Keeping you APM up

[Corgon]

Hi I was just wondering how to keep your APM above 100. I have been having many parts of my game just sitting and watching until my unit builds or until I get enough minerals. I periodically go over 100 but that is when I am spamming unit commands or build orders. How do you keep it up there? My average APM per game would be around 40, and that is pretty low. I seem to get the job done even without high APM but I think I can do a lot better if I figure something out.

[Maelstorm]

Having a high APM doesn't always mean your doing better i've seen ppl just reselect units and spam meaningless buttons that ups their APM with no positive result on their game i guess if you wanna up your APM in a positive way which im still working on hot key your buildings and always be cycling through them if you find your mind wandering it'll help you catch when you not building those workers you need as well as catch a unit producing structure not being used. besides that i've seen perfectly decent players sit around 40 to 50 APM , APM really matters in those huge fights where your microing your stalkers into the right place quickly selecting your high templars for the epic psi storms in a split second thats where APM counts because that could be the deciding factor in a battle wheather or not you got that spell off in the right spot at the right time.

[Hammy]

In my opinion the best way to get better (which, in many cases includes keeping your APM up), is basically to always be concentrated when you're playing.

Mindlessly grinding will only help with your muscle memory a bit, but really playing at 100% will help push your limits.
For instance, you should always be cycling between various functions. In the early game you only have one or two bases, a handful of buildings, one army and you're usually waiting for an upgrade or something...
Later you need to cycle through sooo many more things, if you aren't organized with that, you'll start spending more time thinking and less time doing, and your APM will drop.
To me it's not about playing a lot, it's about playing efficiently.

[Mrjiggles]

spam!?

wait waht

[silencbank]

As my sensei at heart Day9 would say, "it is not a high apm that makes you good, it is your timing and what you do with those actions." What Hammy said is 100% correct, efficiency is key to be great and that takes training to get used to. At the beginning there really is no point to spam if you do not want to, the reason myself and many others do it is to just warm up our fingers, get them flexible so we dont have to go from 40 apm to 300 apm in an instant. Just like in Zombieland, we need to limber up.

What I would suggest you do is go check out day9 daily 132 on what he calls "the mental checklist". It really shows you that what you need is efficiency and timing, and apm just helps you do those things but is not what you need to build on. If you have any other questions you can just ask us here, but that video helped me so much I can not tell you. Also check out daily 121 and 126 if you have the time they are both very good teaching vids that can definitely help someone's gameplay. But gl hf and enjoy the greatest game in all ze vorld!

[Corgon]

Thanks for the help guys, I shall try out these strategies once I get on.

[dejai]

I play Terran most of the time and I don't enjoy having idle units if you have a bunch of marines why not get 1 or 2 to scout the base during the mid game or push out around the map for additional scouting. There are a lot of small things which may seem trivial that may give you the upper hand. Scouting in mid game is a nice way to keep your apm high in any case.

[Taerix]

I think a lot of times when you're sitting there waiting for units to finish or whatever you're doing, there are things that you COULD be doing. If you ever find yourself sitting doing nothing at any point, use that time to think of things you could be doing to keep busy.

Scouting is a good idea, even just marching a worker around to the different expos to see if they're taken yet.

But like others have said, don't focus on increasing your APM by spamming, focus on doing activities that will help you win.

[Dale]

Hi I was just wondering how to keep your APM above 100. I have been having many parts of my game just sitting and watching until my unit builds or until I get enough minerals. I periodically go over 100 but that is when I am spamming unit commands or build orders. How do you keep it up there? My average APM per game would be around 40, and that is pretty low. I seem to get the job done even without high APM but I think I can do a lot better if I figure something out.

According to Sean "Day9" Plott, the best way to get your APM up is to "remember to do more stuff."

By that he means, if you remember to check your supply, your fingers will naturally move a little faster to get an extra pylon built. If you remember to keep your mineral count low, your fingers will naturally move faster to build more units. If you remember to keep your scouting probe alive, your fingers will naturally move faster to micro him while you're managing your base.

He follows by saying, "It's not enough to remember to do stuff without direction. You want your APM to mean something."

So his advice is basically to try and use the act of remembering to get your build order really smooth. He says, "While your doing something, you should be thinking about what to do next." That way, your fingers never get complacent... and you get units out faster, and keep them alive longer.

I feel that's good advice because even if you hit max APM, (say for an average person, max would be sustained 100 APM, with 120-150 spikes), then you can get more out of the APM that you have by using it to smooth out your gameplay.

That was generally his advice on the topic.
He's archived most of his advice @ day9tv.blip.tv

[Corgon]

Thanks guys, I have got a build order against terran that works very well and since I know what i'm doing in that build my APM has gotten higher.