Practice builds

A practice build is the one build you are drilling in a matchup. Vespene keeps one practice slot per matchup (TvZ, PvT and so on), and every build you save lives in your build library whether or not it holds a slot.

Setting a practice build#

There are four ways in, and they behave differently when the matchup already has a practice build:

• Build editor. Open the menu beside Lock in and choose Practice this build. Once it is set, the same menu item names the matchup and stops practicing it. This replaces whatever the matchup was drilling.
• My Builds. Every saved build in your library has a 🎯 Practice button, and the one holding the slot shows ✓ Practicing (click it to stop). This also replaces the current practice build.
• Replay analyst. Right-click the Build Order card (or focus it and press Enter) and choose SAVE BUILD. It saves the build of the player whose perspective you are watching.
• Match Summary. The footer has a 💾 Save ...'s build button for each player.

The analyst and Match Summary saves are the gentle ones: they file the build in your library and take the practice slot only when that matchup has none, so a build you are already drilling is never swapped out behind your back. The button (or the menu row) says whether the build also became your practice build. To switch, open the build in your library and press 🎯 Practice.

A saved practice build is trimmed to what you actually need to hit: steps up to about the nine-minute mark, with worker production and macro mechanics (MULEs, scans, chrono boost, injects, creep tumors) left out. Townhall upgrades are listed at the moment you start them.

Seeing it in game#

Practice builds are also read by Stardex, the Companion add-in that tracks your opponents, through your signed-in Companion. Stardex's in-game practice overlay (its Trainer mode) is switched off in the current release, so for now nothing draws your practice build over StarCraft II. The old Build Coach add-in that used to do this is retired, and the Companion removes it automatically (see Vespene Companion (desktop app)).

Your slots are not affected: they stay saved on your account, and anything that reads them later picks up the builds you set here.

Checking a game against it#

Every graded game also gets a plan score (0 to 100) for how closely it followed your practice build for its matchup, or, with no practice build, the pro archetype it matched. The The study desk shows it in the Games view's Plan column and on its Grades view (70 and up is on plan), and a daily quest can ask you to hit it (Quests, XP, streaks, and achievements). The macro, micro and scouting grades and your performance graph do not depend on your practice build.

To see how closely one game followed a practice build, the OBS post-match overlay can compare the replay with your practice build for that matchup (see OBS overlays and Overlay Studio).

Notes on formats#

Practice builds are also stored with a SALT encoding (the compact build-order format the community standardized). There is no SALT import or export button in the web UI; builds move through the library, the editor and replays instead.