| Zerg Strategies |
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In my opinion, the Zergs are the best race out there. If you look on the ladder standings, all the experts use zergs and in match play, zergs win a higher percentage of games than terran or protoss. The popular opinion is that after the 1.07 patch was released in the starcraft upgrade, blizzard gave an unfair advantage to Zergs. That�s a major reason why they dominate match play. The major downfalls to the Zergs is that they have no strong defense like terran bunkers or protoss cannons. Their units are relatively weak and can be killed in mass numbers. But with proper strategy, they can easily dominate a game.
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Some basic strategies for Zergs are to hotkey your hatcheries. First of all, you NEED to build more than one hatchery. This is a major newbie mistake. The main advantage to the Zergs is they can build units fast and that�s because they can build three simultaneous troops from hatcheries. I recommend having ten to twenty hatcheries by the time the game is over. Once you get all your hatcheries, hotkey them. Highlight one and hold control and a number. Then when you press that number, it will automatically highlight your hatchery (try it). Now, whenever you need to build a unit, just press 1, s (for select larvae), and the letter of the unit you need. The main advantages to this are that if when you attack an enemy�s base, you can keep building troops while you�re watching what�s happening in the battlefield. Just direct your troops and then press 1sm, 2sm, 3sm, 4sm, 5sm, 6sm, 7sm... is you�re building mutas or 1sh, 2sh, 3sh, 4sh, 5sh, 6sh, 7sh... for hydras. If you really can't adjust or don't like hotkeying your hatcheries, you still shouldn't go to each individual hatchery to build units (takes too much time). If you double click one larvae on any hatchery, it automatically selects twelve larvae from the hatcheries surrounding it. Not as good as hotkeying but a sufficient substitute. |
| The main advantage of this hotkey strategy is that you can build troops faster than your opponent. So once you send your big unit of troops to attack, you can follow up your big attack with smaller ones. What I like to do is wait to see if I�m going to dominate the battle. If it looks like I can finish off his troops but need backup, I set the rally point on my hatcheries to my enemies base so that I pump out troops faster than he can and will eventually outnumber him. This is a great strategy for long games and a good reason why Zergs win long term games. You have to remember that this game is a race. You have to be able to build troops faster and more efficiently than your opponent. With the hotkey strategy, it gives you a speed advantage. |
Lastly on the general Zerg strategy, make sure you develop the burrow technique. It�s one of the main advantages to Zergs. If you get outpowered in the beginning of the game, you can have all your drones burrow and wait for the attack to subside. Then once your enemy leaves, you can rebuild. Burrowing is a great way to build up your troops if you can�t win a battle right away. Burrowing has a lot of other advantages too. You can burrow zerglings in all the choke points of a map to gain full vision of the terrain. It�s also a good idea to burrow your attacking ground units so if your enemy gets a cloaked unit into your base, he can�t see how many troops you have. Burrowing is also a great way to gain back health. Zerg units regenerate health but at such a slow rate, they�ll probably end up dying if they�re badly damaged. But if you burrow hurt Zerg units, they won�t get attacked and can regain all their health. Also, if you burrow troops at your choke point and your opponent tries to attack, you can have any unburrowed troops and your defense attacking your opponent from one side and your burrowed guys attacking from a second front, a MAJOR advantage. |
| UNITS: There are certain units you should use depending on your strategy. I think it�s always best to build up mutalisks and guardians. If you�re going for a game of short to medium length (10-30 minutes) try to build up hydralisks. For short games or games with �rush�, build zerglings early and outnumber your opponent. The great thing about zerglings is they�re cheap and you create two for every larvae you spawn. That means that it�s really easy to outnumber your opponent. With adrenal glands, zerglings are a very dangerous weapon. Also, don�t forget about defilers!!! Defilers are the ultimate cheap weapon in the game. They are grossly unfair. If you build defilers, make sure you research plague, an absolutely deadly spell. It�s great to use on buildings and units. Most of the time, people bunch their fighting units into one small spot. If you can find that spot and plague the units, all their health will go down to 1 and they�ll be easy game to kill. You can also use plague to take off HUGE amounts of damage on buildings that would normally take forever to kill. The dark swarm spell is also one of the cheapest spells in the game. Cast it on some of your ground units and they become invincible for about a half of a minute to air attacks. You could wreak some major havok on all air troops using a group of hydralisks and a couple of defilers. |
Queens separate newbies from the experts. Queens can really be effective units. First of all, parasite really makes the difference in a lot of games. It�s like having allied vision for all of your enemy units. If you research spawn broodlings, you can also take out siege tanks which are a major problem for Zergs. Don�t forget, you can also parasite critters on all the maps. Those neutral blue units on the map are critters that can give you vision of the map. And critters are usually spaced pretty evenly through the whole map so they can really be helpful in scouting or seeing when your opponent is planning to attack. |
| STRUCTURES: I see a lot of people building sunken colonies at random points in their base or alternating between spores and sunken colonies. If you do not use sunkens correctly, you shouldn�t use them at all. Alternating between spores and sunkens is one of the worst strategies you can use. A lot of experts don�t even use creep colonies and build troops faster with the minerals they save. If you�re going to try to build a monster defense with spores and sunkens, you have to know where to place them. For sunken colonies, make a ring of them around your drones that gather minerals. This makes sure your drones are protected and you won�t lose essential minerals during an attack. You should also make a row of sunkens touching each other at your choke point (the place where your leave your base to attack). Also, keep in mind that when you�re defending, make sure that you don�t send your troops too far out to defend. If your troops are near your sunkens, you get free hits on the enemy while he�s trying to tear up your defense. That�s why defense always wins in equally numbered battles. Also remember you probably don't need a lot of defense because Zerg defense is one of the worst in the game. Concentrate on building units and launching a full force offensive strategy. | The only time you should build spore colonies is when you see water. On island maps, spore colonies can be VERY effective if you build them side by side around the perimeter of your base. This takes carriers completely out of the game and makes it very difficult for enemies to drop units into your base. Since spore colonies also double as detectors, it also protects you from cloaked units which means terrans can�t nuke you. Never place spores at choke points, they can be destroyed by any ground units. The basic rule of thumb is if you�re on a coastline, build spores. |
| Evolution: You MUST evolve your structures like mad to compete on battle.net. If you don�t think evolving makes a difference, you�ve never seen the damage a fully upgraded group of guardians can do. For flying units in terms of what to upgrade first, in the beginning of the game, upgrade attacks first because Zergs pump out flying units before anyone else. Once the game moves on, upgrade caraspace. You can also build two spires to upgrade both offense and defense simultaneously. |
In terms of upgrading specific abilities, you should definitely research plague for defilers. Spawn broodlings for queens is useful against terrans to get rid of siege tanks. If you�re going for a zergling attack, you should definitely research adrenal glands, it makes a HUGE difference. And don�t forget to upgrade sight range for your overlords. The major weakness of Zergs is that it�s easy to get a cloaked unit into their base. By upgrading your overlords and spreading them evenly through your base, you�re making sure that your opponent can�t get any units inside your base. |
| RUSH: There are two basic variations of the Zerg rush. The first and fastest is effective only if you can find your enemy�s base right away. If you think you can, this strategy usually eliminates him in under four minutes. Take your four initial drones and send them to mine the nearest minerals. DO NOT use your initial 50 minerals to build another drone. Save it for a spawning pool. As soon as you�ve accumulated 128 minerals, send a drone to where you want to put your spawning pool. By the time he reaches the spot, you should be up to 150 minerals. Build a spawning pool right away. While the spawning pool is being built, spawn two more drones and send them to mine. You should now have a half-done spawning pool, four drones mining, and one larvae turning into a drone. Once the pool is done, you should have another 150 minerals and three larvae in your hatchery. Turn them all into zerglings. Now you have six zerglings in under three minutes and can attack your enemy. Start with the workers and then move to any structures that build fighting units. Remember, for this strategy, you need to utilize speed. If you leave your enemy enough time to build up a defense, your zerglings will get killed. But if you do everything as fast as you can, you can take out your opponent without any trouble because he won�t have any defense. | If you have less confidence in your ability to find your opponent or you�re a wuss and don�t want to send all your units right away, you can try a more conservative hydralisk rush strategy. Start by building a drone with your initial 50 minerals and keep churning out drones and sending them to mine until you get to 8 drones. Make a spawning pool and then build two more drones. You should be at the psi limit now. Send one of your drones to morph into an extractor and then build another drone while it�s morphing. As soon as the drone begins buildling, cancel the extractor and you will have 10/9 psi. Send all 10 drones to mine and morph and overlord. By the time the overlord is done, you should have built up a high reserve of minerals so morph three new drones. Send one drone as an extractor, one as a new hatchery. Morph three more drones. Send the first two to gather gas. As soon as you have enough to build a hydralisk den, use the third to morph into a den. Make 4 new drones to mine minerals. Make another overlord. Make 3 more drones for minerals. Now you should have minerals, gas, and two hatcheries, and psi. Start pumping out hydras and get ready for an attack. |
| FREE FOR ALL STRATEGY: This strategy is EXTREMELY effective in free for all battles and not well known at all. It works best in maps where you�re on a peninsula or island (i.e. big game hunters). Start by gathering as many minerals as you can while building enough troops that you don�t get demolished. Build spore colonies all along the coast of your base to prevent any flying attacks. Now start building guardians and put them at the choke point of your base. Build a row of sunkens at the choke point. Now your basically invulnerable to any ground attacks. But you have to watch out for air units that take out your guardians. Build a BUNCH of scrouges (30-40) and use the rest of your psi limit to build guardians. Now you have the STRONGEST defense I can think of and can outlast anyone in a free for all. | In free for alls, you also have to keep in mind that unless you do the guardian/scrouge strategy, it�s not in your favor to be a wuss and build up a strong defense. If two enemies attack you at the same time, you can�t build up a strong enough defense to hold back two people. That�s why you have to attack bases that are neighboring yours. You don�t really have to worry about the person in the opposite corner of the map until later on in the game. You should take care of your neighbors first. I like to go with the hydralisk rush strategy to take out neighbors and then build guardians to conquer the rest of the map. Also keep in mind that people ally in free for all games all the time so you shouldn�t try to build up a monster defense. Instead, attack before either person is ready to destroy their alliance and give you a fair shot at beating both of them. |
| Hydralisk drop: The hydralisk drop is a very effective strategy even against experts. It works REALLY well against newbies who have no idea what you�re trying to do. The thinking behind the strategy is as follows. When most people build up a huge defense, they only put defense structures at choke points and then surround the rest of their base with air support. This means that the area surrounded by minerals where all the drones are located is virtually unprotected. If you drop fifty or sixty hydralisks here and destroy the base from the inside, your opponent will be helpless. |
Basically, what you want to do is build a whole lot of hydralisks, upgrade speed and ventral sacs for your overlords. Then send a queen to scout a good drop location. Load up as many hydras as you can and drop the hydralisks off. As you create a diversion on the inside of the base, you can also take out main defenses with guardians without taking any damage. I really like using the hydra drop with guardians at the choke strategy because it attacks your enemy from both sides and by the time he realizes what�s going on, all his buildings are gone and he�s out of the game. |
| Recon vs. Zerg: If you want to be really sneaky, there are a couple strategies you can use to totally stun your opponent. One thing that can devastate a zerg opponent early on is if you build a sunken colony in his base. In the beginning of the game, people don't really pay attention to their map and don't detect if you bring a drone to their base. If you have an overlord over their base, send a couple of drone to their choke point. As soon as you see your opponent building a structure, quickly send your drones and build sunkens next to their building on their creep. If they're not paying attention, they either wont see the structures or think it's something they're building. As soon as the spores are built, morph them into sunkens and they'll attack your opponents' drones. As soon as you can, start building sunkens closer and closer to his hatchery and eventually, he will have NO troops and you'll have him beat before you even send fighting units over. |
Another sneaky thing you can do is try to build a nydus canal in your opponents base. This is a really good strategy if your far into a game and have a lot of units and want a backdoor to your opponents base. First build a nydus canal somewhere in your base. Then spawn two or three queens (use queens for their stealthy speed). Send the queens together in a pack and try to find a place in your opponent's base that is occupied by creep but not surrounded by any units or buildings that would tip your enemy off. Then place the nydus canal exit in that spot and get your queens out of his base. The benefits of this strategy is that exits are build moderately fast and if you are able to get it off, you can get units into your enemy's base FAST. Particularly effective in games where your playing in a shared base. |