SC2 Economy Guide

More stuff beats better stuff

Here’s the thing about StarCraft 2 that takes a while to internalize: the player with the stronger economy almost always wins. Not the player who micro’d better in one fight. Not the player who picked the “right” unit composition. The player who made more stuff.

At every level below high Masters, games are decided by who has more units when the fight happens. A-moving 200 supply of roaches into 120 supply of “perfectly composed” bio will kill the bio player. You can have the best engagement in the world, but if you’re down 40 supply, that fight is probably still lost. Get your economy right and the rest of your game improves almost automatically.

Never stop making workers

The single most impactful habit you can build is constant worker production. Every base has a Command Center, Nexus, or Hatchery. If that building is idle for even five seconds, you’re losing income. A probe costs 50 minerals and pays for itself in about 12 seconds of mining. There is no investment in the game with a better return.

Your target is somewhere between 66 and 80 workers depending on your race and game plan. Zerg tends to go higher because drones die when they morph into buildings. Terran and Protoss usually aim for the 66-70 range on three bases. The point is: you should be building workers nonstop from the first second of the game until you consciously decide to stop. If you’re in Gold league and you want one thing to focus on, this is it.

Saturation and base timing

Every mineral patch supports 2 workers at full efficiency. A standard base has 8 mineral patches, so that’s 16 workers for full mineral saturation. A third worker on each patch adds about 40% of a normal worker’s income, so going to 24 workers on minerals is fine but not amazing. Gas geysers cap at 3 workers each.

The real question is when to expand. In most standard games, your natural goes down between 1:30 and 3:00 depending on the matchup. Your third base should start when your natural is approaching saturation, which is usually around 5:00-6:00. If you wait until your natural is fully saturated and then start your third, you’re already late. The building needs time to finish, and you want workers transferring the moment it completes. Think of expanding as something you plan ahead for, not something you react to.

A decent rule of thumb: when your main has 16 workers on minerals and your natural is building, start moving excess workers over as soon as it finishes. When your natural hits 12-14 mineral workers, start your third.

Spending matters more than earning

A mistake I see constantly: players with great income who are floating 2000+ minerals at 8 minutes. That bank isn’t a safety net. It’s supply you don’t have on the map. If you have 2000 minerals in the bank, that’s roughly 25 marines or 10 stalkers that could be fighting right now. Having 1200 mineral income doesn’t matter if your spending is only 800.

The fix is usually production capacity. If you’re floating minerals, you need more production buildings. Terran: add barracks. Protoss: add gateways. Zerg: you probably forgot to inject, or you need another hatchery for larva. The goal is to keep your bank under 500 minerals during the mid-game. Every time you look at your resources and see a high number, build more production. It’s better to have a “worse” army composition that’s actually on the field than a theoretically perfect one that’s stuck in your bank.

Race-specific macro mechanics

Terran

Orbital Commands give you three abilities: MULEs, Supply Drops, and Scanner Sweeps. In the early and mid-game, MULE is almost always the right call. A single MULE mines about 225 minerals over its 64-second lifetime. That’s roughly 4x what a normal SCV mines in the same time. Stack them on your mineral line and watch your income spike. Use Scanner Sweep when you need to scout a specific timing or clear creep for a push. Supply Drops are a last resort for when you’re supply blocked and need to unblock immediately. If you’re regularly using Supply Drop, that means you’re regularly getting supply blocked, which is its own problem to fix.

Protoss

Chronoboost is your tempo tool. In the first 3-4 minutes, every Chronoboost should go on your Nexus to accelerate probe production. Once you’re saturated and your tech is running, shift it to upgrade buildings. +1 attack finishing 20 seconds earlier can be the difference between hitting a timing and missing it. Late game, when you’re maxed and re-making army, Chronoboost your warp gates or robotics facilities. The priority shifts as the game progresses: probes first, upgrades second, army third.

Zerg

Inject is everything. Each inject gives 3 extra larva per Hatchery, and larva is the bottleneck for everything Zerg does. A missed inject at your main means 3 fewer units (or drones) every 11 seconds. Over a 15-minute game, one consistently missed inject loses you the equivalent of dozens of units. Set up a camera hotkey cycle: hit your queen hotkey, inject, jump to next base, inject, jump to next base, inject. Do it every time you have a spare second.

Creep spread is the other half. Creep gives your units 30% faster movement speed, which means better trades, faster reinforcements, and more map vision. Spread tumors constantly. The drone vs. army decision is the hardest part of playing Zerg: if you drone too hard, you die to a push. If you make too many units early, your economy falls behind. Watch for opponent aggression cues (moving out with their army, building extra production) and react accordingly. When in doubt at lower levels, err on the side of droning. Most players below Diamond don’t punish greedy play fast enough.

Reading economy graphs in replays

A healthy economy graph shows a smooth upward income curve with step-jumps each time a new base finishes and workers transfer over. Your collection rate should climb steadily until the mid-game, when it either plateaus (you’re spending everything, good) or keeps climbing while your army stays small (you’re banking, bad).

Look for dips. A sharp drop in income usually means you lost workers to harassment (drop, oracle, ling runby) or you got supply blocked and stopped building. Flat sections where income doesn’t grow often mean you expanded late. Compare your curve to your opponent’s: if their income line overtakes yours at minute 7, that’s when the game started slipping away, even if the actual fight didn’t happen until minute 10. Learning to read these graphs turns vague feelings about “I think my macro was off” into specific timestamps you can study.

Common economy mistakes

Supply blocks. Every second you spend supply blocked is a second where your production buildings are idle. At 200 minerals/minute income, a 15-second supply block costs you 50 minerals of production. Stack that up five times in a game and you’re down 250 minerals of units you never built. Build supply structures preemptively. If you’re at 30/38, start your next depot or pylon now, not at 38/38.

Late expansions. If your opponent takes their third at 5:30 and you take yours at 7:00, that’s 90 seconds where they’re mining from an extra base and you’re not. Over time that gap compounds and becomes impossible to close without killing them outright.

Over-producing army too early. Making 10 marines at 3 minutes feels safe, but if your opponent made 10 extra workers instead, they’ll be outproducing you for the rest of the game. Only make early army if you’re using it to pressure, or if you’re scouting aggression. Otherwise, invest in workers. Study your build order timings to find the right balance for your opener.

Floating gas. This one is subtle. Gas-heavy units are usually your best ones (siege tanks, colossi, lurkers). If you’re floating 400+ gas, you probably need more tech production buildings. Or you should be researching upgrades. Unspent gas is even more wasteful than unspent minerals because gas income is slower and harder to increase. Check your army composition to make sure you’re mixing in gas-heavy units when you can afford them.