Starcraft 2 Proxy Widow Mine Rush Build Order

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In Terran vs Protoss, building a proxy Factory (i.e. just outside your opponent's base rather than inside your own base) is a great early game opener. This build takes advantage of the Protoss player's lack of detection in the early game.

The idea behind building a proxy Factory is that you can train a Widow Mine at this Factory and when it finishes, it will be much closer to the Protoss player's base. From here, it is just a short walk into the Protoss player's mineral line at either the main or natural expansion, at which point the Widow Mine can activate, killing Probes and preventing mining.

Proxying the Factory is ideal because it means that the Widow Mine will arrive at the Protoss mineral line about 30-45 seconds earlier than if the mine was produced in your base and then run across the map. This exploits the early window of no detection for the Protoss player. Additionally, if you are going for a bio build, you do not need early add-ons on the Factory anyway. Once the rush is over, you can just lift off the Factory and fly it back to the main base without losing anything from proxying.

As a final advantage of this build, it is helps prevent the Protoss from rushing with Oracles. If the Protoss player goes for Oracle tech, they will need the Oracle at home to use Envision for detection to clear out your Widow Mines. If the Oracle is on defense, it will obviously not be in range of your SCVs!

Proxy Widow Mine Rush Build Order

The build below is a conservative proxy Widow Mine rush. It does not sacrifice much to get out the early Widow Mine and as a result is hardly a cheesy build. The idea behind this rush is not necessarily to win the game but instead to destroy Probes and delay mining all while setting up you as the Terran player to enter the mid-game with an expansion and a nice economic lead.

Here is how its done:

10/11: Supply Depot
12/19: Refinery
13/19: Barracks
15/19: Send out an SCV for the proxy.
16/19: Orbital Command
17/19: Reaper
17/19: Factory
18/19: Supply Depot
19/19: Reactor (on Barracks)
23/27: Widow Mine
23/27: Bunker (at natural expansion - protects from Stalker harass).
25/27: Marine x2
25/27: Supply Depot
25/27: Command Center
28/35: Marine x2
30/35: Widow Mine #2 (send in first one right away)

Executing the Build

As you can see, the refinery comes down before the Barracks in order to get enough gas to get out the Factory not too long after the Barracks finishes. The Reaper does delay the Factory's construction by a few seconds, but it is needed to chase out any scouting workers and protect against an exploratory Zealot. Without the Reaper, your opponent is going to know something unusual is going on when they go in to scout and do not see anything.

Additionally, the build gets out an early Bunker at the entrance to the natural expansion as well as a Barracks with a Reactor to help produce Marines. The Bunker is needed to stymie an early Stalker and the Marine production capacity helps ward off an early Oracle. Without these additions, you can lose very easily to an early Oracle and Stalker combination.

With the Widow Mine itself, all you have to do is run it right into the enemy's mineral line and activate the mine. While it is ideal to get the Widow Mine right into the enemy's mineral line, good players will use their workers to attack the mine before it can burrow, so you may have to settle just to get relatively close. You can also go behind the mineral line itself and kill a lot of workers with a single blast.

If the opponent has expanded early, burrow the mine at the natural expansion, as this will help prevent mining and destroy Probes while you sent up your own expansion. You may want to add on a macro CC if you note that your opponent has gone for a quick expansion. If the opponent fast expands and you go for a proxy Widow Mine rush, they will be tied up while they get up an Observer and will not be able to attack any time soon, making it safe to build an additional Command Center.

From here, you are set to work your way up to bio forces. If you delayed your enemy at all, a timing attack with Marines, Marauders, Stimpack, Medivacs, and Combat Shield is an excellent option. You can lift off your Factory and pull it back in order to continue to produce Barracks.