As with every macro build, this style opens with a fast expansion to get a strong economy going. There are many different variations on 1gate Fe out there; my favorite variation is:

• 9 pylon
  
• 13 gate
  
• 14 gas
  
• 16 pylon
  
• 18 Core scout, check for a CC on low ground and a reaper. The build doesn’t vary enough to justify an earlier scout.
  
• 19/21 Zealot, I generally let it finish to avoid any kind of ebay block. You cancel it if you want to.
  
• 23/26 Nexus, mothership core with first 100 gas.
  
• 24 Pylon
  
• 25 Gas
  
• Warpgate with the next 50 gas.
  
• Stalker as soon as resources allow, move out with it on the map.
  
• Robo as soon as gas allows.
  
• Forge at 5:45, get +1 armor as soon as it’s done.
  
• Sentry after Stalker.
  
• 2 extra gates as resources allow.

You should be using your initial probe and stalker to poke around the map and get a read on what your opponent is doing: clearing the xel’naga towers from the reaper with your stalker is particularly useful since it keeps your opponent in the dark.

The things you should be worried about are:

• Is he going gasless expand, or did he take a gas?
  
• Is he doing some 1-1-1 harassment opening like a widow mine drop, hellions or banshees, or is he rushing for medivacs?
• Did he do a greedy 3CC opening?

Be aware of the timings at which any push might come. As a general rule, if he is including a reasonably fast CC (around 4:30), his push/drop will hit between the 8:00 and 8:30 minute mark. If he decides to delay his CC, he will attack at about 6:00 to 7:00.

As you scout, look for:

• Gas vs no gas. If he opens gasless, don’t get any defensive cannons. Be aware that it’s possible to go for 1-1-1 after fast expanding, but you should be able to see this with an obs.
  
• Reaper vs no reaper: if he goes gas and doesn’t go reaper, get one cannon per mineral line.
  
• Timing on the CC. This is the crucial piece of info. If you don’t see a CC after about the 4:30 mark, get one cannon per mineral line, as this is the biggest tell of a gas opening if you can't get a probe in his base.

Your build changes slightly to adapt to what the Terran is doing. If he goes for 3rax+medivac you should get a sentry as your fourth gateway unit and immediately get two extra gates and tech going: the specific build orders are written in the next section.

If your opponent attempts harassment, play more carefully. Get defensive cannons before the extra gates as well as a stalker instead of a second sentry for some extra DPS. Keep the mothership core in the main grouped with an observer if the cannons are late, and be ready to use a nexus cannon in the main while warping in extra reinforcements. Pull probes away and let the cannon and planetary nexus finish off the dropped widow mines and marines. At this stage you should be extremely careful with your forces. Do not pull your entire army in an attempt to snipe the medivac or clear off the drop unless you know the units dropped are the only ones out on the map. A popular variation on widow mine drops is to delay the CC to get four hellions and go for a runby into the natural, hoping your army will be busy in the main. A single cannon cannot take down all the hellions before they roast half your probes, which is why you need to play safely.


If he kills six or so probes you should be about even, if he kills fewer you are ahead, and if he kills more you are behind.

Once your natural is well saturated, take the gasses there; normally, this is at around the seven minute mark as with most PvT builds. From here, go up to two sentries and then start teching up to charge and templar while making sure to keep the upgrades going. During this time, the Terran will start his mid game pressure as he takes his third. Against a medivac push, follow this build:

• Units off the robo: 2x obs, warp prism, 1x obs.
  
• 7:30 Twilight council as +1 armor is halfway done.
  
• 8:45 Gates 4 and 5.
  
• Charge and +2 armor when the council completes.
  
• Templar archives as gas allows after starting charge, warp in 2 templar and start storm as soon as it completes.
  
• 9:50 Gates 6 and 7 at around.
  
• 11 to 12 minutes: Third nexus.
  
• One extra observer for a total of 4.

Assuming you are playing against a medivac timing, rally the warp prism across the map. Warp in four zealots with it and drop them in his main slightly after seeing him move out, when his army is about one third of the way across the map. This move is essential, as it buys time for your storm and +2 armor to complete and for the extra gates to kick in.

In WoL it was impossible to hold a medivac timing if you went for storm, robo, and upgrades at the same time. However, with the added dps of the nexus cannon you can be greedier, getting a (slightly) faster storm and pressuring with the warp prism while still being able to defend thanks to feedback and an archon.

If he tries to commit to his medivac timing while ignoring the zealots in his main, you should defend with chargelot/archon plus the nexus cannon, trying to feedback the medivacs before morphing the archon. If he does this, he’s going to lose addons, scv’s, and reinforcements to your dropped zealots: they are incredibly strong if the Terran doesn’t micro against them (and unless he is Innovation, he can’t micro on two fronts at the same time). Depending on the map layout, it might be easier or harder to get zealots into the mineral line. If you can’t hit it easily you can still go after addons or key buildings like armories and ebays. Taking out the reactor on his starport is particularly strong, but reactors on barracks and SCVs are good targets as well.


If instead he is going mech or 3CC, you can be greedy and take your third off three gates before getting your infrastructure up and teching normally. If he is playing greedy, try to match his greed: cut units briefly for production facilities and a second forge instead of making a defensive army that won’t be useful when he isn’t going to push. You still want to get a warp prism out eventually, but you don’t need it as fast. Get observers in position first, increase your templar count, and start immortal production if he goes mech.

Your observer's jobs are the following:

• First obs scouts the terran
  
• Second obs scouts for a fast medivac drop in your main while your army defends your natural
  
• Third obs checks for any push at your natural
  
• Fourth obs check for any drops on your natural, and later on for pushes at your third
  
• Optional fifth obs checks for drops to your third and/or pushes at a third key location; this is somewhat map dependent

Parting vs. Flash on Daybreak from WCS KR Season 1. Against medivac timing.
sOs vs.Taeja on Star Station from WCS KR Season 1.Against marine/widow mine drop
Parting vs. TY on Naro Station from Proleague. Delayed robo vs Medivac timing.
Parting vs. TY on Naro Station from Proleague. Delayed robo vs Medivac timing.
Alicia vs. Apocalypse on Naro Station from WCS NA Season 1. Against Medivac timing.
Rain vs. Fantasy on Akilon Wastes from WCS KR Season 2. Against Marine/hellion push into 3cc.
Rain vs. Bomber on Anaconda from WCS KR Season 2. Against 3cc into mech.

Robo/forge/twilight builds are extremely versatile, and they have various followups they can go into. The most common ones are:

Dark Templar Drop
A popular option is to go for a DT drop off 2 bases: delaying storm and charge in exchange for much more powerful harassment. While this variation can be done against any build, it can be somewhat tricky to hold off a medivac timing. Depending on how well the Terran defends the DT's you can be severely behind. It is, however, a great choice against harassment builds, and was extremely popular before the hellbat nerf when Terrans were rushing for a starport and armory rather than going for medivac pushes.


Here is a recommended build order against a medivac timing:

• 1Gate expand, make one extra sentry for a total of 3.
  
• 6:30 Natural gasses.
  
• Units off the robo: 2x obs, warp prism, 1x obs, immortal 3x.
  
• 7:00 Twilight council.
  
• As soon as the council completes: charge, +1 attack and dark shrine as gas allows, in this order.
  
• 8:40 Gates 4 and 5.
  
• 9:05 Gates 6 and 7.
  
• Templar archives after defending the medivac timing, at about 11:30.
  
• Take a third behind the harassment once the Terran stops being aggressive, this should be between the 11 and 13 minute mark.

The goal of the D’s is to delay him and punish him for getting caught out of position or for messing up earlier in the game. Going for DTs can allow you to take a normally timed third with a relatively small army. Since DTs are such a big investment, you have to be extremely careful with them. Keep them split up so each DT takes one scan to kill, and be very careful with how many you make. After your first drop of two or so, he will likely save scans and have turrets in position, so only make DTs if you know he is out of position.
As usual, the general rule is to go up to six or seven gates before taking a third against bio timings. Against 3CC or mech, take your third earlier. To strengthen your army, mix in some (two-four) immortals after you get the warp prism out.

First vs. Fantasy on Whirlwind from WCS KR Season 2. Against marine/hellion push into hellbat drop.
Rain vs. Bomber on Newkirk Preecint from WCS KR Season 2. Against hellbat drop.
Super vs. Marineking on DMZ from GSTL. Against Medivac timing.
sOs vs. Marineking on Star Station from WCS KR Season 1. Failed defense against Medivac timing.
sOs vs. Marineking on Daybreak from WCS KR Season 1. Against Medivac timing.
sOs vs. Fantasy on Bel'shir Vestige from Proleague. Against hellbat drop.
Dear vs. Cure on Fighting Spirit from Proleague. Against marine/widow mine push into hellbat drop.
Trap vs. Supernova on Anaconda from WCS KR Season 2. Against proxy mine.
Trap vs. Maru on Akilon Wastes from WCS KR Season 2. Against marine/widow mine push into hellbat drop.
Rain vs. Bomber on Star Station from WCS KR Season 2. Against 3cc.

Storm Drop Rush
Similar to the DT drop, this is a build Trap utilized against Supernova's 15CC into 2-rax on Akilon Wastes. The idea behind it is fairly similar to the standard chargelot build: get just enough to hold a straight up push while harassing and killing as many SCVs as possible with a warp prism. As a general rule, it is close to impossible to get storm done together with a robo and upgrades against a medivac push. This build delays the forge, focusing on faster templar tech and a robo. Also note that this build skips detection for a long time, which makes widow mine based builds much scarier.

• Standard 1 Gate expand
  
• Initial 250 gas: warpgate, 2 stalkers, MSC
  
• 5:20: Second Gate
  
• 5:50: Twilight council
  
• 6:15 and 6:35: Natural gasses
  
• Next 100 gas: sentry
  
• 6:40: Templar archives
  
• 7:00: Robo
  
• Storm started, 1 templar as soon as archives finish and gas allows
  
• Off the robo: warp prism before observers
  
• 8:00: Forge
  
• Extra gates as normal, play out the game as you would with the standard build.

Trap vs. Supernova on Akilon Wastes from WCS KR Season 2. Against blueflame hellbat drop.

Immortal/Archon Timing
This build was used first by KT Protoss players, and it's the most aggressive variation of two-base robo/twilight. It delays storm in favor of a faster second forge, archons, and immortals to go for a powerful mid-game timing that can easily break any unprepared opponent without being an outright all-in build. It is also very strong against mech on maps with a fairly open space in front of the third such as Planet S and Whirlwind. Jaypower already covered this build here

Defending your third is a matter of correct positioning, good micro, and good scouting. In general, templar are much stronger defensively than colossi, despite having less potential for straight up attacks (more on this later).

At this point, you should have four observers out on the map keeping watch on the Terran. I like to keep three close to my bases -watching for drops and pushes- while having one out scouting what he’s doing. The things you are looking for are his third CC as well as its timing; additionally, check for more opportunities to sneak zealots/dts in his main and/or third.

As a general rule:
3rax >> CC >> 5rax means light aggression after the medivac push and a more passive Terran until his 2/2 completes.
3rax >> 5rax >> cc means heavy aggression coming your way.
5+rax and no 3rd cc means a likely incoming two-base all-in, with an SCV pain-train.
The remaining 3 observers should be moved in key locations to watch your bases and make sure you know where his army is.

Start a second forge when you see him taking a third, get ready for the longer game with colossus/blink tech or go for a timing if you want to finish the game faster.

Transitioning into colossus is fairly game dependent. If your opponent is being very aggressive, you'll want to transition more slowly. Get a good gateway count up first (8-10) and making sure you have good drop defense ready with 1-2 cannons and a templar in position. Going double robo is risky against a very aggressive opponent and many Korean pros prefer sticking to a single robo for a while. On the other hand, you can go double robo before extra gates if he’s playing very passively, your harassment did lots of damage, you are ahead because you killed many of his medivacs, or you've successfully defended an aggressive frontal push.

At this point it’s vital to buy as much time as possible for your econ and second tech to kick in: remain active with your harassment. It's important to replace the warp prism if you lost it earlier on. You can start mixing in storm drops as well, which are devastating against an unprepared or slow opponent. Get pylons on the map, especially near his third and fourth, and warp in zealots from there. Your robo time isn’t free anymore as you switch to colossus. Once you move to colossus, you can’t afford to remake warp prisms as easily, especially off a single robo. If you are having trouble getting probes out because his units keep sniping them, you can poke out a bit on the map with your main army.


As you get close to maxing out you also want to tech to blink while trading away a few zealots for more gas intensive units like colossi, archons, extra templars spread all over the map, and a group of blink stalkers: keep up the runbys and harassment!

A second possibility is to not go for colossus for a while and stick to pure gateway units for longer, going up to eleven-twelve gates. This is harder to pull off and much more micro intensive, but if you are either ahead from the early/midgame or he’s still two-basing you, it can be a strong option. If you want to finish the game faster, try to use your warp prism to draw him out of position while going for a strong three-base, mass warpgate attack before he can get enough ghosts or hellbats to stop your templar army. With this style you can play more aggressively, harass for longer and deny the Terran’s fourth while taking your own; but do note, your maxed army will be weaker than with a colossus switch. Eventually you are forced into having both area of effect units: get colossus tech after taking your fourth at the latest.


A final possible transition- while still very unexplored- is skipping colossus entirely and going for tempests on three bases. You should be using the tempests to siege and zone out Terran units while the high templar protect them. This style is very new and not nearly close to figured out so I won’t talk about it in depth, but it might be worth playing around with it on some maps. The best maps for tempest are those where it's easy split the map and it's difficult for opponents to circumvent the tempets. These maps include Daybreak, Newkirk Precinct, Belshir Vestige, and Gwangalli Beach.

Is this style viable on every map?
Yes it is.

I am in league x, am I ready to do this build or is it too hard for me?
Yeah go for it. It takes practice but it’s really fun, so why not? The worst case scenario is to grab a practice partner or play unranked. If you play this style enough you will even find it easier than colossus builds. If you aren't confident in your multitasking, try cutting out the warp prism harassment at first.

He did a weird push before medivacs and killed me because I was too greedy. How can I hold it?
You should be able to hold most pushes thanks to the mothership core and careful scouting. To make sure you see any kind of push coming before your observer crosses the map and scouts him, keep the initial stalker in front of his natural and watch the minimap carefully. This isn’t as important as it was in WoL, but it’s very useful regardless. Cut tech and chrono out units the instant you see him moving out.

Why a single forge and not double forge?
Two-base double forge together with templar play isn't very popular because of a glaring issue with it: there is a timing when you want to get 3/3 and a bunch of templar up with it but the gas is never enough, so what usually happens is the 3/3 gets delayed. If you are going to delay 3/3 a bit then you might as well go for the single forge and maximize the number of units you can get.

Additionally, you can get the single forge extremely quickly without being punished, which already produces fast upgrades in addition to providing early defense in the form of cannons.

Is it possible to play aggressively with this build? Are there any timings to hit?
If you try to push across the map with a chargelot/templar army and meet him halfway through the map, your zealots will get kited while the templar are left behind and unable to land any storms. On the other hand, if he is attacking into you he will run straight toward the templar, exposing himself to storm (and making you feel fucking awesome when you land them). It’s also easier to land storms when your opponent is bunched up and backed in a corner, for example, at his natural expansion.

Keeping this in mind, while it is possible to play aggressively with this army composition, it’s a lot easier to defend and harass with it, especially because the Terran can’t really micro on two fronts effectively, thus making your chargelots deadly. With a colossus army you might be able to a-move across the map and win, but with a gateway army you need more careful positioning and army movement or you risk missing key storms or losing zealots for nothing. For example, in one of the linked games Trap loses against Supernova because he wastes 3-4 storms trying to break a third that wasn’t even started yet, and as a result he doesn’t have enough to defend Supernova’s counter attack despite having +3 armor and a superior economy.

That said, the warp prisms really help with keeping the Terran back, so it’s possible to push across the map once storm and a key upgrade (like +2 or +3 armor) is done, especially if you are ahead after defending a timing or harassing him. In other words, do not engage mid map: either play defensively or push when you are sure he is forced to stay in his base.

What do I do against mech?
This kind of opening is arguably superior vs mech compared to colossus builds. You have more map control, harassment tools, a fast third, and access to immortals early on, all of which are very strong in that spot. Obviously, you need to add immortals to your composition to take care of the tanks. Double robo immortal after securing the third is a strong transition.

What do I do if he’s doing a 2base allin with thor/banshee or tank/banshee?
Against that kind of all-in you can easily get storm up in time, so go for it asap while getting your immortal count up. A good sample VOD of such a hold (even though it’s a WoL game) is Hero vs Supernova on Atlantis Spaceship.

Don't hellbats counter this?
While hellbats are very good against this style, it remains very viable, especially since the hellbat nerf. Now hellbats are harder to get because they require blue flame to be effective and therefore can't be produced as heavily in the mid-game. If your opponent mixes in hellbats, you have to be very careful in spreading your army out a bit more and keeping him pinned back with zealot warp-ins until you can get a good templar/archon/colossus count up.