Starcraft AI blog

The frame when the first zealot completes. The usual caveats apply: I measured only 1 run, and there is variation; maps and starting positions are all a little different; Steamhammer’s execution is not frame-perfect. Still, I found protoss timings more repeatable than zerg timings, maybe because larvas have randomness in spawn timing and position.

Recommended builds are darker. That means builds that seem to offer some advantage; it’s up to you to decide whether the advantage is worth the cost. The lighter builds are are those that appear inferior.

8 pylon 10 gate is the standard and the most economical gateway timing. Any faster build sacrifices some economy and can be called a rush.

The purpose of including 5 pylon 6 gate is to show that for a 6 gate or earlier, you lose by making the pylon early. For a 7 gate, you can choose either 6 pylon or 7 pylon, with different tradeoffs. 9 pylon 9 gate is there to show why 8 is the standard pylon timing.

8 pylon 8 gate barely has an edge over 9 gate. I didn’t know that. On some runs, I got only a 2 frame timing difference. If you’re rushing with 8 gate, pylon on 7 is recommended to shave seconds.

two gates

I also wrote a bit of code to time when the second zealot finishes. If you open with 2 gates, you care when your zealot count starts to get ahead of a 1 gate build. Most of these are with the standard pylon on 8. The timings seemed more variable than with a single gate.

Again, recommended builds for double gate zealot are darkened. You can go with a cheesier build from one of the top rows if you believe that a faster first zealot will be able to cause consternation before its partner arrives. I evaluated those builds under the assumption that the timing of the second zealot is what matters.

10-12 gate is the most economic version. You get a later initial blow and then a choice of heavier long term zealot pressure, or transitioning out whenever you choose with a sound economy. Skynet is one bot that plays 10-12 gate strongly.

With 7 pylon, it seems there is no advantage to any double gate earlier than 8-8. And 7 pylon 8-8 is at most marginally faster than 8 pylon 8-8, so it looks as though pylon on 8 is better. 8-9 gate provides no edge over 9-9 gate, so 9-9 is the next possibility. 9-10 gate has no edge over 10-10 gate.