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Youve seen it a million times reactor hellion opening in TvZ. Happens at every level of play its very standard. Casters very often just say hes going with the very standard reactor hellion opening and they leave it that and its not very helpful for lower level players (plat and below) to understand what this build is trying to achieve and to get a grip of the exact optimal order of this build.
What this guide will attempt to do is help lower level players do this without transitioning badly or throwing away hellions which are the two things that will make the opener useless or very strong.
The timings
10 depot
12 rax
13 gas
18 fact
reactor on rax after 2 marines
cc at around 21 supply before your fact finishes
swap fact and rax
24 depot (before you start your hellions!)
Tech lab on rax and start stim asap.
This is where all the deviations and different transitions become apparent im going to recommend that you go for 3 rax fast. As soon as your first 4 hellions finish lift your fact and build a rax on the reactor and another barracks as soon as you have money Remember at about this time you will need to start orbital on your cc. You can get your 3rd rax earlier if you float your cc to your nat before turning it into an orbital or if you dont feel safe to take your nat start your orbital before 3rd rax. Once your second orbital up and running you should add a techlab on your fact and take second gas and start tanks.
How to use the 4 hellions: dont use them suicidally and dont go in with the first 2 unless your very sure of your micro and macro. IF you send in the first two you risk losing to hellions and stockpiling alot of minerals as fruitlessly micro these. If your plat then i would recommend waiting for 4 then poking around the front picking off zerglings and denying creep spread. THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR HELLIONS.
Just cause you made hellions doesnt mean you have to kill drones or your behind. They should be just away of scaring the zerg, doing some minor harass and taking map control.
These very early 3 rax and early marine upgrades make it very easy to keep up the pressure. If you dont get early marine production with early marine upgrades then there is a very long period where you are stuck on a few tanks with siege and not alot of unupgraded marines. This means the zerg can sit back and relax and drone, tech and generally whatever the fuck he likes. This is bad.
Once you have stim, 2 reactor rax, 1 techlab rax and 2 or 3 tanks, you are scary to the zerg again and you can do some pushing. The idea with this is not to kill the zerg, just to force them to make units and punish them if they took a greedy third. This is about the time they will be getting mutas or infestors, so if you force them to make units at this point and banelings or what have you, the infestor or muta count will be compramised and you will not have to worry about this kind of tech overwhelming you early as you take your 3rd.
This is not intended to be anything new, just an easy way for plat and below players to have a very solid game plan in tvz that never really lets up the pressure on the zerg and can put you in a good economical position compared to the zerg. Stopping the zerg snowballing with drone production then just being completely unstoppable is the bane of lower level terran players. This is a nice way to stop them doing that.
Im not gonna do a vod but someone linke this: http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-daily-319-tvz-less-is-more-5348566
as something similar you can look at.
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Thanks for this thread man - much needed!!!
I'm diamond but I've been suiciding them hellions for months and I think it I've ended up hating TvZ because i feel it's so realiant on early harass. I can tell the result of 85% of my TvZs just by counting drone kills the first 6-7 minutes. In the future I'm gonna hang outside Z base and harass creep spreading queens, nothing else.
Do you place the 2 additional rax as a wall on your natural? Do you move the OC down to the expo as soon as the 4 hellions are out? I assume the push is supposed to hit at around 8:30?
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I find that normally I don't wall off with the rax on naturaL chokes. But I see no reason why you shouldn't. Shakuras and tal darim come to mind. I'm not entirely sure about the exact timing of a marine tank push but it's definitely before 10 mins. Always think about moving out when you have a good number of marines and 2 or 3 tanks with siege. Combat shields should be finishing up as you push out. When you push out is also a good time to throw done a starport and eBay closely followed by a third cc.
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I dislike this version of reactor hellion. I used to play this method and just felt like my hellions always came out too late; my opponent had either simcitied or had a bunch of queens and roaches out by the time i got close to the front. In some ways, this meant I did my job, but the zerg usually knew he was safe to drone after this and that made me uncomfortable. Since 6 pool and 7 pool are so laughably bad against T, I don't really see the point in getting the extra marines before the reactor. I much prefer:
10 depot
11 gas
13 rax
17 fact
17 oc
17 reactor -- remove all doods from gas
17 depot
20 2 hellions OR cc
if you went hellions:
24 depot
26 cc
26 tech lab on rax
27/28 2 more hellions, put guys back on gas
32 take 2nd gas
34 swap tech lab to fact, reactor to rax. Add another rax, starport, and engi. From here, you look to get a tank out to secure your natural, then prepare for +1 and drop play. Aim to drop around 9:30, with a 3 tank push following at around 11 min (this is possible with good macro, although I usually mess it up by getting too cute with my hellions and end up dropping at 10:00 and tank pushing at around 12 -- this makes a big difference). I sometimes opt not to SCV scout with this build, relying instead on the zerg's scouting and the early 2 hellions to grab information.
if you went cc:
21 depot
21 2 hellions
26 tech lab on rax
26 2 hellions
31 second gas
34 same as above; you sacrifice the first two hellions being slower in exchange for a faster cc. Helpful if you are confident in your initial scouting information and don't need the first 2 hellions to go out and grab the map control a bit earlier.
Obviously, there is merit to the other build -- you get a little faster stim and some more marines to hold off muta harass a little more easily. I just find that this one goes a bit better with my playstyle, and there are more chances for some opportunistic drone sniping with this build due to zergs that are used to the slow hellion setup.
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I think there is certainly a place for gas first hellions but it just doesnt have the same goals as rax before gas. If you went gas first hellions you are seriously committing to early hellions as a source of serious damage. Not only this but gas first hellions are incredibly easy to scout and is fairly obvious as this is the only real tvz gas first option terran has.
Not only this but it delays your expo, slows down your stim and leaves the zerg free to drone for far longer than the rax first varient. Your push is much weaker with this build because you have less marines and with fewer upgrades and it arrives later.
Now lets talk about the 2 marines. These 2 marines are actually pretty pivotal to the build in a few ways. First it gives you the option to bunker pressure. Rallying your first marine and building a bunker has become a pretty standard thing in the tvz meta game because of how much free dmg it can achieve. Completely forgoing this is in my mind a mistake as it lets the zerg do the most optimal greedy version of a hatch first that he likes. You can even build the rax on the low ground as many high level terrans have been doing just to put an extra bit of pressure onto the zerg.
Also these earlier hellions are actually still fairly easy to shut down.
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Would it be asking too much to create a vod???? like really explaining the build, with pauses, speeding ups and comments??????? also the transitioning to marine tank together with the push?
thanks!!!
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On October 11 2011 00:26 upperbound wrote:
I dislike this version of reactor hellion. I used to play this method and just felt like my hellions always came out too late; my opponent had either simcitied or had a bunch of queens and roaches out by the time i got close to the front. In some ways, this meant I did my job, but the zerg usually knew he was safe to drone after this and that made me uncomfortable.
I think you're underestimating the value of shutting down creep tumours; it's pretty much impossible to wander across creep with any sort of mid-game push (keeping in mind mech takes quite a while to build up).
You can also transition into double reactor hellion, rather than a tech lab on the barracks, and just use a ridiculous number of dune buggies (around 16 will do the trick) to just barrel through the sim city and slaughter everything at the natural, and potentially the main too.
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Thanks for this thread. I was searching for a guide that really explains solid standard tvz and I feel like reactor hellions into 3-tank-push into marine/tank/medivac is the most standard build in tvz atm.
Keeping your hellions alive is really important. My 3-tank-push always gets crushed so hard if I lose my hellions early on. 4 hellions protect the 3 tanks so much from lings.
But could you also explain a bit how exactly you are executing the 2-3-tank-push? When do you siege, do you leapfrog or do you just hold position between the zerg natural and his potential third while taking your own third?
What do you do AFTER the 3-tank-push? When do you attack the next time? Do you make a drop while attacking the next time? Is it a 8 marine or 16 marine drop?
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On October 11 2011 01:26 FaKeSC2 wrote:
Thanks for this thread. I was searching for a guide that really explains solid standard tvz and I feel like reactor hellions into 3-tank-push into marine/tank/medivac is the most standard build in tvz atm.
Keeping your hellions alive is really important. My 3-tank-push always gets crushed so hard if I lose my hellions early on. 4 hellions protect the 3 tanks so much from lings.
But could you also explain a bit how exactly you are executing the 2-3-tank-push? When do you siege, do you leapfrog or do you just hold position between the zerg natural and his potential third while taking your own third?
What do you do AFTER the 3-tank-push? When do you attack the next time? Do you make a drop while attacking the next time? Is it a 8 marine or 16 marine drop?
that's exactly what i wanted to know.. that's why i asked for a vod... like with some real explanations, guideance etc
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On October 11 2011 01:26 FaKeSC2 wrote:
Thanks for this thread. I was searching for a guide that really explains solid standard tvz and I feel like reactor hellions into 3-tank-push into marine/tank/medivac is the most standard build in tvz atm.
Keeping your hellions alive is really important. My 3-tank-push always gets crushed so hard if I lose my hellions early on. 4 hellions protect the 3 tanks so much from lings.
But could you also explain a bit how exactly you are executing the 2-3-tank-push? When do you siege, do you leapfrog or do you just hold position between the zerg natural and his potential third while taking your own third?
What do you do AFTER the 3-tank-push? When do you attack the next time? Do you make a drop while attacking the next time? Is it a 8 marine or 16 marine drop?
The thing with the 3-tank push is that it only really punishes Zergs that are taking a quick third or being exceptionally greedy.
If they go for a fast macro hatch, you shouldn't bother with the push at all, but look to take a quick 3rd at around 9-10 minutes. (Even better, you can take the quick 3rd and push your army out to a point where he can see it, past an overlord or something - and then just roll on back home. Lots of larva wasted.)
You're right that the reactor hellion expand is the most standard build, but that's because you can easily transition into whatever is necessary. The problem is scouting correctly to identify a) what the Zerg is going for b) what army the Zerg is going for and c) how hard the Zerg is droning.
The reactor hellion build can deal with all of those transitions, but if you make the wrong move (ie. through guessing) you can end up behind too. It's tricky.
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On October 11 2011 01:29 xTrim wrote:
that's exactly what i wanted to know.. that's why i asked for a vod... like with some real explanations, guideance etc
EmpireKas executes this BO very well, and it is covered in Day9's TvZ "Less is more" episode:
http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-daily-319-tvz-less-is-more-5348566
For the future, just take some initiative and do some research into a BO instead of just asking it to be spoon fed to you on a forum, you should learn more that way.
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An alternative to the OP build consists of getting a starport instead of the 3rd rax at the same time, grabbing your 2nd gas and getting a reactor on your factory. This gives you 2rax (1 reactor, 1 tech lab with stim on the way) and 1 port 1 fact. Once the port is up, swap with factory and you will have just enough for 2 medivacs.
At this point, you literally have 16 marines + stim and 2 medivacs for a drop. If you decide not to bunker your natural (something I always do), you could sneak in 1-2 hellions to add to the first 2. This allows you to do a very nice timing push at 8:30ish. Drop the back of the main, while sneaking in hellions through the front to hit the natural.
This is what SeleCT typically does, minus the 2 extra hellions.
Conversely, you can get your 3rd rax up while the medivacs are coming, then swap the starport reactor with the rax, get your tech lab on your factory, and start focusing on tanks. This would also transition very well if you would rather get the tanks a bit earlier (and you also need your 3rd gas while you make this transition + engineering bay). This gives you in total, 3 rax (2 reactor,1 tech lab), 1 fact w/ tech and 1 naked-port (you will only have gas for 1 medivac at a time if you decide to get upgrades like +1 and combat shield after stim, especially if you prioritize getting tanks).
Hope this helps.
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A lot of people asking about the tank push so ill talk about that in more detail. If you want to really make use of this you have no make sure you arent just doing it cause the guide tells you to do this. IF you keep your hellions alive (which you really should, no excuse to lose them) you can scout for fast thirds and see what units they are making throughout the early and early mid game.
If you see that he is either taking a fast 3rd or teching fast (you need to scan to see if this is the case) then a tank push is a good idea. The hellions are pretty crucial to this cause they allow you to be greedy with your siege position. You can see very early if they have banelings ready to crush your greedy tanky push or roaches which are the main threat. If you see these things you can make the decision to leap frog forward or just go back home and take a 3rd.
This is only one transition from this very solid opening and a lot of the alternatives suggested in this thread are also pretty viable and i wouldnt discourage you from doing these. But this transition i feel is very solid and safe to alot of shit zerg can throw at you at the same time as keeping the zerg srsly on his toes. Its also fairly easy to execute.
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Thanks for the post! Very helpful!! 
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Thank you, we need more basic builds like this posted, as sometimes it's just hard to find the actual timings for standard things.
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Yeah hellions are not supposed to actually kill drones (it is a bonus if you can) but instead scare the zerg and force them to make more units other than drones. Basically, the whole game in any matchup against zerg (except ZvZ) is to stop them from droning and getting a massive economy lead. You have to be a constant threat to the zerg and keep harassing them.
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Thanks for the post but i have to say i find guides a lot better when there r some replays in it, showing some of the follow ups of that build. But nevertheless, thanks
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Thank you. I have been trying to switch to a reactor hellion opening, and this is exactly the kind of guide I need to get the fundamentals.
Almost certainly dumb question: Why doesn't the reactor come before the factory? Since the factory doesn't make anything until 50 seconds after 150 gas (total) has been mined, wouldn't it be better to get the reactor out much earlier and use it to make one or two double rounds of marines? It would slow your hellions by 10 seconds (because the factory takes longer to build), but it seems more efficient?
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i just got promoted to diamond and now have no luck with this build. I am getting over run, just lost to 7 diamond zergs in a row.
I go:
10 depot
12 rax
13 gas
18 fact
reactor on rax after 2 marines
cc at around 21 supply before your fact finishes
swap fact and rax
24 depot (before you start your hellions!)
Tech lab on rax
4 hellions to hold front of Z base and then switch fact and rax
2 more rax to take it to 3
push at around 9:30 with 2 tanks, around 15 marines.
Even if the Z doesn't build roaches, mass zerglings even own me. I have tanks on a diff control group and shoot banes....
is this build still doable these days at diamond level??
Thanks!
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also, when attacking at that 9:30 mark, do you guys keep rallying units? If I lose the engagement I always seem so far behind. the Z just expands again and always has way to many units for me.
What should i be doing at this point... do I use that initial attack to get ahead by taking my 3rd, and then if im on 3 rax and 2 fact, just get more rax and port?
plat and under, i mostly won at the 9:30 mark straight out, now im getting defended, I dont know what to do lol
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EPT
