Starcraft guide
Starcraft guide
By Lord Zero
(dskzero@yahoo.com)
Version 1.4
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Index:
1.- File History
2.- Intro
3.- Cheats
4.- Important info
5.- The Races
5.1.- Terrans
5.1.1.- Units
5.1.2.- Buildings
5.1.3.- Strategies
5.2.- The Zerg
5.2.1.- Units
5.2.2.- Buildings
5.2.3.- Strategies
5.3.- The Protoss
5.3.1.- Units
5.3.2.- Buildings
5.3.3.- Strategies
6.- Credits
7.- Legal stuff
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1.-File History.
-1.0 Intial stuff, never released.
-1.1 Complete revision and 1.04 notes.
-1.2 Reworked the guide to follow my actual designs. Took out several things
and added others... Mainly made it look OK and making out the design for my
Warcraft III faq project (Which I plan to do when it's released).
-1.3 Copyright changed. (08/24/2001, 21:09)
-1.4 Changed my email (10/29/2002)
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2.- Intro.
Welcome to the latest version of my Starcraft guide.
This is probably the best RTS game ever, and we all know that we love it. It
is completely balanced, three races with totally diferent strenghts and
weakness, great graphics, great music, incredible good sound effects. It's
the ultimate strategy game until this day.
What else can we expect from Blizzard, anyway? Everything they touch
becomes gold...
I wrote this guide about three years ago, and it was my very first FAQ. I made
it out of an incredible fanatic rush for this game, and after this guide I
wrote maaany others. 16 more guides. I'm proud of all of them, and now I feel
like I'm an actually good FAQ writer, specially my RPGs guide written in
spanish.
I always knew that i had this guide over there. I won't lie to you. But I also
was extremely bussy with all my others files, and also this is my last year
in high school, that means that I have to find time in some very tight hours.
To this day, however, as I'm writing yet another guide, I've decided to
update this thing. Also, another reason is because I have another guide for this
game, my Terran Strategy Guide, which is (IMHO and in the humble opinion of
many people who wrote to me) very good and waaaay better than this guide.
And since there's a Warcraft III coming soon, and I'm planning to write a
guide for that game, I've decided to do the same as this game: A general
guide for new guys on the game, and a very specific and thought guide for my
favorite race (and I'm hoping it's gonna be the Orcs ^_^), so I need to have
a good model. So, here I come with this guide.
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3.- Cheats.
I've decided to include this before the units since we all know, little
cheaters we are, that we always look for cheats on any guide. The cheats are
inputed pressing enter, typing the words, then enter again.
POWER OVERWHELMING - Invincibility for all your units and buildings. I faintly
remember that in WCII "This is a good day to die" did not added protection
from spells, but here it works. This cheat is hinted by the Archons.
BLACK SHEEP WALL - Full map.
OPERATION CWAL - almost instant buildings and upgrades.
SHOW ME THE MONEY - each time you type it you receive 10000 minerals and
10000 gas.
BREATHE DEEP - gives you 500 gas. So yo don't want to be such a cheater, just
an small cheater?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT - don't need any supplies to build new units. CHEAP.
MODIFY THE PAHSE VARIANCE - I think it lets you build beyond the 200 limit,
but I'm not sure.
NO GLUES - no abilities allowed.
MEDIEVAL MAN - "i'm medieval man!" hinted by the hidden track in the WCII
expansion set. Gives you one level of upgrades.
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING - the same as above.
THE GATHERING - ulimited energy.
GAME OVER MAN - You lose the mission
STAYING ALIVE - you don't finish anything since no one will lose or win.
THERE IS NO COW LEVEL - You win the mission.
OPHELIA - add the name of the race and the number of the stage you want to
warp "OPHELIA TERRAN 4" as example.
WAR AINT WHAT IT USE TO BE - removes fog of war only in the main screen
without affecting the mini map.
WHATS MINE IS MINE - Gives you 500 mineral.
RADIO FREE ZERG - Plays an special track only when playing zerg. Extremely
cool, but it doesn't works for me in Starcraft, so I guess it's only for
Brood War.
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4.- Important Info:
This is a very basic guide to show you what can you do with each unit, as some
basic strategy. If you want to go for it, read my Terran Strategy Guide in
gamefaqs.com, since it's a very in-depth guide for the Terrans.
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5.1.- The Terrans:
The Terrans are probably the easiest and most versatile race to play.T hey have
anything: Strong ground units, strong air units, and a goddamned great defense.
You can do anything wrong when playing terrans, anything can be fixed.
5.1.1.-Infatry Units: All the infatry units can get into Bunkers, and this
infantry
units are really the most versatile in the game. All of them are small and take
just one slot in the dropships.
SCV: The Worker of the Terrans. Not much to say here, but they are the
hardest of all the workers and they can repair buildings and all
the vehicles of this race.
Marines: Probably the most versatile unit in the game, you cannot go wrong
planing anything when the plan includes marines. The Marines are cheap
small, fast, greatly upgradeable and can have a very long range. The long
range is what makes them such a great unit. At late game, they will be
forgoten, however, they are great for fast and cheap defense.
Firebats: The mixed bag. The Firebats are fast,and have a cool attack
against small units(Zealots,Zerglings)and they are specially devastating
when lots of small units come running to your base. They use a spray
attack, which will not only atack the first unit, but the ones behind it
too. Anyway,when the big guys comes around, use them with discretion.
Ghosts: This guys will drive any one mad if use correctly. They can cloak
which means they can go and blow up a lot of units if the enemy isn't
taking care of the cloak detection. They can fire a special bullet,
called lockdown which will stop any mechanical unit long enough to kill
it(or get the hell out of there!)They also can direct the nuclear
missile, which is the most devastating weapon in the game. The low side
is the concussive nature of their attacks, this, combined the long time
you'll play before even see them, makes them just a support unit.
Vehicles: While the vehicles aren't as solid as the infantry, are cool and
very useful when used right. You have the air support(Goliaths), the infantry
killer(Vulture) and the Almighty Siege Tank.
Vulture:As I said before, the vultures aren't a very good unit.However
they are great for recon missions and cool enough to defense. They still
have a great ability, the spider mine, a small mine which , when any
ground unit(except vultures and workers) comes around, will follow
it and blows! 125 HP destroyed.
Goliaths: Another unit which nobody uses a lot. Probably their only use
are to guard against air units. Their air attack is greater than the
wraith, and is quite fast. Good for protecting Siege Tanks
(The Almighty)Siege Tanks: The best terran unit. Sure,30 points of damage
isn't too much, but how about 70 points of damage, at almost the same
range of the yamato cannon? At 150 minerals and 100 gas, this is a
bargain, and when used with lots of marines, you will have a very very
strong force.
The Air units:T he air units of the terrans are a very cohesive force. The
Wraiths provide the in-your-face strike and the battlecruiser kill off at great
distance, while the science vessel protect all the fleet from cloacked units.
Wraiths: Cheap, fast, cloakable and really nasty, they are a great unit
often the main one on many attacks. Anyway,keep em away from detector
unts, or you'll suffer many casualties.
Battlecruiser: This is the best units taking out legions of towers. Their
laser attack isn't very strong, but they can take a lot of damage, and
are a great support unit. The low side is their high cost, But the Yamato
Cannon makes up for it.
Science Vessel: Their main use is to detect hiden units, but they can be
used for another objetives. The Irradiate spell is great to protect siege
tanks from melee units. It will cause a green smoke to attack any organic unit
it touches, plus it will be attached to the unit! The EMP shockwave
is a very nasty spell, which will drain all the shields or energy from
any unit. Great when casted on archons. The Other spell will protect any
unit, reducing all the damage taken to 1 hp
Dropship: The hardest transport in the game, but it falls on the speed side.
5.1.2.- Buildings: All the terran buildings can be repairing, using an SCV and
a few resources. Also, most of these buildings can fly.
Command Center:
This is the HQ of any colony. Here, you can build SCVs and return
all the resources. This one can fly. Plus, you can build to add-ons buildings:
-Comm Sat Station: Here, you can use a special ability, which will
reveal all the terrain, units and hidden units in the area selected.
-Missile Silo: here you can build the Nukes(or nuclear missiles)to
be fired by the Ghost. Anyway, they are too expensives, but read my
Terran strategy guide to know about special tactics about ir (they are too
long to explain here).
Supply depot:
It provides you with 8 supply units. They are especialy vulnerables
against Nuclear Missiles so protect them.
Barracks:
Here you can train all the infatry units, and it can fly.
Engineering bay:
Here you can upgrade your infantry units's armor and guns. You'll
need a science facility to reach the 2 and 3 levels weapons and armors.
Can fly.
Bunkers:
A very useful building, here you can hide your infatry units and they
will be protected for the bunker HP(as long it's still there) and will
add a bit of longer range to your units.
Academy:
Here you can research two very useful upgrades for your infantry
units: The u-223 will add two squares of range for your marines,
while the stimpack will make your marines and firebats faster, for the
cost of 10 HP.
Missile turret:
Is a defensive strcuture which will fire missiles at any air unit
who comes in range. It's also a detector unit.
Factory:
Here you can build all of your vehicles. You can build a machine shop
too.
-Machine shop: Here you can upgrade your vultures velocity, and
research the Spider mine ability and the siege mode for your siege tanks.
Starport:
This is the place where you build all of your air units. You'll need
a control tower for anything but the wraith.
-Control Tower: Here you can add a +50 energy space for your wraiths,
plus the cloak ability.
Armory:
Here's where you can upgrade the plates and weapons for both your air
units and your vehicles. Also allows you to build goliaths.
Science Facility:
The science facility allows you to upgrade your science vessels,and
opens the door to build the Covert Ops and the Physic lab:
-Covert Ops: here you can research cloak, sight,energy upgrade and the
dreaded lockdown for your ghosts.
-Physics Lab: This is the place to research the big YaMaTo CaNnOn and
the energy upgrade for your Battlecruisers.
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5.1.3)The Strategy
First, the Terrans are the humans, and like they are humans, they aren't very
strong.And second, forget about "trowing your units in the middle of the
battle"
it can be fun, but you'll lose anyway.
There's one thing the Terrans do the best: Closing small bottlenecks. While the
Terrans can be overwhelmed in large battlegrounds, when playing in small areas,
the siege tanks can show off all their power. get all the bridges, build lot of
bunkers put your tanks in siege mode, 4 goliaths and a few SCVs, and you'll be
invicible. There's little room for more strategies for the enemy, but trowing
all his armada to you and suffer a lot of casualties, while you can repair your
tanks, reinforce them and when the enemy start sending air units, surprise!you
have about 15 cloacked wraiths.
That's all. Inteligent position of your siege tanks and bunkers.
Instead, you can use your bunker while attacking. See: when you start bombarding
the enemy base with your tanks, use your SCVs to build some bunkers.When your
infatry units get hurt, get them into the bunker ,and you'll have more firepower
without losing any unit.
Though the nuclear strike is really destructive, is an intelligent idea to
send more than one ghost when attacking.Even better, use like 6 ghost,but only 3
will send the attack. Put them around the enemy's base and put the non attacking
ghost in the most obvious places. Send all the missiles at the same time, and
the
enemy will found 6 ghosts! He will kill one, and he will rest, till he sees all
his base turned to nothing.
Remember your firebats. They are great Vs zerglings and zealots.
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5.2)The Zerg:
The zergs have one thing in their advantage. They are really fast when it comes
to build a goddammed large force. Some units come in couples, and you can build
3 units at once! The problem comes when you must battle large scale battles.
5.2.1.- The Units:
Unlike the terrans and the Protoss, all of the Zerg units are build in the same
place, the Hatchery. Also all of the Zerg units can be considered infatry.
Drones: The drones are the working force of the zerg. They are fast
and get the job done. The low point is that the drones actually transform
itself into a building, so you'll lose a drone, thus recovering a control point
Zerglings: The zerglings are little rats. They aren't a very powerful unit
but they are so cheap and fast to produce(and they come in couples!)
that you can build a very big army with these guys. When upgraded they
are a Stank eater.
Hydralisk: One of the best units in the game, they are one of the few
long range based unit of the swarm. They are highly upgradeable,and
are a great attacking unit. Forget the ultralisk and get these guys.
Defiler: These scorpions have quite useful abilities: There's the dark
swarm, which makes ranged attack unuseful, the Plage, a really annoying
spell wich will reduce the HP(no shields, just HP) till 3 HPs!whoa!
There's also the cannibal, uhh, err..sorry the comsume ability, which will
"eat" any friendly unit receiving 50 magic. Quite useful, cause all the
defiler spells are kinda expensive. If used correctly they can be the
key to victory.
Ultralisks: Annoying as they can be, they aren't anything "too" special.
They have the most HP for a ground unit in the game, and they are a hell
when you must kill em. Anyway,they are REALLY EXPENSIVES and are SLOW
don't have a air attack, and are killed quite easily by Tanks and Reavers.
Good support unit, but nothing else.
Brodling: Weak and very weak, their only asset is that they are free,
and can cause some serious destrction when they appear in a middle
of siege tanks. Created from the Queen with the spawn brodlings spell.
Infected Terran: Well... Send em to a building and see 500 HP less in a
few seconds. Not much strategy needed here.
The Air Units: The weakest air force in the game ,they must be used in swarms to
get some useful resources. The Mutalisks are cheap and fast, but are massacred
by spells and the guards are very slow.
Mutalisks: Kinda strange unit, they are the main air force. They are fast
and are small, that means they take half damage from Scouts and Wraits.
The scout still overwhelm them and the Battlecruisers and Carriers kill
em with ease .A nice point with them is that when you mutate them into
Guardians they will recover all their hit points.
Guardians: The catapult of the game: they are slow, big, ugly(very ugly!)
and do a helluva lot of damage at a fast rate. They are mutated from
a Mutalisks and are a most defensive unit. The main problem is that
they can't attack air units and are so slow that a bunch of
scouts can crush them. Protect them with scourges and hydralisks and
you should be fine.
Scourges: A single use unit, they are a suicide unit which will strike
causing 110 damage. They come in couples and are really fast. Beware of
cruisers which will kill em whit a single shot.
Queens: Great for scouting mission and have quite useful spells: The
dreaded spawn brodlings, which will kill a unit making 2 brodlings
come from it body. There is the Ensarne spell, which will slow
any unit and reveal hidden units. They have the Infest spell, which will
turn a command center(terran) into a zerg structure capable of building
Infested terrans.Quite annoying. Also,the almighty parasite, which will
let you see what the parisited unit sees.
5.2.2.- The Buildings: All The Zerg buildings come from a mutated drone. These
are
living creatures and they bleed, and heal over time. All the zerg buildings must
be mutated on creep.
Hatchery: The hatcery is the HQ of the zerg. It produces creep, is the
recolection center for resources, produces larva(Which will mutated to
your units)and can be upgraded to a Lair.It's cheap, but it has a problem
it only adds 1 control unit, so you can't build a lot of units only
with this structure. It also lets you research the Burrowing ability.
wich will let your units hide underground.
Lair: It's an evolutionated version of the Hatchery, it adds more HP,and
gives you 3 new ability to your overlords: There is the Antennae, wich will
add a few more squares of sight to your overlords.T he Ventral Sacs
will let your overlords transport units. And the Pneumaticed carapace
will make your Overlords a bit faster. It can be upgraded to a hive.
Hive: It's the hardest HQ of the game (2500 HP!)and allows you to
trasnform your Mutalisks to Guardians.
Evolution Chamber: Here you can upgrade Melee and Ranged attack and
the carapace for all your ground units.
Creep Colony: This building produces creep, and can be mutated into 2
defensive structures, The Sunken Colony and the Spre colony.
Sunken Colony: It targets grounds units and send a tentacle to attack
doing decent damage. Quite slow, anyway. Use them in groups.
Spore Colony: Targets air units and shoot a weak green thing. It has a
lot of HPs and it is really fast attacking.
Spawning Pool: It allows you to build the Zerglings, and has two upgrades
the adenal glands, which will make the zerglings attacks a bit faster
and the Metabolic boost, which will make your Zerglings move faster.
Hydralisk Den: Allows you to build Hydralisks, and gives you two new
upgrades: Muscular Augments, to make your Hydras move a bit faster and the
Grooved Spines, which will add a few squares to the Hydras Attack range.
Spire: It allows you to build Mutalisks and Scourges, and to upgrade their
attack and carapace, but you'll need a greater spire to for the high
level upgrades:
Greater Spire: Activates the guardian aspect for the Mutalisks.
Queen Nest: Allows you to build Queens,and let's you research three upgrades
for the queens:S pawn Broodling , Ensarne and Gamete meiosis(50% more energy)
Nydus Canal: It creates a link between 2 nydus canal and trasport
units instatly to the other gate no matter the distance. Quite useful
in multiplayer.
Defiler Mound: Allows you to build defilers and to research their spells
and their energy upgrade.
Ultralisk Cave: allows you to build the mighty Ultralisks.
Infested command Center: When you infest a Terran command Cente,it
gains the ability to build infested terrans. You can lift off it and
fly it to your base, remember.
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5.2.3.- The Strategy:
The Zerg aren't a very hard race to learn. Most battle can be won rushing the
Opponents or using just brute force. But there is their low point. A well
prepared
and organized oponent will receive you with lots of firepower. The Spells are
a total plage Vs the zerg, and the splash damage is a very good oponent vs the
Swarm.
Ok, There are a few strategies to be noticed about: First of all, remember your
queens, they can be really useful. If you see a bunch of siege tanks, try
casting
Spawn Broodling on 1 or 2 of them. Wow,you'll see some serious destruction.
There
is another point,and is using lots(and I mean LOTS) of zerglings, and attack an
small force. After winning the battle, get the hell out of there and burrow all
the zerglings. Wait till they are healed, and attack another small part. Slow,
but
it does work. It works with Hydraliks too. And another key to victory is to try
to preserve your units at the longest life rate. Mutate yor Mutalisks into
guardians
when they are hurt, hide your Defilers underground and retire if nescesary.
You can build on anyone's creep, so you can get a nydus canal on the enemy's
base.
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5.3.- The Protoss:
The Protoss are the most powerful race, but it is also the most expensive. They
have some of the best units, and are really tough to beat in a long game. Forget
them if you're a defensive guy, it will kill you eventually.
5.3.1.- The Units:
The protoss Units are almost all of them mechanicals. They lack somehow
in the ground battle, and is a slow race. They have 2 kinds of HPs,the shields
and
the HP. The Shields regenerate over time, and can be recharged using a shield
battery.
Probes: They are the weakest worker of the game, but they have something
that makes them great: They doesn't need to stay there waiting for the
building to be completed, they just open the warp.
Zealots: Well...12 Zealots are a force to be feared. These guys are amazing.
This, combined with the fact their velocity can be upgraded, makes them
a great unit. They can be really devastating. They can be crushed by ghosts
and Firebats, cause they are small, and the lack of air attacks makes them
vulnerable to guardians.
Dragoons: Probably the worst Protoss unit, they can do lots of damage,and
are fast, but they are specialy vulnerable to zergling. If you plan to use
them, don't forget to upgrade their range, and protect them with zealots
or Archons.
High Templars: A cool unit, they have two very important spells: The Psionic
Storm, which will create a psi storm which will pour down the battlefield.
Quite annoying when casted on guardians. The Halucination will create
two copies of any unit. Perfect when casted on full loaded carriers.
The low point is that they are easily killed.
The Archon: This one's created from two High Templars merged. These are
the best protoss units. They attack very fast and do an exagerated
amount of damage. They lack velocity, and their HPs are 350 shields and
10 HP, meaning that any Terran Sci Vessel can cast EMP shockwave on them
leaving them to be killed by a marine.
Reavers: These big dump trucks attack with scarabs, built inside of them
They are really devastating and you must build their weapons inside them
and are soooooo sloooooow. The Shuttle is needed to use them correctly.
5.3.2.-Air Units: The Protoss fleet is, along with the Terrans Fleet the best,
and most expensive of the game. If you can get a full fleet of these guys,you
have already won the battle.
Scout: A great unit. You can upgrade their velocity and sight, and are
powerful at attacking and are though to beat. Too expensives anyway.
Shuttle: The fastest transport in the game. It's too weak, but are so fast
they can past a few defenses before going down. Of course, you first
have to upgrade them.
Carriers: Quite powerful unit doomed since they are very vulnerable.
They launch little interceptors who'll swarm a target.When totally
upgraded are probably the only unit who can face the battlecruisers
when they fighthead to head.
Interceptors: This is the weapon of the carriers.Kinda weak,but just
too freking fast, and in great numbers pack quite a punch.
Observer: They are little eyes that are cloaked,and can be upgraded to
be really fast. If someone discover them, anyway, they are already dead.
Arbiter: The most annoying unit in the game. Let see it this way: When you
see an Arbiter, probably there are about 9 Carriers, 5 Scouts, and
a few reavers, Cause it cloaks any unit near it. And if you send a
Battlecruiser there, he'll probably
teleport a few dragons to bring you hell. They use a weak shot, and
two special attacks: Stasis Cell, Which will stop any unit and protect
it from attacks, and Recall, used to teleport units to the Arbiter's
Location.
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5.3.3)Strategy:
The Protoss are the easiest race to learn, actually.
The protoss have one thing in advantage. When the Zerg and the Marines are Weak,
they are strong. In the start of the game, The Terrans must start building and
protecting his units, the Zerg have to get the hydralisks, you can only build a
big force of Zealots and conquer new lands. The Air force of The Protoss is
pretty expensive, but it paybacks twice. The Carriers can get some serious
destruction specially Vs the Zerg, and the Observer is kinda a cheap unit.
It's just so fun to send one of these to all places and see what everyone's
thinking they are doing on the stealth way.
Forget about using dragoons to attack.Zerglings just kill'em too fast. Better
keep them in defense. They are somehow easily killed, actually.
If any enemy comes with an extremely big force, and you can't actually counter
it, if you have an Arbiter, there's a good trick: use stasis field. You can
ussually leave the enemy with their weakest troops and then face them first.
It also gives you quite a break to get reinforcements.
Don't rely on Photon Cannons. They are too weak, and you'll discover it in
the worst way you can think of.
*****************************************************************************
6.- Credits:
-Me, for writing this thing.
-Blizzard, the best company in the whole world.
-Nine Inch Nails since they are sounding in my stereo right now.
-CjayC for posting this thing up.
-And everyone who writes guides for Starcraft for inspiration.
-... YOU!
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7.- Legal Stuff.
This file is owned by Lord Zero (dskzero@yahoo.com)
You MAY distribute, print, read, show to your friends or enemies this
guide freely, AS LONG as you credit Lord Zero as the author, keep
the copyright on it, and is used for non-profit purposes. You MAY NOT
change ANYTHING on this guide, adding or taking anything out of it,
including banners, links, or anything else. You MAY NOT distribute this
guide on any non-electronic media. All I ask from you if you wish to
publish this guide on your site, is to keep it updated, and to notificate
me of your URL.
All Rights Reserved. Anything not mentioned on this text can be discussed
via email to the address below.
Copyright 1999-2002 By Lord Zero (dskzero@yahoo.com).
The last version can always be found in gamefaqs.com.
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Amazing Games. Many Cheats. Such Wow.
