EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9YoUB.jpg)
Hey readers! my name is Victoria 'xVixen' I am a female gamer attempting to climb the SC2 ladder and play amongst the greatest players of all time. I would hope to contribute to this team a blog that will allow beginners and aspiring SC2 players to get more tips and advice on game play as well as strategies while creating a more open atmosphere that female gamers will feel comfortable coming out of their shell and making themselves known.
Although I will blog of my progress in my ladder climb, my experiences, successes and failures; My blogs are not targeted solely on female players as I will post a lot of strategies and tips that I have found helpful along the way of my epic adventure! With that said lets get this blog going! =)
“Not enough minerals, Not enough Minerals, NOT ENOUGH MINERALS!!” I’m sure you’ve heard a great deal of this during your game play in SC2. Enough to make you want to pull your hair out! Being restricted in minerals can be highly frustrating and can cost you the game, It doesn’t have to be that way though. What a lot of beginners don’t know is that the number of harvesters you produce attributes a lot to how smoothly your game will go.
Being a beginner SC2 player in the Silver league I still have a lot to learn! The one thing I recently discovered was how important the saturation of one’s mineral line is in the game. Each mineral line contains 8 patches with 1500 minerals each as well as two Vespene Geysers for gas. They’re three scenarios in which a player will encounter.
I. Under Saturated
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Quite common amongst beginner players I’ve still heard Platinum and Diamond players say “Oh **** I forgot to build more SCVs/probes/drones”. This is one of the biggest mistakes a player could make. After all, the basis of your production relies on the minerals you are able to harvest.
Lack of minerals will hinder unit productions as well as production structures causing your opponent to surpass you in army size and economy.
How will you know if you are under saturated? That’s easy, just remember you will always have 8 patches per mineral line (Keep in mind Gold lines only contain 6 patches so the numbers will be off a bit). Each patch should have 2 harvesters on it and 3 harvesters on gas giving you a harvester count of 22. Anything less is under saturated. It’s easy to check this during game play by selecting all your harvesters and looking to the bottom where it should show two full lines of harvesters plus 4 (each line = 8). Wait, 16+4 does not equal 22! Yes I know, the reason why you cannot see the other 2 harvesters is because it is hidden within the vespene geysers.
So anything less than 22 harvesters and you are under saturated! QUICK! Produce more harvesters!!
II. Optimal & Fully Saturated
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This scenario is the most ideal amongst successful game play. You will see Optimal Saturation in most, if not all of the professional replays. Beginner players may have been “bred” into the SC2 scene believing that 3 harvesters per patch is optimal. However, it has been seen that 2 harvesters per patch (and still 3 per gas) is optimal. Why? Let’s think of it this way there is one patch shared amongst 2 harvesters, while one harvester is on its way to deliver the mineral there is room for the other to mine. If there is a third harvester it will have to wait for an opening for it to go in and mine. As stated above Optimal Saturation is no less and no more than 22 harvesters per mineral line!
Don’t fret, game play will not be harmed if you do have 3 harvesters per patch, which brings you to a fully saturated mineral line. This scenario is also quite common amongst every day play. A fully saturated line will contain 30 harvesters (3 per patch, 3 per each vespene geyser)
III. Over Saturated
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When I first began playing I used to believe that the more harvesters I produced the more minerals I will obtain. Wrong! Having 50 harvesters on a mineral line will not in any way benefit you. What ends up happening is you will have the 2-3 harvesters mining per patch and the additional harvesters roaming around in search for a free patch to gather sweet minerals from.
Over saturation happens when you exceed 30 harvesters on one mineral line.
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Ok! Thanks Vixen I’ve got my saturation down pact now what? This may sound contradicting but don’t stop producing harvesters! If you haven’t already it is time for you to expand! The additional harvesters produced in your main base will be transferred to your new expansion thus cutting down on harvester production time. For example while you have your expansion being produced you can be creating several harvesters which will be done and ready to mine on your expansion! Once your expansion is up and running don’t forget to hotkey it in with your main base and produce harvesters twice as fast as before. But don’t forget to waypoint your harvesters from the main base to your new mineral line or you will end up with an over saturated main base.
After that it is all repetition, expand again if able and do it all over again!
If you play Terran Don’t forget to make use of the orbital early in the game. This will allow you to send down Mules which harvests 30 minerals per trip while SCv’s and other harvesters mine 5 at a time. Keep in mind that Mules cannot harvest on the same patch as another mule but can co-mine with scvs! I normally make my orbital directly after completion of my barrack. Chrono boost and larva inject is equally as important for Zerg and Protoss.
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GL HF,
xVixen
Yup I even wrote it in my blog 
