When most players start playing StarCraft, one of the first things they often look for is a build order they can do in every match up. Realistically there is no build order that works well in every match up, every race is so different that variations in builds are needed to optimally play against each race.



With that being said, at the lower levels of the game, other aspects are often much more important to improving and winning games than having different build orders for each race. This series of guides will aim to teach a basic opening and eventually some basic timings that will work well enough at lower levels and allow you to focus on improving your macro. My goal is to eventually release a follow up to this basic ZvX build order which includes adaptations that you can learn after learning the ZvX build for each match up. Eventually afterwards some guides on going from those simple build orders in each match up to the detailed and specific higher level guides which are already on the website, which include reactions and more detailed information.



TLDR; ZvX builds are not ideal for playing the game, however this simple build order can get you started and help you learn and focus on your macro. The next guides will explain later parts of the build order and how to transition to learning builds for each match up.

Build Order

For part 1 of the series I will be going over a relatively standard opening that is used in every match up. There are slight variations that can be done to this opening to optimize it for each match up, however they are generally minor and don’t need to be learned until you have learned this opening and the rest of this series.

ZvX Build Opening

(If you don’t know the specifics of the 16 Hatch opening you can read about them here!)

13 – Overlord

16 – Hatchery

18 – Extractor (Gas)

17 – Spawning Pool

>Rally 3 Drones into Gas

20 – Overlord

@100% Spawning Pool – 2x Queens + 4x Zerglings

26 – Metabolic Boost

30 – Third Hatchery

31 – Overlord

31 – Queen

40 – Overlord

Benchmark @~3:15 | the Overlord on 40 supply should start around 3:15. At no point should you be supply blocked (except for at 14/14 supply when there is no good way to avoid that supply block). You should have 28 Drones, 2 Queens (with 1 in Production), 4 Zerglings and Zergling Speed on the way.

Next Steps