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Starcraft 2 General Guide

StarCraft 2 General Guide:

Written and edited by Buddhist and Rainbows



Whether you're new to the RTS genre, or already a strong player, read this guide and you'll gain either the basic knowledge of the game, or advanced concepts you need to get on your way toward success in Starcraft 2 (SC2).

“RTS” stands for “real-time strategy”. In Starcraft 2, you have to make decisions and actions in real time against an opponent who is doing the same. This is opposed to turn-based strategy games (TBS), which are played one move at a time in turn. Playing against live players online in real time can be quite stressful and is a rigorous test of each player’s speed, skill, smarts, and endurance. Over the course of our guides, we at CraftingStars.com will seek to provide wisdom and advice that will help you to build yourself up to meet these challenges.

Before I go on, I would like to say that you will not get more out of these guides than you put into them. A speedy perusal will net a small increase in your Starcraft games; similarly, an in-depth study followed by careful practice will yield much more substantial results. Knowing what to do isn’t the same as actually executing it, and when it comes to Starcraft, execution can be extremely difficult and take quite a bit of practice.

We’re going to assume you play the Protoss race for the duration of this guide for simplicity's sake. If you would like to play a different race from the get-go, much of what is listed in this guide will still apply, but please bear in mind that some examples are written specifically from the perspective of a Protoss player. It’ll be a little like transposing a song to a different key: the relationships will be the same, but the individual notes will have different names.

Each of the following chapters hold extremely important knowledge to a player of any skill level. Although the chapters are written with the assumption that the reader has no knowledge of the game, some concepts discussed may be sophisticated. If the explanations to any given advice is too much to take in, just remember the advice itself, and worry about the “why” later.

Contents:

  • Chapter 1 Basic game concepts
    • Units and buildings
    • The 6 resources
  • Chapter 2: What to do (Fundamentals)
    • Spend your resources
      • Economy
      • Army
      • Technology
    • Obtain and control information
      • How to scout
      • How to deny scouting and deceive
    • Maintain an adequate food supply
  • Chapter 3: Micromanagement
    • Positioning
    • Kiting
    • Spell casting
  • Chapter 4: Specifics (Builds, Timings, and Polish)
    • Build Order
      • Building placement
    • Timings
    • Polish
  • Chapter 5: Meta Game Part 1: Knowing thy enemy
  • Chapter 6: Meta Game Part 2: Knowing thy self
    • Self Improvement
      • Replays
      • Efficiency
    • Competitive Success/Playing to win
      • Mindset
      • Frustration
      • Excitement