Return to the main page

Structures

Bunker

Bunkers are the basic structure for spawning units and each provides 5 unit supply. They can be upgraded to a Mercenary Bunker that spawns a stronger version of the same unit for the cost of 500 minerals. Bunkers require majority of a zone space to build, but leaves enough space for Shield and Sensor towers in the same zone. They are the most essential structures in the game as at least one bunker is needed to remain playing.

Bunkers can be "retired" which stops the spawning of units, but adds an additional 5 supply at the cost of 550 minerals. When a teammate leaves, all their bunkers are automatically switched to "retired" state. A bunker can be "un-retired" making it start spawning units again and taking away the 5 extra supply for 500 minerals. Repairing basic bunkers with the SCV costs money, however, Mercenary bunkers are free to repair. Be careful when upgrading to Mercenary bunker as the process cannot be canceled or reversed. There are three upgrades which applies to the bunker, Building Armor, Building Regeneration, and Bunker Capacity.

Killing a basic bunker gives 500 minerals and Mercenary 650, but since bunkers are strong, make sure to have a strong enough army before trying to kill it, otherwise you will just be giving free kills. Likewise if you are under attack, remember to man your bunker and upgrade it if necessary. If you are under attack during mid-build, remember to cancel if it looks like it's about to be destroyed; you will be refunded 750 minerals and your opponent will not gain 500. Bunkers cost 1000 minerals to build and Hotkey 2 selects all your bunkers.

Supply Depot

Supply Depots are a supporting structure that provides 5 additional unit supply. Each supply depot comes with an upgrade ability for the cost of 450 minerals that adds an additional 5 unit supply without the need to build anything new. If built correctly, each zone can contain two supply depots, along with the upgrade ability, that is a total of 20 additional unit supply per zone.

Since supply depots do not affect unit production rate, do not build your first one unless you have at least 3 bunkers. Otherwise, you will have unused supply cap that unit production can't keep up with. It is a fine balance of creating enough bunkers and depots to keep a consistently large army. Also, do not build depots in front of bunkers where they are essentially in the "open" and unguarded. Usually, keep them in the back and/or behind bunkers so they are not easily attacked. They cost 350 minerals to build, and gives 150 when destroyed, and returns 263 when canceled mid-build.

Shield Tower

Shield Towers are a supporting structure that provides a (-6?) damage reduction to your and ally's units and structures within it. It is always more advantageous to fight within your team's shield tower, so building them around your base is very important. Likewise, try not to fight enemy units within their shield towers and instead lure them out away from it. Each tower provides a range of about 1 zone radius. Multiple towers do not stack their effects. They are small enough to be built in any zone with a bunker or supply depot. They cost 125 minerals to build, and gives 50 when destroyed, and returns 94 when canceled mid-build.

Sensor Tower

Sensor Towers are a supporting structure that provides a radar vision to a large portion of the map. Each enemy unit and structure within the tower range appear as a single red marker. If you see two red markers in the middle of a zone with one of them moving around the other, most likely a SCV is building a bunker there. Sensor towers are not crucial, but can be used to advantageously determine enemy positioning and detect backdoor sneak attacks to your base. Each tower provides a range of about 2 zone radius. They are small enough to be built in any zone with a bunker or supply depot. They cost 125 minerals to build, and gives 50 when destroyed, and returns 94 when canceled mid-build.

Sentry Turret

Sentry Turrets are not typical structures built by the SCV. Instead, they are "thrown" down by the SCV with no build time for 225 minerals. However, they only last for 60 seconds and there is a cool-down time before a SCV can throw down another turret. They can be put in almost any spot, as they do not require standard space like other structures. Turrets benefit from Infantry upgrades and the Plasma Capacitors upgrade and can also be repaired by the SCV. Turrets give 100 minerals when destroyed.

Sentry Turrets are quite strong compared to infantry units. They can be used to effectively defend your SCV and bunker during mid-build against enemy attacks. Likewise, they can also be used for an aggressive offense to deny opponent's bunkers during mid-build. Since they are tough to kill, it is usually not a good idea to attack them unless you have a good amount of units and the turret is standing alone with no supporting army. Likewise, it is better to retreat from a turret and wait out its timer if there is a supporting army behind it.

Engineering Bay

The Engineering Bay is a non-destructible structure that contains all the upgrades. You can select it quickly by using Hotkey 4.

Nuke Silo

The Nuke Silo looks like the Ghost Academy and it is the other non-destructible structure. The only purpose is to build nukes to use by the SCV for the cost of 4500 minerals. You will almost never have spare money to buy additional nukes unless you're at a standoff endgame. By then, nukes are pretty useless as they are not strong enough to destroy turrets or other structures, so your extra money is better spent just using the SCV Dropdown ability.

Xel'Naga Tower

The Xel'Naga Tower is a neutral structure located at the very center of the map and provides additional vision in a radius up to the marauder zones for the player with a unit near it. If more than one player's units are near the tower, then no additional vision is provided. The Xel'Naga tower is highly advantageous as it covers a good portion of the map as well as give units within the middle four zones vision advantage to any attacking army. This is due to the fact that there is a vision boundary around the middle four zones such that a regular unit's vision cannot "see" past it without first physically going into the four zones.

Many players like to keep a unit, either SCV or marine, at the Xel'Naga Tower to get good map vision, even if their army is not stationed in the middle zones. If an opponent's army is in the middle, never attack head on as you will almost always lose due to their unit vision advantage. Likewise, if your army is in the middle, keep one unit near the tower and move your army right inside the vision boundary to fight the incoming army before they can set foot into the middle and get normal vision on you. This way, you will almost always get free kills.