BW ZvT Mech: The Upgrade Reference

Shalashaska_123

United States142 Posts

November 17 2017 14:56 GMT

BW ZvT Mech: The Upgrade Reference

Hello, Teamliquid.

I'd like to share some spreadsheets I made a while ago. These are from the days when I was interested in 2 Base Mech strategies in ZvT and was trying to understand why players made the decisions they did. In the 1 Fact FE into 2 Fact into 5 Fact strategy, for example, Terran players go for a +1 Armor upgrade and a quick attack with Goliaths. Rather than going for 5 Factories, a Terran can opt to get 4 instead and go for an attack later with +2 Weapons/+1 Armor with Science Vessels. Against a Terran going Mech, it's common for a Zerg player to go for Missile upgrades for the Hydralisks and Air Carapace upgrades for the Mutalisks. Let's find out how effective these and other upgrades are.

The Method

In order to determine what effect an upgrade has, it's necessary to find out how many times one unit has to attack another before that unit is destroyed. The attacking unit has four possible upgrades: +0, +1, +2, and +3. The defending unit has these four possible upgrades as well. Ultralisks are the exception to this, however, as they have the additional +4 and +5 Carapace upgrades. Therefore, for a given defense upgrade, the number of hits to kill the defending unit will be counted and recorded for each attacking unit at every attack upgrade.

There are instances where the defending unit will have only 1 hit point left and only a token hit will be needed to finish it off. This is denoted in the data by the asterisk symbol (*). For example, the entry 12* means it takes 12 hits to kill a defending unit. On the 11th hit, the defending unit only has 1 hit point.

Data Collection

Zerg Units

+ Show Spoiler +

Zergling

+ Show Spoiler +

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Hydralisk

+ Show Spoiler +

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Mutalisk

+ Show Spoiler +

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Guardian

+ Show Spoiler +

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Ultralisk

+ Show Spoiler +

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Terran Units

+ Show Spoiler +

Marine

+ Show Spoiler +

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Vulture

+ Show Spoiler +

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Tank

+ Show Spoiler +

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Tank in Siege Mode

+ Show Spoiler +

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Goliath

+ Show Spoiler +

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Wraith

+ Show Spoiler +

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Some Observations

Of all the Weapons upgrades for the Marine, +1 is the most valuable--greatest reduction of hits for the cheapest price.
With the +1 Weapons upgrade, Vultures become more effective with harassment, killing Drones in 2 hits rather than 3.
Because Goliaths get +2 attack per Weapons upgrade, they become progressively better against Mutalisks with matching Weapons and Air Carapace upgrades.
+1 Weapons doesn't help Goliaths at all against Zerglings or Hydralisks; it only helps them versus Mutalisks. +1 Armor does help them survive longer against these units, though.
Of all the Missile upgrades for the Hydralisk, +1 is the most valuable--greatest reduction of hits for the cheapest price.
It takes 2 hits of a Tank in Siege Mode to kill a Hydralisk for all Weapons and Carapace upgrades; splash damage is what makes the Weapons upgrades so good for the Tanks in Siege Mode.

If you notice anything else, please let me know in the comments.

Sincerely,
Shalashaska_123

kogeT

Poland2037 Posts

November 17 2017 15:10 GMT

Havent read in details, but you only need 5 wraiths to one shoot a drone, as long as they all shoot at the same moment. (otherwise drone regenerates 1 health and stays on 1 health)

Also, it's not true that Goliath upg +1 doesn't help much. Exactly the same thing happens as above - goliaths take 5 not 4 shoots to kill a drone, 9 not 8 shoots to take out a hydra, unless they all fire at the same time. So +1 makes it to be always 4 shoots as any zerg unit will regenerate that 1 HP.

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