[ Main ] [ Burning Blade Clan ] [ Zerg Tips ] [ Maps ] [ Stories ] [ Links ]
This page lists a few game strategies and their associated build orders.
Make drones up to #8. Make spawning pool, then overlord, then more drones. Make a creep colony when the pool is about half finished. When the pool finishes, morph the colony into a sunken. Send a drone out scouting. Keep pumping drones and a few zerglings (6 or 8) until you have 300 minerals saved up. Make a second hatchery at a nearby mineral location; send the zerglings to protect the new hatchery. While the new hatch is building, make an extractor, drones and a few more zerglings. When the hatch is about to finish, send one or two drones toward it. Use the drones to make sunken colonies as soon as the hatch finishes; you can use the "leftover" zerglings to attack an enemy or defend a teammate. Pump drones from both hatcheries and send a few from your main town, to get the expansion running as quickly as possible. You will need a third hatchery after the expansion is rolling; place it at either of your towns.
With 1.04 sunkens, you can easily protect an early expansion. This order expands on hatch 2 and makes a few early zerglings for defense or a possible rush.
Variants:
Make drones to #8. Make spawning pool, then drones #8 and #9. Make a creep colony. Rebuild drone #9. When the pool finishes, make the colony into a sunken. When you get 300, make a second hatchery in your main town. Then build an overlord, drone #9, an extractor, and drone #9 again. When the overlord finishes, make drones and zerglings.
The double hatch build order is the solution to the perennial early-game Zerg problem: not enough larva. The double hatch order delays the overlord until after the second hatch, but it also makes a sunken colony for rush defense. Once the second hatch pops, you should have more than enough larva to build lings and drones (whatever your preference). You will be slightly behind on minerals, but you can actually catch up (if you want) because you have twice as many larva to make into power drones.
Variants:
Make drones up to #9. Make overlord, then spawning pool, then more drones. Before pool is done, make a creep colony in a strategic location. As soon as pool finishes, morph the colony into a sunken. Send a drone or two out scouting. Keep pumping drones until you have 300; make a second hatchery. While the hatch is building, make a second sunken colony and an extractor. Make a few zerglings for mobile defense, but concentrate on drones. Expand when you have another 300 and protect the expansion with sunken colonies. Make a hydra den and pump hydras.
This build order uses the power of the 1.04 sunkens to protect your base long enough to power up with loads of drones and explode with hydras. This build makes fewer early zerglings in favor of more drones; with no early expansion to protect, you can get away with fewer troops. If you are attacked before your hydras are ready, use the zerglings to fend off the attack; stay under cover of the sunkens and don't be drawn out. In building your base, position the buildings around the sunkens to wall them in.
Variants:
Make drones up to #9. Make extractor, then spawning pool. Then rebuild drone numbers 8 and 9, and make an overlord. Put one or two drones on gas when the extractor finishes. Build drones when the overlord finishes. Adjust your mix of mineral/gas drones such that when the pool finishes you can go immediately to lair (150/100 minerals/gas).
This strategy skips early ground troops and goes for lair immediately. As such it is generally only useful on island maps, unless you have a teammate to protect you or you like taking big risks. After the lair finishes there are several possible routes. You can go for a spire and mutalisks, or you can get the ventral sacs upgrade to turn your overlords into transports, or you can do both.
Variants:
[ Main ] [ Burning Blade Clan ] [ Zerg Tips ] [ Maps ] [ Stories ] [ Links ]