The "Korean" 4-gate is a strategy used in PvP. The build order is typically 9 pylon, 10 gateway, 13 geyser, 14 cybernetics core (or whenever the gateway is done), and mining 50 (AND ONLY 50!) vespene gas for the warp gate tech. Once the cyber core is up, start chrono boosting warp gate tech. Throw up 3 more gateways ASAP. Then, once there are another 400 minerals in the bank, throw down 4 pylons in the enemy's base. Preferably behind their mineral line because it's harder to surround (and closer to miners). Once pylons are done, warp gate tech should be just finishing. Warp in 4 zealots and immediately start killing workers. Best case scenario, the enemy has a stalker or two and the probes start attacking the zealots. Zealots kill many, many probes, enemy is woefully behind, and you win. If he defends better, chrono boost warpgates and continue to warp in zealots. They should have no way to defend it. I've had this strategy used against me twice - both times I lost very quickly. I've tried it 4 times. Three of those times my initial probe died, so my timing was all screwed up. One of the times I couldn't even get pylons into the enemy's base. I still handily won all four games. This seems like a nearly impossible-to-defend strategy in PvP. By the way, all of these games were in Diamond. All of the Protoss players I beat using this strategy were 1600+ in Diamond. Any thoughts on ways to defend against it?
As far as I've tried, 4-gate pushes in pvp are only defended against by other 4gate pushes. I haven't tried it but I do beliefe that a gateway/forge wall-in with 2 cannons in the back and ~2 gates for making units will also fare well enough against this, but I haven't tested it. Scouting with your pylon probe at nine is generally the safest way to go in PvP since you can scout a 4gate push early enough. Plus keeping your probe in against it is easy since it includes no stalkers to kill it. The forge/gate wall-in could work nicely with some sentries too to ff the ramp while the 1-2 cannons kill the zealot waves... I'm deffinitely unsure of the timing of this though... Cuttin in on worker production to make more units for the initial push would also be recommended if you scout a korean 4gate, since while not an all-in in itself, since 4gates can get good transitions into templar tech and cutting in on a production cycle can get you an expo, the problem is that it's first pressure is so high that it kills easily all resistance and then you've lost your army while he can still reinforce his with 4 zealots per cycle which is scary... I played against a friend and tried to do a korean 4gate on him though with failed timings, and he replied with a gas-heavy 4gate with stalkers instead of zealots and obliterated me because while I could do some damage, stalkers can kite zealots and probes can run away without getting killed from zealots, so with some good micro it can happen. The thing with stalkers is though that they come later than zealots due to the fact that you need workers from the mineral line to mine gas, which cuts on your mineral income, which in turn means that you can't stop worker production that early(iirc it takes around 20 workers for a korean 4gate? not 100% sure) which means less money for a faster army... Try to get a practice partnair to use it against you and try all these stuff and see if you manage to work any of these. It's deffinitely defendable else we'd see it much more on PvP on pro levels, but I haven't faced it too much so I can't really say I'm familiar with dealing with it... Just posted what I believe is worth trying...
That is bloody lethal - but if your pylon probe gets killed in the base, you're screwed, I think. I'm not sure bout the timing of cannons, but they can be a line of defense aswell, where the zealots are helpless.
9 Pylon 10 Chrono 12 Gate --> Scout 12 Chrono 14 Gas 15 Gate 16 Cycore 16 Pylon (continue probes) Chrono boost dual stalkers <continuation against k4gate> Cut probes Add 2 gates / chrono boost warp gates If you don't want to do that build...just save your chrono boosts for zealots/stalkers/1 sentry, and get your own 4warpgate as fast as you can. If you play it right you might win. If you don't see your opponent chrono boosting their Nexus, you shouldn't chrono boost your own. That's a helpful tip for scouting.
I generally don't like rush builds of this type which you are kinda forced to respond against with a similar rush build, but yeah very early pressure demands very early strong defense and that can only come in the form of early army or static defenses, the latter being a little unreliable due to positioning though... I've only lost using korean 4gate once practising it against a friend of mine. My build was sloppy as hell though, while his was perfect and he went normal 4gate using stalkers instead of zealots... Though I did manage to do some damage, and he's like 2.4-2.5k diamond while I'm mid silver so the skill differense is insane and it's what lost me the match anyway... I do feel that his response with a stalker-based 4gate is the best way to go against a korean 4gate since zealots are easily kitable by stalkers and workers can escape them too if they go for the mineral line...
With the pylon in their base you can attack their workers faster. If that doesn't look like it's going to work though then yeah...outside their ramp is also good. You can place it near the high ground so you can warp zealots there when you get vision.
Good luck getting pylons up in a competent players base. Should work ok in silver or bronze. But anyone above that level probably won't let you.
The pylons in their base thing isn't gimmicky. It only fails to a competent player if they scout the rush and react well and in time. You build 4 pylons in their base when they only have 2-3 units, so it's hard for them to kill them all. Only one pylon needs to survive for the rush to work. For reference the build goes like this... 9 Pylon 10 Gateway ---> Send scout out. (pylon scout if it's 4player map) 10 Chrono Boost Nexus 13 Gas ---> Mines only 50 gas 15 Cycore Hit 18/18 cap with probes When cycore finishes, chrono boost warp gate tech non-stop. +3 Gateway Warp gate is 3/4 done ---> Build 4 pylons in opponent's base. Warp in 4 zealots...send one zealot to each of enemy Protoss unit, and the rest go to their probe line. If their stalker starts chasing your probe down before warp gate is 3/4 done then throw down pylons as fast as you can. If you can't get the pylons up in their base then put them down by their cliff and warp units in at the bottom, rush them up the cliff and then use the sight of high ground and your pylon near the cliff to warp units up at the top. If you can't even get pylons down by their cliff then just proxy the pylons wherever you can and do the rush.
What galaxy said... I've also seen the rush performed by top protoss players in tournaments and they did manage to get pylons up their enemies' base, so no, it's not only bronze/silver level where it can work... There's also an even more efficient way of doing this rush with both pylon+gate at 10, but I don't remember the exact bo, but it's been reported as the most optimal one, iirc...
CB Nexus ASAP 10 Pylon 10 Gate I think that's the one you're talking about. I didn't know which one was better. I assumed the other one would get more probes out and so it would be better. This one gets probes out faster though. Actually it makes sense now that I think about it...you probably get your cycore faster.
You only get as many probes as you need(not sure about the number) to maintain a steady stream of zealots plus the occasional pylon... I remember reading a very convincing explanation on why it is optimal, but I can't even find the bo right now
