PvP Safe Reactive Opener

The goal of this build is to scout your opponent and figure out what their plan is in order to play reactively. With the 4 Stalkers you will be able to defend any early game double gate Adept or Stalker pressure, and the 2 early Sentries will give you energy for Hallucinations to be able to constantly scout your opponent to know their general game plan.

This build assumes constant worker production and constant warp-ins from the Gateway after Warpgate Research is completed unless otherwise noted in the game plans I have listed below.

Vs. Stargate

If you scout your opponent going Stargate, build a Twilight Council and keep 3 Stalkers in each of your mineral lines. After your 2 Sentries finish your Warpgate will finish, and this is the time to warp in 2 additional Stalkers for a total of 6. Your Mothership Core should remain positioned in the main until your natural is completed. You will want to build a decent amount of Pylons down there and keep your Mothership Core defending your natural in case they decide to follow up their Stargate with a timing attack. Since you’ll want 3 Stalkers in each mineral line at all times so your front defense will be weaker.

When the Twilight Council finishes, you should start Blink, a Robotics Facility once you can afford it (prioritize constantly warping in Stalkers, though), and then you can decide based on your Hallucination scouting from the Sentries to take 2 Gates, then a third and a Forge, a third then 2 Gates and a Forge, or drop 4 Gates and try to kill them before the game goes longer.

This will mostly be decided on the amount of Gateways you scout your opponent is having. If they’re going for a heavier Phoenix play, it’ll be safe to take the early third and a Forge and difficult to attack them since they can use the Phoenix Graviton Beam to neglect a good portion of your army’s DPS and also trap Stalkers under Photon Overcharged Pylons, but they won’t have the infrastructure to attack you. If they’re going Void Rays, you can abuse their lack of mobility with Stalker harass or try to all in them before the Void Ray count gets too high. If you want to play a longer game, getting a Templar Archives soon along with Archons and Charge will help greatly. If they’re really committing to Void Rays (2-3 Stargates) then you should also research Storm as Void Rays tend to clump up.

Vs. Robotics Facility or Twilight Council

If you scout either of these tech options, it is safe to continue on with the build with a Robotics Facility. Continue to constantly produce Sentries until you get a solid count of 6 – 8 of them. Build a Twilight Council when you can afford one in between production cycles. When your Robotics Facility finishes, you will want to start an Immortal, followed by an Observer, and then continuous Immortal production. You can get the Observer second because the earliest Dark Templar timing will not hit you any earlier, but a Gateway timing attack can.

From here, you can choose to go 8 Gateways off of 2 Assimilators and all-in your opponent once Resonating Glaives finishes and try to kill them by utilizing Force Fields, Guardian Shields, and your Psionic Transfer abilities. Otherwise, you can build 2 more Gateways for a total of four, start your third, then add a Forge and 2 more Gateways. You can do a timing attack off of this too if you confirm that your opponent is not all-inning you to keep pressure and maybe do some probe damage.

If your opponent is going for a Blink Stalker/Immortal composition, you’ll have the advantage as your Immortals will be doing 50 damage to each of their units while their Immortals will only be doing 20 damage to your Adepts, giving you the DPS advantage and a better army. If they’re going for a similar composition, you will want to find a safe way to transition out of Adept/Sentry/Immortal and into Blink/Disruptor for the late game. If they’re going for an earlier Chargelot composition (very uncommon, but hey these things happen) your Adepts and Force Fields will just shred right through them.

Cheese

If you scout that your Protoss opponent is all-inning you, you can continue along with the build as noted above, but you don’t want to make more than 22 Probes until you’re done holding the all-in. You’re going to want to make sure you have adequate Pylon coverage at your natural along with a third Gateway on the way and Immortals pumping out once your Robotics Facility is finished, along with constant warp-ins. Once you’re safe from the all-in, you can continue worker production from here and add a Twilight Council to transition into the mid-game with a worker, tech, and army advantage.

You have an opportunity to win the game earlier if you scout that it’s a Proxy Robo all in. You can tell this if you see a missing Pylon in their main. Send your first 2 Stalkers in different directions looking for the Robotics Facility or Stargate. If you can find it, focus down the Probe and the Pylon to prevent the Immortal or Oracle from finishing. You can use your Mothership Core and other 2 Stalkers to defend your natural if they choose to warp in at home and send their units the long way. In either respect, you’ll have an econ and tech lead and will be able to win the game shortly after.