• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 19:50
CEST 01:50
KST 08:50
  • 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
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
GSTL Returns in 2026!13Weekly Cups (Aug 3-9): Protoss get shut out7RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-2212Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-611
StarCraft 2
General
GSTL Returns in 2026! SC4ALL: II Talent Announcement! Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Protoss AoE skill expression Weekly Cups (Aug 3-9): Protoss get shut out
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) 2026 KungFu Cup Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 538 Media Blackout The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion StarCraft 64 is coming to Philly at SC4ALL II ASL22 General Discussion [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60 BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
Small VOD Thread 2.0 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-6 KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
Strategy
Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates Any training maps people recommend? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread The Letting Off Steam Thread Iain M Banks Says He Has Cancer And Months To Live Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Chinese Gen Z: Between Dream…
TrAiDoS
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Hello guys!
LIN1s
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 6313 users

SC2 Optimal worker saturation - Page 3

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 Next All
Steve496
Profile Joined July 2009
United States60 Posts
March 30 2010 21:03 GMT
#41
The zerg numbers look off because of the difference between real time and the replay timer - that is, the 2 minutes for the zerg numbers are about 30% more time than the 2 minutes in the probe test. Hence, we'd expect the numbers to be about 30% higher - and they are. Nothing weird happening here, and in terms of figuring out saturation the drone test is fine; they just can't be compared straight across to tests done the other way unless one adjusts for the speed difference.
SBelmont
Profile Joined August 2008
United States122 Posts
March 30 2010 21:27 GMT
#42
3 per patch is the absolute max. If workers in SC1 worked like they did in SC2 saturation would be at 3 per patch too.

The reasoning: The time it takes for a worker to deliver minerals and return to them is slightly longer than the time it takes for a worker to start mining and then start heading back. With 2 workers a patch, there will (almost) always be a slight delay in which the patch is not being mined. For the closest patches to your CC/Nexus/Hatchery, it only takes 2 workers to always have it being mined. Obviously this can also be noted that 18 workers is complete saturation at a gold mineral patch (3 x6).

This isn't accounting for different in worker movement speed. I believe all workers have a "mine" time that is equal to each other, so with 3 per patch income should be even.
us.insurgency
Profile Joined March 2010
United States330 Posts
March 30 2010 21:28 GMT
#43
i dont think those zerg stats are right.
StorrZerg
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States13921 Posts
March 30 2010 21:31 GMT
#44
the op srsly needs to be updated.....
Hwaseung Oz fan for life. Swing out, always swing out.
-orb-
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
United States5770 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-30 22:01:57
March 30 2010 21:57 GMT
#45
The thread is completely wrong, I had assumed someone posting numbers like that would be correct, but I just went into a game and tested a couple different numbers of workers and the mining rate of protoss is the same as with zerg. here are the numbers I found:

6:
Zerg: ~248
Protoss: ~248

10:
Zerg: ~419
Protoss: ~419

14:
Zerg: ~590
Protoss: ~590

18:
Zerg: ~705
Protoss: ~705

22:
Zerg: ~762
Protoss: ~762

Here is the replay of the test game proving this:
http://www.mediafire.com/?uyqjjdymmhy

edit: also here's the ratios of going from step to stop going up 4 workers:
6>10
worker ratio: 1.6667
Mining ratio: 1.6895

10>14
worker ratio: 1.4
mining ratio: 1.4081

14>18
worker ratio: 1.2857
mining ratio: 1.1949

18>22
worker ratio: 1.2222
mining ratio: 1.0809

as you can see you're getting basically 1:1 bang for your buck up to 14 workers, but after that your payoff per worker added drops and it gets less and less efficient to add workers.
'life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery'
how sad that sc2 has no shield battery :(
Gescom
Profile Joined February 2010
Canada3513 Posts
March 30 2010 22:00 GMT
#46
I have run these tests for all races multiple times as well -- all 3 races mine the same. About 1100 minerals for 24 workers (saturated) in 1 real minute.
Jaedong Hyuk || Bisu Jangbi || Fantasy Flash
Zeke50100
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States2220 Posts
March 30 2010 22:16 GMT
#47
I don't get where people get ANY number other than 16 as being decreased mining efficiency. At 2 per patch, mining time is still available (I don't know of any patches at mains that are able to be fully mined at 2 workers). There should not be any drop in efficiency until you hit 3 workers at a patch. Where this "Oh, 16->17 has less efficiency, 17->18 has even less efficiency" stuff is coming from, I don't know; in order to accurately measure worker efficiency, you have to dismiss patch distances from the HQ. Obviously, you'll see a drop in "efficiency" if you have a worker at the closest patch, then see that the second worker at any other patch will bring in less >.>

Until you hit 17 workers (that is, once you hit 17 workers, the remainder of this sentence is false), you have the exact same efficiency for every worker barring patch distances. The 17th worker, however, will have less efficiency due to not having a time slot it can perfectly fit into.

@Orb: The reason your ratios/efficiencies are not accurate is because you only measured them at every 4th worker, starting at an arbitrary 6. If you measured efficiency for EVERY worker, you should find relatively maximum efficiencies for the first 16 workers (the variations will be due to patch distances), and then start seeing decreases with the 17th worker. By jumping from 14 to 18, you are assuming that each worker between there will have the same efficiency.

Also, note that each worker has a walking speed of 2.8125. Every single one. There are also NO known differences in mining speed.
_EmIL_
Profile Joined March 2010
Sweden138 Posts
March 30 2010 22:22 GMT
#48
I think its best to just stay on 16-18 probes..

Losing is winning
NiiPPLES
Profile Joined April 2010
United Kingdom201 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-26 17:45:14
April 26 2010 17:42 GMT
#49
SichuanPanda
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada1542 Posts
April 26 2010 17:48 GMT
#50
I've found 17 DRONES to be sufficiently saturated for Zerg. However, Protoss I've found 24 Probes provide full saturation, and 22 SCVs provide full saturation for Terran. The number of workers I put on gas depends how far the geyser is, the ones that are as close as possible to your CC/Nex/Hatch I used 3 workers on, while the ones that are one space further away I've found 4 can mine it without having a worker waiting outside for more than .3 seconds.
i-bonjwa
DrSmoke
Profile Joined April 2010
United States175 Posts
April 26 2010 17:54 GMT
#51
On April 27 2010 02:48 SichuanPanda wrote:
I've found 17 DRONES to be sufficiently saturated for Zerg. However, Protoss I've found 24 Probes provide full saturation, and 22 SCVs provide full saturation for Terran. The number of workers I put on gas depends how far the geyser is, the ones that are as close as possible to your CC/Nex/Hatch I used 3 workers on, while the ones that are one space further away I've found 4 can mine it without having a worker waiting outside for more than .3 seconds.


100% wrong
agleed.agleed
Profile Joined March 2010
Germany110 Posts
April 26 2010 18:07 GMT
#52
On April 27 2010 02:48 SichuanPanda wrote:
I've found 17 DRONES to be sufficiently saturated for Zerg. However, Protoss I've found 24 Probes provide full saturation, and 22 SCVs provide full saturation for Terran. The number of workers I put on gas depends how far the geyser is, the ones that are as close as possible to your CC/Nex/Hatch I used 3 workers on, while the ones that are one space further away I've found 4 can mine it without having a worker waiting outside for more than .3 seconds.


yeah sorry dude, never seen some wrong in one post.
moapy
Profile Joined August 2010
Australia5 Posts
August 24 2010 22:50 GMT
#53
So....

Can I please have someone who actually knows what they are talking about tell me which one of the 50 responses to this thread is correct?

My understanding is 16 is a nice number and 24 is max saturation? (this is not including 6 gas workers). Is this correct?
Warp
Profile Joined August 2010
United States166 Posts
August 24 2010 23:04 GMT
#54
Best (or almost closest to it) is to keep making probes/drones if you intend to expand, but optimal mining saturation for each base is 24 on minerals and 3 on each gas = 30.

The best example of saturation is watching HuK play.... because he ALMOST always stops probe production at 30.

Way to revive the thread btw
"nothing supscious going on here" - Camille Cavour aka Chris Loranger aka HuK the beast
Shika
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Sweden1711 Posts
August 24 2010 23:09 GMT
#55
For zerg, this is what i've gathered to be quite effective.

2.5 workers per patch = 20 workers (not counting gas, naturally). You could add 4 more but the gain will be small and you are probably better of sending those to an expansion or using the larvae for attack units.
Stropheum
Profile Joined January 2010
United States1124 Posts
August 24 2010 23:12 GMT
#56
you don't need exact numbers. Just make a custom map with one mineral patch at minimum distance from spawn point. You'll see that with three workers, one is always mining, one is always returning minerals, and one is always heading back to the minerals. any more and you get minerals faster, but one drone is always idle, thus, diminishing returns in terms of collection rate/workers
semantics
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
10040 Posts
August 24 2010 23:15 GMT
#57
On August 25 2010 08:09 Shika wrote:
For zerg, this is what i've gathered to be quite effective.

2.5 workers per patch = 20 workers (not counting gas, naturally). You could add 4 more but the gain will be small and you are probably better of sending those to an expansion or using the larvae for attack units.

This 20-22 gives around the max return for your value,
then ofc 3 for each gas. Anything past that is usually used for maynard.
heishe
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany2284 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-24 23:22:29
August 24 2010 23:18 GMT
#58
19-20 drones (depending on the map) is full saturation for all races on minerals. there are usually some close mineral patches and some a little bit further away. the close ones are 100% saturated with 2 drones, the further ones are like 90% saturated with 2 drones and are covered by the 3 or 4 free running drones that have nothing to do. so it's (8x2 regular workers +3-4 freelancers).

any more drones bring absolutely minimal improvements, because the freelancers sometimes don't perfectly cover the far patches, but the difference will not make a difference in any game. the difference from 16 to 19-20 drones also isn't too big, about 3-5% if I reckon correctly. So when you set up two bases, maynard workers so that both bases have 16 on minerals before you fill both up to 20
If you value your soul, never look into the eye of a horse. Your soul will forever be lost in the void of the horse.
Snowfield
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
1289 Posts
August 25 2010 00:38 GMT
#59
Man, there's even a ingame tip for this, it says 3 workers pr mineral field, but since zerg has creep, you can have slightly less.
Najda
Profile Joined June 2010
United States3765 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-25 00:50:07
August 25 2010 00:48 GMT
#60
On August 25 2010 09:38 Snowfield wrote:
Man, there's even a ingame tip for this, it says 3 workers pr mineral field, but since zerg has creep, you can have slightly less.


Drones have the same movement speed on and off the creep. Don't believe me? Go into a game and look at the drones movespeed when on the creep (2.81) then move it off the creep and check again, still 2.81 .

The 2nd post of this thread gives all the information one could really need. There is no magic number though, because its always useful to keep making workers for a transfer.
Prev 1 2 3 4 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
20:00
Mid Season Playoffs
SteadfastSC208
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SteadfastSC 208
ProTech72
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 2799
Rain 899
Artosis 528
Dota 2
XaKoH 357
League of Legends
Doublelift5302
Counter-Strike
summit1g8038
minikerr52
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox428
PPMD39
Other Games
gofns12583
Grubby1548
shahzam510
C9.Mang0318
ToD156
NeuroSwarm83
ViBE45
Nathanias40
JuggernautJason26
Maynarde25
ROOTCatZ15
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 131
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• imaqtpie3439
• Scarra1259
• Shiphtur744
• Lourlo469
• Stunt193
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
10m
Escore
10h 10m
PiG Sty Festival
12h 10m
ByuN vs HeRoMaRinE
ShoWTimE vs Zoun
Big Brain Bouts
16h 10m
Nicoract vs Neeb
TriGGeR vs ShoWTimE
CranKy Ducklings
1d 10h
PiG Sty Festival
1d 12h
herO vs Krystianer
Solar vs Cure
IPSL
1d 16h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
PiG Sty Festival
2 days
Maru vs Shameless
Reynor vs TriGGeR
IPSL
2 days
[ Show More ]
OSC
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Rush vs Hm
Bisu vs Shuttle
WardiTV Weekly
3 days
The Patches Monday
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Sharp vs Shinee
Action vs Shine
PiGosaur Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
BeSt vs Paralyze
Jaedong vs Speed
Kung Fu Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
KCM Race Survival
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-08-12
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
Acropolis #5
RSL Revival: Season 6
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W7
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Escore Tournament S3: W8
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
META DYMY #4
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Thunderpick World Champ.
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
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.