This article is sponsored by Shokz StarCraft 2 Guide With the “downfall” of the Terran Reaper, it would seem the Terran have lost some of their edge for harassment. Allow me to introduce the rightful heir, the Hellion. At a cost of 100 minerals this is by far the most cost effective unit in the game against light units. Heck, it might be the most cost-effective unit in the game period. Why, you ask? Because of the Infernal pre-igniter of course, silly! For a measley 150/150 you can add 10 damage to the Hellion’s bonus against light units. You guessed it, that includes workers. The Hellion build is useful for a number of reasons. Chief among them is worker harassment. A secondary benefit is that it’s not an all-in build in any way. In fact it’s quite the opposite because it’s partway up a tech tree you’re going for anyway. The build is particularly useful against Zerg and Terran opponents although it can have some situational uses against Protoss. Here’s the basic build: 9/10 -> Supply Depot -> Scout 12/19 -> Barracks 13/19 -> Refinery x 2 -> Build 1 or 2 Marines depending on the threat level -> Place 3 workers on each gas as soon as it finishes 14/19 -> Orbital Command 16/19 -> Factory -> Create a tech lab with your Barracks while maintaining your wall 18/19 -> Factory 2 -> Supply Depot x 2 20/35 -> Move Barracks to create a Reactor -> Trade out Factory 1 to your Tech Lab -> Immediately Research Infernal Pre-Igniter before your first Hellion -> Once the Igniter upgrade is started move your gas workers back to the minerals -> Pump Hellions You’ll need to play with the timing of your add-on buildings and react to incoming rushes. You should be mostly safe except for proxies, all-in Baneling tech rushes, or Roaches. If you see a Zerg player going for Roach you need to skip the Hellions and go Tank/Marauder. The same goes for a Terran player going for heavy Marauder or if they’re going Hellion as well and you think they’ll beat you at it. With your first group of Hellions you want to harass, obviously. Unless you want to catch them completely off guard. This is where your second option comes in: Medivac drops. You can continue mining gas with 3 of your workers on one refinery as your Factories complete. Build a Starport without add-ons and produce one (maximum two) medivacs. Use this to drop behind his wall if you need to or otherwise get around obstacles. Using your Hellions Effectively Hellions are very fast. But they’re not faster than speedlings. You can easily get surrounded and eliminated and do almost no damage if you’re not careful. Be aware of where you’re rallying your Hellions. Don’t get stuck on a ramp. Hellions are also much more effective against Zerglings when there are 4 or more of them together. Any less than that and they can dominated by a large group of Zerglings. Hellions also need to stop to fire, and their splash damage only does damage in a straight line, so placement is everything. If you can get your opponent’s units in a straight line (Zerglings attack a building, for instance), you will roast them much quicker than if you’re just hitting one or two. Try to win the positioning battle. It’s better to get one shot off from a good angle than two from a bad one. This technique changes a little against Marines because they’re ranged but its generally the same. Try to hit the Marines at choke points (ramps). If you have to face them on open ground against a significant number (more than 5 or 6) you have a couple of choices. First, you can rush in to get the maximum splash and try to eliminate as many as possible in one shot (not a bad choice if you have backup), or you can engage from a distance and chip him down in number. If you fire from maximum range against Marines the splash will still hit two or three deep. This way you can trim his Marines down to a manageable number. Option 2 might not be possible if he has a lot of Marauders or has Concussive Shells. Sacrifices Are Okay Keep in mind that it is perfectly acceptable to lose all of your Hellions. Just do some serious damage to his economy first. Focus fire on his workers. If he runs away from the mineral line you’re even better off because now they form a neat, straight line that is even easier to pick off with good micro. Keep hitting his workers at all costs. There is also a strategic value to Hellions. They’re great against Zerglings and what most players don’t realize is they’re great against Marines (and Marauders to an extent). They also rock Hydras like you wouldn’t believe.
Because of this ability to obliterate Terran anti-air it pairs extremely well with the Terran Banshee. Build a couple of these bad boys once you have a few Hellions, use your Hellions to eliminate his Marines and suddenly you can pummel his remaining ground units with impunity. It doesn’t matter that you lost all your Hellions because you still have your Banshee. Keep in mind that with any Banshee build you also have to maintain air control with sufficient Vikings. If he takes air control away from you it will cause trouble. Day[9] recently did a video covering this build in TvT. Here is also a link to a replay that shows a build in action against a Zerg. The key to successfully using this build also lies in the ability to transition into something more powerful. Don’t force it. If you get some harassment done but he’s starting to counter your attacks, you need to switch into another strategy. If you get stuck with a bunch of Hellions against Tanks or Roaches you’re going to be in some serious trouble. So practice knowing when to transition out. This build is also very useful in team games (3v3 and 4v4 more so than 2v2). In 2v2s the same rules as 1v1s apply. You can harass all you want but you must be able to switch to counter a mid-game Roach or Marauder push. A common pitfall is dominating one enemy but then his Protoss partner walks in with a bunch of Stalkers. That could mean trouble. Enjoy, and good luck out there! This article is sponsored by Shokz StarCraft 2 Guide
Nice. I actually posted the same strategy when facing Zerg since it is a very good counter if they go early banelings and wait on teching to mutas.
I only use helions for zerg start really, to Protoss is kinda pointless because of stalkers, and terran unless they dont have marauder slow. But blue flame drops to mineral line are killer.
thanks for posting this strat, im gonna try it tonight as i never incorporated hellions into my terran play, nice pics and easy to follow
Terran Blue Flame Hellion Build No actually, I have the opposite problem. They show up right after starting Boxee or shortly thereafter but then within 15-20 minutes after that, theyre gone and never return.
Just a follow-up to this article, against a Zerg player at a higher level you might want to skip the Blue-Flame and just build a few regular Hellions.... then going Marine/Medivac/Tank. Stim away from Banelings and Zerglings and then head back in once your tanks have done their damage.
I disagree with a number of points in this article: 1) This is the first hellion build that I have seen that not only builds a rax before a refinery, but actually makes 2 refineries. This is not optimal; instead try 11 refinery 13-14 rax 16-17 OC. This allows you to reach exactly 100 gas by the time the rax finishes. 2 refineries is just silly; slows down your OC and hampers hellion / marine production (3 scvs on gas instead of minerals). 1 refinery can support all upgrades / addons / required structures + constant banshee production. 2) Instead of the second factory, it is almost always better to get a starport for the flexibility and drop capability; this also lets you get banshees out faster and limits your reliance on mech play for the rest of the game. Build a reactor with your rax, then land your factory on it once pre-igniter is done, then move the starport on the freed tech lab. 3) Absolutely start a hellion before starting pre-igniter; increasing food count should always be prioritized over unit upgrades.
Thanks for the post! i use zerg, now i know my friend's strategy on terran. He might have got it from here too. =)
