• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 09:24
CEST 15:24
KST 22:24
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters9[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244
Community News
Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism5Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon?118Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)9Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over3New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!46
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism Nexon wins bid to develop StarCraft IP content, distribute Overwatch mobile game Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) SC4ALL: II Winner Will Earn a Spot at HSC 30! Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over
Tourneys
Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) 2026 GSTL Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 542 The Ascended Mutation # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This
Brood War
General
Official StarCraft website teases new content ahead of BlizzCon? [ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters ASL22 General Discussion Pros React To: Calm's Big Brain Play Vs Mini New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro16 Group B [Megathread] Daily Proleagues 2v2v2v2 Tournament [ASL22] Ro16 Group A
Strategy
Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Game Theory for Starcraft
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread EVE Corporation Diablo IV [Maplestory Hardcore] Let's Play~!! General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
F* the Children and Get Off …
TrAiDoS
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Regacy Esports: The Bh…
regacyesports
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 6274 users

Why zerg always builds mutalisks vs terran?

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
SiarX
Profile Joined December 2021
133 Posts
April 12 2024 15:52 GMT
#1
They are costly investments, and often do not deal that much damage to justify cost. I get that they are supposed to keep terran on his base, but would not building many lurkers instead succesfully protect zerg bases, too?
HerbMon
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United States472 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-04-12 19:33:25
April 12 2024 17:42 GMT
#2
Scouting a Zerg going lurker is fairly easy to sniff out. If the Zerg goes for the fastest lurker timing they can't get their third, which makes them very two base heavy. So if the Zerg commits to this they need todo damage or they're significantly behind economically. Also Terran will sit behind bunker and turret untill they get 3 siege tank and vessel.
How we will win in the period ahead.
CHEONSOYUN
Profile Joined August 2017
615 Posts
April 12 2024 20:30 GMT
#3
zergs fight terrans asymmetrically
JAEDONG...!!! EFFORT IS ANGRY. ZERG...?!
Nirli
Profile Joined February 2023
Bulgaria387 Posts
April 13 2024 01:15 GMT
#4
Because lurkers don't fly.
avanhokie
Profile Joined May 2017
50 Posts
April 13 2024 07:27 GMT
#5
Mutalisks have far greater flexibility, they can defend a push and harass. Lurkers have more limited options in my opinion, outright kill with fast initial lurkers, contain and expand to the 3rd gas and transition, or contain and kill with fast defiler.
Soulforged
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Latvia981 Posts
April 13 2024 14:26 GMT
#6
Because it is a fucking awesome unit
IntoTheWow
Profile Blog Joined May 2004
is awesome32281 Posts
April 14 2024 14:30 GMT
#7
On April 13 2024 00:52 SiarX wrote:
They are costly investments, and often do not deal that much damage to justify cost. I get that they are supposed to keep terran on his base, but would not building many lurkers instead succesfully protect zerg bases, too?


If you watch some progames, you can see the amount of turrets terran need to make to hold different variations of muta openings. Sometimes they can do with 6 or so, sometimes they more and they also need to rebuild the ones destroyed by mutalisks.
If terran needs to make around 10~12 turrets to hold in the end, that's 750~900 minerals alone (+eng bay), without taking into account the lost SCV mining time because of: building/rebuilding turrets and dead SCVs.

As others have said, if you go lurker, Terran will sit behind a bunker and wait for a good timming. Lurkers don't work well in small numbers versus a Terran army. As a Zerg you will end up being the reactive one, burrowing/unburrowing and taking chip damage everywhere while they Terran manouvers around the map. The moment siege is up, you are on a timer to defend or lose your natural.
You will also lose map control. Pro terrans are very good at skirmishing versus low population zerg armies. You could be dead by a single scan, runby or a drop.

A muta opening not only keeps Terran blind and on the defensive, but forces the Terran to tech to move out, keeps their army small (it's hard to move out versus a good Muta user) and gives some breathing room to expand.
Moderator<:3-/-<
XenOsky
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Chile2358 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-04-15 07:54:44
April 15 2024 07:11 GMT
#8
lurkers used to be the way to go vs terran back in the day, but lack of movility made it difficult to play vs sk terran, mutas were able to hit before a critical number of marines and gave zergs the ability to move arround the map while forcing turrets.

with time muta control got A LOT better, so mutas became basically the only playable openning.

same shit is happening with reavers in PvT... u can attack or defend with reavers while expanding or reduce the number of terran units while T is pushing...
ἡ τῆς Νεμέσεως τάξις
rusty23456
Profile Joined September 2009
United States112 Posts
April 16 2024 22:35 GMT
#9
at tr24 low mutas are super strong
zimp
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Hungary959 Posts
April 21 2024 21:22 GMT
#10
I think on mid level ranks, lurker opening is fine. High level terrans have good enough micro to kill lurkers, while high level zergs have good enough muta micro to be cost effective. And people just copied them.
agentzimp
TL+ Member
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28889 Posts
April 26 2024 15:02 GMT
#11
Ye, at S+ level terrans are very good at countering a lurker opening they expect/know is coming. Therefore you need a good muta game to be competitive at the highest level.

In single games youll see lurker openings with quite some frequency though, especially in the ASL. And zergs that are B or below could do perfectly fine opening lurker every game. When I was semi-competitive at a low S rank level, zvt was my best mu and i opened muta at most 25% of the time, and i virtually never made more than 11.
Moderator
iFU.pauline
Profile Joined September 2009
France1745 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-04-27 09:20:56
April 27 2024 09:04 GMT
#12
There is a myriad of build-order variants for opening lurkers but it should remain hidden strat. Once I watched the finest lurker opening from EffOrt with a 3 hatch build putting spire and den at the same time but instead going for lurker upgrade, the timing was done so he would put 6 hydras dispersed among larva near hatcheries and morph them into lurkers which would be around the time terran would scan and believe muta are coming therefore staying in its base and building turrets. Terran (who was ex-PGM) understood at the very last time and went out of its base to delay lurker wall but failed to do so, with a 5 rax +1, terran never came out of his base for the rest of the game. There is a bit of gambling of course and it's EffOrt executing it when he was going freestyle gameplay.

I was very attached back in the day with a lurker opening and had to force learning muta coze terran would go fact very early and be able to push you way before you had defiler. Also gameplay is pretty straightforward, I would say near boring because it's the same gameplan unless you want to go for fast drop and if you fail terran will just roll over you.
No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere, I see Heaven's glories shine, And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear
Comodore
Profile Joined July 2013
Brazil51 Posts
May 01 2024 17:55 GMT
#13
On April 27 2024 18:04 iFU.pauline wrote:
There is a myriad of build-order variants for opening lurkers but it should remain hidden strat. Once I watched the finest lurker opening from EffOrt with a 3 hatch build putting spire and den at the same time but instead going for lurker upgrade, the timing was done so he would put 6 hydras dispersed among larva near hatcheries and morph them into lurkers which would be around the time terran would scan and believe muta are coming therefore staying in its base and building turrets. Terran (who was ex-PGM) understood at the very last time and went out of its base to delay lurker wall but failed to do so, with a 5 rax +1, terran never came out of his base for the rest of the game. There is a bit of gambling of course and it's EffOrt executing it when he was going freestyle gameplay.

I was very attached back in the day with a lurker opening and had to force learning muta coze terran would go fact very early and be able to push you way before you had defiler. Also gameplay is pretty straightforward, I would say near boring because it's the same gameplan unless you want to go for fast drop and if you fail terran will just roll over you.


Do you have a link or replay of this game?
DeepElemBlues
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States5080 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-05-01 23:36:15
May 01 2024 23:27 GMT
#14
On April 13 2024 00:52 SiarX wrote:
They are costly investments, and often do not deal that much damage to justify cost. I get that they are supposed to keep terran on his base, but would not building many lurkers instead succesfully protect zerg bases, too?

if you go straight to lurker and try to contain, it is very hard to stop terran from busting your contain with siege tanks. then if the terran is aggressive and comes out it can be hard to stop them setting up siege tanks at your natural

you can harass SCV line with mutalisks, which also keeps the terran army contained, running around from his natural to his main and back chasing your mutas. and if the terran comes out to attack you can effectively harass his army as it moves across the map with mutas, pick off marines/medics/tanks (if they go tanks. which they usually wont because you went muta first not lurker).

yes lurkers are effective at defending, not so much at containing or attacking (not that they're ineffective, just less effective than muta)
no place i'd rather be than the satellite of love
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
2026 Week 22
IntoTheiNu 1553
WardiTV598
RotterdaM450
IndyStarCraft 189
TKL 164
Rex129
SteadfastSC93
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 436
IndyStarCraft 189
TKL 153
ProTech140
Rex 124
SteadfastSC 88
Trap 5
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 6180
Jaedong 4047
Soulkey 2263
Horang2 1039
Mini 691
Shuttle 559
Hyuk 475
Light 462
Snow 415
BeSt 362
[ Show more ]
EffOrt 329
Stork 217
firebathero 183
Last 177
Barracks 110
Pusan 80
hero 59
Sharp 56
Hm[arnc] 53
PianO 43
sSak 38
Mind 35
ToSsGirL 30
soO 28
Bale 23
Terrorterran 23
910 19
Sacsri 12
SilentControl 10
scan(afreeca) 9
Icarus 8
ajuk12(nOOB) 8
Rock 4
Dota 2
qojqva2043
Dendi1653
syndereN637
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1602
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox905
Other Games
singsing2052
B2W.Neo612
crisheroes388
Lowko385
DeMusliM318
XaKoH 190
Sick124
Liquid`VortiX118
ArmadaUGS70
QueenE40
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1563
• WagamamaTV643
League of Legends
• Jankos2224
• TFBlade611
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
10h 36m
The PondCast
20h 36m
KCM Race Survival
20h 36m
OSC
1d 9h
Escore
1d 20h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
1d 21h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Shopify Rebellion Sundays
4 days
Spirit vs Mixu
Clem vs TBD
RSL Revival
4 days
Serral vs Rogue
[ Show More ]
BlizzCon
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
GSL
5 days
PiGosaur Cup
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
Kung Fu Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-08
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
RSL Revival: Season 6
Calamity Invitational
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
SC4ALL II: Brood War
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
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.