Beginner Builds: Reading Build Orders
- Build Orders
- Reading Build Orders on SC2 Swarm
- Build Order Example
- 16 – Hatchery Opening
- Building Zerglings
- When to Build Drones
Build Orders
Build orders are a series of times to build certain structures, upgrades, build units and everything else in the game. They are designed to create a cohesive game plan in the most efficient and effective way. Build orders are important because they allow you to more easily improve at the game by giving you benchmarks to aim for and by giving you an idea of how you want to play before the game even begins. This allows you to focus on what your opponent is doing rather than trying to think about what you should do next.
With all of this being said, build orders are guidelines and should not be strictly followed every game, you always need to react to your opponent to some capacity. This is why my more detailed guides such as the Standard Roach ZvP Guide include reactions and deviations based on what your opponent is doing. This is particularly important for Zerg as Zerg is primarily a reactive race (at least when playing standard styles). Zerg is a reactive race because of the way Zerg’s production works, since all production comes from larva and larva can be any unit, you should be aiming to make as many drones as possible before making army. This gives you the best economy possible which eventually gives you the money required to swarm your opponent with units.
Reading Build Orders on SC2 Swarm
Build orders are somewhat personalized, there are multiple different ways to designate when to build a structure or do a specific action. Everyone writes build orders a little differently, the way the builds are written on this site are primarily the way I prefer them to be organized and while more experienced players can likely catch on to how everything is formatted, this article is to help newer players or players who aren’t familiar with some of the notation I use in my builds to learn how to interpret them.
Note: if you prefer your build orders to be formatted a different way from the site or from wherever you are learning StarCraft, I personally highly recommend writing out your builds from what you are learning from to the format which you like the best.
Build Order Example
Here is an example of a build order from the 2 Base Roach ZvZ guide by Mcmonroe. It contains the main notation that I use throughout my guides, so I would like to go through it an explain what I mean on the main steps.
At This Time – Do This
One important thing to recognize is that I always separate the time to do things and what you should be doing through the “-“. If there is no “-“, then I am likely adding a note, or clarifying something that you may want to do in your build order some of the time but not all of the time.
At This Supply
The first an most basic example of build orders uses supply as the base line for when to do things. This is straightforward and I tend to use it mostly at the beginning of build orders when nothing can go particularly wrong. I usually move away from using supply later on in build orders, as it isn’t as accurate as some of the other methods of denoting time.
Using supply, I will just write the supply to do the action at, with no @ symbol. To expand further, in the build order example above I write “13 – Overlord” which really just means when you reach 13 supply build an Overlord.
@100% Once This Completes
I use @100%, before a game event, as the time to do an action to mean once the event happens, proceed with doing the action. Common uses of @100% are generally when structures or upgrades finish. In the build order example, there is “@100% Spawning Pool – 2x Queens”. This means, once your Spawning Pool has completed, start 2 Queens.
@xx:xx Game Time
This one is simple and is just at a certain time in the game, do the specific action. In the example above, “@3:15 – +1 Range and 2x Extractors” means at 3:15 on the game timer, start the +1 Range attack upgrade and 2 Extractors. This is primarily used for actions that are important to start a time because of what your opponent can do. In this case, a good example of this is “@3:30 – Second Evolution Chamber in the Wall”. It is important to have your wall completed at 3:30 against Hatchery first players, because 3:30 is the common time for Zergling Speed to finish. Completing the wall allows you to defend Zergling attacks from players who make Zerglings and all in once their Zergling speed finishes (it also allows you to deny vision).
@Resource Count
This notation isn’t actually in the above example, however it is also fairly simple. When something should be started as soon as you have the required resource for it and does not have a better way to denote time then I will use @resource count as the time. For most openings, if you don’t saturate your Extractor right away you won’t have enough gas to start Zergling Speed @100% Spawning Pool. In this case, I will either use @100 Gas – Zergling Speed. This notation will use whatever the limiting resource is at the time (almost always gas) and the amount of that resource required to do the action.
@Drone Count
@Drone count is used as a time for when you reach a certain Drone count. This is important for builds that have specific attacks or pressures like the example, or when you should reach a specific Drone count before completing the action. In the case where you should reach the specific Drone count, it is likely that the action cuts into your Drone production and would therefore hinder your economy too much to do earlier than reaching that Drone count. Since every game is different and you could lose workers or have a less than ideal Drone count because of a supply block or any number of reasons this is important. In the example I have “@52 Drones – Constant Roach Production” since 52 Drones and 4 gases is an good income ratio for Roach Production and in this build we want Roaches to hit the +2/+1 upgrade timing. While 58 Drones with 5 gases, 66 Drones with 6 gases and 72 Drones with 7 gases are all also good Roach Production Ratios, in this specific case we stop at 52 Drones to add strength to the timing attack.
Notes
I’ll be honest, my notation with notes isn’t particularly consistent. In this example, I use > at the start of lines to add notes to times in the build order, as well as | as a note add on to a specific line of the build order. I have also used notations such as // at the start of notes, or using bold text “Note: – my note here”. It should still be fairly straightforward for what my notes are no matter what notation I use, as notes won’t have the “-” or will in some way be separated after the action.
16 – Hatchery Opening
The 16 Hatchery opening is the most common standard Zerg opening. I don’t go into specific details for this opening on every build order, as it would mostly be unnecessary extra work as well as add fluff text which takes away from the more important information. With that being said, there are some intricacies that aren’t obvious to newer players, so I would like to go into detail about the 16 Hatchery opening here.
Unless specified otherwise,
13 – Overlord
16 – Hatchery
18 – Extractor
17 – Spawning Pool
Really means:
12 – Drone
13 – Overlord
13 – Drone
14 – 2x Drones
@~180 Minerals – Send a Drone from your mineral line to take the natural Hatchery (exact time varies on map)
16 – Hatchery | Using the Drone you sent to take the Hatchery
15 – Drone | Rally to your mineral line
16 – Drone | Rally to your Extractor
17 – Drone | Rally to your Spawning Pool
18 – Build Extractor
17 – Build Spawning Pool
16 – Drone | Rally into Gas
17 – Drone | Rally into Gas
18 – Drone | Rally into Gas
There is a lot of rallying for the ideal opening, so I tend to keep this information out of build orders since it isn’t crucial to rally like this and most players already know this information. It also takes up a lot of space and overly complicates the build order.
Building Zerglings
Zerglings spawn in groups of 2. One frequently asked question that I get is when the build says make 4x Zerglings, should I make 8 Zerglings from 4 Larva, or 4 Zerglings from 2 Larva. There would be confusion either way I write this, but when I say 4x Zerglings I mean make 4 Zerglings from 2 Larva.
When to Build Drones
The build orders I write tend to not include building Drones. This is because it would take up way to much space. Instead, the build orders assume that you are building Drones unless otherwise stated. You should be building Drones whenever you have the supply, minerals and Larva to build Drones, unless there is something else in the build order. In the example build order, the 2:50 and 3:00 times for the first Evolution Chamber and Roach Warren are at those times because you shouldn’t have any Larva to make Drones, and you will have enough money to make the structures. This maximizes your economy and should be what you are aiming to do. If you should stop building Drones, I will note that as part of the build order, such as “@100% Spawning Pool – 4x Zerglings” is common in ZvT as you need the 4 Zerglings to defend the first Reaper that most Terrans send across the map quickly for scouting. In this case, you will spend 2 Larva on Zerglings and then go back to making Drones.
