Although there is a basic map with the Starcraft game you purchase, you can avail of a Starcrfat maps download from many sites online to give you custom maps for various purposes and strategies while playing different campaigns. Top players get to know the map by learning every detail of it. This knowledge helps them plan their strategies and to better understand the various tactics they need in the game. For example, the first thing you have to learn about a map is where all the starting positions are located for all of the enemy towns.

In addition to knowing where these starting locations are, you also have to learn to read the map to find the location of the additional places where you will find resources. This will tell you where you should enter in order to be able to get the resources you need. Once you read the map, you have to memorize these locations so that you will be well placed to launch a surprise attack. No matter how many times you play the same map, you will likely find something different that you missed on other occasions.

The best map downloads to use are enlarged maps because in this way you can see everything. It is easier to find the shortest routes to the most advantageous locations and you can find the areas of higher ground. Another advantage of using the enlarged maps is that you can record the location of ramps as well as other information about the terrain that you can use in the game. When you download the maps you need for playing the various Starcraft games, it would be wise to print them off and have them next to your computer. This makes it much easier to refer to them than have to switch back and forth between the map screen and the game.

You can choose to download individual maps or a set of maps. There are maps available online for use from two to eight players. They include the following:

Two player maps:
- Challenger
- Discovery
- Gauntlet
- Gemini Station
- Jacob's Ladder
- River Crossing
- Road War
- Solar Station
- Space Madness
- The Small Divide
- Up the Creek
- Volcanic

Three player maps:
- Ice Mountain
- Overlook
- Stepping Stones
- Trench Wars
- Triad
- Triskelion

Four player maps:
- Archipelago
- Arctic Station
- Boxed In
- Caldera
- Crescent Moon
- Cross the Line
- Desolation
- Dust Bowl
- Entanglement
- Eye of the Storm
- Frenzy
- Glacier Bay
- Gladiator Pits
- Greener pastures
- Heartwood
- Hot Zone
- Jungle Siege
- Kaluru Keys
- Lake Shore
- Landslide
- Mausoleum
- Molten Playground
- Nightfall
- No Way Out
- Orbital Gully
- Path of Sorrow
- Ramparts
- Red Canyons
- River Lethe
- Road to Nowhere
- Sanctuary
- Scorched Earth
- Shroud Platform
- Shadowlands
- Space Debris
- Wasteland
- Water's Edge
- Waypoint Junction

Five player maps:
- Ebon Lakes
- Lake of Fire
- Rosewood
- Sandstorm
- Twilight Star

Six player maps:
- Across the Cape
- Aftershock
- Avalanche
- Azure Plains
- Cauldron
- Close Encounters
- Crazy Critters
- Flooded Plains
- Funeral Pyre
- Hypothermia
- River of Light
- Sapphire Isles
- Sirocco
- Take of two Cities
- Thin Ice
- Valley of Re

Seven player maps:
- Black Lotus
- Broken Steppe
- Mirage
- Nightshade

Eight player maps:
- Dark Continent
- Frozen Sea
- Hellfire
- Ice Age
- Octopus
- Primeval Isles
- Scorpion Ravine
- Theatre of War
- Tribes
- Wheel of War