Resources

edit   StarCraft Portal: Resources Introduction The Game Resources Units Buildings Spells Macromanagement Micromanagement Mechanics Hotkeys & Shortcuts Definitions Tools Miscellaneous StarCraft is based on collecting two different Resources: Minerals and Vespene Gas. They differ through their gathering mechanic. Minerals The planets along the rim are often dotted with clusters of precious Mineral crystals. These Minerals are smelted down and used to create the armored hulls of starships, vehicles and personal armor. Even the Zerg require Minerals to harden their carapaces and develop strong teeth and bones. Minerals are used to construct buildings and units. Basic buildings, low-tech army units, and workers cost Minerals and not Vespene. A base normally has several Mineral patches. Workers assigned to gather Minerals return them to their Town Hall in packets of eight. An increase in mineral income can be achieved by improving the saturation of the Mineral Line by adding additional workers. When minerals are mined out, the patches vanish entirely. Read more about ideal mining. Vespene Gas Vespene gas has an unusually high potential energy rating, and as such it is highly valued for use as a fuel in high-performance engines and energy reactors. The Zerg have adapted themselves to use raw Vespene as a source of nourishment to drive their greatly accelerated metabolisms. Even the Protoss require Vespene to work as a catalyst for their psi-driven machines. Geysers of this powerful green gas can be found on many planets along the Rim, and several space stations have been built over Vespene-rich asteroid belts. Also known as just "gas", Vespene is used for higher-tech units and is especially important in late-game situations. There are no units that cost only gas. Vespene is collected from geysers upon which a race-specific structure (Assimilator, Refinery, Extractor) must be built. Workers assigned to the structure return Vespene packets to the Town Hall. Vespene is initially collected in quantities of eight. Once the main content of a Geyser has been depleted, workers will still collect gas indefinitely (unlike Minerals), but only in quantities of two. The sprite of gas carried by the worker decreases in size to indicate this. Gas has a linear rate of gathering: the gas recovered from each geyser is constant since it is saturated with only a few workers. Professional maps yield maximum gas (about 288 gas per Fastest minute) with three workers per geyser, while other maps may need four or five. As a result of the constant rate of mining, improving your gas income usually requires additional bases. Expansions Players begin in possession of one base and usually must create and defend additional bases, known as Expansions, throughout the game to secure more resources, whilst also attempting to stop enemy players from doing so. In StarCraft, map control is usually synonymous with resource control. Supply The production of almost every unit requires an additional resource: Supply. The amount of supply can be increased by the building of certain buildings or units. Supply is sometimes called Psi for the Protoss and Control for the Zerg. Another general term for Supply is Food. For Terran, Supply is increased by building Supply Depots (+8) and Command Centers (+10). For Protoss, Supply is increased by building Pylons (+8) and Nexuses (+9). For Zerg, Supply is increased by producing Overlords (+8) and building Hatcheries (+1). Building either will increase the amount of supply each race is able to spend (the so-called Supply Cap), but it is economically inefficient to build Command Centers, Hatcheries, or Nexuses for supply, so these are generally not built for this purpose alone. The maximum amount of food for any player is 200. It is worth noting that Supply, Control, and Psi, for Terran, Zerg, and Protoss respectively, are treated as separate resources in-game. By having control over each race, you can build 200 supply's worth of units for each race you control. The term "Supply Block" or "being supply blocked" means that a player's current Supply Cap is no more than the Supply that his current units cost, e.g. "18/18", and he is thus unable to build any more. It may also mean that the Supply Cap is too low to build a certain unit. For example, a player at 38/41 cannot build a Reaver, which costs 4 Supply, so the Reaver may be described as supply-blocked, even though other units can be built.