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Overview

Any game of Starcraft II revolves around three resources: Minerals, Vespene Gas, and Supply.

Minerals

Mineral Fields

Minerals are the main resource in StarCraft. Harvesters mine 5 minerals per trip - eventually depleting the mineral fields. A worker occupies a mineral field for 2.786 seconds. It then pauses for 0.5 seconds before returning at full speed; The next worker can already begin operations during the pause. This applies to Rich Mineral Fields as well as MULEs, too.

Provided no MULEs are involved, a fully saturated mineral line can therefore mine no more than 60sec / 2.786sec * 5 minerals * 8 (mineral fields) = 861.45 minerals per minute.

However, due to workers commuting between mineral fields in search for one that is not occupied, this ideal number is never reached. See below for actual Mining Rates.

Rich Mineral Fields

Starcraft II contains the addition of the Rich Mineral Field: yellow minerals which can be mined at a faster rate (7 per trip instead of 5). An ideal, fully saturated rich mineral line can therefore mine no more than 60sec / 2.786sec * 7 minerals * 6 (mineral fields) = 904.52 minerals per minute

MULE

The Terran MULE is a temporary unit that mines 30 minerals per trip on both standard and High-Yield patches. Additionally, MULEs can mine over other harvesters already mining a patch (excluding other MULEs), making them about as effective as three SCVs.

Vespene Gas

Vespene Geysers

Vespene Gas can be harvested from Vespene Geysers. However, a specific building must be built on top of each geyser before mining is possible. The buildings are: the Refinery for Terran, the Extractor for Zerg and the Assimilator for Protoss. Harvesters gather 4 gas per trip. They have to spend 1.981 seconds in them before returning at full speed.

A single, ideal and fully saturated geyser can therefore procure no more than 60sec / 1.981sec * 4 gas = 121.15 gas per minute.

Rich Vespene Geysers

These only differ from 'regular' geysers in that Harvesters gather 6 gas per trip.

Mining Rates

Minerals

See also: Mining Minerals

• One SCV on one mineral patch harvests 39-45 minerals per game minute, depending on distance.
• Two SCVs on one mineral patch harvest 78-90 minerals per game minute, depending on distance.
• Three SCVs on one mineral patch harvest ~102 minerals per game minute. This is fully saturated and does not depend on distance.
• For rich mineral fields, simply multiply these numbers by 1.4 (7/5).

Gas

• One SCV on gas harvests 33-42 gas per game minute, depending on distance.
• Two SCVs on gas harvest 67-84 gas per game minute, depending on distance.
• Three SCVs on gas harvest 101-114 gas per game minute, depending on distance. In the case of far-diagonal gas placement you will need 4 SCVs for full saturation.
• Four SCVs on gas harvest ~114 gas per game minute. This is fully saturated and does not depend on distance.

Total

• At 2 SCVs/mineral and 3 SCVs/gas, a base with 8 minerals and 2 gas will harvest ~672 minerals and ~215 gas per game minute.
• A fully saturated base with 8 minerals and 2 gas will harvest ~816 minerals and ~228 gas per game minute.
• At 2 SCVs/mineral, a yellow base with 6 rich minerals will harvest ~706 minerals per game minute.
• A fully saturated yellow base with 6 rich minerals will harvest ~857 minerals per game minute.
• With the supply cap of 200, having more than 3 fully saturated bases seems excessive if it's for the sole purpose of mineral harvesting.

Depletion

Starting locations in Starcraft II contain several mineral patches and two vespene geysers, all of which can deplete during play. Depleted mineral patches will simply disappear and Vespene Geysers will yield no gas and your gas mining building will glow red.

Players can create and defend additional bases known as Expansions throughout the game to secure more resources, while at the same time attempting to stop enemy players from doing the same. In Starcraft II, map control is usually synonymous with resource control.

Supply

The production of almost every unit requires an additional resource: Supply. The amount of supply can be increased by the building of certain buildings or units.

• For Terran, Supply is increased by building Supply Depots (+8), Command Centers (+11) and Calldown: Extra Supplies (+8).
• For Protoss, Supply is increased by building Pylons (+8) and Nexuses (+10).
• For Zerg, Supply is increased by producing Overlords (+8) and building Hatcheries (+2).

Building either of these will increase the amount of supply a player is able to spend. The maximum amount of food for any player is 200. Due to the inefficiency of building Command Centers, Hatcheries or Nexi for supply, these should never be built for this purpose only.

Note: Supply is sometimes called Psi for the Protoss and Control for the Zerg. Another general term for supply is Food.