StarCraft II – Protoss Strategy: Blink Stalker Push [Guide]

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• Overview
• Build Order
• Strategy

One of the good things about Protoss is that there are various abilities that help gain an advantage over the other races. For example, Blink lets you teleport your Stalkers, which is very good to have in combat. There’s a build that makes use of this ability at the earliest possible chance. While you won’t have as many units out early on, having Blink makes the sacrifice on unit macro worth it.

Overview

The objective is to research Blink as soon as possible, gather as many Stalkers as you can, and have an Observer ready to spot the high ground for a timing attack that will hopefully catch your opponent by surprise. The combination of having a big amount of units at the start of the game, the ability to Blink into and away from the enemy base, and using the terrain to your advantage are what makes this a viable strategy for most matchups with Protoss.

This has proven effective against Protoss, but does well against Terran and Zerg as well in some situations. With Terran, you should look out for Missile Turrets that can shoot down your Observers, while you’d be more concerned of an early third base from Zerg.

Against Protoss, this has proven to be a good build, especially against an opponent that won’t really be expecting it. In PvP, the winning factor will lie upon your ability to keep your units alive as long as possible during the attack, especially if he didn’t go for a late game strategy since he may have more units than you.

Build Order

This can be varied, depending on the player. The main focus is to have just enough Gateways to crank the Stalkers out, have a Robotics Facility for the Observer, and a Twilight Council to research Blink. Once you get Blink, you initiate your attack while continuing to make Stalkers (and Observers if necessary) to pressure your opponent, hopefully to surrender.

• 9 Pylon
• 12 Gateway
• 14 Gas
• 16 Pylon
• 17 Core
• 19 Gateway / Gas
• 20 Warpgate (start making stalkers)
• 22 Pylon
• 30 Pylon
• 40 Robo -> Twilight -> Gate -> Pylon
• Observer + Blink immediately
• Attack

Strategy

Look out for any enemy detectors that may reveal your Observer. Since the point of this strategy is to blink up past the ramp to higher ground to do damage, losing your Observer will prevent you from doing that in the first place.

When a detector is spotted, either avoid that area or take it out. If ever your Observer is killed when you’re already on high ground, you can either follow through with the attack or blink back down to lower ground if you need to retreat.

You may also have the dubious option to leave a unit on high ground to maintain vision of high ground, but it will most likely be killed immediately before Blink cools down. It is more advisable to make a full retreat when necessary.

This strategy is best in maps where the ramp leading to the enemy main base is narrow and there are ledges that are accessible to your units. All you do need is vision of the high ground to Blink in, so you can essentially flank the enemy base.

This is ideal when your opponent’s forces are somewhere else, like defending the natural. If the ramp leading to the main base is narrow, it will take them a while to get to your forces, which should already be wreaking havoc upon his vital structures.

If the attack doesn’t work out, you should pull back immediately upon signs of not being superior at that moment in order to preserve as many Stalkers as possible. From there, you can expand and make more Gateway and Robotics units as needed. If the opponent has a lot of light units, then you should tech up to Colossi. If he has more armored, then get Immortals. From here, you should be able to transition to some other strategy well enough as long as you kept your forces alive.