by watching how they play. You shouldn't worry about combos or
advanced things like that, to me (and most other people), those are
easily countered and won't cause much damage while you spent a lot of
money trying to pull it off.
Also I won't be updating this guide much unless there is a major
mistake, if there is just a small typo, I probably won't update it for
some time. However I will be updating during the first few days after
the guide has been posted. Which is before end of August of 1999.
Index
Part 1: Basic Strategy
Part 2: Advance Strategy
Part 3: Terran Units, and Buildings
Part 4: Zerg Units, and Buildings
Part 5: Protoss Units, and Buildings
Part 6: Various hints, useful ideas on playing StarCraft.
Part 7: Cheats for the game (please try not to use any of it)
Part 8: How to improve your game play
Part 9: Styles of Play
Part 10: Multi Players
Part 11: Terran strategy section
Part 12: Zerg strategy section
Part 13: Protoss strategy section
Part 14: Tricks
Part 15: Credit
Part 1: Basic Strategy
This is more of an introduction to each race, rather than strategy.
The basic idea is to kill your opponent(s) with your troops. You have
to choice of three different races, each have their own advantages and
disadvantages. I will start with the Protoss race, since they are the
most popular race.
Protoss has the highest technology in all three races, so they will
last out in a long game. The one major problem with Protoss are that
they builds very slow, especially with their troops, and their lack of
long range troops (Reaver's just have terrible speed, it's basically
dead if a flyer finds it in open ground). Protoss have high power
units, their most basic fighting unit, the Zealots are not just
powerful early on in the game, they can be upgraded and be very useful
in the later stage of the game. Protoss possess one major weakness,
their buildings can be only built within short range of their Pylons
(all buildings other than the Nexus). That can really affect the speed
of expending sometimes, and it can really slow down the your early game
rush. But the Pylons are also used to provide PSI food supply that
feed your troops, so you will need to build them anyway. Another thing
is if the Pylon is destroyed, the buildings nearby that require this
pylon to be built will not function until you have built another Pylon
to replace it (the building will have red letters "Unpowered" on it).
The best way to avoid this is to build Pylons by twos or more and next
to each other, so if one is destroyed, the other one can power the
buildings while you replace the Pylon. However, the early game, enemy
will usually go for your only Pylon, and if that is gone, your Cannons
or Gateways will be useless until another Pylon finishes. One thing
great about the Protoss building is once the building warp-in starts,
the worker can go back to work, unlike the other two races where the
worker has to stay at the site until the building is finished. Protoss
has shields and HP; their shields can be recovered in time, however
Protoss HP will never recover other from ally's Terran Medic. But
Protoss shields can recover pretty fast, comparing to Zerg's healing,
not to mention with the help of Shield Battery.
Terrans are people like us with medium technology, average troops and
mediocre speed. The Terran have units like our army today, e.g. tanks,
airplanes. Their weapons are also very much like what we have today,
rifles, cannons, rockets, nuclear missiles, etc. The Terran is a below
average race for a new player, but with an experienced player, Terran
can be very dangerous. Their Siege Tanks have the best range in all
ground units, and it deals 70 damage to its target and various other
damages to units near by the explosion. And in the hands of a pro, it
can just wipe out your entire army before you can get close to the
Tanks. Terrans also have some awesome air units, and the Battle
Cruisers are probably the best air unit anyone can have. However,
Terran has slow building speed, so Terran doesn't work well in a rush.
The Terran buildings have a great ability, the buildings are able to
lift off and fly over to another part of the map. Even though the
building's movements are quite slow, they are however fast enough to
expend in short period of time. You should know that not all Terran
buildings are able to lift off, only big buildings with the same size
as the Commend Center has this ability. Terran buildings catches fire
if they are damaged for 2/3 of their total possible HP, the building
will slowly burn down if it catches fire and have red hit points, you
will need a SCV to repair the damaged building, or it will be burn down
quite fast. It would be easy for you if you keep a few SCV near your
front line, also have a few SCV when attacking with Tanks and other
Mech. units, these units can be repaired with your SCVs. Terran
computer is the most powerful, they take full effect of their ability
to control multi units at the same time, and if you can do that, you
will be one of the best player ever. Terran is more flexible in
building since they can build anywhere the map allows, unlike Zerg on
Creeps and Protoss on Pylons.
Zerg are creatures with low technology, they fight with brutal force,
and they will win no matter the sacrifice that needs to be made. Their
fast production speed makes them a great race used for rush or wave.
But the Hatchery (evolves into Lair, and then Hive) are the only place
where the Zerg units can be produced (so I suggest you build 3 or 4
maybe even more later on when you have the extra minerals). The
Hatchery will slowly produce Larva that evolves into other units, and
Larva that evolve into Drones that can mine and morph into different
Zerg buildings. The Drone will die when evolve into any buildings
(actually it becomes that building). All Zerg buildings and units will
slowly regain HP when it has been damaged, it can take a while but it
is automatic and free. The Zergs are very easy to use, and I suggest
to newbs that you begin playing as Zerg, once you master this race, you
can go on ahead to play as other races, Zerg is simple to use, and
there isn't that many things you need to master in Zerg. Zerg players
should always be on the offensive side, keep attacking until you have
won, Zergs are very hard to defend, since a Zealot rush can put your
base back into the stone age if done correctly. The early game
Zergling rush will be very useful if you can find your opponent fast
enough, if not, your Zerglings will fry under Zealots and Bunkers.
However, the Zergling rush will slow down your mineral production if
you plans on something expensive.
*Note* The only way to move your unit is using the attack key (unless
you want them to ignore any enemy unit on the way). When you are
attacking the enemy's base, don't just right click, enemy units on the
way will attack your units, they can keep attacking along the way until
you notice it. So press A, then select any ground on the enemy's base
(not on a building, click anywhere near the building, your troop will
attack all enemy it sees on the way, meaning everything in it's sight
range). You should only use the right click if you are going for a
direct building, (like Barrack or Pylon) but remember your troops will
ignore enemy attack if you just right click.
The most basic win is a fast rush game that overwhelms your opponent.
This is easily achieved by making more units than your opponent, and
then just over powers them through out the game. While you are
creating chaos in their base, you should be preparing another army in
your base ready to finish off your opponent. The basic idea is have
all workers mine minerals only, get more production buildings like
Barrack/Gateway/Hatchery, and build your fighters faster than your
opponent. If the enemy has some good defense, find some way to get
around it, don't face it head on, you will not only lose all your
people, you won't able to break through the defense. The most basic
rush idea is find your opponent before you attack, Zerg can use their
Overlord to scout, but if you are using the other two races, you will
have to use your workers.
The Protoss building order is four Probe start to mine, while you are
making the fifth as soon as the game starts, when the probe finish, you
should have around enough money to make another Probe, make it and have
the fifth Probe mine. The sixth Probe should wait for 100 minerals and
build a Pylon, and go into mining. Then once you have 50 minerals,
make another probe while your Pylon is still building. The seventh
Probe will make your Gateway and go into mining. Then you should make
another Probe (your eighth), and build another Gateway and Pylon while
scouting for your opponent with this Probe or the seventh Probe. Your
first Gateway should finish and should start on Zealots, then you just
make up to 10 or 12 Probes, possibly making more Gateways and more
Pylons then go into mining. Gas isn't that important yet, but you can
go into it if you feel you have enough money, than a Forge should be
built, if you got enough extra money left, get the upgrades and
possibly get Cybernetic Core. By the time you have around 6 Zealots,
you should prepare your first rush, while making more Zealots. Your
first rush with your first group of Zealots will only able to break
through your opponents' base at most, they probably won't able to
finish off the job against most opponents. The time they all died, you
should have around 8 new Zealots ready to go, rush with those while
producing more. This should finish off a Zerg opponent with no
problem, unless they got around 10 Sunkens, then you should go for
their workers and avoid direct contact with the Sunkens. Terran might
give you some trouble if they have Firebats in Bunkers, but your second
rush should able to finish them off if you go for their SCVs. If you
are playing against a Protoss player, then expect them to have a few
more Zealots than you. Then you should ignore the Zealots and try to
stop their mineral production, and then concentrate on the Zealots.
Your Zealots in your base should then rush in (and of course, you are
making more while all this is happening) and help out. Zealots are
very powerful, one Zealot can take on 2 Zerglings or 2 Marines with no
problem, and a group of 12 can break through almost any ground defense.
Zealot takes awhile longer to make, but they can really finish the job
with their high damage and HP. If you see that Zealots aren't getting
the job done, go into gas and build your Citadel of Adun, and improve
Zealot speed, and also make another Forge for both Photon Cannons and
faster ground unit upgrades. Watch out for enemy flying units and
cloak units (Dark Templar and Lurker), if you see that they have these
units (you are in big trouble). First protect your base, and then
climb your tech tree and see if you can have an army (fully upgraded
Carriers and 3 Arbiters would do it) powerful enough to break through.
If you keep rushing you will be just losing troops, if this is a multi
exit map, try the other exit. And about then, you should start
expending. Anyway, against some Terran opponents that build Bunkers
too out from their main base, just ignore the Bunkers and just run past
them. If the Marine come out the Bunker after you, than go back and
finish them, if they don't come back, take out their Barrack or take
out their SCVs, sometimes even better take out the Commend Center if
you can. 6 Zealots can run pass 4 Bunkers easily if the path is clear
enough. And remember once the Marines exits the Bunker, they are no
match against your Zealots with their pity 6 damage and 40 HP. When
you have the chance go take out important units, like workers or HQ,
remember workers provide money and gas for the entire base, and when
the HQ is gone, the workers can't produce any more minerals. Take note
that all HQ takes an extremely long time to build.
Zerg is a basic rush race, so they don't do very well in late games.
Zerg units can be created fast and they can rush faster than any other
race. Zerglings are hatched 2 per Larva, and that means 6 at a time
with a full Hatchery. Another advantage that Zerg possess is their
Overlord (you start a game with an Overlord), they can scout for the
enemy while you mine (however, your opponent will know where you are if
they see your Overlord). The basic building order is 4 Drones mines,
make Drone as soon as the game starts, and your Overlord should start
scouting. The fifth Drone should start to mine minerals, any of the
mining Drone will build the Spawning Pool once you got the 150 minerals
required. You can morph in another Drone when the Spawning Pool is
still building. Then you just start making Zerglings, you should rush
with your first six and hope that your opponent haven't got any kind of
defense yet. If they got any defense, go for their workers and try to
stop their mineral production as much as you can. Since each worker
cost 50 minerals, and if you kill 3 worker units, your Zerglings have
done the job for their cheap 150 mineral cost. Once you got enough
money, build another Hatchery near your base where it can be protected.
While you are making more Zerglings and keeps rushing them (even though
you know they won't finish off the enemy, as long as they can stall
their mineral and technology, the sacrifices should be made), as all
the fighting is going on, your base should be flooded with Zerglings.
Eventually you will kill your opponent by just sending enough Zerglings
to his/her base. This strategy works well against all races, however
Zealots are powerful enough to take on 3 Zerglings by himself, so with
the help of Probes, your Zerglings will fry! The best way to avoid
this is going for the Probes instead of the Zealots since Zerglings
have better speed, six Zerglings should take out around 5 or 6 Probes
before they all die. This should send your opponent back to where they
start, they will have to replace all the Probes, and they won't have
any money to make new Zealots. Then a 12 Zerglings should able to
finish off the enemy, if not, go for gas and Mutalisks, they can wipe
out the weakened Protoss base. Cloak units or flyers shouldn't be a
problem, so don't go into Mutalisks unless your opponent has a large
group of Zealots or some Bunkers in good choke points. A quick Lair
then Spire would be good and easy done, and Mutalisks can shred the
Zealots or take out the Probes while your Zerglings finish it off after
your flyers. During this, your Lair should be evolved to a Hive and a
Greater Spire should be on the way. Then just morph your damaged
Mutalisks to Guardians, and that's pretty much game over for your
opponent. Protoss Scouts and Terran Wraith shouldn't be much of a
problem since Scourge can take care any of the flyers they might have
without much effort. This early cripple strategy works well, also your
Zeaglings can stop your opponent from expending anywhere, you can
basically take over the entire map if you have them pinned like this.
Terran have a weak early game rush, their Marines are weak, their
attacks are a pitiful 6 damage, and they will die very fast under any
kind of attack, Marines will die one on one against almost any other
attacker. However Firebats are extremely powerful, but they require
Gas and Academy to be built. Then that isn't a rush anymore, however I
have seen players that rush with a combination of 8 Marines and 4
Firebats in less than 3 and half minutes. But just a simple 3 Cannon
or 3 Sunken block stops that kind of rush cold. I would just recommend
that you use another race if you are rushing, Terran just don't have a
good early game rush unit, enemy Zealots and Zerglings are just faster
and more powerful against Terran Marines. Also if you are playing
Mutiplayer with allies, don't rush with Firebats, because their splash
damage with hurt your ally's troops too. Terran can however block in
an opponent easily, with Siege Tanks, Bunkers and Missile Turrets, not
many units can get through easily. Only Guardians, Carriers, Battle
Cruiser's Yamato Gun, and Queen's Spawn Broodling can cause you any
serious trouble. However, a few Dark Swarms with Ultralisks, Zealots,
Dark Templars, and Archons can shred your front line with Queens taking
out all your Tanks. Unless you have Firebats in Bunkers, it's pretty
much over for your frontline, and unless you got a lot more Firebats in
the background you've already lost that base to your enemy. And
remember that Firebats will only deal 4 damage to Archons and
Ultralisks since they are large units. Stim Pack is very important
here, Firebats without them are quite useless.
Part 2: Advance Strategy
The Advance Strategy is how you are going to win a late game. The idea
is similar to basic strategy, kill your opponent with your troops.
Except this is probably no longer a ground only war, it's now involved
with air units. Knowing this, you should protect your base with both
anti ground and anti air units.
Also, cloaking units comes into the game, your cloakers can deal some
free damage, but that can go for your opponent too. So you should
really protect your base well, meaning just one or two
Cannons/Spores/Turrets aren't going to cut you a break when 20 plus
Wraith with cloak attacking your mineral line.
For Terran, have a Bunker with 4 Marines right next to your Commend
Center, also build four Missile Turrets around your mineral field.
Marine and Goliath are also good at protecting against early worker
hunters. Especially Goliath with their attack range upgrade, then they
will have the same range as Guardians.
Zerg is however more easier, first have 3 or more Spores and 2 Sunken
right next to your mineral line. Hydralisks and Mutalisks aren't that
important, but keep them there just in case. Spores have 400 HP, so
Wraith and Scouts aren't going to kill them that fast. The Sunkens can
prevent Tank and Reaver drop before they really hurt you. A hot key of
Hydralisk should be kept there at all the time, burrow them and call
them out when you need them. Watch out when fast flyers go for your
workers directly instead of your Spores. Then your Hydralisks will be
your best protection with their fast and decent attacks.
Protoss is much simple in worker protection since their Photon Cannon
attacks both air and ground, first 2 Pylons that can support your
cannons near your minerals. Then build 4 or more cannons right next to
your Nexus, if you don't feel that is safe, build more if you got the
extra minerals to spare. Then have some Dragoons and Scouts, and that
is one good mineral protection, however a big swarm of Hydralisks and
Zeaglings with a good number advantage can overtake that base easily.
However, 3 Reavers and a few High Templars can easily overturn the tide
of the battle with their extremely high damage and their awesome range.
The Protoss most powerful late game unit is the Carrier, and a fully
upgraded Carrier with 8 Interceptors deals 72 damages. The Carrier
possess 300 HP and 150 shields, they are very difficult to destroy (but
they are also the most expensive unit in the game), and they takes a
long time to make. Also, the Protoss has some awesome magic spells and
technology, they should be researched and put into use. Your best bet
at winning a late game is 12 Carriers (fully upgraded!), a few Arbiters
to cloak the Carrier and a few Observers to detect cloak units (the
Observer is useless against Zerg since they can't cloak any air
attackers, just add another Carrier or Arbiter). This will require a
large amount of time, money and gas, and you will probably need to
expend to a lot of other mineral spots to get gas faster. The best way
to speed up this is to build 4 or 5 Stargates (maybe more), and have
only Fleet Beacon and Stargates early on, once you have your 10 or so
Carriers, then go into Arbiter, Observers, and your upgrades. However
I would recommend you to have a group of Zealots and Dragoons to rush
the enemy base before you attack, so you can see what they have before
you attack with your main forces. You can also use a few Scouts to
check out the enemy base but the odds are they will not come back.
Your base should be well defended through out the game, build Photon
Cannons around your base, and a few near your buildings and Mineral
fields is really important. Scatter Dragoons and Scouts around your
base in case of transport drop attack. Also Protoss Archons work well
in both attacking and defending. The only thing you should really
watch out for are Terran Siege Tanks, Zerg Guardians, and Protoss
Reavers, and against all of these units, a group of 8 Scouts with speed
upgrade should do the job. However, if you are doing this, you will be
really poor if your opponent is attacking you non-stop with Zealots and
Dragoons, the money to keep your front line Cannons can just drain you
dry. And with help of Reavers and Drops, you probably won't have the
time and money for Carrier/Arbiter push. So when that happens, switch
to more ground troops, since ground troops are cheaper and the
attack/armor upgrades aren't that important. However, Zealot walk
speed and Dragoon attack range must be upgrades. Scouts are just too
expensive, so you should just get something else instead. High Templar
and Dark Templars are also quite good, High Templar is one of the most
feared units for Protoss. Their Psi Storm deals over 200 damage if the
unit stays in the storm. And with the cheap cost of only 75 energy, a
High Templar can fire 3 times before drained dry. Even then, 5 seconds
later, two drained Templars will form a powerful healthy Archon which
splashes 30 damage without any upgrade (and with Shield Battery nearby,
it will be very difficult to kill off the Archon). Dark Templar's free
cloaking is quite annoying, unless you have multi-detectors nearby,
your opponent will just go for your single Science Vessel or Overlord
with Scouts and then their Dark Templars will murder your army
completely before your backup detector arrives. Remember to hot key
some High Templars near your front line, they can shred almost any
incoming units with their Psi Storms.
Terrans have some great mid/late game units, their Siege Tanks have the
best range in all ground units, and their damage is awesome, too.
Basically, 6 plus Siege Tanks in Siege mode with 4 Bunkers and some
Missile Turrets can stop almost any incoming ground attack. The Terran
Battle Cruisers are the best air unit (Carriers slow firing rate make
them the second best air unit), their 34 upgraded damage for both air
and ground make them trustable, and their Yamato Gun dishes out 260
damage with great range. The best way to win against a computer is
just build a few Supply Depots to block off the exit to your base.
(This don't work in maps that have multi exits and against Terran CPU,
since their Siege Tanks will attack your Supply Depot, you can still
pull it off if you get Wraith fast enough), and build Bunkers with
Marines with Tanks in Siege Mode to back up the fire power. The
computers don't attack the Supply Depot, but they can't get to your
bunker, so they just run around while you are shooting them down. But
watch out for Hydralisk and Dragoons, they can attack your bunker
straight, so have a few SCVs near by to repair it as soon as it gets
damaged. You should get Tanks fast or your bunker will be crash fast,
since Marines deal pitiful damage even if you upgraded to the max.
Once you have secured your base with Missile Turrets and ground units
around your base, start on making Starports (6 or 7 recommended),
however an early 4 plus Reaver drop on your workers can cripple you
greatly. Once your base is secure, go on ahead to Armory (build three
since upgrades takes awhile, but for those of you who wants Battle
Cruisers fast, and build the Science Facility first, then go into
Armory. Another thing I found out that might be useful is when a SCV
is building, you can cancel it on the SCV and have it do something
else, and you can come back later and finish it off with another SCV.
So that means you can block off your exit faster now that you don't
have to finish off the buildings. A 12 Battle Cruiser fleet and a few
Science Vessels can probably take out any enemy base, but than Psi
Storm and mass Hydralisk swarms can easily counter these expensive
fleets. The Science Vessel's Emp Shockwave is great against Protoss
since it drains all energy and shield from that unit (make a Protoss
Archon with only 10 HP, your SCV can finish off the Archon). If you
are fighting against Zerg, don't bring the Science Vessel, just bring
another Battle Cruiser. If you are fighting against multi enemies,
repair your Battle Cruiser before charging into another enemy base.
While defending your base, have Vultures lay Spider Mines outside your
base, it can act as a detector for an attack. Spider mines also
workers well in major chock points on the map, but you have to really
know the map if you are blocking choke points. Science Vessels are a
good target for both Lockdown and Yamato Gun, so be sure to bring 4 or
more when going up against a cloak happy opponent. Remember once your
only detector is destroyed, Wraith will shred your Battle Cruiser fleet
and because of Cruiser's slow speed, they won't able to run away. Your
Comsat Scanner isn't that useful, it loses effect in 2 or 3 seconds,
your Battle Cruisers won't able to take out any more than 5 or 6
Wraith, the rest will just completely destroy your very expensive
fleet. (12 Cruisers fleet cost 4800 minerals and 3600 gas without
upgrades, and lets not mention the time and effort put into it.) Tank
push is also good way to go, with protection from other units, Tank's
11 range can drill your way to victory, but flyers and close-up melee
attackers can really damage your Tanks unless proper backup is
available.
Zerg have some weak late game units, their Guardians are your best bet
at winning, protected by Scourge and Mustlisk (Devours for Brood Wars),
they can win the game. Another easy way to win is fully upgrade your
Hydralisk, and rush them by the 100s. They can just over whelm your
opponent and since they attack both land and air, you can just leave
everything to them and just watch as they tear up your opponent's base,
but Reaver and Psi Storm easily counters those. But remember this
won't work unless you have a large amount of Hydralisks (above 80
recommended), and you should have some flyers to back up Hydralisks in
case they can't finish it off. They are great targets for Terran
Spider mines and Siege Mode Tanks, Reavers works wonders on mass
Hydralisk rush, I would recommend have an Overlord there to detect and
a few Guardians to take out the Tanks before charging in. And of
course send a few Zerglings to rush to see how the enemy's base is
defended first, Queen's Parasite is also good here. Zerg has some
great attacking buildings, their Sunken Colony has 400 HP and deals 40
damage, but unless they are built together, they won't work that well.
The Spores are however weaker, they only deals 15 damage, but your
Hydralisks can patrol your base and they can take out almost any air
unit with their cheap cost and large numbers. Spread your Overlord
around for cloak detection. Also send a Zergling to a further exit to
your base, it can be used as early warning of an enemy attack, and have
it burrow so enemies wont know about it. But against the computer it
might not work, since they always know where to scan and they have
everything perfect with their detector. You should build your Sunkens
and Spores close together, if built too far apart, they won't work very
well, since they might not all attack because they just can't move at
all. When playing against another human player, send your Zerglings to
all the mineral fields and have them burrow right next to the crystals.
If your player color is blue, it will work wonders in Twilight and
other dark maps. When your opponent decide to expend, and have all
their main troops guarding their new base, attack their main base. If
their troops go back trying to save their main base, have your
Zerglings attack the new base. Both way you get something out of it.
Remember map control is very important, unless you are willing to be
rushed non stop by your opponent, you should take good care of the map.
*Note, an easy way to win against a Zerg computer is a Sunken Colony
rush, this is easily accomplished by first have a Drone morph into a
Spawning Pool, and while the Spawning Pool is still building. Than
have another Drone build a Creep Colony on enemy Zerg's Creep, upgrade
the Creep Colony to Sunken and rush with your Zerglings, and this
should be a very easy win. This Strategy works for Protoss also, but
their Photon Cannon only has 200 HP and require a Pylon and are easily
killed by enemy workers. Photon Cannon requires a Forge and a Pylon,
but one Probe can build multi Cannons in a matter a seconds. However I
don't recommend you doing this, this is for a pro player using a new
name to rack in 10 wins, so he or she can play ladder without wasting
any time on long boring games.
Note- I swear I see these 7 vs 1 zerg comp rush games everywhere on
B.net. What is the point of playing this, there isn't even any kind of
challenge here, you just run all your workers there and you will win.
It doesn't really matter that you have a lot of wins, if you can't take
on against a good human player, it means you suck in StarCraft. So
when playing against other people, don't be scared of their records,
I've seen people with 200 wins who can't stop a simple and quite slow 6
Zerglings rush if they know about it coming. One time I've saw this
guy with 120 wins and 10 lose, he don't even protect his main mineral
base, I scout with a Shuttle, and found nothing. Than I dropped on him
and I won with only 6 Reavers, non of them are even damaged. So record
doesn't really mean anything, so don't be a fool and ban anyone with a
decent record.
Personally, I got over 200 wins, and I don't think I'm that good. I've
lost a lot of games (actually I've lost over 100 and won only around
500 with all my records add together), and still sometimes when I play
2v2 or 3v3, people would boot me because of my record.
Part 3: Terran Units and Buildings
Keys
Unit name: the unit's name, it's how you tell what it is
Unit HP: how much life it has
Unit armor: how much it can stand abuse
Unit ground attack: how much abuse it can deliver
Unit air attack: how much air abuse it delivers
Unit cost: how much it cost
Unit supply cost: how much the unit eats
Unit size: how fat it is
Unit attack range: how far the abuse can go
Unit upgrade: how much improvement it has for it's abuse
Unit ability: the unit's special abuse
Unit requirement: what the unit needs to be built
Unit best usage: what the unit should be used on
Unit summary: what the unit is about (mostly abuse wise)
Building name: building's name, what do you think
Building ability: what can the building do
Building HP: amount of abuse the building can stand
Building cost: building's cost
Building Summary: about the building
Damage Types*Important! I repeat, this is very important!
Normal-Unit always deals the amount of damage after the armor. The
most seen type of damage.
Concussive-Concussive Damage does 50% damage against Medium units and
25% against large units. Very bad against buildings since they count
as large units. This type of damage is only seen in Terran units.
Explosion-Unit does 50% damage against Small units and 75% against
medium units. Much better than Concussive since they hit buildings for
full damage, most mid game units have this damage type.
Splash-All unit within the blast suffers half or one fourth of the
damage, however the main enemy unit will suffer the full damage. The
best type of damage, because it attacks many units with one hit.
However, some Splash will also damage your units nearby (Siege Tanks),
and all Splash type damage hurts ally's units within the damage range.
1. Unit name: SCV
Unit HP: 60
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Fusion Cutter, 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: Infantry Armor Upgrade
Unit ability: build various buildings, mine minerals, mine gas
Unit requirement: Commend Center
Unit best usage: SCV are obvious used for mining, however they are also
used in repairs, keep a few around with your Mech units
Unit summary: this is the worker unit for Terran, the SCV builds all
the building for the Terran race. The SCV also repairs any damaged
Mech. units and buildings. SCV's can repair one another if damaged.
SCV stands for something like Space Construction Vehicle, this counts
for both organic and machine. Both Lockdown and Mealstrom works on
this unit. SCVs are pretty good attackers compared to Probes, they
have high HP, but they don't heal like the other workers.
Unit name: Marine
Unit HP: 40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Gauss Rifle 6 (normal)
Unit air attack: Gauss Rifle 6
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 4/5
Unit upgrade: attack, armor and range
Unit ability: Stim Packs, Marine takes 10 damage, but it now fires
twice as fast, and deals a bit more damage.
Unit requirement: Barrack
Unit best usage: Marines are used in large groups against almost any
enemy unit
Unit summary: the basic troop for the Terran race, with a Bunker,
Marines can be very useful. However, it's low HP and low damage makes
them less useful later on when in small numbers. Stim Packs should be
put into use, since dropping with 8 Marines is useful and can be
accomplished fast. Marine alone is very useless, however together,
they can more useful. Zealots and Zerglings won't able to get to them
in time to attack. Marines attacks are quite fast, but not as fast
like close up units like Zealots and Zerglings.
Unit name: Firebat
Unit HP: 50
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Flame Thrower, 16 (concussive)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 25 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 2
Unit upgrade: attack and armor
Unit ability: Stim Packs (see above for Marine's ability)
Unit requirement: Barrack, Academy
Unit best usage: Firebats are only used early on against Zealots and
Zerglings, their use decreases as the game progress
Unit summary: a good unit used for protect your base, it can only
attack ground, but it deals 16 damage without any upgrades, that is
very good against Zerglings and Zealots rushes. The Firebats also have
splash damage, and that is very useful for a rush or going up against
tightly grouped up enemies. Keep in mind that Firebats will also
damage your ally's troops if they are near, although not dealing the
full 16 damage, but enough to kill ally's Zealots and Zerglings in
time. Firebats in Bunkers is the only way for Terran to stop Dark
Swarm/Zergling combo. The Firebat's use decrease in time because of
their Concussive type damage. But always keep a Firebat in a Bunker
unless it's a island, since Marines and Ghost can't cut it against mass
close up swarm attacks. Stim Packed Firebats will shred Zealot swarms
like a hot knife through butter, 12 Stimed Firebats can take out 20
Zealots grouped together without a problem. Once Stim Packed, Firebats
will basically have close to 0 recovery, they will almost keep firing
non-stop until the effect is over.
Unit name: Ghost
Unit HP: 45, 200 energy
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: C-10 Canister Rifle, 10 (concussive)
Unit air attack: C-10 Canister Rifle, 10 (concussive)
Unit cost: 25 minerals, 75 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 7
Unit upgrade: Lock Down, Cloaking, Sight Range, +50 Energy, attack and
armor
Unit ability: Lock Down stops a Mech. unit from moving and attacking,
Cloaking cloaks the Ghost, Nuclear Strike nukes where ever you point,
you will lose the Nuke if the Ghost dies.
Unit requirement: Barrack, Science Facility with Covert Orps.
Unit best usage: Ghost is used for their abilities, Nuke and Lockdown
mainly.
Unit summary: The Ghost is a good unit to have, their low HP make them
very easy to kill, but they have a great set of ability. Lockdown
works only against Mech. units in Terran and Protoss, all Zerg units
are unaffected by that, and Nuclear Strike will Nuke a large area for
500 damage in a 18x18 matrix area. Overall this is a good unit to have
even if you don't plan to using Nukes. Ghost's attack is rather weak,
since all buildings counts as large units. So meaning Ghost will only
deal 25% of it's total possible damage. Ghost is not meant to be used
as an attacker, Ghost's ability is what it is for. Cloaking isn't
important unless you are nuking, since Lockdown as about 10-11 range
and your Ghost won't be killed that fast anyways. Stoping enemy
transport is great way to use Lockdown, since once the transport dies,
the cargo goes with it. Cloaking and attacking isn't meant for Ghost,
since just one Siege Tank will take a Ghost 45 hits to kill and a
healthy Hive will take a Ghost 750 hits, and during this time the Hive
will probably heal for 600 plus, which means another 200 hits for the
Ghost. And that should take around 30 minutes, possibly more, I think
your Ghost will die because of old age by than.
Unit name: Vultures
Unit HP: 80
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Fragmentation Grenade 20 (concussive)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 75 minerals
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 4
Unit upgrade: speed upgrade, spider mines, attack and armor
Unit ability: Spider Mines are mines that you plant, it deals 125
damage when enemy steps on it, but a Dragoon or other long range units
can shoot it down before it fires.
Unit requirement: Factory
Unit best usage: Vultures are used most as fast scouts for enemy
expansion, Spider Mine comes in handy against ground swarms and Ghosts
Unit summary: Vulture isn't that useful other than their Spider Mine
ability, they can't really attack and are quite useless in rushes.
Their good speed makes them good scouts, their 20 damage might look
powerful, but they attacks are quite slow, and will get destroyed fast
by enemy units. Spider Mine will also attack cloaked units like Dark
Templar and Ghost, but Spider Mine doesn't detect cloaked units. (sent
in by s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com) And basically, Vulture only has two
uses, scouting and anti-Ghost nukes with their mines. However Vultures
can just run right pass Bunkers and take very little damage with their
awesome speed. Spider Mines comes with the Vulture once it's
researched, each Vulture has 3 mines, once the mines are used, you will
need new Vultures to get new mines. Once upgraded, Vultures have the
best speed in StarCraft, but they are hard to stop when they usually
over run the point you chose, usually into a busy Cannon field or
Sunken field.
Unit name: Siege Tanks
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor:
Unit ground attack: Arclite Cannon 20 damage (explosive)
Siege Mode Arclite Shockwave 70 damage (explosive/splash)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5, Siege Mode 11
Unit upgrade: Siege Mode, attack and armor
Unit ability: Siege Mode
Unit requirement: Factory, Machine Shop
Unit best usage: Siege Tanks are best at attacking, even if they are
good at defense. Tank push one of the most important aspect any Terran
player must know how to perform.
Unit summary: The Siege Tanks is one of the best ground unit in
StarCraft, it has the best range when in Siege Mode (11), it has one of
the best damage (70 without upgrade), but it is slow when switching
from Tank mode to Siege Mode. But this is one of the best ground unit
you can have, with support from other close range units, Siege Tank is
your best bet at a win. When it is in Siege Mode, it can't attack
units too close, so bring along a few Marines, Firebats, Goliaths and
or Wraiths to give Siege Tanks close up supports. Siege Tanks also has
splash damage up to 2 space away. Siege Tanks next to Bunkers are
awesome in your base protection, most opponent will try to avoid Siege
Tanks when they are rushing (human players only), so this can be used
to your advantage. For opponents that relying mostly on Photon Cannons
and Sunken Colonies, your Siege Tanks can shred those in no time.
However practice guessing your Tank's range before changing them from
mode to mode. Also Siege Tanks only has around 10 sight range but with
11 attack range, so they can actually fire on targets out of their
sight range.
Unit name: Goliath
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Twin Auto Cannon 12 (normal)
Unit air attack: Hellfire Missile Pack 20 (explosive)
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 4 ground, 6/9 air
Unit upgrade: attack, armor and air attack range
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Armory, Factory
Unit best usage: Goliaths are used as protection units, their slow
ground attack makes them useless against mass swarm attacks. Goliaths
are best as ground to air protection against Guardians or other slow
moving air units.
Unit summary: this is a very good unit to have in both protecting your
base and attacking. Goliath have both good ground attack and air
attack, a group of fully upgraded Goliath can easily protect your new
expended base. The only Weakness that the Goliath have is their low HP
and their slow ground attack rate, but overall this is a good unit to
have and you should have them patrol your base for protection. Goliath
makes great Siege Tanks escorts, and with SCVs repairing, your troops
should break through any defense. Goliath have great ground to air
range once upgraded, it will than have the same range as Guardians, and
with level 3 attack, it deals 32 damage. But Goliath bad ground fire
recovery makes them useless against Zerglings or Zealot swarms. But
you got your Firebats in Bunkers to help out against those. Goliath
can replace your Missile Turrets in anti-air protection for your base,
since they can actually move, but keep Missile Turrets for cloak
detection.
Unit name: Wraith
Unit HP: 120, 200 energy
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Burst Laser 8 (normal)
Unit air attack: Gemini Missile 20 (explosive)
Unit cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: attack, armor, cloaking, and +50 energy
Unit ability: Cloaking, cloak your Wraith, requires 25 energy to
activate, and uses 1 energy per second.
Unit requirement: Starport
Unit best usage: Wraith, more a protection unit than attacking unit,
weak ground attack. However, Wraith are excellent worker hunters and
air-to-air attack units with their cloaking ability. These are also
great Overlord Hunters.
Unit summary: The Wraith is a basic air unit, it has good air attack,
but weak ground attack. It cloaking ability makes it a good unit to
stop opponent's mineral production early on in the game, just cloak it
and go into the mineral fields (does not work against Zerg, since their
Overlord detects, but you can go Overlord Hunting then). This strategy
works well, but only early on. Your opponent can get detectors before
you get your Wraith, but some just people just don't. So make them
suffer for their mistake. Wraith are good escorts for Siege Tanks and
Drop Ships, their air to air attack is quite damaging and with their
cloaking ability Wraith should last quite long. But once detected,
they are pretty much dead with their low HP and weak ground attack.
Wraith are excellent Overlord hunters with their decent speed and air-
to-air attack damage. And you can start your hunt as soon as you have
6 Wraith, add more to your hot key later on. Wraith also makes good
Bat
Unit name: Drop Ship
Unit HP: 200
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor
Unit ability: Load, Unload units
Unit requirement: Starport, Control Tower
Unit best usage: like it's name, the Drop Ship drops off units.
Unit summary: this is a transport ship, it has medium speed, and make a
lot since these will die when you make drops. Drop Ship has a slow
building speed compare to other Transports, but it can be repaired fast
by your SCVs. However, Drop Ship is the slowest transport in all three
races, but it starts with one armor. But just one armor won't make
much of a difference since most unit's air-to-air attack is over 20.
These are pretty much dead once confronted by Scouts, Wraith, Scourge
or Goliath in open ground, and with because the game slow reaction
speed, the cargo will be pretty much gone for sure too. Drop Ship has
pretty bad startup speed, but once it makes the drop in enemy's base,
100 mineral and 100 gas has been put to good use already.
Unit name: Science Vessel
Unit HP: 200, 200 energy
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 225 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor, Irritate, Emp Shockwave, +50 energy
Unit ability: Defensive Matrix, Emp Shockwave, and Irritate
Unit requirement: Starport, Science Facility
Unit best usage: the only Terran unit able to detect, their range and
abilities are great, and is a must for any base you might have. This
is a must get for Brood Wars, since Lurkers, Dark Templars and Wraith
can easily avoid Missile Turrets or just destroy the single Turrets
with their attacks.
Unit summary: Science Vessel is a very useful unit to have, Emp
Shockwave drains energy from a enemy (it also drains Protoss Shields!
And that can make a Archon have only 10 HP). Irritate is a useful
spell against Zerg, cast that on a unit and the unit begin to grow in a
gas, the unit will run around and damage all units near him. Defensive
Matrix will add a defensive shield to a unit for a short period of
time, the shield has 250 hit points, all damage assign to that unit
will be reduced to 1 until shield runs out. The Science Vessel is also
a detector, so bring to them along on an attack. Compare the Science
Vessel to the other Detectors, the Science Vessel stands out with it's
decent HP and good speed. Defensive Matrix with Ghost will not work,
since Ghost's cloak ability will not be there if he is shielded.
Science Vessel can get killed fast in battle, so remember to bring more
than just one.
Unit name: Battle Cruiser
Unit HP: 500, 200 energy
Unit armor: 3
Unit ground attack: ATA Laser 25 (normal)
Unit air attack: ATS Laser 25 (normal)
Unit cost: 400 minerals, 300 gas
Unit supply cost: 8
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 8
Unit upgrade: Yamato Gun, +50 energy, attack and armor
Unit ability: Yamato Gun, a beam attack, deals 260 damage
Unit requirement: Starport with Control Tower, Science Facility with
Physic Lab.
Unit best usage: best in large groups, Battle Cruisers gets beaten down
easily when out numbered by other units. Battle Cruisers are extremely
powerful, they take a while to get wear down, so they are best used in
combat or base defense. Their poor speed makes them terrible when need
to move to a far place.
Unit summary: this is the best air unit in the game, the Battle
Cruiser's Yamato Gun can take out a Photon Cannon in one shot, so these
make great attackers. Scourge doesn't work against Battle Cruisers
unless you sent in a very large number, since one hit from a Battle
Cruiser is just enough to kill a Scourge. The biggest reason that the
Battle Cruiser is the best air unit is because it's high firing rate,
the Battle Cruiser can get in around 3 hits or maybe more before a
Carrier can finish launching. (Also, Carrier's damage will be reduced
to only 24 against Battle Cruiser's armor, if no one got any upgrades
and the Carrier has 8 Interceptors). Battle Cruisers movements are
quite slow, but they can scare the hell out of the opponents when in
large numbers. And people tend to avoid direct contact with large
Battle Cruiser fleets since their 500 HP is difficult to get rid off,
not to mention the number of death they'll receive for their units.
Also most damaged Battle Cruisers will get repaired by SCVs (unless the
owner is a complete idiot, or a really lazy person), so in matter of
seconds they will have full 500 HP and high armor again. And that
means, unless you kill a Battle Cruiser before it gets away, the Battle
Cruiser will come back at full HP in a few seconds.
Unit name: Nuclear Missile
Unit HP: 0
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: 500 (splash)
Unit air attack: 500 (splash)
Unit cost: 200 mineral, 200 gas
Unit supply cost: 8
Unit attack range: 9
Unit upgrade: none
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Missile Silo, Science Facility with Covert Orps
Unit best usage: used against a large portion of buildings, like a
Cannon Field or Sunken Field.
Unit summary: this is the bad boy of StarCraft, it deals 500 damage (or
2/3 of the units total possible HP, which ever is more damaging),
enough said right there! This can knock out any unit near by and
totally damage all buildings near the explosion. It has a great damage
range (9), and if used right, Nukes are your best weapon. You use your
Ghosts to launch your Nukes, and you can cloak your Ghost to make the
job easy and fast. However the Nuke will take around 10 or so seconds
to be fired, and during that time your Ghost dies, you will not only
lose your Ghost, you lose your Nuke too. However, the spot the Nuke is
firing will show a red flashing dot, so your opponent will very likely
know where your Ghost is. But with some protection from Battle
Cruisers and Medic, your Ghost should finish off the job easily, just
remember to move out fast enough so the nuke won't damage your Cruisers
too.
Terran Buildings
Building name: Commend Center
Building cost: 400 minerals
Building ability: Build SCV, Comsat Station, Nuclear Silo
Building HP: 1500
Building Summary: The Head Quarter for Terran race, it provide 10
supply unit for you, and it can fly like most other Terran Buildings.
Commend Center can easily help you expend, since lifting them off and
flying them to the island takes a lot lesser time to build one.
Lifting off Commend Center and flying them off to islands is a great
way to go in most island maps.
Building name: Comsat Station
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Comsat Swipe (you scan target area) 50 energy per use
Building HP: 500, 200 energy
Building Summary: you will need one of these for both easy fast
scouting and for cloaked enemy units. The scan last for about 2-3
seconds, so it's not that useful against cloak detection unless you
have a large army stationed very close by. Use this for scouting more
than cloak detection, since the scan just don't last long enough.
Remember to scan the enemy's base to find out about their gaming
method.
Building name: Nuclear Silo
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: arm nuke
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: you get this if you want nukes. Have 3 Nuclear Silos
if you plan to use nukes since the nuke takes quite some time to build.
If you are playing a cheap map, try not to go into Nukes, since Nukes
are expensive and time consuming. Don't lift off a Commend Center with
an armed nuke, since you will lose it once the building lifts off.
Building name: Supply Depot
Building cost: 100 minerals
Building ability: provide 8 supply units
Building HP: 500
Building Summary: just a boring old farm for you.
Building name: Refinery
Building cost: 100 minerals
Building ability: allow you to collect gas
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: just a boring old gas collector.
Building name: Barrack
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: create Marines, Firebats, Ghosts, and Medics
Building HP: 1000
Building Summary: this is where you make all your infantry units, you
will need more than one Barrack if you plan on making large numbers of
infantry units. Keep in mind that all these units have low HP and will
die very fast against Dark Templar, Lurkers, Siege Tanks, Reavers, and
especially Psi Storm from High Templar. Infantry units don't really
have a good chance when going up against a large Battle Cruiser fleet,
a Guardian swarms, or a Carrier fleet. They tend to die on you before
they get there to deal any damage. Scatter all these units around and
they can be more useful, when grouped together, one Psi Storm will take
out 10 or more infantry units before they move out. Medics will
automatically heal all units built here if damaged, but not fast enough
against large enemy swarms or high damage units like Reavers.
Building name: Engineering Bay
Building cost: 150 Minerals
Building ability: Upgrade Infantry Attack, Upgrade Infantry Armor
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: the Engineering Bay is where you upgrade all your
Infantry units. The first level of upgrade doesn't have any
requirements. The next two levels of upgrade requires a Science
Facility, but you will need it to build Missile Turrets anyway. This
building should come the same time you get your Factory if not earlier.
This is very important against early Lurker or Dark Templar rush,
unless you have a few Missile Turrets before the cloaked attackers
comes, you pretty much lost the game.
Building name: Missile Turrets
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: Long Bolt Missile 20 damage (explosive)
Building HP: 200
Building Summary: this is a detector as well as an air defense
building. Build these close together and have a few Firebats around
cause enemies can do a 3-4 drop ship at once, and have has a Protoss
Archon running loose in your base. Missile Turrets will get damaged,
so have a SCV to repair it as soon as it gets damaged. Remember all
Terran buildings will burn down if hit points are red. Missile Turrets
have a decent firing rate, but the Long Bolt Missiles they fire don't
get to the target for half a second or so. So a drop is easily
accomplished when one is dropping with a Defensive Matrix transport.
However, units in Missile Turret's range will at least get hit twice if
not more.
Building name: Factory
Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: build Vulture, Siege Tanks, Goliath, add-on Machine
Shop
Building HP: 1250
Building Summary: this is where all Terran Mech. units are built. This
is a good building, Goliath can replace Marines in defending against
air units with their powerful attack. This can be built right after
the Barrack, but don't get it too early since all units here are
expensive compare to your infantry units. The units here are more
powerful then those from the Barrack, but both have their own use.
Building name: Machine Shop
Building cost: 50 mineral, 50 gas
Building ability: Vulture speed upgrade, Spider Mines, Siege Mode
Upgrade, Goliath air attack range upgrade
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: it's cheap so get it, beside, this is the whole point
of getting the Factory. All Mech. Unit's ability are researched here.
Siege Tank Siege Mode upgrade is the most important one here. Goliath
air range is only useful against air units, so don't get it unless you
have a rather weak air defense system. Vulture's abilities are quite
useful, Spider Mines can stop most ground melee attackers with a
problem, and once upgraded in speed, Vultures can run past almost any
defense with a clear path ahead.
Building name: Starport
Building cost: 150 minerals, 15 gas
Building ability: build Wraith, Drop Ship, Science Vessel, Battle
Cruiser, and control tower add-on
Building HP: 1300
Building Summary: this is where you get all your air units for Terran.
I usually get around 6 Starports or more once I have enough money, and
all units here takes quite a long while to build. Units here are a bit
expensive, but they are flyers that can move more freely around the
map.
Building name: Control Tower
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Wraith Cloaking, +50 Wraith energy
Building HP: 500
Building Summary: you will need this if you plan on building any other
flyer units other than the Wraith, also you can get the Wraith ability
upgrades here too. It's cheap anyway, so get it. The Wraith cloak
ability is very important if you plan on using any Wraith at all.
Building name: Science Facility
Building cost: 200 minerals, 150 gas
Building ability: Emp Shockwave, Irritate, +50 Science Vessel energy,
Covert Orps add-on, and Physic's Lab add-on
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: you really have to build this for a 20 plus minute
game. Get the Physic's Lab first to get Battle Cruiser, then get
Covert Orps to use Ghosts and Nukes. This building also allows you to
upgrade beyond the 1 level armor and weapon. This building also allows
you to make Science Vessel, the only moving detector for Terran.
Building name: Covert Orps
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Lockdown research, Personal Cloaking, Ghost Sight,
Ghost + 50 energy
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: something you need if you plan on nuking someone.
Get cloaking and sight range if you want to nuke. Lockdown and +50
energy should be researched later on, and only against Terran or
Protoss, Lockdown doesn't work against any Zerg units. The plus 50
energy isn't that important, the nuke takes a bit long to launch but a
Ghost with 100 or so energy should be more than enough on almost any
map.
Building name: Physic's Lab
Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: Yamato Gun, +50 Battle Cruiser energy
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: get this if you want Battle Cruisers, Battle
Cruiser's ability are also researched here, they are quite fast, so
don't make two. And of course, get the gun researched first, then get
the energy increase. Battle Cruiser's gun ability isn't really that
useful since they are take a bit time to aim and fire, but they can
help you blow a big hole in almost any defense with their 11 range and
high damage.
Building name: Armory
Building cost: 100 mineral, 50 gas
Building ability: Mech. attack, Mech. armor, air attack, air armor
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: this is where all non-organic units are upgraded, get
3 or more to make upgrades faster. Remember to upgrade armor first if
you are playing defense, upgrade attack if you are planning to attack.
This building is also required for Goliath's to be built.
Brood War Units and Buildings
Unit name: Medic
Unit HP: 60, 200 energy
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 25 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor, Restoration, Optic Flare
Unit ability: Heal, heals any organic unit for 2 HP every energy spent,
Restoration removes all status ailments, and Optic Flare reduce a
unit's sight range to 1, given that unit the Blind status.
Unit requirement: Academy, Barrack
Unit best usage: useful all around, but best with large Infantry
swarms.
Unit summary: the Medic is hard to use for human players, but the CPU
takes full advantage of this great unit. Medic will automatically heal
all organic units that were damaged nearby, have a few of these if you
are attacking with all Infantry units. One Medic and one Marine can
kill a Sunken Colony. Medic can only heal one unit at a time, so bring
more than one. Optic Flare is great against opponent using only 1
detector, and they won't know that it's blind unless they pay close
attention. Medic also heals ally's organic units, so all Zerg units
and some Protoss units will get healed by your Medic.
Unit name: Valkyrie Frigate
Unit HP: 200
Unit armor: 2
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: Halo Rockets, 5 (explosive)
Unit cost: 200 minerals, 125 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: attack, and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Stargate, Armory, and Control Tower
Unit best usage: decent air-to-air attacks, but Valkyrie Frigate isn't
that useful. Valkyrie can replace Wraith in air protection.
Unit summary: only attacks air, but still a good defensive unit, as
well as supporting other attacking units like Siege Tanks. The
Valkyrie has splash damage up to 2 spaces away. If you upgrade their
attack up to level three, Valkyrie will deal 64 damage (8 Halo Rockets
times 8 damage). These make great Overlord Hunters, 12 can shred
Overlords before they run away. These also makes good air swarm
counters, Guardians/Carriers/Battle Cruisers don't stand a chance
against them since they splash their damage and have a decent 200 HP
and 2 armor. When going up against 12 Mutalisk/Wraith/Scout worker
hunters, 10 Valkyries can take out all of them out and take every
little damage.
Part 4: Zerg Units and Buildings
Unit name: Larva
Unit HP: 25
Unit armor: 20
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 0
Unit supply cost: 0
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: 0
Unit ability: Evolve into other Zerg units
Unit requirement: Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Unit best usage: needs this little thing to start your swarm
Unit summary: this is a little bug that evolves into big bugs. These
little things comes out pretty fast, so Zerg can make more workers fast
than the other races. Don't worry much about the Larva, they have the
best armor in StarCraft and almost all attacks to them will be reduced
to one. These comes out pretty quick, about the same amount of time
for a Drone to morph in. But there can be only 3 Larva at a time at
each Hatchery, so you need a few Hatcheries to pump out your swarm.
Unit name: Drone
Unit HP: 50
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Spines 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 2
Unit upgrade: Carapace
Unit ability: Evolve into various Buildings, mine minerals, mine gas,
and burrow
Unit requirement: Larva
Unit best usage: worker unit, so get lots to speed up your mineral
flow.
Unit summary: the basic worker unit for the Zerg race. These are
actually better attackers than the other two races since they almost
have 2 range. Remember to use damaged Drones to morph into buildings,
keep the healthy ones. A Drone that is Parasite should morph into
something so it don't go into waste. Burrow can save stranded Drones
and be used later on. If you see a large army coming to your new base,
cancel your Drone's morph and burrow them, call them out later when the
enemy is gone.
Unit name: Zergling
Unit HP: 35
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Claws 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: speed, attack speed, Carapace, melee attack, carapace
Unit ability: burrow
Unit requirement: Spawning Pool, Larva
Unit best usage: great unit early on, even useful sometimes late in the
game. Great with Dark Swarm, Consume, and Defilers with their cheap
cost and large numbers.
Unit summary: this basic ground unit for Zergs, each Larva will hatch
into two Zerglings. These are great for an early game rush, since the
other two races need a Barrack or Gateway and it will only able to
produce one or two attacker. While you will have 6 Zerglings.
Zerglings are quite useless later on, so don't bother with their
upgrades unless you are planning on mass Zergling swarm or Dark
Swarm/Zergling combo. Remember 3 Zealots can stop your Zergling rush
cold, you won't even able to take out a single Zealot. So I say, you
go for working Probes instead. Stopping their mineral production is a
great way to use Zerglings early on. But later when Lurker, Dark
Templar and Firebats are available, they will destroy almost any
Zergling swarm without any problems. Zerglings have really good speed,
and they make great scouts early on if you don't want to use a Drone
instead. And because they are so cheap, they can be sacrificed to your
Defilers and use as decoys to attract enemy's firepower. And remember
a group of 36 fully upgraded Zerglings can swarm a semi-defended base
and it would only cost you 650 bucks, and your opponent will likely
lose around 2000 mineral and many gas if they protect the base or try
to rescue it. Your large swarm will very likely have a hot key of
Zerglings left after the battle.
Unit name: Overlord
Unit HP: 200
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals
Unit supply cost: 0
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: speed, sight, transport, Carapace
Unit ability: transport, detector, 8 supply units
Unit requirement: Larva
Unit best usage: used as a detector, transport, and food supply, so
protect these. Overlord are targets for enemy air units, so protect
these from Overlord Hunters.
Unit summary: this is a unit for Zerg, the Overlord is a Supply unit, a
Detector, and a Transport. However the Overlord is not all that useful
since all the upgrades for it takes time and money, but you have to get
them in order to have a transport that moves faster than a Reaver.
Your Overlord shouldn't be cramped all together, since Valkyries and
Corsairs can kill your Overlords fast if they aren't protected well.
Scatter your Overlord around, don't crowd them into a small section
when 12 Valkyries comes in and you find yourself 50 controls below
normal. Overlord is an average Transport, they have good start-up
speed once the speed upgrade is there. But overall, Shuttle and Drop
Ship are still better since they have no other use other than
transporting units, but Overlord is also needed to detect and control.
Overlord has a better start-up speed in transporting, but Overlord
doesn't start with any armor, and unless you get the speed upgrade,
your Overlord is basically useless in moving your units.
Unit name: Hydralisk
Unit HP: 80
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Needle Spines 10 (explosive)
Unit air attack: Needle Spines 10 (explosive)
Unit cost: 75 minerals, 25 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 5/6
Unit upgrade: movement, attack range, missile attack, carapace, Lurker
Evolve
Unit ability: burrow
Unit requirement: Hydralisk Den, Larva
Unit best usage: Hydralisks are good protection units, good attacking
units, good scouting units. Since they are really cheap, you won't
mind much if 12 Hydralisks deals enough damage when they die. These
are great all around, however, unless a large number advantage is
present, Hydralisks gets beaten down fast.
Unit summary: a good defense unit as well as an offense unit, a group
of fully upgraded Hydralisks can be quite dangerous. Have a few burrow
a bit further out in front of your Sunkens and Spores, they can pop up
and do a quick kill. These are great units since they are really cheap
and spawns almost the same speed as a Marine. A large group of
Hydralisks can stop basically any large flyer fleet, meaning Battle
Cruisers or Carrier fleet can't go up against large Hydralisk swarms
without suffering large fleet damage themselves. Hydralisks are really
cheap, since spending 75 mineral and 25 gas for a 80 HP unit dealing a
decent 10 damage with good range and speed is a great way to invest
your money.
Unit name: Multalisk
Unit HP: 120
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Glave Wurm 9 (splash)
Unit air attack: Glave Wurm 9 (splash)
Unit cost: 100 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 4
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: evolve Guardian/Devour
Unit requirement: Spire, Larva
Unit best usage: the best worker Hunter, their splash damage is poor,
but great on weak worker units. These are the decent protection
against worker Hunters or overlord hunters.
Unit summary: a basic flyer unit for Zerg, this can be quite good in
groups, their attack will damage another enemy unit near by when fired.
Mutalisks is however quite useless when alone, and will get killed by
many other units. The whole point of getting Mutalisk is evolving them
into Guardians and Devours later on. Mutalisks are actually quite
decent if you get them early enough, a quick Lair and a Spire won't
take anymore than 6 minutes. And very likely, a Protoss player won't
have any more than 2 or 3 Dragoons. Also, Mutalisks are quite good
against Marines, since Mutalisk's splash damage is put into good use
against crowd up Marines. Mutalisk's movement is quite fast, so a
group of 12 will give you good control of the map and taking out
enemy's expended base early on. Mutalisk also make a good worker
hunter, since a single Bunker with 4 Marines won't able to take out the
Mutalisks fast enough to stop against worker hunting.
Unit name: Scourge
Unit HP: 25
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: 0
Unit air attack: Suicide 110 (normal)
Unit cost: 25 minerals, 75 gas
Unit supply cost: 1/2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Spire, Larva
Unit best usage: Scourges are good against Carriers, Scouts, and all
transports. Their cheap cost and fast spawning make them useful, and
also you can sent 5 Scourge and see your opponent's base, you won't
mind since they are really cheap.
Unit summary: Scourge is great against Carriers and other slow big air
unit, two Scourge hatch from one Larva. Scourge is especially good
against Carrier since Carriers takes a bit of time to launch and deal
damage. Scourges can also scare away enemy Carriers, since Carriers
will die against Scourge unless they have Arbiter. Scourges are also
good units used to cripple your enemies air force, 3 Scourge kills a
Scout and a Scout cost 300 minerals and 150 gas. Only use Scourge to
cripple opponent when you have large amount of gas and no mineral. If
that happens, your opponent shouldn't have much minerals either.
Scourge have very low HP, so if your opponent have some fast firing
ground units near by, your Scourge will probably die from their attacks
before getting close enough to damage the air units. Scourge can also
be used to attract firepower when used to drop on a opponent, and
because all attack buildings (Photon Cannon, Missile Turrets, and Spore
Colony) takes at least 2 hits to kill a single Scourge. That can
provide you with the time to drop a Defiler and 6 Zerglings into your
enemy's base, and Defiler can Plague/Dark Swarm to badly damage your
opponent's base.
Unit name: Queen
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: 0
Unit air attack: 0
Unit cost: 100 mineral, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: armor, Spawn Brooding, Ensnare, +50 energy
Unit ability: Infest Commend Center, infests a damaged Commend Center
with HP750 or below, allowing you to make Infested Terran. Parasite
lets you see what target unit sees. Spawn Broodling, destroy target
unit and make two Broodling units for you. Ensnare slows down target
unit and units near by, Ensnare will also detect cloaked units.
Unit requirement: Queen's Nest, Larva
Unit best usage: Spawn Broodling is best against Terran's Siege Tanks,
Ensnare is a must against large Battle Cruiser fleets. Queen is used
mostly against Terran, but they are also useful against Protoss with
Ensnare. Parasite is great for spying.
Unit summary: A good unit to have, but the Queen is hard to use against
a well defended base. Use Queen against Terran base, since Spawn
Broodling is awesome against Terran Siege Tanks when in Siege Mode.
Ensnare will also detect cloaked and burrowed units near by when fired,
that includes your units. Parasite is great against almost all units,
use it on an expensive unit like Carrier or Arbiter, Battle Cruiser and
Science Vessel makes good targets too. However, if you Parasite a
worker unit, most people tend to just send the worker to your base.
They won't mind a 50 mineral lost as much as letting you see his/her
base. The Broodlings created by the Queen will last around 60 seconds,
once their energy runs out, they will die automatically. Remember
Ensnare can actually turn the tide of a losing battle for you, if you
Ensnare a fleet of Carriers or Battle Cruisers, your Devours and
Scourges will have a much better chance of taking out the fleet.
Unit name: Ultralisk
Unit HP: 400
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Kaiser Blade 20 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Unit supply cost: 6
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: speed, attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Ultralisk Cavern, Larva
Unit best usage: Dark Swarm with Ultralisk is very powerful, but takes
a large amount of time and money. Ultralisk is a good investment if
used correctly, if you don't have anything planned for the Ultralisk,
don't get them at all.
Unit summary: good attacker, but doesn't worth the time and money put
into it. You should get Hydralisks instead. It high HP allows it to
last long, but Ultralisk can not attack air. Ultralisk will also shred
under Siege Tanks with Bunkers. And Ultralisk is too fat, so it can't
burrow. However, a fully upgraded Ultralisk will have awesome speed, 6
armor and 400 HP, and deals a good always 29 damage. Ultralisk is
great against Carriers, since Carriers would only deal 8 total damage
against it when it has full armor. Carrier's only deal 6 damage at a
time and 6 armor means it deal only 1 damage. Ultralisks are good with
Dark Swarm, they make a great combo, and against Terran, Firebats will
only deal a mere 1 damage after the armor. So if you take out all the
Tanks with Guardians and Queens, your Ultralisks can shred the base
without suffering any major damage from the Infantry units.
Unit name: Defiler
Unit HP: 80, 200 energy
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: Plaque, Consume, plus 50 energy, carapace
Unit ability: Dark Swarm nullify target area, best with Ultralisk and
Zerglings with attack speed upgrade. Plaque reduces HP of units in
that area slowly to 1, this also works on buildings too, Plaque will
not kill the units but you should finish them off once the Plaque had
taken with Mutalisk since they splash damage. Consume sacrifice a unit
to add 50 energy to Defiler, and burrow
Unit requirement: Defiler's Mound, Larva
Unit best usage: Plague is good against any expensive units worth the
price, Plague is great against Carrier and Battle Cruiser Fleet because
of their slow speed. Dark Swarm can be used during both defense and
offense, Dark Swarm and stop Guardians and worker hunters for a good 60
seconds, and Dark Swarm Zergling combo is just the best around.
Consume will provide all the energy your Defilers might need. Overall,
this is a great unit and is a must get against all type of enemies.
Unit summary: they can be quite good in a hand of a pro, they take
quite long to make but are quite useful. Plaque is very useful against
Terran, since all Terran units require a SCV or a Medic to heal.
Plaque is also good against Protoss, since their HP can't be recovered
at all, but Plaque will not damage their shields. Dark Swarm and
Zergling combo is awesome, have 5 Hatchery, 2 Evolution Chamber
upgrading Melee attack and Carapace, and have Defiler Dark Swarm, rush
in with your Zerglings and tear up the place. Consume a few Zerglings,
and just have 2 or 3 Defiler will do the trick. With this you won't
even need much gas, and 25 mineral Zerglings are probably the cheapest
unit ever. Plague is good against a Battle Cruiser fleet or Carrier
fleet, their slow speed will likely land them right into the Plague,
and Devours or Scourges can easily finish them off after the Plague.
And with Consume, your Defiler will never need to charge energy, just
use a few Zerglings and your Defiler can Plague and Dark Swarm for a
long time.
Unit name: Guardian
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Acid Spore 20 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 10
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Greater Spire, Mutalisk
Unit best usage: Guardian's 9 range is their use, you use Guardians to
break open choke points against Bunkers, Cannons, Sunkens, Siege Tanks
and other units your Hydralisks or Zerglings can't reach. Even
Guardians are powerful and deals good damage, they should be used as
part of an attack, not completely the attack. Use other units to
finish off after the Guardians.
Unit summary: the Guardians have the best air to ground range in
StarCraft, it's heavy damage and long range makes it a good unit.
However the Guardian can't not attack air, and it easily killed by
Scouts, Wraiths, and other air units. It's best if you have Guardians
in large number, and have some anti-air unit defending your Guardians.
Marines and other low HP units don't stand a chance against Guardians,
Guardians will finish them off before they get close enough to fire
back. Guardians aren't that good at taking out Missile Turrets or
Spore Colony, since they tend to float a little bit and be under attack
by the building. Early Guardians rushes are great against almost any
opponent, but they are hard to pull off and require a lot of practice.
*Note all Zerg buildings requires a Drone, so the building really
requires 50 minerals more.
Building name: Hatchery
Building cost: 300 minerals
Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Lair Upgrade, produce Larva at a slow
rate
Building HP: 1250
Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units
are produced. Be sure to have 3 or 4 Hatchery so you can produce more
and faster. Hatchery only provides one supply for you, but it extends
the creep for 8 range. Hatchery is need for any expansion, and since
it takes so long to build, prepare a decent army to protect your new
base when expending.
Building name: Lair
Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Hive Upgrade, Overlord transport,
sight, speed upgrade, and produce Larva at a slow rate
Building HP: 1750
Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units
are produced. Lair only provides one supply for you. This allows any
level 2 upgrade for your swarm, this also opens up some advance
buildings for you.
Building name: Hive
Building cost: 200 minerals, 150 gas
Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Overlord transport, sight, speed
upgrade, and produce Larva at a slow rate
Building HP: 2500
Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units
are produced. Hive only provides one supply for you. Hive allows all
upgrades and buildings to be built, and the Hive also has a bit faster
Larva production rates.
Building name: Creep Colony
Building cost: 75 minerals
Building ability: evolve into Sunken Colony, Spore Colony
Building HP: 400
Building Summary: the basic Zerg base defense building, the Creep
Colony can't attack, but can be upgraded into Sunkens and Spores.
Creep Colony also extends the Zerg creep for 4 ranges. Creep Colony is
useless unless you upgrade them to either Sunken or Spore.
Building name: Sunken Colony
Building cost: 50
Building ability: Subterranean Tentacle, 40 damage (explosive)
Building HP: 400
Building Summary: a good defense unit, build these close together and
it will protect your base quit well. Sunkens deal 40 damage and has
400 HP, it is good against any early game rush. Sunken Colonies will
die rather fast against Terran Siege Tanks, but have some Zerglings
burrowed further out, so it can take out the Tanks when they do attack.
Sunken Colony has 400 HP, but they can't have any shields or
protection. Their attack speed is also quite slow, so 2 fully upgraded
Zealot can take out a Sunken easily. It's 40 damage might seem big,
but actually it greatly decreases since it's explosive damage. That's
why Zerglings can take out Sunkens, it will take Sunken 2 hits to kill
a Zergling even when Zergling has only 35 HP. Sunken will further
expend your creep for another 4 ranges after your Creep Colony.
Building name: Spore Colony
Building cost: 50 minerals
Building ability: Seeker Spores, 15 damage (normal)
Building HP: 400
Building Summary: the air defense building for Zerg, the Seeker Spores
deals poor damage but it is also a detector (you won't really need this
since you got your Overlords). However, Spore Colony has a lot faster
fire rate than Missile Turrets and Photon Cannons. Spore Colonies are
important to stop Wraith and other Overlord hunters or worker hunters.
They are also good against Terran units, since Yamato Gun doesn't kill
the Colony off, and that will give you a chance to go after the slow
moving Battle Cruisers. Spores will further your creep for another 4
ranges after your Creep Colony.
Building name: Extractor
Building cost: 50 minerals
Building ability: Gas collector
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: just collects gas, and nothing special here.
Building name: Spawning Pool
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: upgrade Zergling attack speed, Zergling movement
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: this is the first building you should get. This
allows you to make Zerglings and Sunken Colony. However a second
Hatchery can also be your first building. This is quite important
since once this is gone, you won't able to make Zerglings or upgrade
any Sunken until you replace it, also the Spawning Pool takes a bit
long to finish building itself so you can actually squeeze in another
mining Drone when it's being built.
Building name: Evolution Chamber
Building cost: 75 minerals
Building ability: upgrade melee attack, missile attack, carapace
Building HP: 750
Building Summary: the upgrade place for Zerg ground units, you should
have two so you can upgrade faster. This is really a must get building
later on, this allows Spore Colony to be built, and Spores are really
important to your base defense and cloak detection. You don't need this
early on, get these later at a Lair or even maybe Hive stage if your
opponent isn't using any cloaking units. Otherwise a Dark Templar rush
with Scouts taking out your Overlord means death for you.
Building name: Hydralisk Den
Building cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas
Building ability: upgrade Hydralisk speed, range, Lurker Aspect
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: get this if you want Hydralisks and Lurkers. You
should only build one of these since all upgrades are rather fast and
there are only 3 upgrades total. First upgrade the Range, then the
speed, the Lurker Aspect is only for Brood Wars. Have some Hydralisk
patrol your base and have 12 of them burrow in front of your Sunkens
and Spores, they can do quick pop up and destroy enemy units fast.
Building name: Spire
Building cost: 200 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: upgrade air attack, armor, evolve into Greater Spire
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: this is another must get building for Zerg is you
plan on using any air unit. Have two Spire since the upgrade time is
long and one will needed to be evolve into Greater Spire. Spire can be
built right after a Lair, so a early Mutalisk rush can easily be done
and be great to counter against mass Zealot rushes.
Building name: Greater Spire
Building cost: 100 mineral, 150 gas
Building ability: same as Spire
Building HP: 1000
Building Summary: this allows you to get Guardians and Devours. A
group of 36 Guardians and 24 Devours that are fully upgraded can really
wipe out almost any well defended base (but watch out for Psi Storm and
a really mass group of Valkyries). This is how I win with Zerg later
on, it's either this, Dark Swarm Zergling/Ultralisk, or 180 Hydralisks
swarm, and Guardians seems more fun.
Building name: Queen's Nest
Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: Spawn Broodlings, Ensnare, +50 energy
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: you need this to get the Hive, you can get a few
Queens here, but Queens are really hard to use. Get Queens early so
they can charge their energy. Queen's nest allows you to upgrade your
Lair to Hive.
Building name: Neduls Canal
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: create Canal Exit on Creep
Building HP: 250
Building Summary: this is a good building to have, but only when you
are playing against a computer when used offensively since human
players tends to be more careful. This building can build a canal exit
on any Creep (Creep are the purple ground that Zerg requires to build
on), and once the exit built, you can send any unit there as long as
the exit remains alive. This can be used to your advantage when
playing against computer, build the exit near their mineral fields and
just send a large group of Ultralisks and Hydralisks there. This will
badly damage your opponent and you will have a good chance of winning
the game if you pull this off. But computer will very likely have some
unit burrowed right there, and once the building starts, they will
attack it, also once the building starts, you can't cancel. And, once
the exit or entry is destroyed, the other end of the exit or entry dies
along with it. This can be both a defense or offense building, use
your Queens to Parasite some unit there to see and use the Canal to
your advantage.
Building name: Ultralisk Cavern
Building cost: 150 mineral, 200 gas
Building ability: armor and speed
Building HP: 600
Building Summary: this give you access to Ultralisk, but I would rather
use the money on Hydralisks. Some people can do a Devour Ultralisk
rush pretty good, but it's hard to pull off. In Brood Wars, you can
upgrade your Ultralisk's armor and speed in here.
Building name: Defiler Mound
Building cost: 100 mineral, 100 gas
Building ability: Plaque, Consume, +50 Defiler energy
Building HP: 850
Building Summary: this is used for Defilers. Just like Queens, Defiler
is very hard to use. But I have to say, Defiler is a very good unit.
Get Defilers early so they can charge their energy, but once you get
the Consume upgrade, they will basically have no energy problem by
consuming your Zerglings.
Brood War Zerg Units
Unit name: Lurker
Unit HP: 150
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Subterranine Spines, 20 (splash)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 6
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: burrow
Unit requirement: Hydralisk, Hydralisk Den, Lurker Aspect
Unit best usage: Lurkers are great defenders, 4 Lurkers on a choke
point can stop any incoming ground swarm. However, if a detector is
available to your opponent, expect to lose all your Lurkers.
Unit summary: a good Zerg unit, good damage, and attacks while
burrowed. The Spines deals good damage against rushing enemies (splash
damage). However Lurkers can only attack when burrowed, also it deals
damage to your ally's ground units near by when attacking. So don't
have anyone else attacking when your Lurkers are burrowed and
attacking. The Lurker can't attack air and it's attack has a slow
recovery rate, so Lurkers are more of a defense unit than a offense
unit. Also, Lurkers takes quite long to burrow. Lurker is perfect
against any kind of ground swarm attack. However don't use Lurker at
choke points since they will attack the enemy when you just want see
the map. Against people without cloak detection, your Lurkers can
shred their base without them doing anything about it. Also Dark Swarm
and Lurker combo is great if you pull it off fast enough. Dark
Swarm/Lurker can cripple a enemy easily by following up with Guardians
if your opponent gets all melee attackers to counter your Lurker combo.
Against Terran, this works beyond wonders, since Firebat and Siege
Tanks are the only units that can deal damage. Siege Tanks will be all
gone from Queens and Firebats would only deal 3 damage since they are
concussive damage. Lurkers can actually hit a single unit many times
with one hit, each Spine will deal 20 damage, and a Commend Center will
get hit 3 times or 60 damage if the Lurker is placed on a good spot.
(I've seen a Ultralisk getting hit 6 times by a single Lurker, after
getting hit by the first Spine, the Ultralisk turned and run and get
hit by every single Spine after the first one, ended up taking 100
damage.)
Unit name: Devour
Unit HP: 250
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: Corrosive Acid, 25 (splash)
Unit cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 6
Unit upgrade: attack, armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Greater Spire, Mutalisk
Unit best usage: great against large Fleets, since the Spore Counter
left behind on the ship can provide better damage dealt from your
supporting units like Mutalisk and Hydralisk. Devour fires slow,
unless you are a large group of these flying skulls, one or two won't
able to kill anything fast enough. The Spores they leave behind are
able to slow the affected unit's weapon system, slowing it 1/8 of it's
total recovery speed. So as long as the Devour fires and leave behind
it's Spores, it accomplish what it's used for.
Unit summary: good anti air unit, if the enemy unit is hit by the
Devour, it will slow down in attacking speed. But since the Devour
attacks are quite slow, it is best to have them in large groups. Their
slow attack rate makes them quite useless against fast attacker like
Wraith, Scout, Corsair, and Mutalisk, but when in large numbers like 20
plus, they can be quite useful. Also the Devour can't attack ground,
so just one Marine can kill your Devour. Always have Guardians before
Devours when attacking, since you can use Scourge to defend your
Guardians and Devour takes a lot more resources and time. Devour also
splash poison spore when attacking, enemy unit will slow down in
attacking depending on how many spore it has. These spores will go
away slowly in a few minutes, you can tell by clicking the unit or just
by the purple stuff on the unit. Spore Counters also adds damage
received for current unit, every extra spore the unit has, the unit
takes one extra damage every time. Think Devour and
Corsairs/Valkyires. Devour also spores cloaked units near by. (Thanks
to s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com for some of the information on the
Devour.)
*Note, Devour splash only poison spore, it doesn't splash any damage.
On a side note here, have you ever tried fighting two Devours under the
effect of Ensnare with level 3 armor and level 0 attack, it took years
for these two to get killed. Any unit can have no more than 9 Spore
Counters. Devour doesn't make good Overlord hunters unless you have 12
or more, since Devour has the slowest attack speed in StarCraft, and if
it's been Ensnared and have 9 Spore Counters, I think they will attack
around once every minute or so.
Part 5: Protoss Units and Buildings
Unit name: Probe
Unit HP: 20/20
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Particle Beam 5 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 2
Unit upgrade: armor and Protoss shield
Unit ability: warp in various buildings, collect minerals and gas
Unit requirement: Nexus
Unit best usage: the worker for Protoss, these are weak attackers, but
you won't have anything else you can use against early Zergling rush.
Unit summary: your basic worker unit. Probes smaller size makes them
better in mineral collection than Drones and SCVs. Protoss Probes have
a good ability, when they build a building, instead of waiting there
like the other two races, it can return to work once the building
starts. Probes are terrible at attacking, they won't be much help
against Zerglings rushes or Zealots rushes.
Unit name: Zealot
Unit HP: 80/80
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: PSI Blades 16 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 100 minerals
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: speed, attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Gateway
Unit best usage: Zealots are powerful units, they are good early on and
later in the game. They deal high damage, they can take quite some
punishment before going down, and they are useful through out the game.
Their best use is for attacking hard frontal assaults with their high
damage and HP.
Unit summary: your basic fighting unit for Protoss, great damage and
HP. Zealots have terrible speed, and enemy Marines can actually do hit
and run against Zealots. But with upgraded speed later on, Zealot will
have almost the same speed as Zerglings. Zealots have great damage, 3
hits kills a Marine or Zerglings, so a early on 5 or 6 Zealot rush will
be great if it's under 3 minutes. Zealots takes a bit longer to make
comparing to Zerglings and Mariens, but they have over 4 times the HP
than those two units and also deals 3 times the damage.
Unit name: Dragoon
Unit HP: 80/100
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Phase Disrupter 20 (explosive)
Unit air attack: Phase Disrupter 20 (explosive)
Unit cost: 100 mineral, 50 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5/6
Unit upgrade: attack range, attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Gateway, Cybernetic Core
Unit best usage: good protection units, weak attackers. Dragoons fires
slow, but they are excellent Battle Cruiser killers on open ground.
Dragoons are also good against close up attackers if a clear number
advantage is present.
Unit summary: attack both air and ground, however Dragoons attacks are
very slow. So have these in large groups, Dragoons make very good anti
air unit with their heavy damage. Once you get their range upgrade,
Dragoons gets a lot more useful. However, Dragoons can get killed fast
by attacker like Zerglings and Zealots with their melee attacks.
Dragoons' explosive attack isn't useful on small units, but they are
good Battle Cruiser and Carrier killers when have a decent number
advantage. 3 Dragoons easily kills a single Carrier or Battle Cruiser
with their powerful attack. A group of 30 plus can easily overpower
any large flyer fleets, and with help from your Scouts and Psi Storms,
you should able to take out any large fleets without any problem.
Unit name: High Templar
Unit HP: 40/40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 50 minerals, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: Psionic Storm, Hallucination, armor, Protoss shield, plus
50 energy,
Unit ability: Psionic Storm deals heavy damage (127 damage I think) on
target area. Hallucination makes two clone of target unit, the clones
will not able to deal damage, the clone will die when the power runs
out on it's stats, also the clone suffers the double the damage dealt
to it. Two High Templars can transform into one Archon.
Unit requirement: Templar Archive, Gateway
Unit best usage: Psi Storm can stop any kind of rush cold in it's
steps. High Templars is a must get against any opponent.
Unit summary: good decent unit, Psionic Storm is very useful against
slow enemy that are together. Badly damaged High Templar can transform
into a semi healthy Archon with full shields. Hallucination can scare
away enemy by pretending you have a large number of Carriers or make
fake units to take damage for your real unit. (I scared the heck out
of one person by Hallucination 50 something fake Carriers, I said I
will kill him with 100 Carriers, I sent all my fake things there, that
guy got scared and he quit). Psi Storm is one of the most useful
spells in StarCraft, since they can instantly kill a 100 plus HP unit
if it don't move out the way. With 5 High Templars storming one spot,
it can kill just about any unit in the storm. Learn how to hot key
your High Templars, so they can storm faster.
Unit name: Protoss Archon
Unit HP: 350/10
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Psionic Shockwave 30 (splash)
Unit air attack: Psionic Shockwave 30 (splash)
Unit cost: 2 High Templar
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 3
Unit upgrade: attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Gateway, Templar Archive, 2 High Templar
Unit best usage: Archon is a very expensive unit in gas, but if you
have a lot of extra gas, than use it on Archons. Archon can take a lot
of punishment and is easily healed by Shield Battery nearby. These are
excellent attackers against mass Zergling swarm, Zealot swarm or
Firebat swarm. Archons are also useful when used during Recall and
Drops since they take quite some time to kill.
Unit summary: Archon is one of the most powerful ground unit in
StarCraft, enough said right there. These can really kick some behind,
drop these with a Reaver and you can just watch the two tear up the
enemy's base from the in side. Also Archons have slash damage, however
the splash range is only 1 space, but its still splash. Archon warp in
is quite fast, so drained High Templars can merge and be in the fight
in no time. However, once the Archon warp-in starts, you can't cancel
it. Archons with ally's Defiler Dark Swarm is one of the most
powerful, and very easily accomplished combo in the book.
Unit name: Shuttle
Unit HP: 60/80
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 200 minerals
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: speed, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: load, unload
Unit requirement: Robotic Facility
Unit best usage: Shuttles are good transports with speed upgrade, but
they have low HP and is easily killed, so have some protections nearby.
Unit summary: an expensive transport, but with good speed once
upgraded. Shuttle is the fastest transport once upgraded, but it has a
bit of start up and slow down. When it actually starts moving, than
it's fast. You will need these for both expending and moving your slow
units like Reavers and High Templars.
Unit name: Reaver
Unit HP: 80/100
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Scarab 100 (splash)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 200 mineral, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 10
Unit upgrade: Scarab Capacity, Scarab damage, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: build Scarab
Unit best usage: The Reaver is the best unit used to Drop and Recall, a
pair of Reavers can take out all the mining workers with just a few
Scarabs.
Unit requirement: Robotic Facility, Robotic Supporting Bay
Unit summary: a good anti ground unit, great damage, but need Scarab to
fire. Each Scarab is 15 minerals, but they don't take long to build.
Reaver probably has the slowest speed in StarCraft, so use Shuttles and
do the all famous Reaver drop. Reaver also attacks quite slow, but it
deals great damage. Also Reavers have almost 3 space splash damage,
probably more than a Tank. Reaver's have great range, so taking out
Bunkers and Sunkens is their best use. However, unlike the Siege Tank,
Reaver can only fire on units with the same elevation and a clear path
between the two units. Scarab can't fire across water or mountains or
cliffs, so the Reaver is not that useful when fighting over a ledge,
water or cliff.
Unit name: Observer
Unit HP: 20/40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 25 mineral, 75 gas
Unit supply cost: 1
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: sight, speed, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Observatory
Unit best usage: since the Observer is cloaked all the time, they are
the best spies in the game. Once you sneaked one into your opponent's
base, the odds are they won't know it. their detection ability and 11
sight range once upgraded can show you the entire screen they are on,
so the Observer is an excellent units, especially in Brood Wars against
Lurkers and Dark Templars.
Unit summary: a good scouting unit, the Observer is always cloaked, and
if you hide it in the corner, it will be very hard for human enemy to
see, put them rite next to the minerals if your color is blue, best
next to a gas site. Observer is a bit slow moving, but once speed
upgraded, they can scout a lot more faster. Remember to keep a few
Observers in all your bases, since they get killed a bit fast with
their low HP. If you got a extra hot key, than use it on the Observer,
since it's bit hard to see even for you when a lot of your units are
moving around. These makes excellent spy on your opponent's base, if
you aren't able to sneak one into his base, or just over look part of
his base is good enough. Have these spies spread all over the map, and
you will have excellent map control and you will able to take out any
expansion your opponents might have.
Unit name: Scout
Unit HP: 100/150
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Dual Photon Blaster 8 (normal)
Unit air attack: Anti-Matter Missile 28 (explosive)
Unit cost: 300 minerals, 150 gas
Unit supply cost: 3
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: speed, sight, attack, Protoss shield and armor
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Stargate
Unit best usage: Scouts are hunter units, they can take quite a beating
before passing away and with Shield Battery, you can keep your Scout
fleet healthy. Scouts have excellent speed, and with 12, you can
easily check for any possible enemy expansion easily and still able to
get back fast enough to protect your base nearby.
Unit summary: this is a very expensive flying unit compare to Mutalisk
and Wraith. Scout has a lot of useful upgrades and in large groups,
these can really kill. I don't use Carriers a lot, I rather use Scout
since Carrier is slow and is a good target for Scourges. And Scouts
can scout, their fast speed is one of their main advantages, you can
just do a few hits and run. With 36 Scouts, you can rule the air,
there is nothing that can go up against a high number of Scouts, other
than Psionic Storm, Plague or air splash units. Carriers and Battle
Cruisers can't go up against Scouts since you will be outnumbering them
with 3 to one.
Unit name: Carrier
Unit HP: 150/300
Unit armor: 4
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 350 minerals, 250 gas
Unit supply cost: 8
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 9
Unit upgrade: Carrier Capacity, attack, Protoss shield, and armor
Unit ability: build Interceptors
Unit requirement: Stargate, Fleet Beacon
Unit best usage: Carrier is a good decent unit, but since the
Interceptors aren't useful against units with high armor, they aren't
as good in attacking as they are made out to be. Carriers make good
defending unit with Photon Cannon blocking off, and some Shield Battery
to keep the Carriers healthy. Carriers are okay attackers, but it's
impossible to avoid Psi Storm, Ensnare, Plague, Lockdown, Spore
Counters, and especially Scourge.
Unit summary: the biggest unit for the Protoss race, very powerful, but
attacks quite slow. These will crack from Scourge, Wraith and Scout.
But with Arbiters, these can really kill. Carrier itself doesn't have
a weapon, but it can build Interceptors to attack. Also Carrier cost
just a bit too much, 350 minerals and 250 gas to start off, 200 more
minerals later for Interceptors, that comes up to 550 mineral and 250
gas. And I would rather get 2 Scouts instead, but Carrier is still a
very good unit, and if your money allows you to build them, I would
recommend you to get some Carriers.
Unit name: Interceptor
Unit HP: 40/40
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Phase Cannon 6 (normal)
Unit air attack: Phase Cannon 6 (normal)
Unit cost: 25 minerals
Unit supply cost: 0
Unit size: small
Unit attack range: 9
Unit upgrade: Air attack, armor, Plasma Shield
Unit ability: none
Unit requirement: Carrier
Unit best usage: must get with Carriers.
Unit summary: Interceptors are small units within the Carrier.
Interceptors can be destroyed like all other units. When the Carrier
is destroyed, all Interceptors for the Carrier will be destroyed too.
However, Interceptor can be rebuild when destroyed. Interceptors are
built fast, but you still need time, since a Carrier with 1 or 2
Interceptor is really useless.
Unit name: Arbiter
Unit HP: 150/200
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: Phase Disrupter Cannon 10 (explosive)
Unit air attack: Phase Disrupter Cannon 10 (explosive)
Unit cost: 100 mineral, 350 gas
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 5
Unit upgrade: Recall, Stasis Field, plus 50 energy, attack, Protoss
shield and armor
Unit ability: Recall let you select a small section of the map and warp
all units within the section warp next to the Arbiter. Stasis Field
will freeze a group of units, these units will not deal any damage, as
will as receiving any damage. Stasis Field will also affect up to 2
spaces away from target unit.
Unit requirement: Stargate, Arbiter Tribunal
Unit best usage: Arbiter's ability to cloak all nearby units is what
the Arbiter is used for. Arbiter's ability is also useful, but the
cloaking ability is good enough.
Unit summary: the Arbiter will cloak all units near by controlled by
you. This is a very useful unit for both defending and attacking.
Recall is prefect for a sneak in attack when used correctly, Stasis
Field is useful for attacking and defending. Have a few Arbiters
follow your attacking unit, this works well with Carriers and Reavers.
Arbiter is quite annoying when it's cloaking big Carrier fleets, so
remember to go for the Arbiter to stop the cloaking or just have a
detector nearby.
Building name: Nexus
Building cost: 400 minerals
Building ability: make Probes
Building HP: 750/750
Building Summary: the HQ for Protoss units. Nexus is the weakest HQ
out of the three races, since Terran Commend Center provide 10 supply
while Nexus provide 9, not to mention the ability to lift off. Zerg
Hatchery will eventually evolve into Lair and than Hive, Hive has 2500
HP compare to Nexus 1500 and only 750 recoverable.
Building name: Pylon
Building cost: 100 minerals
Building ability: provide 8 Psi for Protoss unit
Building HP: 300/300
Building Summary: you have to build a lot of these, and remember if
this gets destroyed, all buildings that are powered by this one will
not function. So build 2 Pylons together, and if one gets destroyed
the other one will still power the buildings until you replaces it.
Building name: Gateway
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: build Zealot, Dragoon, High Templar, Dark Templar
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: the place where Protoss makes their basic ground
units. Get more than one if you are planning to rush.
Building name: Forge
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: upgrade ground attack, ground armor, and Plasma
Shields
Building HP: 550/550
Building Summary: get this so you can have Photon Cannons. Also the
upgrades are good for a ground attack.
Building name: Photon Cannon
Building cost: 150 minerals
Building ability: STA Photon Cannon 20 damage, STS Photon Cannon 20
damage
Building HP: 100/100
Building Summary: a good defense unit, this will detect, attack both
air and ground for good damage, so surround your base with these and
only Reavers, Carriers, Guardians, and Siege Tanks have better range
than this. And all of those can be countered easily by 12 Scouts or 12
Zealots with speed upgrade.
Building name: Cybernetic Core
Building cost: 200 Minerals
Building ability: upgrade air attack, air armor, upgrade Dragoon attack
range
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: get two to make upgrades faster. This upgrades all
your air units and also your Dragoons attack range. You need to build
this to wrap in any advance buildings. The Dragoon attack range is
quite important if you plan on using any Dragoons to attack and defend.
Building name: Shield Battery
Building cost: 100 minerals 300 energy
Building ability: charge shields 200 energy
Building HP: 200/200
Building Summary: not really useful since Protoss Shields recover quite
fast. The battery will charge target Protoss unit's Shield. This is
only good for Archons and units with high Shields. A Dark Archon after
Mind Control will need a Shield Battery to recharge.
Building name: Robotic Facility
Building cost: 200minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: make Shuttles, Reavers, Observers
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: where you make some unit with special ability.
Building name: Stargate
Building cost: 150 minerals, 150 gas
Building ability: make Scouts, Carriers, Arbiter, and Corsair
Building HP: 600/600
Building Summary: this is where all the flying units are made for
Protoss, you should get 4 or 5 Stargates when playing a long game, all
units here takings awhile to make.
Building name: Citadel of Adun
Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas
Building ability: upgrade Zealot speed.
Building HP: 450/450
Building Summary: you need this if you are planning on doing Zealot
rush, the upgrade increase Zealots walking speed greatly. This is also
needed for Templar Archive.
Building name: Robotics Supporting Bay
Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: Reaver damage, Reaver Capacity, Shuttle speed
Building HP: 450/450
Building Summary: this is for Shuttle and Reaver upgrades. None of
these are really important, get this later in the game unless you are
trying to pull of some kind of drop.
Building name: Fleet Beacon
Building cost: 300 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: upgrade scouts sight, scout speed, Carrier capacity,
Disruption Web, plus 50 Corsair energy
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: here you can upgrade your Scout's movement and sight,
also you can upgrade your Carrier's capacity to 8 (you really should
get this if you are planning on using Carriers). In Brood Wars, you
also upgrade your Corsair's ability.
Building name: Templar Archive
Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas
Building ability: Psionic Storm, Hallucination, +50 energy High
Templar, Mind Control, Maelstrom, +50 energy Dark Archon
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: all Templar and Dark Archon spell upgrades. Psionic
Storm is the most important upgrade here.
Building name: Observatory
Building cost: 50 mineral, 100 gas
Building ability: upgrade Observer sight range, speed
Building HP: 250/250
Building Summary: get this for Observers upgrades. This isn't that
important unless your opponent is a real cloaker freak. However, get
this just in case of any cloak units during your attack. This is a
must in any Brood War game against Protoss or Zerg, since Lurker and
Dark Templar are always in those bases.
Building name: Arbiter Tribunal
Building cost: 200 mineral, 150 gas
Building ability: Recall upgrade, Stasis Field upgrade, +50 energy
Building HP: 500/500
Building Summary: this is the last building you should build when using
Protoss, most games you won't need this since this building has a lot
of requirements. The Arbiter, it takes the longest to make (160), but
however Arbiter can cloak all near by unit controlled by you, so it is
very useful with Carriers and Reavers.
Brood War Protoss units
Unit name: Dark Templar
Unit HP: 40/60
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: Warp Blade 40 (normal)
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 125 mineral, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 1
Unit upgrade: attack, armor, Protoss Shield
Unit ability: Dark Archon Merge
Unit requirement: Templar Archive, Gateway
Unit best usage: Dark Templars are assassin units, they are best early
up when detectors isn't available yet. They deals very high damage,
but they aren't that good in attacking. Use them as a surprise rather
than frontal assault, but include a few Dark Templars in attacking just
for their 40 damage.
Unit summary: the Dark Templar is always cloaked, this is a very good
unit against Terran, since their Detector is Missile Turrets, and you
can easily avoid them. Their strong attack make them good in defending
against ground rush, however they can not attack air, so have Dragoon
defending. Also Dark Templar attacks are quite slow, so when going up
against high numbers of enemies, they become less useful. Remember
that Dark Templars are an assassin unit, they work with the element of
surprise. However if you rush 40 fully upgraded Dark Templars, they
will have some rather good results.
Unit name: Dark Archon
Unit HP: 200/25
Unit armor: 0
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: none
Unit cost: 2 Dark Templar
Unit supply cost: 4
Unit size: large
Unit attack range: 0
Unit upgrade: Mind Control, Maelstrom, plus 50 energy, Protoss shield
and armor
Unit ability: Mind Control allows you to take control of target unit,
so it is possible to control all three races at the same time. Mind
Control takes a lot of energy and drains Dark Archon's Shield empty, so
have a Shield Battery when you are using Dark Archons. Maelstrom
freezes a group of organic units, make it very easy for you to kill,
but Maelstrom only last for about 5 seconds tops. Feed Back will drain
all energy from a unit and deal that much damage to that unit equal to
the amount of energy drained to it.
Unit requirement: 2 Dark Templar
Unit best usage: Dark Archon is a good units to have, it's ability is
decent all around. But this is a hard and expensive unit to use, so
use at your own risk.
Unit summary: a good unit, hard to use for human player. Only use Mind
Control on something that is worth the heavy price, like a Battle
Cruiser, Carrier, or Arbiter. An enemy worker will allow you to build
a new race, but it's rather useless since the time and money required
for it. However, Arbiters and Battle Cruiser with Scouts and Guardian
does sound good.
Unit name: Corsair
Unit HP: 80/100
Unit armor: 1
Unit ground attack: none
Unit air attack: Neutron Flare 5 (splash)
Unit cost: 150 mineral, 100 gas
Unit supply cost: 2
Unit size: medium
Unit attack range: 4
Unit upgrade: Disruption Web, plus 50 energy, attack, Protoss shield
and armor
Unit ability: Disruption Web, freeze all ground units including
building's weapon system within the web, this will stop all attack from
the spot, however units can move out of the web and attack normally
Unit requirement: Stargate, Fleet Beacon
Unit best usage: Corsair are good air to air attackers with their
splash damage against Mutalisk and other low armor flyers. Their Web
can help you sneak in Drops and Recalls without taking too much damage.
Unit summary: Corsair only attacks air, even though their attack is
only 5 damage, their attack is very fast, and it's splash damage.
Corsair can get in around 10 attacks for Devour's one. Remember to use
the Web wisely, this way you can get past the Cannons and Spores
easily.
Part 6: Various hints, useful ideas on playing StarCraft
It is very important that you defend your base with troops and not with
all buildings. E.g. Protoss Photon Cannon is used to back up your
defense, your real defense should be Dragoons and Scouts line up with
Photon Cannons. Another important thing is be prepared for a unit with
long range (Tanks, Reavers, Guardians), have something that can take
out those unit fast before they can really put major damage into your
base. Against Tanks and Reavers, have Zealots with speed upgrade and
have them station near your front line defense, when Tanks come, just
rush with your Zealots. Don't forget to replace your Zealots once you
got the money. Against Guardians, just have a few Scouts, but watch
out for Scourge and other anti air units. Remember to think further,
and also don't just get 8 Scouts, since players will rush with 12
Guardians with 30 plus Mutalisk, and you can't stop them with just a
small amount of Scouts.
If you are playing rush, don't stop even if you know that all your
troops will die, as long as they can make things easier for your next
rush, you should do it. The most important rush is the first one, if
done correctly you will able to make your opponent either lose a
Barrack/Gateway, or kill a large percent of enemy workers. Both of
these is a successful rush, if they lose the Barrack/Gateway, it will
take them time to rebuild while you can finish them off. If they lose
their worker, they won't have any money to build up their troops. The
most important element in the game is mineral control, if you control
more fields, you get more money and you will able to make more troops.
When playing with Battle.Net approved maps(other than Big Game Hunter,
all map have resources of 1500 on crystals and 5000 on gas), it is very
important that you move to another resource field way before your first
field empties. You should expend when you feel you have half of the
money to start a new base while your first base is well defended. If
you are using any race, take advantage of their long-ranged units and
get some free hits off your opponent. If their base is next to yours,
use your long range unit and hit building that they built near you. If
they don't know that you are right next to them, have a few troops
attack their front line, and that should divide their attention. While
the attack is still going on, have some kind of drop, best with big
powerful units( Ultralisk, Archon, Dark Templar, Siege Tanks, Ghost
with a nuke). When your units is running lose in their base, you
should prepare to attack, right there is your best chance of winning.
First have all your units break through their front line defense, and
just rush everyone in. However, if their front line is powerful enough
to stop you, don't stop swarming. Get more Gateway/Barrack/Hatchery if
needed, just don't stop because your opponent is not some idiot that
will let you keep making Drops on them.
You should take advantage of your opponent's mistake, when you know
that they have a small gap where you can get through, use it before
they seal it up. You should not expect to win with your first set of
attackers, while attacking, keep pumping out more. Taking a choke
point is very important, if you can block in your enemy, and you are
very likely to win against them. When playing as Zerg, sent out
Zerglings and have them burrow around the map, that way you can take
good control of the map and know when your opponent is planning to
attack you.
One of the most important thing is you should practice against some
computer controlled opponents, best is you against 3 or more CPUs, at
least one of each race. Don't cheat during the practice, not even the
map code, one of the most important idea is to find your opponent and
have control over the map. And also you can use map setting, set
trigger to computer AI Script to Insane for all the comps, then you
will really know how a pro is like. (I can defend against 6 comps set
to insane, but I will die once Carrier and Guardians comes out. I just
can't defend and get Scouts for those units fast enough, and trust me
that you will be occupied by the comp all the time.)
Part 7: Cheats for the game
You enter the codes in single player game during game play, press
return, enter the code and press return again. Saved games will not
save your cheats. However I recommend you not to use any of these
cheats, cheating takes away the fun in the game. Remember cheats will
affect all other players, so if you use Power Overwhelming in a free
for all, you will be the only person that can kill enemy units (other
than Queen's Spawn Broodlings, and Dark Archon's Mind Control).
Power Overwhelming-This code is for unlimited HP for all your units.
Black Sheep Wall-This allows you to view the entire map, but not any
cloak detection unless you've got a detector there.
Operation CWAL-This is the code for super fast building.
Show Me The Money-This gives you 10,000 mineral and 10,000 gas.
Breathe Deep-You will get 500 gas.
Food For Thought-You will not need any Supply buildings or units to
support your troops.
Modify The Phase Variance-This code let you build anything you can
afford.
Noglues-this will prevent your enemy from using Psionics.
Medieval Man-this allows one second upgrades.
Something for Nothing-get all free upgrades right here.
The Gathering-all units will have unlimited energy.
Game Over Man-you lose right away.
Staying Alive-you won't win any game, you won't get the victory sign.
There Is No Cow Level-instant win.
Ophelia-level select, after you have entered this code, enter desire
level. E.g. Protoss 8 for Protoss level 8, Terran 3, for Terran level
3.
War Aint What It Use To Be-this removes the fog of war, you still can't
really see that well, map will only show parts where you have already
scouted.
Whats Mine is Mine-this will give you 500 minerals.
Radio Free Zerg-this code allows you to listen to a different music,
this code only works when using Zerg.
Part 8: How to improve your game play
The most important thing you should know is how to at least defend your
base.
First of all lets pretend you are playing a game, it's around 30
minutes into the game, it's one on one, you playing as Protoss against
a Terran opponent and both of you are on top of the tech tree. You
base is well defended with both troops and Photon Cannons, you know
where your opponent is and he also know where you are. The map is a
small and not very rich and both of you really can't afford to lose
much of anything. You so far got a decent base and let's pretend he
has a better one than you, you can't break through, and you are just
playing defense, waiting to build up a strike force. All your previous
attacks have proven unsuccessful and now you are just really making
units of all kind.
Pretend that he attacks you with a Siege Tank push, a group of 12 Siege
Tanks, 30 or so Marines, and 10 or so Wraith with cloaking ability.
How can you defend yourself? The best way to defend is have Dark
Templar to take out the ground units, and have a Observer and Scouts to
take out the Wraith. Keep in mind that this attack will at least break
through your front line, give yourself around 3 minutes to replace
everything, move all available troops you can spare to the spot until
the defense is replaced. If Dark Templar isn't there, just rush with
your Zealots and any other ground units, Reavers are also good here.
High Templar and Psionic Storm is also good here. High Templar is good
for almost any mass rush.
Or he attacks with 12 Tanks and 12 Battle Cruiser, accompanied with
Ghosts and Science Vessels. The Emp Shockwave and Lockdown is really
messing up your front line troops, what can you do to defend your base?
The best way is with a few High Templar and Psionic Strom the spot
until everything dies, before the Emp shockwave or you won't have
enough energy, an Arbiter will be also good here. An Observer with
sight range upgrade should be stationed near at all times, move it in
and have Scouts or Dragoons to finish off the enemy. The Battle
Cruiser will be also a good target for Mind Control, the Science Vessel
will be also good for a Feedback, and Stasis Field is also good here.
Don't hesitate to use your magic spells, once the High Templars are
drained, go ahead and merge them into Archons.
Be prepared for anything that opponent throws at you, expect them to
have a better army than they really do. When playing against a very
offensive player, use Hallucination and scare away his troops. Than
use high speed Scouts to shoot down any units left behind or just slow
moving, don't be forget Scout's high speed once upgraded, their 150
shield can be recovered fast so they will last quite some time. So a
few Battle Cruisers slowly moving away is a great target for them. If
their main force is just charging at you, abuse your Pisonic Storm, the
high damage will shred the charging enemies. Don't give them a chance
to breathe, once their main force is gone, charge with the extra units
you have, their base is at the weak point right there, if you see a
chance to break through and get into the base, don't hesitate and just
start swarming. You are very likely to win if you break through,
however if you break through the defense but you wasn't able to take
advantage of that and all your troops dies. Don't wait long and have
another group rush in and destroy. Then it's the best time to box in
your opponent, remember to scatter troops all around the place and
don't leave anything to chance.
If a battle must take place, try to get it as close to your base as
possible, so not only your troops are attacking, your Photon Cannons
can chip in too. And this will let you run away to charge your shield
a lot easier, the enemy will be under heavy fire power if they choose
to chase after you. Remember that Photon Cannon cost only a cheap 150
mineral.
Always go after Detectors first, once the Detectors are gone, you can
use your cloaked units to their fullest.
Whenever you are playing against any opponent, never rely on purely
Photon Cannon or other attack buildings, every race has a long ranged
unit so be prepare to take those out any time you are under attack.
Never let your opponent know how many troops you have, it doesn't
matter if you have more than him/her.
When playing as Zerg, have all your troops hot keyed and just burrow
them, call them out when needed only. If you see you have enough to
take out the opponent, do it, don't wait or hesitate. A diversion is
prefect when you are doing this, a group of Zerglings or Ultralisk
going after a different base will create a great diversion. Box in
opponent when needed, when boxed in, don't forget to keep attacking the
base, never give the opponent a chance to regain control of their base
again.
Another important thing is never let yourself get into a bad situation
where you know you will either be badly damaged or even get killed.
You should never rely on anything, the only thing you should depend on
is your army of troops, and not army of attack buildings.
When playing, expect the attack, have patience and don't get careless.
Think what can break through into your base, what can cause trouble for
you? Then find something to stop that. If you can tell that a tank
push can break through your base, your opponent will probably know how
to do a tank push and use it on you. Think further, small things can
make a difference. Small things like placing a Pylon can win you a
game.
The next important thing will be knowing how to win a game when the
opportunity knocks. A lot of players limit themselves to a certain
kind of win, for example, a lot of Protoss players can't win without
Carriers. Or Terran can't win without Battle Cruisers, and Zerg can't
win without Guardians. Remember to be creative, know how to use other
units.
The most important element in the game is mineral control, with more
minerals and gas, you get more options open to you. Try to prevent
your opponent from getting to easy new bases, put up a fight for the
base. It is very important than you have control of the map and when
playing 1 vs 1, usually whoever has more map and mineral control wins.
When attacking, don't go for an empty mineral base, you would only
knock off some useless like some attacking buildings and not so
important troops. People leave their used up base, and you would just
force them to build back something like a Supply Depot or Pylon. Go
for either their main base, or a newly formed mineral collecting base.
The main base usually holds the important buildings and supply units,
if all those are taken out, you win the game. But expect the base to
be very well protected, and also expect high causality from your army.
Taking out a newly formed base, will very much likely pin your opponent
to find a new mineral base, and with some high speed units, you should
able to take out any new base if you have good map detection. Your
opponent will than be in real trouble and won't able to produce any
troops that threatens your existence.
Your new base is also important to you, an island mineral field is a
good spot for a new base. Also a mineral field nearby your first base
is also a good choice. Also, on any islands, don't just build anti air
buildings, get some ground attack units in case of drops. Zerg can
have a very early new base, this is easily accomplished since you can
have 11 workers mining without making an Overlord. This is a bit
cheating, but it's allowed by Battle.Net. First keep making Drones
until you reach your max which is nine, than have to mining workers,
morph into a Extractor and a Creep Colony. Your Overlord control will
be set to 7/9, than just make two new Drones and as soon as the two
Drones start evolving, cancel your Extractor and Creep Colony, you will
have 11 worker mining. And in around 3 minutes or less, you will have
enough money for a new Hatchery. And if your opponent don't find you
early enough, he or she will be behind on mineral and gas from you from
the very start of the game. And your 7 minute Mutalisks rush will just
destroy his base before he gets a chance to fight back. A Terran won't
have much of anything unless they place their bunkers in all the right
places, a Protoss won't have anymore than 2 or 3 Dragoons at most. A
Zerg opponent shouldn't have as much as you, if they do, get some
Zerglings to help out your Mutalisks, they are cheap and fast, and they
deal some decent fast damage.
Part 9: Styles of Play
People usually limit themselves to one way of winning, e.g. Protoss
players usually win with Carriers! Carriers might be powerful, but try
to be more creative. Don't just force yourself to a single style,
learn about other styles. It's also important to learn how to switch
from a Zealot rush to a Carrier push, like I was saying, be creative.
Protoss Styles of play contains the famous Reaver Drop, Carrier and
Arbiter combo, Scout/Dragoon Wave, Zealot Swarm, and Archon/Reaver
Recall.
Reaver Drop is simple to do, a Reaver with a few Scarab drop in
opponents base, the Reaver should able to stop enemy mineral production
and take out a few buildings before getting destroyed. Most human
players intend to building defense only around the base and they don't
protect their mineral fields, than a simple drop from the side can win
you the game. A diversion of a weak attack is useful here, a 4/5
Zealot attacking the front line should be more than enough.
Carrier and Arbiter combo is accomplished easily as long as you have
the resources and time, since both units takes a long time to be built.
A large number of Stargates is required for this combo, and I would
recommend 8 Stargates or more with a mucho money map. When doing this,
upgrade your armor since you will need to keep your carrier alive as
long as possible. Arbiter's Stasis Field ability should be researched
and put into use, this will able to allow you to avoid direct contact
with enemy's main force.
Scout/Dragoon wave is very simple, 10 Stargates or 10 Gateways with 70
plus Probes mining/gasing should do the trick. Keep pumping out
Dragoons or Scouts, have them fully upgraded with either 3 Forge or 2
Cybernetic Core, Scout's sight and speed upgrade and Dragoon's attack
range upgrade is required and when you are attacking, don't stop
producing more troops. 40 Dragoons or 36 Scouts should able to knock
off any base, Drops and Arbiter Recall can be used here also.
The Zealot Swarm is the most basic Protoss win, Zealot high power and
HP allow them to last long, and once with their speed upgrade they can
really damage your opponent. This is very simple and I believe all
Protoss players needs to know how to perform this. There is another
name for this, a lot of people call this the 3 Gate rush, and you
should see how people do this. The Zealot Swarm will able to finish
off any computer opponent with no problem. You will mine minerals only
until you have 10 plus Zealots, then you make your Citedal of Adun, you
should attack once the speed upgrade is complete. The attack should
contain around 18 or more Zealots, the more the better. You should
leave behind just a few Zealots, 2 or 3 will be fine, they can stall
your opponents attack and allow you to recover. Have your Zealots hot
keyed and rush them out, pay no attention to Wraith/Scout/Mutalisk,
since they all deal poor damage. Your Zealots will able to finish off
a Zerg opponent with no problem. When attacking Terran, ignore Bunkers
and go straight for the mineral fields, a Firebat in a bunker can take
out a very large amount of Zealots. When I play and my opponent have
just a few Wraith or Scout, I wouldn't go into Dragoons, my Zealots can
rampage through your opponents base before the air units can put a stop
to all the Zealots. Remember, after the first rush, swarm in when you
see the chance. And when you do get it, don't stop, and just keep
swarming until your opponent dies.
The Archon/Reaver Recall is very similar to the Reaver Drop, however
Arbiter's Recall can transfer a much larger amount of units quickly.
First make your Arbiters, Reavers and Archons, than have a few
Observers sneak into your opponent's base, third find a decent path for
your Arbiter to sneak in. Once you have your Arbiter in place, ready
to sneak in, but first have a diversion, just a few Zealots should do
it. Once your opponent is busy with your Zealots, sneak your Arbiter
in, Recall your Reavers and Archons, if you have the gas and money,
make extra Arbiters, stack them on top of your Archons and Reavers. So
each time you Recall you should have a new Arbiter in your opponent's
base, Recall again with the new Arbiter. You can repeat when needed.
Reavers and Archon's high power should shred your opponent's base
easily, and right then is the best time to have your Carriers to attack
directly.
Terran Styles contains the Defensive Matrix Drop Tank, the Tank push,
Nukers, Yamato Gun Push, and Infantry Wave.
Defensive Matrixed Drop Ship will able to survive the front line
attack, and you can drop 4 Goliath, a few Ghosts with a Nuke, 2 Tanks,
8 Marines or 8 Firebats into opponent's base. Science Vessel is need
for both cloak detection and it's wide range of useful spells. This
can be done whenever you have your Science Vessel since Defensive
Matrix comes with the unit. Stim Pack is also quite useful here, 8
Firebats can take out quite a few important buildings before your
opponent put a stop to them.
The tank push is easily done since Terran Siege Tank is one of the most
useful unit in the game. 12 Siege Tanks protected by Marines, Wraith,
and Firebats can push your way into your opponent's base. Siege
Tank's150 HP will allow them to at least deal some damage before
passing away. The only worry you should have is a large number of
Zealots, or a very large number of Zerglings, and Ultralisks will crush
Tank push. All of the following is easily countered with Firebats and
Wraith, however if you wait too long and your opponent have large
flying units like Battle Cruiser or Carriers, have Ghosts and just
abuse your Lockdowns on them.
Nuker Heaven is a happy nuker nuking everywhere. But against Zerg or
Terran, this is easily countered, and you will lose a nuke with the
Ghost. A diversion is useful here but I would really suggest you
practice against another human player. And I have to tell you, ever
since I played I only been nuked on 3 times, 1 time I was just
careless, and the other 2 times, I just lost my detectors in battle.
So if you are planning on nuking against another human player, I
suggest you don't rely on nukes too much. I have lost count of how
many Ghost I have spotted trying to nuke me.
Battle Cruiser's Yamato Gun ability is very useful, 12 Battle Cruiser
with 250 energy will very soon Gun you 24 times. And each gun is 260
damage, so this can break through almost any base with no problem. If
you are planning on doing this, first watch out for the following, Emp
Shockwave, Wraith with cloaking, Mind Control, Lockdown, Stasis Field,
Psionic Storm, and nukes. You shouldn't rely on this and you should
have your Battle Cruisers attack your opponent once the base is broken
through.
Infantry Wave means, a lot of Infantry units, Marines, Firebats, Ghost,
and Medics. Rush them by the hundred and with the help of Stim Packs
and Medic Healing, you should able to easily over power an opponent.
Zerg is however a much more simple race to manage, I only know a very
few style for the Zerg race. The 6 Zergling rush, Dark Swarm with
Zerglings, 150 Hydralisk Bum Swarm, Guardian push and Mutalisk swarm.
The early 6 Zergling rush is the most basic win, 5th Drone will make
Spawning Pool and once it finished, you make 6 Zerglings and rush.
This only works if you find your opponent early enough, since one
bunker is more then enough to fry your Zerglings with 2 Marines inside.
Dark Swarm with Zerglings means cheap free hits, you Dark Swarm a spot
and just rush your Zerglings in, when you finish attack one spot,
Consume a few Zerglings and Dark Swarm again. Zerglings only cost 25
mineral each, and you only need 1 upgrade for your Defiler. And since
Consume can provide all the Dark Swarm you need, you would only need 2
Defilers for the entire game. Ultralisk will work here also. But
watch out for Zealots, Dark Templars and Bunker Firebats, those are
just too powerful and your Zerglings don't stand a chance against them.
The Hydralisk bum Swarm is really boring, you make 6 or more Hatcheries
and you get only Hydralisks. Then once you max out, you rush. Sound
pretty simple but this requires a large amount of money, a very
defensive opponent since you will mess up if some one keep attacking
you. Watch out for long range units with Splash damage, meaning
Reavers and Siege Tanks, these can shred your Hydralisks. Also a few
well placed Spider Mine can really damage your Swarm. Now look up at
Zergling/Dark Swarm combo, that can just send your Hydralisks packing,
if that happens, run, try to save as much Hydralisks are you can.
Guardian Push is similar to the Terran Tank push, you protect it with
air to air combat units like Devour and Scouge, you just push your way
into your opponent's base with Guardian's long range. But Scouts and
Wraith with cloaking can really damage your push. And if you are
pushing a Terran opponent, bring along 5 or 6 Overlords, if you just
bring one, they can just pop your Overlord and start killing your slow
moving Guardians.
Mutalisk Swarm is just like the Hydralisk Swarm, however Mutalisks are
more powerful than Hydralisk and they should last longer, but they will
be is real trouble with Valkyeries and Corsairs. Note that 24 fully
upgraded Valkyeries can take out 100 Mutalisk without a problem.
Remember Valkyeries 5 by 8 damage, meaning 40 if you get your level 0
armor upgrade. So 12 Valkyeries fires and you say bye-bye to all your
low armor flyers.
Part 10: Multi Players
Those of you who play on Battle.Net knows the importance of teamwork in
multi player games. 2 people working together can easily win against 3
other separate players. This part of the guide I will show different
tips on teamwork and other hints. And also, I give curses to all the
following back stabbers for back stabbing me, or attempting to back
stab me. If you know who they are or what their E-mail address is,
tell me or you can send them some hate mail or mail bombs.
Sir-Fag-Alot
Frozen_Blood
Big-Ass-Jugs
BS-Traitor
Y`A bastard
Each and every race has something that is powerful in their own
element, for example Shuttle is the fastest Transport, Terran Science
Vessel is the best detector and Zerglings as the best cheap basic unit.
From here on I will show different ways to win with the help of your
partner(s).
Terran-Protoss partners, the best way to Reaver Drop, Hallucination the
Shuttle, have your ally's Science Vessel Defensive Matrix the real
Shuttle and drop. Follow up with Carriers and Battle Cruisers to
finish off your opponent.
Defensive Matrix also works well with Arbiter and Recall.
Hallucination and Ghosts can trick players into thinking they already
destroyed the Ghost while the real Ghost is still alive.
Scout/Siege Tank Push works well also, and two good players should able
to pull this off in less than 15 minutes. 24 Tanks and 24 Scouts can
really grind their way into almost any base.
When playing against a Zerg opponent, 12 Battle Cruiser and 12 Carriers
can win you the game with no problem. And even if Zerg has 100
Mutalisk, they are still no match for the 24 super powered capital
ships.
Zerg-Protoss partners, Dark Swarm with Zealots and Dark Templars works
extremely well. And with the help of Reaver (only use Reaver early on,
since Reaver will damage your ally's troops) and Ultralisks, this can
easily bust open any choke point. The way to stop against this kind of
attack is 2 Bunkers with 8 Firebats, but this can be easily countered
by using a few Dragoons to take out the Bunker first. Queen's Spawn
Broodling can take out the Tanks further down when needed.
Zerg-Terran partners, first of all, have the Terran build a Commend
Center and let the Zerg player have it. Than start pumping out
Infested Terran. Defensive Matrix the Infested Terran and boom goes
the enemy front line.
Defiler and Defensive Matrix can make Plague so much easier. Follow up
with Mutalisks to finish off the Plague.
Lurkers with Dark Swarm with Guardians helping out and can take out
everything on the ground, have either Scouts/Wraith to protect against
air and it will win you the game.
All three races can be very rewarding if you all work together. Start
things off by keeping your opponents busy, Plague/Spawn Broodling/Psi
Storm/Irritate or any long range units works well here. Unlike the
computer, human players can only do one thing at a time, so with all
the free spells, you can easily keep them busy while you build up your
army. Now that your opponent is occupied, start on big units and
upgrades. The next part is the killing part, all three of you should
able to have a large army now, so start things off by getting rid of
all the long range units your opponent have. Terran's Comsat Scan
should be used to scan the base before charging in. Tanks and large
annoying units should be Spawn Broodlings and Scourge should take care
of all the Carriers. Don't worry much about Guardians unless you have
mainly ground units. Anyway, first have the Zerg partner use their
Guardians to break through the side defense, it's okay that the
Guardians dies as long as the damages are made. Next have Protoss use
an Arbiter with Defensive Matrix and a few Hallucinations taking damage
for it to get into the base and Recall some high damage units, in any
case, Archons, Reavers, Carriers all work well here. Next have the
Terran partner do a Tank push on the front line, so basically the
opponent have to deal with 3 major big problems all at the same time.
The 20 plus Guardians will without a doubt break open the side before
anything can be done about them. The Arbiter from the other side will
break in and Recall without a problem since it now has an extra 250 HP
and other fake Arbiters taking damage for it. The unlucky opponent
will have a base that is really screwed up right now and a Tank push
with Battle Cruisers guiding them is more than enough to finish him/her
off. If a Tank push isn't there, just use the Dark Swarm/Zealot combo
instead. Even if your opponent survived the attack, he/she won't be in
any shape to expend or attack you for a long time. Also, all
strategies above such as Infested Terran and Defensive Matrix can also
be used to start thing off too.
Another important thing here, you don't need a partner that is a
different race than you. For example, 2 Protoss player both going for
Zealot swarm will have a much higher chance of winning if you rush all
your Zealots in together. So what I am saying is, working together is
more than races and advantages.
Part 11: Terran strategy section
Here I will try to list all the strategies I know for the Terran race,
I still need a lot of help on this section since my weakest race is
Terran. If you know something you believe is a good strategy or just
anything you believe that can be useful during any game, E-mail me with
it and I will give you credit for helping me out.
I've seen a lot of Terran players out there, however, I never seen
anyone who is exceptionally good with the Terran race. I'm not saying
that Terran is a weak race, but seeing someone who is actually good
with Terran is quite rare. A lot of new people use Terran, and what
can I say, they just aren't that good. They either are slow enough to
get killed by a late 3 minute Zergling rush, or they just have to go
Battle Cruiser, and if you take away Battle Cruiser with something of
your own, he or she can't simply win the game.
One of my friend who is quite good with the Terran race, he showed me
some stuff that I believe Terran player should practice and learn.
First off, unlike Protoss and Zerg who have building that can attack
ground, Terran must use an army to protect themselves. So meaning
either you can waste a good portion of your people and protect your
base and expansions, and you will not able to use all your people to
attack. (If you attack early on with everyone you got, you can have a
chance of winning, but your opponent can counter attack and you will
basically lose since all your people aren't protecting your base.)
Then again, if you don't sent all the possible people you have, the
odds are you won't able to take out your opponent.
Let's put it this way, you are going up against a Protoss, you have
total of 3 bases, you are around 25 minutes into the game, and you
pretty much have a decent map control and mineral flow so far. Pretend
you are using a map like Hunters or Killing Field, both are quite rich
and quite big, your opponent attacks with 12 Dragoons and 12 Zealots on
one of your base. You can one, not sent anyone there and lose the base
and cripple your own mineral flow by 1/3. You can two, save the base
and lose a large amount of people, also not knowing if you are able to
save the base at all. You can three, take the advantage of your
opponent's main force being away and try to take their base while they
are occupied with your expansion.
The first option, not saving the base can be used only if you have
enough minerals stocked up, meaning 10,000 mineral and 5000 gas or
more, which you probably don't have.
The second option, saving the base, is not so wise, since going head to
head combat against a large Protoss army is quite dangerous. Unless
you have an extremely large Battle Cruiser Fleet with Science Vessel's
Defensive Matrix fleet or large Siege Tank army with good close-up
protection, you will suffer major loses and will very likely lose most
of the up and coming battles. Zealots can easily over power your
Marines and ranged units, while Dragoons are able to shoot down your
air fleets and other in close units. So unless you can find some way
to take out the Protoss army without taking high damage yourself, I
believe it's more safe just to let go of one base.
The third option going for your opponent while they are attacking your
base is a decent option. Since the 12 Zealots and 12 Dragoons makes up
for a good portion of their army, and if you can badly damage their
main base, you have a good chance of winning. A Tank push isn't what
you are looking for here, since if you give them time to retreat their
Zealots and Dragoons, your Tank push probably won't work, or deal
minimal amount of damage. What you will be looking for is something
big, a large drop, a few Nukes, or a large swarm will be good. You
want to attack your opponent fast and hard, and force them to retreat
their army to protect their base. A small 6 Tank, 12 Marine, tank push
on an enemy expansion will be a good distraction and god know, might
even take out that base. While your opponent is dealing with the Tank
push, you should try to fire 2 Nukes on your opponent, spread out the
Nukes out, and target things worthwhile. This will very likely land
you at least 1 Nuke if not both, and your Tank push will do quite some
damage to the expansion. Your expansion being under attack is now
safe, you have the upper hand in the game, and now you can easily win
with either a large Battle Cruiser fleet or a large Tank push.
Part 12: Zerg Strategy section
Need help with this, I just not that good with Zerg. I can win with
Zerg, but I have some weak strategy, I just get a lot of Hatchery and
keep rushing with Hydralisk and Zergling. The strategy is similar to
the 10 Gate wave, but it's again different. I go more diverse things
like I actually go into every type of Zerg units sometime during the
game. I get 2 Queens, 3 Defilers, and a lot of Mutalisks, but I most
attack frontally with Hydralisk and Zergling swarms. It's basically 3
mining bases with around 80 plus Drones on minerals, 3 Gas sites with 3
to 4 Drones on each. 10 plus Hatchery and non stop violence.
Part 13: Protoss Strategy section
Personally, I'm the best with Protoss race, it's my ladder race, and I
play the most with this race. I have many ways of winning with this
race, but however I prefer a mass 10 gate push. 10 gate push? You
might ask. This is however one of the best way of winning and it's
very flexible and very useful against all opponents. This however
requires a lot of practice, a mucho money map, and you being extra
aggressive.
This is my favorite strategy, I tell you one thing, this works. First
off, make a lot of Probes, and I mean a lot, over 40 on minerals alone
in each base. It's best if you have at least 2 base, the more the
better, however just 2 base should be enough with 80 Probes mining.
Protection with Photon Cannons isn't that important, if you are able to
work this strategy. The best map for this is the most popular map on
Battle.Net, Big Game Hunters, other versions of the Big Game Hunters
work, too.
First you block your base exit with some Photon Cannons, just a few to
stop any early incoming rushes, but leave a nice clear path for your
big ground units to get out is very important. Next you build
Gateways, Probes and Pylons, have around 6 Photon Cannons protecting
your mineral fields from worker hunters. You build up to 10 Gateways,
3 Forge, climb your tech tree to Observer and Templar Archieve, also no
Stargates, since it isn't needed. You can start expending whenever you
feel safe, get another base and just stock up on Probes, protection
there should be big, a 10 Cannon field is good enough. It will be best
if you can get 3 bases, but if you are only able to grab 2, just stay
with that. Then you build up on Zealots and scout for you opponent
when you have 12, sometimes this can actually take out some opponent if
they really weak. But treat these 12 Zealot as your scout, finding
your opponent won't be that hard since your army is quite big. One
thing to note here, if you scout a bit late and your Zealots have
increased walking speed, you can just run them pass your opponent's
front line and check out what they have. On your way, take out a few
of their workers and 12 Zealots have done the job. Next you want
Observers or Zealots on every possible expansion on the map, once you
got this down, your opponent won't able to expend easily. Begin your
non stop 10 Gate push once you have the Gates in place and your rally
point on a good spot, go all Zealots if your opponent don't go air, get
some Dragoons if you see Mutalisks or other air units. If an opponent
only have 1 or 2 Wraith/Scout, ignore it and keep attacking with
Zealots. Your Zealots and ground units must be always upgraded to the
highest possible, Zealot walking speed and Dragoon attack range is
really important and you should get them as soon as you can. Basically
you keep rushing non stop with 6 Zealot and 4 Dragoons, expect to take
out 1 or 2 Cannons, etc, tops, you keep attacking non stop until your
opponent dies. Since 80 plus Probe working on minerals can easily
support your Gateways all the time. So your 10 Gateways should never
stop on making troops and you just keep swarming in until your opponent
dies. If your opponent has an expansion, go for the mining expansion
first to stop mineral flow for that person. This works great, and
there aren't that many good counters for these kind of swarms. If your
money seem to be increasing, add in more Gateways, basically each base
can support a non stop 5 Gates, 2 bases can support 10, 3 bases can
support 15 Gates, and so on.
So far, only mass Carrier fleet is able to stand up against my 15 Gate
push, but on the other hand, that person won't able to finish me off
since I got around 10 charged High Templars waiting for his Carriers
with Psi Storm. When this happens, it's basically a draw on max money
maps, even if one person wins, it will take a long time. If you are
playing a game and you feel you must win, and your opponent have big
Carrier Fleets. Try taking out the Carriers with Carriers of your own,
Arbiter with Stasis Field is also useful here, use your Psi Storm
offensively, storm the Carriers and rush in with your ground troops.
Drops are useful if you are able to find a good spot.
Part 14: Tricks
I'm opened up for any possible suggestion for this section. If you got
a trick you would like to share with the rest of us, please email me
and your help is greatly appreciated.
There are various tricks to the game, some are useful in a game, some
however are just for fun. You should learn some of these for fun, it
will also help you win some games if you are able to work it correctly.
First trick, Parasite a critter near you opponent's base. The critter
will still be a neutral unit, your opponent won't know it have been
Parasite unless they click on the critter. If you critter is going the
correct way, you will able to see your opponent's base and have a quiet
neutral spy in your favor. However, critters will wonder around and
sometimes get in the way, your opponent will very likely kill the poor
critter and your spy might be gone. So the best way is not to rely on
the critter spy, your Queen can spare the extra energy, you shouldn't
cry over it. However, when you are playing against some players like
me, it might not work, I kill off all the critters near my base. One
for the possible Parasite, two the critters will get in the way, three
it opens up the path better for my ground troops, and four I get 10
points add to my kill. I'm not saying you should waste time killing
all the critter on the map, but if you are just waiting, take out the
annoying critter just to stop the possible spying and get some extra
points.
Part 15: Counter
This section is to help you to take advantage after your opponent's
attacks.
The first counter is anti 2 minute 6 Zergling rush. The 6 Zerglings
rush is one of the most annoying rushes in the game, and because it is
also one of the hardest to counter against since the game just started,
a lot of people will die against this. This rush is useful, but I
don't recommend you to use it everytime, since people will call you
cheap. The best way to counter against this is stall the Zerglings
with your workers, and hopefully, you can minimize the loss of workers
by running around your HQ while your Zealots or Marines come out. When
using Terran, just attack with your SCV, since SCV has 60 HP and able
to take out the Zerglings with the help of a few Marines. When using
Protoss, you can get an early Gateway, and wait for your Zealot to come
out, or get Photon Cannons. However, a smart rusher will ignore the
Zealot and Marines and go straight for your workers, when that happens,
just run your workers around your base and hopefully you won't lose
anymore than 4 workers.
If you are able to put up your defense fast enough, counter attack with
your remaining Zealots and hopefully you can deal some damage before
your rusher can recover.
The second counter, how to defend against mass capital ship fleets.
Since most people use Carrier or Battle Cruiser Fleets to finish off
their opponent, I think this is a pretty important and useful counter.
With Zerg, Plague, Dark Swarm with Hydralisk, Ensnare, Devour and
Mutalisk will able to easily take out the expensive fleets. However,
the best way to counter against those fleets is Dark Swarm with
Hydralisk, a few Ensnare and Plague to help out, Devour's Spore Counter
and Mutalisk's splash damage are optional.
With Protoss, just Psi Storm, 5 High Templars will able to take out the
entire fleet if they stay in the storm. And if you don't get all the
ships, just storm again, your High Templars can storm 3 times in a row
with the energy upgrade. Scouts with good upgrades can chase after the
damaged ships if they try to escape. Stasis Field can also provide you
with extra time to Psi Storm, when you needed it.
With Terran, take out the Fleet's detectors with Yamato Gun or Optical
Flare, and then mass Wraith with cloak to finish the fleet. Lockdown
can take a few ships to easy the job for you, Goliath with attack range
upgrade can chip in some heavy damage, and Emp Shockwave and take out
any possible Yamato Gun and drain all the Protoss shields.
The third counter is against mass Hydralisk/Dragoon swarms, a lot of
people will get a whole bunch of these units and swarm when they max
out. I used the mass Hydralisk swarm, but it simply takes a lot of
money, time but it is really hard to stop.
With Protoss, use Reavers and Psi Storm. Stasis Field can block off
the entrance a little bit, the swarm will stumble around, and basically
acting dumb while you attack with your long ranged units. Carriers are
extremely useful, since it's hard to control all the units to target
your Carrier, instead of the Interceptors.
With Terran, just a decent number of Tanks in Siege Mode can easily
overcome those swarms, but if the swarm continues, use a Nuke in front
of your base, target it front enough so it won't damage your frontline.
The odds are your opponent will have no chance of pulling back all
their units since there are just so many. Your Nuke will make up for
it's cost if you kill 3 Dragoons or 5 Hydralisks.
With Zerg, simply Lurkers and Dark Swarm, Zerglings and Dark Swarm,
Plague and Ensnare can also be used here but isn't required. Guardians
can provide and further ground attack you might need if your Defiler is
taken out.
The next counter is for mass Zealot rush, Zealots are extremely
powerful early on, and Marines or Zerglings won't able to stand a 12
Zealot rush unless a large number advantage is available.
With Protoss, you should have more Zealots than the attacker, if not
your Cannons will take care of them when needed. Remember to get the
enemy Zealots in your Cannon's range before attacking with your
Zealots.
With Terran, 2 Firebats in Bunkers can take out all the Zealots if they
attack the Bunker. Don't have a open path where the Zealot can easily
run past the Bunker, have something like a Barrack to seal off the
path, and you can simply lift off the building when needed.
With Zerg, best bet would be Sunkens and Mutalisks, if your opponent
have 12 Zealots, you should climb your Tech tree high enough to
Mutalisks. 6 Mutalisks and 4 Sunkens can easily take out 12 Zealots,
but expect to lose the Sunkens.
Part 16: Credits
First of all, I want to thank Blizzard for making this game.
I want to thank Ray2001@Juno.com for giving me a lot of hints on the
game. And from playing against him, I learn some tricks too.
Then I want to thank AzNxKaNgTa@aol.com for hooking me up with this
game, keep on selling. When you going to hook up with some new things?
I have to really thank my friend Mike (XU) here for telling me many
trigger keys, hot keys, and other things, thanks a lot, man.
s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com, thank you for giving me a lot of info and
correct some of the mistakes I have on this guide.
Thanks to Alexis@warstrike.com, for telling me about the Firebat
correction.
And I have to thank LiLsHy for sending me the code about the Zerg sound
trick.
Another thing I need to mention here is Rcarlos's FAQ, I fixed some
small bugs from reading his/her FAQ (all the mistakes are small like a
unit's starting armor, I put down a wrong number).
Also I want to thank my clan on Battle.Net, Imperial Spy. Wut sup, you
all. Check out our web page at
Http://members.tripod.com/ImperialSpy/win.htm.
Sorry, but the clan page is currently down due to school works and no
one updating the web site at all. I should take the job of updating
the web page, but no, I'm too busy just like Inferno, who should be
updating it!
A lot of information I obtained is from the game and Blizzard's
official StarCraft stats site in Battle.Net.
Mostly I thank myself for having too much free time and writing this
guide. Lolz. Just kidding.
Copyright 1999, November 10, 1999 Scott Lee