Income:
As you already know, the object of the game is to kill your opponent’s photon base by building units for your representing computer player. To build these units however, you need income, specifically, mineral income. Every player can choose to gather either minerals or gas but they can NOT gather both at the same time. Mineral Income is used to create everything that will help you destroy the enemy. This includes units, buildings and race abilities. At the start of the game, you start out with a mineral Income Level of 1, which gives you 5 minerals per every ½ second. There are 9 Income Levels, and every time you upgrade your income level your rate of Mineral Income increases. For example, at Income Level 2, you gain 8 minerals per ½ second, and Income Level 3 gives you 12 minerals per ½ second…etc. Now, to upgrade your Mineral Income, you use Gas. Remember though, you canNOT gather minerals and gas at the same time. So as you are gathering gas to upgrade your mineral income level, you are vulnerable because you are not gathering any minerals. It’s kind of risk/reward. Anyways, you must gather 200 gas and then use your Civilian in the middle of the map to upgrade your income level. Gas also has another purpose however. You need to gather 250 gas to Unlock your Race Ability, which is very important and you will learn about in the next section. In conclusion, you must manage your income of gas and minerals efficiently if you want to stand a chance.

Race Abilities:
Race abilities can be game changers in Photon Rush. They can save your team from annihilation or win the game for you. Race Abilities must be unlocked through the process of gaining 250 gas before you can use them. Once you unlock your race ability, you can use it by building an Evolution Chamber, Engineering Bay, or Forge, depending upon if you’re Zerg, Terran or Protoss. These abilities give big boosts and advantages to the team who uses them and can Combo them effectively. Their descriptions are as follows:

Terran Ability: Mortar Strike
Grants temporary invulnerability to all of your teams units and rains down mortar strikes near your teams photon base.
Cool Down: 30 seconds
Primary Use: Defensive (Although this ability is defensive, it can be used in combination with the other abilities because of the “temporary invulnerability it grants)

Protoss Ability: Plasma Beam
Fires a powerful beam of energy down the middle of the battlefield killing enemy units; leaving a trail of plasma encrusted warriors in its wake.
Cool Down: 45 seconds
Primary Use: Neutral

Zerg Ability: Higher Evolution
Essentialy doubles the amount of zerglings, hydralisks and mutalisks owned by your team and morphs overlords to queens and defilers to infested terran.
Cool Down: 60 seconds
Primary Use: Offensive

As you can see, abilities can be game changers if used correctly. They turn an ordinary unit battle into something much, much more. You can destroy a huge enemy spawn or attack force with a single Ability.

2X Unit Booster
Each player in the game has the option to use a 2X Unit Booster once during the game, whenever they want. The booster doubles all of their teams units when they bring them to the battlefield. The booster lasts for 30 seconds however and can only be used once per person. So each team essentially has 3 unit boosters. These boosters can be used in a number of different situations to give your team a lift. You can use them to double your units and get a good mass going, save your cannon or rush the silo. Use it wisely though because you only get one.

Spawning:
Spawning units is also a big strategic element of this game. When you create units at your base, they are automatically moved to the spawn holding zone. From this zone you can save up an army and then send it to the battlefield by moving your units to the beacons. There is also a Masser that you control for this zone, allowing you to easily order your units and constantly send them as they are built. Now, you cannot see the other teams spawning zone or any other aspect of their base. However, each player automatically gets a Comstat Station below their spawning zone, so they can strategically spy on the enemy and plan their attacks. Using this Comstat Station effectively is crucial.

"The" Silo:
The Silo is a Stasis Cell/Prison that is placed in the middle of the battlefield. It has very low health compared to the photon base and the team to destroy it gains +750 minerals and +150 gas, which if you read the income section you’d know is a big deal. The Silo starts out as being owned by Neutral Player, and if Red Team brings units near The Silo it will become owned by the Blue Team, allowing Red Team to attack it. Visa Versa is true as well, if Blue Team brings units near The Silo it will become owned by the Red Team, allowing the Blue Team to attack it. If both the Red and Blue team bring units near the silo however, it becomes owned by the Neutral Player and neither team can attack it until all of the nearby enemies are dead.