StarCraft Master - How to guide

StarCraft Master is a new Blizzard custom map which was introduced after the release of the new patch. It consists of 30 rounds in which your knowledge of the game and your micro are tested. This map is different from the other customs Blizzard made in the past because things you find out how to do here can really improve your gameplay on the ladder. Apart from that, I've found out that it is really much harder than any of the other Blizzard custom maps I tried to play before. A lot of people were having problems with some of the levels on the map so I decided to make a detailed guide for all 30. Hope you find this helpfull.

 

Round 1 "Marine Double Team":

In the first round you will be facing an enemy Zealot with 2 Marines. Your goal is to kite the Zealot with 1 Marine while damaging and eventually killing it with the other. When the countdown finishes the zelaot will start moving towards one of your marines to attack it. Quickly select that marine and start moving it in circles around your other marine. Be careful not to move it to close to your marine attacking the zealot because it may change targets.

 

Round 2 "Stalkers vs. Zealots":

In the second round your goal is to kill 3 zealots with 2 stalkers. It is fairly simple, the only thing you need to do is kite. There are different ways to do this:

A move kiting - you move your stalkers away from the enemy zealots with right click move command then A ( attack ) move on the ground to order your stalkers to attack the nearest zealot. Once the stalkers fire, you simply click move them away and repeat the process till the zealots are dead

Hold position kiting - the principle is the same as with the A move kiting except instead of A moving your stalkers to attack you press the hold position button to make them hold position, and when they stop they will automatically attack the nearest zealot. 

Stop kiting - same as the above except you use the stop command instead of the hold position command.

 

Round 3 "Zealot Choke":

In the third round you goal will be to kill 24 zerglings with 6 zealots. When you only look at the numbers you'd probably say it's impossible, but they key thing you must do here is avoid a direct engagement with the zerglings and instead move your zealots backwards to a choke point. By doing this you won't allow the zerglings to get a full surround on your zealots but forcing them to fight only 2-3 at a time.  The easiest way of doing this is by simply moving your zealots to the left side choke between the wall and the air vent as shown on the picture.

 

Round 4 "Focus Fire": You have 6 hydras and your goal is to kill 5 zealots. They key thing to do here is to focus fire the zealots. To do this efficiently select all of your hydras and when the timer runs out hold down shift and right click each zealot individually. By doing this you are issuing a shift attack command which will order your hydras to focus fire each zealot 1 by 1. No micro here is required if you do it correctly you will kill the zealots and have 2-3 hydras left alive.

 

Round 5 "Retarget": This one is easy as well. You will spawn with 2 stalkers and your goal is to kill a single spinecrawler. Select your 2 stalkers and issue an attack command on the spine crawler. When the stalker which is being attacked by the spine gets low hp ( 1 or 2 red squares ) select it and move it a little behind. This will make the spinecrawler attack the other stalker since the first one will be out of range. Them simply move the injured stalker back to attack the spine once again.

 

Round 6 "Burrow Ambush": A simple one again. You will start with a group of burrowed zerglings and your goal is to kill a group of patrolling marines. The marines will be patrolling in the marked area, wait for them to move on one side, unburrow your lings and move them to the opposite side of the marines and burrow them. Once the marines move above your lings, unburrow them and watch as they destroy the marines.

 

Round 7 "Colossus Smash": You will be controlling 1 Colossus agains 3 small packs of zerglings. They key thing to do here is to move the colossus up and down the cliff making the lings run around to the ramp to attack it buying you time to make shots off without taking damage. Be careful here not to move to soon up or down the ramp because doing so you may make the lings split into 2 groups.

 

Round 8 "Safe Zone": Here your goal is to kill 2 siege tanks with 2 blink stalkers. One thing to note before doing this is that tanks in siege mode have a dead zone which means they can't fire on targets which are to close to them. The thing you have to do here is move your 2 stalkers towards the siege tanks and blink them in between them making both of the tanks unable to fire on the stalkers.

 

Round 9 "Whack-a-Roach": Your goal here is to kill a bunker with 4 marines with 3 roaches. Your biggest ally here is burrow! Command your roaches to attack the bunker, the marines from inside will start to fire on one of your roaches, when it gets low hp simply burrow it making the marines target another roach. Repeat this with all 3 roaches and the bunker should get to red hit points. Now, keep your roaches burrowed to regenerate their hit points and the bunker should be destroyed by itself since it's low hp and burning. Once the bunker is down your roaches will be at full hp, unburrow and focus down the marines - simple.

 

Round 10 "Ramp control": 4 zealots and a sentry vs 6 roaches, sounds impossible yes. But, here what you must do is use your sentry to forcefield the ramp splitting the roach force in half and making them fight only 3 at a time. When the timer counts down and the first 3 roaches climb up the ramp, forcefield it preventing the other 3 to climb up. Now you have 4 zealots and a sentry vs only 3 roaches. Be careful not to stand to close to the ramp so the other 3 roaches that are down can't hit you. Keep in mind that a little micro here will also help, so try to move the injured zealots a little behind to make the roaches target the other ones at full hp. When the forcefield expires, the first 3 roaches will be dead and you have to kill the remaining 3.

 

Round 11 "Storm'n Run": You will be controlling 1 High Templar and you have to kill a bunch of marines with 2 storms. If you don't know the range of storm you can try to start it once or twice just to get familiar with it. Now, there are 2 things to watch for here, first not to get in range of the marines because they will 1 shot the HT, the other thing is to move in a straight line to the left side. If you start moving up or down the marines will fall out of formation and you won't be able to kill all of them with storm. When the timer counts down throw a storm at max range ( watch out not to throw it to far or your templar will move towards them and die ) then immediately start moving your templar to the left side ( remember in a straight line ), when storm finishes cooldown repeat.

 

Round 12 "Friendly Fire": A lot of people are having trouble on this round, including some of my friends. Your goal is to kill 2 groups of marines and 2 siege tanks with 1 infestor with only using infested terans. The main thing here is timing. You have enough energy to throw out 8 infested terans, 6 will be used to kill the 2 groups of marines and the remaining 2 for the 2 siege tanks. Select your infestor and wait for the timer to finish, then throw a infested teran close to 1 group of the marines, this will make the 2 siege tanks fire on it and since tanks do splash damage they will damage the marines also. When the infested teran dies, throw another one but this time on the other group of marines. Repeat this 6 times until all the marines are dead. When you throw the 6th infested teran on the last living marines, the tanks will fire and kill them but the infested terran will still have some hit points left being able to take 1 more tank hit. Now quickly throw another one on top of the left tank and then the right one ( or vice versa ). If done correctly 1 tank will die and 1 will be low hp but your last infested teran will hatch and finish him off. If you are still haveing trouble with the last part you can unburrow your infestor and soak up 1 tank hit and burrow back ( be careful not to get shot by both tanks because it will kill your infestor and you will be forced to restart ).

 

Round 13 "Hold position": Another easy one. You start off with a bunch of probes and a photon canon. The thing you have to do when the game starts is select your probes and right click ( move command ) on the canon, making your probes surround it, and then hit the hold position button. When you are doing this the zerglings are killing off 2 zealots so don't worry you have time to do it. When the lings start moving towards your probes and the canon they won't attack the probes because once you pressed hold position your probes are not counted as hostile. The lings will try to reach the canon and will be attacking it 1 by 1. When there are only a couple of lings left you can just attack with your probes also just to speed up the round.

 

Round 14 "Force Field Surround": You will have a small force consisting of 2 sentrys, 2 stalkers and 11 zealots and your goal is to kill off 3 groups of lings. They key thing to do here is to use forcefields to prevent the lings attacking your ranged units ( stalkers and sentrys ). First thing is select your army and press the Ready button. When the timer finishes either issue a hold position command or move your units SLIGHTLY down. By doing this you will prevent your zealots rushing towards the lings and splitting your army in 3 packs. Once you've done this throw 2-3 forcefields to the side where your sentrys and stalkers are facing the lings allowing the lings to only attack your zealots who can tank ( and deal ) a lot of damage. Once the forcefields are about to expire, recast them on the same spot.

 

Round 15"Force Field Smash": You have a group of zealots and 2 high templars and you have to kill off a group of stalkers and 3 sentry's. The thing here is that the sentry's will constantly be throwing forcefields to block your zealots attacking the stalkers so you have to merge your templars into an archon, since archons are massive units and break forcefields. Now, there are a few different way of doing this, I'll tell you the one I used and which I consider is the simplest. When the round starts either hold position your zealots or move them a bit behind, then select your 2 high templars and move them infront ( or between ) your zealots and start merging them in an archon. When the archon starts morphing select your zealots and start moving them towards the forcefields, this will make the morphing archon move infront of them thus breaking the forcefields allowing your zealots to get in melee range.

 

Round 16 "Fungal Death": You control 2 infestors and your goal is to kill a group of zealots. You are able to use both fungal growth and infested terans. There are 2 things to keep in mind here, first is that you can only throw 4 infested terans ( 2 with each infestor ), if you throw more then 4 you won't have enough energy to throw a fungal with 1 of your infestors. The second thing is the fungal duration, you will have to refresh the fungal on the zealots until they are dead and if you mistime your casts they will spread out and you won't be able to fungal them all. When ready select your infestors and when the timer finishes cast fungal growth on the zealots. Once the fungal is active throw 4 infested terrans ( 2 on each side of the zealots ). Remember to throw 2 on the left and 2 on the right, if you throw 4 infested terrans on the same side only 1 infestor will use energy for them, preventing it to use 1 fungal. Now that you threw out the infested terrans just keep spamming fungal until the zealots are dead.

 

Round 17 "SCV Good to Go": Another easy one. You start with a single SCV surrounded by Probes and your goal is to reach the green circle on the bottom of the ramp. Only thing you need to do here is right click on 1 of the mineral patches with your SCV and once it's out of the Probe's range move it to the green circle to finish the round. If you're wondering how will it pass through the Probes the answer is simple. When workers ( SCV, Probe, Drone ) are mining minerals they enter a hovering state making them able to pass through units. This allows you to walk ( or hover even ) through the Probes and escape.

 

Round 18 "Stim Micro": Your goal here is to kill a zealot with a marine. Don't worry you are able to use stimpack :). This round relies simply on your micro. Same as in round 2 there are 3 ways of doing this.

A move, hold position or stop micro. When the round starts stim your marine and micro it away from the zealot and attack it using one of the 3 mentioned methods. Remember to restim so the zealot can't reach you and hit your marine. If you get hit even once at the start you will have to restart.

 

Round 19 "Prismatic Beam": Difficulty level 0 :). You have to kill a missile turret with a void ray. Before attacking the turret attack your own pylon with the void ray allowing it to charge up, when charged simply attack the turret. Round finished, moving on.

 

Round 20 "Blink Train": You have a bunch of blink stalkers and your goal is to blink up on a platform and reach the finish line ( or circle :) ). Keep in mind you have very limited time for this one so if you miss a single stalker blink you will have to restart the round. The key thing to know here is again the shift command. First select your stalkers, when the round starts hold down shift and right click ( move command ) the stalkers to the edge of the cliff, press the B ( blink ) hotkey while still holding shift and click up on the ramp, now, the last part is ( still holding shift!!! ) to issue one last move command towards the finish circle and watch the show. You have now issued a triple shift command. This will make your stalkers move to the edge of the cliff, blink up, and start moving again making room for the remaining stalkers to blink up also. 

 

Round 21 "So Many Banelings": You have 7 zealots vs a ton of banelings. This can be a more difficult one to some people. The key thing to do here is move+shift hold position your zealots away from the banelings. By splitting them up the banes will only be able to hit 1 zealot at a time. Select your zealots and start moving them to the opposite side of the banelings. Once they start moving, select each zealot individually, 1 by 1 and click move on a random position away from the other zealots and while holding down shift press hold position so the zealot doesn't engage the banes so they have to come to him. Repeat this with all of your zealots. Be carefully not to miss the hold position or the zealots will start charging at the banelings and you will lose.

 

Round 22 "Bane vs Bane": If there are any zerg players reading this they know how stressful these kind of ladder games can be :). You have a mirror match ZvZ! You and your opponent ( computer in this case ) have the same army composition consisting of a group of lings and 4 baneligs. The thing you have to do here is outmicro your opponent. The way i did this is I hotkeyed my lings to 1, the left 2 banelings to 2, and the right 2 banelgins to 3. When the game started I moved the lings a bit to the right and split up my 4 banes into 2 groups. Then I moved my banes ( moved not attacked ) towards the opponents' lings and banes. When they were in good position i just attack moved them. Your goal is to kill the opposing 4 banes and as much lings as you can. When the enemy banes are gone just A move your lings for the final blow.

 

Round 23 "Cloaked Banshees": You have 1 Ghost and 5 marines ( with stim ) vs 2 cloaked banshees. When the round starts select your ghost and move it in front of the marines, since it has more hit points it can soak a bit of the banshee damage. Then use EMP on the 2 banshees to reveal them from cloak, stim your marines, attack and watch the fireworks.

 

Round 24 "Blink of an Eye": 6 blink stalkers vs 8 roaches. When the round starts attack the roaches with the stalkers. When your stalkers that are being attacked loose their shields, simply blink them behind so the roaches target a new full hp/shield stalker. Repeat this till all roaches are dead.

 

Round 25 "Micro-Insanity": In this round your army consists of 2 High Templars, 3 stalkers and 2 phoenix and the enemies' of 2 siege tanks, 2 marauders, 2 vikings a raven and 2 point defense drones. Maybe it sounds hard but it's not really that complicated. First thing to do is select your templars and using the shift command again you will feedback the point defense drones and move them back ( remember to hold shift, hold shift -> feedback -> move back ). Now you've eliminated the drones and your templar are alive. Now group your stalkers and templars in 1 group and phoenixes in the other. Morph your templars in an archon. When it's finished command your phoenix to lif the siege tanks with the graviton beam and start moving towards the marauders. Focus fire the 2 marauders with your stalkers, before the last marauder is dead the graviton beam should expire, now you have to be fast here and recast it on both tanks so you don't take more damage then you should. When you lift them up again, focus fire 1 tank and when it's dead blink your stalkers to the other tank and finish him off. Your phoenix will be dead by this time probably and the vikings will land to attack. Finish them off and you win the round gg.

 

Round 26 "Scorched Earth": Your goal here is to kill a dark templar while you have no detection. You will accomplish this by focus firing your own SCVs with the 2 siege tanks you have. Just follow which SCV the templar is moving to and attack it. The splash damage from the tanks will kill the templar.

 

Round 27 "Moving Shot": This was the 2nd most difficult for me. You have to kill 10 marines with 1 banshee. As the title says, you have to make "moving shots" with your banshee meaning you have to damage the marines without taking damage yourself. Since the banshee outranges the marines you have a "sweet spot", that's an area in which you can hit the marines without being hit yourself. Again there are 3 ways of doing this, the A move, hold position attack and stop attack. I used the hold position way so I'll describe what you have to do using it. First off select your banshee and start the round. Start moving away from the marines and when you get out of their fire range and you are still in your own, you've hit the "sweet spot". Now press hold position and after half a second ( or less ) press move again away from the marines. If this is done perfectly you can kill off all 10 marines without taking even 1 hit. You will probably have to do this a few times to figure out the exact range. One thing to note here is that you can't fly outside the surface area so be careful at turning around the map, don't make small angle turns cause you'll get in the range of the marines.

 

Round 28 "Dead Eye Ghosts": You will be controlling 3 ghosts and 9 marines vs waves of lings and banelings coming from 3 sides. The way I found easiest to do this is to select your marines and when the round starts move them a bit back behind the ghosts, so if a baneling does manage to get through it'll detonate on the gost minimizing the damage on the marines. Now select your ghosts and hold down the R key ( snipe ) and left click on each baneling that appears. By holding down the snipe hotkey you won't have to spam it every time before you want to snipe. This is a bit more difficult one so good luck!

 

Round 29 "Let's Dance": This round is similar to the 1st round. But here instead of having 2 marines vs 1 zealot you have 3 marines vs 2 zealots! This will be very micro intensive so be very concentrated. The 2 zealots will start to move towards your 2 outside marines and your goal is similar as in the 1st round, but now you have to micro 2 marines vs 2 zealots around the center marine. There are a few ways of doing this. You can control each marine individually ( by issuing shift+move commands while controlling 1 then switching to the other ) and moving them clockwise or counter clockwise around the center marine. Remember a few things, first that your marines can't cross paths because the zealots will change targets. You shouldn't move to close to the center marine or the zealots will attack him, and try to make a few small corner moves as you can reducing the risk of the zealot closing in on your marine and eventually hitting him. The other way I found works also is that you can move both of your attacked marines to the bottom joining them up and moving around the center one again. If done properly this will look very similar to round 1. Good luck!

 

Round 30 "Untouchable": This was by far the most difficult for me. You have a tank and a medivac and you have to kill 3 stalkers. What you have to do here is micro the tank in and out of the medivac. If this is done properly and fast enough you will take 0 damage from the stalkers. When they fire their shots off, load your tank into the medivac then immediately drop it out before they fire again. The thing I advise you to do first when the round starts is order the medivac on hold position. This will make it unable to move away if you miss some loads/unloads and the stalkers fire on it. That's all you have to do here, remember it's really hard to time it right so expect to do it a few times before you figure it out! Good luck on the final challenge!

 

Congrats, you've finished all 30 rounds! Now you get a few new achievements including a cool new portrait!

Hope you found this guide usefull, thanks for reading.

@TeamDignitas  @IvanSlezak