[G] Easy Mineral Stack Trick

On January 13 2012 10:32 KawaiiRice wrote:
I move my worker back and line it up in position while the first scv is mining
dont have to spam click weee

On January 13 2012 10:36 Alejandrisha wrote:

always before that. your 1st probe will always be rallied to the most efficient tier of patches and the first available of this tier. you can find the first available of this tier by checking to see which of the most efficient tier probes is the first to move from the patch. as soon as you see the first probe move on the 2nd trip, the worker is to be rallied their.

once the 1st worker out of the nexus/cc is paired up, you can move a 2nd tier probe (preferably the closest one) to a second 1st tier patch. on some maps, the probe will fight you a few times, but make sure you get it locked in. the 2nd probe is to be rallied to the 2nd tier patch from which you took this probe.

also, on maps that have more than 2 efficient patches, you must reroute 2nd tier mineral patch workers to 1st tier ones after the first trip. the most efficient way to do this is waiting for the probe to finish mining (it has minerals in hand) and shift click it to a first tier mineral patch. don't shift click it to mine until the probe has finished mining, or it will return to the its old patch and then try to mine from the patch you shiftclicked to before returning the minerals and then return to the 1st tier mineral patch you so designated

On January 13 2012 11:04 Fugue wrote:
So, if I have this right:

1. Your initial worker split is a 3/3 onto 2 close (or 1st tier) patches, resulting in 2 workers from each bouncing to the nearest 2nd tier patches.
2. You rally your first constructed worker to the same patch as whichever 1st tier patch worker finished mining first.
3. You then move a 2nd tier worker onto the other first tier patch , so both 1st tier patches are being mined by 2 workers.
4. The 2nd constructed worker goes to the 2nd tier patch that was just vacated.

The method for moving a worker from one patch to another is to shift click the worker to the desired patch once it has minerals in hand.
Where does the stop/mine spam come in, then?

EDIT: It comes just before the worker goes to the desired patch, unless you somehow managed to time it perfectly, correct?

On January 13 2012 10:32 KawaiiRice wrote:
I move my worker back and line it up in position while the first scv is mining
dont have to spam click weee

On January 13 2012 11:09 NoisyNinja wrote:
So...Right click-s-right click-s?

On January 13 2012 10:37 Alejandrisha wrote:

wait you are putting 2 scvs on one 1st tier patch before one of them has made the first trip? because this is inefficient.

edit: oh nvm i think i misread and assumed you meant one of the original 6 in their first wave O_O

dono why i jumped to such a terrible conclusion for the great kawaiirice!

On January 13 2012 11:54 Alejandrisha wrote:

the fact you get behind those 5 mins MIGHT in some circumstances not allow you to start your 7th probe as the 6th finishes. this might happen on tda where the 3rd tier patches are kind of meh and you might laze your probes onto those on the first trip. i see no point in forcing a starting probe onto an efficient probe to get a gain later for a loss now considering it will need babysitting just to be 100% sure it doesn't ever fall off.. something you need to do in order to come back from that early loss. seems like a lot of effort for a very small gain

http://drop.sc/89964
nothing fancy here, but some one wanted to see the first 2 moves.

On January 13 2012 12:52 spbelky wrote:
I am also having a hard time seeing how this is superior to just spam clicking (or not spamming, if you just have good timing)

On January 13 2012 12:40 Geiko wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnFPhI0AT8s&feature=youtu.be

I just made this for people who want to see how to correctly micro workers on patches.

I can hit 1:30 rather than 1:31 if I use my close probe to build the gate but then I have to stack them again later and I'm lazy...

Keep in mind that a 1:30 is the time when you put down an 11 gate if you don't probe micro, so this shows how effective prope microing is.

On January 13 2012 14:03 paintfive wrote:


that is the craziest split ive ever seen.. shit.

On January 13 2012 14:08 wunsun wrote:


Yea, that's insane.

However, I am still confused about the stop and gather commands, better than mass right clicking a mineral patch? The incoming worker doesn't bounce off, but it is much more difficult to do (for me at least) and the I don't see a benefit. Since you are spamming the right click, it bounce off for a brief moment. Is the momentary bouncing that bad? For me, it seems you can right click beside the mineral patch, then right click the mineral as the first worker is finishing the mining animation.

On January 13 2012 18:12 Tobberoth wrote:
I always wondered why people discussed or even used splits since I remembered an old thread where it was more or less found that there's no gain in manual splitting... and I even found the thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=129010

This thread more or less shows that no matter if you F1 split, 3-3 split or just send drones immediately, you'll have the exact same amount of minerals at the 1 minute mark. So why would you split since there's a risk you'll botch it?

I would love a similar comparision with worker pairing though, how much do you actually gain by perfectly pairing etc.

On January 13 2012 18:12 Tobberoth wrote:
I always wondered why people discussed or even used splits since I remembered an old thread where it was more or less found that there's no gain in manual splitting... and I even found the thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=129010

This thread more or less shows that no matter if you F1 split, 3-3 split or just send drones immediately, you'll have the exact same amount of minerals at the 1 minute mark. So why would you split since there's a risk you'll botch it?

I would love a similar comparision with worker pairing though, how much do you actually gain by perfectly pairing etc.

On January 13 2012 18:12 Tobberoth wrote:
I always wondered why people discussed or even used splits since I remembered an old thread where it was more or less found that there's no gain in manual splitting... and I even found the thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=129010

This thread more or less shows that no matter if you F1 split, 3-3 split or just send drones immediately, you'll have the exact same amount of minerals at the 1 minute mark. So why would you split since there's a risk you'll botch it?

I would love a similar comparision with worker pairing though, how much do you actually gain by perfectly pairing etc.

On January 13 2012 18:12 Tobberoth wrote:
I always wondered why people discussed or even used splits since I remembered an old thread where it was more or less found that there's no gain in manual splitting... and I even found the thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=129010

This thread more or less shows that no matter if you F1 split, 3-3 split or just send drones immediately, you'll have the exact same amount of minerals at the 1 minute mark. So why would you split since there's a risk you'll botch it?

I would love a similar comparision with worker pairing though, how much do you actually gain by perfectly pairing etc.

On January 13 2012 20:29 ODKStevez wrote:


Personally when I split I can build my next drone/probe when my first one is created, when I don't split, there is a slight delay. Something I have always noticed.

On January 13 2012 20:41 agahamsorr0w wrote:
actually it depends on if you split first or make a drone first. If you split first then the drone won't be delayed, if you make a drone b4 splitting the drone will be slightly delayed.

On January 13 2012 21:37 Douillos wrote:


to be exact, its better to split then drone if your Z, and drone then split for other races. but it's not that much of a difference really

On January 13 2012 12:40 Geiko wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnFPhI0AT8s&feature=youtu.be

I just made this for people who want to see how to correctly micro workers on patches.

I can hit 1:30 rather than 1:31 if I use my close probe to build the gate but then I have to stack them again later and I'm lazy...

Keep in mind that a 1:30 is the time when you put down an 11 gate if you don't probe micro, so this shows how effective prope microing is.

On January 13 2012 21:44 blinkblue wrote:

pretty sure this was confirmed false. just because you have other larva to start building extra drones earlier doesn't mean that you aren't still delaying your larva spawning.


What button are you holding down to keep cycling through the probes at the beginning? F1 does nothing for me unless I hold ctrl and select all of them.

On January 13 2012 12:40 Geiko wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnFPhI0AT8s&feature=youtu.be

I just made this for people who want to see how to correctly micro workers on patches.

I can hit 1:30 rather than 1:31 if I use my close probe to build the gate but then I have to stack them again later and I'm lazy...

Keep in mind that a 1:30 is the time when you put down an 11 gate if you don't probe micro, so this shows how effective prope microing is.

On January 13 2012 23:20 Geiko wrote:
No, pressing two hotkeys result in F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e F1 e.

This method works best on XNC type maps where there are 4 "tier 1" patches. So you assign all 4 probes to the tier 1 patches 1,2,3 4, then the next 2 to patches 1 and 2 where they will mine right after the first probes. It's usually very easy to get them to pair up from the very beginning, which leaves you with less probe micro to do later on.

On January 13 2012 22:44 Geiko wrote:
You don't need to hold S at the beginning. Probes just stay on the patch you tell them to go to as long as you didn't tell them too fast.
To be honest I still haven't understood how OP's method is better then click workers back and back on mineral.

On January 13 2012 23:36 VoO wrote:


Not on my computer

Yes thats what I meant this works differently on different types of patch layout - sometimes better, sometimes worse.

On January 13 2012 23:49 blinkblue wrote:

I meant for zerg. You have to press S to select the larva, and D for the drone. So to make this work, you would have to be spamming F1 s d F1 s d, which as far as I can tell, is not possible.


It probably does work on your computer. It took me a while to figure it out, but if you press both at the exact same time, it will produce F1 e F1 e F1 e. If you hit after another, even if you're holding both down, it will input F1 eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I imagine some keyboards/windows settings??? can allow you to press them at separate times and alternate between the two, but mine doesn't (and I don't think any of my computers have ever done this unless I press them simultaneously.)

And yeah, I haven't tried it, but from what everyone is saying there doesn't seem to be a need to spam S + click instead of just spamming click, or walking the worker back and forth until it's time to mine.

On January 13 2012 23:55 Geiko wrote:



It works with zerg if you holf F1+s+d but then you have to rebind the stop command to something else then "s" because then your drones won't go mining.
You could for example rebind your select larva to "r" and hold F1+r+d, but that's a bit extreme just to have a 0.1 secs faster split
Just make the drone and then hold F1 to split.

On January 13 2012 23:57 blinkblue wrote:
Also, Geiko: Using your method, don't you think it would be even faster to simply split them evenly between the tier 1 and tier 2 patches at the start of the game, assuming you can do it quick enough? A perfect computerized split should just send all of them mining to separate patches immediately and then later switching them to tier 1 patches... at least I think. Maybe it's not possible to have hand speed fast enough to make that more efficient than stacking patches, but your method seems to have workers 5 and 6 waiting for an entire half mining path before they begin mining (else they wouldn't line up perfectly on the tier 1s with the other workers)

On January 14 2012 00:03 Geiko wrote:


No, as I've explained before, workers 5 and 6 will be forced on close mineral patches one moment or an other. If you take time to think about it, the fact that they are being forced before the first trip doesn't change anything as long as you are able to afford the first worker at the normal timing.

Most efficient method is a 3-3 split if you can manage to select the middle probe before it mines and force it on a close patch, then do it again for the other side. However the F1 split is much easier to do, since your workers are already all paired, it makes microing much easier.

Regarding the zerg problem, you can also hold down F1 and d and click on a larva instead of clicking on the hatch.

On January 14 2012 01:24 Alejandrisha wrote:
that's a pretty sick method geiko. i can get a 1:31 gate at least half the time with my lazy 3/3 split and only do micro after that but will definitely try the f1 method since it might help with my mouse accuracy and eventually get it 100% :D

On January 13 2012 23:36 VoO wrote:


Not on my computer

Yes thats what I meant this works differently on different types of patch layout - sometimes better, sometimes worse.

On January 14 2012 04:09 Feos wrote:
correct me if im wrong but isnt the disadvantage of this f1 split (and thus 2 probes mining from the near patches in their first cycle) that you will lose half a cycle per probe set up to mine 2nd?
i mean i could just take the 3/3 split and stop 1 probe to add to the nearer patch instead letting it start on a farther patch. but this will cost me minerals since i lose half a cycle.
how is it different here? i mean of course it obviously works but i just wonder if the immediate stacking is compensating for this lost half cycles or if i am missing something.

check out sase doing it <3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoXvU6SzVTg

thats how i do it as well... no need for spamming if your timing is good

On January 14 2012 04:09 Feos wrote:
correct me if im wrong but isnt the disadvantage of this f1 split (and thus 2 probes mining from the near patches in their first cycle) that you will lose half a cycle per probe set up to mine 2nd?

On January 14 2012 07:22 Grayboosh wrote:
Sase got his gateway at 1:24... doesn't that mean right-click spamming wins? Am I missing something?

On January 15 2012 06:27 leo23 wrote:
guys i'm fucking stupid so please work with me

so normally i do the mass click and my workers go apeshit and run all around the minerals.

now I don't exactly get the procedure of this method so let's see if i'm doing it right (i play zerg)

-drone is going to mineral patch-
-click s-
-click on mineral-

is this the right way?

On January 15 2012 06:28 Tobberoth wrote:

Nah, seems you have to do exactly like when you're massclicking, only that you should also be spamming s. It's the same as massclicking, only that the drone stops bouncing around.

On January 15 2012 07:34 ZenithM wrote:
Is anyone else's heart also broken when you get your perfect probe stacking for your first 8 probes, and you have to take off one of the eight to build a fucking pylon?
Protoss is UP, I tell ya, at least with Terran you can get that perfect stacking at 9 like a boss and never touch it again.

On January 15 2012 08:42 Tobberoth wrote:

A zerg can stack 14 and not break them if they go 15 or 16 hatch etc :D

On January 15 2012 10:27 Xanatoss wrote:
I still dont get the S-Thing. If i press Stop-Command the Probe stops halfway to the patch. And if I rightclick afterwards it bounces of just like normal most of the times. To make it work I would have to press Stop at the correct moment to let it stop in front of the minerals and then click on the correct moment to resume mining? Two timed commands just for the positional advantage?
Edit: Oh and even when stop works, the "waiting" probes sometimes pushes the mining probe away after it finished its mining.

I really like Geikos method though. But I wonder if it is as convenient on maps with ugly mineral-layout.