• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 10:23
CET 16:23
KST 00:23
  • 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
Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book15Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational14
Community News
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)8Weekly Cups (Feb 2-8): Classic, Solar, MaxPax win2Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker7PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar)12Weekly Cups (Jan 26-Feb 1): herO, Clem, ByuN, Classic win2
StarCraft 2
General
How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game? Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker
Tourneys
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16) PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Season 4 announced for March-April WardiTV Mondays
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ? [A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 512 Overclocked Mutation # 511 Temple of Rebirth Mutation # 510 Safety Violation
Brood War
General
Gypsy to Korea Liquipedia.net NEEDS editors for Brood War ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/02 Recent recommended BW games [ASL21] Potential Map Candidates
Tourneys
Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 1 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates Zealot bombing is no longer popular? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta
Other Games
General Games
Diablo 2 thread Nintendo Switch Thread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread ZeroSpace Megathread EVE Corporation
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
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Sex and weight loss Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Ask and answer stupid questions here!
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
ADHD And Gaming Addiction…
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3242 users

Zerg Strategies as Annoying as the Photon Rush?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Anonymouqs
Profile Joined July 2019
7 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-18 20:06:45
July 18 2019 20:06 GMT
#1
I am mainly a protoss player who plays cheese strategies such as the Photon Cannon Rush, Nexus Rush, and 4 Gate. Call me evil. There is a protoss player named "Florencio" who uses the most unexpected strategies(he actually created the Nexus Rush). As you can tell, he is my lord and savior

On a serious note, I am studying cheeses and rushes so I am able to counter them more. But you gotta admit that they are fun ^_^

I am learning Zerg at the moment and would like to be as unconventional as possible.

I am not asking for a Zergling Rush/Roach Rush. No. I am asking for something "unexpected and medically insane but effective".

Like a planetary fortress rush, a battle cruiser rush, a nexus rush. I'm just plain bored with doing zergling/roach rush and am not in the mood to do a conventional mid-late game.

I have attempted to develop a build involving 4 spine crawlers in the edge of someone's base after attaining sacs with the ovies and what not. Along with 4 spine crawlers there are 3 queens and a mixture of zerglings and roaches. But perhaps I am thinking too much like a protoss.

My fellow swarm, please aid me in out-cheesing the protoss.
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-19 18:23:34
July 19 2019 16:21 GMT
#2
the two craziest zerg cheeses against toss i know of are proxy hatch hidden in the main with roach burrow and hidden spawning pool first

for proxy burrow roach you have to hide the drone in the main and build a hatch out of sight, then mine gas, skip ling speed, research burrow, and make roaches from the proxy hatch. then you just abuse burrow micro to kill probes and cancel their mining. it's hard to hide the hatch, but some people will miss it. even if they find it sometimes you can finish it and they won't expect the roaches. you can do this with a proxy in the natural too but it's stronger in the main because you have a very narrow window of time before you start getting outmicroed by stalkers and tech/static D go up

for hidden spawning pool what you do is build drones to 14 supply, send the drone to a hidden corner of your main, start building a hatch, then immediately cancel and make a spawning pool on the creep from the canceled hatch. you have to do it immediately or the creep will disappear. then you mine to 300 again and take your natural. because you cut drones and overlord you can still make a fake expand soon enough to trick toss into thinking it's hatch first, and if they scout the main hopefully they don't see the hidden pool. then at 12/14 supply you do extractor trick and make 3 sets of lings. if the game normalizes you have to spend a creep tumor to make sure your pool doesn't bleed to death

2 base lurker drop is pretty crazy and fun too but not very good
TL+ Member
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-20 11:08:47
July 19 2019 17:14 GMT
#3
Proxy mutalisks and proxy swarm host

both start with going hatchery first at a hidden base:
-proxy SH takes a base close-by-air to your opponent's main, but far by ground (perfect maps for that: (Wiki)Neon Violet Square and (Wiki)Eastwatch with their golds)
-proxy mutalisks takes a base in a place where your opponent is least likely to scout ever (preferably also close by air for extra shenanigans with instant mutalisk harass; the best base ever for that is the 12 or 6 oclock on (Wiki)Eastwatch)

Proxy SH rushes lair, you start your lair before your "natural" is finished, so in your main, you ideally want to have 2 gases taken in main, with exact drone saturation required to pump non-stop SH and queens from your proxy hatchery
Proxy mutalisk is like normal 2hatch muta build, except all of your tech (lair and spire, and 7 mutalisks from injected larva) is made at your "natural" base.

Both builds are best suited in ZvP, but can be somehow pulled off vs Terran (but then they rely on inexperience of your opponent, not as much as information advantage).
The goal of proxy SH is to kill your opponent's main and natural nexus while defending SH with queen/spore vs stargate units.
The goal of proxy mutalisks is killing a ton of workers, while catching your opponent blindsided. It's not a very strong build, but can do wonders if your opponent is expecting any kind of other proxy build (esp. vs people who don't go stargate).
It's the best to mix them up with each other, and with different proxy hatchery all-ins (proxy roach/ravager, proxy spinecrawler ling flood, the aforementioned proxy hatch in main) to keep your opponent paranoid and forcing suboptimal responses.

"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
washikie
Profile Joined February 2011
United States752 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-07-19 22:21:19
July 19 2019 22:14 GMT
#4
I played against one guy who hangs around D1 mmr on the ladder and they go for a 1 base nydus swarhost strat in evrey matchup, I have never lost to them but I play them a lot when I’m offraceing or playing random and thier build is so weird, they never ever expand, build a wall of evo chambers+ static d on their ramp and just constantly spam nydus everywhere and dump wave after wave of locusts on you. The amount of hosts a 1 base Zerg can make is kind of insane. It’s a very annoying cheese to deal with. It often leads to games where I have to wait for them to mine out thier main before I can win. Because engaging up a ramp into static d+ swarhosts is very difficult especially when leaving your base usualy means the loss of your nexus or hatch to a locust wave spewed from the global teleporting monstrosities.
"when life gives Hero lemons he makes carriers" -Artosis
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16036 Posts
July 20 2019 09:59 GMT
#5
1 base proxy broodlord.
Spawning pool - double gas - lair before queen - infestation pit and send a drone to the corner of the map - start a spire there and hive - greater spire
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Chronopolis
Profile Joined April 2009
Canada1484 Posts
July 22 2019 10:17 GMT
#6
1 base nydus swarmhosts is probably the cheesiest strat. It feels comically unfair if you don't react correctly.
insitelol
Profile Joined August 2012
845 Posts
July 22 2019 11:39 GMT
#7
On July 20 2019 18:59 Charoisaur wrote:
1 base proxy broodlord.
Spawning pool - double gas - lair before queen - infestation pit and send a drone to the corner of the map - start a spire there and hive - greater spire

This. But remember you should practice this build very hard. Like 50 games a day or so. Only then it will work properly. Don't matter if you lose your first 200 games. Just keep doing it.
Less is more.
Aveng3r
Profile Joined February 2012
United States2411 Posts
July 26 2019 20:00 GMT
#8
clearly need to start raining baneling bombs on enemy positions from carrier overlords
I carve marble busts of assassinated world leaders - PM for a quote
WaesumNinja
Profile Joined February 2012
210 Posts
July 26 2019 20:37 GMT
#9
On July 22 2019 19:17 Chronopolis wrote:
1 base nydus swarmhosts is probably the cheesiest strat. It feels comically unfair if you don't react correctly.


doesn't even need to be 1 base, can just keep a squad of a couple of SH and just keep doing this all game. 8-10ish SH can comfortably focus down a nexus with a shield battery, just be ready for their counter push...
Luolis
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
Finland7159 Posts
July 27 2019 05:55 GMT
#10
1-base SH nydus for sure
pro cheese woman / Its never Sunny in Finland. Perkele / FinnishStarcraftTrivia
Spirit_HUN
Profile Joined March 2018
24 Posts
July 27 2019 10:21 GMT
#11
Try the "One Thousand Years of Death" named spine rush build vs protoss.
Its works on Kairos and New Repugnancy as well.
The highest level protoss i was able to beat this build was 5.8k MMR high.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 8h 37m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
TKL 181
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 49076
Calm 4501
Rain 2222
Shuttle 1467
Jaedong 1316
Larva 901
Soma 486
Hyuk 444
Zeus 436
Stork 414
[ Show more ]
Soulkey 358
Mini 354
Light 278
Mong 239
PianO 214
Rush 178
Sharp 150
Sea.KH 64
Barracks 50
Pusan 44
Movie 43
scan(afreeca) 34
ToSsGirL 32
Killer 26
sSak 24
Terrorterran 21
sorry 18
Rock 18
ajuk12(nOOB) 17
Hm[arnc] 16
GoRush 12
Shine 9
Dota 2
Gorgc4471
qojqva1829
Dendi414
syndereN197
NeuroSwarm100
Counter-Strike
zeus1837
markeloff170
edward163
Other Games
singsing1723
Liquid`RaSZi1286
hiko1055
Beastyqt612
RotterdaM549
crisheroes194
DeMusliM193
Hui .189
Fuzer 187
elazer99
ArmadaUGS89
Mew2King80
Liquid`VortiX44
KnowMe38
Rex37
MindelVK7
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• poizon28 41
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• FirePhoenix15
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos3226
• TFBlade1550
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
8h 37m
Escore
18h 37m
LiuLi Cup
19h 37m
Serral vs Zoun
Cure vs Classic
Big Brain Bouts
1d 1h
ByuN vs GgMaChine
Serral vs Jumy
RSL Revival
1d 11h
RSL Revival
1d 16h
LiuLi Cup
1d 19h
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
1d 20h
RSL Revival
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
LiuLi Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
LiuLi Cup
3 days
Wardi Open
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
OSC
4 days
WardiTV Winter Champion…
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
WardiTV Winter Champion…
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
KCM Race Survival
6 days
WardiTV Winter Champion…
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-02-10
Rongyi Cup S3
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
Nations Cup 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W8
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 1st Round
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 1st Round Qualifier
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round Qualifier
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
WardiTV Winter 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
FISSURE Playground #3
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 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.