StarCraft Portal: Buildings

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A building in StarCraft is any structure placed on the map that can be interacted with (either pre-placed by the mapmaker or by a player during the game).

See also: Building Statistics

Overview

Buildings in StarCraft are all classified as large type units and generally have a base armor of one, with the exception of:

• Anti-air towers (Terran Missile Turret, Protoss Photon Cannon, Zerg Spore Colony) and building supporters (Protoss Pylon and Zerg Creep Colony) - 0 armor
• Zerg Sunken Colony - 2 Armor

See also: Damage

Below, Buildings are listed by race and by type.

See also: Unit Statistics

Buildings initially have 10% of their full HP so they can't be one-shot-killed. Buildings can be cancelled, but the player will only regain 75% of its worth. If a building with queued units / upgrades is killed, their costs are fully refunded.

Protoss Buildings ( · )

Protoss buildings are "warped in". A Probe places a warp beacon that remains charging for some time before the building will appear. After placing the warp beacon the Probe can be assigned to other tasks.

• All buildings have regenerative shields equal to the building's base HP. Like unit shields, they can be upgraded, take full damage from any damage type, and can be set to 0 with EMP.
• Buildings must be built within a Pylon's power range, with the exception of the Pylon itself, the Nexus, and the Assimilator. If the Pylon is destroyed, the buildings in its range will display "unpowered" and will cease functioning (unit production and upgrade research will be frozen, Photon Cannons will not fire, etc.) until power is restored. Unpowered buildings, however, will still serve as prerequisites for units and other buildings (e.g. High Templar can still be produced if the Templar Archives is not powered).

See also Protoss technology tree and Protoss unit production locations

Basic Nexus Pylon Assimilator Gateway Forge Shield Battery Cybernetics Core Photon Cannon

Advanced Robotics Facility Stargate Citadel of Adun Robotics Support Bay Fleet Beacon Templar Archives Observatory Arbiter Tribunal

Terran Buildings ( · )

Terran buildings are built by SCVs. When ordered to do so, an SCV will spend some time constructing the building, moving back and forth over the building site. During this time the SCV can only be ordered to stop production (the unfinished building will remain). A building SCV can be attacked or repaired or otherwise affected by other units as usual.

• Structures are not restricted by any racial requirement like Creep or Pylons—they can be placed on any buildable terrain immediately.
• Buildings and mechanical units are able to repaired by SCVs. Using multiple SCVs increases the repair rate.
• If a building is damaged to 1/3 of its total HP, it will begin to burn until it destroys itself or is repaired above the 1/3 threshold (does not apply to buildings that have not finished construction).
• All production buildings (including Command Center), Engineering Bay and Science Facility have the ability to lift off from the ground and float to a new location, if they are unoccupied. Their movement speed is higher than that of a non-upgraded Overlord. Players will often use unneeded buildings to scout.
• Terrans often use buildings to wall in, restricting or completely denying enemy units entrance to an area.
• Some buildings (Comsat Station, Nuclear Silo, Machine Shop, Control Tower, Physics Lab, Covert Ops) are add-ons to main buildings. Add-ons don't belong to specific players and can be attached by any Terran player. They are constructed by their associated building itself rather than by an SCV.

See also Terran technology tree and Terran unit production locations

Basic Command Center Comsat Station Nuclear Silo Supply Depot Refinery Barracks Engineering Bay Bunker Academy Missile Turret

Advanced Factory Machine Shop Starport Control Tower Armory Science Facility Physics Lab Covert Ops

Zerg Buildings ( · )

A Zerg Drone morphs into a building, being consumed in the process. The building can be cancelled before completion to recover the Drone and (3/4 of) the building's associated costs.

• All buildings that take damage will regenerate health over time, like Zerg units.
• Buildings must be constructed on terrain covered with Creep (including the enemy's Creep), with the exception of the Hatchery and the Extractor. Creep is generated in an area around Hatcheries and Creep Colonies.

See also Zerg technology tree and Zerg unit production locations

Hatchery Hatchery Extractor Spawning Pool Evolution Chamber Creep Colony Sunken Colony Spore Colony Hydralisk Den

Lair Lair Queen's Nest Spire Hive Hive Greater Spire Nydus Canal Ultralisk Cavern Defiler Mound

Types of buildings

Town Hall

Each race starts out with a 'headquarters' building, where workers are produced, resources are collected, and which is the base of the tech tree. They are the Nexus, Command Center and Hatchery for Protoss, Terran and Zerg respectively.

Supply Buildings

These buildings serve to increase the total number of units a player can produce (until the maximum of 200 food count is reached). They are the Protoss Pylon and the Terran Supply Depot. Zerg do not possess these buildings as Overlords are their source of supply, though town halls also provide 1 supply.

Static Defence

These buildings are constructed to provide protection in a certain area. Their general purpose is to stop or at least to dissuade an opponent from attacking that area, but they can also be used in tandem with an army. In competitive play, some are placed, such as Missile Turrets or Photon Cannons, around the base and especially around resource nodes not to provide complete protection, but to allow time for a much stronger force to arrive.

All defence towers have attack range of 7. Anti-air towers (Terran Missile Turret, Protoss Photon Cannon, Zerg Spore Colony) are also detectors and have detection radius of 7 and vision range of 11 (10 for the Zerg towers). Terran Bunker is totally different as it doesn't have its own attack radius but increases the range of infantry units loaded into it by 1 and provides additional HP and ability to be repaired and blocked from melee units by SCVs.

Production building

These buildings are where the bulk of offensive units are produced. Zerg have their Town Hall building and Production Building combined as all units are produced from the Hatchery. Therefore a Zerg player will almost always build several Hatcheries throughout the course of the game to keep up with production.

Some production / upgrade buildings also have graphical effects while working, allowing other players to see if they are active. They still don't show what they are producing / upgrading / morphing to, even to allies.

Terran

All Terran buildings blink when producing / upgrading (including Nuclear Silo). See also Terran unit production locations.

Protoss

Some production and technology building buildings blink when working, including:

• Nexus
• Stargate
• Cybernetic Core
• Forge

See also Protoss unit production locations.

Zerg

Zerg buildings do not directly indicate production is occurring but the Larva becomes an Egg when morphing. Building production can be seen when the building morphs, but technology/ability upgrades are not visibly indicated. See also Zerg unit production locations

Technology Building

Almost all buildings -- even Production and Town Hall buildings -- fall under this classification. These buildings open up new technology for a player, whether that is new units and buildings to be constructed or upgrades for those units. See each race's Technology tree.

Neutral Buildings

These buildings are placed by the mapmaker. They are sometimes placed for art or a purpose within a Use Map Settings match. On competitive maps, most neutral buildings provide a destructible wall, providing a new path through which units can pass. A prime example of this is the map Medusa.