This topic only discusses one worker mining one mineral patch. The following pictures apply to all 4-player maps in the current ladder and ASL. Some of the mineral boosting micro used here are found by myself—I haven’t seen them shared by anyone else.
There are three possible scenarios for each patch: 1. Maximum gathering rate is achieved without any micro. 2. Maximum gathering rate is achieved with initial micro, such as adjusting the position of the worker, but continuous micro is not required. 3. Maximum gathering rate is only achieved with continuous micro.
For the micro used for each patch, see this video: www.bilibili.com
- the same "mineral formation layout" does not guarantee the same mining speed for each patch. that means that for example on Octagon, top left position and bottom left position do not have the exact same mining speed, even though both start locations use the same L-shaped mineral layout
- there are several improvements on the number given here. I'll share in a few days
On October 19 2026 22:24 Kraekkling wrote: - the same "mineral formation layout" does not guarantee the same mining speed for each patch. that means that for example on Octagon, top left position and bottom left position do not have the exact same mining speed, even though both start locations use the same L-shaped mineral layout
That’s quite surprising. I tested on Octagon SE 2.0 and didn’t see the difference. Could you provide a specific example?
On October 19 2026 22:24 Kraekkling wrote: - there are several improvements on the number given here. I'll share in a few days
On October 19 2026 22:24 Kraekkling wrote: two points:
- the same "mineral formation layout" does not guarantee the same mining speed for each patch. that means that for example on Octagon, top left position and bottom left position do not have the exact same mining speed, even though both start locations use the same L-shaped mineral layout
- there are several improvements on the number given here. I'll share in a few days
i'm guessing it has to do with pathfinder regions? first iteration of aiolos had mining issues, and there are several shieldbattery official maps that have pathfinder region mineral boost issues. wish i knew what triangle formations to emulate and avoid, since if a map has nice tile decoration sometimes i'll fix the mineral boost pathfinder regions myself to make versions to practice on, but it is always a tedious guess-and-check process for me
On October 19 2026 22:24 Kraekkling wrote: - the same "mineral formation layout" does not guarantee the same mining speed for each patch. that means that for example on Octagon, top left position and bottom left position do not have the exact same mining speed, even though both start locations use the same L-shaped mineral layout
That’s quite surprising. I tested on Octagon SE 2.0 and didn’t see the difference. Could you provide a specific example?
for example match point . colorless fate left side 9th patch protoss can mine with probe from farther to the left than on most maps and achieve better boosting
some spawns can also boost by pressing c on 3rd patch left side with protoss when probe 4/5th back to nexus
;;
there is also easier way than the video to set up the boosting on the 5th patch left side; right before probe come back to mineral patch press G -> click on 4th patch then immediately right click 5th patch. probe should briefly stop then go to mine and it will boost on the way back mining at ~158 frames per trip
right side protoss can boost 3rd patch easily pressing C 2/3rd ~ 3/4 on the way back or on 8th patch ~4/5th of way back. 3rd patch is very consistent 8th patch is harder to get timing right
On October 19 2026 22:24 Kraekkling wrote: two points:
- the same "mineral formation layout" does not guarantee the same mining speed for each patch. that means that for example on Octagon, top left position and bottom left position do not have the exact same mining speed, even though both start locations use the same L-shaped mineral layout
- there are several improvements on the number given here. I'll share in a few days
i'm guessing it has to do with pathfinder regions? first iteration of aiolos had mining issues, and there are several shieldbattery official maps that have pathfinder region mineral boost issues. wish i knew what triangle formations to emulate and avoid, since if a map has nice tile decoration sometimes i'll fix the mineral boost pathfinder regions myself to make versions to practice on, but it is always a tedious guess-and-check process for me
"and there are several shieldbattery official maps that have pathfinder region mineral boost issues."
give specific details pls, are you talking about automatic boost mining regions (just from positioning workers at the right mining angle) or manual boost (return cargo aka "c" boost, so are we talking about non return cargo boost)? which maps? which bases/mineral patches?
plz give full info so we can check what you're talking about
Did you do this or have any assist? And can you share the boosting timings? I know patches 1/3/4 on left side have the cargo/acceleration boost but didn't know it existed for other patches. What did you do?
Generally I typically hit 1:36 on right side with just patch 1/3 boosting and 1:37 on left side with 3/4 boosting (maybe I should add 1 boosting too back into my early game)
On October 20 2026 06:21 Kraekkling wrote: how does Protoss boost the patch at the bottom end of the L-shaped formation? 149/167 patch in the OP
theres vid linked on bilibili check '神族左边9号矿‘ in the playlist
its just press c 1/3rd - 1/2 on return trip; if it doesnt work sometimes you can adjust the probe to even farther to the right when its going back to mineral field and then it should work more often
its the most common active boost used on left side by protoss pros as its easy to do and increase speed by quite a bit
On October 19 2026 22:24 Kraekkling wrote: two points:
- the same "mineral formation layout" does not guarantee the same mining speed for each patch. that means that for example on Octagon, top left position and bottom left position do not have the exact same mining speed, even though both start locations use the same L-shaped mineral layout
- there are several improvements on the number given here. I'll share in a few days
i'm guessing it has to do with pathfinder regions? first iteration of aiolos had mining issues, and there are several shieldbattery official maps that have pathfinder region mineral boost issues. wish i knew what triangle formations to emulate and avoid, since if a map has nice tile decoration sometimes i'll fix the mineral boost pathfinder regions myself to make versions to practice on, but it is always a tedious guess-and-check process for me
"and there are several shieldbattery official maps that have pathfinder region mineral boost issues."
give specific details pls, are you talking about automatic boost mining regions (just from positioning workers at the right mining angle) or manual boost (return cargo aka "c" boost, so are we talking about non return cargo boost)? which maps? which bases/mineral patches?
plz give full info so we can check what you're talking about
nothing in the current ladder map pool, since koreans always fix mining by the time ASL rolls around
but some maps under the "official" maps still have problems, top picture is 1:00 Lights Out 1.6e, the selected mineral doesn't manual-boost properly for zerg
bottom picture is 1:00 Nocturne 1.3, the natural auto-boost doesn't work for zerg
i'm sure there are more since there aren't progamers mass playtesting the non-ladder maps, but these two are the ones off the top of my head since i really like the decoration on these maps so sometimes i practice on them
ah ok, ya a lot of these maps are just maps we added in previous seasons (could be maps from a specific tour that we used on ladder, map making contest etc.) and they get saved there, there's gonna be a lot of weird/outdated maps in that list :D
main thing are the ladder maps, for customs u can just host any map from ur map folder, doesn't need to be from our official map section
On October 20 2026 13:37 TT1 wrote: ah ok, ya a lot of these maps are just maps we added in previous seasons (could be maps from a specific tour that we used on ladder, map making contest etc.) and they get saved there, there's gonna be a lot of weird/outdated maps in that list :D
main thing are the ladder maps, for customs u can just host any map from ur map folder, doesn't need to be from our official map section
yeah i know, i just like going through the map selections to look for nice decoration maps. anything by freakling/testbug/crystaldrag is usually amazing
ya they're great, you can't believe how much time Testbug has spent helping us with maps, he's made so many maps for us
without people like him the state of the 2v2 ladder pool would be way worse, without good maps and great map makers BW would get so boring, maps are the only source of content we get added to the game
ppl should check out the new LT remake in our 2v2 pool, we tried to fix the balance issues while keeping the feel as close as possible to classic LT
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