• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 14:31
CET 19:31
KST 03:31
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down20ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier6Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1[$1250] International ShieldBattery League93
StarCraft 2
General
Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? SC2 Power Rank: epic29 Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.17 How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR?
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier RSL 2026 Offline Finals LCQ Sign-Ups
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers [G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 548 Shining Bright Mutation # 547 Temple Of Terror
Brood War
General
SCHNAIL now supports Remastered BW General Discussion Ziemie's Starcraft 1 Prequel Campaign Bot on ladder Rollback Netcode in Brood War
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [IPSL] IPSL Winter 26-27 Ro24 is HERE! [$1250] International ShieldBattery League [Women's StarCraft] MonstarZ vs BA 2026-10-30
Strategy
50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Deus Ex 3!? Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Armies of Exigo - YesYes?
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8176 users

Quick random Zerg gameplay questions

Blogs > teh.pwnerer
Post a Reply
teh.pwnerer
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
Canada110 Posts
June 23 2008 22:30 GMT
#1
I don't think these questions are important enough to be in the strategy forum. Just wondering if some more experienced Z players could give a few short answers on the following:

1) Hotkeys: is 1-5 for units and 6,7,8,9,0 for hatcheries a good idea? So far it works fine for me but I don't know what to do when, for example, I get 12 lurks and like 60 lings and 8 ultras or something crazy like that.

2) How does 9-pool speed/overpool/12pool fare against 2-gate builds from P? What about proxy gates? Oh and about 12 pool, how is it for ZvT? I almost always 12-hatch, just looking to expand my repertoire with stuff that I would be comfortable with.

3) Against P: how good of a combo (lategame) is ultra-hydra? My ultras always get pwned by archons but I love using hydras against them. And I heard from somewhere that it's a good combo, I don't really know.

4) ZvZ: is it really a build-order triangle? I never see 9-pool builds beating 12-pools for example (I think this happened recently in Jaedong vs. Oversky?). And, can 12-hatch ever defend 9-pool?

Alright that's about it, thank you very much anyone who takes the time to answer and enrich my Zerg experience.

***
Mass Dark Archons FTW
Orome
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
Switzerland11984 Posts
June 23 2008 22:52 GMT
#2
Meh, I tried to write something but it was horribly incoherent, sorry. Might give it a try tomorrow if I can find the time.^^
On a purely personal note, I'd like to show Yellow the beauty of infinitely repeating Starcraft 2 bunkers. -Boxer
GeneralStan
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States4789 Posts
June 23 2008 23:02 GMT
#3
On June 24 2008 07:30 teh.pwnerer wrote:
I don't think these questions are important enough to be in the strategy forum. Just wondering if some more experienced Z players could give a few short answers on the following:

1) Hotkeys: is 1-5 for units and 6,7,8,9,0 for hatcheries a good idea? So far it works fine for me but I don't know what to do when, for example, I get 12 lurks and like 60 lings and 8 ultras or something crazy like that.

2) How does 9-pool speed/overpool/12pool fare against 2-gate builds from P? What about proxy gates? Oh and about 12 pool, how is it for ZvT? I almost always 12-hatch, just looking to expand my repertoire with stuff that I would be comfortable with.

3) Against P: how good of a combo (lategame) is ultra-hydra? My ultras always get pwned by archons but I love using hydras against them. And I heard from somewhere that it's a good combo, I don't really know.

4) ZvZ: is it really a build-order triangle? I never see 9-pool builds beating 12-pools for example (I think this happened recently in Jaedong vs. Oversky?). And, can 12-hatch ever defend 9-pool?

Alright that's about it, thank you very much anyone who takes the time to answer and enrich my Zerg experience.


1) Sounds like a pretty good split up. Usually when I'm dealing with large numbers of lings, I just use the mouse to move / attack with them (there's really a point of diminishing returns where having more lings doesn't help you because you can't control them)

2)

3) Ultra-hydra is a pretty idea combo, but it's very gas heavy (you're usually putting all your gas into ultras anyway) and you need a third upgrade to really make it shine. The good thing is that it requires a gas heavy counter for Toss, who now needs both archons to fight the ultras and templar to storm the hydras.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24805 Posts
June 23 2008 23:19 GMT
#4
You probably want cracklings late game zvp no matter what else is in the combination. If you have the upgrades for hydras from early in the game, then this is possible I think as long as you also have cracklings.
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
teh.pwnerer
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
Canada110 Posts
June 23 2008 23:23 GMT
#5
oooo, I love unit mixes. ultra/ling/hydra it is =) I usually play hydra/lurk/ling in the midgame anyways.
Mass Dark Archons FTW
XCetron
Profile Joined November 2006
5226 Posts
June 23 2008 23:43 GMT
#6
how can teh.pwnerer be asking tips about sc? You should already be able to micro units from 3 fronts!!
Motiva
Profile Joined November 2007
United States1774 Posts
June 24 2008 00:42 GMT
#7
On June 24 2008 07:30 teh.pwnerer wrote:
I don't think these questions are important enough to be in the strategy forum. Just wondering if some more experienced Z players could give a few short answers on the following:

1) Hotkeys: is 1-5 for units and 6,7,8,9,0 for hatcheries a good idea? So far it works fine for me but I don't know what to do when, for example, I get 12 lurks and like 60 lings and 8 ultras or something crazy like that.

2) How does 9-pool speed/overpool/12pool fare against 2-gate builds from P? What about proxy gates? Oh and about 12 pool, how is it for ZvT? I almost always 12-hatch, just looking to expand my repertoire with stuff that I would be comfortable with.

3) Against P: how good of a combo (lategame) is ultra-hydra? My ultras always get pwned by archons but I love using hydras against them. And I heard from somewhere that it's a good combo, I don't really know.

4) ZvZ: is it really a build-order triangle? I never see 9-pool builds beating 12-pools for example (I think this happened recently in Jaedong vs. Oversky?). And, can 12-hatch ever defend 9-pool?

Alright that's about it, thank you very much anyone who takes the time to answer and enrich my Zerg experience.




1) I do 4-9 for hatcheries.... I try to put an Evo on 0 or an OL... It depends. 1-3 for units. And Hotkey zerglings last if at all... Just get fast at spamming a-move But this is just how I do it. Not sure how others do it.

2) I'm probably not good enough to answer this correctly, so don't listen to me. but pool/overpool/and 12 pool shoeuld be fine with proper defense. 12hatch FE can have some trouble if you're not ready. Proxy's can be hard. 12pool can pull it off with strong micro... I would think

vs Terran I'd recommend either 12hatch or 9pool speed. You can do all sorts of things out of either builds. 12pool is perfectly viable though.

3) I usually go crackling-ultra and then when/if they get too many archons, I switch to hydra-ultra. This is just me, I'm not sure what good players do.

4) Meh it's more of a rounded triangle. Each build has a slight advantage over another build... to a degree.


Dunno, I'm just a D+ Zerg... Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will correct me where I'm wrong?
Jonoman92
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
United States9110 Posts
June 24 2008 02:54 GMT
#8
1) You're never going to be able to hotkey every single zergling because you get so many. hopefully if you have 5 control groups you can move the rest quickly enough with box click I think? I'm not a zerg player though.

2) Vs normal 2 gate I think 12 pool is best and vs proxy 12 pool is probably best as well. Vs T I think you may as well 12 hatch unless you are fearing a bunker rush in which case 12 pool is safer.

3) Well if you can afford it ultra/hydra is quite strong since archons are best counter to ultra but hydras mop archons up pretty quickly so in order to deal with it toss needs to have a lot of unmorphed hts for storm which means they have less archons to deal with ultras.

4) eh, the BO triangle has largely been disproved. It may put you at a disadvantage but if you lay better you can still win. And yes depending on map 12 hatch can defend 9 pool, if a colony is made and morphed right when pool pops and bases are fairly distant (like cross positions on luna) then I think 12 hatch can come out ahead vs 9 pool.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
AI Arena Tournament
02:00
RO8 - Day 2
Laughngamez YouTube
IPSL
01:00
Ro24 Group A
eOnzErG vs McRibbed
LancerX vs StRyKeR
Liquipedia
Epic.LAN
22:00
Epic.LAN 49 Playoffs Stage
epiclan79
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Serral 2480
BRAT_OK 86
SKillous 30
elazer 27
MindelVK 18
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 2842
Shuttle 526
Dewaltoss 116
White-Ra 114
Soulkey 89
Mind 89
soO 18
ajuk12(nOOB) 15
Hm[arnc] 9
910 9
Dota 2
Gorgc15847
monkeys_forever404
febbydoto6
League of Legends
JimRising 473
Counter-Strike
pashabiceps1566
Other Games
Grubby1469
B2W.Neo843
Beastyqt706
mouzStarbuck234
KnowMe179
ArmadaUGS141
QueenE80
Trikslyr41
Chillindude19
JuggernautJason13
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick546
ComeBackTV 309
StarCraft 2
angryscii 17
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• 3DClanTV 48
• printf 46
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• ChaeLyn 6
• FirePhoenix6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 2673
League of Legends
• Nemesis3248
• Jankos2908
Other Games
• imaqtpie438
• Shiphtur320
Upcoming Events
OSC
19h 29m
Yamato Cup
20h 29m
IPSL
22h 29m
Artosis vs RiceHat
Kyrie vs Sony
Map Test Tournament
1d 4h
WardiTV Weekly
1d 17h
Ultimate Battle
1d 17h
Rush vs BeSt
Replay Cast
2 days
Rogue vs Classic
Patches Events
2 days
PiGosaur Cup
3 days
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
4 days
KCM Race Survival
4 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
6 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
IPSL
6 days
WorsT vs nOmaD
Dewalt vs andersOn
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-10-30
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

1xBet Invitational
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
BLAST Bounty Winter 2027
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.