Starcraft 2 Beginner’s Guide

This Starcraft 2 Beginner’s Guide is primary intended for those who have just started play ladder-games in Starcraft 2. But I hope also others will find valuable tips here. I recommend reading through this guide before you read the other guides on our Starcraft 2 Guide-site. This to make sure you know the basics. This guide will not give you a recipe to victory, but help you improve your Starcraft 2 gameplay, no matter which race you play. It will not contain much race-specific tips, which you will find in the other guides. You will not learn about specific units, buildings or builds, which you also find other places on our site.

Have a plan

Before you join a game, you should have some thoughts on what you are going to do. It’s fine to have different plans based on which race you meet, which race you are playing and which map you will be playing on. But have a plan. Don’t start a game and think you can build every building and every unit. It is fine to respond to what your opponent is doing, but then that is your plan.

Have a plan: Here you see a terran player obviously planning from the start. By walling off below the ramp, he is able to secure his expansion earlier.

Also plan for different phases of the game. The big three phases is opening, middle and end-game. The opening is what units you will be building first, how to defend against early pressure and when to expand. This is often reffered to as build order, which you will find examples of here on Starcraft 2 Guide. The second phase is the midgame, where you have your expansion up and are building up your army. This is where you will be building your primary army, with the units you want to win the game with.

The end-game is when the game has gone on for a while, you both have lost a few armies, and have the economy to push out those big, expensive units. Your midgame-army could be the same as your endgame-army, or you can be switching to a different type or supplying with a new type. Typical endgame-units are Brood Lords, Battlecruisers and Carriers, which can you win you the game quickly if the opponent isn’t ready for them. But remember that many of these units are both expensive in terms of technology and resources. Make sure you are not overwhelmed by your opponent while you are building them.

What is your opponent doing?

One of the most important concepts of Starcraft 2 is scouting. This means figuring out what your opponent is doing. Scouting is important because it tells you what units you will be facing, when they will come and what units will work well for you. The first scout will usually be a worker, which is important because you want to know if your opponent is attacking you early (rushing you). On bigger maps it’s also used to find the opponent. Knowing which buildings the opponent is constructing first is vital because it can tell you when he is planning to attack you, and with what. After playing for a while, you will know a bit more about what the opponent is doing then you see their first buildings. You can study the typical openings to learn what units you probably will be facing with different builds.

Scouting: By placing an Observer by the terran base, this protoss player knows exactly what the enemy is building, how much he has and when he is moving out.

When you both have a few combat units, it will be harder to scout. You will also see that players will try to deny scouting, because they don’t want you to know what they are doing. This is where many of the different scouting techniques come to play. All three races have some typical ways to scout, like Changeling (zerg), Observers (protoss) and Scanner Sweep (terran). It’s also possible to scout with most other units, if you can get them into your opponents base. Typical such units are Overlords, Reapers and most flying combat units.

Scouting in Starcraft 2 is so important because it allows you to respond to what the opponent is doing. If you see they build two Starports, you know they will be heavy on flying units, and you have to make sure you have an army that is mobile and able to shoot air. If your worker scouts a zerg that has only a few workers and a finished spawning pool, you know to expect zerglings in your base soon. If you see your terran opponent building a second Command Center before he has a large army, you know that he is securing an early expansion. Maybe you can attack him and win the game quickly, or at least deny the expansion.

Can’t see the forest for the trees

It’s easy to be too obsessed on what is happening on the screen where you are looking. An invaluable tool in Starcraft 2 in the minimap. It’s vital to keep at least one eye on the minimap most of the time. Make sure you see things that are happening other places of the map. A very nice feature is also using the spacebar. Tapping the spacebar will take you to the last reported incident, like finished building, attacked units or completed upgrade. Don’t stand and watch while your forces are moving from one point to the other. Starcraft 2 is an intensive game, and I can assure you there are always other things to do while you wait for something.

Minimap and groups: Keep all the units and buildings you continually use and move in controlgroups. Make a system that works for you, but keep them hotkeyed.

One of the features of Starcraft 2 that can improve your results the most is using control groups. You do that by holding the Control key and pressing a number. The next time you press the same number you will select the same units or buildings as you had selected when you made the control group. Pressing the number a second time will take you to the position of the units or buildings. Make control groups for everything you need to interact with, including productionbuildings, scouts and your armies. This allows you to keep producing units while you are not looking at your base, quickly start a new upgrade or moving your army if you hear it is under attack.

There’s no interest in Starcraft 2

Having a lot of resources in Starcraft 2 is bad. Harvesting a lot of resources is good, but having them and not using them is bad. You should always make sure you are using all your resources. If you, game after game, find yourself with a lot of minerals after playing for a while, produce zerglings, zealots or marines. Or maybe you can expand to a new base? Usually having a lot of resources means you do not have enough producing structures. Make another, and make sure you are producing all the time. Having a lot of unspent resources is bad, because if your opponent has done about the same as you, but spent his resources, he will have a superior army.

Keep building workers

One of the units you should continually use your resources on, are workers. If you watch a replay, you can check the workercount halfway through the game. More often than not, the one with the most workers will win. It’s a basic tip that makes sure you have the best possible economy. When you see your workers scrambling around, not finding a free mineral node to mine, you know it’s time to expand. Workers are cheap, which means you will still have enough resources to build other units.

Build workers: One of the most important things in Starcraft 2 is to continue building workers. If you stop, you should have a very good reason.

Learn the hotkeys

Hotkeys is the keys on the keyboard you can press instead of using the mouse to build units, buildings and start upgrades. All the command you can do with the mouse has hotkeys. You will save a lot of time using the hotkeys instead of the mouse, time you can spend controlling your army or doing other commands. When you make control groups, you also get hotkeys for selecting your buildings and units. Use these hotkeys to build new units, start upgrades and keep producing while you are watching your army.

Some units has abilites, like Raven, Infestor and Sentry. Learn the hotkeys for these abilites, and use them when in combat. Time is vital in Starcraft 2, and the time saved when you use hotkeys instead of choosing the ability with the mouse could be the difference between losing or winning the battle.

Know your enemy

Knowing what options your opponent has is very useful in Starcraft 2. Even if you are planning to only play a single race, learn about the other races. That way you know what units to fear, and what the enemy is fearing from you. Personally I think it’s best to play all the races until you are at least confortable with them, but you can also get the knowledge by playing against the computer or reading about them. Many like to play random or different races in 3v3 and 4v4-games too, to get to know the other races. That way you get to know how annoying it is for a zergplayer to lose his first Overlord, how immobile a terran mecharmy is and how much resources a protoss have to use to get up to carriers.

What is this? By playing all the races, you get to know what the buildings are used for. The next time you see a base, you will know what units he is building.

That’s some pointers for you for improving your Starcraft 2 gameplay. I hope you have learned something new, and are able to climb those ladders. Play a few games and try to implement a few new things each session. Don’t try to do everything above the first time you play, but keep checking out your replays and see how you can improve. Check your workercount, make sure you know something about what the enemy is building and keep your resources low.