When playing an RTS game like Starcraft 2, there are many strategy and tactics that can be explored to win games. However, to become really good and have a higher win ratio in Starcraft 2, you need to get your fundamentals right.
Let’s discuss 3 important Starcraft strategies on effective mining and gathering, hit and run harassing, and how to improve your actions per minute (or APM).
Effective Mining and Gathering
If you want to play like a pro gamer, you can’t afford to just look at the tactics that involve combat. While it’s great to rush your opponent and overwhelm them early, you have to have the available resources to create your units first. That is why one of the most overlooked and important elements of a winning Starcraft 2 strategy is that of effective mining and gathering.
To begin with, a good tip for Starcraft strategy in terms of mining and gathering is to try to have as close to 100% saturation as possible. This means you want three workers per node, which is often known as “fully saturated” among Starcraft veterans. Finally, make sure you train your workers to maximize efficiency too.
Hit and Run Harassing
Hit and run harassing is of a tradition strategy among many Starcraft pro players, which means that you have to be prepared for such tactics when it comes to playing against multiplayer matches. Furthermore, you also need to know how to harass others, which can actually be a lot of fun.
One great unit for this strategy is the Terran Reaper. In specific, the Reaper rush is a good technique to use. You need to build early Reapers, then go to the back of the enemy’s base to kill off his or her workers. Then simply high-tail it out of there, only to repeat the process again shortly after. Of course, this type of rush is best against Protoss opponents, and not advisable against the Zerg as zerglings and speedlings can catch up with the Reapers and quickly surround them. Having groups of 2-3 reapers works somewhat well against other inexperienced Terran players.
Remember, hit and run harassing is all about misdirection. You need to exploit your fast or flying units to draw your opponent’s attention, so you can do things like perform a tech switch or attack them where they are suddenly susceptible. Another tip for this bit of Starcraft strategy is to not over commit by sending too many units to harass. You should never harass with more than a few units, as it could lead to being vulnerable to a counterattack.
Improving Your Actions Per Minute
Finally, let’s talk about the foundation of many types of Starcraft strategy: improving your actions per minute, or APM. While it’s true that the fastest player is not always the best pro, if you can take advantage of sound strategies at a quicker pace than your opponent, you have a serious advantage. Here are some tips for improving your APM:
- One important tip is to learn some solid build orders to help you out in the early stages of games. This is the foundation of any good match, and will help you to get a good start and focus on your later-game strategies.
- Also, learn as many keyboard shortcuts as you can. You save a lot of time by using a shortcut to execute an order, and you should honestly memorize all of the shortcuts for the race you play most often as.
- Custom hotkeys can also help you, particularly later in the game when you need to micro and macro at the same time.
- Finally, remember that APM isn’t everything. If your actions aren’t helping you in terms of your actual Starcraft strategy, you are just wasting your time.
Sometimes, it is easier to look at strategy for a complex game like Starcraft 2 when you break the strategic elements down to basic goals, like perfecting your mining and gathering, harassing your opponent and improving your APM. Still, it will take practice and actual match experience to determine the best Starcraft 2 strategy to suit your playing style.