TvZ build order guide

3 CC Bio

Detected when three Command Centers are taken by 6:00 behind 3+ Barracks of Marine/Marauder with no mech tech (Armory / Fusion Core) -- the standard macro bio opening vs Zerg.

TvZPatch 5.0.16New

49.1% win rate over 55 ladder games since patch 5.0.16

n = 55 games from 4 players · Stats updated Sep 28, 2026

3 CC Bio wins 49.1% of decided games across 55 TvZ ladder games from 4 players since patch 5.0.16. The likely range for its true win rate is 36.4–61.9%, so it is too close to call against a coin flip. It appears in 23.5% of the 234 TvZ games in the guide sample. This guide is newly published, so there is no weekly trend yet. This is still a small sample (n = 55), so treat it as a directional read.

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Key timings

These timings come from 55 recorded build orders by 4 players. Buildings are timed when construction starts, upgrades and morphs when they finish, exactly as the replay records them. The median player finishes Combat Shield at 8:49, with the middle half between 8:31 and 9:14. Timing data is still thin (n = 55 replays), so expect these medians to move.

Key timings from 55 recorded build orders, in game time
Milestone	Early (p25)	Median	Late (p75)
Barracks startedin 55 games	0:54	0:54	0:55
Refinery startedin 55 games	1:02	1:02	1:03
2nd Command Center startedin 55 games	2:00	2:02	2:03
Orbital Command donein 55 games	2:07	2:08	2:09
Factory startedin 54 games	2:38	2:41	2:47
3rd Command Center startedin 55 games	3:08	3:12	3:25
Starport startedin 54 games	3:28	3:32	3:43
Engineering Bay startedin 55 games	5:26	5:41	6:01
Stimpack donein 53 games	7:03	7:14	7:32
Armory startedin 51 games	7:41	7:58	8:19
Infantry Weapons 1 donein 50 games	8:16	8:28	8:49
Combat Shield donein 50 games	8:31	8:49	9:14