• A beginners guide – extremely useful if you are a newbie. Even if you an expert player, this section has something that I am sure you have not heard of before.
• Diamond league strategies – Tips and tricks that will help you to get into diamond league. These professional level strategies are something that you definitely want to look at. Wondering how your opponent is so fast when you are just getting started? Well all the secrets are revealed in this section.
• Build orders and guides for each of the three races – Terran, Zerg and Protoss
• Wiping out an entire enemy base with two special Protoss units.
• Terran’s scout strategy that can’t be blocked.
• Zerg strategies to get control over an entire map.
• Five special strategies to win games right away.
• Campaign guide, for free
• …and much more

Additionally, the members area is updated regularly with tons of new Starcraft 2 strategies along with videos and pictures.

Click here to Download Shokz Guide Now!

• Rating:
• Cost: 37$, one time only
• Monthly recurring fees: No
• Money back guarantee: 60 days
• Members zone: Yes
• Recommended: Yes, highly recommended!

About the author: Shokz is a reputed player who was able to achieve diamond rank really quickly. His pro-strategies and hours of game play have translated into this fantastic starcraft 2 strategy guide. As far as competition and comparison goes, Shokz guide is much better than other guides. It deserves five stars. Shokz is also known for his previous guides for other games and he puts in his best effort so that he stays ahead of the competition. I think that this guide is definitely worth it and you should give it a try. If you don’t like it you can always return it. There’s a 60 days money back guarantee!

Still not convinced? Click here to read our in-depth detailed review of Shokz starcraft 2 guide.

Click here to visit Shokz Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide

If you are a WoW player and shifting to Starcraft, this is the guide for you, Period! We also rate Joana’s guide the best if you are relatively new to Starcraft 2 and would like to strengthen your fundamentals first before moving onto his expert strategies.

If you are someone who hates Long reviews, here is the basic summary of all the points below. Joana’s guide, kicks ass on multiple fronts.

Summary of Joana’s Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide Review

• Indepth Basics Section
  • Micro , Macro Strategies,
  • Armor and Damage system Guide
  • Basic Terms and Terminology
  • Unit Abbreviations and short forms used during Multiplayer game play
• Starcraft 2 Campaign guide video walkthroughs
  • Played on both Brutal and Hard Difficulty Levels
  • Speed runs to complete missions as fast as possible.
  • All achievements covered
  • With commentary
• Individual Race Guides – Protoss – Terran – Zerg
• Fundamental “Must-know” Tips and strategies for each Race
• Build orders and various strategies for each Race
  • Multiple rush strategies for each race along with other strategies
  • Build orders specific to each strategy
  • When to implement these strategies
  • Video replays of strategies with commentary
• Units, Skills and Unit Specific Strategies
  • Units strength level against different units from different races
  • Unit Skills and strategies to use them in battle
• Race Vs Race Strategies
  • Opening Strategy
  • Mid-Game Strategies
  • Mid to Late Game Strategies
  • Late Game Strategies

• Team Games (2v2, 3v3, 4v4 Strategies)
• Video Replays, Hotkey Tips,AGM Tips and a whole lot more…
• Members Section, Regular Updates, 60 Day money back guarantee

• Rating: 
• Cost: 37$ – one time only, no monthly fees

That pretty much sums up the entire review of Joanas Guide. We strongly suggest you go through the screenshots and information provided below on Joana’s guide and make up your mind.

But if you are in an absolute hurry, Visit Joana’s Guide here.

Indepth Review of Joana’s Starcraft 2 strategy guide

As soon as you open Joana’s Guide, you know it is all business. There is no unnecessary fluff anywhere in the guide. Just like Joana’s WoW Leveling speed runs, everything has been completely optimized and there is no unnecessary chit-chat about why the Zergs are so angry with their life? Or the history and lore behind the Protoss. It has exactly what you need to know from the word go.

Starcraft 2 Basics Section

The intro Section starts off by marking the major differences between Warcraft III and Starcraft 2. The differences in using single powerful heroes in Warcraft vs the use of a large army in Starcraft 2, how rushing is encouraged in SC2 etc.

• Micro Macro Strategies – The guide goes on to Fundamental aspects of Managing your Macro and Micro strategies. If you haven’t played Starcraft before and aren’t familiar with what Micro and Macro are, then this section is absolute gold for you.
• Basic Terms and Terminology – that you must know before you get into the PvP mode. It is highly likely that when you start playing multiplayer games, there will be a LOT of terms thrown at you and you need to make absolute sense of them.
• Importance of the armor and damage system in Starcraft 2 and leveraging it to your advantage.
• Other random SC2 Tips and advice – You will find these all over Joana’s guides and they are pretty awesome. And this is something that is totally unique to Joana’s guide and something you can’t learn elsewhere unless you play at a gaming café and watch people do it. Things like usage of hotkeys, understanding replays, how to play single player campaigns to learn stuff.
• Gameplay Terms and Definitions and Unit abbreviations – Take a printout of this section and keep(If you are a newbie)

Visit Joana’s Guide here.

Starcraft 2 Single Player Campaign Guide (Updated New!)

Joana has an amazing Single player campaign guide. Where she has recorded each campaign mission’s gameplay.

• All missions recorded on both “Brutal” and “Hard” Difficulty Level
• Commentary on all missions to help you understand the thought process behind decisions.
• Story Cinematics for the campaigns have been cut so that it doesn’t ruin the story for you.
• Each mission has a image for each map that shows you where key items you need to pick up or do in order to complete the achievements in each level.
• All Achievements completed on each mission.

Visit Joana’s Guide here.

Visit Joana’s Guide here.

Individual Race Guides – Protoss – Terran – Zerg

General Tips for each Race

Joana has a rather exhaustive section for each Race separately. You can navigate through the section you want by the sidebar on the left, where you have Terran , Zerg and Protoss Guide menus.

Each of the Sections start off with a subsection on General Tips for that race, which details the basic strategies that you must follow for that given race.

For example, In this section, IF you are playing as Terran, Joana advises that you build your supply depot and barracks at your chokepoint and then go on to build your second supply depot at your choke point again to completely block off any kind of rush by the opponents, all the more useful when you are playing against the Zergs/Protoss, who execute really fast zealot/zergling rushes. You can raise and lower your supply depots to allow your units access up and down. This is the most important fundamental strategy for Terran that you must implement.

P.S. Chokepoint refers to the entry point to your base. In all major maps, there is a single entry point into your base, this is known as choke point. (This info is present in the “Gameplay terms and definitions section” of the Intro post.

Again, if you are new to Starcraft 2, You wont have to look for information outside as long as you have Joana’s guide with you.

The general Tips section for Each race is loaded with the fundamental information that is absolutely necessary for you, when you play the game.

Visit Joana’s Guide here.

Various Rush Strategies and Build orders

Joana then moves on to Different Strategies for the given race. Usually, each strategy also comes with a unique Build order that suits that given strategy. The first bunch of strategies under each section is usually the rush strategies for that given race. Along with that, Each strategy has a nifty table at the start that gives you different situations that you can use it in. It gives you a clear picture of “Against whom the strategy is strong against, against whom it is weak, okay against etc.

This is one of the most important sections of Joana’s guides. We recommend that in case you are practicing different strategies, take a copy of these tables and keep it next to you. You won’t believe how useful these tables are. Over time , you tend to start memorizing this information.

Visit Joana’s Guide here.

Units, Skills and Unit Specific Strategies

Once the rush strategies are done with, Joana explains the major units in each Race and how to most effectively use them in battle. Again, over here, Joana has those tables which explain how well this unit stacks up against her different units from other Races. The unit guides for each specific unit then goes on to explain how to use various skills of these units, which skills to use against what enemies, how and when to use these skills. How to combine these skills with other units to get the best out of it.

• Using the units to maximum if you are playing against any of the different races i.e. Vs Terran Vs Protoss Vs Zerg.
• Using these units while playing 1v1,2v2,3v3,4v4 or FFA

Once Joana is done with the Units section of Race Specific guides,

Race Vs Race Strategies

Joana then moves on to Race Vs Race Strategies. For Eg, if you are Protoss,

You have indepth strategies for

• Protoss Vs Terran
• Protoss Vs Zerg
• Protoss Vs Protoss
• Protoss FFA Strategy

Each of these Race Vs Race strategies has different sequential parts to it

• Opening Strategy – Which talks about different build orders to be implemented and other rush strategies that you can try out, along with tips and tricks to evade any counter attack from your enemy. What to avoid at the start , what you can do safely.
• Midgame Strategy – How you should progress during your midgame, How to counter defenses put up by your enemies
• Mid to Late Game Strategy – Strategies against different enemy strategies that can be used by your enemy against you during this period. There is really isn’t anything generic I can tell about this section as things get really specific for different Race vs Race situations.
• Late Game strategy
  • Different strategies to counter the late game power units that come up.
  • Different ways to counter such units which are usually built towards the end of the game.
  • How to go for the kill and wrap things up.
  • How to hold off as long as possible, if you are on the defensive.

Team Games (2v2, 3v3, 4v4 Strategies)

Finally, we have the team game strategies for each race. Tips on how to most effectively form a team and decide on build orders that complement each other. Units to build that will most effectively support your team’s strategies. The synergy attained when you play as a team. You will be using this section as you progress from a Newbie to a Pro.

Other Salient Features

• Joana has Tips (Marked in Red) all over the place, which really help improve your game. Things that you only someone who has actually played the game will be able to provide.
• Regular Updates to strategies as they are discovered and as the community wants  it.
• Videos for different strategies – Video replays with commentary
• 60 Day Money Back Guarantee

Download Joana’s Starcraft 2 Guide

This is one guide that we have absolutely no qualms recommending. You’ve paid really good money on the game and are spending a lot of valuable time on the game. It only makes sense that you try and get the best gaming experience out of this.  With a 60 day money back guarantee, you have absolutely nothing to lose, Give it a go, we are sure you wont regret it.

If you are a beginner player and looking for a good Starcraft 2 guide for noobs then we have just the right one for you! Shokz Starcraft 2 strategy guide is the best Starcraft 2 guide for noobs. As a newbie or as we call them ‘beginners’ you are completely new to game. You are having a hard time catching up as there is so much to know and learn and you feel that there are players, probably your very good friends who are way ahead of you.

What you need is a good Starcraft 2 strategy guide for noobs. One of my friends who saw some Starcraft 2 videos really liked the game. He wanted to learn more and get ready for this game before it is launched. As I suggested, he bought Shokz starcraft 2 strategy guide and now within very less span of time he has really learn a lot about this game. Shokz guide is one of the most widely used Starcraft 2 guide for beginners. It contains a very good detailed ebook with pictures that help you understand fundamentals of Starcraft 2. It also explains in detail what are the basic and general strategies that could help you to win matches on BattleNet. You also get a full fledged campaign guide once the game is released.

Comparison and Review of Top Starcraft 2 Strategy guide

Like any other Starcraft 2 guide for beginners, as you begin using the Shokz guide, you want to first understand various terms and their meanings. Micro and Macro are two important terms that one should be familiar with. You also need to learn all the keyboard short cuts as the rate at which you use it and play the game is going to be very important when you battle in a player vs player match. Shokz is an expert Diamond level player and having him backing you up is for sure in your best interest! Moreover, they also have a 60 days money back guarantee if you do not like the guide.

Shokz guide will explain you everything precisely along with pictures. It also contains videos and replays for matches played between world class Starcraft 2 players. Remember, “Watch and Learn” is the best trick. If you see these pro players game play and Strategies you will definitely learn a lot. Starcraft 2 is expecting around 5 million sales, as per the latest Wall Street Journal report. Moreover, it is also expected to be in World Cyber Games. You can only imagine the kind of competition that is going to be on foreseeable future.  So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and get your hands on the best Starcraft 2 guide for noobs – The Shokz guide.

Comparison and Review of Top Starcraft 2 Strategy guide

There is no one definitive Starcraft 2 strategy that can serve you in all situations. You will have to figure out what to do in each game. If you find yourself being outwitted by a similar strategy multiple times, take note and work out a counter – this is where experience and practise helps.

It is also very useful to have around you a bunch of good players that you can play with; the competitive environment helps you improve.

Economy is generally first priority, defense second and offense third. This rule isn’t set in stone though, many a Starcraft 2 strategy require that you shake up the order a bit; you need to determine your priorities based on your situation in that particular game.

Victory is essentially a matter of exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses and bringing to bear your strengths. Whoever does this better usually wins. When you play against a particular opponent for the first time you probably won’t have much of an idea about his strategy. In such a situation, a good Starcraft 2 strategy is to build up a robust economy; a solid economy proves helpful in every situation.

Be relaxed when you play; panicking will only hamper your thinking and make things worse. Players often lose because of panic- it is easier to admit defeat than to persevere and continue fighting. See the game through to the end, the result might surprise you. Even if you don’t win, the experience will be useful in later games. Hopefully, this Starcraft 2 guide has set you on the right track to start learning and get better at the game.

At the start of a game, you pick one of these races or let the computer pick one for you at random. When the game commences, you and your opponent get six Workers and a Main Building at different parts of the map. This is enough to let you set up a rudimentary base and gather some resources but will prove insufficient for any Starcraft 2 strategy beyond that.

Many experienced players often send out Workers to explore the map and gather intelligence on their opponents.

As you gather resources, build more Workers so you may gather resources even faster. The faster your resources collection, the stronger you get. A sturdy economy is crucial to any Starcraft 2 strategy and it should be your primary focus early in the game.

Each race has a particular way of increasing their maximum unit count. For Zergs, it’s Overlords; Pylons for Protoss; and Supply Depots for Terrans.

Next, you need military units to protect you and attack the enemy. This requires a different set of buildings – Spawning Pool for Zergs; Barracks for Terrans; and Gateway for Protoss. These buildings let you make one or more military units that you may use as part of your Starcraft 2 strategy.

Next, you may begin raising an army of military units which you can use to strike at the enemy and destroy his buildings, units and economy. The crux of the game now is to have enough forces to defeat the enemy. I will end this Starcraft 2 guide here and advise you to follow it and research a bit more about the game to get really good at it.

Build Orders

This is the groundwork of every strategy during the start of every game. A good build order begins by understanding what your goals are for the game. Your build order depends on what type of game is being played, the race of your opponents and the map. There is a recommended build order for every situation.

Economy

Starcraft in a sense is a money war. The player who has more money can easily overpower his opponent. It is important that you continuously build workers in the beginning of the game before anything else. You need to have 16 to 24 workers per eight patches of minerals and three workers for each gas mine. Having a lower income can cost you the game.

Expansions

While we’re on the subject of economy, Starcraft 2 macro tips are not complete without mentioning expansions. It is the setting up of another base to get more resources and have the economic advantage over your opponents. You should know when to expand and when not to. At the same time you should not let your opponent from expanding during the game.

Expenses

When you have a steady income in the game, you have to spend that money when you get it. You wouldn’t win the game when you hoard all your resources. It is better to build more fighting units than let all that minerals and gasses left unspent. If your income generating is faster than your unit production, then construct more structures.

Offense

One important Starcraft 2 macro factor is your offense. You should keep your offense on full gear. It is better to spend all your money on offensive units than on defensive structures. You’ll win games faster when you’re offensive minded.

Group Hot Keys

The last of the Starcraft 2 macro tips involve the control of group hot keys. In Starcraft 2 you can select as many units as you want and put them in a single group. This makes it easier to manage your army in SC2 than in the original Starcraft where you can only select up to twelve units at a time. It is recommended to have a hotkey for your main army, another one for your scout, and another for tactical units.

When you don’t have a solid Starcraft 2 hotkey setup, the game can feel clunky and frustrating to play. You’ll end up losing battles you could have won, falling behind in unit production, and worst of all you’ll never reach your true gaming potential.

If you’re not using hotkeys to their fullest, you can start using them today to improve your game. In this guide, we’re going to talk about the two types of hotkeys, decent hotkey setups, and good habits which are guaranteed to improve your game.

The Basics of Hotkeys

If you don’t know anything about the Starcraft 2 hotkey system, I’ll give you a really quick crash course (if you’re already familiar with the hotkey basics, you can probably skip this part).

There are two types of hotkeys:

1. Number hotkeys
2. Letter hotkeys

The number keys, in Starcraft 2, are called control groups, and they remember your selections. Let’s say you have 8 marines selected – hit CTRL+4 and any time you hit 4, you’ll reselect that same group. Want to add some marauders to the group? Hit SHIFT+4 and the marauders will be added to the marines.

The letter keys let you access individual skills on your units and buildings. Every spell and command in the game has its own hotkey – for instance, you can build a pylon by hitting B (build) followed by E (build pylon). Using stim on some marines and marauders is activated by hitting T.

Let’s talk about each type in more detail so that you can figure out a system that works for you.

Setting Up the Numbers  in SC2

There are two important things to remember when using the Starcraft 2 number hotkeys.

1. The best system is the one which is the most comfortable for you
2. Plan out which numbers are going to hold what and stick with it

While you might be looking for the best hotkey setup, the fact is that there isn’t one. Different pros use different setups because they use whatever they find comfortable – this changes between different people due to hand size, comfort with using the higher numbers, and race.

If you need a solid setup to get you started, here are the ones which work for me at the mid Diamond level of play. I’ve included a sample setup for every race.

Terran Hot Keys:

• 1: Main Army (General Use)
• 2: Main Army (Tanks can go in here)
• 3: Specialty Units (Ravens, Medivacs, Ghosts)
• 4: Command Centers
• 5: All Barracks, Factories, and Starports

Protoss Hotkeys:

• 1: Main Army (Melee Units)
• 2: Main Army (Ranged Units)
• 3: Specialty Units (Sentries, Templar)
• 4: Nexuses
• 5: All Gateways, Robotics Facilities, and Stargates
• Note: Once you get warpgate tech, you can remove the gateways from your 5 hotkey. Starcraft 2 gives the warpgates their own special hotkey – “W”

Zerg Hotkeys:

• 1: Main Army (Melee Units)
• 2: Main Army (Ranged Units)
• 3: Specialty Units (Infestors)
• 4: All Hatcheries
• 5-0: Queens
• Note: When you want to inject larvae, double tap the number of the queen, hit V, click on the hatchery, and then double tap the number of the next queen.

Whatever number system you decide to use, you need to force yourself to use the system every time you need to move your army or produce out of a building. While at first, you’ll be tempted to click on your units and buildings to issue commands, resist that temptation.

Eventually you’ll get to the point where you don’t even think about the hotkeys anymore – at that point, the keyboard becomes an extension of your mind, which is something that will smooth out your play.

Working with the Letters

While the number keys let you select your units and buildings, the letter keys let you use their abilities quickly and effectively.

As a rule of thumb, you should never click on something you can hit using the letter hotkeys.

If you want to build a barracks, select your SCV, hit B (for build) followed by B (for barracks).

If you want to cast forcefield, select your sentry, hit F (for forcefield) and click where you want to place it.

Do NOT click on a spell, upgrade, or ability just because you don’t know what the hotkey is. Instead, hover your mouse over the spell and check what hotkey it’s mapped to. Then hit the hotkey for the spell. Over time you’ll naturally remember what the hotkeys are for everything, and you’ll be able to use your abilities on the fly as they’re needed.

Standard Hotkeys vs. Grid HotKeys

If you go into your options, you’ll notice that in the Starcraft 2 hotkeys section you have the option of changing your hotkey setup. The two setups we’re concerned with are the Standard and Grid hotkeys setup.

The standard keys are the ones which you’ve been using since the beginning. While some of the hotkeys don’t make too much sense (pylon is mapped to E), all of the hotkeys prioritize your middle and pointer fingers, making them very easy to hit.

If you haven’t heard of grid Hotkeys, they basically take the box in the lower right hand corner and map every icon to a grid on your keyboard. Explaining this system is a bit difficult, but becomes really obvious with a photo. In Starcraft 2 Grid Hotkeys are also referred to as GridKeys.

Some people prefer gridkeys over the standard keys because they’re very easy to learn – all you have to do is see where the hotkey you want to press is and then press the corresponding key on the keyboard. I don’t personally like them because you end up using your pinkie and ring fingers to hit a lot of the hotkeys, and since my pointer and middle fingers are more dexterous, I prefer the standard keys.

That said you should probably try out both systems and see which one works better for you – you’ll never know until you try it!

Combining the Number and Letter Hotkeys

If you’ve followed the guide this far, you have:

1. A number hotkey system that’s comfortable for you, and
2. You know that you should be using the letter keys to access every skill

All that’s left is to combine the numbers and letters together so you can perform actions quickly, easily, and without even thinking about them.

The process is actually very simple.

Step 1: Hit the number hotkey holding the unit/building you want to use

Step 2: Tab to the group of units/buildings you want to use

Step 3: Hit the letter key of the ability you want to use

Let’s go through some examples so you can get a good idea of how high level players handle their Starcraft 2 hotkeys.

Example 1: Using Chronoboost on your Gateway

If you play Protoss, you’ll need to chronoboost things all the time.

You’ll naturally be tempted to click on your Nexus and then chronoboost the building you want to chronoboost. Even if you’re chronoboosting the Nexus itself, avoid that temptation.

Instead hit your Nexus hotkey (if you’re following my sample setup, it’s on 4), hit the chronoboost hotkey (on standard keys, it’s C), and then click on the building you want to chronoboost.

Anytime you want to chronoboost anything, your fingers should automatically hit 4-C-click.

Example 2: Producing Units out of Barracks, Factories, and Starports

If you’re Terran, you need an efficient way to make units from all of your buildings. If you’re following my sample setup, all of your barracks, factories, and starports should be bound to 5.

When you need to make units:

1. Hit 5 to select your buildings
2. Build units from your barracks (A = Marine, D = Marauder, R = Reaper, G = Ghost)
3. Hit TAB to select your factories
4. Build units from your factories (E = Hellion, S = Siege Tank, T = Thor)
5. Hit TAB to select your starports
6. Build units from your starports (V = Viking, D = Medivac, E = Banshee, R = Raven, B = Battlecruiser)

If you only need to make units from your starports:

1. Hit 5 to select your buildings
2. Hit TAB twice to select your starports
3. Build units from your starports

Example 3: Casting Force Field and Psionic Storm in Battle

If you have sentries and high templar on the same hotkey, the templar will always come first and the sentries will come second. The same thing applies to every unit for every race – units will always group in the same order no matter when they were added to the group.

When you need to cast force fields AND storm:

1. Hit 3 to select your spellcasters (if you’re using my sample setup)
2. Hold “T” and click wherever you want the storms to be cast (you can keep clicking as long as your high templar have energy)
3. Hit TAB to select your sentries
4. Hold “F” and click wherever you want the forcefields to be cast (you can keep clicking as long as your sentries have energy)

When you ONLY need to cast force fields but you have both high templar and sentries:

1. Hit 3 to select your spellcasters
2. Hit TAB to select your sentries
3. Cast the forcefields

If you can master both the number and letter keys, you’ll see definite improvements in your play – go out there, try these new hotkeys, and let me know how it goes in the comments!

About the Author:

Evan “FCsTrYKe” Kim is a 700 point Diamond Random player and writes about Starcraft 2 Strategy at his blog. Follow him on Twitter for free Starcraft 2 updates!

A decent Starcraft 2 strategy used by most new players against Zerg players is that they wall off their entrance to their base. By doing so the Zerglings sent for an early attack on your base end up stuck attacking your Supply Depots while your Marines fire on them without any serious damage being taken by your Marines.

The Zerg also have other ways of rushing too. This Starcraft 2 guide provides four different rush strategies and helps you through with them being noticed when scouting in a Terran vs. Zerg matchup .There hasn’t been a Starcraft 2 strategy yet for an early push by Hatchery and Spine Crawler combined. It would prove helpful to position your scout into the enemy base early in the game to get an idea about their strategy.

Zergling Rush

This is a useful strategy from the original Starcraft for early wins against unsuspecting and defenceless players. Expect some early Zerglings on your base if your scout in their base notices an almost ready Spawning Pool. Use a Marine so that they retreat to avoid serious building damages while you wall them off as quickly as possible.

Roach Rush:

This Starcraft 2 strategy isn’t as popular as it was in beta . Moving the scout around the enemy base would be the best option when the Spawning Pool is up along with a mined gas site to have a clear idea of what he is thinking. Marauders are a better option to keep an early roach warren at bay.

The Zergling to Roach transition is a bit more popular. The Zerg player bursts out a ton of Zerglings and then you are forced to get a lot of Hellions and Marines. His quick transition to a big army of Roaches will easily pass through your army ultimately destroying your base.

Baneling Bust

Supply Depots and Marines are quickly taken down by the extremely dangerous Banelings. Your walls need to be reinforced once your scout notices a Baneling Nest. Once a Supply Depot is taken down by the Banelings the Zergling will enter your base through the hole. Early Hellions and Marauders backed up by Marines can tackle a group of Baneling and Zerglings.

Mutalisk Rush

Mutalisk Rush can be identified when your scout witnesses two Gas Extractors put up at the enemy base. Once a Spawning Pool is ready your enemy will go for an immediate upgrade to Lair and then he will lay down a Spire. Fighting a Mutalisk rush will require a lot of Marines and/or Thors. Quick upgrades and continuous scouting helps you keep a track of your enemy’s whereabouts.

On large maps, slow and heavy units will have trouble. It is difficult for them to attack on large maps without alerting their target. On smaller maps they prove more effective. This is one of the things that can help you pre-empt a possible Starcraft 2 strategy.

It is essential that you scout the enemy’s base with a worker. Intelligence on his base layout and his buildings is very useful. With this information you can determine whether your enemy is opting for a mass of cheap units or gearing up for heavier units and you can adjust your Starcraft 2 strategy knowing that.

The race of the opponent also gives you an idea of likely tactics. With Zergs, you can expect a massive early rush of Zerglings as their first offensive Starcraft 2 strategy that can effectively cripple you by killing your workers and destabilizing your economy. They are particularly effective with the Speed upgrade. Zergs also go for early game Roach rushes which are also quite deadly. Adequate scouting will give you warning signs and you can prepare your own Starcraft 2 strategy accordingly.

Zergs tend to build Mutalisks or Hydralisks, the choice depending upon the chosen map and opponent they’re facing. Finally, the end game Zerg army is usually made up of Brood Lords and Corruptors.

Zergs are vulnerable to airstrikes and therefore a Banshee rush can be expected in the early-middle stage. Build an Evolutionary Chamber as a defensive Starcraft 2 strategy to protect yourself from such a situation. Expanding early is a grey area – it takes time for the expansion to really kick in. The Vespene Gas bonus is helpful, however. It is better to expand when you have some basic defense and a steady economy.

A common Starcraft 2 strategy when the Terrans hole up like this involves Nydus Networks and Mutalisks. Mutalisks are particularly effective against Terrans. Your opponent might respond with Turrets, but if you move swiftly, you can find gaps to take out the SCVs from out of the Turrets’ reach.

With around 5 Mutalisks, you can cripple the Terrans early on and swing the game in your favour. Reserve all your Vespene Gas for Mutalisks. Upgrade the Hatchery, followed by the Spire and conserve the rest of the Vespene Gas for Mutalisks. You can build a Hydralisk Den as a precautionary measure, just in case.

Be prepared to churn out Mutalisks once the Spire is ready. Make sure you have a sufficient force of Overlords to support the Mutalisks when your Hatchery is ready. Use the Queen’s Spawn Larvae to get the required larvae.

This Starcraft 2 strategy may not work as effectively against an experienced player. However, Mutalisks are useful units to have in any game. They’re quick and Focus Fire allows them to take out enemy units quickly.

Avoid Thors, Turrets and large bodies of Marines. You can take out Vikings with Focus Fire; you’ll be able to outnumber the Vikings easily. Later in the game, when your opponent starts making Vikings at a faster rate, this Starcraft 2 strategy won’t work. Here, the Hydralisk Den will prove useful; Hydralisks do well against Vikings. Follow this Starcraft 2 guide and you will soon be able to predict the moves of your enemies and gain an advantage over them.