Fixing Starcraft 2 Multiplayer Mistakes

Blizzard designed StarCraft 2 multiplayer from the ground up to revolve around the esports scene. That’s right, many people actually make a decent amount of money competing in various tournaments for the game. Because the multiplayer can be an incredibly competitive environment, new players often find themselves in over their heads while playing against real people. If these players focus on forming good habits while playing instead of feeding bad habits, they’d experience an incredible boost in match performance.

Common Mistake #1: Winging It

If you were the coach of a major football team, you wouldn’t just go and tell your players “Do whatever you like,” would you? It’s the same in StarCraft 2. If you go into a match without at least a skeleton of a plan then you will almost certainly lose to the other player. What can you do to fix this? Come up with a plan. In SC2, the best way to start is by memorizing a few build orders for different situations. When the loading screen comes up, look at your opponent’s chosen race. That also gives you a few clues about what to do, especially with regard to build orders.

Common Mistake #2: No Build Order

This leads from the first mistake, and deserves more explanation. A build order is the order in which you construct your buildings. This allows you to maximize production of certain combat units. For example, if you 4Gate (build four Warpgates) as Protoss, you can maximize your production of Stalkers, Zealots, and Sentries. These keep you on track, so that you’re constantly spending your resources and making things when they should be made. Go find some builds online, print them out, and practice them against the AI until you have them down.

Common Mistake #3: Not Enough Minerals and Gas

In the excitement of the match, you can sometimes forget to keep mining and gas production up. These two basic resources are what you need to make everything in the game. If you run low, suddenly you can’t keep pumping out the combat units you need to overwhelm your opponent. Unless you are spending efficiently, the most common cause for this is not enough workers (either Probes, SCVs, or Drones). To get the most out of any main base or expansion, you need to full page of workers. This means at least three per mineral patch, and three on each vespene geyser. No matter the time in the game, you should always be pumping out workers.

Common Mistake #4: Not Enough Food

Right after running out of resources, many new players become supply locked. This means you’ve reached the maximum number of supportable units with your current number of Pylons, Overlords, or Depots. In this situation, you are stuck until you get more of these buildings up. If you’re currently in a fight, you can no longer replenish lost units. This gives your opponent an advantage in unit numbers. Always keep an eye on your supply level in the upper right corner. Once it gets within 4 or so of the limit, make sure you’re building another supply center.

What This Adds Up To

As a new player, or even a long-time player who has experienced little success, your wins depend not only on your ability to lead an army, but also on managing your base. These are some of the most common mistakes that keep people from bringing their game to the next level. The sad part is, they are incredibly preventable. After you have mastered these mistakes, you can move on to more advanced techniques for improving your skills.