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Probes are the unit that always gets the first Chronoboost of the game and recently I heard of a post on Team Liquid about the efficiency of workers and minerals. However I could not find this post by searching the usual avenues. So I decided to do a few quick tests of my own..
Blizzard tells us three per patch, and after doing some research, this isn't the case. In fact, the number is lower. So Chronoboosting probes is beneficial early on, or during Maynarding(the process of taking half your probes and transferring them to your expansion). But there comes a point where Chronoboosting your probes helps you in no way relating to mineral collection. Here are the numbers:
The Test
+ Show Spoiler +My tests consisted of 1 minute intervals with 5 probes at a time.
5 Probes can collect 280 give or take 5.
10 Probes can collect 560 give or take 5.
15 Probes can collect 825 give or take 10.
20 Probes can collect 1040 give or take 20.
25 Probes can collect 1100 give or take 40.
So we can see, the most beneficial number of Probes to have mining is about 20. Any more and the number becomes erratic sometimes going up 100 a minute, sometimes only increasing by about 20-40 a minute. This is because all the Probes are trying to find empty mineral patches. I have even read that some Probes at this amount will bounce from patch to patch for up to 30 seconds without ever working. Therefore, Chronoboost no longer becomes useful on Probes after 20 Probes have been assigned to minerals. However this would change if you were doing a Fast Expand build.
Summary
20 Probes per expansion on the mineral line. Do not Chronoboost Probes after 20, which I believe is around the time the Core is going up if you had been constantly building Probes.An easy way to find out how many you have is to box your Probes and if there are two and a half lines of Probes exactly in the unit bar, thats exactly how many is most efficient.
This also helps later on so when you see you have 60 Probes and only two expansions, you need to expand simply to be making more money.
I have heard several people say that you need to be constantly building Probes and never stop. But one Probe costs not only 50 minerals, but also 1 food. I have seen some pro games were the Probes made was around 90, thats half of your supply and at least 12 Stalkers worth of units. Meaning your army size will not be as strong compared to someone who only made 60 workers. The amount of workers you should have is ultimately determined by each individual game.
Chronoboost usually lasts for 2 rounds of Probe production on a single building So you may only need to use Chronoboost 7-10 times on your Nexus before needing to switch Chronoboost targets.
I hope this was helpful. For Terrans and Zerg, the same rule applies to efficiency, however for Terrans, Mules take priority on mineral Patches over an SCV, meaning they will always work the same patch so make sure to assign them one of the patches that are closer to your Command Center.
You can check out more info on my Blog at www.thestarcraftnoob.blogspot.com
I post primarily about stuff I have realized about the game as I travel up the ladder. I started out in Silver in the Beta, and am now in Platinum. The blog also chronicles sorta the way I have thought about the game since I started as well as an attempt to show the evolution of thought along the way. Team Liquid and Day(9) have been a huge help.
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I disagree.
There are so many factors in the game that should affect your decision on when to make probes and how many probes to make that a blanket statement such as "20 probes per expansion is the best" is useless. In fact, knowing when to make probes in certain situations and when to cut probes is a big thing that differentiates good players from bad players.
If you were to give a general rule of thumb to low level players, it should be "keep making probes, and keep expanding." Limiting them to 20 probes per base is only going to stunt their learning how to macro. For more experienced players, they need to start learning resource manage (when to make probes, when to cut probes, when to chrono probes, etc.) and "20 probes is best" is not something that they should blindly follow.
Also, lots of better math has been done:
Mining speed: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=140055
Mining speed with consideration of mineral distance: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=197826
Chrono boosting probes: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=179604
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Most pros make about 60-90 workers anyway. They are willing to sacrifice army size on economy which will help them replenish their army faster
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How many mineral patches are you talking about?
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This could be useful if you're planning on staying on 1 base - but if you're ever going to expand then you should never stop making probes.
Until you get to around 80 or so, of course.
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You didn't take into account gas mining probes. At two gas per base you need 52 probes.
Thus, 60 probes is, yes, the limit to how many probes on two bases you should have before expanding, but by the time you have 60 probes you're probably taking your third anyway. At that point the increased mineral saturation is somewhat marginal; what is more important is the extra gas money. However, it's not a bad idea to add 20 or so more probes, so you have an additional 14 or 15 mining minerals and 6 on gas.
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I usually have about 20 probes(on minerals) when my second goes down. then, around 30 probes (mining minerals) when my second base finishes. I just take half of those probes, and send them to the natural. This gives me practically 2 fully saturated bases immediately. Yes, from the time i hit 25 probes to the time my second finishes, I am losing economic efficiency, I immediately make up for that when the maynard arrives.
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This post is being bumped because I've been thinking about this too. Since knowing when to cb is essential, it is god for a player to understand what happens when you chronoboost probes that are to go to mineral patches already occupied by other probes at the early stages of the game, or as long as you are on 1 base. My question is, since Protoss and Zerg are capable of getting workers at a faster rate than normal (either cb or multiple larvae from hatch/inject), isn't it dangerous to get workers at a faster rate against a Terran?
If Terran has mules that dont follow normal rules for mining probes, and you choose to cb or make multiple drones after you have 16+ workers on your mineral patches, aren't you giving him an advantage? The minerals spent on those workers (moreso for zerg) won't be recuperated for a much longer time given the current saturation of your mineral patches, while a Terran can quickly build a surplus of minerals compared to you with mules. What do you think? That's the logic I am following, but it seems wrong to me.
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The way I see it, the more probes you have the better. You can't give your opponent minerals by building more probes yourself. You still have to keep up with his economy. Finding ways to make him spend that money on a scan rather than a MULE will probably be more beneficial and there are early game ways to do that, Dark Templars and burrowed Roaches for example. Grabbing an early expand on certain maps help you as well.
Any players objective in almost all matchups(pvp being the exception probably) is to grab an expansion at some point, unless your doing some sort of all in.
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EPT
