If you’ve been playing the Legacy of the Void beta or following our coverage of the upcoming expansion, you’ve probably heard of Archon Mode. Today, we’d like to explore the mechanics behind this new mode, and how you can use it to have fun with friends while improving your competitive game!

How Archon Mode Works

Archon Mode is a gameplay mode available in Legacy of the Void which allows you to play the 1v1 game of StarCraft II with a friend controlling the same base and army as you. Our main goal of introducing this mode to the game was to allow solo players of all skill levels to enjoy the game at a much higher skill level than they normally could in the standard 1v1 player vs. player mode.

It’s worth noting that StarCraft II’s 1v1 player vs. player experience is by far the most competitive mode in the game. Because it's so difficult to master, it takes lots of time, dedication, and effort to play at a high level. We wanted more players to experience the joy of mastery that comes with being a highly skilled player in StarCraft II, and we created Archon Mode to support that goal.

With Archon Mode, you’ll be able to do things you couldn’t easily do on your own when you’re just starting off. For example, you can have one person focused on doing an amazing job with Banshee micro, or you can work together to create two-directional attacks where each part of the attack is controlled by one person. Over time, you may find you can handle both tasks yourself, even though you couldn’t when you first started playing the game.

Strategizing, Playing, and Improving

Unlike the normal 2v2 player vs. player mode, Archon Mode requires a much more teamwork and a greater need for teammates to strategize before the match starts. As a result, we’ve made this mode arranged team only.

We highly encourage you to strategize, play, and improve your skills with a friend over time in order to get the best results from this mode. If you don’t have a friend interested in joining you for Archon Mode, you might try asking in the new general chat system we’ve added to the game, in 1v1 matches that you play, and on other social channels like our forums, Reddit, or Teamliquid.

Sharing the Joys of Game Mastery

In addition to being a great way to learn, it’s also the perfect way to teach your friends who are new to the game the ins and outs of strategic play. Because there is incomparable depth to learning and mastering StarCraft II, it can be difficult for someone new to the game to know exactly where to begin. This gives those who want to share their love for StarCraft with friends a simple way to guide them through the early game experience, and helps new players understand the joys of improving and growing in mastery of the game over time.

You can group up and play with friends of all different skill levels, learning from and teaching each other all the time. Best of all, the MMR and rank of team members in an Archon team is unique to that team, so you can create teams with as many friends as you want and never have to worry about how winning or losing will affect your best team’s rankings.

Developing Unique Strategies

Now that we’ve talked about the goals behind Archon Mode, and some ways to use it to learn, grow and teach others, here are some tips you might want to try when you’re just getting started.

The easiest way to split up tasks in Archon Mode is to split who will be doing macro tasks – or controlling the base – and who will be doing micro tasks – or dealing with units. However, even though tasks are split between the two, it’s important for both players to partner up on certain things in order to play better as a team.

For example, working together to ensure there aren’t supply bottlenecks, making sure extra resources are put toward more production buildings (so there’s not a resource float), and making sure new workers are always being created are all important. As you get a better handle on individual responsibilities, you’ll soon be able to multitask. Your own understanding of the game will grow, and your Archon Mode team will become more efficient as a result.

Other Useful Tips

Multi-direction attacks are another useful tool in Archon mode. Whether it’s your main army attacking one way and a small group of units harassing another location, or constant two-way harassment of a location during the game, having two players split up parts of their strategy is much easier to execute than one person trying to do this alone.

When trying to execute this type of strategy, the player who’s not normally doing the micro tasks can easily take a part of the army from their teammate’s control group using a new feature we recently added in Patch 3.0. You can do this by assigning the hotkey using alt + (number), instead of the standard ctrl +(number). This sets the selected units to your control group, while removing them from your ally's control group.

Finally, you can use the Advanced Ping tool by holding down ALT and drag-clicking on either the ground or minimap. This lets you choose from multiple visual indicators – including Attack, Defend, On My Way or Retreat – that will be sent to members of your team to help your coordination.

How Will You Use Archon Mode?

We’ve already seen people teaming up to do awesome things in Archon Mode – not just from a learning perspective, but in playing at levels they previously thought impossible. We’re excited to see what else you’ll do!

How are you using Archon Mode? Have you already dug into it with a friend on the beta, or are you planning to team up with a new ally once Legacy of the Void goes live? Tell us in the comments!