Starcraft 2 Banshee Rush

The Starcraft 2 Banshee rush can be one of the most effective rushes in game if used properly. In this article, I will discuss the proper ways to perform this rush and the best situations for using it.

Fast Banshee Rush Build Order

In this type of Starcraft 2 Banshee rush, you are putting all of your proverbial eggs in the same basket - you are specifically counting on your Banshee rush finishing off your enemy. If your rush is unsuccessful, you will almost always lose this game.

Fortunately, the success rate is high, especially versus Zerg players. I would not recommend this against any other race, only use this strategy against Zerg players!

Rough build order:

Refinery: 10/11 supply count

Barracks:  10/11 supply count

Factory: 10/11 supply count

Marine: 11/11 supply count

Orbital Command: 11/11 supply count

Starport: 11/11 supply count

Supply Depot: 11/11 supply count

..at this point, you can produce more SCVs to get more gas and start building more Supply Depots and Marines. You want 3-4 Marines to keep Overlords from scouting in your base or a few Zerglings from tearing down your wall.

You can also build a Tech Lab on your Factory and then lift off the Factory. You can then land your Starport next to the Tech Lab to speed up your Banshee producing process by about 15 seconds. While building up your economy and base is great, make sure you have enough resources and supplies to build a Banshee the second your Starport has a Tech Lab attached.

As you can see, we are literally foregoing everything (SCVs, units, supplies) in order to get the Banshee out as fast as possible. The reason we do this is because a Banshee can defeat a Queen in 1v1 combat, and it will be impossible for the Zerg player to produce any more anti-air than that, unless they opt for Spore Crawlers (this will not happen if they see you).

Once your Banshee kills off the Queen, start picking off Drones and be on the lookout for any anti-air being produced (Spore Crawlers and Queens, etc). Keep pumping out Banshees and picking off Spore Crawlers as they are being build and you will be fine. By the time the second or third Banshee arrives, you should be in a good place.

A second Queen may arrive and finish off your first Banshee, but if you continued to produce Banshees and set the rally point to the enemy's base, your second Banshee will arrive just in time to finish off what the first one started. The Starcraft 2 Banshee rush works every time against Zerg players as long as they don't see it and as long as they don't rush you.

To stop them from seeing it, make sure you build your wall up nicely. Place your Factory and Barracks at your ramp and plug the final gap with a Supply Depot or Tech Lab. You probably cannot do this quickly enough on small maps. As a result, I prefer to use this on big maps with a lot of starting points like Metropolis.

Stopping the rush is easy. First of all, at big maps, Zerg players never rush, especially against Terran players. Your wall will be complete by the time they arrive with Zerglings, and you will have Banshees by the time they get Banelings. You will need a Marine or two to chase out any Overlords from scouting inside your base or kill any Zerglings at your wall.

Banshee Rush Build Order vs Terran and Protoss

Against these two races, 1 Banshee will not be enough for a Starcraft 2 Banshee rush, given the Protoss player is likely to have Stalkers and Sentries and the Terran player has Marines. The Banshee is very effective versus all of these units though, so you will just need a few more units than the enemy.

I recommend following a similar build order to the method above, but with a larger economy and 2 Starports. Here is an example build order:

Refinery: 10/11 supply count

Barracks:  11/11 supply count

Factory: 11/11 supply count

Supply Depot: 11/11 supply count

Orbital Command: 15/19 supply count

Starport: 15/19 supply count

Starport: 19/19 supply count

Supply Depot: 19/19 supply count

In this strategy, you are using two Starports to build your Banshees. Usually about 3 Banshees is enough versus Terran (will kill about 10 Marines). You need to be quick versus Terran as many Terran players will opt for fast Vikings in a 1v1 Terran versus Terran match-up.

Versus Protoss players, you will be looking to research Cloaking Technology and pump out about 5 Banshees.  In the Platinum and Diamond leagues, Protoss players usually go for a fast Observer versus Terran players.

However, Protoss players often get a lot of Zealots and Sentries as they are expecting an MMM Combo rather than a Starcraft 2 Banshee rush. A Banshee rush will often take them by surprise and inflict a lot of damage.

You can also sneak in on their mineral line, kill all of their Probes, then sneak off. You can than transition into a more traditional Marine, Marauder, and Tank build versus Protoss players  and have a huge economical advantage by using your Banshees.

There are a lot of different ways to perform the Starcraft 2 Banshee rush. The key is using the right rush against the right race, and opting to perform this on large maps as it gives you more time to get set up.