First Game? Quick Tips

## Game Basics Terran

* Marines & Shock troopers use energy to shoot and are recharged by energy batteries.
* Reapers don't use energy and can be very useful early game. However they don't benefit from any tech, aka they are very weak late-game.
* Energy batteries are recharged by your bases energy generator which can be upgraded to produce more energy per second.
* Minerals are primarily used for training troops and upgrading your Generator and Gas Refineries.
* Gas is used for almost everything, but most of it will sink into your Economy and Technology. More Gas = Stronger Army

## General Tips

1. Energy supply to your troops is vital, it is recommended to put your battery on patrol from the back of your generator to your marines to reduce micro needed to you keep your energy supply up.
2. Watch what the other two Terran on your side (top / bottom side) are doing. If no-one else expands you'll most likely be focused by your Zerg player. It is recommended to encourage your team to push out simultaneously, because that puts significant pressure on your opponent Zerg's early economy since they will need to build units and spawners to respond and thus slow down their economic growth.
3. Aggressive Terrans who coordinate pushes are far more difficult to deal with than passive ones who sit back and "Turtle" in their base.
4. Always pay attention to the zerg, call out in chat if the attacks stop or if you are being focused so allies can react accordingly. If you're being focused they need to push or expand to help alleviate aggro.
5. Support your Team Mates, if you can see they are struggling with energy or are being focused, a quick batch of 5 or so Reapers sent to their front line might be able to stop the zerg from forcing them into their base, this may also provide a much needed energy buffer as your reapers wont need to use power.
6. Don't forget to upgrade your energy generator or you will run out. Get another battery and put it on patrol as well.
7. How many Gas Geysers you have defines how strong you become. Since strong eco = big army; and high tech = effective army. Both of these are Gas reliant. Even if you decide to camp in Base, that wall is going to need armor upgrades, so push out and get gas. You can always fall back into base once you have enough. Though personally I strongly recommend against camping.
8. Excluding the Gas inside the Terrans base:0 Gas = Might get you banned in future games; 1 Gas = Terran Loses pretty Hard; 2 Gas = Terran can just barely push; 3 Gas = Hard Terran win; Any more than 3 and its a Roflstomp.

## Economic Tips

1. After securing 2-3 gas spam fruit farms on the lowground. Don't build more than 3 sheep farms unless you know are in danger of being pushed up the ramp soon, as it's better to save gas for when you finished your construction yard for cow farms, which is a lot more cost efficient.
2. After destroying the Rocks in base you should have about 5 or 6 reapers (avoid going over 10 total) use them to secure the third gas if you haven't already. Then you can use them to kill blockers. Try not to lose them.
3. If someone dies early you can often get their gas as well, send a couple reapers to make sure there is no zerg still there. If the zerg is preoccupied you can often build farms in locations around the map. Be careful though, sheep and cows killed by Zerg give them 50/100 minerals respectively.
4. Upon Killing a nest you will be given a little buggo. These are invulnerable for 30 seconds so it is recommended that you escort them back to your base since they provide a similar resource gathering rate as a gas refinery, at +2 gas every 5 seconds.
5. Try to upgrade your refineries earlier rather than later. Even upgrading them outside your base (the blocked ones) is usually a good idea. The more Gas you have, the stronger you become.

## Offense Tips

1. Energy Management: Any sustained push requires a lot of energy. Plan ahead and have some batteries on hotkey or have enough charges in your tech lab to push and get your units back.
2. After your first couple games you should always push out straight away and try to secure 2~3 gas.
3. Never stay in your base doing nothing, keep the pressure on Zerg as a team. Attack as often as you can but make sure you're prepared if you get all the aggro of an F2 all units attack (Shockies are the answer).
4. Any marines or energy you aren't using early game are marines and Energy an Ally can't use. If you see a chance nuke the first spine with Shockies, and if the Zerg continues to ignore you then punish the spawners.
5. Don't forget your allies. Watch the map, check when allies on your side are attacking and attack at the same time or as soon as they get aggro.
6. If all the zerg on your side are being focused on 1 player, then expand. Try to kill spawners or a spine, you'll pull zerg off him and allow him to survive or punish the zerg. Usually when a Zerg does this, it's because he's the the most threatening Terran. Both keeping a good Ally alive and showing the Zerg how wrong he is are rewarding long-term.
7. Shocktroopers can be used to instantly kill small spines, you only need 4 to use their hi-damage shot to kill a small spine. If you want to push your efficiency even further, three shock troopers leaves a spine on so little health that an auto from each shock trooper will finish it off. 17 shots for large spines.
8. Research shattering laser ASAP and penetrating laser when you see Tanklings, or want to push. These are great for offense and defense and a necessity by the mid-game.
9. Use overcharge + Bubble (the red Tech lab skill) or shocktroopers to attack a large spine crawler. Large spines do AOE damage so you need a large army to kill them without significant losses (15 marines lost is acceptable). Elite Marines can also make quick work of them. Alternatively, if the zerg is not paying attention, use a single Elite split off from your main army to tank the large spine crawler, thus avoiding the massive AOE.
10. Tell allies when you are pushing so they can react accordingly. Also ask for energy / protection from allies tech labs or use your own to make each push count. It can be a good idea to set the lab to auto-charge for energy and Marines to auto-produce to keep your base safe whilst your main army is out. Just make sure you've got energy at base to still recharge your troops when you get back.
11. Try not to be afraid of Big-Spines, one of it's biggest threats is the mental block on Terrans "You may not approach here", which can make Terrans waste valuable time trying to kill it cleanly. The harder you push a Zerg, the less likely they are to have ultras by 22 mins. (The earliest possible Brutas are 18-19 minutes, so considering a normal game, Ultralisks usually appear between 22 and 24 minutes). If they get these, the game becomes much harder.
12. Offense serves three purposes: Killing zerg structures which they will need to rebuild, killing hatcheries for free gas income, and drawing aggro away from allies. If you can't achieve any of these, it is better to build up a bigger army than to lose units for no reason on a failed push.

## Defense Tips

1. Wall off one of your sides early after securing 2-3 gas, usually the shorter side of your front lake so you can focus your attention on one area. Have a couple scv's or a reaper to keep the wall up, or use the construction yard's aura (which can be strengthened by defenders).
2. 1-2 Shock Troopers can easily save you from an otherwise devastating early mass troop rush, use their AOE ability.
3. Sometimes you will have to retreat early game, run whatever you can back through your gates, sacrifice an scv or marine if you have to ensure you can close the gate and zerg don't follow you in. Have a couple scv ready to repair at the gates. 4-5 scv can keep the gate repaired, until you are ready to push out again with a few more units.
4. Get an armory, it gives extra range and damage to soldiers. Place it at the front of your defenses and try to funnel zerg to it.
5. A simple way to keep your base defended when you push can be to auto-create marines and collect them at your armory. Saves you from losing your base if just a few zerg sneak past.
6. Construction yard reduces nearby building and wall damage so use it to defend the short side.
7. If you don't trust your allies, then a good countermeasure for early massed zerg, is a single wall in between you and your allies for vision.

## Power Management Tips

1. **Early Game:** (up to 9 minute mark)

**Batteries -** Patrol your battery between your marines and your generator so it automatically transports energy to your frontline.

**Reapers -** Reapers do not require energy to attack the advancing zerg waves, if you find yourself struggling to maintain power to your marines a handy energy buffer is to have a line of reapers in front of your marines to kill the softer targets. this will not work in the mid to late game however as reapers have both the lowest attack damage and the lowest range of all terran units.

**Marine Placement -** When initially pushing out of your base with your marines, it is recommended to spread your marines out (still in range of each other) and to not clump your marines, to increase both your damage output and energy efficiency. This is because if the marines are clumped together, they might all shoot at the same target, resulting in numerous "wasted" shots. Additionally, if you spread your marines out, then they will pull the zergs' units to themselves, which makes defending your early gas much easier.

**Shattering Laser -** The Shattering laser upgrade available from the armoury for 200 vespane makes each of your marines laser shots split and hit three additional targets for 30% of the initial damage, not only does this provide you with increased protection against clumped zerg units, this can provide up to a 90% increase in your power efficiency per shot as you will require less marines shots to kill the same volume of targets. Shattering laser also gain a +1 damage from armory, making it basically impossible for a zerg to break you near the armory without teching up to primal roaches.

**Power Generation -** buying an early upgrade to your generator can assist in your power management as you will start to create a bank of additional power stored, experienced Zerg players will keep an eye on Terran front line units to see if they are struggling with power in order to capitalize on vulnerable players.

**Mid Game:** (usually around the 19 minute mark)

During the mid-game, it is common to bank some minerals. Upgrade your generators with whatever spare minerals you have, and instead bank up charges in your techlab by consuming whatever excess power you have. Every 25 charges you can make an italis which shoots for free, further lowering your energy consumption on defense.

Do not build power pylons until you have at least lvl 30 generator upgraded and no longer need the minerals that badly.

**Late Game:** (Elite Marines, or when Zerg have Primal Roaches teched)

Advanced batteries: Advanced batteries are not worth the heavy investment until you are venturing a Distance from your base. Eventually your rallying batteries will become vulnerable, as the distance gets longer and the frontline is too far away to protect them. At this point you should invest in 2-3 Advanced batteries. These are essentially banks that just follow your Elites. However, having one or two in distribution mode in range of both the generator and the tech lab can buffer for your normal patrolling batteries, so as to not deprive your defense of energy when charging up.

Tech lab Power: The Tech lab has the ability to Warp Power to anywhere on the map. This is an extremely useful ability mid-game to save allies who lack power and late-game to sustain pushes, as it allows you to send your ally Energy if he is pushing carelessly and also to extend how long your Marines can stay away for. Once you have around 20 Elites, you have an Army that can kill just about anything, all you need is the Power to back it up, so once you have your little Elite force (if it's pre-20 mins, then 10 Elites is enough) it is recommended to upgrade your generator to more than you need and charge that Tech lab. Only downside to warping energy is that it drops your efficiency by 50%.