STARCRAFT BROOD WAR FAQ and STRATEGY GUIDE Version 1.02 Copyright 1999 Tuesday, July 06, 1999; 21:01:35 By: Alvin Go http://alvs.hello.to alvinregan@yahoo.com **Read this guide in Word Wrap format in WordPad (View-Options-Word-Text-Wrap to Window checked) **Please also note that all of these are original unless otherwise stated. If the material is taken from another site or another person, you can be sure that it was taken with permission, and the corresponding site/person is acknowledgement. **Please come back in a month or so for Version 1.03, wherein even the Starcraft Campaign Editor is covered. I will teach you what triggers are and how they work, and how to use them in a way that you will be spending more time in the Editor than playing the game itself!!!=) ============================================================================ VERSION HISTORY: Version 1.00 First draft Version 1.01 Added new multiplayer cheats, updated the Strategy guides, added more diagrams, eased on spellings and grammars, and added the feedback- tip-suggestion part Version 1.02 Corrected some mistakes, added a few excerpt Tactics from www.starcraft.org, added some possible cheats for multiplayer games ============================================================================ TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. Introduction 2. Rundown of the Three Races 3. Strategy Guide 4. Cheats 5. Feedbacks/Suggestions/Tips ============================================================================ I. Introduction Most of you probably know what Starcraft is now, considering it has been released for quite some time now. This startegy guide aims to help you in focusing in order to win games. I will not mention about the different kinds of damages because most of you don't even bother to read it. In case you don't know what Starcraft is, let me make a short description. There are three races here, the Terrans (humans), Zergs (beastlike aliens), and the Protoss (highly-civilized, mysterious aliens). All three are very different as said below. ============================================================================ II. Rundown of the Three Races: All three possess different traits, strengths and weaknesses, requiring different strategies in winning. Here's a rundown of the three races. ZERGS Good points: 1. Ease of use. All units (ground or air) come from the Hatchery (which can be mutated to the Lair and Hive) while all other buildings allow the creation of units. Additional units like the Guardian, Devourer and Lurker mutate from other units. All units come from a larva that comes out from the hatchery for about 30 seconds. 2. Best for rush attacks. Zergs are the fastest race in Stacraft. It is the only race where you can create three units at the same time at the start of the game. 3. Zerg Queens. Queens can parasite a unit (see what the unit can see) and can spawn broodlings. This is especially useful against Sige tanks and Goliaths. Ensnare can also hurt an opponents economy when their peons are ensnared. 4. Burrowing ability. Instead of running away from an attack, Zerg units may just burrow out of harms way (unless there are detectors around). 5. All units and buildings regenerate by themselves, though it is a slow process. 6. Early detectors. Zergs have Overlords from the start, making them free from cloaked rushes (unless the Overlord is destroyed which is impossible earli in the game except for Marine rushes). Bad points: 1. All buildings must be built from the creep. The creep is a purple substance coming from the hatchery and creep colony where all other buildings except for the hatchery itself must be built. 2. Drones mutate to become the building itself. Zerg Drones mutate into the building itself, so you must add an extra 50 minerals to all buildings. 3. Tend to lose in long games. If you are using Zerg and you didn't rush attack, then you are liable to lose in the long run. Ultralisks are no match for strong units of Terrans and Protoss. Terrans have Battlecruisers, Goliaths, Siege Tanks, Ghosts (for nuking), while Protoss have Arbiters, Carriers, Reavers, Archons and Templars. Zergs in turn have only their Queens, Defilers, Guardians and Ultralisks to boot. 4. Quite weak in air to air combat. Zergs basically has no decent anti-air. Devourers fire very slowly, and their acid spores can be easily removed (Terran Medics). Scourges are their only defense, but must be sacrificed. Scourges are also easy to destroy. 5. Air transport is weak and slow. Overlords have three uses: supplies, transport and detectors. That is why Overlords don't make good transports: they are also source of supplies. Aside from that, they move the slowest next to Terran Dropships (Protoss Shuttles move fastest). 6. Weak structure defense. Spore colonies damage less than Photon Cannons. Sunken Colonies hit so slow that they are practically defenseless against a herd of Marines. 7. Weakest basic ground unit. Their basic units are two Zerglings. Aside from the fact that they do melee and little damage, they are also ground-based. Marines can kill them before they even come close. Zealots can absorb damage and inflict heavy damage. 8. The Hatchery only provides one supply compared to other races. TERRAN Good points: 1. Build anywhere. 2. Strong basic units. Marines can fire air and ground targets, and is long ranged. 3. All units and buildings can be repaired. Medics and SCVs can repair practically all Terran units, and even some units from other races. 4. Nuclear bombs. Nuking an opponent can inflict very heavy damage on several buildings and units. 5. Ghosts' Lockdown. Lockdown is the best defense against huge Battlecruisers, Arbiters, Carriers and Reavers. Yet they are useless against Zergs. 6. Comsat Stations. Comsat can let you spot unexplored places on the map, and see cloaked and burrowed units. One of the best detectors because they can sensor sweep any place on the map, be it far or near. You should definitely hotkey your comsats. 7. Most buildings can move around so you can position them after building. You can even build beside other Terrans' addons to own them. 8. Decent defense system. Missile turrets, Bunkers with 2 Marines and 2 Firebats, Siege Tanks in Siege Modes behind Bunkers, and a couple of Vulture Spider Mines is very hard to penetrate. 9. Science Vessel. The EMP Shockwave of Science Vessels can drain energy and Protoss shields to nil. Defense Matrix can lengthen the lifespan of other units. Irradiate can kill herds of small organic units like a bunch of Zerglings. 10. The Command Center provides a total of 10 supplies, compared to Zerg's 1 and Nexus' 9. Bad points: 1. Terran buildings take up a lot of space. 2. Heavily damaged buildings (in the red zone) will blow up unless repaired. That means if you have an isolated and heavily damaged building and there are no SCVs around then it's bye-bye to that building. 3. You must have two buildings for buildings with two addons. Aside from that, other Terrans may steal your addon by destroying the main building and constructing their own beside the addon. 4. Against Protoss in a long game, Terrans are bound to lose. Terrans are basically the middle class of races. They are not quick, yet they are not slow either. Basically, Terrans are between Zergs and Protoss. They have less obvious advantages, yet they can adapt to most situations. PROTOSS Good points: 1. Protoss shields. They lenghten the lifespan of Protoss buildings and units. 2. Best basic unit. Zealots are the most powerful basic unit and can run past bunkers and attack the peon line. Zealot rushes win 80% of all games unless your opponent can counter your rush. 3. Have the best and most powerful units which make them tend to win in long games. 4. Many useful spells and units. a. High Templars: Their Psionic Storm are the best defense for large attacks and can destroy almost all peon lines. Hallucination are great decoys for Arbiters, Reavers, Archons, Carriers, and Scouts. You must have done plenty of damage now before you opponent finds the real unit. b. Reavers: Reavers' scarabs do great damage against many units. It is also long ranged and finds an opponent before exploding. The Reaver Drop, wherein you fill a shuttle with two reavers full of scarabs, then run past their defenses and land them near the peon line for heavy damage, wins a lot of games. c. Carriers: Carriers can stay out of harms way and instead launch up to 8 interceptors against your opponent. Best used in herds, many interceptors will confuse an opponent and inflict heavy damage. d. Arbiter: The only unit in Protoss that has a special building made for them, Arbiters make great transport and defense units. Recall will warp units under the Arbiter itself, at the same time cloaking all units around it. Stasis Field is the best unit paralyzer because it is the only spell that a Terran Medic will be unable to heal with Restoration. e. Dark Templars: Cloaked permanently and do 40 base damage, Dark Templars can practically destroy a base without a detector by themselves. A great stanby for possible base expansions, killing the peon before even constructing a base. f. Archons: Made from two High Templars, it is the strongest ground unit for Protoss (damage-wise). Able to hit both air and ground units with their 30 normal splash damage, the only bad point is their weak HP (10), with only 350 Protoss shield that lengthen their lifespan. Archons are also immune from many spells, like Lockdown, Spawn Broodlings, Stasis Field, etc. g. Dark Archons: The strongest unit in the whole Starcraft (spell-wise). All of the Dark Archons spells can greatly hurt an opponent. Feedback can kill/damage many units with energy (current HP-current MP, MP becomes 0 spell). Maelstrom can paralyze many units, and the strongest spell of all, the Mind Control, allows you to control enemy units (draining the Dark Archons' shield. With Mind Control, you can control an SCV and/or a Drone and build a base with each race. You can also go beyond the 200 supply limit. 200 for each race means you can maximize your power to up to 600 units. In fact even with the full 600 limit, you can still control more with Mind Control. Even is your Terran supplies are 200 flat, you can still mind control a Terran unit, going beyond to up to 600 units! h. Corsair-Scout combo: Corsairs can nullify ground attacks with their disruption web (even missile turrets and spore colonies and photon cannons) while Scouts and other units do the damage. 4. Best basic defense structure. The Photon Cannon not only can hit both ground and air units, and is also a detector. 5. Probes can just make a warp gate while continuing with their work. Instead of morphing into the buildings themselves (Zergs) or standing near the building until the building is finished (Terran), Protoss Probes can continue with collecting minerals while the warp gate is warping the building. Bad points: 1. Very expensive. The units and structures of Protoss are most expensive. 2. There are many structures. There are 16 structures needed to max Protoss' abilities, making them way slow. In short games, Protoss tend to lose. 3. All structures must be built near the Pylon. The Pylon is also the power generator. All buildings aside from the Nexus and Assimilator needs power. Once a structure is built near a certain Pylon and there is no other Pylon powering it, all your opponent has to do is destroy the Pylon. Then all the buildings it powered before will be useless. Unpowered buildings cannot warp units, recharge shields, upgrade, nor fire. 4. Very hard to master. Because of the complicated structure and tech tree, the Protoss is the hardest to master. It takes time and experience to learn. 5. It takes a long time to build most units. 6. Once the Protoss shields are drained (with EMP Shockwave), then the structures and units will be very weak compared to other races. Example is the Nexus (750 Shield, 750 HP). Compared to the Hatchery (1250 HP) and the Command Center (1500 HP), when the Nexus is EMP Shockwaved, the remaining is just a mere 750 HP. With Plague and EMP Shockwave combo, Protoss Structures are quite weak. ============================================================================ III. STRATEGY GUIDE A. Zergs: Before you play Zerg, you must first know how they operate. All units are made in the hatchery and other buildings just allow you to make other units. Upgrades can also be found in othe buildings, and many can be mutated. First, mine with the 4 Drones. Make another Drone. Mine until you have about 150 minerals. That's the time to make a Spawning Pool. With Zerg, it is recommended to rush attack. 10 Minute Win: (Melee, 2 players vs. Computer) Mutate about 6 Zerglings and go about an enemy base. Lure their units (Marines/Zealots/Peons/Zerglings) to go to your base. While on their way there, mutate 6 more Zerglings. If they enter your base, attack the 12 Zerglings. Once they are defeated, rush to their base and attack their Peon line. Destroy the remaining buildings. For short games, align your structures like this: {} [SC][SC] [SC] {} [Hatchery] XXXXXXX {} XXXXXXX [Ex] [SC][SC] Construct lots of Spore and Sunken Colonies. Burrow about 6-12 Lurkers around the base. You may also burrow Hydralisks and Zerglings, but if you are preoccupied with other things and you fail to notice a base attack, then those burrowed Hydralisks and Zerglings won't help. Lurkers attack while burrowed, making them great defense units. Avoid this kind of structure alignment in long games, especially if there is high ground near the building cluster. That is a great nuke site. To prevent nuking, either scatter them or place several spore-sunken clusters near them. If there is high ground near them, place Overlords and Hydralisks there. Scattering your structures are harder to eliminate, but they are also harder to defend. Never leave a site without protection and detectors. When attacking, bring an Overlord for cloak detection (except for rush attacks). Always have extra Overlords, because Overlords are the best targets for airborne units like Valkyrie, Scouts and Wraiths. When trying to annihilate an enemy base, mutate some Mutalisks to Guardians and take out their defense system. Note though that Guardians have no air attacks, so bring a few Devourers or Hydralisks with them. Guardians are also pretty slow, so if possible, move the Mutalisks nearer to the attack place (yet safe from attacks) and mutate to Guardians there. Mutalisks are the weakest air unit. Guardians and Devourer are better air units. Although quick, Mutalisks serve no big purpose aside from the fact that they can attack both ground and air targets. Yet, they are great aids for strayed Overlords because of their speed. Ultralisks are thought to be trash, considering your Overlord-Ultralisk ratio is almost 1:1. They are also ground-based and is melee. Yet they are best when upgraded and getting past defenses because they can absorb hell of a damage before dying. Ultralisks are very prone to Irradiate, Plague and Spawn Broodlings, so be careful when there are Science Vessels, Queens, or Defilers around. Defilers are very underrated. Dark Swarm nullifies ground attack, so Ultralisk- Defiler combos are very hard to defend. Plague reduces the HP to less than 10, and is great for Protoss units. Isolated Terran Structures, especially the Missile Turret (needs only one cast of Plague), are easy prey because unless they are repaired, they instantly explodes. If you also control a Science Vessel, EMP Shockwave Protoss units, then cast Plague will leave them in a desperate position. Archons are not so affected with Plague, considering their HP is just 10. Queens are very useful in scouting, especially with the Parasite spell. Cast them on Observers, Science Vessels, Overlords, Shuttles, Probes and Dropships. Spawn Broodlings is a very powerful spell that not only kills the unit, but creates two broodlings under your control. Siege Tanks are the best target. Cast Ensnare on units chasing the Queen to slow them down. You can also cast it to cloaked units to reveal them. Attacking units lose their mobility when Ensnared by a Zerg Queen. Scourges are cheap and a good investment, always have about 6-12 Scourges in your base patrolling around. Hydralisks must be upgraded from the start. If you know the Zerg units, it is easy to win. Zerg's structures are easy to learn, because many are named after units. Defiler Mounds, Ultralisk Cavern, Queen's Nest and Hydralisk Den are some. Evolution Chamber upgrades ground unit attack damage and armor. Spawning Pool creates Zerglings. Spire upgrades air units and creates Scourges and Mutalisks. Greater Spire allows Guardian and Devourer mutations. Nydus Canals allows fast transport, no matter the distance. It can also be created on your opponents' creep. Here are examples of Tactics taken from www.starcraft.org. Please note that it is modified a little bit. This is a plain Lurker attack for those marked good cerebrates. This strat can't be used against Zerg. It has many overlords. Burrow the Lurkers inside the Terran troops. 4 Lurker can kill almost *any* number of terran troops due to its ranged large area attack. 1. 1st to 6th Drones collect minerals 2. Get a Spawning Pool with 7th Drone 3. Get a Dirty Quick Overlord. 4. 8th Drone transforms to Vespene Extractor 5. 6(~12) Zerglings. Use them in "Delaying Actions" *get zerglings for defense against protoss* 6. 9-12th Drone goto gas 7. Make Lair, and 15th Drone mutates to Hydralisk Den 8. Build Hydralisks (and some Drones if there are plenty of mineral patches) + Envloving Lurker Aspect then get 4 Lurker. 9. Evolve the range upgrade for Hydra 10. Go attack them: Terran: No matter what defense he have, burrow in the longest range. Protoss: Burrow and ATTACK probes. Leave some lurker there, they'll want to expand. B. Terran Terran structures can be created anywhere. That gives them an edge. Defense for Terran consist of Missile Turrets, Bunkers, Siege Tanks and Goliaths. Here is a diagram for an ideal Terran defense. X M M M-Missile Turrets ==========B G S G B-Bunkers with 2 Marines and 2 Firebats each G X G-Goliaths ==========B G S G S-Siege Tank in Siege Mode X M M X-SCV (optional, for repairs) Another defense system is the Blockade Fence Defensive Terran Tactic. In this tactic, the Supply Depots serve as fences that hinder all melee units like the Zealots and Ultralisks while having 4 Sige Tanks take care of all attacking units, whether it be melee or ranged. Missile Turrets serve as Anti-air strucutures, while Goliaths are added supports. Ghosts Lockdown Battlecruisers, Carriers and Arbiters. Science Vessel Defensive Matrix the Siege Tanks when necessary while the SCVs repairs them all. Medics heal damaged SCVs, and uses Restoration when needed (i.e., Parasite or Optic Flare). Here's a diagram: EXHM M M-Missile Turrets ==========000S0S G 0-Supply Depots 000X0V G X G-Goliaths ==========000S0S G S-Siege Tank in Siege Mode EXHM M X-SCV (optional, for repairs) E-Medics H-Ghosts (for Lockdown) V-Science Vessel (for Defensive Matrix) Marines and Medic combo is a sure way of offense and defense. Align 10-12 Marines and 8-10 Medics behind them. Always attack with Medics around. Scatter cloaked Ghosts around in case big units come by. Goliaths are great air defense units. Always place some near your peon line to protect yourself from Reaver Drops. Vultures are great for running past defense and attackin your opponents' peon line. Scatter Vulture Spider Mines around strategic spots of your base. They can also detect cloaked units (but they are not detectors). It will also prevent rushes from Marines, Dark Templars, Hydralisks and Zealots. Valkyrie works best in groups, so never have only one of them. Every base must have a Science Vessel. The Defense Matrix is very important and useful. Target your Medics and SCVs with them during an attack. The EMP Shockwave drains Protoss Shields and MP to 0. This can decloak units (except for Obsevers and Dark Templars) and stop Yamato Guns. Shield Batteries' shields and energy is drained in one shot. Archons and Dark Archons are very susceptible to them, because their primary health is their shields. Battlecruisers are important in long games. Their Yamato Cannon can destroy many Missile Turrets and Spore Colonies in a few shots. Be careful for Lockdowns. One Lockdown can destroy it if other supporting units fire at it. Siege Tanks are great defense units. With 70 base damage when in Siege mode, it can fire units in far distances. Siege Tanks work best when supported by Anti- air and melee units, as well in high terrain. Terrans are easiest to learn. Try the Marine rush for sure win. Same as the Zergling rush, Marine rush takes a little bit longer but is more useful. If you are willing, try the SCV rush. Attack with the four SCVs while the fifth one collects minerals. It usually works. For more detailed information on the SCV rush, e-mail me at alvinregan@yahoo.com. It goes like this:Three SCVs take on the five enemy peons while the fourth SCV does the repairs. Use the SCVs to lure away the peons to your base. If they follow you, then you are a sure winner. Always have at least one SCV mine, so that you will have money for repairing of your SCVs. You can also use the Science Vessel-Battlecruiser combo. Two Science Vessels use the Defense Matrix to each other while one of them use it to the Battlecruiser. It is useless against Lockdown because with Lockdown, the Terrans have all the time to kill it. Bunkers are great for defense, but they are even more effective when used offensively. Find enemy bases and build Bunkers around them. Place Marines and firebats in them, and use multiple SCVs to repair them. This works very well against the Zerg, and less so against Terran and Protoss due to Siege Tanks which can kill the Bunkers from a distance, and Zealots which can overpower the Bunkers. As usual, here are excerpts from www.starcraft.org. Marine Drop 1) 1st 4 scv on mineral patch 2) 4 more scv, 8 build supply depot 3) 2 more scv, should be done same time supply depot is 4) suppy depot scv build barracks 5) 10th scv builds refinary 6) 3 more scv 7) when 3rd scv is done build another supply depot 8) should have 13 scv now, build 1 more, then put him on factory, barracks should be done now, put that scv on a bunker, and build 5 marines 9) machine shop on facotory, scv that built it builds starport 10) 3 more scv,#1 build barracks, #2 builds academy, #3 build barracks 11)control tower on starport 12)pump out marines and 6 medics 13)build 3 dropships, fill them up with 6 marines and 2 medics apiece, and send them into a open spot in the guys base That should do a lot of damage, because you have a lot of medics to heal all your marines, they normaly wipe out all their scv/probe/drone and get command center, a lot of the time they will take out their whole base. It also helps to build 4 tanks and research siege tech, and send the 4 tanks in front of their base and set them up, when those tanks start attacking, then unload the dropships. That is a good way to make sure that your drop takes out alot of important stuff. Early Detection One tactic that I have used has proved to be unstoppable to date. Although, I am not sure if it were to work 100%, try this to get early detection VS Dark Templars and/or Lurkers: Step 1: Construct 7 or 8 SCVs at the beginning of the game. Save up 250 minerals, then contruct a barrack. When the first SCV is going the the location to construct the barrack, send a second SCV to make one also (By then you should have 150 minerals after the 1st starts the barrack). Step 2: When you get 50 minerals, make an SCV. When it is done, send it immediately to make a supply depot. If you did it right, the first or second barrack should be done when the supply depot is. Next step is a bit tricky. Step 3: (Continue with pumping out Marines and SCVs. Make supply depot's as necessary) Find a choke point near your base and construct 2 bunkers near it (I won't walk you through this one). When the SCV is done making the 2nd bunker, make an engineering bay. By now, you should have 12 or 13 SCVs working. Take one to make a refinery. Make 2 SCVs and send them to the refinery. Now, before you do that, set up a turret by EACH BUNKER YOU CURRENTLY HAVE. Try to have them a little farther out than the bunker to detect Lurkers. C. Protoss Protoss have shields which makes them harder to destroy. The Protoss are the most difficult race to become good at. Their units are very expensive compared to the other two races, but they possess the best units. Always have your important structures like the Gateway, Shield Batteries, Photon Cannons, Robotics Facilities, and Stargate powered by at least two Pylons. A poor example of structure alignment and power is the following diagram: X X X X X-any structure X P X P-Pylon X X X Only one Pylon supports a 9 other structures. Even if all those structures are Photon Cannons, 2-3 Yamato Guns will destroy the Pylon, then the Battlecruisers can safely destroy each and every unpowered structures. You must power your structures like these: X X X X X P P P P X X X X X In this alignment, if all structures are Photon Cannons, and the enemy targets the Pylons, then you'll be able to destroy the attacking forces because the enemy has to destroy 4 Pylons before they totally leave you powerless. Another great Protoss ability is that the race has 2 always cloaked units. One is the observer, small, stealth, and is a detector. The other is the Dark Templar. High damage attacks, stealth and is able to merge into the most feared unit of them all, the Dark Archons. Why? Because of Mind Control. Period. Instead of killing your unit, what the Dark Archon does is Mind Control the unit and it is under your enemy's control. Protoss is the only race where there is a possibility for you to control all three races at the same time, with the possibility of creating up to 800 units- Terran-200 units max, Protoss-200 units max, Zerg-400 units max (counting the 2 Zerglings/Scourge per Supply). With Protoss, you can also make up your own attacking style. The combinations are endless and limitless. It can range to the simple to the complicated. Here are a few samples. a. Zealot attacks/rush Zealots, being the best and strongest basic ground unit of all Starcraft races is quite effective even in midgame. b. Carrier Sweep Construct 12 Carriers with 8 Interceptors each. Then have them attack everything in site. You will be surprised how effective this is, especially against the dump AI, wherein instead of aiming at the Carriers, they aim at the fast moving Interceptors! This is most useful against the Zergs, because with Terran, there is the Lockdown, and the Psionic Storm in the Protoss. Zerg's Plague is not a good counter, since they all have shields anyway. c. Reaver Drop For midgame attacks, the Reaver Drop is one of the best offense. Construct a Shuttle and 2 Reavers with 10 Scarabs each. Run past defenders or try to zigzap past defenders and drop them straight between the peons and the main structure, provoded that the Reaver will be safe. Finish off all peons with the Reavers and start queuing up the Scarabs, then load them back up again (Reavers can construct Scarabs even when in Shuttles). d. You may also want to try the Carrier-Arbiter-Dark Archon attack. The Carrier attacks (with the interceptors), the Arbiter cloaks the two units, while the Dark Archon tries to Mind Control a peon while a Shuttle stands by. I do this every time and it never fails. Sometimes I also add a Corsair to the combo to protect the Dark Archon, but it is seldom needed unless there are a lot of defenders, say Bunkers. e. The Corsair-Scout combo is a common attack scheme. The Corsair takes out air based defense structures with the Disruption Web while the Scouts take out the ground based ones (Sunken Colony/Siege Tanks/Bunkers/Photon Cannons) or the airbased ones themselves (Photon Cannons/Spore Colonies/Missile Turrets)while a group of Zealots attack. f. A sure way of winning is the Arbiter Surprise Attack Deluxe. Have Corsairs Disruption web defense structures while have an Arbiter run past them near the peon line. Stasis field annoying units and recall an already compressed attack group (4 Reavers with 12 Zealots around it, Stacked Carriers on top of them, and 4 Shuttles with Dark and High Templars, and at least one Dark Archon). It's almost impossible to lose once you are able to execute this. Also you may try the Arbiter Warp Attack. Have an Arbiter run past defenses to the peon line and warp up some Dark Templars, High Templars and Zealots. Have the High Templars Psionic Storm the peon line and Hallucinate the Arbiter. Dark Templars can take the Commamd Center/Hatchery/Nexus. Zealots can take care of the defenders. Always have the Observer around when attacking or scouting for base expansions. Their mobile detector and permanent cloaking status makes them very ideal in any base. Have a few Dark Templars near your base entrance to take out attackers without detectors. Dark Archons are much better near your base and Shield Batteries. Try to Mind Control units worth Mind Controlling, like Battlecruisers, SCVs or Drones, Carriers or Arbiters. Better yet, Mind Control other Dark Archons. Be careful not to Mind Control Hallucinations. High Templars are for defense, while Archons are better for attacking. But once the Archons' shields are drained, be sure to have a Shuttle on standby to take the Archon to the nearest Shield Battery. Do not waste your money on unworthy investments. Avoid making too many Arbiters, unless necessary. Also, try not to create too many Zealots in the endgame. Dragoons are best for long games, while Dark Templars are best to scout for possible base expansions. When scouting for the enemy base, hallucinate critters, especially flying ones like Kakaru from Twilight maps. Then have them fly near the base of your opponent. Also, you may also try the Decoyed Attack. This works best against the computer or any opponent without defense structures. Have 12 strong ground units, let's say Ulralisks (it can also be Dragoons or Dark Templars. Hallucinate them then attack using the Hallucinations. Lure the defending units away from their base, and have the real units attack. Also note that Dark Templars are very effective against Marines, the reason is they can take a Marine in one slash. So be sure to have some around the base. A great attack scheme involves Siege Tanks, Arbiters, and High Templars. Fly over an Arbiter then warp in 4 Siege Tanks in Siege Mode and 2 or more High Templars. Hallucinate all four to serve as decoys. Note that in computer opponent, even if the Hallucinated Siege Tanks fires at any unit, the unit will retreat even if it didn't receive damage. This tactic is great, and is a almost never fail strategy. One more thing is that if you are attacking a Terran base and you have all three races and decent amount of resources, it is better to use Zerg. This is simply because Lockdown is ineffective. You may say that the Zergs can be cast with Irradiate, but at least while the big unit is Irradiated, it can still attack. When the unit is Lockdowned, it is practically defenseless. Psionic Storm is a great defense against stacked attackers like Battlecruisers, Carriers, Arbiters with Cloaking units, Guardians, Mutalisks, Devourers and others. To counter it, be sure to attack in different directions, but attacking the same target. Or, you may opt to target the High Templars with Spawn Broodlings. Another use of Hallucinations is the Scout/Archon Hallucinations. Have a Scout hallucination attack any defense structure then have the real Scout attack. Be sure to constantly hallucinate it. You will be surprised that even a single scout can take on all defense structures without dying. The excerpt from www.starcraft.org is as follows: Corsair Rush Uses: Large island maps Although it sounds rather absurd to rush a player with corsairs, this is a very limited strategy, but almost a sure win against any zerg player if executed correctly. It only works on island maps because it involves a total tech jump to 3 corsairs. 3 corsairs can find any player on the map within 1 minute if used properly. If this tactic is tried on a land map, although I have pulled it on a newbie, it probably won't work. Here is the basic build order and usage of the corsair rush: Probes 1-7 Mine minerals in the most efficient way possible. While probe 8 is 1/2 way completed, construct a Pylon, as this is the best possible way to accumulate minerals. Keep building probes until 1 probe is in the process of being constructed, and 150 mineral is accumulated. This will happen at 9 probes if you did well at gathering in the beginning. Use this 150 to warp in your gateway, while keeping up the steady production of probes thoughout the process. While never missing the warping of a probe, build an Assimilator when 100 mineral is reached. When the gateway is finished warping, build a cybernetics core as soon as possible, however not prioritized over the construction of probes. Make sure 3 probes are put on your Assimilator as soon as it is complete. If this is done correctly, the cybernetics core will finish warping in when you have about 250/150 min and gas. This is just enough to get your stargate warping in. Keep in mind that you have not warped in any zealots/Dragoons quite yet, since a zerg drop is not a threat for quite awhile. Keep your gas spending to a minimum by warping only 1 or 2 dragoons, but make sure Corsairs are always top priority. Send each Corsair out to scout the map as efficiently as possible, using SHIFT-right click to queue between the various starting locations on your island map. When you find their base, 95% of the time, you will see them just beginning the constuction of a spire, as they try to execute a muta rush while getting a quick island expansion. Since very few build hydralisks, you can go in for the quick kill on all their overlords (they should have 3-4 at this point) to severely slow down their unit production. Even if they have their spire by now, they will not have enough control to mutate their mutas, buying you an extra 1 minute in the game, while they scrable to mutate more overlords. Try to attack the overlords with 3 corsairs when the lords are in a cluster, since Corsairs have nice splash damage. This will force the zerg player who you know everything about at this point, and they have not even seen your base yet to do one of three things... 1) Construct hydras to protect their overlords 2) Make spore colonies 3) Wait it out and get mutalisks Either way, the zerg opponet is slowed down to the extent that a perfect reaver drop can be executed, of which SHOULD have been in construction while you were destroying the zerg lords. Very few zerg players can defeat this strategy if they don't know that it was coming, and even in the few cases that it fails for various reasons, you still know where their base is, which makes the corsair rush a great opening move for large island maps. ============================================================================ IV. CHEATS These are for people who don't want to learn Starcraft the hard way. It is recommended to use cheats only if you have already played Starcraft well enough or if you are stuck. I only cheat when I'm using Protoss, because it is fun when you Mind Control all those units. Note that Power Overwhelming nullifies all damages made by the computer. This means that if you nuke your own base, expect your base to crumble. This also means that in Free for All game modes, the Computer cannot hurt another computer also. Plague won't work either. Something for nothing should also be typed thrice, because all in all there are three levels of upgrades. I really don't see the use of noglues. Try them yourself. black sheep wall Shows entire map without fog of war breathe deep Free 500 vespene gas food for thought Ability to build units beyond the supply limit game over man Makes you lose (useful?) medieval man Gives free upgrades to units modify the phase variance Ability to build any building regardless of requirements noglues Enemy can't use magic operation cwal Speeds up building and upgrading time ophelia Type ophelia then press enter, then type in any mission name to warp (ex. terran6, for Brood War type x before the level. ex. xterran6) power overwhelming God Mode show me the money Gives you 10,000 mineral and gas points something for nothing Gives all available upgrades (type thrice) staying alive You will not be able to complete the mission you are on the gathering Unlimited casting ability there is no cow level Completes the mission you are on war aint what it used to be Disables fog of war whats mine is mine Free 500 minerals BROOD WAR MULTIPLAYER CHEATS: 1. You can move the Terran Command Center closer to the minerals by lifting of the command center then while landing it press shift-s-m. 2. Create Mutalisks without the Spire: You must have zerglings and at least one hidralisk with lurker aspect. Group the zergling units in one group then the hydralisk in another. Press alt-l and the zergling unit hotkey then alt-l and the hydralisk unit alternately and rapidly. According to my friends, there are more cheats like: a. After Nuking, 12 Marines will appear under your control. b. A Burrowing Nexus c. A drone that can walk from low to high ground. If anybody knows how they are done, please do e-mail me at alvinregan@yahoo.com. You will be properly acknowledged. FUNPLAY: If and you decide to cheat, do not use all of the cheats. Power Overwhelming is one of the cheats you shouldn't use. Why? Because it nullifies enemy's attacks, and does not make you invincible. Thus, some spells will also not affect your opponent, like Plague. A great relaxing play with cheats are the following: operation cwal the gathering medieval man modify the phase variance food for thought something for nothing (type thrice) black sheep wall show me the money With all these cheats...: 1. Zerg- You only need Hatcheries. You don't need to construct the other structures. Optional structures are: a. Nydus Canal b. Creep/Sunken/Spore Colony c. Lair/Hive (Greater max HP) 2. Terran- You only need Command Centers, Barracks, Starport, and Factory. Optional structures are: a. Missile Turrets b. Bunkers c. Comsats/Nuke Silos 3. Protoss- You only need Nexus, Gateway, Stargate, Pylons and Robotics Facility. Optional structures are: a. Photon Cannon b. Shield Batteries For insane attacks, construct a hundred zerglings and attack at the same time (Zerg), construct 15 Carriers with 8 Interceptors each, or 20 Siege Tanks attack. ============================================================================ FEEDBACK LETTERS, SUGGESTIONS and TIPS These are letters e-mailed to me regarding my FAQ Version 1.00. All these letters are replied individually and are put on purpose that some has tips and suggestions. 1. From: Kaminari11@aol.com Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 22:04:37 EDT I was reading your FAQ's thing the other day and ran across the SCV rush thing. It sounds interesting, so can you please send me details? Another thing, I have developed a Protoss strategy that works pretty well: Early on in the game, you rush a Probe over to the enemy base and build an Extractor on their Vespene geyser. It will slow down their Vespense collection considerably, and you can build up your base while they are still tearing down your geyser. It gives a significant advantage in development. Just thought I'd like to share this with you... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have already replied to his letter, and I would like to thank him for his tip. I tried it, and it really works! Alvin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. From: "Alex Qian" Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 21:34:23 -0400 Hi there, Thanks for the excellent FAQ on SB. I have a question, how do I get the "free for all mode"? Thanks in advance. regards, Alex ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks Alex! The Free for all mode is included in the Brood War CD. Which means as long as you have Brood War, you have the Free for All mode. Alvin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. From: sandoval@info.com.ph Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 20:19:41 +0800 dear alvin, i saw in your starcraft broodwar that there was no cheats there are 2 which i actually know of they are with the terran w/c is to move the command center closer to the minerals by lifting of the command center then while landing it press shift-s-m. another one is with the zerg trick here u create mutalisks even w/o the spire. do you know anything about it? all i know about is that you must have zergling units and at least one hidralisk with lurker aspect. what you do is you group the zergling units in one group then the hydralisk in another then you press alt-l and the zergling unit hotkey then alt-l and the hydralisk unit alternately and rapidly once u get the hang of it it will be easy....i think this only works in multi-player games. so can u pls. reply to me about anything u know about this. thanks, elmo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have already replied elmo's letter. It is he who shared with me the multiplayer cheats. Thanks again! Alvin ============================================================================ Acknowledgement: 1. www.game-revolution.com for the cheats 2. John Miaso's FAQ for the use of spells (Parasite, EMP Shockwave...) 3. www.battle.net for some terms and strategy (Reaver drop...) 4. Chocolate and Ikaw-Pamangkin(my inspiration) 5. Elmo (sandoval@info.com.ph) for the Brood War Cheats, and all others who e- mailed me. 6. www.starcraft.org 7. Thanks to a certain WsAzN895@aol.com who notified of an oversight For complete building and unit details, check out John Miaso's FAQ-very complete and detailed. Also another great FAQ is the Expert Guide by Rudiyanto N.