Starcraft 2 Dark Templar Rush

One of the easiest ways for Protoss to win games is via a Starcraft 2 Dark Templar rush (also known as a DT rush).

Dark Templar are a Protoss ground unit that is permanently cloaked. Players will have to get detectors to be able to see and attack the Dark Templar.

The idea behind the Starcraft 2 Dark Templar rush is to tech very quickly to Dark Templars before the enemy gets detection, thereby crippling him and possibly even finishing him off before he gets detection.

Here is how to pull it off:

1. Build 9 Probes. Scout at this point to make sure they aren't pulling off an early rush.

2. Build your first pylon (location depends on enemy race and map). Against Terran players, I like to build my first pylon in pretty tight, and versus Zerg or Protoss players I will build it near the entrance to my base.

A tight "Sim City" build is good versus Reaper harassment, where a miniature wall helps prevent Zerglings and Zealots from rushing in your base.

3. Your first Probe should be sent out to scout after laying down your first Pylon.

4. Build up to 12/19 probes.

5. Build your first Gateway.

6. With the scouting Probe, I will try to secretly place a Pylon down in the enemy's base out of his sight. Getting this Pylon down in a hidden location is crucial. Do not allow the other player to see you do this. In higher level leagues, you often will not be able to get the Pylon in their base, but you can at least hide it near their base. This allows you to warp in the Dark Templar near the opponent's base, allowing the Dark Templar

7. Continue to Chrono Boost out probes. Build Assimilators at some point in this time frame.

8. As soon as your first Gateway comes out, build a Cybernetics Core. Research Warp Gate technology as soon as possible.

9. At this point, you might want to scout for a second time. If your opponent appears ready to attack, get two more Gateways. If you have time, build a Twilight Council and then get a second Gateway. The extra Gateways will help deflect any attacks, prevent the opponent from getting overly suspicious, and give you an option for a transition should your DT rush fail.

10. What you do here depends on the map and the opponent's race. If they are Protoss, I like to rush straight for a Dark Shrine (unless they have a cannon right by their entrance). If the Protoss does have detection, you can always use your Dark Shrine to make Dark Templar for Archons. Archons are particularly devastating against Protoss in the early game, as they demolish Zealots and take very little damage from Void Rays, Immortals, and Stalkers.

11. For Terran players, if they have not expanded I will build a Robotics Facility to get a Warp Prism. I then will move the Warp Prism into their base and put it in Phasing Mode. You can then warp Dark Templar directly behind the enemy.

12. Get a Dark Shrine if you haven't at this point.

13. When you place down your Dark Shrine, send your probe out to near their base and build a pylon (only do this if your first Pylon was unsuccessful).

14. There are some maps that when you place a pylon outside the base, you can build units INSIDE the base. These are maps with destructible barriers leading to a second entrance in the base. Getting an Observer can support this process.

15. Upgrade your 2-3 Gateways to Warp Gates and then warp Dark Templar right next to (or inside) your opponent's base. What you do next depends on what the opponent is up to.

How you use your Dark Templars in particular will change on a race by race basis.

Starcraft 2 Dark Templar Rush Strategy

Dark Templar vs Protoss (no detectors):

If you are playing against Protoss players and are quick about it, you will often find that the Protoss player has no detection, particularly in the lower leagues. There may be a Photon Cannon up, but all you have to do is avoid it and attack other parts of their base. The faster your Starcraft 2 Dark Templar rush, the better off you will be when it comes to beating other players!

This also holds true if you wall your base properly with a Pylon and Gateway near the entrance and stick a Zealot in the exit. If they can't get in your base to scout, they do not know you are rushing to Dark Templar!

If you stumble upon a Protoss with no detection, this should be the end of the game. Keep an eye out for any probes that might be trying to build cannons, or any robotics facilities that might be available. If you see a Robotics Facility producing Observers, kill the pylons quickly (Dark Templar kill pylons very quickly but the Robotics Facility will take awhile).

Use one Templar to start taking out key buildings. Start with the Nexus(es) and Probes then move onto other buildings. Use the other Dark Templar(s) to keep an eye on the enemy's base and kill detectors as they pop up (cannons, more pylons, another robotics facility).

Meanwhile, warp in more Dark Templars to go in and finish the job. It bears repeating that if your Starcraft 2 Dark Templar rush is fast, you will find this strategy extremely effective.

If you have little units at your base, often the other Protoss player will send in all his units to attack your base. Protect yourself from losing the "base race" by building a Dark Templar at your base.

Build tons of cannons and Stalkers if he has air. If you kill off all his probes, even if the opponent races down your main buildings and units with air, he will have to kill the cannons to win (not going to happen). Your DTs will finish off job shortly and the game will end.

DT vs Protoss (with detection):

If you determine that your opponent has Observers, a Warp Prism to warp in Dark Templar is preferred. Place a Warp Prism in the corner of the person's base. Build 4-6 Dark Templar and then rush down the Nexus. You can usually kill it before he will be able to respond.

If you are going to warp in 4+ Dark Templar though, you need to make it worthwhile by picking off tech structures. The cost of 4 Dark Templar is 500 minerals and 500 vespene gas, so trading that much gas for just a Nexus is not worth it. If you can kill 15+ Probes as well as a few valuable tech structures like the Templar Archives or Robotics Bay, the Dark Templar warp-in becomes much more cost effective.

You can also split the defense by sending in 1-3 DTs at the main base and then warp 1-3 into an expansion. Most players only have 1 Observer on defense (especially if you are fast), so you will be able to inflict major damage before being caught.

With that said, I prefer not to use the Starcraft 2 Dark Templar rush when I know the enemy has Observers late in the game. If there is a lot of detection, Zealots are more cost effective and easier to use. I would rather save my gas for my main army and dump extra minerals into Zealots.

In the next section of this article, I will cover how to effectively use Dark Templar versus Terran and Protoss players.

Dark Templar vs Terran:

Most players mistakenly think that a Starcraft 2 DT rush is completely worthless against Terran players because Terran players can kill them with a Scanner Sweep.

While all Terran players are likely to have a Scanner Sweep, note that this doesn't necessarily mean Dark Templar are worthless.

Scanner Sweep costs energy and is limited in amount. Also, note that players have to choice between the MULE and the Scanner Sweep. Considering the MULE is worth 270 minerals to the Terran player (each one is!) simply having them scan can wreck a Terran player's economy.

Of course, the true value of a MULE is not quite 270 minerals. The reason for this is that it takes 90 seconds for a MULE to actually gather those 270 minerals and the MULE mines out the Terran's base faster. However, given that pro-level Terran's rarely use the Extra Supplies feature (1 instant free Supply Depot), it is safe to say that the value of a MULE is higher than that of a Supply Depot.

If you have 4 Dark Templar, you can send them in one at a time, costing the Terran player a scan each time. Good players actually keep less energy on tap as they use it for MULEs, so you can quickly exhaust their reserves. At this point, your Dark Templar are free to "wreck shop".

Even bad players are unlikely to have energy for more than 3 scans, so the 4th Dark Templar will start causing some serious damage. At this point, keep warping in Dark Templar and wrecking the opponent.

Dark Templar do very well versus Marines and can kill a Marine in 2 hits (less if the Dark Templar have upgrades). Siege Tanks are also great targets since they won't run away and are very expensive. Siege-mode Tanks are immobile and will die in seconds to an undetected Dark Templar.

Using Dark Templar to force a scan alone is not a good trade for the Protoss player. However, if you can kill a similar cost unit like a Siege Tank plus force a scan, the advantage goes the Protoss.

Make sure to keep the DTs somewhat separated so they do not get taken out by a single scan. Also, be sure to look out for the construction of Missile Turrets as these are a detector.

Finally, you can kill Tech Labs, particularly ones that are researching things. Tech Labs have very low HP but often have very long upgrade timers. If you can kill off a Tech Lab researching Stimpack or Combat Shields, you can significantly delay the Terran's ability to get out a strong bio army.

The best thing to remember about using a Starcraft 2 DT rush on Terran players is that even if you are unsuccessful, each scanner sweep costs them 270 minerals over 90 seconds. Keep sending in DTs one at a time and try to snipe their units and SCVs.

If you can kill just one Siege Tank and cost the Terran player a Scanner Sweep, you have dealt a significant blow to their economy.

Look for high cost units like Tanks and Ghosts to snipe. Killing a Siege Tank only takes a few swings and many players will not see this coming and scan fast enough, allowing you to kill one (or more) tanks.

Siege tanks are great to kill as most players keep these in "Siege Mode" which means they won't automatically run when you attack them. They will be stuck in place long enough for you to kill one, and often the splash damage from the tanks will hurt their other units in the process.

Just do the math: 1 Dark Templar costs 125 minerals and 125 vespene gas. One Siege Tank costs 150 minerals and 125 vespene gas, and the scanner sweep costs 270 minerals! Losing 125 minerals and vespene is a lot less painful than the 420 minerals and 125 vespene the Terran loses in this situation. By using multiple Dark Templar, this adds up very quickly!

Ghosts can expose DTs temporarily with the EMP ability, so keep an eye out for them and never clump your Dark Templar. Focus these down, as an EMPed Dark Templar that is killed is a waste of money. Use your Dark Templar to focus Ghosts down.

When performing a Starcraft 2 DT rush, note that Dark Templar can also be used to defend your own base from Terran counter attacks. If they spent all their scans on your Dark Templar, they won't be able to see the Dark Templar in your base. You can use Stalkers or Phoenix to focus down any Ravens in the area.

Dark Templar vs Zerg

The role of the Dark Templar versus the Zerg player is a bit different than the other races. Namely, the Dark Templar rush itself is not very good against Zerg, but harassing with Dark Templar late in the game is an effective strategy.

Rushes do not really work at all - Zerg can get detection via Overseers and Spore Crawlers very easily, especially now that the Spore Crawler does not require the Evolution Chamber to get. If you want to go for early aggression, it is easier to use Phoenix or an Immortal/Sentry/Zealot timing as both of these builds are much more difficult for the Zerg to stop, even when the Zerg knows the attack is coming.

However, Zerg players love to expand the map. They need a lot of minerals and hatcheries to be competitive in the late game. They rarely invest heavily in automated defense and instead rely on spreading the creep and map control for defense. This makes the Zerg's satellite bases very vulnerable to a multi-pronged Dark Templar attack.

Zerg players do not typically have more than a few Overseers, and these Overseers are almost always sitting with the main army or scouting the opponent. Zerg players do not make an effort to plop Overseers at each expansion, as Overseers cost gas.

What you can do to take advantage of this is when the Zerg is on 3+ bases, you can make 1-2 Dark Templar for each Zerg hatchery, and split them up to attack all 3+ at the same time. Let these Dark Templar go in on their own. Meanwhile, while they are running into position, act like you are about to attack with your main army. The Zerg player will be focusing their attention on your main force if you are threatening them with an attack.

When the Dark Templar hit, the Zerg will be too distracted to quickly respond to all of the attacks happening at once. The pretending to attack with your main army is key to making this work. It is much easier to react to Dark Templar harass of this sort when there are no distractions or threat of imminent attack.

This strategy also relies on the Zerg not having too much automated defense at their expansions. One Spore Crawler and two Spine Crawlers at each Hatchery will shut this down. If the Zerg uses a lot of automated defense, you can still harass with Zealots. They can attack automated defense without wasting a bunch of vespene gas.

Conclusion

The Starcraft 2 DT rush is most effective when used against Protoss players, mostly because Protoss players typically lack early detection. This strategy is often enough to completely finish off Protoss players.

The Starcraft 2 DT rush is also a great way to hurt the economy of Terran players. Wear down their scanning energy a bit at a time until they run out.

Multi-pronged Dark Templar attacks work great against Zerg players in the late game, particularly those who do not get out enough automated defense.