Starcraft II: The Basics
// Saved in: General Tutorials
Hey Guys! On this website you will find compelling Starcraft II tutorials, guides, tips and tricks. There will be a lot of tutorials especially designed for new Starcraft II players but also a few advanced ones.
In this tutorial I want to cover some of the Starcraft II Basics that apply to every race, including early game, scouting and stuff like that.
Let’s start with the first point:
1. Probe Splitting
This is the first step in every game. Probe Splitting is basically sending your Probes, SCVs or Drones to the Mineral Fields. There are different ways to do this: The first way is to just select them all and send them to the Minerals by right clicking on them. The Starcraft II KI allows this, because it makes shure that there are not too much Probes on one Mineral.
Another method is to first send them all to one Mineral patch, and then while they are walking selecting a few and sending them to another one. This requires more micro, but you will manage it with a little bit of practice.
The third big method is the so called F1 split. F1 will select one of your idle Probes, so you can use this to send each one to a seperate Mineral Field.
Now, what is the best method for you? The truth is: There is absolutely no difference. You should just use the method that you like most. The same applies to the question if it’s better to first build the Probe and then send them to the Minerals or to do it the other way round - the difference is only a few milliseconds.
Way more important is that you stay calm and don’t act to hectically. A misclick that will cause the Probes to walk behind the Minerals is worse that clicking a few milliseconds slower than your opponent.
2. Always build Probes
This is one of the most important points of the game as well as one of the commonest mistake beginners make. Simple rule: If you stop building workers, you lose.
Always build new Probes if you got the Minerals.
And don’t forget to set the waypoint of your main base to the Mineral Fields by right clicking on them so that the Probes will walk to the Minerals directly.
3. Always send 3 Workers to your gas
Once you finished your gas, immediately send 3 workers. If you don’t do so, chances are that you forget about the gas and wonder why you don’t have enough gas the whole game long.
The same applies to the Mineral Fields: They are perfect used with 3 Workers, since there will be always one worker on the Mineral Field. 4 would be too much though, because they would block each other.
4. The Expansion
There is no best time to build your expansion, it always depends on your own strategy and on what your opponent is doing.
A fast expansion can be a huge advantage, but is also very risky. Especially in the early game you lose a lot of minerals that you can’t spend on other units. A common mistake is that players think an expansion just costs the 400 minerals, but they forget about the huge amount of probes they have to build to use the expansion effectively, which again cost 50 minerals each.
On the other hand your decision has to depend on what your opponent is doing. If he already has an expansion and you don’t have one, you know it’s time. If you don’t answer with an own expansion, he will have an too big economic advantage.
5. Scouting
You need good scouting to know what your opponent is doing. Especially in the early game scouting is one of the most important points, because if you don’t scout you can’t prepare for a rush of your opponent. A good time for scouting is at about 9-11 supply, since your opponent should now be at the point at which you can see what he intends.
For example if your opponent is Protoss and builds two Gates, you can be pretty shure you are about to get rushed.
Scouting is most often done by sending a worker into the opponent’s base, but can also be done by fast flying or invisible units later in the game.
Another very common mistake is that players only scout at the beginning of the game and then get overrunned by units they can’t counter.
A good way to prevent this is scouting by attacking your opponent with a few units, so that he has to show his army, and besides that you can inflict some damage and harrass him.
In this tutorial I want to cover some of the Starcraft II Basics that apply to every race, including early game, scouting and stuff like that.
Let’s start with the first point:
1. Probe Splitting
This is the first step in every game. Probe Splitting is basically sending your Probes, SCVs or Drones to the Mineral Fields. There are different ways to do this: The first way is to just select them all and send them to the Minerals by right clicking on them. The Starcraft II KI allows this, because it makes shure that there are not too much Probes on one Mineral.
Another method is to first send them all to one Mineral patch, and then while they are walking selecting a few and sending them to another one. This requires more micro, but you will manage it with a little bit of practice.
The third big method is the so called F1 split. F1 will select one of your idle Probes, so you can use this to send each one to a seperate Mineral Field.
Now, what is the best method for you? The truth is: There is absolutely no difference. You should just use the method that you like most. The same applies to the question if it’s better to first build the Probe and then send them to the Minerals or to do it the other way round - the difference is only a few milliseconds.
Way more important is that you stay calm and don’t act to hectically. A misclick that will cause the Probes to walk behind the Minerals is worse that clicking a few milliseconds slower than your opponent.
2. Always build Probes
This is one of the most important points of the game as well as one of the commonest mistake beginners make. Simple rule: If you stop building workers, you lose.
Always build new Probes if you got the Minerals.
And don’t forget to set the waypoint of your main base to the Mineral Fields by right clicking on them so that the Probes will walk to the Minerals directly.
3. Always send 3 Workers to your gas
Once you finished your gas, immediately send 3 workers. If you don’t do so, chances are that you forget about the gas and wonder why you don’t have enough gas the whole game long.
The same applies to the Mineral Fields: They are perfect used with 3 Workers, since there will be always one worker on the Mineral Field. 4 would be too much though, because they would block each other.
4. The Expansion
There is no best time to build your expansion, it always depends on your own strategy and on what your opponent is doing.
A fast expansion can be a huge advantage, but is also very risky. Especially in the early game you lose a lot of minerals that you can’t spend on other units. A common mistake is that players think an expansion just costs the 400 minerals, but they forget about the huge amount of probes they have to build to use the expansion effectively, which again cost 50 minerals each.
On the other hand your decision has to depend on what your opponent is doing. If he already has an expansion and you don’t have one, you know it’s time. If you don’t answer with an own expansion, he will have an too big economic advantage.
5. Scouting
You need good scouting to know what your opponent is doing. Especially in the early game scouting is one of the most important points, because if you don’t scout you can’t prepare for a rush of your opponent. A good time for scouting is at about 9-11 supply, since your opponent should now be at the point at which you can see what he intends.
For example if your opponent is Protoss and builds two Gates, you can be pretty shure you are about to get rushed.
Scouting is most often done by sending a worker into the opponent’s base, but can also be done by fast flying or invisible units later in the game.
Another very common mistake is that players only scout at the beginning of the game and then get overrunned by units they can’t counter.
A good way to prevent this is scouting by attacking your opponent with a few units, so that he has to show his army, and besides that you can inflict some damage and harrass him.
