• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 20:25
CEST 02:25
KST 09:25
  • 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] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror4[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10
Community News
SC4ALL: II SC2 Complete Invited Player Lineup10StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026)73Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double2Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple3BSL Season 2317
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026) SC4ALL: II SC2 Complete Invited Player Lineup How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? Back to SC2 after 14 years - Protoss CTRL groups? October World Ranking: herO stays #1, ByuN returns
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament 2026 GSTL Grand Finals Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) SC2 INu's Battles#21 [ 3-Days tournament ]
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 546 Catch the Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble
Brood War
General
Sagi.gg Launcher Released Fantasy returning? BSL Season 23 20-year-old Valorant player starting StarCraft Bot on ladder
Tourneys
[ASL22] Semifinal A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 4 2v2v2v2 Tournament
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Zero
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
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Escaping Into Video Games: G…
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
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 7318 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 Ireland27460 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 Ireland27460 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
Replay Cast
08:00
QMC Community Tournament 1
CranKy Ducklings58
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nathanias 134
SpeCial 105
CosmosSc2 43
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 1562
Rain 1545
Artosis 623
910 58
Bale 15
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm123
League of Legends
Doublelift3765
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox225
Other Games
summit1g9106
shahzam560
JimRising 412
C9.Mang0345
PiGStarcraft272
Maynarde130
Liquid`Ken6
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick877
BasetradeTV174
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream21
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 107
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP58
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21504
Other Games
• imaqtpie823
• Shiphtur189
Upcoming Events
Afreeca Starleague
9h 35m
Soma vs Soulkey
INu's Battles
10h 35m
SHIN vs Cure
ByuN vs Zoun
PiGosaur Cup
23h 35m
Patches Events
1d 15h
The PondCast
2 days
INu's Battles
2 days
Percival vs TBD
TBD vs herO
OSC
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
OSC
3 days
BSL: Ladder Tournament
4 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Patches Events
5 days
BSL Open Qualifier
5 days
BSL Open Qualifier
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Copium Cup

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - GSB
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
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

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
HCC Season 3
eXTREMESLAND 2026
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
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.