Starcraft babble: Protoss Help

People have asked me why I never accidentally put a swear word in my writing while I'm writing it. It's mainly because, one, I save most of the harsh language for the stories I write, to give them a more realistic (though unwanted immaturity) effect, and two, I go back and edit out any swears I threw into the mix so that I don't have people reading my stuff and suddenly going, "SO! He's not as good at catching himself as he says!" which would really be a bad mark for my name.

Well, moving on to more pressing matters...

There is a significant number of Starcraft game players who have no understanding of the game's characters, buildings, and environments, and therefore have a dreadfully difficult time beating the game without either a billion units or god mode cheats. I've compiled a list of Protoss units and their best placements, or at least best in the situations I put them in, in hopes that somebody will read this and be able to better understand and play the game without becoming so frustrated that they just give up and quit before they give themselves a chance to have any fun with it.

Here we go...

First on my list of items is a short back story of the Protoss.

Taken from Starcraft Wiki, the Protoss are described as a sentient alien life-form native to the distant planet Aiur, wherein lies their stronghold of the Conclave. The Protoss are a race far more advanced in both technology and intelligence than Mankind, since they were chosen by an ancient race of god-like people known as the Xel'Naga, who were nearing the end of their life cycle and were in need of a race to replace them. The requirements were a purity of form, which the Protoss eventually gained. But, because of their differentiating beliefs towards the Xel'Naga, the mental connections between them broke, and wars erupted, forcing the Xel'Naga to evacuate Aiur as it fell into the Aeon of Strife. The civil war between the Protoss ended when Khas took pieces of the ancient Xel'Naga Khaydarin Crystal and re-established the mental link, creating a new basis of belief known as Khala.

The Protoss rely exclusively on their psionic link, so they erect psionic pylons in order to maintain power in their cities. You, the player, will find yourself having to create multiple Pylons in order to maintain a reign of power over your Protoss Colonies, and you will have to create multiple defenses in order to keep them active. When a Pylon is destroyed, anything within its immense sight range will be disabled until another pylon is created in its place. In some cases, destroying one Pylon won't be enough to disable anything, but it will certainly weaken defenses. Some buildings require many Pylons to be functional, such as the Protoss Forge or the Protoss Gateway.

Only two known Protoss buildings, the Protoss Nexus and Assimilator, do not require Pylon energy to function. This is because the Assimilator is basically just a gas mine, and the Nexus is the main source of Protoss Construction Unit transportation, and without a Nexus, builders can't be made, and in turn, neither can Pylons.

Now, we move on to buildings:

Nexus: This is your main building. It calls in construction units (called Probes) to help build and maintain your base of operations. It must be defended AT ALL COSTS. The upside to the Nexus is that it offers considerable ease of construction, since it requires no Pylons to be built. In most cases, it's already built for you, unless it was destroyed previously. To ensure its safety, it's best to build a Nexus somewhere discreet and away from your other buildings, behind a defensive line of turrets or Dragoons.

Pylon: The Protoss Power Source. Much like the Terran Supply Depot, or the Zerg's infected grounds(which appear after a building is built), without Pylons, the Protoss can not function. Pylons are best placed close to your buildings with a few defensive measures, like a Photon Battery, or a couple of Zealots and Dragoons. You will find that Pylons will become your top priority, as they are more needed than any other building or unit in the entire Protoss campaign.

Gateway: The Gateway is probably the third of the most important buildings in the Protoss Campaign. It is what allows you to call in ground units, and requires at least three pylons close by to function. Without the Gateway, your base will fall victim to merciless ground assaults. Defensive measures such as a Photon Battery, or some air units, if any, are readily advised. Be sure you always have a constant stream of new ground units being made until you're sure you have enough to withstand an assault.

Forge: Not as important as the other three aforementioned buildings, but it is still useful. Protoss Forges allow ground unit upgrades to the Zealot units so that they aren't completely useless in combat. (Cheers, Zealots, you're officially the weakest combat units of the game.) Forges don't require massive maintenance, and once you've upgraded your units, they're really just cannon fodder taking up space in your base of operations. Best placed close to either the Nexus or a nearby Pylon, if nothing else than to act as a shield. However, in order to make powerful units, which require much energy and resources, and their own separate buildings, it would be wise to keep a Forge around. At least until those buildings are built.

Cybernetics Core: This is also a secondary building. It offers upgrades to the Dragoon units, but after that, it serves no purpose. It is, however, vital to allowing newer and more powerful buildings to be built, but after that, it's like the Forge. There are several buildings which truly serve no purpose after they've upgraded their respective units.

Shield Battery: When you find your units and buildings running low on shield power, the Shield Battery is the main source of recharging there is available. This building IS VITAL to your buildings and units' survival, because without their shields, they're useless.

Stargate: Here's a funny little reference to all you Sci-fi geeks. But, unlike the series Stargate, this Stargate does not teleport you through time. It's actually one of a few sources of calling in Aerial units. Most, if not all, of the air units will be summoned from here, save for the dropship which is called from the Robotics Support Bay. THIS BUILDING IS VITAL. You must make absolutely sure that it survives if you want an effective strike force. Unless you think ground forces are the tough guys of the game, in which case, have fun dying repeatedly.

Arbiter buildings: I refer to this trio of buildings as the Arbiter buildings because they're all required to make ONE. UNIT. These buildings would be: The Citadel of Adun, The Templar Archives, The Arbiter Tribunal, and the Gateway. The first three are upgrades for the Arbiter unit, and some others, and the Gateway, obviously, calls them in. They are ALL VITAL if you want to be able to use the Arbiters. Personally, I never had a use for them, other than using their clone ability to spawn legions of fake Zerg against the bad guys and making Archons out of them, so I never made the other two buildings.

Fleet Beacon: This building allows you to build the Protoss version of the Terran Battlecruiser, the Carrier. The Fleet Beacon also allows you to increase the Carrier's hangar, and increase the Scout sight and speed. Other than that... it's useless, really. Takes up a lot of space.

Observatory: This building lets you create your detector unit, the Observer, which is a cloaked aircraft that acts as a mobile detector unit. Yes, there are other Protoss detectors, but I like using the Observer more. As with the Fleet Beacon, the Forge, the Cybernetics Core, and the Arbiter buildings, it is useless once its purpose has been served.

In tomorrow's post, I will move to the topic of Protoss Units.