[Tutorial]Breaking 80 Supply at 8 mins - A ZvP Guide
It pains me to see Zergs not being able to hit 70 supply, let alone 80 in ZvP by the 8 min mark.
By having that much supply, primarily in drones, by the 8 min mark, everything is SO much easier. You can have 6 gasses and 3 bases fully saturated, and begin pumping units and teching in preparation for the mid and late game.
(Ignore the fact that my opponent is zerg XD)
This guide is going to focus explicitly on the opening 8 mins of this match up, and by the end of it, with the replays attached, hopefully all of you will be able to copy, examine and emulate this crucial time period into your own games.
What this guide is going to assume is that A. You get your hatch down before making your first pair of lings/queen. B. There is no WG pressure from your opponent. C. You don’t get pylon blocked at all.
This guide also doesn’t include information on scouting, overlord positions etc, although looking at the replays will give incite into where I send my ovies.
With WG Pressure in the form of 4gate +1 attacks and the like, it’s not uncommon to be hitting mid 80, sometimes even 90 supply due to making roaches, this guide is doing it purely off of 1 supply units, bar 3 queens.
Things to bare in mind: If you have to throw your nat down after your queen +2 lings, hitting 78 supply is still possible.
If you get pylon blocked once 78 supply is still possible.
If you get double pylon blocked, hitting 70 supply + should be your goal (Make 3rd hatch before 2nd queen in this scenario)
If your Protoss opponent does some zealot stalker pressure, make lings reactively, over 80 supply will most likely not be possible at this point due to losing lings and possibly drones, but mid/high 70s is very doable.
Now that that stuff is out of the way, down to business!
So the opening is standard as standard can be
15P
16H
15Overlord – Rally to 3rd
1 Pair of lings
17 Queen – Goes to Nat. Injects, 1 Creep Tumour, Goes to 3rd
18Drone – Send to 3rd
Rally drones to Nat (Main is now fully saturated)
23 Queen – Queued up in Main
25 3rd Hatch -> Smack Bang on 4:20
24OL
28 Queen
31OL
36OL
42OL
44 Supply at 6 mins
6:30-45 3 Gas -1 At each base, rally 5 drones to main (4 for Gas + Tech building)
48OL
58 *2OL
7 Min Evo
Gas Usage – Lair -> Speed/Upgrade
70OL
~7:30 Last 3 Gas – Rally drones where needed
8 Mins 78+ Supply
On paper, written down like that, I guess you could assume it not being that difficult to achieve a ~80 supply. In order to actually reach a supply count like that though, you can’t have any macro errors, everything needs to be muscle memory, and executed perfectly.
I feel there are several reasons why players are unable to reach these supply’s on a regular basis, and why the build outlined above can. A small aspect of it is that you have to be constantly producing drones, tapping 4sd every spare moment, however I feel the greater issue lies with other macro issues, which the above build, to a certain extent, remedies. I feel as though the primary reason for the above build allowing me to achieve such high supply is that all the injects, are synced, almost perfectly so. I use the backspace inject method so by having them all synced, I can keep my injects perfect, as in never more than 3 energy, for the entirety of this opening time period.
Another reason for the high supply is that the overlord timings laid out are virtually perfect. One of my biggest reasons for not hitting above even 62 supply when I was in the lower masters area was due to the fact that I was getting supply blocked at around 54 supply, following the timings outlined above you shouldn’t really get supply blocked at all, unless you forget.
So whats the best way to go about practicing this?
To begin with, I’d suggest playing some custom games just in an attempt to nail down the injects, overlord timings etc. This build is probably relatively similar to the one many of you use on ladder, bar possibly the gas timings.
Most of the items outlined are fairly simple to remember, but I would recommend having a post it note, or something along those lines in close proximity to your computer screen, with all the overlord timings written out. Eventually it will become second nature, but to begin with this greatly assists with remembering them.
In conclusion, hopefully a bunch of youwill find this useful, I realize the guide may come across as a bit snooty, but hitting 80 odd supply at 8mins just gives you such a strong economy and I felt this had to be worth sharing with the community. I feel the build I’ve outlined, and have used/perfected over the past 6 months or so is the best way to achieve this. Ultimately by achieving mid 70+ supply by 8 mins, you set yourself up for an indestructible late game army, netting yourself the GG.
Hope you guys have fun wrecking Protoss even more on ladder than I’m sure you are already – Savior
Contemplating a follow up ZvP Guide on Muta into Ultra bane, We’ll see though
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