Table of Contents
Normal Buildup
During a normal build up, never consider upgrading shields until you have a second town. Do consider upgrading attack damage if you are fighting many Zerglings, since it will take only two attacks instead of three per Zealot to kill them if they don't upgrade their armor. Think about upgrading armor strength if you are using several Templars for offense, this will keep them alive longer or at least give them enough time to merge. After you expand and have lots of gas to spare, consider upgrading weapons, shields, and armor if you haven't already. I normally don't upgrade those much until I have a third gas mine.
*From the start build normally. Peons are the important aspect. Make them before anything. Then make a Pylon, Gateway, Pylon, and another Gateway. Make probes, Zealots, and pylons as needed until you can afford (or time has passed a bit) a gas Assimilator. Then get your Cyber Core, and depending on the enemy, build up from there. You should have a good number of Zealots and a few Dragoons by that time. Don't forget shield batteries if you need to defend.
Some of these strategies break the normal rules of building up.
Follow the build up rules when applicable though.
NOTE: Protoss units and buildings have shields. Shields take full damage from all attacks. This makes Vultures and some other units very good for taking down shields on anything quickly.
*Shield batteries are needed for most defenses. Shield batteries heal two shield points for every energy point they contain. Make the batteries early if possible so they will be full of energy when needed.
*Use Dragoons and maybe Cannons or Reavers to beat the Vulture rush. Have shield batteries to heal.
*Beware being blocked in by Siege Tanks/bunkers/spider mines. It can be hard to break early on in a game. Try using Reavers and Zealots/Dragoons if they have lots of anti-air, which they should. Or go for a Zealot drop to slow them down. Your best bet is to not ever let them set it up by being more aggressive early on, or by catching the tanks in progress when they are very weak. Build an early cannon to spot early spider mines blocking you in if you have to. Remember you can use peons or Dragoons (at a distance) to kill spotted spider mines that are out of range of your cannons. If the spider mines come later, go for Observers to spot them, then disarm them with the Reaver for safety reasons since they'll likely have Siege tanks waiting for a Dragoon to poke his nose out. Use Shuttles and Zealot drop-offs to kill his peons if you are stuck in your base.
*Quick expansion for gas and quick to Archons against other Protoss is a fairly strong strategy, but quite risky if their scouting is good. With a great number of Archons and Zealots, you can break through their defenses well and take them out. This is best used on a big map where your expansion may go unseen. Just defend a bit early or fake a Zealot rush to keep them occupied.
*To beat the Zergling rush plus Muta rush on land, you need very good scouting. You have to first counter their Zergling rush with Zealots and probably by moving your peons away from their Zergling attack. Try to block off your entrance with zealots if you can. Scout deep into their base with a Zealot to check for Hydras. If they aren't making Hydras at the normal time and are upgrading to Lair, expect a Muta rush. Immediately switch to Dragoons and start making shield batteries all around your town. You need about four shield batteries. When the Mutas come use the shield batteries to heal. You can also get one or maybe two Archons which are nice deterrents. Do not make a mistake and build many Dragoons if they go for Hydras. You will be in trouble. Use your early Zealots to attack them once you counter any large amount of Zerglings well. Leave most of your Dragoons at home to defend. Go in suicide style to take out their peons, spire, or something of the sort.
*To beat Hydra rush, make lots of Zealots with two or three gateways. Get a Reaver or two quickly, and use the Zealots and Reavers together. As always, try to get a shuttle for the Reavers. Counter attack when you get ahead.
*To beat the Mutalisk rush on island maps, you need to quickly go for Scouts, Dragoons, and shield batteries. Build one gateway at first and two Protoss Stargates. Use Dragoons as backup for the initial rush. Get their speed upgrade as soon as possible. You have to be extremely careful with hit and run tactics, healing the Scouts often with the shield batteries. Attack their Overlords, bases, and anything where you see an opening. This strategy was devoloped by EnoYls, a good pal and a great player. Remember, Scouts can fly as fast as Scourge if they are going top speed and have the speed upgrade. Try coming at small numbers of Scourge full speed with one scout, then quickly running away to your group of Scouts/Dragoons to kill the Scourge that follows. Scouts, if they don't attack, will continue to fly at full speed despite any turns, so your one Scout should be safe if you know exactly where they Scourge are via sight upgrade or Observer. The worst thing about this strategy is if they go for a quick Hydra drop they will probably catch you off guard, since Dragoons and Scouts are terrible against hydras. However, one way to estimate is to see how many Overlords are spying on your island. They should be all around the fringes if they are going for the Mutalisk and Scourge attack. If you see no Overlords after the initial pass over by one Overlord, expect a Hydra drop.
*To beat Scourge, lure them to your ground to air attackers or into a Psi Storm. Remember that scouts kill them best if the scouts are not moving or attacking anything and the Scourge come to them.
*For The Lost Temple and maps with similar starts, a good early defense for the Protoss can be done with a few zealots, two shield batteries, and two cannons. Build one Gateway and then a Forge. Get a pylon near your entrance and build two shield batteries with two cannons behind the batteries. Have six to eight Zealots blocking the entrance. Use the shield batteries to heal your Zealots. Nothing is going to have an easy time getting through that in the early game until Siege Tanks come into play. Beware of Mutalisk rushes though. With this strategy you can quickly go for Scouts which are fairly good against other Protoss if they aren't expecting it. This strategy can also be applied to FFA and allied games.
*FFA on Hunters map versus Zerg/Protoss: A nice strategy to use once you get ahead is to tower up the middle like mad with cannon towers supported by Scouts, Zealots, and Templars. You can get the resources from the whole middle and once you get Carriers/Reavers you will dominate. Don't attempt this until late game however.
*To defend an expansion or even main base, get one Carrier (2 is better but not that necessary) and 5 shield batteries made next to one another. When they try to attack, keep healing with the shield batteries and let your interceptors attack the whole while. If done correctly, you will be basically invulnerable to most units even Scourge are greatly weakened.
*If you can get shield batteries near an enemy, this is a very powerful attack strategy also when used with several Carriers. Close to the enemy shield batteries are good for attacking with any unit, so build them nearby if at all possible!
*In late game, don't be afraid to build tons of cannons. When you are rich, eight cannons per expansion will slow down an attack long enough for you to get your peons out and fighters in.
*In late game, have a couple of Reavers and/or Templars at each expansion. They, combined with towers, will be able to put big damage on would-be attackers.
*Archons are great defense against any air unit in the late game. Don't forget you'll also need scouts, Psi Storm, or Carriers if there is a plateau or water right next to your buildings.
*Build cannons later in the game, and build them closer in from the edges of your land at your town. This will make attackers come in deeper so you can storm them.
Protoss Offense
Use a Zealot to penetrate Terran bunkers early (must be early before bunkers are filled) to spy deeply into his base. A spy worker just won't make it past the Marines or bunkers.
*Hardcore Zealot Rush: Build up using the normal buildup rules, but instead of making a Cybercore or gas Assimilator, make four Gateways total. Pump the Zealots and keep the pressure on. This works well on Discovery by building your Gateways close to their town, used well by Silentbob, good friend and StarCrafter. Do make the gas Assimilator and Cybercore when you can afford it - don't wait too long. Their best defense will be air units, so make sure you can get Dragoons fairly soon.
*Cannons on Discovery: If you are able to get a peon on the plateau behind your enemy on this map or a similar map, you can build cannons to attack his peons. While you are at it, drop off Zealots there too, and get shield batteries on the plateau for Scouts to attack and heal at. When used in combination, this is painful. The trick though is to get on the plateau undetected, which won't happen unless you distract them somehow or they haven't seen the trick before. They will try to counter by dropping Zealots/hydras/Marines off on the plateau before the cannons are done, by using Mutas/Scouts, or by Siege Tanking (using ComStat, or my invention: a raised Barracks or Command Center to sight the trouble makers).
*There are several attacks done with Shuttles that work well against workers mining minerals and gas. Be sure they don't have towers/anti-air or you'll lose your men going in. Try using hallucinations of shuttles to distract the anti-air and get the shuttle in.
*Zealot drop: Just do any build up strategy you want but get shuttles. Fill one or two shuttles up with Zealots and plant them in any untowered peon line. Zealots eat up workers nicely. If they are alert they can retreat the peons away fairly easily.
*Reaver drop: Same as Zealot drop, but done with two Reavers or two Reavers and some Zealots. Quite deadly!
*Templar plus Zealot drop: Transport two or three Templars plus one Zealot to their unsuspecting peons and kill them all! The Templars Psi Storm the peons. The Zealot protects the Templars from the peons. If they are foolish enough to rush a ton of small men to help the peons, storm them too! You can use the Zealot as a sacrifice to keep the attackers from moving in while they get stormed. Very evil! If they are alert they can get most of the peons out.
*Always have Zealots in front of Dragoons, Reavers, and Templars when attacking in force or defending. Templars are the most vulnerable, but are great army killers and very good defenders. Don't be afraid to sacrifice some Zealots to get a storm on the enemy. Protect the Templars and Reavers by picking them up with shuttles.
*Reavers, Carriers and Scouts under an Arbiter is a force to be reckoned with in late game!
*Against Hydras/ground units: Move Zealots in. Have two Reavers in a Shuttle and use hit and run tactics with the Reavers. Drop them start reloading their scarabs with "r, r, r, r, r" quickly pick them up before the enemy gets too close. Fly a short distance away and repeat. This is an incredible tactic against Zealots and Ultralisks because they can never hit the shuttle, so you can keep attacking with no fear of losing the Reavers. And the best thing is that they are "reloading" the Scarabs while on board the shuttle. Beware of Hydras if you don't have Zealots to help you out though.
*Large groups (six to eight) of Carriers can really wipe people out. Use Zealots and/or Reavers to cover the ground, and you devastate. Beware of Scourge, Protoss Scouts, and Ghosts (Lockdown). If you back your Carriers up with Scouts (unlikely due to supply problems with too many probes at expansions) you will really have a great attack force.
Protoss Special Strategies
Rushing:
Protoss are good rushers when you know how to do it correctly.
Here is the building order for a good protoss rush:
1. After you 1 man on each mineral patch take your extra worker
and build a pylon.
2. Build 3 gateways.
3. While the gateways are warping in build another pylon.
4. Start pumping out zealots. While you are making zealots make
another pylon bring you to a total of 3.
5. Keep making pylons and zealots until you have around 8-12 zealots.
Then go attack. While you are attack keep making zealots. Then
when he is week attack again.
Anti Rushing:
Anti rushing is almost exactly like rushing, only without attacking.
First follow the steps above
Then build several photon cannons (4 is usually enough) at the
choke point of the base assuming there is one. This should allow
you to advance from there without getting rushed.
Carriers:
Carriers have been known to be the worst unit in the game. So
why lecture about what to do with them while you could be making
other more useful units?
The units in starcraft are always best used with other units in
the game. So if you attack with 3 carriers nothing will happen.
but if you attack with 3 carriers, 2 templars, a couple of scouts,
and a reaver your opponent will go straight for the carriers.
Allowing you to do the ground damage with reavers, the air damage
with scouts, and mass damage with templars.
Kill the queen:
Queens are a thorn in the protoss side. Why? Because they offer
the Zerg a chance to get an air advantage during a battle. The
Zerg can get quick air but it isn't always strong. First off if
your scouts get insnared then that allows the zerg player to follow
up with scourages and mutas. Also, if the parasite one of your
arbiters (god forbid) then they have just wasted 1500 of your
gas.
Intellegence:
The protoss have a big advantage over Zerg and Terran because
they can get cheap detectors. Also these detectors are permanently
cloaked and fast (observers). You can do many things with observers.
For instance is if you have several around the map at key locations
such as your enemies choke point then you are going to gain quite
a bit of information. They are especially good when attacking
with scouts and other air units because they are cloaked therefor
are usually not attacked and they allow you to see cloaked units
(wraiths...).
Observer Rush:
An observer rush is a very pointless tactic that will basically
confuse and piss off your opponent. What you do is this, get about
3 robotics facilities and an observitory. Start pumping out observers
until you have about 75 (yes you will need lots of gas). Now make
tons of zealots. Swarm all of you obervers over his base and attack
with your zealots. His photon cannons will be so busy attack your
observers they won't bother with your zealots. And he will scream,
"NOOOO my screen is all blurry!"
Reaver Drop:
Reaver dropping is by far the most feared tactic and the most
risky to pull off. But if done correctly will leave your opponent
dead crying for mercy. Reaver dropping is simply taking several
reavers and zealots in serveral shuttles and dropping them right
over your opponents supply line. Not only do you have the chance
to take out all of your opponents workers within a couple of shots
you may take out the command center, nexus, or hatchery.
Begin by constructing 4 to 6 photon cannons at the choke point
to your base. Then go up the tech tree until you have 2 robotics
facilities. Make sure to build a robotics supply depot too. Now
construct several reavers, shuttles, and zealots. Load them into
the shuttles and off you go!