StarCraft 2: Control Groups, Production & Hotkeys Tutorial! 

I play SC2 for years without knowing the existence of Alt+num. now defending terran drop is easier. Thanks lowko

You young bucks don't know how good you have it. Back in my day, we had to walk uphill both ways to create control groups, and we were only allowed 12 units per group!

Nice, didn't know about new Alt combination. Suggestion: you could have your keypresses on screen for beginners to really see what you are typing at what moment

I only started SC2 recently (as in weeks ago), and figured out the control and shift - the alt key was news for me! Thanks Lowko!

What a great video ^_^ Would surely recommend to any players struggling with control groups, especially zergs. You didn't mention ALT+SHIFT modifier though. ALT+SHIFT removes selected units from their control groups and adds them to a different group. E.g. you have lings and roaches in group 1 and hydras in group 2. If you select the roaches and press ALT+SHIFT+2, you'd have lings in group 1 and roach+hydra in group 2. This is very useful for rejoining your armies when you have had to split them up earlier, e.g. reacting to drops or doing multi-pronged attacks, or if you just made a mistake and your control groups are currently a mess. Also, to remove units from control groups I have a designated "trash" control group, which is group 10. I have Alt+~ (the key to the left of 1) instead of Alt+0 bound for the group 10, so I can select a unit or a bunch at any time and move them away from their control groups. In the watchtower example you mentioned earlier, you: 1) right-click all the lings on the watch tower, 2) shift-click one of them, 3) make the rest of the lings stop or go the other way and 4) press Ctrl + the correct control group to exclude the ling from the group. What I do is just 1) select one ling, 2) send it wherever it needs to be and 3) press Alt+~. For camera hotkeys, I followed the same setup at first but later found that 1) for longer games 4 base cameras are insufficient (and break my macro) and 2) F-keys are just a bit too far away to reach comfortably. So instead I have 8 cameras on QWERASDF keys, with Ctrl+key to save the camera and Alt+key to restore it. Never heard of anyone using a similar setup, but it has improved my macro a lot, taking away much minimap-clicking pressure to inject and reallocate workers. This doesn't conflict with anything at all, to the best of my knowledge. Oh and btw I have my CapsLock act as a Ctrl key: it's much easier to reach :p

I legit did not know you could make Starcraft units dance O_O

As always, quality content. I have some questions: Can you make a video where you manage casters? What army units should be lumped together? How many army hotkeys do you make and based on what? I usually keep my hatcheries in 4, my queens in 5 and 1-3 army (when I don't forget to create the groups).

I bought SC2 just to finish the campaign and haven't played ever since. Now I missed to play this and I want to be a little competitive in Co-op games and even against hard AIs. I just want to say thank you for your great tutorial videos. It really helps noobs like me.

Wow been playing SC2 wrong all this time! Thanks Lowko!

Do you read my mind??!! This is exactly what I needed since I came back to sc2 the other day. Thankss

I started playing starcraft 2 because of u 1 year ago and this video will help me improve a lot

Getting back in SC2 after not having really played since WoL and I was going nuts trying to remember how to jump to next base so my injects didn't suck. Also didn't know about splitting stuff out with Alt. This was extremely helpful. About to go see how much my performance improves on ladder.

Maaaann I always wanted to know which hotkey you use for base camera ,I finally found it out this will be super useful thanks lowko!

Informative video, would be interested in seeing updated tutorials such as this regarding SC2

Lowko, I like how you mentioned using control groups for unit-producing structures. When I learned that I could put my structures in control groups and essentially produce units without so much as glancing at my base or even clicking, my efficiency went up MASSIVELY. I can now micro (read as target-fire because I'm shit at actual micro lol) my army across the map while reinforcing it back home. It's amazing! "How would your opponent not know to leave the game if you don't have units dancing inside of his main base?" A question for the ages.

just started playing SC2 (never played either b4) and gotta say this helped immensely, im just doing campaign right now but this made a big difference

Yeah, tutorial again! How I started watching your videos was the raoch push back in the days. Great to see more tutorial.

This is the best explanation I've found so far, thank you

Lowko you're a legend. A Fantastic hotkey/binding tutorial.. a must in order to efficiently and effectively utilize sc2 mechanics.

This was soooo very useful.. I really needed this... New to SC2 and didnt know how this was done.. Much thanks..

Just decided to properly learn Zerg today. Thanks for the help!

YES! The video we all wanted to see! Much love

Hey, thanks for the video. I just started playing and you probably saved me years of fumbling in the dark :)

Lowko explaining alt+number hotkeys at 4:08 "this is very useful especially when you play Zerg once again or if for example use the whole army hotkey and you're playing Terran or Protoss" Ok there Lowko

Haven't played since launch and first time watching sc2 youtube videos. Gotta say my jaw was on the floor the whole time. I had no idea.

Great video. I love starcraft 2 and warcraft 3 I just dont have a strong enough computer to play and stream. But I love watching your videos.

I... I didn't even know about ctrl+ nor alt+ control groups, yet I somehow knew about shift+.. thank you Lowko is all I know to say 😅

Thank you so much for this video ! Exactly what I needed to learn. Now to practice !

Mind bliwn. Thank you. So much to learn in SC2

Your videos are phenomenal, Lowko!

I knew there was a reason I followed you, other than your great commenting and awesome videos. Thanks Lowko!

Great video. Please do another one showing how to load up medivacs in a hurry!

You sir deserve this thumbs up!! Please make more of these!! 😍😍😍

I really liked this video, thank you very much Lowko, this definitely will improve my QoL

Great tips bro, I unbind F2 as it was something I've been relying on for the past week as a new player.. learning micro and macro.. it's tough but thanx for the great tips.. :)

Dude the first thing you went over was already a game changer haha. I knew the basics I guess haha

Gladly I learned this on your earlier video, I believe it was 2 years ago? It was from there that I got no issues when it comes to macro production. *Tips for other races:* you can use the same layout groups for other races but it changes with 5+ number groups, I mean, 1 for main army, 2 for secondary army or spellcasters, 3 for special units(medivac, warp prism), in case you have more than 1 spellcaster like ghosts and ravens, let 1 type in main army and the other on 2 or 3 group, you can use TAB to switch ability units on the same group but the earlier is more effective. *Macro:* keep the main buildings on 4 and production buildings on 5(gateway, stargate, robo) and use TAB to switch between them, while the upgrade buildings goes on 6. In case if you want to use units around the map but they aren't harassing units like observer or those zerg clones, use rest of the groups you haven't used yet, the more flexible you get with your keyboard, the less time is wasted on a single screen and useless clicks.

Thank you for the Tuorial Lowko

1:40 sir you already blew my mind. I played starcraft like... i dunno 2 years after it‘s release the first time and touched it every now and then... but the shift 1 thing... maaaen

Really useful! Thank you Lowko!

More of this for Tos please!

still great info years l8er. as always ty for your hard work and dedication

very useful . it's very wierd that there is no guide for this inside the game

That is so helpful, thank you lowko!

nice vid, this helps thx Lowko!

Thank you! This is exactly what I'm looking for :)

thank you very much LowkoTV

great video, thanks man

you didn't mention *Shift + Alt* , it's damn useful to move units from group A to B without resetting B (I use this to move morphing broods from corruptors group to broodlords group, same for lurkers and sometimes with baneling in early game)

Didn't even know all army hotkey existed until recently, been playing on and off since WoL lol

I've been playing StarCraft with just control. Shift and alt? Amazing! More to practice....

Thanks for the last tip it makes me win

MIND BLOWN!

The one thing I didn't know was the camera location trick, been wondering that for awhile.

It's so easy to play this game for years without practicing fundamentals, theirs a reason there's so many options in setting for gameplay. It's has a lot of mechanics! It's not till I unbound f2 and started practicing control group selections and micro work that my game improved, even after years of watching pros play.

ty, learned a lot from this video

It's also useful to do the deselect unit move for managing workers. Select 6, sending to one gas, deselect 3 and send them to the other.

Mind blown! Thanks had no idea about most of this content. Would double thumbs up if I could!!

Thank you for the info, I was losing my mind trying to figure this out. There's no way a game like Starcraft 2 doesn't have unit grouping options, lol.

Great video, i may not ladder player, but coop mutation do need these skills to get better result toi.

I’m new and terrible so thank you this video is helpful

Thanks for this :)

The alt hotkey blew my mind. God damn....

Love this kind of teaching video. can you do a similar one for Protoss?

I find this useful and I don't even play SC :)

Wow, I didn't know about control-clicking on a unit to select only that type of unit or about alt-clicking, and I'm platinum... then again, I main Protoss, so I have actually unbound all keys except F2 and A anyway.

love this remakes videos are the best

never play this game but still watch this , no homo

that was your well earned sub

Holy shit! alt + (ctrl group n°) is so useful o.o I always end up using the "all army" key at some point, which works fine in zerg usually, but when I play protoss I always get my observers going back to my base because of that. Being able to regroup my unit and then ditch the observer seems like a super useful thing to do

I love this guys voice

ty i realized there is unit management segment in global i learned a lot today

so helpful

There is a good reason for the All Army hotkey. Sometimes you misclick and newly produced units aren't properly added to your desired control group. You can use All Army after they are created to easily add them by control clicking off the other units. I use it for this frequently.

I have my bases on space bar too, makes it a lot better

Mind reader - I was literally looking for ways to improve my micro today and BAM notifications for the win.

you know lowko… I've never seen you play sc1 in a long time

Thank you very much

THANK YOU... Please do one for Terran

I'm trying your hotkey setup and it is super hard from playing with the "standard" layout since I started sc2 two years ago. But I feel like it will make me a better player if I master it.

This was a really helpful video thanks, how do you remove a unit from a control group, if you have no idea where the unit is on the map?

Can you do one for Protoss as well Lowko?

Hey lowko great contet as always, just quick question, how to u add the 4th hachery? u had 3 in the hotkey and u added the 4th...

finally a clear explanation.

Are you going to make hotkey guides for the other races?

Important to dance in your opponent's main base. Meaning he'd be mad if you didn't😂

I have for a very long time used the main hatchery on group 1, all hatcheries on group 2 and armies on 3 - 5. Now I´m trying to unlearn the "main hatchery on group 1" routine.

Hmmm i didnt know this, the rallying trick isnt useful for anything but zerg but the rest is pretty damn useful since i didnt know about this, now i can become better than serral after w months, thanks lowko

I play terran and i like to shift click 3 tanks to be the rally point of the barracks so the new units go there. Also use the all army hotkey to then isolate all the tanks and make a separate group.

I know you are a zerg player but I know you know a lot of SC2 xD so would you probably do a hoykeys and CG terrans video, please I very like your channel and how you explain SC2!! Regards from Costa Rica!!

Hey lowkow! can you do the same video but with Protoss?

jajaja... I did'nt know about the Dance, I will use in all me matches :-)

you can inject from the minimap as well as cronoboost

i have been using those mechanics alot but i guess i wasn't using two of them, separating and reorganizating the army for scouting and for splitting during or before engaging, i also need to practice queen injections and spread creep since they both require a specific time to use every time, i maybe should change that to base swaping also space bar instead of engaging or taking dmg and with f's to mark areas that are about to be fought on, there are few things i haven't figured out though army requirements and size for each tier of upgs along with energy users control, i have noticed tier 1 for all 3 by 4mins is great but after that i fall off either my army is too small or im swaping too much to higher tier army too fast, orther than that i belive i know the rest of the basics, there could be advanced tehniques that i don't know, one of them is swaping weak units from the front with low life to higher health, or target firing down the threat in the enemy army and stuff like that. i appreciate the video since it made me recall i need to improve on my engaging, scouting, ambushing and adding spawn units to control groups, since i had no clue that even worked i was aware you could select and diselect lavas but i wasn't sure it could work it didn't cross my mind, does that apply similarly to terran or protoss warp ins? on terran production i don't think that works of im not informed enough, i know it takes alot of mechanics to play terran well so i even looked up how to do medicvec to follow your units and heal them from the backline alot to practice on terran, on protoss i do need to improve alot especially with the warp in synergy. i think that's all for now, sorry for the long essay.

Ok so I'm newer to starcraft 2 and I had a question about the maps. On some of the maps there are glowing dismantled pillars, and when your troops move close to them they build together. What do the pillars do. Do they have buff abilities or are they just aesthetics?

another awesome arcade map other than mono-battles and direct strikes is keystone card game

Can you or someone please explain how to add units that are still producing into an existing control group? Like basically setting its rally point as a control group? I feel like you did it at 6:17 but every time I try to shift + 1 it adds the buildings to the control groups instead of the units... hope the question makes sense.

Do you ever use the minimap for queen injects? Or is that not as good?

How about to use the spell caster? for example to shoot the ravagers skill at ounce, or spawn the infested terrens as fast as possible?

Hi guys, Lowkos tip on unbinding the All Army hotkey is the best thing you can do once you learned how to macro! Give it a try :-)