[G] ZvP BroodWar Guide

ZvP is much different than ZvT or ZvZ because this match-up puts a heavy emphasis on out-macroing your opponent, rather than doing fun little micro tactics, like using a defiler and two lurkers to hold off 60 marines. This match-up relies a lot less on mutalisks than the other match-ups, and much more on a large number of smaller ground units mixed with a few big units. This doesn't mean you can't just go cheese your opponent and use some fancy-pantsy micro to kill them, and if you want to do that, here's a build and strategy to consider:

9 Hatchery
9 Pool
9 Gas
8 Overlord
100 gas -> metabolic boost
Pull drones from gas
Make lings non-stop
17 Overlord

Plan: Send lings until the Protoss dies.

Now, let's say you're not a [bad word goes here] and want to play more strategically. There are certain benefits to playing a longer game. If you rush for zerglings, the Protoss guy (true women don't play toss) might die, but they also might have seen zerglings before and know what to do, making your strategy basically a dice-roll to win, and rolling a dice really isn't a strategy at all, it's mostly saying "Well, golly, I sure hope this works." This type of play is what we call an "all-in".

So why bother going to a long game when you can just win early? Well, if you're playing a tournament game, you want to give yourself the best possible opportunity to win. This means not leaving the game to chance or luck, but playing the absolute best match you can. It's perfectly fine to do all-in if you're on the ladder and playing some map like Luna and the Protoss have no idea how to build a wall to stop you from getting in. But for practice purposes, I would strongly recommend playing your long-game strategy on the ladder to practice for individual matches.


Now, let's talk about another very rudimentary concept behind this match-up, which is very simple - you need more bases than your opponent. A "base" can be defined as a hatchery with drones mining minerals and/or gas at that hatchery for you. All of the strategies I'm going to discuss revolve around this very basic concept. I actually had a friend who would rage at the game because he believed that StarCraft was imbalanced against Zerg, and that Zerg should be able to be equal with Protoss if both sides have two bases. Interesting idea, BUT, there are two things to keep in mind:

1. Zerg stuff is cheaper than Protoss stuff.
2. You don't want to be equal with your opponent. You want to have an advantage over your opponent.


Generally, you will have less drones than the Protoss has probes. This is simply because of the way Zerg makes units (through larvae) that requires you to produce a lot of workers early, and the stop building workers to build only units.

Before we go any further, let me address some myths that pop up as a result of people giving very bad advice, and also, just from the difficulties of playing StarCraft.

- "Psi Storm is imbalanced"

If you've played a little ZvP and have no idea what to do, and your friends are like "Hey, just go hydras", then you've probably encountered the problem that all of your hydralisks explode when hit with psionic storms from high templars. Then you have no army and you die. This is a very common misconception for beginners. Without psi storms, Protosses would never be able to win against Zerg in a straight-up fight, unless the player using Protoss was just hundreds of times better than the player using Zerg. Protoss relies on spells to play, kind of like Zerg players do in ZvT with defilers, where you need to poof down dark swarm over your lurkers to stop yourself from being overrun by the much larger Terran force.

Psi storms actually just make the game balanced enough for Protoss to have a chance to win.


- "All Zerg has to do to win is get Ultralisks"

Ultralisks are very strong, but their role is very limited. A majority of the damage dealt will be administered by secondary units, such as zerglings, lurkers, and hydralisks, while the ultralisks soak up most of the damage being dealt out by the Protoss. They serve primarily as shields to absorb damage. They can deal damage of their own, but because of their slow attack speed, they need supporting units. That being said, ultralisks are pretty sexy to have. Their first downside is their high cost. It takes a very large economy to build ultralisks continuously, and unfortunately, ultralisks don't fare well against a high-tier Protoss army, so wasting them on failed attacks can waste an enormous amount of your money and cost you the game. The second downside to an "ultralisk/zergling" army is that it has no anti-air capability, meaning that corsairs can sweep the skies clear of overlords, and dark templar will be invisible to your forces.

Note: I'm not saying "ultralisks are bad". They are great units, just don't slam them into the Protoss in waves. Use your ultralisks in a smart way, and they'll be so much stronger.

- "x counters y"

The only time this is true is: Good players are the counter to bad players. To be clear, though, if someone says "The counter to zealot aggression is to go mutalisk", for example, then you may be receiving bad advice. Remember, building a specific type of unit or combination of units is not a 'strategy'. You should have a strategy that you follow, which can include specific unit types, but you should never let your opponent dictate which units you are going to use, what you are going to build, and how you are going to react, unless it is absolutely necessary to react a certain way. Instead, figure out what makes your strategy strong, and then make it stronger. However, I don't want to be misunderstood; if you're being attacked, defend. But don't defend against an attack you think could happen and completely derail your game plan in the process.

- If you see one cannon, go all-in

There is absolutely no logic to this, except that 6 zerglings can kill 1 cannon. However, unless you're going 9pool, or have 300 apm to run around in the Protoss base, don't. You will likely end the engagement with 1 zergling left, and by the time you build more zerglings and they reach the front, more cannons will be warped in. If you can run by the cannon into their main base, do it. If you can kill the cannon, do it. But don't think you have to win the game right then and there. If you can, great! But if you are producing a lot of speedlings early in the game, or you go straight to hydralisks, your economy will suffer badly if the Protoss survives your all-in attempt. I would recommend that if you see an opportunity to do some damage, take it, and then use that to be ahead of your opponent in tech or economy.

- For ZvP, you only need to know how to hydra-bust

Busting the Protoss front with hydralisks is not a bad way to win games, BUT, keep in mind, it will mostly win you best-of-1 matches, and you will have to plan out the execution of this strategy in advance. If you play "standard" all the time, and then get some advice from your gosu StarCraft friend to go hydra-bust your opponent, you'll be much better off doing what you normally practice, otherwise, you'll do some crappy hydra-bust and will most likely botch it.

- I saw sAviOr Jaedong do it, therefore it must be right

I love Jaedong. He is the most talented person to ever play Zerg. However, you are not Jaedong. Different people have different styles of play that work for them, so if say, you see Jaedong get mutalisks, you might want to try it out where you also go mutalisks, and find out that you suck with mutalisks. Or maybe you'll see Jaedong open with a 9pool and run into Stork's base, so you try the same thing, but your opponent just sends probes to block you from getting in, your zerglings start running around like crazy and all die. Now, this is not to say that Jaedong, or sAviOr, or ZerO, or any other Zerg is playing at a level that unreachable for you. You may not become a progamer, but there are good things that different Zerg players do that you can emulate and learn from. If you're more aggressive-minded, maybe being inspired by Jaedong is what you need. Different Zergs play different styles of ZvP, and you need to pick the style that works best for you.

Zerg

Zergling: Zerglings are like bacon, they go well with everything. You will be using Zerglings the entire game, from start to finish. With the adrenaline gland upgrade, the effectiveness of Zerglings increases exponentially. At the start of the game, it requires 3 zerglings to take on one zealot, but once you reach your full upgrades with the adrenaline glands, 2 zerglings can kill one zealot. Another thing to remember is that a dark templar can kill a zergling with one hit. This is especially important because a one-hit kill will not alert you that your forces are under attack, so if you don't pay attention, your scouting zerglings might just disappear from the map without you noticing.

Hydralisk: Hydralisks are strong against nearly every type of Protoss unit, but will crumble if they clump together under psionic storms. Hydralisks should be supported by lurkers and/or zerglings before engaging in a large fight, because their effectiveness goes way up when you negate the psi storm factor from the engagement. Think about it; if Protoss has to use storms to hit zerglings or lurkers, there will be less storms overall to cover less surface area during fights.

Mutalisk: Not an essential part of this match-up, unlike ZvZ, or even ZvT, where mutalisks are very important. This is not to say they don't have their place, but mutalisks are extremely costly and will not gain map control for you if you harass with them. The upside to using mutalisks is that they make excellent snipers, and can be used to kill high templars, provided that the Protoss has no means of stopping mutas. Mutalisks are weak against archons, dark archons, large numbers of corsairs, and will die if they sit under a psi storm. Mutalisks are good against zealots (obviously) and when backed with zerglings, are great against dragoons or combos of dragoons and reavers.

Lurker: A vital part of any long game should include lurkers, because they're such an important defensive unit. They have very few weaknesses, especially when coupled with defilers, because it completely negates the ranged attacks that dragoons and archons fire. When together with zerglings, they will tear apart large numbers of zealots. Lurkers also can be used to attack, and can burrow under dark swarm to be immune to Protoss cannons. You absolutely will need to get lurkers in order to get yourself through the game. The times lurkers aren't applicable as part of your unit composition is when you're trying to fight against reavers, or against carriers.

Ultralisk: These units are often treated as utility units, but in reality, they are best when you, the Zerg player, has reached full unit upgrades and has at least five bases. Ultralisks can absorb a huge amount of punishment, and can soak up psi storms and lots of fire before dying, allowing smaller units to deal a lot of damage to the Protoss. Ultralisks are weak when unsupported by other units, and are generally weak against combinations of zealots/archons/dark templar, even when supported by zerglings.

Guardian: The guardian has a very specific purpose in this match-up because of it's high cost and weak armor. Guardians are best used to harass from above cliffs, and destroy buildings or snipe units, such as a reaver or high templar that is preventing your main army from attacking. They cannot take a Protoss army head-on in an open field and are weak against dragoons, archons, templar, corsairs, scouts, carriers, and arbiters. To use guardians, you need to research air carapace at your spire or greater spire to buff their ability to take hits, but even then, the cost-effectiveness of guardians is very limited.

Scourge: Arguably the most important air unit in this match-up, because scourge are quick, and do a ton of damage. Although most Zerg players talk about their value against corsairs, scourge are also very effective at killing shuttles and arbiters. They are less effective once the number of corsairs accumulates over 5, and are easily picked off by cannons and archons.You can use scourge to quickly kill observers, and it only takes a single scourge to do so. If the Protoss player begins going either +1 air attack and/or more than 4 corsairs, scourge can be next to useless for trying to pick off corsairs. In this case, it is recommended that you get +1 air carapace to compensate for the additional damage the corsairs will do, and to use spore colonies/hydralisks to protect your overlords.

Devourer: Used as an anti-air tank. Like any unit, devourers need upgrades to be effective, especially the air carapace. The large investment of money they require, plus their inability to engage ground targets, plus the amount of supply they take up makes their purpose very limited, however, they are extremely effective against Protoss air units. The catch is that you will need a lot of devourers, and since, again, they're expensive and take up a lot of supply, they are a very situational unit.

Infested Terran: This will almost never come into play against Protoss, and is more of a novelty than anything else. If a map has a neutral command center, grab it with a queen.

Defiler: The Zerg quintessential spellcaster. Defiler abilities are strong no matter what, but can be optimized if you concentrate plague against zealots, dragoons, shuttles, and reavers, and use dark swarm against dragoons and archons. Dark swarm does nothing to reavers, so scarab damage will not be negated, even on burrowed units. Both dark swarm and plague are good against carriers. Against a base that is defended by reavers/cannons/dark templar/high templar/etc., it may be necessary to use plague before attempting any attack.

Queen: Not particularly useful in ZvP, except possibly for ensnare to catch carriers/corsairs/scouts with. They can be used for their parasite ability, but the Protoss will often just send the parasited unit to go die. The best place for a parasite is in the probe lines, where the Protoss will not be likely to select the units for awhile. Queens become more useful if the map starts to mine out and you need to snipe units for free using the broodling ability. Unfortunately, broodlings do not work on reavers, archons, or probes, so take this into consideration if you decide to make a group of queens to start picking off units. Unlike many other spell-casters, it is almost absolutely necessary to research the extra mana upgrade for queens, because each broodling shot takes 150 mana energy, and takes awhile to regenerate.


Protoss

Zealot: Fairly useful for early harassment and supporting larger units, such as archons. Zealots can be used in drops to take hits while reavers and high templar deal out damage. Zealots generally facilitate the same function as the ultralisk (although they're not nearly as strong) which is to absorb most of the damage. They can also do a lot of damage and are very good at killing lonely hydralisks, ultralisks, and small numbers of zerglings.

Dragoon: Protoss tend to build dragoons in the mid-game as heavy-hitters to kill lurkers, but phase them out later in the game because they are very ineffective against defilers, cracklings, lurkers under dark swarm.

High Templar: The primary damage-dealer in the mid-game. High templar are great at destroying large numbers of small units that are clumped together, and for harassing. They are generally replaced by reavers later in the game, although they will be present throughout the entirety of the match for their ability to kill large numbers of your units.

Dark Templar: This unit is invisible and has a very powerful melee attack, but very weak armor. Dark templar are generally used for harass purposes, and can do a huge amount of damage if not detected and stopped quickly. They also are occasionally mixed in with Protoss armies in the late game. Whenever you move your army around the map, you must have at least one overlord with that army to detect dark templar. The most devastating use of the dark templar is quite expensive for the Protoss player - shuttling 4 dark templar into your base. You should make sure you have scourge to pick off shuttles, and zerglings and overlords around the map to spot for shuttles. If the Protoss has complete air control, you may need to consider placing a spore colony and a couple of sunken colonies in your main base just in case.

Archon: A short-ranged heavy unit made of shields. Archons are most effective against Zerg air units, zerglings, and ultralisks. They tend to be weak against hydralisks, lurkers, and sunken colonies.

Dark Archon: This is a specialty unit used to freeze mutalisks. They can also be used to snipe queens and defilers using feedback. Dark Archons have the longest spell-casting range, which makes them difficult to deal with using other spellcasters, if it ever comes down to that.

Reaver: The reaver is good against every type of Zerg ground unit, but have weak armor. Their scarab shots will kill almost every Zerg unit with a single shot, making them very good for defending chokes, ramps, bridges, and being used offensively when supported with other units, such as archons, dragoons, corsairs, and zealots.

Corsair: Corsairs are used to gain scouting information and harass the Zerg's overlords. If the Zerg does not have air carapace upgrades, corsairs are effective against Zerg air units, such as mutalisks and scourge. Corsairs are negated when they fly near or over hydralisks, and have no chance against devourers. It takes two scourge hits to kill one corsair. A good Protoss player will use corsairs throughout the game to maintain air control, either at a specific point on the map, or the entire map in general.

Carrier: Carriers have a kind of niche usage for Protoss. Generally, Protoss players who build up a lot of money from three or four gases and don't attack with their ground forces are known to make carriers. You can scout for this by sending scourge to fly around the Protoss base to check out if they have a fleet beacon or multiple stargates. There are many counter-strategies for dealing with carriers, but keep in mind: if you want to go with air units (scourge, devourer), you will need at least +2 air carapace. If you decide to go hydralisk/defiler, keep in mind that carriers can just float away if they see a dark swarm and have a lot more mobility than defilers, so you may need to have multiple defilers in various locations. It takes approximately 4 to 6 scourge to kill a carrier, depending on the situation.

Scout: Generally not used, but occasionally utilized for harass purposes by trolly players. It takes three scourge to kill a scout, but I would highly recommend NOT attacking scouts with scourge. The best way to deal with scouts is to research burrow and use that ability to save your drones, and to ambush the scouts with hydralisks. Additionally, a player who has invested in a good number of scouts will have a relatively weak ground army, so you may take more expansions than you normally would be able to, provided that you send some hydralisks and an overlord to the spot where you're taking the expansion.

Arbiter: Although arbiters can do some terrifying recalls against Zerg, their effectiveness is generally way less cost-effective than in PvT. They are really good against ultralisk/zergling combos that have no anti-air support, but are horribad when a defiler shows up and plagues everything.

Observer: It's watching you... in the shower. A single scourge will kill these annoying voyeurs.

Your hotkey set-up can mean the difference between life and DEATH. Many players have different hotkeys, so I'll just go ahead and show an example of one:

1 - Primary units (scouting drone, zerglings, ultralisks, lurkers)
2 - Support units (hydralisk/zergling)
3 - Support units (hydralisk/zergling)
4 - Support units (hydralisk/zergling)

5 - Primary hatchery
6 - Natural expansion hatchery
7 - Third base hatchery
8 - Hatchery
9 - Hatchery
0 - Hatchery or Defiler or Guardians (save this one for something special and close to your heart)

Short-cuts to remember:

s = select larva (hatchery)
l = morph to lair (hatchery)
h = morph to hive (lair)
b = burrow (hatchery)

p = pneumatized carapace/overlord speed (lair)
v = ventral sacs/overlord transporting (lair)
a = antennae/overlord sight range (lair)

d = morph to drones (larva)
z = morph to zerglings (larva)
h = morph to hydralisks (larva)
u = morph to ultralisks (larva)
m = morph to mutalisks (larva)
f = morph to defiler (larva)
o = morph to overlord (larva)

m = research melee attacks (evolution chamber)
a = research ranged attacks (evolution chamber)
c = research carapace (evolution chamber)

m = muscular augments/hydra speed (hydralisk den)
g = grooved spines/hydra range (hydralisk den)
l = lurker aspect (hydralisk den)

m = metabolic boost/zergling speed (spawning pool)
a = adrenaline glands/zergling DPS (spawning pool)

c = consume (defiler mound)
g = plague (defiler mound)

u = sunken colony (creep colony)
s = spore colony (creepy colony)

The command to morph drones into a building is always "b"
The command to morph drones into an advanced building is always "v"

Basic:
h = hatchery
c = creep colony
v = evolution chamber
e = extractor
s = spawning pool
d = hydralisk den

Advanced:
d = defiler mound
q = queen's nest
u = ultralisk cavern
n = nydus canal
s = spire

Set-up

A very basic set-up that I like to use:




You can set up your hotkeys in any fashion you choose, but it's important to be comfortable with your set-up so that you don't have to fight against the interface to get things done. For example, when you start setting up a bunch of macro hatcheries, you'll need to set rally points for all of the hatcheries to the entrance of that base. This is much easier to do if you have your hotkeys already set up, as well as some f-key usage.

If you don't already know, you can use the f2, f3 and f4 keys to jump your screen to a designated area on the map. Press shift + any of the aforementioned f-keys (let's say you do f2), then every time you hit f2, your screen will jump to that area you've saved. Sound complicated? Not really. Try it out - play against a computer, and at the beginning of the game, click on the middle of your mini-map. The whole area should be blacked out by the fog-of-war. While looking at this black area of the map, hold shift and press f2. Then go back to the area of the map where you spawned and have vision. Then hit f2. Voila!

This can be very useful when rallying a bunch of hatcheries at once. Hotkey a screen over the hatchery cluster, and hotkey a screen over where you want to rally the hatcheries to. Then, you can hit f2, see your hatcheries, select one of them, hit f3 and see the rally point, then click the ground, then hit f2, see the hatcheries again, select a different one, hit f3, and rally another one, and so on. Doing this quickly will save you a lot of valuable time.

Remember, in StarCraft, you want to maximize your efficiency and not waste time! Be sure to practice ALL hotkeys, shortcuts, and f-keys, so that you can flow through your checklist (Which I will discuss later) effortlessly. If you don't practice using the keyboard, don't expect good results. StarCraft is a very competitive game, and like any competition, requires practice.

Every time a new larva is spawned, you need to quickly key through all your hatcheries, and morph the larvae into units.

Here's my set-up:

- set hatchery to '5', and overlord to '4'.
- second overlord gets set to '3', so I can reserve '1' and '2' for units I'm going to focus on more.
- '1' initially gets set to my scouting drone, while my second hatchery gets set to '6'

So far, it looks like this:

1 - drone
2 - nothing yet
3 - overlord
4 - overlord

5 - hatchery
6 - hatchery

When the zerglings pop out, I hotkey one of the zerglings to '1', and set that zergling to pursue the scouting probe. The other zerglings get set to '2', and are used to head off and kill the scouting probe. Once it dies, I set all the zerglings back to '1'.

- I set my third base to '7'
- I set my fourth base to '8'

- I set my first pair of scourge to '2'
- I set my zerglings to '1'

Now, it looks like this:

1 - scouting zerglings
2 - scourge
3 - scourge
4 - overlord

5 - hatchery
6 - hatchery
7 - hatchery
8 - hatchery

Every time I want to center on a hatchery, I tap a hotkey twice quickly, press "s" to select the larva and then press whichever key I need to produce what I want. This is particularly useful when you have a hatchery to center on, and a macro hatchery next to it. Center on the base hatchery, and spawn units, then click on the macro hatchery nearby and spawn units, then move onto the next base. You might be wondering "Hey, why not put all my macro hatcheries at one base and save some time!?" and I'll explain that later when we discuss "simcity".

A lot of times, you'll come into a situation where you have so many units that four hotkeys simply aren't enough. There are many solutions to this situation, but here's one idea: for example, have all your lurkers set to 1, and all your hydralisks set to 2, 3 and 4. Move them forward towards the area where you want to engage the Protoss army. Then, go to your massive clump of zerglings and begin dragging boxes over them and sending the zerglings into the battle area, and get them all running in the same direction. Then start moving your hotkeyed army into the fight. The zerglings should hit the area with the fighting first and take most of the punishment from psi storms, then your hydralisks and lurkers clean up the rest.

The plural to "larva" is "larvae", and these beautyful creatures are the basis for Zerg macro mechanics in Brood War. Larvae spawn out of your hatcheries, lairs, and hives. Larvae spawn every 13-14 seconds, unless their mother hatchery already has three larva attached to it. If you want more larva to spawn, you have to place additional hatcheries.

Author's note about spawn-time for larvae: + Show Spoiler +

This is pretty damn important, because your hatcheries produce both your harvesters and your warrior units, as opposed to Protoss, who can simultaneously produce workers and units. Because of this mechanic in the manner that Zerg builds, you'll want to build drones to harvest minerals using almost all of your larvae, building a bare minimum of defence until you have a healthy number of drones mining. Then, you stop producing drones altogether, and start building a lot of attacking units to go fight.

During a match, you will want to place hatcheries down as bases, but also, you'll want to place hatcheries that exist only produce larvae, and aren't used to gather minerals or gas. This is a "macro hatchery". But why even bother building macro hatcheries instead of expanding and taking new bases? Well, you can, but only if you have a plan for defending it, otherwise, the Protoss will just waltz over and kill it, or kill you. Or your family. So, let's look at a standard* game:

- Protoss takes a quick expansion, for a total of two bases.
- Zerg sees two bases from Protoss, and decides to double expand for a total of three bases.
- Zerg gets a bunch of drones.
- Protoss gets a bunch of gateways.

So at this point, you (The Zerg), know that your opponent is about to field an army. This means that you, yourself, will need to either create some kind of army or proper defense to prevent yourself from being killed. So cool, now you know it's time to stop making drones, and start making an army, or at least, have a rough idea of when you'll need to produce units after you've played enough games and have looked your replays.

If you have three bases, and only three hatcheries, you will have a total of nine larvae as your maximum that can exist at one time. If all three bases have 12-15 drones, then your resources will pile up to like 1,500 in no time, even if you make warrior units. This is why you need macro hatcheries, so that more larvae will spawn, and you can spend your income, using the additional larvae that being produced. This way, you can have a LOT of units to send into battle. If you have few larvae, then you'll inevitably have few units to send into battle, which will get crushed and you'll be very sad.

You don't want to be sad.

All of the Zerg build orders I'm going to share are designed to give you a very large number of units to work with, and hopefully, give you a better chance of winning. Sometimes, you may need to alter your builds a bit and get more zerglings or more sunken colonies to protect yourself. That's okay - as long as you have plenty of drones to go around. The general rule of thumb is that you need 1.5 drones per mineral patch, or, in more practical terms, around 14 mining minerals in each main base, and about 10-12 mining minerals at each natural you take. If you use drones to morph into buildings, you should always replace the drones that you use.

Author's note: You can have less drones if you want to get zerglings or hydralisks out sooner. 1.2 drones per patch is probably the least you can go, unless you have less hatcheries. Additionally, main bases have 9 mineral patches, whereas most naturals have 7. The close third base on Fighting Spirit has 9 mineral patches.

Finally, don't forget to make your overlords. Forgetting overlords is the bane of my existence. I have nightmares about forgetting overlords. In the beginning of the game (til around 35-40 population) you'll only want to make one overlord at a time, so you can spend the maximum amount of minerals on drones, hatcheries, and possibly zerglings and sunken colonies. After 40, with each round of units you make, spawn two overlords with them. When you get into the realm of having a lot of hatcheries, you might need to make three or more overlords with each round of units you create. If an overlord is getting shot down and you know it cannot be saved, spawn another overlord to replace it before it dies. This replacement overlord does not count in your build order, so you might have to make two overlords at a time in the early game so you don't get supply blocked by corsairs killing your overlords.


*Note: I hate using the terms "standard", "metagame", "counter", "build order win", etc., because these are very oversimplified ways to look at a very complex scenario where there are many, many factors and variables involved. Practically speaking, none of these terms actually influence the game decisively in a literal sense during almost any match you will ever play. They are more "theoretical" and "on paper" terms, used to explain ideas concerning trends in StarCraft, because trust me, certain strategies become trendy and others die out all the time. When I talk about "standard play", I'm talking about logical actions that could take place based on current trends in StarCraft play. I also don't like the word "Transition". People are always like "How do I transition?" and I'm like "Just do it." For Zerg, transition from one set of unit-types to another is easier than with Terran or Protoss. I would simply recommend planning ahead and getting the appropriate upgrades beforehand.

If you just skipped over everything else to read the build orders first, I would recommend going back (or forward) and reading some of the other stuff first. Obviously, everyone wants a guide on "How to win", but if you're looking for that guide, you may want to consider rethinking your mentality while playing. Of course you want to win. I want to win games, and I want you to win games. I've seen many Zerg players (including myself) just throw away easily-won games because they wanted to win faster. So they go for some kind of hydralisk bust, or zergling all-in, or mutalisk timing attack, or really bad drop play, because they believe there is an opportunity for an "easy win". Don't fall into this trap, because it's a trick you play on yourself, and can yield some very heart-breaking results.

Your focus should always be "How can I play better?" because if you play better, you will begin to win more games over time, I guarantee it. To play better, you need to be consistent, and having an optimal set of instructions to follow will help you maintain a sense of consistency.

So, let's break up our strategies into three basic areas: 4-player maps, 2-player maps, and playing against a 1-base Protoss. I'll recommend 2-3 builds for each type of play that you will be responding to, because the Protoss will be the aggressor early on.


How to follow build orders

All build orders lead to you accomplishing specific goals. If the goal is to get you a strong economy so that you can create a massive army, you don't want to build tons of defense early on, otherwise, later in the game, your economy will be weak and your army will be hopeless. If your goal is to be aggressive, you don't want to build tons and tons of drones, because your window of opportunity will quickly close. The goal of the builds I'm going to show are specifically designed to give you a basic outline of the timings you need to have a wonderful and industrious economy that will allow you to manufacture hundreds and hundreds of units, and eventually, take over the whole map with Zerg stuff.

All build orders place an emphasis on worker production, unless the build says specifically to cut workers. With Zerg, you will need to stop building workers so that you can start producing only units at a certain point, but there are points beforehand where you may need to save a few larva for units instead of drones. You will always be making drones otherwise. If the build order reads:

9/9 - Overlord

Then it means you build drones until you reach a population of 9, and then once you reach that population, you create an overlord. Now, look at this:

9/9 - Overlord
9/9 - Spawning Pool
11/18 - Hatchery

If you build a spawning pool at a population of 9, you will have a population of 8 after the drone morphs into a spawning pool. There is no instructions to build anything until a population of 11, so every time a larva is spawned, you morph it into a drone. If the build order reads:

9/9 - Spawning Pool
9/9 - Extractor
8/9 - Overlord
Overlord is morphing - SAVE LARVAE
Overlord hatches - 6 Zerglings

This order "SAVE LARVAE" means to not morph your larva into anything, period, until the next step. If the build order reads something like this:

100 Gas - Lair

It means that once you reach a certain amount of resources, you get the said building as soon as possible, even if it means stopping drone production. For example, let's say you have 100 minerals and 100 gas. You shouldn't spend the minerals on drones, but should let them pile up to 150, so that you can morph your hatchery into a lair. After that, you can start making drones again.

Comprende?

Tip: don't forget to replace the drones you use to build stuff.

Okay, talk about opening builds. This is like moving your first pawn in Chess; it's probably not going to make or break your whole game unless you're playing at an extremely high level. There are a whole bunch of opening builds, so let's discuss a few that work fairly effectively:

Overpool Opening (good for 2-player maps)

9/9 - Overlord
9/9 - Spawning Pool
11/18 - Hatchery
10/18 - Three sets of Zerglings for a total of 6
14/18 - Extractor
13/18 - Hatchery
16/18 Overlord
100 gas - Lair


11pool Opening (good for all maps)
9/9 - Overlord
11/18 - Spawning Pool
11/18 - Hatchery
10/18 - 6 Zerglings
14/18 - Extractor
13/18 - Hatchery
16/18 Overlord
100 gas - Lair


12hatch Opening (good for 4-player maps)
9/9 - Overlord
12/18 - Hatchery
11/18 - Spawning Pool
14/18 - Extractor
13/18 - Hatchery
16/18 - Overlord
100 gas - Lair

All these opening builds have the same goals: to give you an expansion hatchery, some zerglings, take another expansion, then get a lair as quickly as possible. You'll notice I put "Good for so-and-so map", but take it with a grain of salt. You can open with anything, really. Also, keep in mind: you can change the build orders to any way you want them to be to better suit your style of play. Some players like to be aggressive and have 18 zerglings instead of 6. Some people don't get the air carapace. Some people do get the air carapace, and use it for a large aerial fleet. None of these alterations are incorrect or "wrong". Do as thou wilt.


For nearly all maps

Heroic ZvP build (3-base lurker drop)
+ Show Spoiler +

4-Player Maps

A simple 6-Hatch Hydra opening
+ Show Spoiler +

6-Hatch Hydra (slightly outdated version)
+ Show Spoiler +

6-Hatch Lurker

+ Show Spoiler +

2-Players Maps

6-Hatch Hydra

+ Show Spoiler +

4-Hatch Lair

+ Show Spoiler +

Against 1-Base Protoss Play

3-Hatch Hydra

+ Show Spoiler +

3-Hatch Muta

+ Show Spoiler +

3-Hatch Lurker

+ Show Spoiler +



Goals

Every build order is a set of guidelines to help you reach a specific goal. Usually, a goal is something very simple, like say, "I want to have a big army at a certain time" or "I want to have Mutalisks at 6:30 game seconds". Remember, reaching the end of a build is not the end of the game, but instead, is a way to secure an advantage so that you can meet bigger goals in the end-game that will ultimately lead to you winning. Remember, you always want your builds and strategy to lead to a strong end-game. Sometimes, on your way to meeting the goal of your build order, you need to make certain adjustments. To make an adjustment, you need to watch your own replays and watch the timer on the replay clock. For example, let's say you die to zealots every game. 8 - 10 zealots come running out with leg speed and +1 attack and it just cuts your base to pieces. Look at the time on the clock. When do the zealots leave the Protoss base? When do the zealots reach your base? What is your population at that time? What is the Protoss population at that time?

If you have a disproportionate disparity in food (like, say, 25 population vs 60 population), then you'll know that you've completely botched your build order and need to work on your keyboard usage (see hotkeys above) so your build order will be a help to you, not a hindrance.

If there's no problem with the food counts (usually, the Protoss will have 10 - 30 more population, with 30 being problematic, 20 being average, and 10 being that the Protoss is a nub) then you can make some subtle adjustments, like making an extra sunken colony when you see the forge spinning, or getting a spore colony so dark templar can't walk into your base. Don't ever just freak out in the middle of a game and change your build order for no reason. Any changes you make should be done after having played a few dozen games, where you watch the replays and look at the timer to see how your opponents are exploiting your weaknesses.

In the early and middle parts of many games, the Protoss player will be the aggressor, and therefore, you need to make the appropriate reactions to what they are doing. Note that I say "appropriate" when I talk about reactions. You don't want to overreact and build like 4 sunken colonies at each entrance if you see a forge spinning, because if your goal is to a lot of hydralisks at say, 12 minutes (Just using an arbitrary number as an example here), you need to make a lot of drones beforehand, and if you're making a ton of sunken colonies, your hydralisk mass is going to be very weak. Keep in mind, I'm not saying "Don't ever build four sunken colonies at each entrance". I'm saying that if you have a specific goal, don't alter your build so that you cannot reach your goal in the middle of a game.

On the flip side, don't under-react, because then you'll just be like "I see a threat developing, but I'm gonna follow these build instructions like a robot" or be like one of those guys who smokes a lot of weed while playing, and your friend is screaming "HE'S GOING TO DRAGOON BUST YOUR FRONT, YOU NEED MUTALISKS AND LINGS RIGHT NOW" and you're like "Nah, man, it's coo."

Because you will die! Remember, you can tweak build orders to fit your personal preferences and as needed, as long as you are consistent and don't do a different variation of your build every game, because this can end up making your play very sloppy and mistimed.


Timings

If you play a lot, you'll notice certain patterns concerning when your opponent gets what, and when. This is because Protoss players are leery of dying to ling busts, hydra busts, muta busts, and less commonly, lurker drops. If a Protoss player gets his cybernetics core too late, the rest of his tech tree is going to be too late, and the Zerg will be able to get away with so much that it will be extremely difficult for the Protoss to win. Therefore, the Protoss wants to get his gateway as quickly as possible, because it is the precursor to the cybernetics core.

Perhaps you've seen Protoss players get only 1 cannon at their natural and wonder "Why?", and the answer is really quite simple: they scout and don't see a 9pool, so they think "Okay, he's not going to make a bunch of zerglings, but is going for something economic, and if he tries to do a run-by, I can defend the six lings with my probes" and then instead of spending the 150 minerals on a cannon, they spend that same 150 minerals to get a gateway. That way, their tech will warp in quicker, and if they feel threatened, they can always add an extra cannon or two later.

Building-for-building, your timings should go something like this:

Forge - Spawning Pool
Nexus - Hatchery
Gateway - Extractor
Cybernetics Core - Lair
Stargate - Spire

Note that their stargate will finish before your spire, unless:

A) Their build order is screwed up.
B) They intentionally got the stargate late.
C) You have some ridiculously good spire timing.

You should never assume A. After you watch the replay, you can laugh at them and be like "lol, what a noobface", but during the game, you should never just assume your opponent is playing bad. They may have done something like put three gateways in the middle of the map, so you should be suspicious if their tech just seems incredibly late for no reason. REMEMBER THIS!

For tips on defending against timing attacks, see "Engagements and micro" below.


Here are some basic building timings for a 6-Hatch style of play:

1st extractor - You need this slightly before you start your third hatchery.
2nd extractor - You want this at approximately the same as you build your hydralisk den and first evolution chamber, and after your hatcheries are all places + sunken colonies. Alternatively, if you want to get mutalisks, you need your second gas extractor before your hydralisk den. Since you'll have less hydralisks, you may want to get more sunken colonies (like 2-3ish) when going mutalisks first.
3rd extractor - Need when going for lurker aspect.
4th extractor - Need this when you get your hive.

Hydralisk Den - When you have your lair, spire, and first six hatcheries, for a total of six bases, you'll want to get the hydralisk den, hence the name, 6-Hatch Hydralisk.


Troubleshooting Q&A:


Problem: All my overlords got shot down and I got supply stuck. Should I get an early spore or earlier hydralisks?

Possible Solution - It depends. If the first couple of [initial] corsairs are doing a massive amount of damage, you may need to just make some small adjustments to your play, so that you'll be able to get the scourge out in time and punch out the corsairs. Additionally, if there is an overlord dying and you are close to your supply cap (Let's say 33/35 for example), I recommend making two overlords; one for the supply deficit, and the other to raise your supply to the next cap. Similarly, if two overlords are being shot down, get three overlords. I know it's a hefty investment, but you don't want to go into stupid mode and start plopping down a bunch of spore colonies.

That being said, spore colonies are great, but they should come after you put down your hydralisk den and evolution chamber, so you'll already have your spire to snipe corsairs and shuttles. A spore colony on it's own can't really protect against a lot of corsairs, so the spore colony provides detection at a critical time so that a dark templar cannot walk through your entrance undetected. If there are a LOT of corsairs (more than 5 or 6 I guess would be a lot for the mid game) and you are going lurkers, you will need two spores at each entrance, and also at least one in your main to defend against drops. Remember to scout his base to see what the follow-up to the corsair harass is with a pair of scourge. If you are opening with hydralisks, there still may be drops - but you won't need two spores at your natural. If you want to be extra super-safe, you can place one in your main base, but four dark templars being dropped will chop it down fairly quickly, so you'll still need to be able to move your drones to safety, then move your overlords and hydralisks together into your main to minimize the damage.


Problem: I have way too much gas and I don't know why.

Possible Solution - You might be taking your extractor too early. If you're forced to defend against a zealot attack, you need to make zerglings, and so your drone count might be lower than you want it to be. Or, you may have suffered a high templar drop and had to make a bunch of zerglings to defend against a timing attack. If this happens, just make a bunch of drones to replenish any deficit of drones or losses, and then make more lurkers/defiler with your excess gas.


Problem: I don't have enough drones at x supply and I feel like my economy is too weak to start unit production.

Possible Solution - Make more drones. I *know* I said "Make lots of drones with minimum defence, then cut all drones and start unit production", but there are exceptions to this rule. If a base is under-saturated, and you've reached your population goal, go ahead and make drones at that base with the larva at that base, and at your other hatcheries, make your units. Alternatively, you can create a round of drones from multiple hatcheries if you feel like you want all the drones right now.

Let me give you a couple of hypothetical scenarios:

In the first scenario, you seeing a spinning forge and know there's going to be some kind of +1 speedlot timing. You move your overlord into your opponent's base and see there's no stargate, but rather, gateways and then a citadel of adun. Therefore, you know your opponent is going to be moving out at around 6:30 into the game instead of 7:00, so you need to hunker down and make some sunken colonies. The main problem many players tend to run into is that they build a lot of defense and then try to take map control by making a lot of units. If you've done this, you probably know that if you're behind, you can't go head-to-head with the Protoss army. So, instead of trying to bully your way into the center of the map with Lair-tech with too few drones, I would recommend that you first defend the attack and then get your lurker aspect as soon as possible so you can hold off additional aggression. A couple of lurkers will be able to kill a lot of zealots, and this will give you time to make more drones and tech up to Hive.

Second scenario: You have to produce zerglings in the early game to stop some zealot aggression, but unfortunately, the zealots manage to kill some of your drones. Again, the solution is lurkers.

Third scenario: It doesn't matter, you should make lurkers.

Then what?

Make a couple lurkers at each entrance and then make another round of drones so you have a healthy amount of production. Build a queen's nest and start producing more lurkers, because typically, the Protoss will back off and expand once he or she sees you are turtling. During this time, the Protoss will build up a larger army for mid to late-game push with a lot of dragoons. So, after you've finished droning up, it is essentially to get to Hive so you can use your defilers to fend off the dragoons, and have enough lurkers and zerglings so that the Protoss can't simply power through your front.


Problem: I made too many drones.

Possible Solution - It's fine, just make sure you're scouting so that your opponent isn't attacking you. If they never attack you and just sit there, theoretically, you could just get all the drones you want and take a bunch of extra bases. Don't misunderstand though - if you have a problem with making too many drones, then get a piece of paper and pencil. Watch 10 of your replays and write down the time and population by which you stop making drones in each replay. Also, write down what you're building at the time. For example: "13:37, stopped making drones, have 16 hatcheries, have greater spire, ultralisk cavern, maybe I should have stopped sooner? I don't know."

Then, pick a completely arbitrary timing, something like "Around 50 population I cut drones and make units", and when you play, get to 50 population as quickly as possible. If you get there, and play like 20 or so games and it's going fine, stick with it. If you don't have enough army when you get attacked over the course of several games, you have two options: 1) Build more lurkers/static defence around the time you get attacked, 2) cut your drone production sooner and get a larger mobile army to stop the attack. Either way works.

"You need to scout better" - old StarCraft axiom


I hate talking about scouting, but it must be done. The knock-out punches are usually the ones you never see coming, so you need to make it your business to see it coming.

When it comes to scouting, your new best friend is the mini-map in the lower left-hand corner of your StarCraft interface. The mini-map should always be in the corner of your eye. I find it's easier to use the mini-map when using the shift+tab command to change the colors on the mini-map so that enemies always appear as "red" and my stuff appears as "green", but it's all a matter of personal preference. I highly recommend making your opponent appear as red, because red is very easy to see against most map canvases, and sometimes, your opponent will spawn as that light blue color that the critters also appear as. You don't need a kakaru flying into your base and making you crap your pants.

Of course, you should cover as much of the map as possible with overlords, but this is not always possible because of patrolling corsairs, and big open spaces where dragoons and archons make short work of your floating eyes in the sky. That's why you can also use zerglings to scout the open spaces. Overlords should always float over cliffs, open space, water, high ground areas, and anywhere where it's difficult to get to them with ground units. A zergling should scout every single base on the map, and every path that your army is not guarding.

Your initial scouting is pretty straight-foward; you send your overlords to the spawning points or their naturals to check them out, and when you expand, you send one drone out to scout. The drone scout should always go the opposite direction of the first overlord, so if the overlord is going around the map counter-clockwise, the drone will go clockwise, and vice-versa. If you are playing on a 2-player map, you don't need to send a drone to scout. On 4-player maps, I still recommend sending a drone out to scout while expanding, but I personally like sending my 9th drone to go scout, but I'm weird.

If you find the Protoss with your overlord, send the scouting drone to go home, or use that drone to build an expansion hatchery. Your overlord will spot a forward pylon, forge, or even a forward gateway at the Protoss natural. If you don't see anything in the natural, send the overlord to the main to see if there is Protoss in there. If no, have the overlord start moving to another location. If you see a Protoss base there, you'll know they're going with a 1-base opening. See "Engagements and Micro" and "1-Base Protoss" in the "Build orders" sections for advice on dealing with this opening.

If you find the Protoss with your drone, just send it away to either expand, or bring it home. Don't let it get stuck inside the Protoss base because of cannons warping in, and then it dies for nothing, because there's really not much to see that early in the game. When the drone spots the Protoss base, you should send your closest overlord towards the Protoss' main.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS send an overlord into the Protoss' main once you find them. You need to see what they're up to, even if it means sacrificing an overlord for the greater good of the Zerg.

Once you hatch your first six zerglings, their purpose is two-fold: killing the Protoss' scouting probe, and then scouting the entrance of the Protoss player. You need to keep them outside of range of the photon cannons, but you'll need to dart in close to check the Protoss forge to see if it's spinning, which would indicate a weapons upgrade. They will also see when zealots are moving out, which will alert you to make extra zerglings to deal with them.

1. If you see the forge spinning before the Protoss starts their stargate + citadel (or relatively close to both of them warping in), it indicates that a zealot/corsair timing attack could be developing.

2. If you don't see the forge spinning, it means the Protoss is likely using the gas for a quicker templar archives, or more corsairs, and in some cases, a robotics facility.

3. If you see the forge spinning, and see gateways before stargate and then a citadel, it means the Protoss is going for an early zealot attack.

4. If you see the forge spinning, and there is a citadel, but no stargate, it means they are going to be doing an early zealot attack.

5. If you see two stargates, it means you will be facing a very heavy corsair harass and then probably reaver or/and dark templar drops.

In the case of an early zealot attack, you'll want a second sunken colony at each natural. You will defend the attack with a combination of the sunken colonies, drone micro, and mass zerglings. If it is a corsair/zealot combo, you may also want a spore colony, but only if there are large numbers of corsairs and you can't deal with them all via scourge. DO NOT start pumping zerglings before the zealots move out. Be brave and make drones, and then when you see the zealots move out, you can start pumping units. If the zealots aren't attacking, poke in with some scouting lings just to see how many zealots there are, and if there are templar-based units, such as archons. If the zealots move out uber-late, you just start your hydra production, but be warned, they might just be waiting for high templar to accompany them, and small numbers of hydras will die easily to zealot/templar. Watch the entrance of the Protoss base with your zerglings and don't let them drag your zerglings into the cannons by baiting them.

If the Protoss is going to skip the stargate for a fast zealot attack, you have several options, with one of them being to take your second extractor after taking five hatcheries and go mutalisks, then placing 2-3 sunkens at each entrance. I would always recommend building extra defense against a very aggressive Protoss and to go lurkers instead rushing to hydralisks. If you're already getting hydralisk speed, there's no need to cancel it. Just get your lurker aspect upgrade next, and then continue.

If the Protoss is going for templar tech and is making a lot of corsairs, just make sure to get a spore colony at each entrance, and then after getting your hydra production going, get a spore colony in your main base in case of a DT drop. If this is the case, you don't need all your zerglings in front of the Protoss base. Keep 1-2 zerglings hanging around their front to spot anything that moves out, and send the other four to locations where the Protoss might expand, including the corners opposite to the Protoss main.

Once you stabilize the Protoss' player's attack, send all your zerglings to intercept the Protoss player's attempt to take a third base. If there is no base anywhere, it means either two things: the Protoss hasn't placed their third yet, and you need to snipe the probe, -OR-, the Protoss is building more gateways for an all-in.

Taking on a big two-base Protoss isn't as bad as it might seem - just make sure you get your hive as quickly as possible and start building a lot of lurkers. Because they will only have two gas geysers, the Protoss will only be able to field a very low tech army consisting mainly of dragoons and zealots. If you have a lot of lurkers and zerglings with the adrenaline gland upgrade, you can stop their big attack and be in an excellent position, because they will be about 60%-70% mined out at that point.

Ultimately, the goal of your scouting is to see what your opponent is doing throughout the game. You should try to maintain a map presence with zerglings along the possible paths your opponent can take, and have overlords over the water and difficult-to-reach high ground areas.




Make sure to have a zergling at every expansion, and maybe one overlord where the Protoss normally takes their fourth base. If the map has islands or unreachable areas, make sure these areas are also scouted by overlords.

During the wars between England and France during the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte would meticulously study the terrain for anything that could give him the upperhand on the battlefield. But that's not important right now. Let's talk maps.

I like to first break down the maps by basic lay-outs and terrain features, and the three most common maps are:

Flat maps: These maps are mostly or all flat in the center. This would include maps like Python, Colosseum, Fighting Spirit, Jade (although the middle is elevated), Electric Circuit, Neomedusa, Circuit Breaker, and so on. You typically need a large number of units to create a large arc around the Protoss force when you engage.

Positional maps: These maps have a lot of high grounds, small choke points, bridges and ramps that require you to hold certain key areas in order to secure an advantage. Having a lot of hydralisks will be counter-productive because they will squish together and get eaten by psi storms, so lurkers and zerglings are best on this type of map. Maps like Destination, Bloody Ridge, Sniper Ridge, Heartbreak Ridge, and Polaris Rhapsody.

Looping maps: These maps are similar to positional maps, but have a lot of different paths that go all over the place. These maps work similar to positional maps, but with more smaller paths to allow your opponent to go around your blocking lurkers. This kind of map includes Matchpoint, Benzene, and a few others.


Now, you be like "What the hell, so and so map isn't that type of map!" and you might just be right - some maps carry multiple attributes. You can open any way you want - whether it be hydralisks, lurkers, mutalisks, or even mass zerglings - but it's more optimal to mass a lot of static defense in lurkers and defilers on some maps, and be patient until you have enough forces to pick up all the lurkers and move your static defense forward.

On a flat map, you can (and I advise you to do so) make some static defense, but to utilize a large amount static defense offensively will be difficult, because you need to cover such a huge area. Therefore, a much a more mobile force will be able to engage in the most optimal matter.

If the map you are playing has island expansions (such as Andromeda, Python, Lost Temple, Grand Line SE, etc.) plan to get overlord drop upgrades as soon as your hive finishes so that you can take the island expansions.

Certain maps will not allow you to simcity your entrance properly, but for the most part, I've not noticed a huge difference in play from the Protoss overall. It is actually more difficult to defend against a Protoss who skips stargate and goes straight to speed zealots though on a wide-entrance map without getting mutalisks. Certain maps will allow you to just block off your entrance with buildings and zerglings and be fine, but on maps like Circuit Breaker, Python, and certain position on Dante's Peak, there are too many gaps and you'll need mutalisks if you scout such a build incoming.

The strongest maps for Zerg vs Protoss (in my opinion) are the maps where the Protoss' closest third base is a mineral-only expansion. The toughest maps are the ones where the Protoss has an easily-defensible third base with gas, because suppressing their expansion from going up is nearly impossible.

In this section, I'm going to advise you on how to pick engagements and a few general ideas to make those big, big battles a bit more precise. Of course, this topic is one of the most complex topics in StarCraft, so I would really urge you to realize that pretty much everything I say here is completely theoretical in nature. On top of this area of discussion's complexity is the diversity of situations to address, because there are literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of micro situations that you will need to pre-plan or at least have a basic framework in your mind of how to execute, so you don't end up throwing tons of units into the fire. An 'engagement' in this guide will defined as your forces fighting your opponent's forces.

Rule #1: (and the only rule) Do not engage your opponent because you feel any kind of panic, fear, anxiety, anger, sexual attraction, or any other kind of emotional stimuli. I'm not saying "Don't react and be a robot." I'm saying that you need to pick your engagements based on logic, calm thinking, positioning, and by evaluating your situation accurately.

I'm going to split the types of engagements into 4 basic situations:

- Small battles
- Medium battles
- Big battles
- Defensive battles


But first, some basic controls and concepts:

To "Box" units, left click the ground, and while holding the left mouse button, you drag a green box over a bunch of units to select them.
The right-click will move units to a location, but they will not attack until they reach their destination. This is particularly useful if you want your units to move past other units to surround them, or retreat from an enemy.
Pressing 'A' (for attack): Your units move to the clicked location and attack all enemies along the way. Units not in range will move as quickly as possible to get in range to attack.
'S' (for stop): Orders the unit to stop moving. If an enemy unit gets within range of your unit(s), they will move to attack and will chase enemy units.
'H' (for hold): Orders the unit to stop moving and to stay. If an enemy unit gets within range of your unit(s), they will attack units in their range and will NOT chase enemy units, even if an enemy unit with a longer range fires at them. If your unit is a melee unit (having an attack range of zero), they will not attack ranged units that fire at them.
Units that are within a certain range of each other will move in formation, but when moving long distances, will break formation and begin running in a line.
Units that are moving in a line to attack are very inefficient against a clumped enemy force or an arc of enemy forces, because the unit in front will stop to fire, and the units behind the front unit will move off to the sides, and then get into range to fire, which can lead to a messy situation where most of your forces are near the enemy, but not engaging because they are not in range.
In any battle, you want to maximize the damage you do per second by having all of your units attacking simultaneously. If you have 10 hydralisks, you want all 10 to be firing at the same time, rather than having them begin to engage 2 at a time.

You may have heard the term "1a2a3a" if you've played BroodWar for awhile. 1a2a3a is a large army maneuver where you take several hotkeyed groups and order them all to attack a certain area at once. This will get a bunch of units running in the same direction to attack. To do this for yourself, select a group of 12 units and set them to '1'. Repeat this until you have groups 1,2,3, and 4, for a total of 48 units. Press '1' on the keyboard, then press 'A', and then left-click the ground/somewhere on the mini-map/specific enemy unit/building, and that group will go to attack what you've selected. Press '2', and do the same thing. Press '3', and do the same thing. And so on. The quicker you can do this, the more units you can move in one direction to attack, making your control much more versatile. Remember though, if you order the units to attack something, especially as a large set of groups, they will start running in a line to attack, so you'll either want your units to re-group before attacking, or set up an arc to attack.


Small battles

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Medium (mid-game) battle

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Big Battles

+ Show Spoiler +

Defensive

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"Simcity" is the act of pre-planning where you're going to place your buildings so that they are set up in a manner that is helpful to you. If you've ever seen the AI play StarCraft, it's absolute abysmal in its simcity. The AI just throws buildings wherever and has a messy, horrible, sloppy base, full of random buildings. You, on the other hand, can adapt your brain to plan for each map you play, so you don't have to have a messy base. In reality, the way you set up your bases' interior is completely up to you, but I would recommend not putting every single tech building in your main, because if it dies, you lose YOUR WHOLE TECH TREE INSTANTLY.

All right, so first, let's look at this overly-elaborate diagram I made:



This is a "wall" - a pre-planned line of buildings used to buffer for your sunken colonies in the early and mid game. Notice that the sunken colonies can fire beyond the range of the wall, whereas Protoss melee units have to try and cut through the wall, which will lead to massive losses if you have zerglings to help defend, or go around it through the drone field. Blocking the gaps in the wall with zerglings is an essential part to making the wall viable for use.

There are way too many walls for me to copy+paste here, and I don't want to be up all night making walls on maps and taking screen shots, so let me direct you to some resources:

Fighting Spirit <- search a map on liquipedia, and scroll down to the "wall-ins" section for Zerg.
Chef's Guide To Walling

"Tricks" are little things that you can do to give yourself a bit of an edge in games, but won't necessarily break you if you don't do them. There are a ton of tricks you can do, but let me share a few of my favorites:

Burrow

Getting burrow lets you be obnoxious by burrowing zerglings at the expansions, so that the Protoss can't immediately put down a nexus, which good for maps like Fighting Spirit and Bloody Ridge where it's super-easy for them to take a quick third base just by blocking their ramp. Burrowing can also save your drones from reavers like you won't believe.

Larva trick

Always do the larva trick, and always shower 30 minutes before sex. If you start in any position where your minerals are to the left of your spawning location, after you've done your split and morph your first larva into an egg, select the larva, and shift-select to group them with your starting overlord, then hit "s" and the larva will scoot over to the left.

Strategic lurker

If a Protoss builds a base and you can't stop it, there's a very mean trick you can do - position lurkers in the path of their probe transfer. When they maynard their probes over to the new expansion, the probes will run over the lurkers and all die. You can also place a lurker in a place where you expect the Protoss to send a probe to expand. Then when the probe goes over there to make a pylon, it dies.

Double lurker drop

If there are no cannons behind the mineral lines at an expansion, here is a fun idea: drop two lurkers at the ramp and burrow them. Drop two more lurker behind the minerals, so that when the probes run up the ramp to escape, they will run right into the lurkers on the ramp.

If you can think of more tricks, let me know so I can add them.

This section is going to be a bit redundant, so feel free to skip this if you've read the rest of the guide. However, in this section, I'd like to go over some of the essential bits to playing against a Protoss who opens with only one base instead of expanding.

First, scout this. Don't just scout with overlords on a four or three player map, because if the Protoss goes 1-base and you decide to double expand, you might just lose to something ridiculous. You should never assume that your opponent is going to expand quickly. 1-base play is quite common, but it comes in many varieties, so let's just start with how to scout.

You should send an overlord to the closest natural, not main base area. On a 2-player map, this will immediately let you know if they have expanded or not. If there is a forge or nexus at their natural on a 2-player map, then you can safely rule out one-base play most of the time, unless they inadvertently block where they're going to place their nexus with cannons or their pylon. However, if you see nothing at the expansion, then send the overlord into their main. When you do scout the main of the Protoss base, you should see one of the following if they have not fast-expanded:

• If you see only a nexus, then they probably have built proxy gates.
  
• If you see a pylon, no gas, and then see a second gateway placed, then it is a 10/12 gate build.
  
• If you see a pylon, no gas, see two gates, and a zealot emerging, then it is a 9/9 gate build.
  
• If you see a pylon, an assimilator, and a gateway, then it is a 1-base tech build.
  
• If you see a pylon and forge with no gas, then there is most likely a proxy, which is either cannons or gateways and cannons.
  
• If you see a pylon and forge with gas, then you're facing a rare 1-base +1 weapon build. (No joke, this is a real thing)
  

The timings for 10/12 and 9/9 gate builds vary depending on the map you use. If you play on a four-player map or three-player map, you should also drone scout on top of the overlord scout. You can send the drone out at 9/9 population if you go 12-hatch, but can still scout at 12/18 if you feel a bit less scared. Typically, the Protoss probe will reach your base later during 1-base play than in the case of a forge expand, because they send out their probe to scout after they place their first gateway with 1-base play.

Your opening response should be to defend their attack and then build up a decent economy that you can utilize to make a lot of hydralisks and zerglings. Do not rush to get your gas extractor. Instead, get six zerglings at least (if they go double gates, you will need more), and place your third hatchery at 13 or 14 population unless you need to place your sunken colony(s) first.

In some cases, you may go 12-hatch and face a double gate opening. If this is the case, you will have to delay putting down the third hatchery to place two sunken colonies at your natural. One of these sunken colonies will die, and the other one must live. The timing of a 12-hatch works out so that your opponent's first zealot reaches your natural before you have zerglings, so once the hatchery opens up and starts spreading creep, two drones should morph into two creep colonies. The Protoss will focus-fire on one of the creep colonies. As this happens, you will just spawning as many zerglings as possible to save the other creep colony. Never attack the zealots in small groups, but be a little bit patient, so that you can attack each zealot with at least three zerglings. If the Protoss continues to send zealots, then continue building zerglings, and place another sunken colony if the zealot numbers exceeds 7-8, and especially if there is more than one probe with the zealots.

If you open pool first, then you shouldn't worry too much about having to place sunken colonies until there are around 6-8 zealots. If the Protoss is not very skilled, he will send his first zealot out, which you can easily kill off with six zerglings. A smarter Protoss will hold back at his/her ramp until there are around five zealots or more, then go attack.

Against a 1-base tech Protoss, you should always be able to get your third hatchery at your natural at 13 or 14 without getting a sunken colony, because they won't be able to pressure you very much with only 1 gateway, so your zerglings will be able to ward them off if they press forward with anything. You don't want to immediately rush to gas, but you do want to take it around 14 or 15 population, so you can build a hydralisk den. Make sure to get the hydralisk den first, then hydralisk speed, then lair, then hydralisk range. Once the lair is finished, immediately get overlord speed. This will allow you to deflect the corsair/dark templar from killing you. Initially, only build two hydralisks, and produce all of your overlords from your natural's hatcheries until you have overlord speed. Send all the overlords to hang out over the hydralisks at your entrance, and go back to producing drones until your hydralisk speed is done, which will be around 35 population. At that point, you can make more drones if you want to be more passive, or start making hydralisks if you want to be aggressive. In some cases, like against 1-base speed zealots, you will need to produce hydralisks to defend against the attack, so be sure to scout as much as you can with your lings and overlords. Don't lose more than two overlords, or you could find yourself in deep trouble a bit later on. Only use the overlords if you can't figure out what your opponent is doing with the zerglings. If you get the opportunity, get a zergling into your opponent's base to see his/her tech.

So, a few things to remember:

- Get your second gas when you start your hydralisk speed.
- If you know your opponent is going 1-base tech, but there are no corsairs after your first hydras pop out, you should get suspicious of the Protoss going dragoon/reaver. You will need to cut drones at about 24 population to start making hydralisks to stop this attack from working.
- Get your Lurker Aspect once you have the desired number of hydralisks. You will need the lurkers to take an expansion.
- When you want to expand, send a small group of hydralisks, lurkers and at least one overlord to that spot first to clean up dark templar.
- If you are facing some sort of drop play, fan out your overlords (if you can, and the skies are safe) to spot for shuttles.
- If your opponent takes an expansion at their natural, you have a very narrow timing window to "break" it. Once they have high templar and plenty of cannons, you won't be able to push through. Don't flip out if you can't win outright there though. You can still set up a contain with hydras and lurkers, but be sure to take an expansion and to get a spire so that you don't die to drops, because the Protoss will almost certainly send out shuttles if they get contained.
- If you can't set up a contain, just camp your lurkers at your entrances, and get around 14 drones to your third base (3 for gas, 1 for an extractor, 10 to mine minerals, and you should build at least one from your third to make an extra hatchery.) and then start pumping out a big lurker/hydralisk/zergling army.

So, when do you get your upgrades? Really, it's a matter of preference, but I would say to make sure you get your hydralisk speed and lair before getting your evolution chamber. Don't wait too long to get it, though, because if your opponent expands, you know he/she will have a forge, and it will be upgrading weapons for the Protoss.

When do you get your hive? After you take your third base, you'll want to get your queen's nest, spire, and second evolution chamber. You'll need the defiler mound and adrenaline glands to help boost your army's strength in the late game.

Why not go mutalisks? You can go mutalisks after your lair finishes, but since the Protoss will have corsair out way before you ever get close to having a spire, the Protoss will be able to prepare accordingly for mutalisks. If you want to go +1 carapace mutalisks, it will be difficult with a two-base economy to afford the amount of gas required, and the timing will not come in time to catch the Protoss off-guard. If, however, you hide the spire well, you can catch the Protoss off-guard. Additionally, you can also place a spire simply for the scourge, but your lurker tech will come a bit later.

+ Show Spoiler [A fun little build I like to use] +

So, with such a large amount of information, you may be wondering "Okay, how can I possibly use all of this?" Well, the answer to that is EZ PZ. You go through a check-list of items in your head, or that you write down on a piece of paper, or your hand, that you go through repeatedly throughout the game to make sure you're doing what you need to do.

Another thing that might come up is "This is all elementary information", but StarCraft is a really complex game made up of very simple puzzle pieces. Of course, again, I'm not a super-genius, so I'm sticking to sharing what I know - simple stuff.

Also, you'll need to know what to do in the late game, and super-late game, so let's go into that first. So let's talk about what you do want, and then what you don't want. You do want to take a lot of bases. Having four bases is cool and everything, but you want to keep adding to your advantage by increasing the number of bases that you have operational. Protoss units are very expensive, and as a race, they tend to mine out very quickly, so if you have a huge economy, you will have a gigantic army, and even if you trade armies less-than-favorably, you'll still be able to whittle down the Protoss army to nothing. Make it your objective to take more than half the map. Even if you don't mine from the expansions you take, sometimes the Protoss army will be pulled over to attack those expansions while you attack the Protoss' bases. Don't make it a habit to throw away bases though, because that's just dumb.



Going into the late game


There's no two-ways about it; if you're going to play into the late game, you're going to need your hive tech - adrenaline glands, +3 upgrades, defiler mound, ultralisk tavern, and possibly a greater spire if you need to snipe something over a cliff. You'll also need to expand often and while putting pressure on the Protoss. "Pressure" doesn't necessarily mean attacking, but harassing here and there, and posturing your army as if you intend to attack. This will pull their forces away from potential expansions. If you have a free expansion (like a back door expo), go ahead and take it whenever you like. On Fighting Spirit, it's actually quite easy to take 6 bases, because the map is basically divided up into 4 quadrants, and once you have a natural and main in two quadrants, you can easily put lurkers into position to secure the small ramps and double expand.

Don't take expansions if you have no means of doing so. If you have a huge army on the map with lots of lurkers, go for it. Take an expansion, or even double expand, or even triple expand. But don't lose your whole army and go "Welp, time to take an expo". Remember to always send an overlord to a place you intend to expand to. Nothing sucks more than not having an expansion because the drone you sent died to one dark templar or zealot.

Another thing I recommend you don't do is go Ultralisk/Zergling unless your opponent is obsessed with dragoons and doesn't believe in building higher-tier units. I'm not saying "Don't ever attack with ultralisk/zergling", because if there's an open base with just cannons and one reaver, fucking go for it. Send the ultralisks in first to take the reaver/cannon hits, and let the zerglings rip the base apart. I highly recommend having an army of mostly lurkers, hydralisks, and tons of zerglings. Then you can support your army with defilers and ultralisks. Because of this, you'll need three evolution chambers so you can max out your upgrades every game. You'll also need a bunch of macro hatcheries to create a lot of cheap units, so you can rapidly regenerate your army after engagements.

I would recommend steadily adding 4 macro hatcheries after your first six hatcheries, and then later, increasing your hatchery count from 10 to 14 when you start making zerglings. You want to get around 10 drones at your extra main, then add the extra macro hatcheries, then increase the number of drones to 15, plus the 3 to mine from the extractor.
You do NOT want your opponent to get any more than 4 gas geysers, because then the game will become volumes more difficult, so you want to start off denying the Protoss the opportunity to expand to their third base, and then to a fourth base. The longer you can delay the Protoss from taking additional gas geysers, the longer they will be forced to stay on a low-tier army, and will be relatively easy to deal with.

Don't go for a doom-drop except as a death blow when the Protoss player cannot defend their main base.
Your zerglings with adrenaline glands (or cracklings, as they are commonly referred to as) are wonderful for killing expansions that are defended only by cannons. Once you win your first big battle, you need to start immediately position to deny the Protoss from taking additional bases by placing a large lurker field on the map between their natural (where their forces rally to) and where they want to expand to. If they get desperate and try to push through the lurker field, poof down your dark swarms, then pour in your zerglings, hydralisks and ultralisks to that area. Then start taking over a third quadrant of the map, and the Protoss will starve very quickly. If you are playing on a two-player map, simply take the remaining expansion or two.

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If you first engagement doesn't go so well, the Protoss will probably take their fourth base, so the game will go longer, but it's by no means a lost cause. Don't panic and try to throw cracklings to kill the fourth base, but instead, regenerate your army and mass up a huge force again. At this point, the Protoss may decide to turtle up, and if that's the case, take all the available bases, including the middle base, if it's applicable for that map. If they decide to engage, you need to win the big fight, or you'll be looking at a 40+ minute game. If you win the fight, the Protoss will have very little army to defend, so you have the option to attack a base, and I recommend attacking their 5th base with a huge attack or huge drop. Make sure the drop includes ultralisks, a lot of zerglings and defiler.

If you screw up a lot, just try to take as much of the map as possible and defend until they run out of money. Grinding out a long game with a Protoss with a lot of bases is not an easy task, because once they acquire a very large number of reavers, their army becomes extremely tough to deal with. If it reaches that point, play almost purely defensively, unless they suicide their whole army and you can snipe something for very little money. You need a lot of every kind of unit, but especially lurkers and defilers. Link your rally points by nydus canal to your outer bases so you can quickly reinforce them in case a defiler gets sniped or something.


Checklist

There's a lot to remember during the late game, mid-game, and even early game, but it should all be geared to converging to building a super-strong late game so that you can absolutely crush your opponent. Along the way, you should go through a checklist of items to make sure you're doing what you need to be doing. Don't worry if something goes awry, like a DT drop in your main and all your drones are dying and your minerals spike to 2000 while you micro one group of hydralisks to stop it. That stuff happens, and it's very distracting. The more you go through your checklist though, the more natural it will feel, and even if you're under pressure, you'll be able to breeze through it calmly.

1. Larva; every 14 seconds (approximately 4 times per game minute), you need to go through the full spectrum of your hatcheries and produce things from your larvas.

2. Look at the mini-map. Keep glancing over to it, and moving single units to the darkened areas. If an area goes dark, make sure you find out why right away.

3. Watch your food count, and make damn sure you don't get supply stuck. The thing I hate the most while playing is when I need units, and I can't build them because I don't have overlords.

4. Make sure you are getting your upgrades. Click on the evolution chambers, and other buildings periodically to check their progress, especially when you hear the Overmind yell "Evolution complete!"


These four rules apply throughout the entire game. Rule 1 is the most important, because it builds you all your drones, overlords and units.

Rules for the late game:

Note: Late game is after you've completed your initial build order and are getting your hive.

2.1 - If you have extra money, and cannot expand yet, build a macro hatchery. Extra money is when either A) you have used all your larva, all your upgrades are going, and still have money to spend -or- B) You have a timing where you cut drone/unit production to add on extra macro hatcheries.

2.2 - Think about where you want to expand in advance, so you can scout the area early, then expand there when you want. Send an overlord to check the spot out. If there is a dark templar there, kill it, plop down a few lurkers there, and make the hatchery. Expect the Protoss to attack this area.

2.3 - Keep on scouting, especially if the Protoss has an unusually small army, because it could mean he's building up an air fleet. Scouting is also important for picking your engagements.

2.4 - Make sure everything is defended properly. Just having a lurker field with no spore colony is not adequate to defend, because a single dark templar with an observer overhead could just kill them all. You want to have a defiler at each base, lurkers at each mining base (if the base is mined out and there's no tech there, just have your lurkers abandon it, so you can concentrate your defence at a more important location), an overlord at each base, and scouting zerglings around the map so you can see which path the Protoss army is taking. Keep scourge around the edges of the map, and your bases to intercept shuttles and possibly arbiters.