Rushing

What is a rush?
A rush can be defined as a strategy where one sacrifices economy and defense for time, the opposite of a turtle. Rushing will inevitably lead to a short battle, where the outcome will be decided very quickly. While rushing lacks the flexibility and safety of a turtle, rushing strategies are also often very straightforward, and are easy to pick up. Rushes usually require more perfectly modded units and skill/ precise timing than a turtle requires. Due to the predictability of a rush, rushing usually only works against unprepared players, or on AI in campaign.

Rushes can be split into two categories: the True Rush and the Semi- Rush.

True Rush
A true rush requires zero economy at all. All units are built immediately, or as soon as possible, from the start using starting resources. These strategies are quite risky. You may wish to acquire insurance turrets when you turret rush, so you have a fallback strategy.

Starting Energy Rushes
Turret Rush: Makes use of high range, no-metal turrets being built immediately. These turrets include bomb racks, lasers, quad micromissiles, etc. These strategies work better in campaign duels where one starts with 1000 energy, or boss fights (2000 energy). Often turret placement is quite important.

Fighter Rush: The fighter rush utilizes many no-energy fighter bays being built immediately. It was stronger back before freeze and sd were nerfed, and before microlaser. Up until last update, the sd pbay rush was still a viable strategy. In this strategy, one built a whole column of piranha bays and released the piranhas such that all the piranhas stacked at a single point.

Supply Rush
In this strategy, one uses supply tech to start with metal.

Metal Turrets: Create metal turrets like artillery and lasercannon immediately. May work in campaign but seldom is successful in PVP.

Metal Fighters: Create metal fighters like Rapier/ Sapphire immediately. Usually doesn't work.

Constructor Rush: With 3 supplies, one builds a constructor immediately, then places turrets to attack enemy base. May work if you have good turrets and/ or insurance turrets.

Biolab: Build a biolab immediately. Usually supplemented by fighters/ turrets. Usually ineffective.

Stardock: Build a no-metal medium stardock like Odyssey, Puma or Athena immediately. Can be deadly with right mods, assuming opponent doesn't expect it.

Semi- Rush/ Economy Rush
These pseudo-rushes have some kind of economy beyond the default +8 energy production. To be considered a rush, these strategies should utilize less than 3 reactors, and launch the main offensive in less than 50 seconds, as a general rule of thumb. The 'rush time" threshold varies based on the unit. Like a true rush, semi-rushes are bad at countering rushes. If caught off-guard, the semi-rusher will usually suffer from a shortage of energy due to having bad economy.

Note About Reactors and Miners
Reactors: Note that it takes 50 seconds after the reactor is placed for the reactor (150 energy) to repay it's starting energy cost. As many of the below rushes take place in less than 50 seconds, having a reactor may thus do more harm than good, as the main priority is to start the rush as quickly as possible; having better energy gain after the 50 seconds is second consideration. One can also sell reactors for more energy, but if you are going to sell your energy production, better to use ins/ mini reactor turrets as seen below.

50 energy turrets with Insurance+ Mini Reactor: Note that there is a better alternative than both using and not using reactors. With a 50 energy turret (microlaser, micromissiles, blaster) that has the mods of Insurance and Mini Reactor, one can produce more energy by selling these turrets from between 25 to 50 seconds after they were placed than by selling a reactor in the same time interval. This can be seen in an equation comparing 3 mini/ins 50 energy turrets (total of 150 cost) with one reactor (150 cost).

(150*.75)+0.5x= (150*.25)+3x, where x= number of seconds that have elapsed.

x solves to be 50 seconds, meaning that the insured turrets are better before 50 seconds, provided one sells the reactors/ turrets in this time frame. Note that since it takes 25 seconds for a single mini reactor to cover the initial cost of the 12.5 energy deficit left from selling the turret, rushes that take place in less than 25 seconds are better off with zero energy production.

Miners vs Extractors

Miners are typically more efficient than extractors, provide they have at least a rof mod. However, note that extractors have an edge in the first 7.5 seconds, when only one miner has spawned per fighter bay. This initial deficit can make extractors better depending on the quality of the miners, and how fast one rushes. For example extractors may be better on a boss VL rush as only 7 or 8 seconds pass before the VL is placed; thus the miner fighter bay doesn't have enough time to overcome to deficit (may depend on number of fighter rush/manu).

Note About Turrets
As these semi-rushes take longer to work, one may face light opposition while getting ready to rush. In campaign, where the AI send a steady supply of fighters and mediums, base cannon tech is essential for dealing with these without turrets. In PVP where fighter/ stardock use is less common, one may choose to give up base cannon and use insured turrets instead. Having insurance is mandatory as one does not want to waste too much energy on defense, thus slowing the rush.

List of Semi-Eco Rushes
2 Extractors Rush: Put down 2 extractors right away and no turrets or reactors (except perhaps some insured mini reactor 50 energy turrets, as discussed above). Assuming the desired unit costs 400 metal, one can produce this in exactly 50 seconds (without metal techs), which is faster than if one used bad miners (not rof/range or rof rof). Later sell your extractors for more energy. Remember that this rush is more effective the faster you make your unit, as the miners may soon overcome the initial spawn-time deficit of 7.5 seconds. Base cannon tech is essential for one to avoid wasting energy making turrets.

Naval Yard Rush: 4 miners build immediately. A processor or at most 2 reactors may also be built, depending on the type of medium desired. The rusher should launch at about 40 seconds with rof rof miners. Usually only carriers such as Corvettes and Tremors are desirable for this strategy, both for low cost and the power of carriers. You should win on the first/ second wave of mediums.

Cheap Cap Rush: In the same vein of NY rush, 4 Miners and 0-2 reactors/ processors are built. Hammerhead is the best cap for this build (in campaign), but Mastodon, Trident, Jupiter and Cataclysm may work also. It is important to win (or seriously disrupt the opponent's economy) with the first cap, as the rusher's economy probably isn't good enough to produce another before the opponent.

Long Range Turret Rush: This build varies a lot based on turrets used and quality of miners, types of techs, etc. Usually you want frameglitched lasers with good range, Quad Micromissiles with range, or a range range VL. Use of primers/ expansion advised. Typically you want more energy than metal, as most turrets are energy-intensive. Thus, make a few reactors but only one or two miner bays. Not as risky as a constructor rush, but it may be harder to pull off due to this rush prioritizing range over damage.

Constructor Rush: This build relies on building multiple constructors to the enemy base, then putting down strong turrets like FG microlasers, freeze turrets, cloaked void lances, etc. Biolab may also be utilized for a quick kill. Depending on the amount of expansion used, one may need two or three constructors to reach the enemy base. Due to this, this rush can be quite expensive, and only slightly faster than a Cheap Cap Rush or a Naval Yard rush. This strategy thus needs a very quick win to succeed. Insured turrets advised as a backup plan.

VL Rush, Boss Variant: Starting with 7 extractors, and nothing else, you wait until you have 225/ 281.25/ 337.5 metal (depends on constructors needed), and about 300 energy. One can also start with 13 or 14 miner bays instead of extractors, if one has exceptional miners. Place cloaked VL right next to opponent base. Make sure no tactical shields are in the way (if so one may need to put down emp bomb racks or emp sd turrets to break the shield), and let the VL kill the base. A cloak+rof VL is optimal, this allows for 2 shots. If one does not have a cloaked VL, one can substitute a cloak field auxillary.

"Cap Rush"; supplemented: The supplemented cap rush can be considered a rush if the cap is launched in less than 50 seconds (50 seconds is where the average 3-4 reactor build launches cap). This is distinguished from the cheap cap rush in that these rushes use more expensive caps like Beam-Halo or Goliath, and need economic techs like battpack/ fighter rush to work.

Stardock Rush: Build a cheap medium quickly, typically a carrier like Corvette, or a high damage ship like Athena or Hades. The first one should be launched in under 30 seconds. Depending on the med, the most efficient builds usually consist of 3-4 miners and 0-1 reactor. Easy to counter with FY rush. May be combine with laser turret with a higher energy build (2 reactors, 2-3 miners); this is more reliable but slower.

FY Rush: Build a fighter rush as quickly as possible. The most efficient build for this is 4-5 miner bays (rof rof miner) and 1-2 reactors/ processors. You need to launch the first FY in 20- 30 seconds to be considered a FY "rush". Hard to pull off since nerf but may work with right mods.

How to counter Rushing
Ironically the easiest way to counter rush is to out- rush them (rush faster).

Turtling works well also.

Gallery
Orange Artillery Rush

https://imgur.com/856K9Xi

Boss Bomb Rack Rush

https://imgur.com/EPWfIlW

Constructor Rush Quad Micromissiles

https://imgur.com/5c3Jz1o

Constructor Rush Lasers

http://imgur.com/x3MkpFI

Cata Rush (1 reactor 3 miners)

https://i.imgsafe.org/b6bca09bea.png