• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 18:38
CET 00:38
KST 08:38
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down21ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier6Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1[$1250] International ShieldBattery League99
StarCraft 2
General
No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? Evil Geniuses - shutting down Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book SC2 Power Rank: epic29 Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.17
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier RSL 2026 Offline Finals LCQ Sign-Ups
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers [G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 550 Graveyard Shift The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles Mutation # 548 Shining Bright
Brood War
General
[Megathread] Daily Funny Videos BW General Discussion Mathematicians needed to calc "Low Econ Epicness" Rollback Netcode in Brood War SCHNAIL now supports Remastered
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [IPSL] IPSL Winter 26-27 Ro24 is HERE! [$1250] International ShieldBattery League [ASL22] Grand Finals
Strategy
50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Deus Ex 3!? Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Armies of Exigo - YesYes?
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8724 users

ZvP: How to counter mass carriers?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
Devil!
Profile Joined August 2010
United States10 Posts
August 07 2010 07:23 GMT
#1
Hi guys, new here (newfag). Sc2 is really my first rts. Anyway i keep running into these nerds who just block off their ramp with pylons with photon cannons behind them, then they just sit their and mass carrier. I've tried the bangeling bust to get through them, doesnt really work that well vs prtoss. Anyway, what is a good way to counter a mass carrier build, and what is a good way to get that wall of turrets down?
Mantikor
Profile Joined August 2010
United States68 Posts
August 07 2010 07:25 GMT
#2
Have you tried Nydus worm?
wat
Devil!
Profile Joined August 2010
United States10 Posts
August 07 2010 07:28 GMT
#3
yeah i know thats a possibility to get in his base, but only if he doesnt have the whole thing scouted
Glaven
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada554 Posts
August 07 2010 07:38 GMT
#4
If he's turtling and building carriers outmacro him and mass corruptors or hydralisks. Destroy him with your econ.
Special Tactics
nahk4r
Profile Joined August 2010
United States47 Posts
August 07 2010 07:43 GMT
#5
yea there's no scourge anymore... but still, upgraded zerglings and roaches can kill off cannons pretty quickly

even if he has a few carriers, if you get 2-3 base in the beginning and swarm the protoss... i'd safely guess you can kill him before he gets that many carriers.

or you can just wait for mass corruptors to deal with carrier while attacking the protoss base with broodlord, ovie drops, nydus worm, etc etc. the problem with carrier is that 1. if he loses interceptor you have to build more so you need decent amount of minerao and 2. they are very very slow. kill their probes, corrupt their stargate or w/e that's called, just keep harrassing him with zerg's mobility
Steamboatlol
Profile Joined April 2010
United States161 Posts
August 07 2010 07:55 GMT
#6
corruptors. Be sure to upgrade carapace, without air attack upgrades each carapace upgrade decreases their dmg by 20%
Arkaridge
Profile Joined June 2010
Australia48 Posts
August 07 2010 10:32 GMT
#7
Grab a few expansions (2 or 3), and go straight to muta or corruptors (corruptors would be better if you already see several Carriers).

Since he's turtling up, he won't be attacking you until later. Muta will be good, if there are only 2-3 carriers out, and you have 10 or so muta to snipe them (numbers off the top of my head), once the carriers are down you can then use them to harrass and attack key buildings. Corruptors are the more effective Zerg counter, but once the carriers are down they become a little redundant (unless you get broodlords)

You could always try drops or N.worm.
Vessel
Profile Joined June 2010
United States214 Posts
August 07 2010 10:37 GMT
#8
the instant you run up his ramp and see a wall of cannons, you should assume he is on one base and is massing something, so you are safe to expand multiple times very quickly and get a very strong economy going. once your economy far outweighs his you can easily throw expensive units at him until he breaks (broodlords backed up with hydras or corruptors comes to mind). it is also advantages to send an overlord to every expansion just to make sure he doesnt manage to expand. if he does, just run over and kill it, then retreat. carriers are very slow so he wouldnt be able to defend multiple places at once
EnderCN
Profile Joined May 2010
United States499 Posts
August 07 2010 13:47 GMT
#9
Corruptors and Brood Lords. Banelings don't deal with really massed cannons that well. Brood Lords work great against them though.
Bair
Profile Joined May 2010
United States698 Posts
August 07 2010 14:07 GMT
#10
On August 07 2010 22:47 EnderCN wrote:
Corruptors and Brood Lords. Banelings don't deal with really massed cannons that well. Brood Lords work great against them though.



This is it. Carapace upgraded corruptors and a few brood lords to slowly melt his base. Since carriers have 8 attacks, they also take 8x the armor penalty, and with the bonus against massive they do wonderfully.
In Roaches I Rust.
Acritter
Profile Joined August 2010
Syria7637 Posts
August 07 2010 14:17 GMT
#11
Pfft, don't even bother with Broodlords. Just get double Spire for faster upgrades and send wave after wave of Corruptors into his base from your six bases. Wait until he ragequits, or if you have to leave soon, mass Mutas.

There is no way in hell a one-base Carrier build should be able to beat a Zerg player.
dont let your memes be dreams - konydora, motivational speaker | not actually living in syria
Bair
Profile Joined May 2010
United States698 Posts
August 07 2010 14:20 GMT
#12
On August 07 2010 23:17 Acritter wrote:
Pfft, don't even bother with Broodlords. Just get double Spire for faster upgrades and send wave after wave of Corruptors into his base from your six bases. Wait until he ragequits, or if you have to leave soon, mass Mutas.

There is no way in hell a one-base Carrier build should be able to beat a Zerg player.


Maybe I am missing something, but what good would corruptors actually do against groud without brolords? They cannot corrupt buildings like they used to.
In Roaches I Rust.
supersoft
Profile Joined April 2010
Germany3729 Posts
August 07 2010 14:27 GMT
#13
so in copper there is the strategie of mass carrierrushes still alive =)
I thought that day9 and his scII educations had turned us all into superpros
birdkicker
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States752 Posts
August 07 2010 14:28 GMT
#14
On August 07 2010 16:23 Devil! wrote:
Anyway i keep running into these nerds who just block off their ramp with pylons with photon cannons behind them, then they just sit their and mass carrier.


Because massing carriers is a very useful talent toi have.
WillKill
Profile Joined August 2010
United States8 Posts
August 07 2010 14:45 GMT
#15
Just play and keep practicing. Massing carriers is very difficult once you become a decent player because your opponent will have no way to make them with all of your pressure. But to answer your question it's Terran: Vikins, Zerg: Corruptors, and Toss: Phoenix. Make sure to focus fire carriers rather than the interceptors.
Random Player, Rank 20ish Platinum, US. BW vet from '05.
mrk
Profile Joined March 2006
Korea (South)60 Posts
August 07 2010 14:47 GMT
#16
There's no way you can "mass" carriers off 1 base, and similarly no way you can take an expo if you're going straight to carrier. Hence I do not see how this strategy is ever working.

Take whole map, macro hard.
Hit 200 supply about 10x faster than him.
Win game?

Seriously just don't suicide small armies into cannons and play the outmacro game. When he shows up with his tiny force of carriers just FF it down while instantly macro'ing back another 200 supply while he has 0 gas and crush him.
Ichabod
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1659 Posts
August 07 2010 15:40 GMT
#17
Corruptors and hydralisks fare well against them, quite efficiently, so as long as you're not behind in base count and upgrades you should do fine.

(can also use infestors with FG and NP, I suppose immobilizing the interceptors makes them useless for the duration)
Devil!
Profile Joined August 2010
United States10 Posts
August 07 2010 16:41 GMT
#18
Thanks for the info everyone
ChickenLips
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
2912 Posts
August 07 2010 16:57 GMT
#19
As Day9 said in response to the question how do you counter mass xxx:

"Just go and kill him."
❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ✿
comis
Profile Joined April 2010
United States333 Posts
August 07 2010 16:59 GMT
#20
Build Corruptors. When all his Carriers(lol) are dead, make 2 Broodlord and kill his cannon(lol) defense.
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
08:00
QMC 2: Invitational Tournament
CranKy Ducklings45
ChoboTeamLeague
06:30
Best Games SC
PiGStarcraft513
Discussion
BSL
05:00
RO24 Group D
Ret vs DragOn
Doodle vs Dienmax
ZZZero.O203
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft513
Codebar 22
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 501
Bisu 370
GuemChi 286
ZZZero.O 203
ProTech140
White-Ra 92
Dota 2
syndereN230
NeuroSwarm114
LuMiX1
League of Legends
Doublelift5309
Super Smash Bros
C9.Mang01454
Heroes of the Storm
Grubby3898
Other Games
summit1g11057
tarik_tv7887
FrodaN3437
JimRising 296
KnowMe194
Maynarde57
JuggernautJason29
CosmosSc2 19
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1641
Counter-Strike
PGL726
StarCraft 2
BasetradeTV41
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hinosc 89
• Hupsaiya 76
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP55
• musti20045 32
• Adnapsc2 22
• HeavenSC 17
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Laughngamez YouTube
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• ChaeLyn 14
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• imaqtpie808
• Shiphtur401
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Weekly
12h 23m
Ultimate Battle
12h 23m
Rush vs BeSt
Replay Cast
23h 23m
Rogue vs Classic
Patches Events
1d 13h
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
KCM Race Survival
3 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
5 days
herO vs Rogue
Reynor vs Solar
ByuN vs SHIN
Clem vs MaxPax
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
IPSL
5 days
WorsT vs nOmaD
Dewalt vs andersOn
IntoTheTV X SOOP
6 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
IPSL
6 days
Azhi_Dahaki vs ggnore13
Double vs WIZARD
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

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

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
Proleague 2026-11-01
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

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

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

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

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