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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/74PKVPt.png)
Hello and welcome to my first guide. I'm WaKa, Grandmasters Zerg player in the EU server, currently playing for e-Stars, usually placed around top 80-120. This guide tries to describe most of the problems you could find in modern ZvT and how to solve them. In case that some situation isn't covered here, you can always leave a comment and I'll try to answer it, or maybe extend the guide with a new section. Also, replays will be added from time to time.
ZvT has remained somewhat static since the launch of HotS, usually based on bio armies with mines. With the buff to hellbats and thors, it is now common to see heavy marine hellbat armies with a couple of thors. Also, it's not rare to see a lot of early game pushes with hellbats nowadays. All this is covered below.
-INDEX
1 BASIC BUILD ORDER
2 EARLY GAME
3 SURVIVING THE MID GAME
4 KILLING THE TERRAN: LATE GAME
5 ENDING THE GAME
6 CONCLUSION AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zTUFq1Z.png)
Have in mind that this build will vary depending on what the Terran player does, but all those cases will be explained in next sections.
9 Overlord (Rally to nat)
11-12 Drone scout (This is optional, but recommended)
15 Hatch
16 Pool
17 Gas
17 Overlord
18 2 Queens and 2 pairs of lings
24 Overlord
100gas Metabolic boost, take 3 drones off gas
~28-30 (When queen in nat finishes) 3rd Queen -> Creep tumor
44 3rd Hatch
44 Put 3 drones back to gas
52 2 evos (Walling nat)
52 2 more queens (Pull the old ones to defend/creep spread)
Lair 100% -> Spire and Baneling speed
And gas is used in this order:
100gas Metabolic boost
50gas Baneling nest
250gas Melee and carapace upgrades
100gas Lair
Some players may prefer having earlier lair and delaying upgrades, or feel confident enough to skip baneling nest. It's mostly up to what the player is most comfortable with.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5cXQSeP.png)
The first thing you need to check is whether the Terran is all-ining or not. If you're drone scouting, just see if there's a barracks or gas at his base. If there's no barracks and no gas, it's a 2rax all in; if there's no barracks AND a gas, it's probably proxy reaper, and in this case you must move some overlords around the base, and look for the proxy to see its transition. If he opened reaper, CC first or any standard opening, you should suicide an overlord into his base around the 6:00 min mark.
Make sure you don't overcommit at defending the reaper hellion harass: your 3-4 queens and a few speedlings should be enough, with your wall and an optional spine crawler.
3.1 2rax
This is obviously scouted if you see no barracks or gas at his base, and a low scv count. Alternatively, you can scout the proxy positions near your base.
There are mainly two possible situations when against this:
a) You scouted it with the drone: if you can, go 15pool 15hatch, save larva for 6 lings and make a spine in your main when pool finishes. If the first bunker is too aggressive, deny it with the first lings and not more than 5-6 drones. When the spine is moved to the natural, it should be stopped, just take care of a possible all in follow up.
b) You didn't scout it: maybe you decided not to scout, or it's a 4 player map, but if you find yourself with marines in your natural, don't panic, there's an emergency reaction. Make 2 queens, a few deffensive lings, but don't pull drones to avoid the bunker placement; instead, build 3 spines at your main, and a creep tumor at the back of the natural. You will lose the hatchery, but when your 3 spines finish and you move them to the natural, you should be able to build a second and third hatchery reasonably early. And don't forget to keep making drones after you make 10-12 lings for safety. It's also recommended to practice spine placement.
3.2 Proxy reaper
Scouting no barracks at his base and a single gas will tell you this is coming. The key is to have a good drone micro, which takes a bit of practice, because you want to lose as few drones as possible. You should cut drones in order to make many queens and get ling speed. I recommend not all-ining the Terran player as a response if you got advantage, you may throw it.
3.3 Reaper into 3CC
This consists of a reaper expand, followed by hellions and a quick 3rd CC, around 5:00, and later a couple of ebays and additional barracks. Basically, if you're able to scout this, it's a green light for you to drone your 3 bases up really quickly. Take in mind that some players do this followed by a banshee! Try to see if there's a starport.
http://ggtracker.com/matches/5522484
3.4 Hellion Banshee / Hellbat Banshee
This hits around 7:30-8:00 and is revealed by a techlab in the starport (or in the barracks if the switch hasn't been done yet). If you followed the build above, you will have 3 or 4 extra queens to defend this, plus 15-20 speedlings to prevent him from going straight into your main. Remember to build one spore crawler at each mineral line around 7:45-8:00, and sometimes one between your nat and 3rd base. If it's the variant with hellbats, just morph around 8-10 banelings since you got an early baneling nest. Also, you may build lair before the upgrades to get mobile detection faster.
http://ggtracker.com/matches/5522400
3.5 Hellion / Hellbat Medivac pushes (The Flash push)
These pushes usually consist of 6-8 hellbats, a medivac and some marines, and hits as early as 7:10. This isn't very hard to hold if you got the early baneling nest, just make sure to see it go out of base in time to prepare and don't lose your third. Terran commits a lot into doing some damage with this push, so if you hold it without much damage you will be ahead. Take care of the possible banshee follow up too!
http://ggtracker.com/matches/5522399
3.6 Blue flame Hellion
If you couldn't scout the 2nd factory, to scout this build it's useful to have a few lings in front of his base and see how many hellions he's building. If you're unsure if it's coming or not, build a safety roach warren and you should be fine if you walled properly.
3.7 Marauder Hellion / Hellbat
This is pretty much build order loss if you built the early baneling nest, just make sure to see it early enough and maybe get a safety spine crawler!
3.8 Mine Drop
This build is a bit rare but you may find it at some point. When you first see the medivac with the mines, just save the drones from the mineral line, get a couple of spore crawlers and be aware for any more drops coming into your base. If you lose too many drones or mining time you will be behind.
I think that's most of the builds a Terran can do to kill you early game! Replays will be added over time and more pushes should be added if they became popular.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kZZvixZ.png)
Around the 10:30 min mark, you should have about 70 drones, 6 gasses, a spire about to finish, +1/+1 done, +2/+2 started, and a decent creep spread. At this point you should be getting your 4th base without much trouble. The Terran player may opt to make a timing push with +1/+1, a few medics and a group of marines. DO NEVER, EVER, ENGAGE THIS OUT OF CREEP! You just need to sit at your 4th base with the proper map control to avoid being dropped, waiting for your first mutas to pop and the baneling speed to finish; when you have this, you can fight, always with caution and multi pronged attacks. When you clean his force, it's time to drone up to 80-90 workers, get a 5th base and spam lings and mutalisks. Creep is HUGE now, you should never stop spreading it, it's high priority so you can choose where to fight, not the Terran.
Against an aggressive Terran that moves a lot around the map, you can go for a +2/+2, 200/200 timing push. The perfect window for this is when he's still +1/+1, which is like one minute, and you should be building an infestation pit at the same time. As long as you force him to cancel his 4th command or cause major damage to his economy/production AND don't lose too many mutas, you will be ahead. Be careful with the counterpush, which might force you to fight in a +3/+3 vs +2/+2 fight.
http://ggtracker.com/matches/5522413
It's extremely important not to stay in lair tech for too long: start hive at 16:00-17:00 as latest. Ultralisks or Broodlords are situational, but you always end up needing +3/+3 and adrenal glands. Forgetting this can make you lose games where you're really ahead!
As a last point in this section, keep this always in mind: whenever you engage the Terran, runby him with a few lings and banelings into his 3rd. This is crucial as it's easy to do as the Zerg player, but forces the Terran to either not focus as much on the engage or take some damage to the runby, even lose a whole mineral line. Always follow this rule!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/od6IsW5.png)
Now, as not all games are the same, talking about Late game isn't always reliable as it varies from game to game. Because of this, this section will be shorter.
You're on Hive tech. Your +3/+3 is on the way, you have 5-6 bases and maybe, if you had the advantage, you decided to go for Ultra Infestor. However, if the game is even, I recommend going for the mass Mutalisk style: make up to ~35 mutas, add some ultralisks and be extremely aggressive. You can't let him expand at wish: make baneling runbies, attack his production and his mineral lines with the mutalisks, make him move all around his bases while you creep the whole map. If he goes out of base, counterattack his base: burrowed banelings can be game changing in this situation, as he can lose a ton of marines if he isn't cautious enough with scans. Don't forget to add static defense, specially spores, in your bases. Make him as uncomfortable as possible!
http://ggtracker.com/matches/5522401
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pu3Bfki.png)
You will eventually be switching into ultralisk infestor, and into broodlord corruptor infestor if the trade goes well enough, but staying with mutas for that long gives you a ton of time to prepare the static defense you need and potentially kill too many bases or production buildings. Spam a lot of bases, too! He can't really deny them.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kJ9bs3m.png)
Thanks for taking the time to read this guide. If you have any doubts, criticism, positive or negative feedback, comment! 
Replays will be added over time for each section.
I'll now leave a few links if you want to know more about me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WaKa_SC2
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/waka94
My latest replay pack: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-strategy/469388-waka-2-replay-pack-eu-gm-zerg
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Awesome ! It is always nice too read something made by a high level player. Thank you
PS: Will start to follow your stream when I can
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I really really like your guide a lot. Looking forward to more builds! When played you on eu you had really solidzvz (and thank you for going by supply! I can't stand timer builds!)
when do you get more gas after you put drones back in at 44. Also, do you memorize any more ov timings after 52?
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How do you deal with a terran who builds two barracks instead of a third commandcenter and goes for a strong timingpush at 10 min?
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On October 19 2014 00:56 Charoisaur wrote:
How do you deal with a terran who builds two barracks instead of a third commandcenter and goes for a strong timingpush at 10 min?
I personally think that's one of the best ways for a Terran to throw a game :D However it's still found on ladder
You should send one ling to the front of his base when the standard 6 hellions are at your base, that way you can see him coming out of base early enough. You should be cutting drones at around ~55 and spam ling bane until it's hold, and never ever go out of creep. The key is not overreactiong too much to the hellion harass.
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Great guide bro! and well structurated. Can try next time to place hiperlinks in the index to make easier the search for info? Thanks! 
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On October 20 2014 19:20 HysteRya wrote:Great guide bro! and well structurated. Can try next time to place hiperlinks in the index to make easier the search for info? Thanks!
Yeah that's a good point to improve the guides from now on. Thanks
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it seems good. will def bookmark.
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Just came back to SC2 after a long break, and this guide has been a HUGE help. Thank you!
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United States4883 Posts
I appreciate this, mainly since I don't have to keep giving people a stable ZvT build order anymore, I can just link them here! A couple of notes though:
You are missing CC first and 1rax gasless expand (rare) in your list of builds to scout. While it's less of an issue of trying to defend versus something, I think it's important to mention that you can't just put overlords anywhere and that you need to have constant vision of your opponent's natural ramp in order to check for any sneaky attacks.
I also think you should lump the marine drop/hellion runby under mine drops, as it's becoming a pretty common play. It's essentially the same basic setup for the Terran, but it requires slight nuances worth talking about.
It would be good to talk about counterattacks and their place in ZvT. You kind of just vaguely mention defending on creep the entire time and assuming that you will take good engagements and get ahead; this is very generalized and could be expanded upon greatly. For a comprehensive guide, you really should be talking about creep spread patterns, how to engage properly against biomine or thor/hellbat/bio, how to do counterattacks, when to expand or transition and when NOT to expand or transition, etc., etc. This is mostly just a solid macro build order with a tag on how to defend things and relative timings on when to transition, and it could be a lot better.
Also, I wouldn't be opposed to more specific benchmarks, i.e., "With this build, +1/+1 finishes at X:XX, meaning +2/+2 should finish at X:XX assuming you started it right away." Or in general, just pairing more specific numbers with more specific times.
Otherwise, great guide, keep it up! It's already got plenty of information in it, I just think it could be even more meatier than this!
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On October 24 2014 02:08 SC2John wrote:
I appreciate this, mainly since I don't have to keep giving people a stable ZvT build order anymore, I can just link them here! A couple of notes though:
You are missing CC first and 1rax gasless expand (rare) in your list of builds to scout. While it's less of an issue of trying to defend versus something, I think it's important to mention that you can't just put overlords anywhere and that you need to have constant vision of your opponent's natural ramp in order to check for any sneaky attacks.
I also think you should lump the marine drop/hellion runby under mine drops, as it's becoming a pretty common play. It's essentially the same basic setup for the Terran, but it requires slight nuances worth talking about.
It would be good to talk about counterattacks and their place in ZvT. You kind of just vaguely mention defending on creep the entire time and assuming that you will take good engagements and get ahead; this is very generalized and could be expanded upon greatly. For a comprehensive guide, you really should be talking about creep spread patterns, how to engage properly against biomine or thor/hellbat/bio, how to do counterattacks, when to expand or transition and when NOT to expand or transition, etc., etc. This is mostly just a solid macro build order with a tag on how to defend things and relative timings on when to transition, and it could be a lot better.
Also, I wouldn't be opposed to more specific benchmarks, i.e., "With this build, +1/+1 finishes at X:XX, meaning +2/+2 should finish at X:XX assuming you started it right away." Or in general, just pairing more specific numbers with more specific times.
Otherwise, great guide, keep it up! It's already got plenty of information in it, I just think it could be even more meatier than this!
Hey, thanks for taking the time to give such a complete feedback
You are right. It's my first guide ever, and there is a LOT of stuff missing, I'm sorry about this. I think I was too focused on sorting everything in either Early, Mid or Late game, and some things should have their own section to give the best explanation. I will keep this in mind from now on.
I will try to fix the points you describe to make the guide more complete. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of too much specific timings because it's nearly impossible to adapt them to every game, but I'll try to make a list of some solid timings that could help.
Again, thanks for reading
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Nice guide. My ZvT win rate is 25% this season. Hopefully I can use some of this to improve that.
I'm wondering, though, when should I be taking my 4th base. When I watch pro games, the timing seems to vary greatly between 10-13 minutes. I'm sure it depends on how the early game plays out, and on whether or not either player takes damage, but are there any guidines I shoukd follow when I make this decision.
For example, should my 4th base timing depend on:
- my drone count? (You mention 70 drones)
- my tech? (i.e. After starting spite of after bane speed is done)
- the terran's economy? (i.e. take my 4th after he lands his 3rd)
- the game clock? (You mention 10:30)
Thanks!
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On November 03 2014 02:53 Frankie Teardrop wrote:
Nice guide. My ZvT win rate is 25% this season. Hopefully I can use some of this to improve that.
I'm wondering, though, when should I be taking my 4th base. When I watch pro games, the timing seems to vary greatly between 10-13 minutes. I'm sure it depends on how the early game plays out, and on whether or not either player takes damage, but are there any guidines I shoukd follow when I make this decision.
For example, should my 4th base timing depend on:
- my drone count? (You mention 70 drones)
- my tech? (i.e. After starting spite of after bane speed is done)
- the terran's economy? (i.e. take my 4th after he lands his 3rd)
- the game clock? (You mention 10:30)
Thanks!
It mostly depends on how you macroed before, but in all cases a good benchmark is when you have your 3 bases saturated and started unit production, it's not a big deal to have your 4th cancelled as long as you don't overcommit at deffending it or lose drones. However some players prefer to take it when mutas are out so it's easier to multitask vs drops and bio pokes. It ends being up to the player but if you want to be safe just take it when mutas pop out.
Hope it helps
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I know you still have to add a few things in, but I noticed you didn't mention the number of hellions going to Mmm. It usually is around 6 hellions, if you see they didn't get anymore Hellions, then it generally means MMM, that is if you do not want to sacrafice and OV or a number of lings.
Also good job on the write up.
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I'm a Gold Zerg who was totally lost as to what to do about Terran. This helped a lot, thanks. If you want to add stuff, might want to talk about how to fight Mech.
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For me, the most helpful sentence in the guide was this:
"Around the 10:30 min mark, you should have about 70 drones, 6 gasses, a spire about to finish, +1/+1 done, +2/+2 started, and a decent creep spread."
I don't know of many macro benchmarks for standard ZvT. With ZvP, on the other hand, most guides are full of benchmarks for drone counts, supply counts, gas timings, tech timings, etc., especially for the first 8-12 minutes of the game. By focusing more of my attention on those early game macro benchmarks and less on things like chasing probes around the map or trying to do too many ling pokes and runbys, ZvP has gone from being my worst matchup to my best.
In ZvT, I'm good up until 7:00 or so. I take my 3rd @ 44 supply between 6:00-6:30 (depending on how the reaper harass went), put drones back on gas, sac my overlord, go up to 4-6 queens, and make a baneling nest and evos. After that I tend to get lost. Once the reaper/hellion harass begins, I find I start focusing way too much on the "action", microing my queens and lings while trying to pick off low hp hellions or get surrounds on creep, replacing creep tumors that got sniped, and transfusing queens that get low on health. All of this action causes my macro to slip for a bit. I find it is very hard to get back on track after this, since I don't know what macro benchmarks I should be aiming for. Your 10:30 benchmark is very helpful in this regard.
Are there any other macro benchmarks for drone counts, hatch counts, or supply counts @ certain timings that I should be aware of? Since Terran has so many different early-game harass options (and different levels of commitment with each), it seems that no two games are ever very similar, and it is difficult to maintain any benchmarks at all.
Thanks!
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On November 20 2014 06:07 Frankie Teardrop wrote:
For me, the most helpful sentence in the guide was this:
"Around the 10:30 min mark, you should have about 70 drones, 6 gasses, a spire about to finish, +1/+1 done, +2/+2 started, and a decent creep spread."
I don't know of many macro benchmarks for standard ZvT. With ZvP, on the other hand, most guides are full of benchmarks for drone counts, supply counts, gas timings, tech timings, etc., especially for the first 8-12 minutes of the game. By focusing more of my attention on those early game macro benchmarks and less on things like chasing probes around the map or trying to do too many ling pokes and runbys, ZvP has gone from being my worst matchup to my best.
In ZvT, I'm good up until 7:00 or so. I take my 3rd @ 44 supply between 6:00-6:30 (depending on how the reaper harass went), put drones back on gas, sac my overlord, go up to 4-6 queens, and make a baneling nest and evos. After that I tend to get lost. Once the reaper/hellion harass begins, I find I start focusing way too much on the "action", microing my queens and lings while trying to pick off low hp hellions or get surrounds on creep, replacing creep tumors that got sniped, and transfusing queens that get low on health. All of this action causes my macro to slip for a bit. I find it is very hard to get back on track after this, since I don't know what macro benchmarks I should be aiming for. Your 10:30 benchmark is very helpful in this regard.
Are there any other macro benchmarks for drone counts, hatch counts, or supply counts @ certain timings that I should be aware of? Since Terran has so many different early-game harass options (and different levels of commitment with each), it seems that no two games are ever very similar, and it is difficult to maintain any benchmarks at all.
Thanks!
Hi,
in a perfect situation where you held his aggression with barely no damage, you can almost always achieve this benchmark: the key is, if you have your 3-4 deffensive queens, a few lings to prevent runby and your wall up, to keep droning with no fear for at least min 7:30 (obviously unless you know for sure that he's playing 3cc or banshee). One big mistake I have seen in zerg players is paying too much attention to hellions when they're not such a big threat, it's better to have 10 more drones because you consistently produced workers, than having a couple more creep tumors ahead.
Something that helps a lot in those situations where the terran is going for banshee is delaying your spores for as much as possible: it may sound silly but starting your spores right after you see his starport still building does already set you behind. You just need them at the point when he can have cloak, which is around 8:30-8:45. This is also a common mistake.
I know this is a bit hard to explain because it involves some practice to be able to hold any aggression without really delaying your macro benchmark, but it would be wise to say that half a minute delay (unless it's a high level of commitment from him) would be still fine to reach the macro benchmark above. I will focus on getting some replays that show this exactly, because I'm not sure if I explained myself and I'm sorry if this info was a bit "diffuse".
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Excellent, focused guide. Can't wait to check out the reps (getting back in to 1v1 as we speak)
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first of all congz/ thanks to make such a good guide.
it covers alot of early aggression by terren but to deal with mech composition is missing(in late game). i will try the build and then give my feedback as a platinum league player.
if its possible we need a zvz and a zvp guide aswell
thx for posting such a good guide
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EPT
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