How do I remember which units counter which in StarCraft 2?

Solution 1:

Units have attributes and the system is a little more complicated than Warcraft 3.

If you look at each unit it will have one or more of the following descriptors:

• light
• armored
• biological
• mechanical
• massive
• psionic

For example a marine is a light biological unit while a siege tank is an armored mechanical unit and a marauder is an armored biological unit. This is something you will have to memorize with time but usually you can guess which will apply just by looking at the unit or in doubt clicking on it. These are easily viewable on the HUD just below the units description in the center of the screen.

Now each unit may have a bonus against one of these armors making it a good hard counter. You can see this bonus during game by selecting the unit and viewing the HUD in the center of the screen. It will list the damage of the unit and any bonuses it receives against units of a particular type.

For example, Helion's have +dmg vs light armor and are great for killing zerglings, a light biological unit. An Immortal has a large +dmg bonus vs armored units and is a great counter for other armored units such as marauders, siege tanks, roaches or stalkers.

Blizzard has said there will be tutorials in the released version of SC2 to train players for multi-player combat. Part of those tutorials will be explaining by example how these hard counters work and which units to build to counter your opponent.

Solution 2:

I'm sorry if this answer is a bit simplistic, but I recommend just playing the game. There aren't that many different unit types in this game, and you get to remember counters really quickly.

Also, I've seen high-level players that don't always agree with what the help screens say, so going with experience is also better.

Solution 3:

I'll give you a quick break down, but you have to remember everything on this list is wrong. There are no hard counters in Starcraft 2 (despite what people will tell you), but there are soft counters:

• Immortals counter Roaches
• Banelinges counter Marines and Zerglings
• Thors counter Muta
• Ravens counter Marauders
• Hellions counter Zerglings (but not speedlings)
• Reapers counter Zealots (but not speedlots) and Zerglings (but not speedlings unless you have mass Reapers)
• Vikings counter Carriers, Battlecruisers, Broodlord, and Vikings
• Ghosts counter Protoss and Mutalisks
• Infestors counter Colossus and Thors
• Colossus and Templar and Siege tanks counter mass units (yay splash)
• Immortals kinda counter Tanks and Marauders
• Sentries counter ground
• Ultralisks counter Stalkers and Tanks
• Stalkers kinda counter Roaches
• Roaches counter Hydras!
• Marauders counter melee
• Corruptors counter Colossus, Battlecruisers, Broodlord, and Carriers
• Spine crawlers kinda counter roaches/marauders/stalkers

Bare in mind enough units or micro and any of these counters go the other way.