Starcraft 2 Terran's Best Counters vs Terran Units

Introduction

In Starcraft 2, there is a "best counter" for every unit.

In this guide I will give detailed information for Terran players to counter every Starcraft 2 Terran units.

Everyone hates mirror matches, you feel like no matter what you do, your opponent can do the same, what's the point? This is the wrong way of thinking. Yes, you're playing against the same race, but you still have the choice of units. And just like with the other races, there is a best terran unit counter for every terran unit.

Once again, please remember that this guide is written with pure unit statistics in mind, you must still adapt this information to your game depending on the situation, you can't always produce the best unit counter in time, so sometimes you'll have to go for 2nd or 3rd best, which is why I'm always listing at least 3 options.

On with the guide!

Table of Contents

1. How to Counter Marines
2. How to Counter Marauders
3. How to Counter Ghosts
4. How to Counter Hellions
5. How to Counter Siege Tanks
6. How to Counter Reapers
7. How to Counter Vikings
8. How to Counter Medivacs
9. How to Counter Ravens
10. How to Counter Banshees
11. How to Counter Thors
12. How to Counter Battlecruisers
13. Similar Guides for other Races

Best Terran Counters vs Marines

1. Siege Tank - In siege mode, a siege tank kills several marines in one shot. Plus, they severely outrange them.

2. Hellion - With their +6 damage vs light units and their AoE damage, Hellions are great vs marines, who generally are bunched up in packs.

3. Reaper - They deal 18 damage per round of attack against marines, killing them with 3 shots.

4. Ghost - Sniper Round does just enough damage (45) to kill a single marine. For only 25 energy, why not have fun with it?

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Marauders

1. Marines - None of the bonuses of the Marauder apply against marines. They're not armored, and since they have about the same firing range, they don't care much about being slowed by concussive shells.

2. Banshee - If you see your opponent making a lot of Marauders, the best counter is easily Banshees. Just make sure to take out anti-air units first, such as marines, and then start getting free kills on those helpless Marauders.

3. Marauders - That's another option. Make Marauders too, make more of them than your opponent and upgrade them.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Ghosts

1. Ghost - Just make sure you are the first to fire EMP Round on the enemy ghost, then just cloak and kill.

2. Raven - Mobile Detection is extremely valuable against ghosts, obviously. Also, Seeker Missiles do just enough damage to kill them in one shot.

3. Siege Tank - 2 Tanks in siege mode paired with a detector = instant death for a ghost trying to sneak to your base to nuke.

4. Viking - In Assault mode, they do pretty well vs ghosts. They only take 10 damage while dealing 14 at a much faster pace. In a 1vs1 fight, if both start shooting at the same time, the Viking will kill the ghost and still have more than 50% of its total HP remaining. Since ghosts generally stand safely behind the main front line, you can fly over and land right behind the ghosts in some sort of pincer attack.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Hellions

1. Thor - Thors do exactly 90 damage against ground units, which is just perfect to take care of hellions. Not to mention, it will take a lot of hellions to take down a single thor.

2. Siege Tank - Don't bother with siege mode, normal mode is perfect against Hellions. A solo tank can take out 3 hellions at the same time and leave the battle with 1/3 of its HP remaining.

3. Viking - In Assault mode, they dominate hellions easily. They can kill 2 Hellions at the same time and leave the battle with 40% of their HP remaining.

4. Banshee - Obviously a perfect counter since hellions can't hit air targets.

5. Marauder - Marauders are armored, thus only taking 8 damage per attack from Hellions, while dealing 10 themselves. Plus, they are rather large so that means the Hellion's splash range will rarely hit multiple marauders at the same time.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Siege Tanks

1. Banshee - The safest way to deal with tanks.

2. Battlecruiser - Obviously safe as well, but very tech heavy.

3. Thor - With their huge HP, they can withstand the initial barrage of tanks in siege mode and kill them in 2 rounds of attacks.

4. Marauders - 2 Marauders cost less than 1 Tank to produce, yet if you have them fight, the tank will die exactly at the same moment as when the first marauder dies, leaving you with one full HP marauder. A pretty good deal. That's with the tank in normal mode though. In siege mode, the odds turn more into the tanks favor, but as long as you spread your marauders to avoid splash damage, you'll still have the better end of the bargain.

5. Viking - A nice trick to deal with a tank in siege mode is to fly your viking right over it and switch to assault mode. The tank won't be able to shoot your viking because it will be too close, so your opponent will have to switch out of siege mode and waste precious seconds while your Viking will be doing loads of free damage.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Reapers

1. Siege Tank - In siege mode, a tank will one-shot a Reaper before he is even in sight.

2. Marauder - 1 Marauder vs 2 Reapers has the Marauder come out alive with just a little HP left. Pretty good deal.

3. Viking - 1 Viking in Assault Mode vs 2 Reapers has the Viking come out alive with 40% HP left. Once again, pretty decent deal.

4. Thor - Thors one shot Reapers, it's actually a little overkill, which is why I put it at position #4.

5. Banshee - Of course, obviously the best counter if you have the tech and the ressources. Don't forget to always start by killing units that can hit air, and then finish with Ground to Ground units.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Vikings

1. Viking - It's quite simple, either you make more vikings than your opponent and take control of the air, or you simply give up on the air superiority, stop producing anything that flies and force your opponent to switch his Vikings to assault mode. Attacking his main base for example is a great way to get Vikings to the ground.

2. Thor - If you take the ground superiority approach, thors are the best counter. Not only do they hurt Vikings while they're in the air, but they totally obliterate them if they dare to come to the ground.

3. Siege Tank - If your opponent sends his Vikings flying towards your tanks, immediately switch out of Siege Mode and you'll be fine. Tanks in normal mode easily dominate Vikings in Assault Mode.

4. Marauder - Marauders cost half the production cost of Vikings, and yet in a one on one battle, they both die exactly at the same time, a draw. So that's still a pretty sweet deal if you consider the production costs and lower tech requirements of the Marauder.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Medivacs

1. Viking - Nothing better to chase those down than Vikings.

2. Battlecruisers - A little overkill, but still the 2nd best option.

3. Marines - They can shoot air units, that's about all you need against Medivacs.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Ravens

1. Viking - Nothing better to chase those down than Vikings.

2. Ghost - A quick EMP Round before they get the chance to use their energy will be a huge factor in any big battle.

3. Battlecruisers - Actually quite a decent choice. If your opponent uses the Defense Drone, it won't be very effective agains the battlecruiser's 6 attacks per round, which will quickly deplete the energy of the Defense Drone.

4. Marines - They can shoot air units, that's about it. Watch out for Seeker Missiles.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Banshees

1. Viking - The king of Terran anti-air. Use it, abuse it.

2. Marine - Marines do surprisingly well against Banshees. In terms of production cost, 5 Marines = 1 Banshee (and requires much less tech). Yet, 5 Marines will easily defeat 1 Banshee, and you'll have 3 Marines left at the end of the battle. With Combat Shield, it gets even better, since Banshees will then need 3 attacks to kill 1 Marine (compared to 2 attacks without the Combat Shield upgrade).

3. Thor - One Thor can take out 2 Banshees and survive, but not 3. That's still decent, especially because of the huge range of their anti air missiles.

3. Battlecruiser - Sadly too slow to chase them effectively, but they do kill them fast if they get in range.

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Thors

1. Battlecruiser - Being a flying armored unit, the Battlecruiser doesn't take that much damage against a Thor. Even better if you research Yamato Cannon to ensure a quick kill. A single Battlecruiser can kill 2 Thors and survive, without even using Yamato Cannon.

2. Marine - Marines are just way too small for Thors, shooting them is a waste of time for the slow attacking giant robot. This makes them the cheapest and safest counter to Thors. Stimpack is great in this situation, because Marines will get one-shot by Thors no matter what, so might as well sacrifice some HP for some extra damage.

3. Thor - Make sure your Thor uses 250mm Strike Cannon before the enemy Thor does, and that will be a flawless victory for your Robot. It's a double-edged weapon, if your opponent is quicker on the 250mm Strike Cannon, you lose your Thor and his stays full HP.

4. Marauder - They get the benefit of their +10 damage vs Armored units, and they have enough HP (125) to survive a single Thor attack round (90 damage). You will need 4 Marauders to win vs a single Thor, which isn't great when you compare the production costs,  but it's still decent. It gets much better with Stimpack though, as it doesn't change anything for Marauders in terms of survivability against Thors (Their health drops down to 105 after using stimpack, so Thors still need two rounds of attacks to kill them).

Back to the Top

Best Terran Counters vs Battlecruisers

1. Viking - 3 Vikings can barely take out a Battlecruiser (just barely). Go with at least 4 Vikings vs 1 Battlecruiser and you'll get much better results.

2. Marine - 15 Marines cost about the same as one Battlecruiser (and require much less teching). Yet, they clearly win the fight and the battlecruiser goes down with 6 marines left standing. Do the same with the Combat Shield upgrade, and you'll have 8 marines left standing. With Combat Shield + Stimpack: 10 Marines left standing. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Note: Everything else is poor vs battlecruisers. For example, 2 Thors, despite costing a lot more ressources, can't even take down a single Battlecruiser, without even using Yamato Cannon.

Back to the Top

List of other "Best Unit Counters" Guides

Terran

Starcraft 2 Terran Strategy: Best Counters vs Protoss Units

Starcraft 2 Terran Strategy: Best Counters vs Zerg Units

Protoss

Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategy: Best Counters vs Protoss Units (coming soon)

Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategy: Best Counters vs Terran Units (coming soon)

Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategy: Best Counters vs Zerg Units

Zerg

Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy: Best Counters vs Protoss Units (coming soon)

Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy: Best Counters vs Terran Units (coming soon)

Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy: Best Counters vs Zerg Units (coming soon)

Back to the Top