StarCraft Cheats and Strategies

Blizzard Entertainment's science-fiction real-time strategy game StarCraft is one of the most popular games in the genre, withstanding both the test of time and a host of competitors. There are a number of different cheats and strategies gamers can use during both the first game and the Brood War expansion if they find themselves unable to get through the game.

Cheats:

These cheats only work in the single-player missions (both the original and Brood War). To activate them, press enter, type in the cheat phrase, and press enter again. The message "Cheat Code Enabled" will appear if you typed in the code correctly.

Power overwhelming - become invincible.

Show me the money - 10,000 gas and 10,000 minerals

Whats mine is mine - increase minerals

Breathe deep - increase amount of Vespene Gas

Operation CWAL - construction time for units and buildings is dramatically decreased

The Gathering - all casting units get unlimited mana

Game over man - ends the mission in defeat for the player

There is no cow level - ends the mission in a victory for the player

Staying Alive - allows players to continue playing even after the mission should have ended

Something for nothing - automatically upgrades all units

Black Sheep Wall - reveals the entire map

Medieval man - automatically upgrades units

Modify the phase variance - player can build any building

War aint what it used to be - turns off the fog of war

Food for thought - allows players to build any unit regardless of their current support amount

Ophelia (mission#) - allows you to jump to any mission. For example, "zerg5" will skip to Zerg level five. For Brood Wars, put an x in front of the faction name (like "xzerg5").

The Rush:

One of the most often used strategies in multiplayer games in the rush. This can be done with any of the three factions, but it is more effective with the Zerg. Rushing basically entails quickly building basic units and sending them against your opponents before they have time to create any units to defend their base.

The basic Zerg rush (can be modified for other factions):

1. Set your first four drones to mining. Build two more drones as soon as the minerals are available.
2. Send your Overlord to find the enemy base while mining minerals and producing drones.
3. As soon as you have 200 minerals, take one of your drones and make a spawning pool.
4. Build another drone to replace the one lost to the spawning pool.
5. Build another Overlord.
6. Build three pairs of Zerglings as soon as the spawning pool is finished.
7. As soon as the Zerglings hatch, attack your opponent's base. If you do this quick enough, they will have no or very few units with which to defend themselves.

This basic rush can be done with both the Terrans and the Protoss, although neither can be done as quickly as the Zerg rush.

Using Terrain:

If possible, make use of the terrain to your advantage. Take control of the high ground. This gives units two advantages: units on the lower ground cannot attack units on the higher ground if they can't see them (units can counterattack, however), and units only have a 70% chance to hit if they are attacking higher ground. This means units on ridges will be hit less and be able to see their attackers coming.

Forests provide another bonus. Units in trees are under cover, and enemies again only have a 70% chance of hitting these covered units. It's not a big advantage, but whenever you're playing against an experienced StarCraft gamer, any advantage is helpful.

Other faction-specific strategies:

Terrans:

• Unlike the Zerg and the Protoss, the basic Terran unit, the Marine, can attack both land and air enemies. They're cheap, too, and can provide good base defense, especially if you build bunkers for them.

• Put siege tanks on high ground to keep your opponents at bay. If possible, put tanks on high plateaus opposite each other to catch enemies in the crossfire.

• In Brood War, always keep a few medics handy. There's no point spending resources on replacing units when you can heal them for free. Likewise, use SCVs to repair damaged vehicles. Every Terran unit can be repaired or healed.

• You can assign multiple SCVs to build one building. Doing so will use more resources, but the building will be completed much faster.

• When fighting enemy Terrans, don't destroy any of their building add-ons (comm center, machine shop, nuclear silo, control tower, physics lab, and covert ops center). When you destroy the building attached to the add-on, the add-on becomes neutral, and you can build your own building beside it and take it over.

Zerg:

• Don't keep all of your Overlords at your base. Use them to spy on your enemies and keep watch over unclaimed resources. Be sure to upgrade your Overlords so they move faster and have better vision

• Make use of the borrow feature to stop your enemies from claiming resources by leaving borrowed Hydralisks and Zerglings near minerals and geysers.

• Queens and Defilers are great for keeping your opponent off balance. Make use of their special abilities as often as possible. The Queen's spawn broodling ability is a great way to take out siege tanks, while the Defiler's plague attack can leave an entire enemy army wounded.

• Don't forget to always upgrade Creep Colonies into either Spore Colonies for air defense or Sunken Colonies for ground defense.

• In Brood War, lurkers make great units to use to annoy your opponents. Have them burrow in near resources, near the entrance to your base, outside your enemy's base, or anywhere where there is only one way in or out.

Protoss:

• The Protoss Photon Cannon is the only base defense structure that can attack both air and ground units. Use them to provide strong base defense.

• Build shield batteries to keep your units protected during battles. While your troops are battling, continuously click recharge and then click in the middle of your nearby units to keep their shields powered up.

• In Brood War, use Dark Templars to attack groups of enemy troops that don't have detector units with them.

• Also in Brood War, you can combine two Dark Templars to make a Dark Archon. The Dark Archon has the mind control ability, which allows you to take control of any enemy unit. If you control an SCV or a Drone, you can then build an entire Terran or Zerg army by creating a command center or hive. This allows you to double your army (the mind controlled faction has its own 200 control limit). If you mind control both a SCV and a Drone, you can have an army three times the normal size, plus you can combine the various factions' special abilities (Terran medics can heal Protoss Zealots, for example).

• Although it takes a lot of work to be able to produce them, the Arbiters are incredibly powerful units. Use their cloak to hide your forces or use recall while inside an enemy's base to summon your forces from across the map. Recall teleports all of the ground and air units within range, so fill up shuttles with more soldiers and place them over your ground forces to teleport even more units.

These tips and strategies should help you make your forces more formidable and give you an edge in any online or single-player game of StarCraft.