StarCraft II patch 2.0.4 is on the horizon and it’s bringing a number of changes to your StarCraft II experience, including an all new user interface, Clans and Groups, new Replay features, and more.

For a more detailed guide about what’s in the patch, read the Coming Soon: StarCraft II 2.0.4 blog. In the meantime, since all these big changes are coming, we wanted to provide a little guidance so everyone is prepared and able to get into the game quickly!

Getting the Patch

The patching process for patch 2.0.4 will be a bit different from many previous StarCraft II patches, and will occur in two stages. First, a box will appear asking you to optimize your build of StarCraft II.

Once you click ‘Begin’, the StarCraft II streaming launcher will appear and ask you to wait while it reconfigures game files. That’s a process that will take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so, but whatever the wait is, it’s important to stick it out and not cancel the process, since that can cause issues with patch installation.

Then, once your game client optimization is done, Patch 2.0.4 will begin downloading and being applied simultaneously. The progress bar at the bottom of the patching window will you know when enough data has been downloaded to allow you to play the game.

Please keep in mind that if the progress bar isn’t full when you begin playing, then that means that the patch hasn’t been fully applied and there may be some gameplay hiccups. That’s normal, and you can wait for the progress bar to fill completely if you’re concerned about performance. If you’ve generally experienced no issues downloading StarCraft II patches through the launcher in the past, then this process should go well.

Patching Smoothly

There are some steps you can take before you start downloading the patch to help make sure that patching proceeds without any issues. It’s important to make sure that your computer is configured to allow for downloads or changes to existing programs. Your firewall, antivirus, security programs, and/or router may be blocking downloads, and it might be necessary to ensure that they’re configured to allow downloads. Also, your operating system and your antivirus or other security programs may try to protect StarCraft II from changes. It might be necessary to temporarily disable or alter settings to allow these changes. It’s also important to make sure that you’re configured to patch properly, since, with the advent of streaming patches, standalone patches are no longer available.

These links cover some of the details regarding how to prepare your computer for patching, as well as trouble-shooting steps for common issues:

• StarCraft II Patch Troubleshooting
• StarCraft II Connection Issue FAQ
• Mac OS X Support Update

As always, if you’re still experiencing issues, you can get in touch with Technical Support.

GL HF and we’ll see you on Battle.net!