The 3 Gate Robo strategy is a solid, well-known strategy for Protoss players in the PvZ match up. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, “3 Gate Robo” means this strategy is a timing attack that uses 3 Gateways and a Robotics Facility for your first offensive push on your Zerg opponent.
The ability to micromanage your units well is a very important part of the strategy. If your micromanagement (micro) abilities are subpar, this may not be a good strategy for you — or it might be the perfect strategy to use for practicing your micro. 3 Gate Robo utilizes Immortals which are easily surrounded by Zerglings if you aren’t careful about your unit control and it also uses Sentries for well-placed Force Fields. Poor micromanagement has the potential to unravel the entire strategy against strong Zerg opponents.
Build Order
9 Pylon
10 Chrono Boost Nexus after Pylon completion
12 Gateway, send Probe to scout
13 Chrono Boost Nexus
14 Assimilator, saturate when complete
15 Pylon
16 Zealot. Chrono Boost this Zealot if your scout sees opponent <13 Pooling
18 Cybernetics Core
21 Zealot
23 Sentry
24 Warpgate Research
24 Zealot
25 Pylon and Assimilator
27 Robotics Facility
28 Gateway
32 Observer
33 Pylon
35 Immortal
39 Gateway
That is the basic build order. If you’re not sure how to read a build order, check out our guide to reading build orders.
You should push out to attack as soon as you feel comfortable doing so — the ideal is to push as soon as your Observer sees your opponent starts to build a Hydralisk Den or a Spire. When that happens, your opponent should be holding into their larva and resources to produce a group of Hydralisks or Mutalisks upon the building’s completion. Your goal is to either snipe the Hydra Den or Spire as soon as they’ve completed or destroy their expansion/second base.
Remember that build orders do not have to be completely identical from game to game. The build order listed above is tried and true, but do not be afraid to make small changes that better fit your play style, or that you find works better for you. The best players do not copy build orders, they make them!
Important Notes
As mentioned, this is a micro heavy build. You cannot just send your units at your opponent blindly and hope that they win. The things that you will need to pay the most attention to are:
- You need to keep your Immortals as close to your front line as possible (without cutting off your Zealots) so that they cannot be completely surrounded. They are not fast or agile units — a mass of Zerglings surrounding your Immortals will be the death of them.
- You will need to choose your Immortals’ targets, not simply let them blast away at whatever they want. Immortals deal bonus damage to Armored units, so they will destroy Roaches very easily. If your Immortals ignore the opponent’s Roaches and attack Zerglings instead, they are doing less than half of the damage that they would otherwise be doing and those Roaches are very likely cutting through your Zealots like butter.
- Your Sentry Force Fields are extremely important. With your offensive army, you will need to use them to split up your opponent’s forces into manageable groups, and also to protect your Immortals from being flanked and surrounded. During your first offensive push, you want to keep a Sentry at your base to Force Field your ramp if your opponent attempts a counter attack, blocking them from getting inside of your base until you can rebuild enough to deal with them.
In addition to the micromanagement demands, should your initial push fail and you don’t deal sufficient damage to your opponent, you will find yourself at a substantial deficit. You will be on one base while your opponent is on two, and if your attack failed, chances are good your opponent has an army advantage as well. You will need to find a way to make up the disadvantage — intelligent use of your Observers will go a long way here, as you will need to keep your opponent at bay with as few units as possible so you can expand and get your economy caught up. If your attack was succesful and you did significant damage to your opponent, Liquipedia suggests, “you have the option of either expanding or get additional tech to finish them off 1 base. If they went Spire, you should add a Stargate and begin Phoenix production to complement your Zealots. If they went Hydralisks, add a Robotics Bay and switch to Colossus.”
Additional Resources
For more information on the 3 Gate Robo build order, see the links below.
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