Exact Miners on Each Mineral

Has anyone tested the exact max amount or optimal amount of miners on each mineral. I have heard mixed things, its either 2 or 3 as of right now i currently generate about 3 for each mineral, so usually I end up with 1 full screen selection of units which is about 24 and then 3 on each gas.

Can anyone confirm? I figured while 1 is gathering, another is just about going to be done and 1 returning cargo.

 

It depends whether the Mineral patch is close (third wont help) or far (third will help).
At every expansion and base, some of the patches are farther away than others, so its kinda both.
That is atleast my take on it.

 

The ANSWER:

Optimal is 16 workers for minerals, which 2 per mineral patch (you might need to organize them)
Most people don't understand the point of having 3, they think its because it will saturate even more which isn't completely true, it helps only if you haven't organized your workers to have 2 per patch, you will have 1 worker rotating who is looking for a patch between 3 patches leaving 1 patch with only 1 worker.

the reason behind 3 is because you will have 8 extra workers, and when you get your expansion, you will have 8 ready to transfer to your natural.

 

Thanks for this, ya I have been of recent strong in my game, but my macro expansion is a bit off so maybe this is a result of it, I usually do a standard 2-4 gate early game and transition to Void or Colossus and stalkers, but I am always a bit late on expo.

I think from now on Im gonna do the 16+6(Gas) expansion instead

 

good times to get your expansion:
- after your first fight, that you have won but not enough to finish the game
- if he is turtling
- if you have fully saturated your resources, and you seem that you are too easily spending all your resources.

 

For zerg, it's always a good idea to spam expansions (mid/late game) all over the place when swimming in minerals. No need to saturate them all immediatly, you can use their larvae and if the opponent knocks out one expo, send drones to another and continue building units. Usually, it never gets so far for me, and once I expand that aggressively, the game is as good as won anyways. I would not aggressively expand when under pressure, which might be a flaw, idk.

 

I agree with domanz not to expand to early , especially when under pressure. A good opportunity to expand is when the opponent is turtleing and bunkers down in his main base. Make sure you scout to see what movements your opponent is making so you are not caught off guard.

 

Do you have to micro your workers to 2 per mineral, or do they do this automatically? I tend to set the command center waypoint onto a mineral, make a load of SCVs and not worry about microing them and this seems to work OK.

 

^ You lose a few seconds worth of mining as each SCV works out where to go. Move the waypoint to an empty mineral patch after two scvs are built.

As for expanding: Attack/harass at the same time as expanding.

It will be an effective diversion, and if your opponent has not yet expanded, then your attack will delay them from doing so.

If you can gain an advantage in your economy, you should win.

 

occasionally change the rally point because what a worker will do, is bounce back between 3 mineral patches until it finds one, and the other worker will do the same between 3 patches, if you move the rally point from time to time, they will eventually even out.

 

I've moved to the 16+6 method, and I gotta say, it feels like I just unlocked a secret vault of minerals that I've never seen before. I like.

 

haha im glad you understand the secret... show me the money!

but remember, make more so you can transfer them later on

 

check what I found -----}}} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSQxck4roLU

 

Just wondering... a tip you see during the loading screen says that you should place 3 drones per mineral patch to fully saturate. That kinda is not the same as having 3 per patch to transfer them to the ne later.

 

I remember that i once read (during beta) that one really tried it out and found something similar to the following:

Best saturated is the Mineral line if you use 16-18 Probes, anything more does no difference (so it doesn't pay out) and more than 22 is even making it worse (due to pathfinding).

He tried it out by setting up a number of Drones/SCVs/Probes and then letting them harvest for a minute or so and checking out how much minerals they gathered.


I always go for as many workers in my main Base as possible and move 16 of them as soon as i have my Expo done. There should be something about 10-16 workers left in my main (+6 Vespine)

 

how do you put two for mineral? I was trying to do it and it seems like if I put two on one mineral they eventually just start going wherever they feel like

 

If the second drone arrives at the mineral patch while another is there mining, it will look for another patch. But leave it too late, at your second drone will not have finished by the time the first drone returns, causing it to seek out another patch. There is only a narrow time window where you can insert the next drone without disrupting the existing one.