StarCraft Strategy Guide Version 0.6 May 17, 1999 StarCraft Strategy Guide Written by Scott Lee (R415aZn895@aol.com) E-mail me with anything you can tell me about the game that isn't included in this guide, I will add you to the credit. But please read this guide first, cause I don't want to receive something that is already included on this guide. Unpublished work Copyright 1999 Scott Lee StarCraft is published by Blizzard, and here I give thanks to Blizzard for making this great game. Also for providing Battle Net, it is the best place to play StarCraft. Catch me there under the name of DaOnEnOnLeE, my stats are okay, feel free to whisper me for a game. This guide is written by me, so I should get the credit for it. So please don't take this and claim it yours. And this is just a guide to help newb players to get an idea on how to play the game. Hopefully this guide will aid those who will spend time reading this. This guide should not be sold, if any company will pay money for this, I better get the money! I got my copy of StarCraft for a while, so I consider myself to be an above average player. I am not saying that I am the greatest, but I do okay. This is my third Walkthrough/Guide I have written. Also E-mail me with any problem that you may have in this document. Version History 0.6 Change a little text, fix the mistake on Devour's attack name from Corrosive Venom to Corrosive Acid. Version History 0.5 I added Brood War units and buildings. Version History 0.1 I just started on this today, I hope that I can finish this soon. This FAQ is based on StarCraft Version 1.05 (Patch downloadable from WWW.Battle.Net) Introduction If you are reading this guide, I assume you have the game and know the real basic idea of the game. In case you don't, the game is you building an army, and killing your opponent(s). This guide is used for players who don't use cheat, if you use cheat, than you really shouldn't play this game, there is no point. StarCraft is very much like Warcraft; similar ideas since they are both created by Blizzard. Those of you who played Warcraft before will able to fit right into StarCraft. StarCraft is more difficult than Warcraft; it has many more elements in the game other than making more troops and start bum rushing your enemies. This guide will help you in the game, but I can't promise you that you will always win if you follow my strategy. And you should practice against the computers to improve your game play. I recommend you try out different maps, and have more than one CPUs against you (3-4 recommended). This will improve your game play, and also play against friends that are better than you, you can learn from them by watching how they play. Also I won't be updating this guide much unless there is a major mistake, if there is just a small typo, I probably won't update it for some time. However I will be updating during the first few days after the guide has been posted. Index Part 1: Basic Strategy Part 2: Advance Strategy Part 3: Terran Units, and Buildings Part 4: Zerg Units, and Buildings Part 5: Protoss Units, and Buildings Part 6: Various hints, useful ideas on playing StarCraft. Part 7: Cheats for the game Part 8: Credits Part 1: Basic Strategy The basic idea is to kill your opponent(s) with your troops. You have to choice of three different races, each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I will start with the Protoss race. Protoss has the highest technology in all three races, so they will last out in a long game. The one major problem with Protoss are that they builds slow, especially with their troops, and their lack of long range troops. Protoss has high power units, their most basic fighting unit the Zealots are not just powerful early on in the game, they can be upgraded and be very useful in the later stage of the game. Protoss possess one major weakness, their buildings can be only built within short range of their pylons (all buildings other than the Nexus). That can really affect the speed of expending sometimes, and it can really slow down the your early game rush. But the pylons are also provides food supply that feed your troops, so you will need to build them anyway. Another thing is if the pylon is destroyed, the buildings near by that require this pylon to be built will not function until you have built another pylon to replace it. The best way to avoid this is to build pylons by twos and next to each other, so if one is destroyed, the other one can power the buildings while you replace the pylon. One thing great about the Protoss building is once the building warp in starts, the worker can go back to work, unlike the other two races where the worker has to stay at the site until the building is finished. Protoss has shields; their shields can be recovered in time, however Protoss HP will never recover other from ally's Terran Medic. However Protoss shields can recover quite fast, compare to Zerg's healing. Terrans are people like us with medium technology, average troops and mediocre speed. The Terran have units like our army today, e.g. tanks, airplanes. Their weapons are also very much like what we have today, rifles, cannons, rockets, nuclear missiles, etc. The Terran is an average race for a new player, but with an experienced player, Terran can be very dangerous. Their Siege Tanks have the best range in all ground units, and it deals 70 damage to its target and various other damages to units near by the explosion. Terrans also have awesome air units, and the Battle Cruisers are probably the best air unit anyone can have. However, Terrans have slow building speed, so Terran doesn't work well in a rush. The Terran buildings have a great ability, the buildings are able to lift off and fly over to another part of the map. Even though the building's movements are quite slow, they are however fast enough to expend in short period of time. You should know that not all Terran buildings are able to fly, only big buildings with the same size as the Commend Center has this ability. Terran building catch fire if they are damaged, the building will slowly burn down if it catches fire and have red hit points, you will need a SCV to repair the damaged building, or it will be burn down fast. It would be easy for you if you keep a SCV near your front line, also have a few SCV when attacking with Tanks and other Mech. units, these units can be repaired with your SCVs. Zerg are creatures with low technology, they fight with brutal force, and they will win no matter the sacrifice that needs to be made. Their fast speed makes them a great race used for rush, but the Hatchery (evolve into Lair, and then Hive) are the only place where the Zerg units can be produced (so I suggest you build 3 or 4 later on when you have the extra minerals). The Hatchery will produce Larva evolves into other units, and Larva that evolve into drones can mine and evolve into buildings. The Drone will die when evolve into any buildings (actually it becomes that building). All Zerg buildings and units will slowly regain HP when it has been damaged, it can take a while but it is automatic and free. The Zergs are very easy to use, and I suggest to newbs that you begin playing as Zerg, once you master this race, you can go on ahead to play as other races, Zerg is simple to use, and there isn't that many things you need to master in Zerg. Zerg players should always be on the offensive side, keep attacking until you have won, Zergs are very hard to defend, a Zealot rush can put your base back into the stone age. The early game Zergling rush will be ver good if you can find your opponent fast enough, if not, your Zerglings will fry under Zealots and Bunkers. *Note* The only way to move your unit is using the attack key (unless you want them to ignore any enemy unit on the way). When you are attacking the enemy's base, don't just right click, enemy units on the way will attack your units, they can keep attacking along the way until you notice it. So press A, then select any ground on the enemy's base (not on a building, click anywhere near the building, your troop will attack all enemy it sees on the way). You should only use the right click if you are going for a direct building, (like Barrack or Pylon) remember your troops will ignore enemy attack if you just right click. The most basic win is a fast rush game that over whelm your opponent. This is easily achieved by making more units than your opponent, and then just over powers them through out the game. While you are creating chaos in their base, you should be preparing another army in your base ready to finish off your opponent. The basic idea is have all workers mine minerals only, and build your fighters faster than your opponent. If the enemy has some good defense, find some way to get around it, don't face it head on, you will not only lose all your people, you wont able to break through the defense. The most basic rush idea is find your opponent before you attack, Zerg can use their Overlord to scout, but if you are using the other two races, you will have to use your workers. The Protoss building order is four Probe start to mine, while you are making the fifth as soon as the game starts, when the probe finish, you should have around enough money to make another Probe, make it and have the fifth Probe mine. The sixth Probe should wait for 100 minerals and build a Pylon, and go into mining. Then once you have 50 minerals, make another probe while your Pylon is still building. The seventh Probe will make your Gateway and go into mining. Then you should make another Probe (your eighth), and build another Gateway and Pylon while scouting for your opponent. Your first Gateway should finish and should start on Zealots, then you just make up to 10 or 12 Probes, possibly making another Gateway and more Pylons then go into mining. By the time you have around 6 Zealots, you should prepare your first rush, while making more Zealots. Your first rush with your first group of Zealots will only able to break through your opponents' base, they probably won't able to finish off the job. The time they all died, you should have around 10 new Zealots ready, rush with those while producing more. This should finish off a Zerg opponent with no problem. Terran might give you some trouble if they have tanks, but your second rush should able to finish them off. If you are playing against a Protoss player, then expect them to have a few more Zealots than you. Then you should ignore the Zealots and try to stop their mineral production, and then concentrate on the Zealots. Your Zealots in your base should then rush in (and of course, you are making more while all this is happening) and help out. Zealots are very powerful, one Zealot can take on 3 Zerglings or 3 Marines with no problem, and a group of 12 can break through almost any ground defense. Zealots take awhile longer to make, but they can really finish the job. If you see that Zealots aren't getting the job done, go into gas and build your Citadel of Adun, and improve Zealot speed, and also make a forge for Photon Cannon protection and ground unit upgrades. Watch out for enemy flying units and cloak units (Dark Templar and Lurker), if you see that they have these units (you are in big trouble). First protect your base, and then climb your tech tree and see if you can have an army (fully upgraded Carriers and 3 Arbiters would do it) powerful enough to break through. If you keep rushing you will be just losing troops, if this is a multi exit map, try the other exit. And about then, you should start expending. Zerg is a basic rush race, so they don't do very well in late games. Zerg units can be created fast and they can rush faster than any other race. Zerglings are hatched 2 per Larva, and that means 6 at a time with a full Hatchery. Another advantage that Zerg possess is their Overlord (you start a game with an Overlord), they can scout for the enemy while you mine. The basic building order is 4 Drones mines, make Drone as soon as the game starts, and your Overlord should start scouting. The fifth Drone should start to mine minerals, and another Larva should start evolving to a Drone, this sixth Drone will build the Spawning Pool. Then you just start making Zerglings, you should rush with your first six and hope that your opponent haven't got any kind of defense yet. Once you got enough money, build another Hatchery near your base where it can be protected. While you are making more Zerglings and keeps rushing them (even though you know they won't finish off the enemy, as long as they can stall their technology, the sacrifices should be made), as all the fighting is going on, your base should be flooded with Zerglings. Eventually you will kill your opponent by just sending enough Zerglings to his/her base. This strategy works well against all races, however Zealots are powerful enough to take on 3 Zerglings by himself, so with the help of Probes, your Zerglings will fry! The best way to avoid this is going for the probes instead of the Zealots since Zerglings have better speed, six Zerglings should take out around 5 or 6 Probes before they all die. This should send your opponent back to where they start, they will have to replace all the Probes, and they won't have any money to make new Zealots. Then a 12 Zerglings should able to finish off the enemy, if not, go for Hydarlisks, they can wipe out the weaken Protoss base. Cloak units or flyers shouldn't be a problem, so don't go into Hydralisk unless your opponent has a large group of Zealots or Bunkers. Terran have a weak early game rush, their Marines are weak, their attacks are a pitiful 6 damage, and they will die very fast under any kind of attack. However Firebats are extremely powerful, but they require Gas and Academy to be built. Then that isn't a rush anymore, however I have seen players that rush with a combination of 8 Marines and 4 Firebats in less than 4 minutes. I would just recommend that you use another race if you are rushing, Terran just don't have a good early game rush unit. Also if you are playing Mutiplayer with allies, don't rush with Firebats, because their splash damage with hurt your ally's troops too. Terran can however block in an opponent easily, with Siege Tanks, Bunkers and Missile Turrets, not many races can get through. Part 2: Advance Strategy The Advance Strategy is how you are going to win a late game. The idea is similar to basic strategy, kill your opponent with your troops. Except this is probably no longer a ground war, it's air attacks. Knowing this, you should protect your base with both anti ground and anti air. The Protoss most powerful late game unit is the Carrier, and a fully upgraded Carrier with 8 Interceptors deals 72 damages. The Carrier possess 300 HP and 150 shields, they are very difficult to destroy, but they takes a long time to make. Also, the Protoss has some awesome magic spells and technology, they should be researched and put into use. Your best bet at winning a late game is 10 Carriers (fully upgraded!), a few Arbiters to cloak the Carrier and a Observer to detect cloak units (the Observer is useless against Zerg since they can't cloak, just add another Carrier or Arbiter). This will require a large amount of time and money, and you will probably need to expend to another base to get gas faster. The best way to speed up this is to build 4 or 5 Stargates, and have only Fleet Beacon and Stargates early on, once you have your 10 Carriers, then go into Arbiter, Observers, and your upgrades. However I would recommend you to have a group of Zealots and Dragoons to rush the enemy base before you attack, so you can see what they have before you attack with your main forces. You can also use a few Scouts to check out the enemy base but the odds are they will not come back. Your base should be well defended through out the game, build Photon Cannons around your base, and a few near your buildings and Mineral fields. Scatter Dragoons and Scouts around your base in case of transport drop attack. Also Protoss Archons work well in both attacking and defending. The only thing you should really watch out for is Terran Siege Tanks, Zerg Guardians, and Protoss Reavers. Terrans have sum great mid/late game units, their Siege Tanks have the best range in all ground units, and their damage is awesome, too. The Terran Battle Cruisers are the best air unit (Carriers slow firing rate make them the second best air unit), their 34 upgraded damage for both air and ground make them trustable, and their Yamato Gun dishes out 250 damage with great range. The best way to win against a computer is just build a few Supply Depots to block off the exit to your base. (This don't work in maps that have multi exits and against Terran CPU, since their Siege Tanks will attack your Supply Depot, you can still pull it off if you get Wraith fast enough), and build bunkers with Marines with Tanks in Siege Mode to back up the fire power. The computers don't attack the Supply Depot, but they can't get to your bunker, so they just run around while you are shooting them. But watch out for Hydralisk and Dragoons, they can attack your bunker straight, so have a SCV near by to repair it as soon as it gets damaged. You should get Tanks fast or your bunker will be crash fast since Marines deal pitiful damage even if you upgraded to the max. Once you have secured your base with Missile Turrets and ground units around your base, start on making Starports (4 or 5 recommended). Then go on ahead to Armory (build three since upgrades takes awhile, but for those of you who wants Battle Cruisers fast, and build the Science Facility first, then go into Armory. Another thing I found out that might be useful is when a SCV is building, you can cancel it on the SCV and have it do something else, and you can come back later and finish it off with another SCV. So that means you can block off your exit faster now that you don't have to finish off the buildings. A 11 Battle Cruiser and Science Vessel can probably take out any enemy base, the Science Vessel's Emp Shockwave is great against Protoss since it drains all energy and shield from that unit (make a Protoss Archon with only 10 HP, your SCV can finish off the Archon). If you are fighting against Zerg, don't bring the Science Vessel, just bring another Battle Cruiser. If you are fighting against multi enemies, repair your Battle Cruiser before charging into another enemy base. While defending your base, have Vultures lay Spider Mines outside your base, it can act as a detector for an attack. Spider mines also workers well in major chock points on the map, but you have to really know the map if you are blocking choke points. Zerg have some weak late game units, their Guardians are your best bet at winning, protected by Scourge and Mustlisk (Devour for Brood Wars), they can win the game. Another easy way to win is fully upgrade your Hydralisk, and rush them by the 100s. They can just over whelm your opponent and since they attack both land and air, you can just leave everything to them and just watch as they tear up your opponent's base. But remember this won't work unless you have a large amount of Hydralisks (above 80 recommended), and you should have some flyers to back up Hydralisks in case they can't finish it off. They are great targets for Terran Spider mines and Siege Mode Tanks, Reavers works wonders on mass Hydralisk rush, I would recommend have an Overlord there to detect and a few Guardians to take out the Tanks before charging in. And of course send a few Zerglings to rush to see how the enemy's base is defended first. Zerg has some great attacking buildings, their Sunken Colony has 400 HP and deals 40 damage. The Spores are however weaker, they deals only 15 damage, but your Hydralisks can patrol your base and they can take out almost any air unit. Spread your Overlord around for cloaker. Also send a Zergling to a further exit to your base, it can be used as early warning of an enemy attack, and have it burrow so enemies wont know about it. But don't do this against the computer since they always know where to scan and they have everything perfect. You should build your Sunkens and Spores close together, if built far apart, they won't work very well. When playing against another human player, send your Zerglings to all the mineral fields and have them burrow right next to the crystals. If your player color is blue, it will work wonder in Twilight and other dark maps. When your opponent decide to expend, and have all their main troops guarding their new base, attack their main base. If their troops goes back trying to save their base, have your Zerglings attack the new base. *Note, an easy way to win against a Zerg computer is a Sunken Colony rush, this is easily accomplished by first have a Drone morph into a Spawning Pool, and while the Spawning Pool is still building. Than have another Drone build a Creep Colony on enemy Zerg's Creep, upgrade the Creep Colony to Sunken and rush with your Zerglings, and this should be a very easy win. This Strategy works for Protoss also, but their Photon Cannon only has 200 HP and require a Pylon and are easily killed by enemy workers. Photon Cannon requires a Forge and a Pylon, but one Probe can build multi Cannons in a matter a seconds. Part 3: Terran Units and Buildings Keys Unit name: Unit HP: Unit armor: Unit ground attack: Unit air attack: Unit cost: Unit supply cost: Unit attack range: Unit upgrade: Unit ability: Unit requirement: Unit summary: Building name: Building ability: Building HP: Building cost: Building Summary: 1. Unit name: SCV Unit HP: 60 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Fusion Cutter, 5 damage Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 1 Unit upgrade: Infantry Armor Upgrade Unit ability: build various buildings, mine minerals, mine gas Unit requirement: Commend Center Unit summary: this is the worker unit for Terran, the SCV builds all the building for the Terran race. The SCV also repairs any damaged Mech. units and buildings. Unit name: Marine Unit HP: 40 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Gauss Rifle 6 Unit air attack: Gauss Rifle 6 Unit cost: 50 minerals Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 4 (can be upgraded to 6) Unit upgrade: attack, armor and range Unit ability: Stim Packs, Marine takes a few damage, but it now fires twice as fast, and deals more damage. Unit requirement: Barrack Unit summary: the basic troop for the Terran race, with a bunker, Marines can be very useful. However, it's low HP and low damage makes them less useful later on. Stim Packs should be put into use, dropping with 8 Marines is useful and can be accomplished fast. Unit name: Firebat Unit HP: 50 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Flame Thrower, 16 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals, 25 gas Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 2 Unit upgrade: attack and armor Unit ability: Stim Packs (see above for Marine's ability) Unit requirement: Barrack, Academy Unit summary: a good unit used for protect your base, it can only attack ground, but it deals 16 damage without any upgrades, that is very good against Zerglings and Zealots rushes. The Firebats also have splash damage, that is very good for a rush and going up against group of enemies, keep in mind that Firebats will also damage your ally's troops if they are near. Unit name: Ghost Unit HP: 45, 150 energy Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: C-10 Canister Rifle, 10 damage Unit air attack: C-10 Canister Rifle, 10 damage Unit cost: 25 minerals, 75 gas Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 6 Unit upgrade: Lock Down, Cloaking, Sight Range, +50 Energy, attack and armor Unit ability: Lock Down stops a Mech. unit from moving and attacking, Cloaking cloaks the Ghost, Nuclear Strike nukes where ever you point, you will lose the Nuke if the Ghost dies. Unit requirement: Barrack, Science Facility with Covert Orps. Unit summary: The Ghost is a good unit to have, their low HP make them very easy to kill, but they have a great set of ability. Lockdown works only against Mech. units in Terran and Protoss, all Zerg units are unaffected by that, and Nuclear Strike will Nuke a large area for 500 damage. Overall this is a good unit to have even if you don't plan to using Nukes. Ghost's attack will decrease against almost all units, that means it doesn't actually deal 10 damage. It mostly deal 3 to any unit with armor. Unit name: Vultures Unit HP: 80 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Fragmentation Grenade 20 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 75 minerals Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 5 Unit upgrade: speed upgrade, spider mines, attack and armor Unit ability: Spider Mines are mines that you plant, it deals 125 damage when enemy steps on it. Unit requirement: Factory Unit summary: Vulture isn't that useful other than their Spider Mine ability, they can't really attack and are quite useless in rushes. Their good speed makes them good scouter, their 20 damage might look powerful, but they attacks are quite slow, and will get destroyed fast by enemy units. Unit name: Siege Tanks Unit HP: 150 Unit armor: Unit ground attack: Arclite Cannon 20 damage, Siege Mode 70 damage Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 6, Siege Mode 12 Unit upgrade: Siege Mode, attack and armor Unit ability: Siege Mode Unit requirement: Machine Shop Unit summary: The Siege Tanks is one of the best ground unit in StarCraft, it has the best range when in Siege Mode (12), it has one of the best damage (70 without upgrade), but it is slow when switching from Tank mode to Siege Mode. But this is one of the best ground unit you can have, with support from other close range units, Siege Tanks is your best bet at a win. When it is in Siege Mode, it can't attack units too close, so bring along a few Marines, Firebats, Goliaths or Wraith to give Siege Tanks close up supports. Siege Tanks also has splash damage up to 2 space away. Siege Tanks next to Bunkers are awesome in your base protection, most opponent will try to avoid Siege Tanks when they are rushing (human players only), so this can be used to your advantage. For opponents that rely on Photon Cannons and Sunkens, your Siege Tanks will shred those in no time. However practice guessing your Tank's range before changing them from mode to mode. Unit name: Goliath Unit HP: 150 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: Twin Auto Cannon 12 Unit air attack: Hellfire Missile Pack 20 Unit cost: 100 minerals, 50 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 5 Unit upgrade: attack, armor and air attack range Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Armory, Machine Shop Unit summary: this is a very good unit to have in both protecting your base and attacking. Goliath have both good ground attack and air attack, a group of fully upgraded Goliath can easily protect your new expended base. The only Weakness that the Goliath have is their low HP and their weak ground attack rate, but overall this is a good unit to have and you should have them patrol your base for protection. Goliath makes great Siege Tanks escorts, and with SCVs, your troops should break through any defense. Unit name: Wraith Unit HP: 120, 200 energy Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Burst Laser8 Unit air attack: Gemini Missile 20 Unit cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 5 Unit upgrade: attack, armor, cloaking, and +50 energy Unit ability: Cloaking, cloak your Wraith, requires 25 energy to activate, and uses 1 energy per second. Unit requirement: Starport Unit summary: The Wraith is a basic air unit, it has good air attack, but weak ground attack. It cloaking ability makes it a good unit to stop opponent's mineral production early on in the game, just cloak it and go into the mineral fields (does not work against Zerg, since their Overlord detects). This strategy works well, but only early on, your opponent can get detectors the same time you get your Wraith, but most people don't. Wraith are good escorts for Siege Tanks and Drop Ships, their air to air attack is good and with their cloaking ability they should last quite long. Unit name: Drop Ship Unit HP: 200 Unit armor: Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 100 minerals, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: armor Unit ability: Load, Unload units Unit requirement: Starport Unit summary: this is a transport ship, it has medium speed, and make at least two since these will die when you make drops. Drop Ship has a slow building speed compare to other Transports, but it can be repaired fast by your SCVs. Unit name: Science Vessel Unit HP: 200, 200 energy Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 100 minerals, 225 gas Unit supply cost: 3 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: armor, Irritate, Emp Shockwave, +50 energy Unit ability: Defensive Matrix, Emp Shockwave, and Irritate Unit requirement: Starport, Science Facility Unit summary: Science Vessel is a very useful unit to have, Emp Shockwave drains energy from a enemy (it also drains Protoss Shields! And that can make a Archon have only 10 HP). Irritate is a useful spell against Zerg, cast that on a unit and the unit begin to grow in a gas, the unit will run around and damage all units near him. Defensive Matrix increase the Defense of a unit for some time, all damage assign to that unit will be reduced to 1. The Science Vessel is also a detector, so bring to them along on a attack. Unit name: Battle Cruiser Unit HP: 500, 200 energy Unit armor: 3 Unit ground attack: ATA Laser 25 Unit air attack: ATS Laser 25 Unit cost: 400 minerals, 300 gas Unit supply cost: 8 Unit attack range: 8 Unit upgrade: Yamato Gun, +50 energy, attack and armor Unit ability: Yamato Gun, a beam attack, deals 250 damage Unit requirement: Starport, Science Facility with Physic Lab. Unit summary: this is the best air unit in the game, the Battle Cruiser's Yamato Gun can take out a Photon Cannon in one shot, so these make great attackers. Scourge doesn't work against Battle Cruisers unless you sent in a very large number, since one hit from a Battle Cruiser is just enough to kill a Scourge. The biggest reason that the Battle Cruiser is the best air unit is because it's high firing rate, the Battle Cruiser can get in around 3 hits before a Carrier can finish launching. Battle Cruisers movements are quite slow, but they can scare the hell out of opponents when in large numbers. Unit name: Nuclear Missile Unit HP: 0 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: 500 Unit air attack: 500 Unit cost: 200 mineral, 200 gas Unit supply cost: 8 Unit attack range: 9 Unit upgrade: none Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Commend Center, Science Facility with Covert Orps Unit summary: this is the bad boy of StarCraft, it deals 500 damage, enough said right there! This can knock out any unit near by and totally damage all buildings near the explosion. It has a great range (9), and if used right, Nukes are your best weapon. You use your Ghosts to launch your Nukes, and you can cloak your Ghost to make the job easy and fast. However the Nuke will take around 20 or so seconds to be fired, and during that time your Ghost dies, you will not only lose your Ghost, you lose your Nuke too. Building name: Commend Center Building cost: 400 minerals Building ability: Build SCV, attack Comsat Station, Nuclear Silo Building HP: 1500 Building Summary: The Head Quarter for Terran race, it provide 10 supply unit for you (instead of 9 for the other races), and it can fly like most other Terran Buildings. Building name: Comsat Station Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas Building ability: Comsat Swipe (you scan target area) 50 per use Building HP: 500, 200 energy Building Summary: you will need one of these for both easy fast scouting and for cloaked enemy units. Building name: Nuclear Silo Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas Building ability: arm nuke Building HP: 600 Building Summary: you get this if you want nukes. Have 3 Nuclear Silo is you plan to use nukes since nukes takes quite some time to build. Building name: Supply Depot Building cost: 100 minerals Building ability: provide 8 supply units Building HP: 500 Building Summary: just a boring old farm for you. Building name: Refinery Building cost: 100 minerals Building ability: you can now collect gas Building HP: 750 Building Summary: just a boring old gas collector. Building name: Barrack Building cost: 150 minerals Building ability: create Marines, Firebats, Ghosts, and Medics Building HP: 1000 Building Summary: this is where you make all your infantry units, you will need more than one Barrack if you plan on making large numbers of infantry units. Keep in mind that all these units have low HP and will die very fast against Dark Templar, Lurkers, Siege Tanks, and Reavers. Building name: Engineering Bay Building cost: 150 Minerals Building ability: Upgrade Infantry Attack, Upgrade Infantry Armor Building HP: 850 Building Summary: the Engineering Bay is where you upgrade all your Infantry units. The first level of upgrade doesn't have any requirements. The next two levels of upgrade requires a Science Facility, but you will need it to build Missile Turrets anyway. Building name: Missile Turrets Building cost: 150 minerals Building ability: Long Bolt Missile 20 damage Building HP: 200 Building Summary: this is a detector as well as an air defense building. Build these close together and have a few Firebats around cause enemies can do a 3-4 drop ship at once, and have has a Protoss Archon running loose in your base. Missile Turrets will get damaged, so have a SCV to repair it as soon as it gets damaged. Building name: Factory Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas Building ability: build Vulture, Siege Tanks, Goliath, add-on Machine Shop Building HP: 1250 Building Summary: this is where all Terran Mech. units are built. Building name: Machine Shop Building cost: 50 mineral, 50 gas Building ability: Vulture speed upgrade, Spider Mines, Siege Mode Upgrade, Goliath air attack range upgrade Building HP: 750 Building Summary: it's cheap so get it, beside, this is the whole point of getting the Factory. Building name: Starport Building cost: 150 minerals, 15 gas Building ability: build Wraith, Drop Ship, Science Vessel, Battle Cruiser, and control tower add-on Building HP: 1300 Building Summary: this is where you get all your air units for Terran. I usually get around 5 Starports or more once I have enough money, and all units here takes quite a long while to build. Building name: Control Tower Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas Building ability: Wraith Cloaking, +50 Wraith energy Building HP: 500 Building Summary: you will need this if you plan on building Battle Cruisers and get Wraith upgrades. It's cheap anyway, so get it. Building name: Science Facility Building cost: 200 minerals, 150 gas Building ability: Emp Shockwave, Irritate, +50 Science Vessel energy, Covert Orps add-on, and Physic's Lab add-on Building HP: 850 Building Summary: you have to build this for a 20 plus minute game. Get the Physic's Lab first to get Battle Cruiser, then get Covert Orps to use Ghosts and Nukes. Building name: Covert Orps Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas Building ability: Lockdown research, Personal Cloaking, Ghost Sight, Ghost + 50 energy Building HP: 750 Building Summary: something you need if you plan on nuking someone. Building name: Physic's Lab Building cost: 50 minerals, 50 gas Building ability: Yamato Gun, +50 Battle Cruiser energy Building HP: 600 Building Summary: get this if you want Battle Cruisers, Battle Cruiser's ability are also researched here, they are quite fast, so don't make two. Building name: Armory Building cost: 100 mineral, 50 gas Building ability: Building HP: 750 Building Summary: this is where all Mech. units are upgraded, get two or more to make upgrades faster. Remember to upgrade attack first, unless you are a defense only player. Brood War Units and Buildings Unit name: Medic Unit HP: 60, 150 energy Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals, 25 gas Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: armor, Restoration, Optic Flare Unit ability: Heal, heals any organic unit, Restoration removes all status ailments, and Optic Flare reduce a unit's sight range to 1, given that unit the Blind status. Unit requirement: Academy, Barrack Unit summary: the Medic is hard to use for human players, but the CPU takes full advantage of this great unit. Medic will automatically heal all organic unit that are damaged nearby, have a few of these if you are attacking with all Infantry units. One Medic and one Marine can kill a Sunken Colony. Unit name: Valkyrie Frigate Unit HP: 200 Unit armor: 2 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: Halo Rockets, 5 Unit cost: 200 minerals, 125 gas Unit supply cost: 3 Unit attack range: 5 Unit upgrade: attack, and armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Stargate, Armory, and Control Tower Unit summary: only attacks air, but still a good defensive unit, as well as supporting other attacking units like Siege Tanks. The Valkyrie has splash damage up to 2 spaces away. If you upgrade their attack up to level three, Valkyrie will deal 64 damage (8 Halo Rockets times 8 damage). Part 4: Zerg Units and Buildings Unit name: Larva Unit HP: 25 Unit armor: 20 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 0 Unit supply cost: 0 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: 0 Unit ability: Evolve into other Zerg units Unit requirement: Hatchery/Lair/Hive Unit summary: this is a little bug that evolves into big bugs. Unit name: Drone Unit HP: 50 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Spines 5 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 2 Unit upgrade: Carapace Unit ability: Evolve into various Buildings, mine minerals, mine gas, and burrow Unit requirement: Larva Unit summary: the basic work unit for the Zerg race. Unit name: Zergling Unit HP: 45 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Claws 5 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 2 Unit upgrade: speed, attack speed, Carapace, melee attack, carapace Unit ability: burrow Unit requirement: Spawning Pool, Larva Unit summary: this basic ground unit for Zergs, each Larva will hatch into two Zerglings. These are great for a early game rush, since the other two races need a Barrack or Gateway and it will only able to produce one attacker. While you will have 6 Zerglings. Zerglings are quite useless later on, so don't bother with their upgrades. Unit name: Overlord Unit HP: 200 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 100 minerals Unit supply cost: 0 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: speed, sight, transport, Carapace Unit ability: transport, detector, 8 supply units Unit requirement: Larva Unit summary: this is a unit for Zerg, the Overlord is a Supply unit, a Detector, and a Transport. However the Overlord is not all that useful since all the upgrades for it takes time and money, but you have to get them in order to have a transport that moves faster than a Battle Cruiser. Your Overlord shouldn't be cramped all together, Valkyries and Corsairs can kill your Overlords fast if they aren't protected well. Unit name: Hydralisk Unit HP: 80 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Needle Spines 10 Unit air attack: Needle Spines 10 Unit cost: 75 minerals, 25 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 5 Unit upgrade: movement, attack range, missile attack, carapace Unit ability: burrow Unit requirement: Hydralisk Den, Larva Unit summary: a good defense unit as well as a offense unit, a group of fully upgraded Hydralisks can be quite dangerous. Have a few burrow a bit further out in front of your Sunkens and Spores, they can pop up and do a quick kill. Unit name: Mutalisk Unit HP: 120 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Glave Wurm 9 Unit air attack: Glave Wurm 9 Unit cost: 100 minerals, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 4 Unit upgrade: attack, armor Unit ability: evolve Guardian/Devour Unit requirement: Spire, Larva Unit summary: a basic flyer unit for Zerg, this can be quite good in groups, their attack will damage another enemy unit near by when fired. Mutalisks is however quite useless when alone, and will get killed by many other units. The whole point of getting Mutalisk is evolving them into Guardians. Unit name: Scourge Unit HP: 25 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: 0 Unit air attack: Suicide 110 Unit cost: 25 minerals, 75 gas Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 1 Unit upgrade: attack, armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Spire, Larva Unit summary: Scourge is great against Carriers and other slow big air unit, two Scourge hatch from one Larva. Scourge is especially good against Carrier since Carriers takes a bit of time to launch and deal damage. Scourge can also scare away enemy Carriers, since Carriers will die against Scourge unless they have Arbiter. Unit name: Queen Unit HP: 150 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: 0 Unit air attack: 0 Unit cost: 100 mineral, 150 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: armor, Spawn Brooding, Ensnare Unit ability: Infest Commend Center, infests a damaged Commend Center with HP750 or below, allowing you to make Infested Terran. Parasite lets you see what target unit sees. Spawn Broodling, destroy target unit and make two Broodling units for you. Ensnare slows down target unit and units near by. Unit requirement: Queen's Nest, Larva Unit summary: A good unit to have, but the queen is hard to use against a well defended base. Use Queen against Terran base, since Spawn Broodling is awesome against Terran Siege Tanks when in Siege Mode. Ensnare will also detect cloaked and burrow units near by when fired, that includes your units. Unit name: Ultralisk Unit HP: 400 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: Kaiser Blade 20 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas Unit supply cost: 4 Unit attack range: 3 Unit upgrade: speed, attack, armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Ultralisk Cavern, Larva Unit summary: good attacker, but doesn't worth the time and money put into it. You should get Hydralisks instead. It high HP allows it to last long, but Ultralisk can not attack air. Ultralisk will shred under Siege Tanks with Bunkers. And Ultralisk is too fat, so it can't burrow. Unit name: Defiler Unit HP: 80, 200 energy Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals, 150 gas Unit supply cost: 3 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: Plaque, Consume Unit ability: Dark Swarm nullify target area. Plaque reduces HP of units in that area slowly to 1, this also works on buildings too, Plaque will not kill the units but you should finish them off once the Plaque is finished. Consume sacrifice a unit to add 50 energy to Defiler, burrow Unit requirement: Defiler's Mound, Larva Unit summary: they can be quite good in a hand of a pro, they take quite long to make but are quite useful. Plaque is very useful against Terran, since all Terran units require a SCV or a Medic to heal. Plaque is also good against Protoss, since their HP can't be recovered at all, but Plaque will not damage their shields. Unit name: Guardian Unit HP: 150 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: Acid Spore 20 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 4 Unit attack range: 11 Unit upgrade: attack, armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Greater Spire, Mutalisk Unit summary: the Guardians have the best air range in StarCraft, it's heavy damage and long range makes it a good unit. However the Guardian can't not attack air, and it easily killed by Scouts, Wraiths, and other air units. It's best if you have Guardians in large number, and have some anti-air unit defending your Guardians. *Note all Zerg buildings requires a Drone, so the building really requires 50 minerals more. Building name: Hatchery Building cost: 300 minerals Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Lair Upgrade, produce Larva at a slow rate Building HP: 1250 Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units are produced. Be sure to have 3 or 4 Hatchery so you can produce more and faster. Building name: Lair Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Hive Upgrade, Overlord transport, sight, speed upgrade, and produce Larva at a slow rate Building HP: 1750 Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units are produced. Building name: Hive Building cost: 200 minerals, 150 gas Building ability: Burrow upgrade, Overlord transport, sight, speed upgrade, and produce Larva at a slow rate Building HP: 2500 Building Summary: this is where the Larva required for all Zerg Units are produced. Building name: Creep Colony Building cost: 75 minerals Building ability: evolve into Sunken Colony, Spore Colony Building HP: 400 Building Summary: where the basic Zerg base defense building, the Creep Colony can't attack, but can be upgraded into Sunkens and Spores. Building name: Sunken Colony Building cost: 50 Building ability: Subterranean Tentacle, 40 damage Building HP: 400 Building Summary: a good defense unit, build these close together and it will protect your base quit well. Sunkens deal 40 damage and has 400 HP, it is good against any early game rush. Sunken Colonies will die rather fast against Terran Siege Tanks, but have some Zerglings burrowed further out, so it can take out the Tanks when they do attack. Sunken Colony has 400 HP, but they can't have any shields or protection. Their attack speed is also quite slow, so 2 fully upgraded Zealot can take out a Sunken easily. It's 40 damage might seem big, but actually it greatly decreases against almost all unit. That's why Zerglings can take out Sunkens, it will take Sunken 2 hits to kill a Zergling even when Zergling has only 35 HP. Building name: Spore Colony Building cost: 50 minerals Building ability: Seeker Spores, 15 damage Building HP: 400 Building Summary: the air defense building for Zerg, the Seeker Spores deals poor damage but it is also a detector (you won't really need this since you got your Overlords). Building name: Extractor Building cost: 50 minerals Building ability: Gas collector Building HP: 750 Building Summary: just collects gas Building name: Spawning Pool Building cost: 150 minerals Building ability: upgrade Zergling attack speed, speed Building HP: 750 Building Summary: this is the first building you should get. This allows you to make Zerglings and Sunken Colony. Building name: Evolution Chamber Building cost: 75 minerals Building ability: upgrade melee attack, missile attack, carapace Building HP: 750 Building Summary: the upgrade place for Zerg ground units, you should have two so you can upgrade faster. This is really a must get building, since Hydralisk is probably the basic fighting unit you are getting. And you must get this for Spore Colony. You don't need this early on, get these later at a Lair or even maybe Hive stage. Building name: Hydralisk Den Building cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas Building ability: upgrade Hydralisk speed, range, Lurker Aspect Building HP: 850 Building Summary: get this if you want Hydralisks and Lurkers. You should only build one of these since all upgrades are rather fast and there are only 3 upgrades total. First upgrade the Range, then the speed, the Lurker Aspect is only for Brood Wars. Building name: Spire Building cost: 200 minerals, 100 gas Building ability: upgrade air attack, armor (x3), evolve into Greater Spire Building HP: 600 Building Summary: this is another must get building for Zerg is you plan on using any air unit. Have two Spire since the upgrade time is long and one will needed to be evolve into Greater Spire. Building name: Greater Spire Building cost: 100 mineral, 150 gas Building ability: same as Spire Building HP: 1000 Building Summary: this allows you to get Guardians and Devours. A group of 36 Guardians and 24 Devours that are fully upgraded can really wipe out almost any well defended base. This is how I win with Zerg, it's either this or 180 Hydralisk swarm, and Guardians seems more fun. Building name: Queen's Nest Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas Building ability: Spawn Broodlings, Ensnare Building HP: 850 Building Summary: you need this to get the Hive, you can get a few Queens here, but Queens are really hard to use. Get Queens and Defiler early so they can charge their energy. Building name: Neduls Canal Building cost: 150 minerals Building ability: create Canal Exit on Creep Building HP: 250 Building Summary: this is a good building to have, but only when you are playing against a computer since human players tends to be more careful. This building can build a canal exit on any Creep (Creep are the purple ground that Zerg requires to build on), and once the exit built, you can send any unit there as long as the exit remains alive. This can be used to your advantage when playing against computer, build the exit near their mineral fields and just send a large group of Ultralisks and Hydralisks there. This will badly damage your opponent and you will have a good chance of winning the game if you pull this off. Building name: Ultralisk Cavern Building cost: 150 mineral, 200 gas Building ability: armor and speed Building HP: 600 Building Summary: this give you access to Ultralisk, but I would rather use the money on Hydralisks. Some people can do a Devour Ultralisk rush pretty good, but it's hard to pull off. In Brood Wars, you can upgrade your Ultralisk's armor and speed in here. Building name: Defiler Mound Building cost: 100 mineral, 100 gas Building ability: Plaque, Consume, +50 Defiler energy Building HP: 850 Building Summary: this is used for Defilers. Just like Queens, Defiler is very hard to use. Brood War Zerg Units Unit name: Lurker Unit HP: 150 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: Subterranine Spines, 20 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: Unit upgrade: attack, armor Unit ability: burrow Unit requirement: Hydralisk, Hydralisk Den, Lair, Lurker Aspect Unit summary: a good Zerg unit, good damage, and attacks while burrowed. The Spines deals good damage against rushing enemies (splash damage). However Lurkers can only attack when burrowed, also it deals damage to your ground units near by when attacking. So don't have anything else attacking when your Lurkers are burrowed and attacking. The Lurker can't attack air and it's attack has a slow recovery rate, so Lurkers are more of a defense unit than a offense unit. A group of 12 Lurkers do wonder against Zergling/Zealot/Firebat/Ultralisk/Goliath/Hydralisk/Archon rush. Basically Lurker is perfect against any kind of ground swarm attack. Unit name: Devour Unit HP: 250 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: Corrosive Acid, 25 Unit cost: 150 minerals, 50 gas Unit supply cost: 4 Unit attack range: 6 Unit upgrade: attack, armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Greater Spire, Mutalisk Unit summary: good anti air unit, if the enemy unit is hit by the Devour, it will slow down in speed and attacking. But since the Devour attacks are quite slow, it is best to have them in large groups. Also the Devour can't attack ground, so just one Marine can kill your Devour. Always have Guardians before Devours, since you can use Scourge to defend your Guardians and Devour takes a lot more resources and time. Devour also splash poison spore when attacking, enemy unit will slow down depending on how many spore it has. These spores will go away in a few minutes. *Note, Devour splash only poison spore, it doesn't splash any damage. On a side note here, have you ever tried fighting two Devour with level armor and level 0 attack, it took years for these two to get killed. Part 5: Protoss Units and Buildings Building name: Nexus Building cost: 400 minerals Building ability: make Probes Building HP: 750/750 Building Summary: the HQ for Protoss units. Nexus is the weakest HQ out of the three races, since Terran Commend Center provide 10 supply while Nexus provide 9. Zerg Hatchery will eventually evolve into Lair and than Hive, Hive has 2500 HP compare to Nexus 1500 and only 750 recoverable. Building name: Pylon Building cost: 100 minerals Building ability: provide 8 Psi for Protoss unit Building HP: 300/300 Building Summary: you have to build a lot of these, and remember if this gets destroyed, all buildings that are powered by this one will not function. So build 2 Pylons together, and if one gets destroyed the other one will still power the buildings until you replaces it. Building name: Gateway Building cost: 150 minerals Building ability: build Zealot, Dragoon, High Templar, Dark Templar Building HP: 500/500 Building Summary: the place where Protoss makes their basic ground units. Get more than one if you are planning to rush. Building name: Forge Building cost: 150 minerals Building ability: upgrade ground attack, ground armor, and Plasma Shields Building HP: 550/550 Building Summary: get this so you can have Photon Cannons. Also the upgrades a good for a ground based attack. Building name: Photon Cannon Building cost: 150 minerals Building ability: STA Photon Cannon 20 damage, STS Photon Cannon 20 damage Building HP: 100/100 Building Summary: a good defense unit, this will detect, attack both air and ground for good damage, so surround your base with these and only Reavers, Guardians, and Siege Tanks have better range than this. Building name: Cybernetic Core Building cost: 200 Minerals Building ability: upgrade air attack, air armor, upgrade Dragoon attack range Building HP: 500/500 Building Summary: get two to make upgrades faster. This upgrades all your air units and also your Dragoons attack range. You need to build this to wrap in any advance buildings. Building name: Shield Battery Building cost: 100 minerals 300 energy Building ability: charge shields 200 energy Building HP: 200/200 Building Summary: not really useful since Protoss Shields recover quite fast. The battery will charge target Protoss unit's Shield, and all extra energy will go to any other units near by. This is only good for Archons and units with high Shields. Building name: Robotic Facility Building cost: 200minerals, 200 gas Building ability: make Shuttles, Reavers, Observers Building HP: 500/500 Building Summary: where you make some unit with special ability. Building name: Stargate Building cost: 150 minerals, 150 gas Building ability: make Scouts, Carriers, Arbiter, and Corsair Building HP: 600/600 Building Summary: this is where all the flying units are made for Protoss, you should get 4 or 5 Stargates when playing a long game, all units here takings awhile to make. Building name: Citadel of Adun Building cost: 150 minerals, 100 gas Building ability: upgrade Zealot speed. Building HP: 450/450 Building Summary: you need this if you are planning on doing Zealot rush, the upgrade increase Zealots walking speed greatly. This is also needed for Templar Archive. Building name: Robotics Supporting Bay Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas Building ability: Reaver damage, Reaver Capacity, Shuttle speed Building HP: 450/450 Building Summary: this is for Shuttle and Reaver upgrades. Building name: Fleet Beacon Building cost: 300 minerals, 200 gas Building ability: upgrade scouts sight, scout speed, Carrier capacity, Disruption Web, plus 50 Corsair energy Building HP: 500/500 Building Summary: here you can upgrade your Scout's movement and sight, also you can upgrade your Carrier's capacity to 8 (you really should get this if you are planning on using Carriers). In Brood Wars, you also upgrade your Corsair's ability. Building name: Templar Archives Building cost: 200 minerals, 200 gas Building ability: Pisonic Storm, Hallucination, +50 energy High Templar, Mind Control, Maelstrom, +50 energy Dark Archon Building HP: 500/500 Building Summary: all Templar and Dark Archon spell upgrades. Building name: Observatory Building cost: 50 mineral, 100 gas Building ability: upgrade Observer sight range, speed Building HP: 250/250 Building Summary: get this for Observers. Building name: Arbiter Tribunal Building cost: 200 mineral, 150 gas Building ability: Recall upgrade, Stasis Field upgrade, +50 energy Building HP: 500/500 Building Summary: this is the last building you should build when using Protoss, most games you won't need this since this building has a lot of requirements. The Arbiter it provide takes the longest to make (160), but however Arbiter can cloak all near by unit controlled by you, so it is very useful with Carriers and Archons. Unit name: Probe Unit HP: 20/20 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Particle Beam 5 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 1 Unit upgrade: armor and Protoss shield Unit ability: warp in various buildings, collect minerals and gas Unit requirement: Nexus Unit summary: your basic worker unit. Probes small size make them better in mineral collection than Drones and SCVs. Unit name: Zealot Unit HP: 80/80 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: PSI Blades 16 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 100 minerals Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 2 Unit upgrade: speed, attack, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Gateway Unit summary: your basic fighting unit for Protoss, great damage and HP. Unit name: Dragoon Unit HP: 80/100 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: Phase Disrupter 20 Unit air attack: 20 Unit cost: 100 mineral, 50 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 6 Unit upgrade: attack range, attack, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Gateway, Cybernetic Core Unit summary: attack both air and ground, however Dragoons attacks are very slow. So have these in large groups, Dragoons make very good anti air unit with their heavy damage. Once you get their range upgrade, Dragoons gets a lot more useful. Unit name: High Templar Unit HP: 40/40 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 50 minerals, 150 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: Psionic Storm, Hallucination, armor, Protoss shield, plus 50 energy, Archon Mold Unit ability: Psionic Storm deals heavy damage in target area, Hallucination makes two clone of target unit, the clones will not able to deal damage, the clone will die when the power runs out on it's stats. Two High Templar can transform into one Archon. Unit requirement: Templar Archive Unit summary: good decent unit, Psionic Storm is very useful against slow enemy that are together. Badly damaged High Templar can transform into a semi healthy Archon. Hallucination can scare away enemy by pretending you have a large number of Carriers. Unit name: Archon Unit HP: 350/10 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Psionic Shockwave 30 Unit air attack: Psionic Shockwave 30 Unit cost: 2 High Templar Unit supply cost: 4 Unit attack range: 3 Unit upgrade: attack, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Gateway, Templar Archive Unit summary: Archon is one of the most powerful ground unit in StarCraft, enough said right there. These can really kick some behind, drop these with a Reaver and you can just watch the two tear up the enemy's base from the in side. Unit name: Shuttle Unit HP: 60/80 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 200 minerals Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: speed, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: load, unload Unit requirement: Robotic Facility Unit summary: a very expensive transport, but with good speed once upgraded. Unit name: Reaver Unit HP: 80/100 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Scarab 100 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 200 mineral, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 4 Unit attack range: 10 Unit upgrade: Scarab Capacity, Scarab damage, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: build Scarab Unit requirement: Robotic Facility, Robotic Supporting Bay Unit summary: a good anti ground unit, great damage, but need Scarab to fire. Each Scarab is 15 minerals, but they don't take long to build. Reaver probably has the slowest speed in StarCraft, so use Shuttles and do the all famous Reaver drop. Unit name: Observer Unit HP: 20/40 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 25 mineral, 75 gas Unit supply cost: 1 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: sight, speed, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Observatory Unit summary: a good scouting unit, the Observer is always cloaked, and if you hide it in the corner, it will be very hard for human enemy to see, put them rite next to the minerals if your color is blue, best next to a gas site. Unit name: Scout Unit HP: 100/150 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Dual Photon Blaster 8 Unit air attack: Anti-Matter Missile 28 Unit cost: 300 minerals, 150 gas Unit supply cost: 3 Unit attack range: 5 Unit upgrade: speed, sight, attack, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: none Unit requirement: Stargate Unit summary: this is a very expensive flying unit compare to Mutalisk and Wraith. Scout has a lot of useful upgrades and in large groups, these can really kill. I don't use Carriers a lot, I rather use Scout since Carrier is slow and is a good target for Scourges. And Scouts can scout, their fast speed is one of their main advantages, you can just do a few hits and run. Unit name: Carrier Unit HP: 150/300 Unit armor: 4 Unit ground attack: 6 Unit air attack: 6 Unit cost: 450 minerals, 300 gas Unit supply cost: 8 Unit attack range: 9 Unit upgrade: Carrier Capacity, attack, Protoss shield, and armor Unit ability: build Interceptors Unit requirement: Stargate, Fleet Beacon Unit summary: the biggest unit for the Protoss race, very powerful, but attacks quite slow. These will crack from Scourge, Wraith and Scout. But with Arbiters, these can really kill. Unit name: Arbiter Unit HP: 150/200 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: Phase Disrupter Cannon 10 Unit air attack: Phase Disrupter Cannon 10 Unit cost: 100 mineral, 300 gas Unit supply cost: 4 Unit attack range: 4 Unit upgrade: Recall, Stasis Field, plus 50 energy, attack, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: Recall let you select a small section of the map and warp all units within the section warp next to the Arbiter. Stasis Field will freeze a unit, this unit will not deal any damage, as will as receiving any damage. Stasis Field will also affect up to 2 spaces away from target unit. Unit requirement: Stargate, Arbiter Tribunal Unit summary: the Arbiter will cloak all units near by controlled by you. This is a very useful unit for both defending and attacking. Recall is prefect for a sneak in attack when used correctly, Stasis Field is useful for attacking and defending. Have a Arbiter follow your attacking unit, this works well with Carriers and Archons. Brood War Protoss units Unit name: Dark Templar Unit HP: 40/60 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: Warp Blade 40 Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 125 mineral, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 1 Unit upgrade: attack, armor, Protoss Shield Unit ability: Dark Archon Merge Unit requirement: Templar Archive, Gateway Unit summary: the Dark Templar is always cloaked, this is a very good unit against Terran, since their Detector is Missile Turrets, and you can easily avoid them. Their strong attack make them good in defending against ground rush, however they can not attack air and have Dragoon defending. Unit name: Dark Archon Unit HP: 200/25 Unit armor: 0 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: none Unit cost: 2 Dark Templar Unit supply cost: 4 Unit attack range: 0 Unit upgrade: Mind Control, Maelstrom, plus 50 energy, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: Mind Control always you to take control of target unit, so it is possible to control all three races at the same time. Mind Control takes a lot of energy and drains Dark Archon's Shield empty, so have a Shield Battery when you are using Dark Archons. Maelstrom freezes a unit, make it very easy for you to kill. Feed Back will drain all energy from a unit and deal that much damage to that unit equal to the amount of energy drained. Unit requirement: 2 Dark Templar Unit summary: a good unit, hard to use for human player. Only use Mind Control on something that is worth the heavy price, like a Battle Cruiser, Carrier, or Arbiter. Unit name: Corsair Unit HP: 80/100 Unit armor: 1 Unit ground attack: none Unit air attack: Neutron Flare 5 Unit cost: 150 mineral, 100 gas Unit supply cost: 2 Unit attack range: 4 Unit upgrade: Disruption Web, plus 50 energy, attack, Protoss shield and armor Unit ability: Disruption Web, freeze all units and buildings with in the web Unit requirement: Stargate, Fleet Beacon Unit summary: Corsair only attacks air, even though their attack is only 5 damage, their attack is very fast it's splash damage. Corsair can get in around 10 attacks for Devour's one. Remember to use the Web wisely, this way you can get past the Cannons and Spores easily. Part 6: Various hints, useful ideas on playing StarCraft It is very important that you defend your base with troops and not with all buildings. E.g. Protoss Photon Cannon is used to back up your defense, your real defense should be Dragoons line up with Photon Cannons. Another important thing is be prepared for a unit with long range (Tanks, Reavers, Guardians), have something that can take out those unit fast before they can really put major damage into your base. Against Tanks and Reavers, have Zealot with speed upgrade and have them station near your front line defense, when Tanks come, just rush with your Zealots. Don't forget to replace your Zealots if you got the money. Against Guardians, just have a few Scouts, but watch out for Scourge and other anti air unit. If you are playing rush, don't stop even if you know that all your troops will die, as long as they can make things easier for your next rush, you should do it. The most important rush is the first one, if done correctly you will able to make your opponent either lose a Barrack/Gateway, or kill a large number of workers. Both of these is a successful rush, if they lose the Barrack/Gateway, it will take them time to rebuild while you can finish them off. The most important element in the game is mineral control, if you control more fields, you get more money and you will able to make more troops. When playing with cheap maps (resources of 1500), it is very important that you move to another resource field before your first field empties. You should expend when you feel you have enough money to start a new base while your first base is well defended. If you are using any race, take advantage of their long range units and get some free hits off your opponent. If their base is next to yours, use your long range unit and hit building that they built near you. If they don't know that you are right next to them, have a few troops attack their front line, and that should divide their attention. While the attack is still going on, have some kind of drop, best with big powerful units( Ultralisk, Archon, Dark Templar, Siege Tanks, Ghost with a nuke). When your units is running lose in their base, you should prepare to attack, right there is your best chance of winning. First have all your units break through their front line defense, and just rush everyone in. However, if their front line is powerful enough to stop you, don't stop swarming. Get more Gateway/Barrack if needed, just don't stop because your opponent is not some idiot that will let you keep making Drop on them. You should take advantage of your opponent's mistake, when you know that they have a small gap where you can get through, use it before they seal it up. You should not expect to win with your first set of attackers, while attacking, keep pumping out more. Taking a choke point is very important, if you can block in your enemy, and you are very likely to win against them. When playing as Zerg, sent out Zerglings and have them burrow around the map, that way you can take good control of the map and know when your opponent is planning to attack you. One of the most important thing is you should practice against some computer controlled opponents, best is you against 3 CPU, one of each race. Don't cheat during the practice, not even the map code, one of the most important idea is to find your opponent and have control over the map. Part 7: Cheats for the game You enter the codes in single player game during game play, press return, enter the code and press return again. Saved games will not save your cheats. Power Overwhelming-This code is for unlimited HP for all your units. Black Sheep Wall-This allows you to view the entire map. Operation CWAL-This is the code for super fast building. Show Me The Money-This gives you 10,000 mineral and 10,000 gas. Breathe Deep-You will get 500 gas. Food For Thought-You will not need any Supply buildings or units to support your troops. Modify The Phase Variance-This code let you build anything you can afford. Noglues-this will prevent your enemy from using Psionics (food supplies). Medieval Man-this allows one second upgrades. Something for Nothing-get all free upgrades right here. The Gathering-all your units will have unlimited energy. Game Over Man-you lose right away. Staying Alive-you won't win any game, you won't get the victory sign. There Is No Cow Level-instant win. Ophelia-level select, after you have entered this code, enter desire level. E.g. Protoss 8 for Protoss level 8, Terran 3, for Terran level 3. War Aint What It Use To Be-this removes the fog of war, you still can't really see that well. Whats Mine is Mine-this will give you 500 minerals. Radio Free Zerg-this code allows you to listen to a different music, this code only works for Zerg. Part 6: Credits First of all, I want to thank Blizzard for making this game. I want to thank Ray2001@Juno.com for giving me a lot of hints on the game. Then I want to thank AzNxKaNgTa@aol.com for hooking me up with this game, keep on selling. I have to really thank my friend Xu here for telling me many trigger keys, hot keys, and many other things, thanks a lot. And I have to thank LiLsHy for sending me the information about the Zerg sound tip. Another person I need to mention is Rcarlos's FAQ, I fixed some small bugs from reading his FAQ (all the mistakes are small like a unit's starting armor, I put down a wrong number). Also I want to thank my clan on Battle.Net, Da Agents, you people really need to stop playing this game, lolz. A lot of information I obtained is from the game and Blizzard's official StarCraft site. Copyright 1999, June 19,1999 Scott Lee 11:46 am Saturday mourning.