• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 07:56
CET 13:56
KST 21:56
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
$21,000 RyongYi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)2Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns6[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 103SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1822Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises3
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Starcraft 2 Zerg Coach
Tourneys
$21,000 RyongYi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) WardiTV Winter Cup WardiTV Mondays SC2 AI Tournament 2026 OSC Season 13 World Championship
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes Mutation # 504 Retribution
Brood War
General
I would like to say something about StarCraft BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Data analysis on 70 million replays
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 SLON Grand Finals – Season 2
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Awesome Games Done Quick 2026! Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Should offensive tower rushing be viable in RTS games?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced
Blogs
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Psychological Factors That D…
TrAiDoS
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1775 users

[D] Saving workers from hellions and banelings

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
zerat00l
Profile Joined April 2010
United States100 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-27 11:14:19
October 27 2010 10:02 GMT
#1
I had a thought while watching a GSL match a couple days ago where tasteless make a remark about losing workers to hellions (which applies to banelings as well) that really made me think (it was something along the lines of "imagine how silly we'll feel in the future when everyone micros their workers in different directions instead of just right clicking on a mineral patch to evacuate," though I'm paraphrasing and cannot recall the exact verbiage) This isn't a [G] thread because I don't feel like I have the perfect solution and don't think that I'm in a position to say "thou shalt do this," but I feel like I might have hit on a good idea which if thought about and discussed by the greater minds of teamliquid, might actually go somewhere, you never know.

Well enough with the preamble, here's the meat of my idea, largely inspired by the F1 split:
1. select the workers that are in danger of dying to splash damage and set them to a hotkey.
2. press the s key. this stops mining and makes them all considered idle
3. spam the F1 key as you right click on the minimap around your base. Avoid sending workers to regions only on one side of your nexus/cc/hatch and regions only reachable by going down a ramp, as both of these actions will send several workers along the same path. I think I do at least a fair job of demonstrating this in the attached replay
4. after the harassing units are dealt with, use the hotkey you put the threatened workers on to quickly re-select them and send them back to work.

I'm curious if anyone has tried anything like this, and perhaps has a better way of doing it etc.

For more clarification, here is a replay of me doing it on an empty map.
http://screplays.com/replays/zerat00l/12413

I'm by no means a great player, but I'm hoping this thread might spark some ideas. I'm tired of seeing people zergling-baneling all-in in ZvZ or doing things like right clicking a bunch of workers to a different expo and having them all lit up by a single hellion shot. There has to be a better way. Thoughts on this matter?
ToastieNL
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Netherlands845 Posts
October 27 2010 10:09 GMT
#2
WOW, great idea!!! I completely understand what you ment! Remember, you can also do ctrl + F1 to select all Idle workers, if you mess your hotkey up for instance !
Zerg lategame is imbalanced as shit. Also: "Protoss is really strong recently. Perhaps, it's time for there to be some changes for Terran." -MMA. Even MMA asks for buffs. Srsly Blizzard. Srsly.
zerat00l
Profile Joined April 2010
United States100 Posts
October 27 2010 10:10 GMT
#3
I did not even know about control+F1! even better I guess.
Snowfield
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
1289 Posts
October 27 2010 10:16 GMT
#4
SOunds like a very good way to avoid alot of AoE damage nice trick man
Patriot.dlk
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Sweden5462 Posts
October 27 2010 10:18 GMT
#5
I like it
lazyo
Profile Joined May 2010
Germany90 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-27 10:43:11
October 27 2010 10:42 GMT
#6
I've been experimenting with a much less apm-intensive technique.
The basic idea is to split your workers through their pathfinding. The basic form of that is to select your workers and move them somewhere on the red line (image might not be exact, but you get the idea).
[image loading]
Now half of your workers will move around the left side of your hatch and the other half around the right side. But they will still do so in a kind of line-ish fashion, but at least they started running.
Then, do some cloning or just box-selects of some drones each and send them to different locations each. Right after that you press "return cargo" which will cause half of them to run back to the mineral line.

It's by far not the best way to split, but it's a very learnable technique
johanngrunt
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Hong Kong1555 Posts
October 27 2010 10:46 GMT
#7
Very nice. I've been waiting too long for something like this.

Maybe unrelated, but for banshee harass in mineral line, is it worth it to run probes while sending stalkers to attack the banshee? or just let probes continue mining.
ChickenLips
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
2912 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-27 13:03:40
October 27 2010 12:53 GMT
#8
Doing the good old self-quote

ChickenLips September 27 2010 08:30. Posts 582 PM Profile Quote Edit #
I have 'invented' this nifty trick where if you see hellions in your mineral line, you quickly select all of them, hit stop, and then f1+spam click all around your base. This leads to every single harvester going to a seperate spot, giving the hellions pretty much zero clumping up to work with.
Last edit: 2010-09-27 08:30:45


But yeah ... i think its best to relocate half of your workers and then split them up even further because the ass hole hellion dropper will be forced with a situation he has never faced before (based on what your base layour looks like, the amount of drone saturation you have, how many you move away from mining, etc.) basically making it as hard as possible for the prick to maximize the economy damage.
❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ✿
Thunderfist
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Poland159 Posts
October 27 2010 12:59 GMT
#9
Make attack move on Nexus/HAtchery/CC it makes them surround the building and hard to kill.
...has arrived.
RyanRushia
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States2748 Posts
October 27 2010 12:59 GMT
#10
this is actually a genius idea... i dont come to the strategy forums much because of all the bronze/silver players arguing over 7gate zealot rushes etc... but this sounds legit

i was just debating with some players yseterday how when people get harrassed by hellions they just group them up and ship them off... putting them all into a clump which makes it even more easy for hellions/banes to destroy them

either way im going to be putting this to use immediately... well done zerat00l
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. | coL.Ryan | www.twitter.com/coL_RyanR
Randomaccount#77123
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States5003 Posts
October 27 2010 13:17 GMT
#11
--- Nuked ---
blitzkrieger
Profile Joined September 2010
United States512 Posts
October 27 2010 14:16 GMT
#12
Getting a good surround on hellions helps tvh. I don't know if this works on everyone and you do risk making a line for them to shoot but probe surround is really great if you can do it. It also gives you time to escape with your other probes and makes sure only 1 probe gets attacked at once. If they go for your mineral line they risk surround. If they run they won't get many probes.

Of course avoid making a line and bring your units to help.

I am not sure about banelings... I would think you could jsut run all your workers and maybe have 2-3 attack since banelings aren't too fast. Might give you time you need to stop them.
Noxie
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States2227 Posts
October 27 2010 15:34 GMT
#13
I dont think its fast enough for banelings... maybe helions.. but if you have a decent amount say 24 on your main. You're saying.. stop your drones. Then f1 and click for each individual drones. So roughly 48 clicks just to spread out your workers to all different areas. and keep in mind.. if you are doing this fast. The exit path around you're hatch, cc, nex may still be in a line to the left or right out of from behind the main.

Its interesting.. but i think splitting packs of groups saves you more times then not.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 15h 4m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SortOf 254
Lowko226
LamboSC2 0
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 32385
Rain 3798
PianO 2174
Shuttle 935
EffOrt 620
Stork 459
Snow 365
actioN 323
BeSt 297
Rush 141
[ Show more ]
Barracks 125
Killer 106
Hyun 95
Dewaltoss 93
Larva 82
Pusan 70
Mind 69
Sharp 55
Sea.KH 52
JYJ 40
ToSsGirL 39
soO 34
NotJumperer 34
[sc1f]eonzerg 28
HiyA 22
910 21
JulyZerg 16
zelot 16
Bale 12
ajuk12(nOOB) 10
Dota 2
Gorgc4357
Fuzer 246
XcaliburYe158
Counter-Strike
allub286
Other Games
singsing1724
B2W.Neo1337
Sick325
XaKoH 185
MindelVK16
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick30205
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 6
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 1
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1883
League of Legends
• Jankos1684
Upcoming Events
SOOP
15h 4m
SHIN vs GuMiho
Cure vs Creator
The PondCast
21h 4m
Wardi Open
23h 4m
Big Gabe XPERIONCRAFT
1d
AI Arena Tournament
1d 7h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 21h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
IPSL
2 days
DragOn vs Sziky
Replay Cast
2 days
Wardi Open
2 days
[ Show More ]
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

META Madness #9

Ongoing

eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

Nations Cup 2026
Underdog Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.