• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 09:21
CEST 15:21
KST 22:21
  • 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: Rough Waters8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244
Community News
Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism0Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon?111Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)9Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over3New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!46
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism Nexon wins bid to develop StarCraft IP content, distribute Overwatch mobile game Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) SC4ALL: II Winner Will Earn a Spot at HSC 30! Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over
Tourneys
Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) 2026 GSTL Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 542 The Ascended Mutation # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This
Brood War
General
Pros React To: Calm's Big Brain Play Vs Mini Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon? New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! ASL22 General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro16 Group B [ASL22] Ro16 Group A [ASL22] Ro24 Group F [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Replay Review Process - What do you do? Game Theory for Starcraft
Other Games
General Games
EVE Corporation Nintendo Switch Thread Diablo IV [Maplestory Hardcore] Let's Play~!! 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 Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine UK Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
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
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
F* the Children and Get Off …
TrAiDoS
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Regacy Esports: The Bh…
regacyesports
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 7523 users

Inject v extra base which gives you more minerals?

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
BabelFish1
Profile Joined September 2015
186 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-10 02:56:23
October 10 2019 02:37 GMT
#1
I don't even know where to begin in order to calculate this but what I want to do is figure out which gives the most minerals;

Creating a second hatchery and continuously producing Drones or building a queen and waiting for Inject to finish before creating an explosion of drones.

I suspect that while Inject gives more larvae than a second hatchery, creating drones for the entire time Inject cycle and drone production time lasts leads to significantly more minerals in the bank.

Now you're probably asking "Why would you worry about such an odd thing...Queens are just...better" and while I normally agree there is one build in ZvP which may be the exception and that's 12 pool expand with an extractor trick to get out the 6 lings. In this build you double expand, skip queens until your 4th and rely entirely on constant drone production generating minerals rather than waiting for Inject to finish to get an explosion of drones.

Whenever I play normally I often notice that my expands are much more sluggish and my bank doesn't increase nearly as fast but this is just anecdotal evidence.

Can someone please help me figure out how many minerals you get by using a hatchery for drone production, constantly making drones as larvae appear vs the minerals you get from using Inject for drone production in say, 29+36+12=77 seconds? The 77 seconds is reflective of the Queen build time, the Inject duration and the Drone build time?
pzlama333
Profile Joined April 2013
United States282 Posts
October 10 2019 03:01 GMT
#2
Hatchery cost 350, spawns one larva every 15 seconds. Max: 3 without inject. It takes 100 seconds to build a hatchery.
Queen cost 150, 50 seconds. Injecting larva will create 3 larva every 40 second. Hatchery can store as many as 19 larva with injecting.
2 drones per mineral patch give 78-90 mineral per minute based on mineral distance. 3 drones give 102 mineral per minute per patch. One base has 8 mineral patches.
Basic math.
BabelFish1
Profile Joined September 2015
186 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-10 03:47:23
October 10 2019 03:21 GMT
#3
On October 10 2019 12:01 pzlama333 wrote:
Hatchery cost 350, spawns one larva every 15 seconds. Max: 3 without inject. It takes 100 seconds to build a hatchery.
Queen cost 150, 50 seconds. Injecting larva will create 3 larva every 40 second. Hatchery can store as many as 19 larva with injecting.
2 drones per mineral patch give 78-90 mineral per minute based on mineral distance. 3 drones give 102 mineral per minute per patch. One base has 8 mineral patches.
Basic math.


That doesn't account for 1/2 the important variables here. Thank you for the effort but I might need another user with a better understanding of the situation.

Specifically, you list a lot of variables that have no play here or aren't framed with proper context. Like A Hatcheries build time doesn't matter as much because the minerals you gain can be used to build another hatchery, well before you'd build one with a Queen.

It's hardly basic math when you have compounding variables so I ask you to keep the snark to yourself. TY.
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6267 Posts
October 10 2019 04:36 GMT
#4
I think the best way to approach this problem is to just do the builds yourself and then compare the amount of minerals at the end. I think trying to do maths on this would be too difficult.
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
October 10 2019 05:21 GMT
#5
i'm not against you exploring the math and getting your answer, but how are you going 12 pool double expand with no queens and not getting torched by a zealot/2 adept counterattack?
TL+ Member
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-10 05:29:22
October 10 2019 05:28 GMT
#6
Ironically enough, 12pool is the one ZvP build where you should 2 base, so you can defend your bases with 3 queens and slowlings.
If you double expand after 12pool and don't lose the game to an adept counter, your opponent has done something wrong.

Not to mention that queens are necessary as anti your mobile anti-air.
"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
phodacbiet
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1740 Posts
October 10 2019 07:23 GMT
#7
I think something is off if you can double expand after 12 pool and not die. By the time the adepts get to your base, you'll have around what... 22-24 drones, and 6 slow lings with no queens? Yeah that's insta death.

Not sure if I understand you correctly, but are you asking if we can just hatch everytime instead of getting the queen? So say, instead of 2 base 2 queens, you're thinking of 3 hatch 1 queen? There is a build for that. It's a bit of a gamble though because you'll be open to a lot of early aggro builds . But I think anymore than three hatch open any you'll be super open. As you expand, you'll have more bases to defend, and without queens and being capped for larva, you'll bank more mineral, sure, but you won't be able to spend it.

With the standard 17 pool -> hatch or 16/17 hatch opening, you'll have enough money to build queens AND to drone at the same time. So you will be able to spend all your larva and build up minerals. Without queens, your hatches will cap out at 3 larva since they stop naturally producing, so it doesn't matter if you make more minerals if you can't spend it. It's not just a balance of mineral, but you have to factor in larva as a resource as well.
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6267 Posts
October 10 2019 07:50 GMT
#8
I can see all the advantages of queens but in reality, what is the question in the OP? It's to compare which build produces more minerals, extra hatch vs queen.

We all can come up with math but I think the best way is to simply perform both builds over and over and then compare which comes out ahead.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
GSL
11:00
2026 GSTL: Main Stage Day 5
IntoTheiNu 915
CranKy Ducklings SOOP160
Rex45
LiquipediaDiscussion
Afreeca Starleague
10:00
Ro16, Group B
Leta vs ggaemo
Jaedong vs Queen
Afreeca ASL 10597
StarCastTV_EN160
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SHIN 112
ByuN (SOOP) 75
Rex 45
Zoun (SOOP) 18
Trap 16
Maru 13
herO (SOOP) 13
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 54716
Calm 15745
Bisu 6269
Leta 2686
EffOrt 1409
BeSt 1226
ggaemo 770
Hyun 363
Light 310
Zeus 201
[ Show more ]
hero 199
Stork 196
Rush 171
Mind 105
Barracks 101
Soulkey 75
Sea.KH 72
ToSsGirL 72
Snow 65
Larva 60
soO 44
Terrorterran 36
Mini 32
HiyA 30
Sharp 27
Shine 27
Hm[arnc] 25
sSak 17
SilentControl 15
Noble 11
JulyZerg 9
Yoon 6
Rock 4
Dota 2
qojqva2921
Dendi1762
420jenkins389
syndereN67
Counter-Strike
markeloff806
edward57
Other Games
B2W.Neo834
hiko671
Lowko410
crisheroes371
XaKoH 253
Liquid`LucifroN222
Hui .167
Liquid`VortiX97
QueenE19
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 205
Other Games
BasetradeTV24
Algost 8
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 51
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos2052
• Nemesis638
Upcoming Events
PiGosaur Cup
10h 39m
Kung Fu Cup
21h 39m
Replay Cast
1d 10h
The PondCast
1d 20h
KCM Race Survival
1d 20h
Escore
2 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Shopify Rebellion Sundays
5 days
Spirit vs Mixu
Clem vs TBD
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
GSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-02
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
RSL Revival: Season 6
Calamity Invitational
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

Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
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
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
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries 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.