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Game Mechanics | Upgrade Maths for SC2

BSOS — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:48:53 GMT

Here I will provide a breakdown of all the important maths involving combat, upgrades, abilities and economy. Mostly upgrades though.

What is this useful for? Say you keep asking yourself:
"Should I upgrade weapons or armor first?"
"Is it worth my 100 gas to get combat shields?"
"Does it make a difference if I spend my money upgrading? or should I just get more units?"

Take a look here, maybe you will find answers to those questions.

Hopefully if the blues find this useful they will sticky this so it wont get lost with all the other threads [:

I will try to keep this updated with each patch

Let me know what kind of things you would like to see here!

0. General

1. ZvT

2. ZvP

3. PvT

4. ZvZ

5. TvT

6. PvP

0. General:
- Each worker on a mineral field will provide an income of 40 minerals per minute. However the 3rd worker on the mineral patch will only provide +20 minerals per minute and the fourth will make almost no difference to your income.

- Mules provide 20 less minerals during their lifetime if you click on a mineral patch that is placed 1 square further away

Q: How does armor work? Is it the same as Warcraft III?
A: No, armor is a static value in Starcraft II. For example a roach with 1 armor takes 1 less damage from all attacks. So a marine which does normally 6 damage, will only do 5 damage to a roach. A Seige tank that normally does 50 damage, will only do 49 damage to the roach.

Q: How does armor work when I have more armor than a units damage?
A: Units in Starcraft cannot do zero damage, the minimum is 0.5.
For example if I had a fully upgraded ultralisk with a total of 6 armor and an un-upgraded marine fires at it. The first shot does 0 damage and the second shot will do 1 damage. So if the ultralisk has 500 hp, it will take theoretically 1000 shots for a basic marine to kill it assuming the ultralisk does not regenerate health.

Q: How does Protoss shield regeneration work?
A: Protoss shields no longer regenerate in combat. They only regenerate 8 seconds after they have not taken any damage. Once they are out of combat, most protoss units regenerate their shields at around ~2 shields per second approximately.

Q: How does Zerg regeneration work?
A: Most zerg units regenerate at around ~1 hp/per 3.5 seconds. Certain units such as the roach regenerate faster than this. A roach regenerates ~5hp/per second underground (and more with the tunneling claw upgrade). This regeneration happens ALL the time even while they are in combat.

Q: If I upgrade armor, does it improve my Protoss shield?
A: No, armor values only reduce incoming damage to Protoss units life totals. Shields will still take full damage unless you have the Protoss Plasma shield upgrade.
Many Protoss players will choose to upgrade armor over shields simply because a majority of Protoss units have a larger life total than shields. With the exception of Dark Templar and Archons heavy builds, it is almost always a more effective choice to get armor upgrades over shields.

Q: How does the Protoss plasma shield upgrade work?
A: Similar to armor. Say you have a probe and you upgraded the Protoss plasma shield. A marine that normally does 6 damage will only do 5 damage to the probes shields. However once the shields are depleted on the probe, it will take the full 6 damage from the marine unless it also has Protoss ground armor upgrades.

Q: What is critical mass?
A: A student once asked Confucious, "How do I get good with Terran?". Confucious replied, make enough tanks so that everything dies in 1 volley. Essentially critical mass is a number of long ranged units grouped up so that melee or short ranged units usually all die before they can get close enough to deal damage.

For example :
Against a ball of marines and marauders, if I had 5 collosi, and they each fired a laser sweep they would deal a total of 150 damage - enough to incinerate marines and marauders alike. Most Terran players would agree that once they see 5 collusi their infantry are essentially worthless against the collosi ball. The critical mass of collosi against terran infantry is thus 5 (less with upgrades).

1. ZvT

#Please note zerg units regenerate health at APPROXIMTAELY ~1hp/3.5 seconds
A zergling takes 9 hits to kill a marine with no upgrades.
A zergling takes 11 hits to kill a marine with combat shield
A zergling takes 12 hits to kill a marine with +1 armor
A zerglign takes 14 hits to kill a marine with combat shields and +1 armor

- If given the choice, researching +1 armor is more favorable for Marine vs Zergling than combat shields in terms of survivability.

A zergling normally takes 9 hits to kill a marine
A zergling with +1 weapons kills a marine in 8 hits

A zergling normally can take 6-7 shots from a single marine before dying (remember zerglings regenerate health)
A zergling with +1 armor can take 8 shots from a single marine
A zergling can take 5-6 shots from a marine with +1 weapons

- Infantry weapons only slightly increases marine effectiveness vs Zergling (they still take a similar amount of attacks to kill)

A roach with no upgrades can take 8 shots from a marauder before dying (5-7 damage overkill)
A roach with +1 armor can take 9 shots from a marauder before dying (15-17 damage overkill)
A roach with no upgrades can tank 30-31 shots from marines (including regeneration, 29 IF the roach did not regenerate ie 30 marines attacked it at once)
A roach with +1 armor upgrades can tank 37-38 shots from marines
A roach with no upgrades can tank 25 shots from marines with +1 weapons

A roach can tank 3 seige tank blasts before dying (2 damage overkill)
A roach with +1 armor can tank 4 seige tank blasts before dying (47 damage overkill)

- Carapace makes a huge difference against infantry and seige tanks.

A roach takes 3 hits to kill a marine (3 damage overkill)
A marine with +2 armor upgrades will take 4 roach hits to kill
A marine with combat shields will take 4 roach hits to kill
A marine with combat shields and +3 armor will take 5 roach hits to kill

FUN FACT: A burrowed roach with tunneling claws regenerates life faster than a stim-packed marine can deal damage to it.

A roach with +0/+1 weapons takes 4 hits to kill a marine with combat shield
A roach with with +2 weapons can kill a marine with combat shields in 3 hits
A roach takes 9 hits to kill a marauder (10 damage overkill)
A roach with +1 weapons kills a marauder in 8 hits (11 damage overkill)

- In roach vs infantry combat, weapon upgrades provide only a small combat bonus.
Most of the time it is better to get carapace.

It takes 5 mutalisks to instantly kill an SCV
It takes 6 mutalisks to intsantly kill an SCV with +1 armor
It still takes 5 mutalisks to instantly kill an SCV even with +1 weapons on mutalisk

- Weapon upgrades on mutalisks provide little gain in terms of worker harassment.

A thor has 400 hp and 1 base armor
It takes 100 Zergling hits to kill a thor (so if you have 10 zerglings, it will take 10 hits per zergling)
A thor with +1 armor means it will take 134 zergling hits (34% increase in survivability)
A thor with +2 armor means it will take 200 zergling hits (100% increase in survivability)

Zerglings with +1 weapons can take down a thor in 80 hits
Zerglings with +2 weapons can take down a thor in 67 hits

- As you can see, armor upgrades help thors alot more if you are against zerglings.

Vikings take 7 shots to take down a mutalisk
Vikings with +1 weapons take 6 shots to take down a mutalisk

A single mutalisk takes 14 hits to kill a viking (less if the viking gets hit by bouncing glaives)
A mutalisk with +1 weapons can kill a viking in 13 hits

2. ZvP

A zealot takes 3 hits to kill a Zergling
A zealot with +1 weapons takes 2 hits to kill a Zergling
Further weapon upgrades make no difference in Zealot vs Zergling combat unless the Zerg player upgrades carapace

- Remember zerg players, its important you upgrade carapace to counteract this or else you will see your zerglings melt to zealots.

Zerglings kill zealots in 35 hits
Zerglings with +1 weapons kill zealots in 29 hits
Zerglings kill zealots with +1 protoss armor in 44 hits
Zerglings with +3 armor can tank 4 hits from a zealot

It takes 5 mutalisks to 1 shot a probe
It takes 4 mutalisks with +1 weapons to 1 shot a probe.

- Against protoss, +1 flier attacks reduces the number of mutalisks you need to effectively harass the protoss workers.

It takes a phoenix 7 volleys to kill a mutalisk
It takes a phoenix with +1 weapons 6 volleys to kill a mutalisk

Archons instantly 1 shot zerglings (35 damage to bio)
Archons take 2 hits to kill zerglings with +1 carapace
Any weapon upgrades on archon will counteract carapace

- Showing just how effective carapace is.

Immortals will melt a roach in 3 shots
Immortals will melt a roach with +1 armor in 4 shots
Immortals with +1 weapons will counteract this

- Once again the importance of zerg carapace.

Collosus with +2 weapons can instantly melt Zerglings.
Zerglings with +2 carapace will counteract this and zerglings will take 2 hits to kill
Collosus with +3 weapons will instantly melt zerglings regardless of carapace

Stalkers take 13 shots to kill a single mutalisk (remember zerg regenerate)
Stalkers with +1 weapons take 12 shots to kill a single mutalisk

Mutalisk kill stalkers in 19 hits
Mutalisk with +1 weapons kill stalkers in 17 hits

- Some notable maths incase anyone is having trouble with mutalisks.

Zealots take 6 hits to kill a hydralisk
Zealots with +1 weapons take 5 hits to kill a hydralisk

- Some say gateway units are weak against hydralisk however against smaller numbers of hydralisk, +1 weapon zealots with charge do extremely well.

A Hydralisk will shred a stalker in 15 shots
A hydralisk with +1 missile weapons will shred a stalker in 13 shots
A Hydralisk will shred a stalker with +1 protoss armor in 15 shots

- For stalker vs hydralisk combat don't bother with armor upgrades.

A stalker will kill a hydralisk in 9 shots
A stalker with +1 ground weapons will kill a hydralisk in 8 shots
A stalker will kill a hydralisk with +1 carapace in 9 shots

- Carapace for hydralisks against stalkers make minimal difference

FUN FACT: Stalkers can blink out of fungal growth

3. PvT:

Zealots take 3 hits to kill a marine
Zealots take 4 hits to kill a marine with combat shield
Zealots take 4 hits to kill a marine with +1 armor
Zealots take 4 hits to kill a marine with +1 armor and combat shields

Zealots with +1 weapons still take 3 hits to kill a marine
Zealots with +1 weapons still takes 4 hits to kill a marine with combat shields

- Weapons +1 against mass marine does virtually nothing for your zealots unless you are counteracting the armor, in most cases it is better to get protoss ground armor.

Zealots with +1 weapons will kill a marine that uses stimpack in 2 hits
Zealots with +1 weapons will kill a marine with combat shields that uses stimpacks in 3 hits

- However if the marine activates stimpacks, having +1 weapons on your zealots will mince them much faster.

Immortals take 3 shots to kill a marauder
Immortals take 3 shots to kill a marauder using stimpacks
Immortals with +1 weapons takes 2 shots to kill a marauder using stimpacks

- Alot of protoss seem to have an issue with marauders, try +1 weapons with immortals.

It takes 29 shots for a marine to kill a zealot
It takes 34 shots for a marine to kill a zealot with +1 armor
It takes 47 shots for a marine to kill a zealot under the cover of guardian shield
It takes 63 shots for a marine to kill a zealot with +1 armor under the cover of guardian shield

FUN FACT: It takes 250 shots for a marine to kill a zealot with +3 armor, +3 plasma shields under the cover of guardian shield.

- An alternative to templars/collosus to counter marines? think about it. Showing just how important infantry weapons are to terran players to counteract guardian shield and armor upgrades.

Archons take 2 hits to kill a marine
Archons instantly fry marines that activate stimpack
Archons take 2 hits to fry a marine with +1 infantry armor that activates stimpacks
Archons take 2 hits to fry a marine with combat shields that activates stimpacks

- Beware of the Archon

Marauders take 9 shots to take down a stalker
Marauders with +1 weapons take 8 shots to take down a stalker

Stalkers take 10 shots to kill a marauder
Stalkers with +1 weapons take 9 shots to kill a marauder

- Amazing what a little upgrade can do for you

Dark Templars instantly shred and SCV in 1 hit
Dark Templars take 2 hits to shred and SCV with +1 infantry armor

- Wow spending 100/100 can halve a Dark Templars SCV killing potential!

Seige tanks take 4 shots to kill a zealot
Seige tanks with +1 weapons take 3 shots to incinerate a zealot

- Ouch?

Maruaders take 17 shots to kill a zealot (ALMOST twice as much as a stalker)
Marauders take 18 shots to kill a zealot with +1 armor
Marauders with +1 weapons take 15 shots to kill a zealot

- Protoss players having trouble with marauders don't counter them with pure stalker or pure zealot as zealots get kited while stalkers aren't cost efficient. As you can see zealots can eat alot more punisher grenades before dying. Try to put zealots infront while your stalkers take pot shots at marauders. Upgrades help alot too.

4. ZvZ

A baneling instantly melts zerglings around it
A zergling with +1 carapace survives a baneling blast with 1hp

- If you can manage to get a carapace upgrade in ZvZ it will swing well in your favor as it now takes 2 banelings to kill a single zergling.

It takes 8 banelings to kill a roach
It takes 9 banelings to kill a roach with +1 carapace

- If you see roaches dont run your banelings at them. Your wasting a lot of resources.

A roach kills another roach in 10 hits
A roach with +1 missile weapons kills another roach in 9 hits
A roach kills a roach with +1 carapace in 11 hits

It takes 5 mutalisk to one shot a drone
It takes 4 mutalisk with +1 weapons to one shot a drone

- Same case with Z v P

A roach will kill a zergling in 3 attacks
A roach with +1 missile weapons will kill a zergling in 2 attacks

- Similar case with Zealot vs Zergling.

A zergling takes 37-38 hits to kill a roach
A zergling takes 49-50 hits to kill a roach with +1 carapace
A zergling with +1 melee weapons takes 30 hits to kill a roach

- Tough stuff

Fungal growth leaves zerglings alive with 1 hp (because they regnerate)

A hydralisk kills another hydralisk in 7 hits.
A hydralisk with +1 missile weapons still kills another hydralisk in 7 hits
A hydralisk kills another hydralisk with +1 carapace in 8 hits.

- In hydralisk combat, you can see only carapace really makes a difference here.

A hydralisk kills a mutalisk in 11 shots
A hydralisk with +1 missile weapons kills a mutalisk in 10 shots

A mutalisk kills a hydralisk in 9 shots
A mutalisk with +1 weapons still kills a hydralisk in 9 shots

- Same case, weapon upgrade for mutalisk vs hydra makes minimal difference.

Mutalisks kill other mutalisks in 14 shots
Mutalisks with +1 weapons kill other mutalisks in 13 shots
Mutalisks kill other mutalisks with +1 armor in 16 shots

5. TvT

A seige tank in seige mode instantly incinerates a marine
A seige tank in seige mode leaves a marine with combat shields alive with 5hp after one blast.
A seige tank in seige mode with +1 vehicle weapons instantly incinerates a marine with combat shields
A seige tank in seige mode with +1 weapons leaves a marine alive with 1hp if the marine has combat shields and +1 armor
A further +2 vehicle weapons will make the seige tank incinerate marines in a single blast regardless of infantry upgrades.

- Upgraded marines make effective seige tank fodder.

A seige tank kills another seige tank in 4 shots
A seige tank with +1 weapons blows up another seige tank in 3 shots
A seige tank with +1 weapons blows up another seige tank with +1 armor in 4 shots
Vehicle upgrades +2 will make seige tanks kill other seige tanks in 3 shots regardless of armor

- Vehicle weapons is a CRUCIAL upgrade especially in TvT.

Vikings take 5 volleys to kill another Viking
Vikings with +1 weapons take 5 volleys to kill another viking
Vikings take 5 volleys to kill another viking with +1 armor

- Aerial upgrades makes very little difference in viking to viking combat, most of the time its a waste of gas. Unless you can get to +2 upgrades.

Marauders take 9 shots to kill a seige tank
Marauders with +1 weapons take 8 shots to kill a seige tank
Marauders with +1 weapons still take 8 shots to kill a seige tank with +1 armor

- Some players like the use of marauders in TvT. This is showing you just how powerful 1 upgrade is.

A banshee kills a marine in 2 shots.
A banshee kills a marine with combat shields in 3 shots
A banshee kills a marine with +1 armor in 3 shots
A banshee kills a marine with combat shields AND +1 armor in 3 shots
A banshee with +1 weapons will still kill a marine with combat shields in 3 shots
A banshee kills a seige tank in 8 shots
A banshee with +1 weapons takes out a seige tank in 7 shots

- Some banshee numbers, they are used in TvT quite a bit as well.

Marauders take 5 shots to kill a marine
Marauders still take 5 shots to kill a marine with +1 armor
Marauders with +1 weapons still takes 5 shots to kill a marine

- As you can see weapon upgrades don't help your marauders much if your facing heavy marine. Although most of the time in TvT its the seige tanks you are worried about.

A marine takes 25 shots to kill a marauder
A marine takes 32 shots to kill a marauder with +1 armor
A marine with +1 weapons takes 21 shots to kill a marauder

A marine takes 8 shots to kill another marine
A marine takes 9 shots to kill a marine with +1 armor
A marine takes 7 shots with +1 weapons to kill another marine
A marine takes 10 shots to kill a marine with combat shield
A marine takes 8 shots with +1 weapons to kill another marine with combat shields
A marine takes 11 shots to kill a marine with combat shields and +1 armor

- Marine vs marine combat is only seen early game TvT and late game TvT when both players are out of gas.

6. PvP

Zealots will kill another zealot in 11 hits
Zealots with +1 weapons will kill another zealot in 10 hits
Zealots will kill another zealot with +1 armor in 12 hits

A stalker takes 17 shots to kill a zealot
A stalker with +1 weapons takes 15 shots to kill a zealot
A stalker takes 18 shots to kill a zealot with +1 armor

- In PvP most players tend to opt for weapon damage. Also note once stalkers get to a critical mass of 17 or 15 with weapon upgrades, zealots are pretty much worthless as they get one-shotted.

Stalkers kill other stalkers in 13 shots
Stalkers with +1 weapons kill other stalkers in 12 shots
Stalkers kill other stalkers with +1 armor in 13 shots

- Ze armor it does nuthsing!

A stalker will destroy an immortal in 10 + 16 shots
A stalker with +1 weapons will destroy an immortal in 10 + 15 shots
A stalker will kill an immortal with +1 armor in 10 + 17 shots

Immortals kill other immortals in 10 + 5 shots
Immortals with +1 weapons kills other immortals in 10 + 4 shots
Immortals break stalkers in 4 blasts
Immortals with +1 weapons break stalkers in 4 blasts
Immortals with +2 weapons break stalkers in 3 blasts

- Hardened shields will absorb 10 immortal shots.

It takes 6 collosi to vaporize a stalker instantly
It takes 5 collosi with +1 weapons to vaporize a stalker instantly

It takes 6 collosus to melt a zealot
It takes 5 collosus with +1 weapons to melt a zealot

- Against protoss the normal critical mass for collosi is 6, but if you have weapons +1, this number is down to 5. Think about it - 100/100 upgrade at forge is essentially "gives" you a 6th collosus (300/200) pretty good value right?

Immortals take 8 shots to break a collosus
Immortals with +1 weapons take 7 shots to break a collosus

ENJOY! Please share any feedback with what you would like me to include. I will work on it and get around to it eventually.
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SOURCE

Zerg Unit: Corruptor | Valid Anti-Air?

BSOS — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:53:36 GMT

This guide will in detail list the benefits of using the Zergs Corruptor unit in battle and the pros and cons about it. This will teach you the hotkeys and how to best utilize this unit in combat.

Production:
Minerals: 150
Vespene: 100
Supply: 2
Build Time: 40

Vitals:
Hit Points: 200
Regen: 0.27
Energy: 200
Regen: 0.56

Statistics:
Movement: 2.95
Turn Rate: 999.84
Acceleration: 2.63
Armor: 2 (+1)

Information:
Hotkey: C
Sight Radius: 10
Producer: Larva
Requires: Spire
Attributes: Armored - Biological
Classification: Air

Abilities

Corruption (C):
Covers a target in acid causing it to take more damage.

Type: Command
Stats: 20% damage intake
Energy: 75
Duration: 30 sec
Range: 6

The Corruptor is an Air to Air zerg unit that excels at fighting massive units. In no doubt is it the best at destroying Motherships, Battlecruisers, and Carriers. What I, along with many other people want to know is, how effective is it against other "less massive" units? You lucky readers are about to find out.

I used the unit tester map to test out the effectiveness of the Corruptor in all other matchups.

Here are my findings:
(note - all matchups are by default without using the corruption ability)
(the ">" and "<" refer to winning or losing respectively)

Corruptor VS :

Viking:

1C > 1V

3C (with corruption) > 3V

BattleCruiser:

3C > 1BC

Pheonix:

1C > 1Ph

Voidray:

2C < 1V

2C (with corruption) > 1V

Carrier:

3C > 1Ca

Mutalisk:

2C > 3M

What we can determine from these findings:

The corruptor can hold its own against pheonix and vikings in small numbers, and mutalisks where they are not too heavily outnumbered.

Against larger numbers of vikings, corruptors may not match up; micro is definitely needed. The only reason why Corruptors do so well against Vikings is because of their 2 armor; reducing the viking's attack by 4 each hit. I highly recommend getting air armor if you plan on using the Corruptors to deal with Vikings or Pheonix.

The corruptor is out of luck when it comes to the voidray. In any number until critical mass, voidrays will beat out Corruptors because of the Voidray's charge ability. The Voidray simply does too much damage for the Corruptor to keep up. Even with the corruption ability, 2 corruptors just barely beat the Voidray. If there were 2 voidrays, it might take as many as 5 or 6 corruptors to beat the 2 of them.

Against Massive units like the Carrier and BattleCruiser, it takes a ratio of 3 Corruptors to 1 Capital Ship to defeat it. Which is almost cost effective for the zerg. I mean "almost" because in terms of gas and minerals, 3 Corruptors cost about the same as a fully intercepter'd Carrier and BattleCruiser. However, with all the tech required to build those 2 units, the Corruptor definitely makes it more efficient.

Basically, what these findings are saying is that the corruptor is effective at killing massive flying units. It can beat Vikings and Pheonix in equal numbers (although not very cost effective for the zerg), and is pretty darn good against mutalisk flyers.

It's unfortunate the Corruptor can only attack air. This alone makes the unit almost never used. And what's worse is how effective hydralisks are against enemy air units. Hydras are so effective, it makes corruptors seem silly to even bother with a spire. The only thing Corruptors have going for them is the Brood Lord mutation and their effectiveness against massive units like the Collosus and BattleCruiser. In this Author's opinion, in regards to anti-air, I wouldn't spend the money on corruptors, but instead on hydralisks.

Creep Mechanics | Zerg Creep Guide

Kreeper — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 19:02:36 GMT

This creep guide for Starcraft 2 gives in depth information of how to best utilize creep within Starcraft 2. This guide will break down the benefits of using creep to your advantage as a Zerg player.

I have figured out most of how creep works behind the scenes, including:

What are the benefits of Creep?
How does Creep Grow?
How do you optimize Creep Growth?

The first half of this guide is likely to look a lot like the liquidpedia page on Creep in Starcraft 2. This is just to ensure the basics have been covered before explaining the rest.

The Benefits of Creep :
Before anything else, we need to understand exactly what benefits creep gives. The major advantage of creep is speed. It increases the movement speed of all zerg units by 30%, with a few exceptions. Queens move 170% faster. A Hydralisk moves 50% faster. Both Crawlers move 150% faster. The other benefit is the ability to place zerg buildings, including Spine and Spore Crawlers. It also prevents these buildings from dying, as will happen if they are not connected to creep.

On Vision :
creep =/= vision, is important, because for example your hatchery doesn't have vision about a tile and a half within the edge of its creep. This means the enemy could sneak over the edge of the hatchery's creep and not be seen at all.

Lair's and Hive's do not increase the creep range, but increase the vision range +1 each time. With Lair's the enemy can still barely step over the edge of the Lair's creep and not be seen. With Hive's the vision goes beyond its creep range, so a unit could be spotted even off creep, if they are near it.

Check this thread too: Tumor's creep spread rate - Page 2

How Creep Grows

Creep is generated by 4 sources:
- Hatcheries make the largest creep area in the game, but are not an economical way to increase creep size.
- Overlords, with Lair tech, have a "Generate Creep" ability. This creates what is usually referred to as a "2x2" area of creep.
- Creep Tumors will generate a "4x4" area of creep. Due to the way creep tumors are usually placed (at the end of a currently existing bit of creep), they generally only generate a bit more than half this amount.
- Nydus Worms will generate a "4x4" area of creep after emerging from the ground.

Now, this "4x4" area, and "2x2" area are both misnomers. Creep actually generates in a "Squared Circle" pattern, with a radius in what I will call Distance Units. A Distance unit is the smallest whole unit defined internally in Starcraft. The length of a distance unit is approximately the length of a zealot. In addition, I will define a Square Unit as a 1 Distance Unit by 1 Distant Unit square area. This is approximately the total space a Zealot takes up.

A Creep Tumor generates creep in a 10 square radius squared circle. This means it generates creep in a total of 292 squares. An Overlord generates creep in a 6 square radius squared circle. This means it generates creep in a total of 96 squares.

Why are these numbers important? Well it turns out that how long it takes to generate creep is well defined.

Creep doesn't start being generated until a delay period. On Overlords, this is 2 seconds. On Creep Tumors, this is 0 seconds.
Creep is generated every Creep Generation Period. The Creep Generation Period of Overlords is 1 second. The Creep Generation Period of Creep Tumors is 0.8332 seconds. At the end of each of these periods, just less than 3 square units of creep are created on average (about 2.835, based on observations detailed below).
Creep is generated randomly, so long as it is adjacent to existing creep. This is how the cool growth effect works internally. This has a hidden ability in it though: Multiple creep sources generate simultaneously.
I've run some tests on exactly how long it takes for an Overlord and Creep Tumor to fill the area defined above. These tests are based on 10 trials.
An Overlord takes about 34 seconds to fill up its entire area. Judging by how its creep generation is defined, 34 seconds is likely the exact value.
A Creep Tumor takes just less than 86 seconds to fill up its entire area. Judging by how creep generation is defined, it is likely 85.8196 seconds exactly.

But what if we want this faster.

How to Optimize Creep Growth :
The key to optimizing Creep Growth is hidden above. The easiest and quickest way to optimize creep growth is to add more creep sources. The time it takes for two Creep Tumors to fill an entire area is about 43 seconds. The time it takes for three is about 29 seconds.

As you can see, there are diminishing returns. Thus we have to question exactly how fast we want it, compared to what it costs. Since Overlord creep generation is free (unless the overlord is placed in danger because of it), we will ignore it for the purposes of optimizing (just grab a group, have them all generate creep, keep them together).

When you generate creep edge to edge, you tend to save 124 square units. This translates into saving about 36 seconds on one tumor. On two tumors, the amount of time saved is actually halved, since you would have generated it twice as fast. Thus you save only about 18 seconds, and it takes about 25 to fill. With three, you would only have saved 12 seconds, and it would take 17 to fill, etc.

So exactly how much is optimal? Well EDIT as of the Beta coming back up, Spawn Creep Tumor now takes 15 seconds to build the tumor, and 30 seconds for the cooldown. This means that you should never, ever, have more then two creep tumors together, unless you need creep somewhere that instant.

The other main way to optimize creep growth is having multiple paths. You do not need a single line, and generally it is beneficial to have creep covering as much of the map as possible. This obviously increases the amount of micro required to keep the creep up, but each path basically consists of the problem above.

Attached Images

howcreepworks.jpg (20.0 KB)

ZvT Guide

BSOS — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:20:36 GMT

ZvT (In General Terms!) [Part 1: OPENINGS]

There are so many different ways to play the beggining of ZvT. In this I liken it to a chess game that to start there are only several viable openings.

The three I'd like to cover are 14 Drones --> Hatchery and then 13 Drones --> Pool |||| 14 Pool 15 Hatchery (Read 14 Drones -->Pool, and 15 Drones --> Hatchery.||| And 13 Pool 13 Vespene. Each of these have their benefits, and suit a specific play style. 14 Hatchery the first build order caters to those who want an early game advantage and are presuming that their opponent isn't planning on doing a powerful rush early on. Those who go 14 pool 15 hatchery there are several tricks to this, but the basic premise behind this is you want to prevent any early pressure that the Terran might use and to gain a fairly strong macro position. The 13 pool 13 vespene build is specificly designed to give you early pressure and dictate the early game at the cost of macro.

First of all lets focus on the 14 Hatchery and 13 Spawning Pool build order. This is a favorite of mine in far positions. Certain maps like steppes and kulas make this build order very hard to do though. Steppes has such a close base position that the terran can simply attack early with several marines and scvs and possibly do a huge ammount of damage. Kulas Ravine has so many ways to do early harass to a quick expo that this sort of build is so risky. (Think reapers on the cliff!) However on maps like Lost temple and Metalopolis this map can work solidly. Your oponent won't scout early enough to prevent this expo (generally) and you can macro early while scouting and preventing any early harassment.

Now to talk about what to do after you go 14 Hatchery! This is where things can start diverging, and you have to decide certain things... A solid build order in this situation of cross positions on either metal or lost temple would be to make 15 Drones then an Overlord. So 15 Overlord 15 Zergling 16 Queen is solid.

After you have finished the build order up to 16 queen your overlord should be just finishing. When the 2 zerglings you have made come out its wise to send at least one of these to the front of your opponents base. You should ALWAYS have a zergling inbetween your base and your opponents. This is the best way to figure out if your opponent is simply fake attacking or charging your base for real. Good terrans will simply step outside of their base and attempt to destroy this zergling and then just go back in. Its important that you recognize this tactic for what it is and not make plenty of spine crawlers without a good reason. Now after you have made 16 queen it is smart to simply produce drones.

Now if your hatchery is almost done say 90% finished you can start sending 3-4 drones over right away. Theres no need to wait for your hatchery to be completely finished before sending over drones. Depending on your opponents build order it is wise to not build a spine crawler just yet. You can make 2-4 zerglings in this middle time and keep them on creep. To continue the build order it would go something along the lines of 18 drone 19 drone 20 drone 21 vespene 20 queen (This one should be made at your second hatchery) Why not make this queen earlier? When you fast expo like this you will have enough larva that you won't need to spit or it will just give you extra larva that will set and wait. This is a topic that is up for debate but its what I've been prefering of late.

Its very important to continue scouting here. Send those 2-4 zerglings to go run up your opponents ramp and to run back. If he has a barracks with a reactor core then you can geuss hes going to simply transfer a factory over onto that and go hellions. With this build order its important to keep a queen on the ramp and to have at least one spinecrawler. The idea then behind this build order is that if you can prevent this hellion harassment and continue to build drones and tech (speed or lair) you should be ahead of your opponent who is still running off of one base. I will go more into vs. hellions later on however for now I'm just talking about this opening and how to get to this point of macro vs. macro and defending. So if you know your opponent isn't a very early rush styled player this strategy will give you the best early game macro boost. However if your opponent is constantly reaper rushing or if your just not sure it can be very wise to not take the chance. In tournament games go with what you feel, as corny as that sounds it generally works.

Now lets discuss how you could properly do a 14 pool 15 hatchery build order! This is my favorite because it offers a mix of both worlds. It can either provide early pressure on your opponent or give you a solid macro middle game. The point behind this build order is to get a first queen early and tranfer it to your second base while making several zerglings to stop your opponent from scouting and safely expand. So after you have 14 pooled 15 hatcheried you will want to drone up while taking a fairly early gas. So to continue the build you would go 15 overlord 15 queen 17 zergling and wait until the overlord is finished. Then you can either make several more zerglings (no more then 6 though unless hes rushing!)and then make drones. You will want to take that first queen and spit on your first hatchery and move it over to your expansion RIGHT away. Spit and walk. Also right whenever your first queen pops out you will have enough minerals to make a second one. This timing works out well and you can continue to make drones or zerglings.

After you have around 20 population here you should start to make a vespene geyser. You will want to either make speedlings or roaches at this point. (Unless its LT and then its smart to take a lair first, but we'll go into that later!) Roaches are a solid idea if you think your opponent is going hellion and speedlings are viable if you enjoy micro and think your opponent will be agressive with his hellions. so the point of this build was simply to have a few early lings to stop the scout, to prevent the early reaper or marine rush and to keep a solid macro up while scouting early. (With the first lings)

Now onto our final build order in early ZvT. 13 pool 13 vespene. This build is my favorite to use on on cheesey maps. If your opponent just finshed 8 raxing you two games in a row this build order will be a good counter. With this build you won't expand until you have lings to defend. With this build order you can cheese or expand. To expand and play a macro game with early speedlings (meant for fighting and surrounding early hellions) you should continue the build order as follows. 14 overlord 14 zergling 15 zergling 16 queen (Those should all be made right when your pool is finished). Then whenever you have 100 gas take the 3 workers off of gas and make speed. After you have made speed you can send a drone to your expansion and start to make your hatchery. To continue; 18 drone 19 drone 19 hatchery 19 zerglings and continue to make zerglings. At a certain point when the second hatchery is at around 65% its smart to take one last spit at your main hatchery with your queen and start moving him to your expansion while making a second queen at your main hatchery. Here you should be able to continue making just enough zerglings to kill hellions that attack you. You can either put a spine crawler at your natural and wait until the hellions charge and then jump on them as they are entering your natural or main or try and put slightly earlier pressure. They both have their benefits and negatives which we'll discuss later in middle game.

To turn this build order into a baneling bust, simply watch a dimaga game (several on the Day9 King of the Beta Hill Tournament). To use roaches to cause an early push you can adapt this slightly. Roaches this early are good to suprise your opponent. The build order to use roaches would be the same up until your at 18/18. After then simply don't get speed and make a roach warren and continue to make drones after you have your first 4-6 zerglings. Use these zerglings and your queen to prevent the scv your opponent sent to scout the roach warren. Never build the warren when your opponent is still in your base with that scv. Continue to make drones until 20-22. At 20-22 you should make an overlord and then wait. You should be saving up around 300 minerals and 125+ gas for when the larva comes down from the hatchery via your queen's spit. Then just make them all roaches and proceed to lay waste to the dominion!

So, those are my favorite three early game build orders vs. terran. They each have a unique style and its good to mix them up and see which you prefer. Or use your own, either way have fun with it!

ZvT Middle Game

MIDDLE GAME (HELLIONS/ BANSHEES / MARAUDERS OH MY!)

I consider the middle game to be the part in the game where you have your expansion up and some drones. Your opponent will also have a tech tree hes working on and your goal is to counter his with your own. Here were going to discuss several of the most popular T middle game harasses. The three most common build orders a terran will use are Hellions (Dropships, Ignite, Expansion), Banshees (Cloak or No?), and Marauder Hellion Marine (Expansion or Pressure). (At least those are the three I've been playing the most lately)

Hellions Hellions and more Hellions!
(Reactor core Build orders and more)

You have just scouted your opponent and you see he has a reactor core attached to his factory and hes going to be making hellions! OMG TIME TO PANIC! Run outside and scream away these nightmare machines! On a more serious note you shouldn't panic! You will simply want to retreat any zerglings you have into your natural base and plant down a spine crawler. You will want to put your zerglings on top of the ramp leading into your main base. You will want a certain number of zerglings / spine crawlers in relation to the ammount of hellions. I find that 1 spine 1 queen and 12 zerglings are perfect for anything up to 4 hellions. At 6 hellions it can be helpful to either add 8 more zerglings or another spine crawler. If you have speedlings you won't need quiet as many and you can attempt to surround so much easier. Your goal against this build order is just to get enough zerglings that you can either prevent this attack or you can attack the hellions he is making surround them, kill them, and then prevent him from expanding until he makes a whole new batch of hellions. If he makes anywhere from 8-10 hellions basically you will need to use waves of zergling in concert with your spine crawlers and queens to prevent this harassment.

You should have your lings spaced out on top of your ramp and several inside your minerals of your expansion. This will allow you to come from different directions and surround the hellions and keep them from destroying your drones. While your opponent is making hellions you should be mixing in drones with this zergling defense and attempting to tech to lair. Its important that you get to lair to put pressure right back on the terran. By making a spire or a roach warren you will be able to keep these hellions from preventing you from taking a third base and you can make him make some defense, be it thors vs. mutas or tanks vs. roaches. Once you have destroyed his big ball of hellions you are free to roam the world with your zerglings again so don't forget to put some lings in front of the terran's base and to keep zerglings on xel'naga towers! Taking a third and making again just enough to defend without losing your drones is the best way to defeat this line of hellions.

Hellions with ignite, time to fight!
(Factory with Tech lab)

You have just seen your opponent make a hellion and he has a tech lab! What why didn't he make a tank or a thor even! But no he has made a hellion and you can tell hes going to try and mess you up with blue flames. There are several ways to fight this. One way that you can use is listed above in the Hellions Hellions and more Hellions section. However I believe there is a better way to deal with this if hes using a tech add on.

You will have to make a roach warren and a few spine crawlers (2 or so) until your roaches arrive. Your goal here is to make 5-6 roaches to wall off either your ramp or keep the hellions away from your mineral line. You should simply keep him out and you can even attempt to pressure him back with 4-5 roaches. The time he spends micro'ing his hellions against your roaches will be time that he isn't attacking your drones and you can macro in this time. He will generally have to make at least 1 marauder or tank to prevent the roaches from then breaking into his main and you will have stopped him from making too many blue flame hellions. If he however conitnues to make hellions (6-8?) just keep making these roaches and drones. You should be able to prevent him from expo'ing at the least and preventing him from killing your economy.

Hellions Ready to Drop!
(Factory with a Starport with no add-on)

As if hellions with ignite or 4 quick hellions wasn't pain enough your opponent has a way to completley bypass your spinecrawlers and to put them down where they want! If your opponent doesn't have ignite with his hellions it can be wise to simply have your queen try and chase around the dropship while you try and surround the hellions with zerglings. Anything to keep them from your drones! You will want to damage the hellions enough that they have to leave or the same with the dropship. If however your opponent has ignite this can be very difficult. I would recomend getting roaches for this build like I mentioned above. You would want to keep some of those roaches above your ramp to stop them from running in and simply move them over to your main base and try and keep your drones alive! NEVER EVER highlight all of your drones and run them all away in a line. That is the worst possible reaction and the hellions will stare and smile as they cannot believe their own luck before they completely ruin your entire game! Move your drones by 3-4's to seperate areas and keep them from clumping if you can. Try and focus fire down the hellions as well its alot harder to flame drones down with 2 hellions compared with 4 half health hellions. These are the baisc options you have for how to prevent Hellions from ruining your day.

Banshees! Weeeee!
(Do i see a Banshee? Nope because my eyes are closed cringing!)

You see a starport and it has a techlab! I will be honest and say that this is the build order I have the most dificulty with. A small tip, be extra careful with terrans in tournament games, banshees are something that they think you won't expect in an important game. Now how to deal with this! There are several schools of thought here. Queens and only queens, spore crawlers with 1-2 queens, or queens with a fast lair and spores. I personally think that its important to continually make queens from 1 base while you tech up your other hatchery as quick as you can for an oveerseer. Its also smart to build an evolution chamber if you have seen it in enough time. You can put 1-2 spores in each base as little towers for your queens to retreat to if the banshees disapear. Its important to use w/e zerglings you have to try and prevent an expo by the terran while he is harassing with banshees. If you can manage to kill off the banshees or at the very least prevent them from doing to high of a tole in drones and queens you should come out ahead. I think its very important to leave a spore behind each mineral line to prevent the terran mindset that if they keep the banshees alive they can come back whenever they want for 2-3 drone kills while you move your queen to that awkward position.

Banshees with Cloak! What a joke!
(Banshees with Cloak obv... Starport with Tech Lab)

I think that you will have to either A. start your lair before you did your speedlings and very very early or B. make plenty of spore crawlers to stop this build order. Following the same logic as you would in a BW game you should continue to fend off these wrait.. banshees while teching to either mutalisks or hydralisks. Sometimes its wise to get a few hydralisks while still teching to spire to simply throw off the Terran. Once you have managed to live through these cloacked units by queen/spore crawler defensing your base you will need something with mobility to allow you to take a third base. You will have to either send 2-3 hydras with an overseer or some mutas to an expansion to protect it from any lingering banshees just waiting to pick off unsuspecting drones. Your drones will thank you for this! If you are losing all the drones at a base while making queens, its wise to move all of your drones to the base below. Its slightly harder for a banshee to kill a drone thats running then one that is standing still. Its very difficult to deal with this build orders in the hands of a sneaky terran, but you can do it!

Middle Game Topics that I havn't broughten up because I'm not intending to write a novel entitled: Why Sheth ended his life after writing a 330 page SC2 guide for people on TeamLiquid.net.
(Early Marauder attack, 10+ Reapers of death, scv marine attack ball and THOR ATTACK)

If your opponeent is planning on attacking you with marauders its wise to make many speedzerglings and a few spine crawlers to defend this. If he has hellions with it its still the best choice you can make to make plenty of speedlings. However if he has 4-6 hellions you will definetly want to focus them down first and perhaps get roaches to balance this. You will want to simply beat back this attack and you should be ahead economically. 10 reapers all racing to your base? A line of ling killing death? Little do they know you have 4-5 roaches just waiting for them. Try and geuss where they will fly up and be waiting for them with either roaches and lings or just PLENTY of lings and a queen. You will want to guard your natural with at least one spine crawler. If you can hold these off with roaches and prevent them from getting into your drones you should come out ahead, because roaches are viable in late game armies, where as reapers are pretty much just a fork broughten to a knife fight. (Useless unless your with indians and a canoe)

In order to fight a scv marine ball early on its smart to simply make as many zerglings as you can with queens. If you can sneak the zerglings behind the scvs and directly attack the marines yolu should be safe. Thor attacks are difficult to deal with as are Thor drops. Thors in mass are very difficult to deal with, if T has alot of hellions as back up. I'd recomend spine crawlers roaches and speedlings to deal with this composition early game. And focus fire the roaches onto a single Thor when they attack.

ZvT End Game (Theres so much more I could have written down, but I figured I'd start small.. kind of!)

End Game == Army Composition
(LOLOLOLOLOL My 200 IS BIGGER THEN YOURS!)

The biggest complaint most zerg's seem to have is that they can reach 200/200, however their army melts in the face of an equal or smaller terran army! I'm here to explain several tips and tricks on how to beat any and every composition the terran can throw at you. The most dangerous terran's will learn that they never need to leave their base and can simply turtle up to 200/200. You will have to fight for your life to stop this, but it is possible.

I'm not the best at it I'll admit, however there are ways to stop it. However there are plenty of end game things before we reach this point. The three topics I'd like to focus on here are how to deal with an army of Medivacs, Marines, Marauders and and Tanks || an army of Tanks Thors Hellions and Vikings || an army of pure Marines Marauders and Medivacs.

MMM (Marines Marauders Medivacs) and Tanks.
(Sounds like a delicious candy, however zergs cannot eat this...)

There are several armies and different types of compositions that are viable to fight this. I'm going to always be assuming that you both have a 200/200 army ready to fight. In order to deal with this perfectly I believe that with 2 Infestors, 20 Banelings, 20 Roaches 20 Hydralisks and zerglings. (AKA Keep the banelings roaches and hydralisk in proportion) you will be able come out ahead. Your goal is to fungal the marines and have your banelings in a seperate group. You will need to click 1A (1 is your hotkey with Roaches Hydralisks and Zerglings)and then 2click (2 is your group of banelings.) In order to explain this fully we'll have to go into Positioning, Upgrades, and Timing. Positionining and timing are very similar. In order to get a good position you will want your roaches and hydralisks to have a large enough arch that they can spread out completely. You will only want to attack on creep. You won't want to attack where your entire army will attack at different places (like you got split) You will have to make sure your infestors have just fungal growthed previously to you attacking. (Fungal then 1a 2click quickly!)

Upgrades are fairly simple. NEVER attack if your upgrades are almost finished. Wait for your 2-2 to finish if its at 85% instead of just attacking at 1-1. Also be careful that you don't get out upgraded, because in the end game upgrades will make or break a game completely. Then timing! Its important that you attack at an opportune time. This is close hand in hand with positioning. You will want to attack at just the time when he is slightly out of position. When all of his tanks are positioned behind his army on a cliff, you shouldn't attack. Wait for him to bring the tanks to a harder position to defend. Also be ready to attack if he unseiges tanks. The INSTANT he unseiges if you can attack it will be best. Its important that you keep overlords or a changeling near his army to gain this intel. Then simply whittle down his army and attempt to destroy his ball of death. This army composition I gave you was the simplest to micro and possibly the most cost efficient. However no matter how you crack it, this 200/200 terran army is very very hard to deal with.

Another viable option is to mix in Ultralisk Zergling Roach and Infestor. Any combination 200/200 of this can do well against this if your ultralisks go in first and dont' get stuck. If you have 10,000 /10,000 (10,000 minerals and 10,000 gas) the best combinatoin I find you can make is pure Corrupters and Brood lords. Brood lords are extremely effective however you have to make sure you can keep your Corrupters in a high ammount at least equal to the ammount of his Vikings. Also these marines can tear through Broodlords Very VERY quickly, so you should make sure you have a solid ammount. Sending a few Broodlings into his army of infantry while his tanks are seiged can completely devistate his ground army so this is a wise tactic. Also sending 2-3 broodlords to an expansion and attacking from behind a cliff or in open air is a strong tactic. While this will take plenty of practice and plenty of games to work with, I feel like there are possibilities to beat this MMM + Tanks.

The Mech Wreck
(Tanks Thors Hellions Vikings)

This army is a maelstom of extremely deadly fighting units. I find the best way to fight this ball is to never fight it. To simply whittle it away with drops, broodlords and large armies is the best way I can find. You can make a pure corrupter / broodlord army to fight this if its done perfectly. You will need plenty of minerals and gas and it never hurts to keep an infestor with your purely flying army to simply fungal growth his army of vikings if they ever stray to far forward. This sort of turtle with mech units is a very strong play style and I havn't come up with that many ideas to completely defeat it, but early and middle harass can prevent this ball from getting too big. Constantly tech switching, constant harass, nydus worms and dropships are your best bet. However play a perfect game.. and you still might lose.. terran in this style is extremely strong.

Bio Ball
(So many Marines and Marauders and Medivacs your head will spin)

This is by far the easiest army to defeat. Zerglings Mutalisks Banelings and an infestor or two can tear this apart so fast you won't have time to blink. If you manage to stop the marines from running away by means of a fungal growth and then run the banelings in, your mutas will be able to push in and destroy whats left. The micro required for this with large armies can be taxing, but after you have died a few times to it you kind of get an idea of how to deal with this play. I feel like this is the weakest of the three I mention here so I won't spend so much time talking about it. Simply keep upgrades in mind, and work towards a complete army of banelings + mutas with 1-2 infestors. And keep plenty of larva on hand for if you do end up dieing to this ball![/SIZE]
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