EPTHello everyone, I'm a Masters Zerg on Korea. I made this guide to spread the knowledge I have about Starcraft to others, so that they can become better at the game. A lot of this knowledge can be applied a lot of RTS. These were things I didn't know when I was in the low leagues, which, had I known then, would have helped me immensely in developing my skills in Starcraft.
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1. Mechanics
Mechanics are basically how efficiently you are able to control what's happening in the game. Have you ever had an intention going into a game/situation but stuff just didn't turn out that way? For example, you intended for your production cycles to be hit perfectly, but you faltered a little. Or you wanted to split your marines against banelings so that each marine was on its own… but it didn't really happen that way. Good mechanics allow you to do everything that you want in a game, seamlessly. A lot of people think level of mechanics is directly proportional to how much apm you have. This is not true. However, in order to have good mechanics, high apm is often necessary (such as when there are multiple battles going on).
Though this is almost common knowledge, I still want to highlight some RTS "laws" that require good mechanics:
- Spend your money. Having a bank is good in real life, but in RTS, if it's in your bank, it's not doing anything for you in the game. You should aim to have all your money on the field of battle, doing something for you.
- Not queuing up units. If you are queuing up units, that's money that is not going to be on the field of battle for a long time. Why not build another production facility and then you can put the queued up units in there? In the long run you'll get a much bigger army.
- Constant production on everything. For beginners this is a good tip. If you've invested in a production facility, you should milk that for all it's worth. If you are not producing from it, it's not being used for all it's worth!
- Spend your larva ASAP. Note that each hatch can only hold 3 larva, once you get to 3 larva, no more larva is being produced. If you're not spending that larva, you're going to miss out on the larva that hatchery could have produced, and that means you missed out on production capability. Not only that but, the quicker you build a drone, the more minerals it will mine throughout the whole game.
- Never be supply blocked, but don't overbuild depots/pylons/overlords. Supply blocking disrupts production (I explained why that's bad earlier). Also, if you make lots of depots/pylons/overlords, that's using money that you could invest elsewhere. Imagine a situation where you start the game with 6 workers, then make all the depots/pylons/overlords you'll need for the whole game. You now understand why making a lot of depots/pylons/overlords is bad.
Keep in mind that these "laws" help "time" when you should make certain things. For example, why is the standard gateway timing a 13 gateway instead of, say, a 10 gateway? At 10 supply, you won't be able to afford a gateway AND continue constant probe production. If you DO build a 10 gateway you've just sacrificed probe production (economy) to get more a quicker gateway, but I'll get into that a little later.
A lot of lower level players ignore the mechanical aspect, because it's not very interesting. However, it's extremely easy to see how mechanics play a role in Starcraft when you try to do a build that you saw a pro player do. He will just have more "stuff" than you at all times.
All of this is easier said than done right? Even in master league there are people who are terrible at all of this, so don't worry, it's meant to be very hard.
Tips for improving mechanics include practising mouse accuracy (will help you in micro situations and will also help you execute small tasks more efficiently) and learning to look at the minimap more (will help you notice everything that your units are in range of seeing) and just practising the "laws" I listen above. Also, if you're looking to improve, go to YouTube and search "Day9 daily mechanics" and you'll find a video series that will help you a lot with bettering your mechanics.
To sum it all up, mechanics are extremely important in RTS and they will help you to translate what you're thinking to the game itself.
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2. Economy, Tech, Army: The three pillars of Starcraft
Starcraft is a game of investments. At all times you can be investing in economy, tech and army. Generally speaking, you want to be picking one and invest heavily in it. For example, if you're doing a very aggressive build, don't start buying things from the tech tree. JUST make units! The reason for this is, if you're investing in army and tech at the same time, you're going to have a crappy army, which won't be able to do anything to your opponent, and crappy tech which won't really do anything for you. Starcraft is a game of extremes. You will often see a player go for a SUPER greedy build (such as expanding 3 times without any units) followed by a huge economy, followed by a huge attack. There is usually no ambiguity as to where he's investing the majority of his money in. However, if you watch a lower level player, you'll probably notice he's invested in all three at once! Tech and econ can often be invested in simultaneously since they will both be good later on in the game, whereas army sacrifices tech and econ to be good right then and there.
Assuming you're playing someone as good as you, you should be able to look at your situation and think "what have I invested in, and what has he invested in". From there you can make an educated decision as to what to do next. Army is good for attacking, so you should probably attack with it. Investing in economy (such as buying bases/workers) will be better later in the game, so you should probably play defensively. Tech is an interesting one, since some tech is good right then and there, and some tech is good later on. For example, when you buy an infestor, you should probably play defensively, because it will be useful later since the longer it is out, the more energy it has and the more useful it will be. Whereas, if you buy an early blue flame upgrade, you should probably go and use it, because you could have used that money on something like a mech attack upgrade, which is a more long term investment, since it opens you up to future +2 and +3 attack upgrades. Sometimes tech's role is not always clear, but if you watch professional games, you can often times tell what it should be used for.
Sometimes, you'll see a player die to an all in or aggressive move. This is generally because that player was too "greedy" and invested too much in tech/economy and not enough army. Don't let this fool you though, because sometimes it's because they didn't invest in enough tech/economy earlier on. That's why it's sometimes hard to judge where you lost a game. Was it that you invested too much in tech/econ right then and there? Or was it because you didn't get enough tech/econ earlier in the game? Take the example of a terran who sits on one base with 4 barracks pumping out marines till 12:00, who lets a zerg take three bases and max out on roaches (yes, it is possible). The terran had ONLY invested in army, but still lost? That's because he didn't take a base to keep up with the zerg or didn't set the zerg behind.
Something I always like to tell people who are trying to learn the game is, try to get as much econ and tech as quickly as possible and as little army as possible without dying, until you decide to kill your opponent. Let me give you an example of a zerg doing this. A zerg player goes up to 15 supply only building drones and then puts down a hatchery (investment in economy), and then gets another hatchery at 18 supply (investment in economy). They need to get some attacking units out just in case, so they build a spawning pool at 18 supply (investment in tech). When the pool finishes, they get queens at all their bases for added production (hard to say what this investment is, though it can be used as army). They continue to make only drones (investment in economy) till 6:00 when they make 2 gases and start mining from it (investment in tech) and continue making drones (investment in economy). From there they get a lair, roach warren and evolution chamber (investment in tech) and continuing making drones. They get another hatchery for added production (investment in army/econ since you can use hatcheries to produce drones/army). Then they just make ONLY roaches and attack (investment in army). You can see that this build is very streamlined and goes in phases of extremes. You'll find that you will get the most army/tech/econ the quickest if you invest in extremes.
Another very thing important to note is, if you're investing in something, you should use it! Know where you have the edge. If your edge is in army, use it. Don't just invest in a tonne of army and keep it lying at your base. You need to attack or be aggressive with it. If you bought a lair, get some lair tech. If you rushed for an ultralisk cavern, get some ultralisks. Economy is the only one of the three that doesn't necessitate you using it, because it's the only one that is always better the longer you have it. Like I mentioned earlier, tech is sometimes good later on like spellcasters, so just be wary about that, but if you are ever rushing tech (focussing heavily on getting it as soon as you can without eating too much into your economy), then please please use it somehow.
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3. Investments
Starcraft is full of investments. If you buy an SCV at the start of the game, that's 50 minerals that just disappeared, but will turn into a worker after a while. You just invested in economy. This being said, an investment is exactly that… an investment. It's NOT going to be good right then and there; it will be good LATER. Even after the SCV pops out, he will get you 5 minerals... 10 minerals ... 50 minerals... 55 minerals and at that point he is has paid for himself and started earning you money. This is why, if you see a pro player who has heavily invested in tech and economy (they're getting attack and defence upgrades, multiple upgrades for their units, expanding and building a lot of workers), they're probably not going to be aggressive. Why? Because ALL of their money is "building". That player will probably wait till all those upgrades are done, then consider attacking.
If you're making an investment, try to invest in other things that will compliment that investment. For example, if you're investing in economy, you should probably invest in something else that will be useful later on, like tech or more economy. Another example is, if you are getting upgrades for your roaches, like roach speed and burrowed movement and burrow, you should make sure you're using a lot of roaches. You're essentially getting the most bang for your buck by using a lot of roaches, because you're constantly using the upgrades you bought earlier in the game. This being said, there are "safety" upgrades, like zergling speed, where a player will buy zergling speed and not make any zerglings in the whole game. This is because they need zerglings with speed in order to be aggressive/defensive, but they will only build them if they scout their opponent doing certain builds where speed zerglings would be useful. If they don't do one of those builds, it's ok, because you had no way of knowing until you scouted it, at which point it would have been too late to start zergling speed.
As I said earlier, you want to be getting as much tech and economy as possible, but you obviously need to protect it against a player invested in army. This is where scouting (which I will talk about later) comes into play.
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4. Expansions
Expansions don't get enough love in the lower leagues, mainly because everyone is winning with all ins off one or two bases. That being said, managing your opponents expansions and expanding for yourself are some of the most crucial aspects of Starcraft in general. For those that don't know, 3 workers will saturate a gas geyser and around 16 workers will saturate a standard batch of minerals on one base. This means 22 workers are optimal for one base so there is a limit to how much income you can gain from just one base. Generally speaking, if you can put more money onto the field of battle, you're probably going to win battles and win the game. So you can see now, why expanding is very important.
The reason why some people shy away from expanding is because they often lose while doing it. Why? Because an expansion is very expensive (400 minerals for protoss and terran and 300 minerals for zerg). Since you chose to invest in economy (command center/nexus/hatchery) instead of army (extra barracks/gateways/zerglings or roaches), if your opponent invested in army, they might be able to kill you. This is why scouting is very important. If you know what your opponent is doing, you can make adjustments quite easily like putting down a photon cannon or two, or a bunker or a spine crawler.
Static defences are important when defending multiple bases because they are very strong for their cost and don't take up supply (so you can have lots of them in a late game scenario, without taking away from your main fighting force). Remember, though, that static defences are static, so they shouldn't be made in abundance so as to annihilate armies, because at that point, a smart player would just stop attacking into all that static defence and expand instead, since you have no ability to be aggressive with your static defence. I can't tell you how many times I've seen 50 missile turrets built in one location on 2 base against 8 mutas. 1 missile turret will often times be enough if you have a small bunch of marines with that turret, because the zerg will lose so many mutas attacking into that entrenchment that he now can't use those mutas for a while now. So please remember, in most cases, a little static defence is enough… you're not trying to kill everything, just deter him from moving into that area.
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5. Timings
When I first started playing Starcraft, a lot of pro players would refer to timings. It was hard to find out exactly what the word meant and even now, I see the word being misused a lot. Timings are times in the game a player can have certain things based on his build. Kind of ambiguous, I know. Let me give you an example. If a zerg player goes for a hatchery first, the quickest they can have the speedling upgrade is 6:00. That's a timing right there. If you scout this and understand this timing, you can get back home and wall off in time for a big speedling attack that MAY begin at 6:00. If you didn't know this timing, you could be caught on the map just 5 seconds too late, and you would say "ahh, just unlucky". No, it wasn't unlucky, you just didn't know the timing.
Timings can also be used to understand when you can be greedy, aggressive or safe (the tactical wheel, which I will discuss later on). For example, if a protoss player goes for a forge expand (nexus then forge then gateway then cannon then cybernetics core), they can't get warp gate till around 7:40 or so (if they're going for the standard two gases), so the zerg can be greedy until that time and only needs to start making defences if they are doing that particular warp gate rush strategy. Some people may look at the zerg having 3 bases and say "wow, he's playing so greedy", but in reality, there's absolutely nothing the protoss can do about it.
Timing attacks are a little different to the timings I was referring to previously. I actually gave the rough build order for a roach timing attack in "2. Economy, Tech, Army: The three pillars of Starcraft" in the 4th paragraph. This is a timing attack because it's the quickest time at which you can get +1 attack roaches with speed with a maxed out three base economy. Now, to someone who is hearing this for the first time, it sounds like I just made up a type of attack. Couldn't I technically do the +1 carapace queen ling timing attack with overlord drops? Well, I'm sure someone has tried that at some point, but it didn't work out quite well. There are only a few timing attacks exist in Starcraft that actually work well. Sure you can make your own, but they will often times not be as good as the ones the pro players use. Timing attacks generally hit when an upgrade(s) has just completed, because the investment you made earlier on has now paid off and is ready to help you kill some stuff, and also aim to hit when the opponent is weak, such as just before their speed zergling upgrade finishes etc. They will also add their production facilities so that they have a good army to fight with at the timing which the upgrades finish. You will notice, also, that there would have been a period in which they were heavily investing in that timing attack, such as adding production, buying attack upgrades and unit upgrades for that attack.
Timings ONLY work when both people are playing with timings and are following the "laws" I mentioned in the mechanics section of this guide. If they aren't following those laws, they will have weird amounts of things at weird times. For example, a player goes for a barracks at 8 supply and a supply depot at 8 supply. If you watch pro games, you know this is not optimal at all, and you have to cut SCV production for a long time to get these buildings out at this time. This now messes up every single timing in the whole game for that terran. This is where you have to use fundamentals (everything I've detailed in this guide) and scouting to win, instead of relying on timings.
Don't worry too much about this until you get to Gold/Platinum and above. Bronze and Silver players should focus on not missing production cycles and making sure they are investing in extremes as I described earlier in the guide.
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6. Scouting and interpreting information
A lot of people will ask a really good player "what's your build order to beat X race" or something like that. The truth about Starcraft is that there is no one build order to rule them all. In Starcraft, you need to react to what your opponent is doing. For example, I talked earlier about how if you expand, it's important to see if your opponent also expands so that you can either continue investing in econ/tech (if he expands), or get ready for a big attack (if you don't see an expansion).
Something to keep in mind is, scouting costs money. If you send out a probe at 9 supply after a pylon, that probe is no longer mining and you're losing money. If you buy an overseer, you just lost 50 minerals and 50 gas. Scans also cost you a mule, which could have got you around 300 minerals. This is why you shouldn't be constantly investing in scouting, rather, scout at certain timings that are important, such as straight after a player expands. What is his next plan? Is he going for army, tech or another expansion? If you scout him too late after he expands, he could already have a huge army at your doorstep and you won't have enough time to react at that point.
Some basic things, that not enough people take notice of is, looking at the amount of production facilities, number of gases taken and number of tech buildings. if you see a lot of production facilities, he's going to be invested in army, and has the ability to produce a LOT, so be wary. If he has a lot of gas geysers, he's getting a lot of gas, so he's probably doing something tech related. You'll note that higher tech units/upgrades often takes longer to build than lower tech units/upgrades, so you could use this information to be a bit greedy before thinking about a defence for whatever it is he's doing. Since people do all kinds of strange things in lower leagues, it's not always possible to know exactly what they're doing, and you may not react perfectly. However, if what they're doing is "bad" or suboptimal, then you can overrun him purely by having more STUFF than him.
Of course, it's important to create units that will "counter" his units, but finding "counters" is very easy. I'm sure you all know them by now, and if you don't, watch some pro games or just observe from your own games. If, however, you built the counter for a unit your opponent was making and things didn't work out, think about why that may be. Perhaps, you didn't have enough of that unit? Was that because you didn't have enough economy? Or maybe it was because you weren't able to spend all your money. In lower leagues, there are often a lot of things you could have done better.
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7. Micro
So far I've talked a lot about maximising the amount of money you can get from a game, which, in the lower leagues is probably the most important thing. However, once you've got that part under control, you have to use them in the most efficient way possible. This is known as micro.
Micro is one of the more easily understandable concepts of Starcraft. Things like army surface area, chokes in the map, high ground, kiting and splitting are all things I'm sure that you've heard of and understand. However, executing micro is not nearly as easy as understanding how it functions in a battle. This being said, micro doesn't have to be difficult. As a zerg against a protoss, a simple thing to do before engaging is just spread your army into an arc before A-clicking at his army. It will take you about 3 seconds and will give you a heavy advantage in the battle. Look out for micro tricks like this that require little skill to execute, but help in the battle a lot.
Micro is important, but it is also overly focussed on by people in lower leagues. You don't need to have the best micro to make it out of bronze league. In fact, you don't need any micro at all to get out of bronze league. If you have low apm and are focussed on microing a battle perfectly, you are sacrificing production rounds in favour of getting more use out of a few units that will end up dying anyway. Then you look back at your base and you have zero units and you die. gg. Focus more on your production than micro, because you can win a game solely on outproducing your opponent, but you can't win solely from outmicroing your opponent.
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8. The tactical wheel: greed, aggression and safety
I'm sure you've all heard it before. In Zerg vs Zerg, 9 pool is good against 15 hatch. 15 hatch is good against 15 pool. 15 pool is good against 9 pool. In this instance, 9 pool represents aggression (heavy investment in army), 15 hatch represents greed (heavy investment in econ/tech) and 15 pool represents safety (mild investmentment in tech/army/econ). In a lot of situations, the greedy play will trump the safe play, the safe play will trump the aggressive play and the the aggressive play will trump the greedy play. This makes Starcraft sound like rock, paper, scissors, but this is only the case if you have no information on what your opponent is doing. Next time you lose to a "cheese", don't think of it as a "bullshit strat that requires no skill". Just remember that you probably lost because you were playing too greedy (or you didn't execute your defence well enough so it's time to work on your mechanics).
There will be some players that stray toward one of these three, and if you can understand which one it is they prefer, you can abuse it by skipping the scouting and going for the "counter". This doesn't mean you will win, but you should have an advantage.
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9. Harassment
Harassment is something I think a lot of people misunderstand. Units that are used for harassment like oracles, mutalisks, phoenixes etc are generally best used as harassment units, and that's about it. That means, when you make them, you HAVE to do damage with them, because that's really all they're good for. It's true that mutalisks can be useful in a fight, but would you rather 2000 gas worth of mutalisks or 2000 gas worth of brood lords? Obviously the brood lords. Since harassment units are generally fast/flying they're hard to kill, which means they can keep harassing you. This is supposed to keep you in your base and defensive while they tech up or invest in an economy.
Investing in harassment units sets you behind. Let's just say your goal is to get to brood lords to finish off the game. If you decide you want to do a little mutalisk harassment, and you buy the spire and get 20 mutalisks, that's 2000 gas you've been set behind (not 2200, since you'll be getting the spire for the brood lords anyway). Imagine how much time that takes to get! That takes away so much from your brood lord army. Basically, that flock of mutas has to buy you enough time so that you can get back the money (and more if possible) that you lost from building the mutas. Some players are very good at utilising harassment units, and are able to buy ridiculous amounts of time, but if you find that you're not one of these players, a passive style without harassment is not necessarily a bad style at all.
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That's it, guys. I'm sorry it wasn't written very well. There was so much information I wanted to include in this that I didn't know how to structure it. I tried to go over as much as possible but I'm sure there was something I missed. Either way, enjoy, gl hf.
Edit: Accidentally skipped "5." when numbering the parts.
Edit: Reworded a lot of parts to make it more readable. Added Part 9: Harassment.
Edit: Changed title to "A guide to Starcraft 2 fundamentals" and made appropriate changes in the body.
