• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:40
CEST 13:40
KST 20:40
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon100Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism10Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon?179Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)9
StarCraft 2
General
Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) SC4ALL II: StarCraft 2 Player Announcement 8/8 The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser Yamato Cup Series StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 SC2 AI Tournament 2026 Fall
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses Mutation # 542 The Ascended Mutation # 541 Binary Choice
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion Bot on ladder an AI researcher's take on the ladder bot Working 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 Ladder Syncronization issues and can't find games
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro16 Group D [ASL22] Ro16 Group B [BSL23] SM: Ret vs TerrOr -> DragOn vs StRyKeR [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation Diablo IV
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread All you football fans (soccer)! Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Gaming Intensity, Problemati…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8372 users

What is the math on 17 nexus vs 20 nexus?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
quillian
Profile Joined April 2010
United States318 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-05-06 15:09:16
May 06 2022 15:06 GMT
#1
Hello,

I have been playing around with Nexus before core openings, experimenting with both greedy eco and weird cheeses based loosely on Has.

One of my recent builds is 15 gate - 16 gas - 17 nexus - 18 core, where you stay on 1 gas in the early game to either rapidly ramp up eco, or do 2 base a Chargelot immortal all-in around 5:00.

I'm not 100% certain of the value of 17 nexus vs 20 nexus, though as I know 20 nexus has been the standard for a long time.

It appears I can get the nexus much earlier than normal this way, get core started by 1:30, and still end up with more workers than a 20 nexus at the 3:00 mark, but I'm not 100% sure of the math.

Does anyone else have experience with 17 vs 20 nexus? Would you be able to articulate the advantages of one, or state definitively which is better economy?
MJG
Profile Joined May 2018
United Kingdom1451 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-05-09 11:49:56
May 09 2022 09:38 GMT
#2
I remember that Harstem made some (somewhat sensationalised) videos covering these types of build:

18 Nexus vs. Zerg:

17 Nexus vs. Terran:
puking up frothing vitriolic sarcastic spittle
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland27377 Posts
May 09 2022 12:58 GMT
#3
On May 07 2022 00:06 quillian wrote:
Hello,

I have been playing around with Nexus before core openings, experimenting with both greedy eco and weird cheeses based loosely on Has.

One of my recent builds is 15 gate - 16 gas - 17 nexus - 18 core, where you stay on 1 gas in the early game to either rapidly ramp up eco, or do 2 base a Chargelot immortal all-in around 5:00.

I'm not 100% certain of the value of 17 nexus vs 20 nexus, though as I know 20 nexus has been the standard for a long time.

It appears I can get the nexus much earlier than normal this way, get core started by 1:30, and still end up with more workers than a 20 nexus at the 3:00 mark, but I'm not 100% sure of the math.

Does anyone else have experience with 17 vs 20 nexus? Would you be able to articulate the advantages of one, or state definitively which is better economy?

What are you transitioning to and what are the timings of various things off this opener?

It may be the case that by itself you can get better eco doing this, but in a match scenario end up with a worse eco by cutting/delaying certain things that your opponent can take advantage of
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
TL+ Member
meadbert
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States681 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-05-09 21:56:29
May 09 2022 21:54 GMT
#4
Your way:
https://burnysc2.github.io/sc2-planner/?&race=protoss&bo=002eJyLrlbKTFGysjDRUSqpLEhVslIqzy/KTi1SqtUhJGNmAJcpLikqTS4pLUolRpsRedoMydKGsCwxuSQzPw8uYWpJlnnmdHU9mUGM09PmCC2leZklCA04deCxxJB0PeTIkGMPvdxmhssa0iVMaSkRCwBWnzsE
29 Probes but two building probes are a combined 19/12ths complete.
744 mins and 432 gas in bank

Standard:
https://burnysc2.github.io/sc2-planner/?&race=protoss&bo=002eJyLrlbKTFGysjDRUSqpLEhVslIqzy/KTi1SqtUhJGNmAJcpLikqTS4pLUolQhtuGSNDuExicklmfh7CKiOyrDIzpLYLcTkQtxZTSzxuMKerv8iMMJyeNkdoKc3LLEFoICOYcMc9OfE08PaY4UzKuCRMB5dELADeqkr6
30 Probes but two building probes are a combined 10/12 complete. This means you are really only a quarter of a probe ahead.
838 mins and 420 gas in bank.

So Standard gives you an extra quarter of a probe and an extra 82 resources.


Your way starts a Cyber Core 4 seconds earlier so it might be better for fast tech.

WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland27377 Posts
May 09 2022 21:58 GMT
#5
Interesting
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
TL+ Member
Grab The APK
Profile Joined March 2022
Pakistan2 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-05-12 13:35:22
May 11 2022 18:19 GMT
#6
--- Nuked ---
Timothy3
Profile Joined May 2022
United States1 Post
May 12 2022 13:58 GMT
#7
Interesting
KirstenKnight
Profile Joined May 2022
4 Posts
May 31 2022 01:52 GMT
#8
--- Nuked ---
chaseronald
Profile Joined June 2022
1 Post
June 01 2022 12:18 GMT
#9
--- Nuked ---
Charles F. Eggert
Profile Joined June 2022
1 Post
June 04 2022 10:53 GMT
#10
--- Nuked ---
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
GSL
11:00
2026 GSTL: Playoffs Round 2
IntoTheiNu 889
CranKy Ducklings SOOP96
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SHIN 142
RotterdaM 141
Rogue 45
MindelVK 43
Cure 43
Rex 34
StarCraft: Brood War
Shuttle 632
Hyuk 627
actioN 297
Soma 251
firebathero 216
Last 201
ZerO 162
Dewaltoss 106
PianO 90
Aegong 53
[ Show more ]
ToSsGirL 44
Sharp 41
Mong 37
BeSt 37
Sea.KH 35
sorry 33
Hm[arnc] 33
zelot 26
NaDa 24
Noble 17
HiyA 16
yabsab 12
soO 8
JulyZerg 6
Dota 2
Gorgc6239
Dendi1167
Counter-Strike
byalli2332
x6flipin374
Heroes of the Storm
Trikslyr67
Other Games
singsing1674
crisheroes245
XaKoH 221
Railgan17
ZerO(Twitch)16
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream9295
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream4617
Other Games
gamesdonequick650
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH384
• StrangeGG 59
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• WagamamaTV230
Upcoming Events
Shopify Rebellion Sundays
3h 20m
Spirit vs Mixu
BSL
7h 20m
Ret vs TerrOr
DragOn vs StRyKeR
Replay Cast
12h 20m
Afreeca Starleague
22h 20m
Shine vs Rush
WardiTV Weekly
23h 20m
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 4h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 22h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 22h
Light vs EffOrt
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Korean StarCraft League
5 days
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
GSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

K-JUNGMAN
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Calamity Invitational
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
SC4ALL II: Brood War
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
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.