Starcraft 2 Strategy and Sc2 Replays, Videos, and Tips » Zerg Strategies

This is Getting Creepy

Knightmare — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:25:13 +0000

Creep is a living Zerg organism. It has a purple coloration and feels thick and slimy. Creep is psionically-sensitive and may be influenced and controlled by psionic entities. It is used to nourish Zerg structures and larvae.

Creep may be deposited in a number of ways. Some zerg structures, such as Hatcheries, serve as a home for creep growth. In the initial stages of infestation Hatcheries started the spread but through evolution Zerg creatures have gained the ability to spread creep as well; overlords by direct secretion, and indirectly by queens through laid creep tumors that can reproduce by themselves.

If left unchecked, creep can consume an entire planet within days.

Most zerg structures can only be created upon the creep. Terrans and Protoss cannot build structures on creep. Terran buildings may not land on the creep, however they may lift-off if constructed prior to creep spreading underneath them. The creep will expand to fill the vacated space over the course of a few seconds.

In Starcraft, creep is intended to be used as a resource, and zerg players will want to invade the map with creep. It will dissolve in 30 seconds if not supported.

Most Zerg units move 30% faster on creep. Drones are an exception along with all air units. Spine and spore crawlers, as well as hydralisks and queens, move considerably faster on creep. Creep does not “climb” or “fall” down cliffs, but does flow down ramps. If a carefully positioned overlord drops creep on the edge of a cliff, it will expand on the hill and the lower ground simultaneously. Creep can also be poured onto ramps from an Overlord, but Tumors can’t fixate to the ramps (note creep is as i said a resource that both players can use, meaning if it is ZvZ both Zergs benefit on each others creep.)

Creep only dies if the nearby generator dies and it is on the edge of a patch. Creep inside a large patch, but deprived of generators, will not die. A ring-shaped patch will not automatically expand to cover the “empty” center without the normal assistance of generators. In short, Infest the planet and thrive.

Good Luck, Have Fun

OpGKnight

Zerg Build, Lings, Banes, Mutas – ZvT

BLaM — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:50:46 +0000

This is common ZvT build that is quite effective against the standard Terran bio builds. While Infestors are getting more and more play these days this classic cannot be ignored because of it’s macro superiority that plays well with the strong Zerg economy.

Plus, everyone hates Mutas

9 – Overlord

15 – Hatchery

15 – Spawning Pool

15 – Extractor

16 – Overlord

18 – 2x Queens

24 – Evolve Metabolic Boost

* – Spend 1st of each Queen’s energy on Spawn Larvae, 2nd set of energy on Creep Tumors

26 – Overlord

32 – Lair

32 – Evolution Chamber

31 – 3x Extractors

28 – Baneling Nest

40′ish – Train Zerglings, Evolve 30% to Banelings

* – Evolve Melee Attack

* – Once secure from any attack:Spire

@ 100% Spire – Evolve Flyer Attacks

* – Mass Mutas until gas depleats, spend remaining minerals on Zerglings from here on out

* – Decide whether to attack or secure 3rd expansion

Diamond Zerg Thought Process

BLaM — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:11:39 +0000

The following post was pulled from the forum (why haven’t you checked those out yet?) by StarCraft2Strategy.com member Augphlosion.

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Diamond Zerg thought process

by Augphlosion » Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:17 am

Hello forums. This is my first post here, so I’m just going to talk about my play, and what I think about while playing. It is 3:00 AM right now, so i will take an extra minute to say sorry for any mistakes I make or say in this post; I really want to sleep. Ok. Getting into this, I might post a replay in the comments below to show a game of me playing at my average. It seems to vary day to day, and you have probably experienced this too. This first part applies to all players, but Zerg is the one race that must pay the most attention to this;

DRONING:I cannot stress how important it is to build drones. You need a good economy if you want to win. Simply stated as such, you can’t stop or forget to make workers. ESPECIALLY at the beginning of the game. Droning is the #1 priority. Not typing, or looking around the minimap, Droning. Sure, if you just made a drone and rallied the cocoon manually (This makes the drone go to the mineral patch slightly faster) you can focus on the exact spot your scouting overlord is going, or look around at the watch tower, but you MUST Drone precisely. I’ve seen so many games come down to that one second where one drone would have made the difference, whether it be meat shielding, or in terms of minerals for getting units out. Next Topic.

INJECTS:NesTea once said, “If you miss injects as a competitive Zerg, you will lose the game.” This is almost always true at the higher levels of play, and if you want to get there, listen to NesTea. There’s a reason why he is one of the top 3 Korean players. Now if you are a newer Zerg and you are missing injects, it is really no big deal. But as you progress, you will see the importance of it. A few strategies you can try to remember injects with are paying attention to the left side of the screen every so often, where it tells you what units have completed, what upgrades are done, as well as when an inject pops. Another fairly common strategy is to remember the time of the inject, and 40 seconds later, injecting again. Now on to HOW To hotkey queens/hatches to properly execute injects. You could set your hatch(s) at a specific hotkey, and have your queens all on different hotkeys. Then you double tap each hotkey, hit v, and click the hatchery. Another way is to have your hatches separate and do the same thing above, but instead go to the hatch, and then click on the queen to inject. Next Topic.

UNITS:My Protoss friend once played a game as Zerg against me and told me that we only had two cool units; Infestors and Mutalisks. To an extent, this is true. Hydras suck until Heart of the Swarm comes out and they aren’t as slow as Motherships Pre 1.4 patch. (Kekekekeke). Ultras are also going to be awesome when HotS comes out, but until then, we will have to work with what we have. So in terms of Infestors, Go insane. They are THE most useable unit in the game. Infested Terrans, Fungals (Nerfed OFC), Neural parasite (Also Nerfed, OFC), There are so many options. You can deny so many bases, kill a lot of clumped units, and take out their most powerful DPS units until the fight is over. To be honest, I don’t know why I never used Infestors in Bronze, Silver, or Gold league. Now on to Mutalisks. The scariest thing a Terran will ever see is 50 Mutalisks knocking on their door; Sadly, There is no such thing as four hundred supply, where 50 Mutalisks would be ok. Mutalisks are pretty much the only unit we have that can win games if you micro them like Jae Dong. By that I mean, If you have just lost all your bases but your main, and your Terran buddy is on 4 base ready to end the game, You could win with 30 mutalisks (as long as you can hide many expo’s, drones, and queens :3). I’ve literally contained a Protoss so hard with Mutas, He just left the game before I even made any pokes with my Lings. This is after his 4 gate succeeded and killed my expo. This just goes to show the raw power of Mutas. If you see a Thor, Archon, or Infestors, STAY THE F@%# AWAY OR YOU WILL LOSE ALL OF THEM. Unless you can split your Mutas without multiple control groups (Another Jae Dong reference), You will lose against 5 fungals if timed properly. If you can magic box a Thor or Archon, Go for it. (Magic boxing refers to move commanding past the unit, then when you are directly over it, you hit the h or hold button). Next Topic.

SCOUTING:This is one thing I still need A LOT of work on. I have recently been doing a much better job doing it thanks to a few practice partners/master Zerg friends. Take the towers with Zerglings. No excuses. Zerglings are the most cost efficient unit in the game, a two for one (larvae) for 50 minerals. If he has a zealot there, Move 8 lings to kill it and leave one there. If there is an army there, take the tower immediately after you fight or after they back up. Don’t only take the towers, send in a ling every now and then to see their army composition, or better yet, to scout expo’s and maybe (If you are the luckiest Zerg on the planet) get past the front and all units to scout tech. If you see an opening where a base is not defended, Send 10 or so lings to kill workers there. Who knows, maybe he will plant his DT Shrine there? . Another thing with scouting is overlord spread. There are so many maps with open pockets of space screaming, FILL ME WITH OVERLORDS!!! Overlord spread helps you spot drops, air harass, and even just unit compositions in general. Especially in ZvZ (Because Zerg sucks and doesn’t have a tier 1 ranged unit that can shoot up), overlord spread is something you NEED to win. When your lair finishes, train yourself to get 2-3 overseers. One for your army, one for your bases, one for scouting. Changelings are almost always overlooked by low level players and not spotted. When you get to my level, its a little bit harder to use them to scout, but it is still possible. Burrow lings at expansions, use the overlords Spread creep ability to allow your creep spread to flourish, etc etc. Next Topic.

CREEP SPREAD:Just like I said above, Overlords creep spread ability is pretty awesome. But the thing is, that isn’t enough. Creep spread is a great mechanic that Zergs don’t utilize like they should. Its very important for crushing Terran, Zerg, and Protoss armies alike. Oh, and did I mention that you need it to BUILD YOUR TECH?? DID I ALSO MENTION IT GIVES YOU VISION?!?! DID I ALSO MENTION IT GIVES ALMOST ALL OF YOUR UNITS A SPEED BOOST WHILE ON IT?!?!?!?!?! Ok, I think you get the point. Even with other factors, like stopping Protoss and Terran from building on it, its almost always the underlooked, unused mechanic that Zerg has. Surrounds on hellions, stalkers, as well as all armies are so much easier. It also makes Hydras NOT AWFUL!!! :O (Although they are still pretty terrible since there is no speed upgrade for them yet). Still though, Creep spread is easy, because of the fact that it almost perfectly lines up with injects. I’m not saying to over prioritize creep spread over everything, but just use it a little more, and you will see how cool it really is. Next Topic.

LARVAE:Spending larvae is simple. Make an attacking unit, or make a worker unit. That’s all you can really do. Still, this ties in with injects about spending your larvae (Especially early game) wisely. Lets say you make 6 zerglings at the beginning to defend instead of 4. No big deal, right? Wrong. That is one more drone, which could be mining, making you more money for the long run. You honestly only need 4 lings at the beginning if your opponent is not pressuring you. Hell, I even go with 2 sometimes.
I would go further on this topic, but its 4:00 in the morning, and I want to sleep. I will go over one more topic and wrap it up.

EXPANDING:I am going to close this rant out with probably the easiest topic to cover, because if you do not know about it, then you are probably here wondering why you are losing all of your games. As Zerg, you use your drones to make buildings. Simple, right? But wait, that means 50 minerals are used every time, plus the cost of the building! Well that is ok because someone at Blizzard is bad at math and made our hatcheries cost 300 (+50 of the drone) minerals. That means… 350 minerals!!! Instead of 400?! THAT’S INSANE RIGHT?? Not really… But that is one factor that makes expanding in our favor. It is a lot cheaper than expanding is for Protoss and Terran. Also, it seems our larvae value is DOUBLED if you expand, as well as your mining room, as this doubles your mineral patches, gas geysers, and it also doubles your creep. Expanding is mainly the idea of Zerg because our production shows its true power in the late game. After rolling an army, I usually see a “Zerg OP” message from my opponent as more lings stream in, completely destroying them.

Final thoughts: Practice, practice, practice… If you haven’t thought about one of these topics before that were mentioned above, try them out in game and see how it goes for you. . Leave any questions as a comment and I will get back to you ASAP. Check out my stream at Twitch.tv/augphlosion and follow me. I usually cast tournaments, or even sometimes stream my games on ladder/practice with friends. Thanks for reading. Peace out.

6 Pool Zergling Rush Strategy

BLaM — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:41:28 +0000

Zergling Rush

6 Pool Zergling Rush Strategy

Overview

The 6 Pool Zergling Rush is a do or die strategy that involves getting Zerglings as fast as humanly possible and crushing your opponent within the very early game. This strategy can be both fun and fiercely effective. It is a very high risk strategy but the reward can be a very early win or a large advantage to yourself should the rush be successful.
The purpose of the 6 Pool Zergling Rush is to kill the enemy early game or do devastating damage to their economy before they have a chance to react with the appropriate counters, if the rush is successful then you have either already won or you are now in a very advantageous position. Should the rush fail though you will be left with a meagre economy, a small sized army or no army at all and quite far behind in tech. So it’s important you use the Zergling rush to maximum effect to get the best results, I shall show you how to do this.

Build order
This build order is designed as a straight forward build to forming the strategy, it does not consider any of the multiple various enemy threats that you may encounter. You should only deviate away from the build order should you be pressured enough by your opponent into forcing you to build appropriate counters such as an army or static defence to defend yourself against the threat. Try to stick to the build order as best as you can to achieve maximum results.
*Text in BOLD CAPITAL letters – refers to units & buildings that you will build.
*Text in Italics – refers to what action you need to take with the unit or building)
*Text in underline – refers to a mechanic or ability you need to use.
1. Send Drones to Minerals until you have 200 minerals
2. SPAWNING POOL
3. DRONE
4. DRONE (Send this Drone to scout for the enemy base if you are playing on a map that has 4 potential start locations – you can always use this drone to create a spine crawler in your opponents base if they are Zerg (once you have built a Spawning Pool)
5. CREATE 3x ZERGLINGS immediately when your Spawning Pool is finished building and send them towards your opponents base
6. OVERLORD
7. ZERGLINGS (Whenever you have Larva)
8. OVERLORD (Whenever you reach your supply cap)
9. QUEEN (Create a Queen once you have used all possible Larva for Zerglings and you have enough minerals for the Queen)
*Things to Note
[a] Should the rush fail then you will need to start making as many Drones as you can to boost your economy so long as you are under no real threat
[b] The rush is intended to win and if you are unable to finish your opponent with Zerglings then you will need to play on and choose the best tech line that will help you to win the game

Play style
With a 6 Pool Zergling Rush build you should be aiming to play very aggressively, making Zerglings immediately & sending them to your enemy’s main base as fast as possible and killing as many enemy workers or buildings that will help slow down the enemy production rate (such as Pylons). All the while you are doing this you should be trying to avoid taking any damage from enemy army forces unless you can kill those forces without losing the advantage of the early pressure that Zerglings provide.
Remember, you will increase your chances of winning a great deal more by killing workers over army units as this will slow down the enemy economy and do greater overall damage. The other reason for focusing enemy workers over army units with your Zerglings is that should the rush become stoppable by your opponent then at least you will have slowed down their economy enough to reduce their ability to outnumber you with units, although you will have a small economy yourself due to using most of your Larva for Zerglings instead of Drones.
This strategy is very risky as it is and should only really be used on small 1v1 maps so you know where your opponent is. It’s still possible to use this strategy on smallish maps with 4 main base areas but you will need to scout before your Zerglings are made so you know where you need to send the Zerglings. Time is of the absolute essence with this strategy, you must win fast or risk fighting a long uphill battle.

Micro
*Focus on killing workers with your Zerglings
*Hit and run the workers; Attack the workers with your Zerglings and provoke your opponent into dragging all of his workers away from the mineral line to defend himself, at this point you simply run your Zerglings back and wait for him to return his workers to the mineral line, that’s when you strike again with the Zerglings! Rinse & repeat this method whenever possible. This allows you efficiently damage your opponents economy whilst taking as little damage as possible.
*Kill the enemy army units only if you can still put the pressure on after inevitably losing some Zerglings in the process otherwise dodge the enemy army units and harass their workers instead.
* Burrow: See “Upgrades” Section, Point 4.
Macro
*Spawn Creep Tumors and spread them in a straight line heading towards your opponents base to allow Zerglings faster movement between bases
*Spawn Larva whenever possible to increase the number of Zerglings you can create

Upgrades
With a super fast 6 Pool Zergling Rush there is little chance you will be able to use any upgrades to boost the effectiveness of this strategy, however if the game does continue to play out then this is a list of the preferred upgrades for this strategy should you have the chance to research them.
[Some of the upgrades further down the list may be not be necessary depending upon the units & playstyle you choose to use]
1. Metabolic Boost (Increases the movement speed of Zerglings)
[Requires: Hatchery, Spawning Pool]
This is an exceptional ability that will boost the effectiveness of your Zerglings greatly. They will move much faster and will be able to perform hit and run attacks on workers whilst being able to dodge enemy army units with much more ease. You will gain a lot more control with this upgrade allowing you to really put the pressure on your opponent.
2. Evolve Melee Attacks Level 1 > 3 (Upgrades the attacks of all ground melee units)
[Level 1 Requires: Hatchery. Level 2 Requires: Lair. Level 3 Requires: Hive]
Level 1 of this upgrade will increase your Zerglings damage by 1. This doesn’t sound like much but it’s actually a 20% damage increase for only 100 Minerals & 100 Vespine Gas. Each level of this upgrade increases the Zergling damage by 1 each time.
3. Evolve Ground Carapace Level 1 > 3 (Upgrades the armor of all Zerg ground units):
[Level 1 Requires: Hatchery. Level 2 Requires: Lair. Level 3 Requires: Hive]
Whilst ground armor upgrades don’t tend to be as useful for Zerg units as they are for Terran or Protoss, this upgrade is still worth getting if you can as it will increase the armor of all Zerg units and not just Zerglings.
4. Evolve Burrow (Enables all Zerg ground units to burrow making it invisible unless detected)
[Requires: Lair]
With this strategy this ability is useful for both Zerglings and Banelings in particular. Burrowed Zerglings, if placed carefully, will prevent your opponent from building on the same spot you have burrowed that Zergling. I suggest using this ability with Zerglings at places you expect your opponent to build (like expansion areas) so he will need to go to the effort of detecting your Zergling and killing it before he can build anything.
Burrowed Banelings can act as land mines because you are able to explode them whilst they are burrowed. This can be absolutely devastating if used correctly. The best way to use burrowed Banelings is to spread them out across choke points (most likely your own natural expansion choke point) and wait for your opponent to march his army right over them then highlight the ones in range of his army and press X to explode the Banelings. You can also use burrowed Banelings as a pre-emptive strike, for example, if you suspect your opponent is going to expand then you can burrow several banelings along the gap in between where his expansion and the mineral line is. Then you wait for the appropriate time (preferably when the mineral line is fully saturated) and blow up all of his workers at once. In both cases I suggest you use Banelings in situations where they are unlikely to be detected or if your opponent puts little effort into scouting and detecting.
5. Pneumatized Carapace (Increases the movement speed of Overlords and Overseers)
[Requires: Lair]
This is necessary as you will need to keep checks on your opponent so you can build units/buildings in accordance to how he is playing. Using your Overlords with this upgrade allows you to scout with multiple moderately fast air units (Overlords) which will give you a larger scope of what is happening on the map.
Support
There is very little that can support a 6 Pool Zergling Rush other than more Zerglings. I do have 2 suggestions though if you are able to afford them:
1. If your opponent is Zerg then you may want to send a drone or two to your opponents main. How can this help put the odds in your favour I hear you ask? Well you can attempt to build Spine Crawler(s) at the edge of your opponents Creep either before or during the rush (depending on how confident you feel and how ignorant your opponent might be so they may miss it being built). a Spine Crawler will help provide cover for your Zerglings and should you have the chance to move it within range of your opponents Hatchery then it will deal 30 damage per hit every time it attacks the Hatchery.
2. Should your rush start to fail then try and hide a few Zerglings inside of your opponents main base in the future hope that you can realistically transition them into Banelings should you build a Baneling Nest. Then you simply try and judge the most effective time to send those Banelings into your opponents mineral line trying to take out as many workers as you can.

Counters
Protoss Counters
*If the enemy Protoss gets one Zealot for every 4 Zerglings you have then you will need to focus enemy workers only, unless you can separate the Zealots and pick them off one by one without taking too much damage, otherwise you may need to switch to only harassing with the current Zerglings you have in his base whilst building drones at your own base to boost your economy.
*If the enemy Protoss gets Photon Cannons and you are unable to kill them then you must try and attack whatever you can (preferably workers) providing you are outside the range of the Photon Cannons, otherwise if he has too many then simply stop producing Zerglings and start massing Drones as he will of spent a large amount of his resources on static defence that won’t be useful if you stop attacking and start boosting your own economy.
Terran Counters
*If the enemy Terran manages to wall off his ramp then and it seems unlikely that you can continue the rush then you may need to back off and start building Drones instead for economy
*If the enemy Terran successfully manages to build a bunker inside of his mineral line and houses Marines inside of it then you will be unlikely to hurt the Terran much without losing a greater amount of forces, so just harass whatever you can whilst building Drones at your base for economy.
Zerg Counters
*If the enemy Zerg outnumbers you in army size regarding food cost then you will need to back off and start pumping drones and prepare for a longer game as it is unlikely you will able to kill his Zerglings if he backs them up with Drones.
*If the enemy Zerg successfully builds and finishes a Spine Crawler and you don’t have enough Zerglings to kill it then once again you will need to back off and start pumping drones and prepare for a longer game as it is unlikely you will able to kill the Spine Crawler if he backs it up with Zerglings & Drones.