• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 09:40
CET 15:40
KST 23:40
  • 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
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)10Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns6[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 103SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1822Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises3
StarCraft 2
General
Spontaneous hotkey change zerg Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises
Tourneys
$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) WardiTV Winter Cup WardiTV Mondays SC2 AI Tournament 2026 OSC Season 13 World Championship
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes Mutation # 504 Retribution
Brood War
General
Potential ASL qualifier breakthroughs? BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ I would like to say something about StarCraft BW General Discussion StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 SLON Grand Finals – Season 2
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Mechabellum Beyond All Reason Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Awesome Games Done Quick 2026! General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced
Blogs
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Psychological Factors That D…
TrAiDoS
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2694 users

Hiding Defilers

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
Crimson)S(hadow
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
Philippines596 Posts
August 25 2023 01:35 GMT
#1
messed around trying to find ways to hide defilers from irradiate, made a quick video on what i found
"It's the end of the BW era which i devoted everything to for 10 years. I tried playing sc2, but my BW memories run too deep; I felt like I was playing an entirely different game" -ToSsGirL
Nirli
Profile Joined February 2023
Bulgaria378 Posts
August 25 2023 14:56 GMT
#2
Might as well burrow them with a pair of lings, one click and done.
Highgamer
Profile Joined October 2015
1444 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-08-25 16:19:15
August 25 2023 16:17 GMT
#3
On August 25 2023 23:56 Nirli wrote:
Might as well burrow them with a pair of lings, one click and done.

If Terran saw it and remembers the units' positions he can still target the burrowed defiler though. And sometimes lings are not present.

But of course: It's a very situational, niche trick. And most Terrans will just spam the command and will lose but 1-2 seconds.

Still, definitelly could create a pimpest play situation if the spam doesn't work - or if a hidden lone defiler suddenly pops up and crashes a sunken-break party at the 4th or something.
MeSaber
Profile Joined December 2009
Sweden1235 Posts
August 26 2023 04:49 GMT
#4
Safest is defiler in overlord and an overlord is usually present at all times.

Practicality is another issue.
-.-
Crimson)S(hadow
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
Philippines596 Posts
August 26 2023 05:15 GMT
#5
i just want to normalize more moments like this:


usually you only use 1-2 defilers with your main army, with spares hiding near nydus to run from irradiates. but having spare defilers burrowed & hiding under an antenna seems a lot less APM intensive, especially if terran doesn't even see the burrow hole. for example, i taught the trick to my friend, and when i offrace TvZ against him, even if I know the trick, most of the time i don't even see when he uses it against me.
"It's the end of the BW era which i devoted everything to for 10 years. I tried playing sc2, but my BW memories run too deep; I felt like I was playing an entirely different game" -ToSsGirL
XenOsky
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Chile2303 Posts
August 27 2023 01:59 GMT
#6
why not use overlords like shuttle with high templar.
StarCraft & Audax Italiano.
Ideas
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
United States8148 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-08-27 14:51:37
August 27 2023 14:51 GMT
#7
On August 27 2023 10:59 XenOsky wrote:
why not use overlords like shuttle with high templar.


I would think because the cost of the double upgrade for speed + drop and then overlords can just get irradiated and the splash from that can still kill/damage your defilers and other units.

OP's technique seems APM intensive but potentially really strong. Getting burrow needs to be more normalized in ZvT anyway to counter eraser trick anyway IMO. I hope this makes it's way to the pro scene and see them experiment with it lol
Free Palestine
MeSaber
Profile Joined December 2009
Sweden1235 Posts
August 28 2023 07:47 GMT
#8
On August 26 2023 14:15 Crimson)S(hadow wrote:
i just want to normalize more moments like this:
https://youtu.be/nPZJaYTJV8M?feature=shared&t=5

usually you only use 1-2 defilers with your main army, with spares hiding near nydus to run from irradiates. but having spare defilers burrowed & hiding under an antenna seems a lot less APM intensive, especially if terran doesn't even see the burrow hole. for example, i taught the trick to my friend, and when i offrace TvZ against him, even if I know the trick, most of the time i don't even see when he uses it against me.


But the problem there isnt the expansion but rather what you do against dropships. Artosis has the wrong composition and need dropships instead of mass vessels. Vessels are great but dropships have always been the winning factor against a zerg with swarm.

BCs also an option with restoration.
-.-
MeSaber
Profile Joined December 2009
Sweden1235 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-08-28 08:11:40
August 28 2023 08:05 GMT
#9
To hide defilers you have some other options. You can burrow a ling above it, then clicked its the ling thats being selected. Second you can burrow a lot of lings around the defiler to mask it, having the opponent click every burrowed unit to find the defiler, you can semi stack with this to make it a chore enough to just skip irradiation completely, the scan only lasts for so long until it has to be rescanned, with enough lings burrowed it might take too long to find. For an irradiation you need vision of the target for the whole duration irradiation is to be casted, if vision is gone it will be invalid target, then you will have to redo the whole process or remember defiler position.

I havent found out exactly how the stacking order works, sometimes the ling at the top and sometimes not.

To stack you pick a unit, click patrol on the burrowed unit, click burrow when its close or ontop depending of lag of the game.

One thing is for sure, having burrow makes defilers much harder to irradiate as you cant use the irradiation cast from over the whole map for said reason.
-.-
Crimson)S(hadow
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
Philippines596 Posts
August 29 2023 04:16 GMT
#10
On August 28 2023 17:05 MeSaber wrote:
To hide defilers you have some other options. You can burrow a ling above it, then clicked its the ling thats being selected. Second you can burrow a lot of lings around the defiler to mask it, having the opponent click every burrowed unit to find the defiler, you can semi stack with this to make it a chore enough to just skip irradiation completely, the scan only lasts for so long until it has to be rescanned, with enough lings burrowed it might take too long to find. For an irradiation you need vision of the target for the whole duration irradiation is to be casted, if vision is gone it will be invalid target, then you will have to redo the whole process or remember defiler position.

I havent found out exactly how the stacking order works, sometimes the ling at the top and sometimes not.

To stack you pick a unit, click patrol on the burrowed unit, click burrow when its close or ontop depending of lag of the game.

One thing is for sure, having burrow makes defilers much harder to irradiate as you cant use the irradiation cast from over the whole map for said reason.


figuring out how burrow order works and possibly being able to intentionally manipulate it holds so much potential
"It's the end of the BW era which i devoted everything to for 10 years. I tried playing sc2, but my BW memories run too deep; I felt like I was playing an entirely different game" -ToSsGirL
MeSaber
Profile Joined December 2009
Sweden1235 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-08-30 07:06:37
August 30 2023 06:57 GMT
#11
I was trying to find this out with my programmeing expert wnr75 but we lead to believe its memory reference based so no way of manipulating it.

Example: unit is created, it gets an id put in memory spot x (randomly), second unit created gets and id and put in memory spot y which is before spot x so it ends up at the top of the stack order.

We tried many many things to make it work but ended up with random memory location as the stack order.

Another thing we found is different selection order based on amount of units being selected.

Example you select exactly 12 units (the max amount) then it got the order of min x -> max x (left to right) in the selection window, while selecting more than 12 units made the selection order random (maybe also memory reference).

Why would you ever care about this selection order? Well it could be used to send units in parallell lines. Example you select 6 mutas in a horizontal line, they then get the order, most left muta = first in selection window. If you would want to send each muta downwards in a straight line you would select all mutas then move command then deselect(shift key) each muta from the top left of selection window to make mutas be deselected from left to right.

There are moments i actually use this to not have all selected units cross each other but instead take the shortest route. Example if you have 2 mutas horizontally you would want left muta to go left and right to right if split up.

One thing to note is that if you hotkey a group of units the selection window order is never random for each time you select the group with a hotkey (ctrl-1). It keeps the original order from when the hotkey group was saved so if you mix your units up the most left unit after mixing might not be the first unit in selection window anymore.

This has its own usecases to cast spells. If you hotkey say 6 HTs in ctrl-1, the order of each HT will never change in selection window, if you remember what HTs you clicked in selection window to throw storms you will know which ones you used up already.

Its also a quick way to check energy on each HT: click 1, select first HT, no E, repeat.

Just to mention the fastest way to check E on many HTs: select your HTs, click storm and throw it somewhere on minimap out of range, the ones who moves have E. Click Stop.
-.-
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
WardiTV Invitational
14:00
Group A
ByuN vs PercivalLIVE!
Percival vs Rogue
Percival vs Classic
ByuN vs Classic
ByuN vs Rogue
Classic vs Rogue
WardiTV1440
IndyStarCraft 125
LiquipediaDiscussion
RongYI Cup
11:00
Qualifier 1
TKL 296
Rex143
3DClanTV 56
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
TKL 296
Rex 143
IndyStarCraft 125
Railgan 31
SC2Nice 19
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 51530
Horang2 2302
Shuttle 2044
Mini 1226
Stork 801
Larva 749
EffOrt 670
ZerO 635
Soma 473
Light 441
[ Show more ]
ggaemo 340
Rush 310
Zeus 265
firebathero 215
hero 213
Leta 151
Last 138
Pusan 122
Hyun 112
Sharp 94
Barracks 90
Mind 55
Sea.KH 50
sorry 41
Free 33
Movie 31
Aegong 31
HiyA 28
ToSsGirL 28
Yoon 25
yabsab 21
Terrorterran 17
Sacsri 16
Shine 11
GoRush 8
Dota 2
Gorgc4929
qojqva3019
XcaliburYe343
syndereN247
ODPixel124
BananaSlamJamma113
Counter-Strike
byalli593
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King91
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor345
Other Games
singsing2679
B2W.Neo1803
Hui .293
DeMusliM241
ZerO(Twitch)22
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV42
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 9
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH214
• intothetv
• Kozan
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• Migwel
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 2812
• lizZardDota2112
• HappyZerGling71
League of Legends
• Nemesis4646
• Jankos3806
Upcoming Events
IPSL
5h 20m
DragOn vs Sziky
Replay Cast
18h 20m
Wardi Open
21h 20m
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 2h
WardiTV Invitational
1d 21h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
OSC
3 days
OSC
4 days
All Star Teams
5 days
INnoVation vs soO
sOs vs Scarlett
[ Show More ]
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
5 days
All Star Teams
6 days
MMA vs DongRaeGu
Rogue vs Oliveira
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
OSC
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-10
Big Gabe Cup #3
META Madness #9

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
Escore Tournament S1: W4
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Rongyi Cup S3
Thunderfire SC2 All-star 2025
Nations Cup 2026
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
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.