EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/A6FF6oR.png)
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In this guide I'll explain how to play Kerrigan, the Koddler, effectively on brutal difficulty to be on par with the other heroes. To do so takes a different mindset. She is not the Queen of blades from the campaign a super badass the rules over battle, but more the nurturing mother the swarm needs. Once you are able to bring out the Karing side in your play you'll have the tools to survive and even take map objectives effectively.
In multitplayer zerg is a swarming race with lots of econ, ability to poke and prod without taking damage on multalisks and being very swarmy; Kerrigan is none of these. She does not have a massive amount of economy like raynor to flood units and her assimlation at most give about 1 ultra or or about 3 hydralisks and 6 zerglings. Mutalisks cannot poke and prod but rather die quickly. She shys away from the swarm aggressive Zagara style to Koddle her army with Kare. Mutalisks, zerglings, hydralisks, and overseers all die fairly easily in any fight. She does not have burst damage in her army with banelings or scourge. Your goal should be to effectively lead in with ultralisks then nurture them with mass heals why they create the Komfort needed for hydralisks to flick away the meanies. In the later stages you can use the brood lord/lurkers/spore crawler composition as a defensive cost effective composition that is really hard to break. Its all about not losing anything to let you get to these extremely strong armies which is why I rated her higher than Artanis in hero strength.
She is a thinking co-op mother which which relies heavily on healing her army and having a very low dps queen/ultralisk backbone with hydras, lings, and lurkers to deal the damage behind it. Her Assimilation aura is extremely helpful to getting the economy up and getting up the tech fast enough to deal with the 7-10 minute mark. Her Immobilization Wave is her way of having a chance and a player must carefully time a wave of zerglings hitting their army when the freeze ability hits to have the dps to kill the army. Since this is so important you have to coordinate your pushes around the one ability to give the diet needed while your army is slowly growing and prevent your army from any harm. If you lose at all the ultralisk/queen/transfuse blanket, you will never have another army again and often will lose the game because Kerrigan alone does almost nothing on brutal difficulty. If on the other hand you loose very little (particularly gas units) she has one of the strongest late game compositions that exist in co-op.
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Opener builds-
Most openers will be a 2 queen speedling fast lair opener. I will write it down here-
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Keep making drones until 20 supply, keep building zerglings until your rocks are 75% dead, then save for lair and expansion
14 pool 0:35
14 gas 0:46 (only put 2 on gas, you'll have 100 to finish ling speed when 2 queens finish)
14 overloard 1:03
14 Extractor Trick 1:20
15 queen 1:30
20 overloard 2:00
20 2nd queen 2:18 (put a third drone on gas)
26 Metabolic boost 2:45
28 overloard 2:55
30 Lair
30 expansion
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uE3m6Xc.png)
Drone up expansion and main using Fury'd kerrigan's assimilation aura and queens to spread creep and kill units. (you should not lose any) From here if they have air (liberators/phoenix), I usually go hydralisk den hive, Otherwise I go hive Ultralisk cavern, upgrades, then hydralisk den. Take the rest of the gases. Usually I try to get about 6 queens and 2ultralisks while slamming 2 evolution chamber one with fury for kerrigan into cool down reduction. At around 10 minutes I usually get an overseer and overloard speed when the hive is done.
If you aren't playing against a zerg(most maps you can scout the enemy race by looking for creep with your first overloard), you might consider doing a proxy hatch first opener and do a standard 13 overloard, 17 hatch, 17 gas, 17 pool, 19 overloard build The reason being that no other rush besides the ling rush you need the fast 2 queens to hold.
Usually about 10 minutes i get an overseer.
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Leveling-
-Assimilation aura
This will be the key ability to getting the econ when you need it to drone or rush an upgrade.
-Immobilization wave is the key ability which breaking the opponent should be done with.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/S24jqOd.png)
-The hydralisk cache at level 6 is probably the key upgrade to play on brutal
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VhpWEtG.png)
-Usually once you have the Burrow Charge at level 13 Brutal becomes much easier because they reposition in a fight on their own.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zzWu79M.png)
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Choosing transitions and upgrades-
Usually you choose upgrades based off the army you are fighting.
Ground army heavy-
Against a bunch of small ground units, such as bio, or ling bane, I prefer to get upgrades for kerrigan fast such as ability frenzy and carapace upgrades while teching to hydralisks, ultralisks(torrasque strain), and eventually lurkers.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LnogIRE.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0mQ9lFB.png)
Mass air-
If you are fighting mass air, usually you want to get the speed upgrade for the hydralisks, Ranged damage, and frenzy as your first upgrades.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2aFbmWG.png)
Mech-
I think that getting for ability frenzy kerrigan, carapace upgrades, and trading out waves of zerglings for gas income by spamming the assimilation aura is the best way to get to the brood lord/hydra late game.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/l2bGR5c.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WQCnkJ4.png)
Robo Based-
This is a great time to flood hydralisk/ling early and get the frenzy for hydralisks and adrenal glands/shredding claws to increase significantly their damage.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yyD7ye1.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5kug3Xq.png)
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Ideal Late game composition-
I think this is the strongest composition for the late game in a coop game where you'll lose very little and dominate the fights. It relies a bit on creep spread and the brood lord speed upgrade, Porous Cartilage, to really be mobile and push.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ceSUOjx.png)
3-4 Broods, 4-5 ultralisks, 6-7 queens, 3 lurkers, 12-20 hydralisks, lings.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TEStBDl.png)
Solid performances should be around they 750-1100 kill mark on each map.
Full Image Album on IMGUR With all Kerrigan's Abilities
You can see that using Kerrigan to Koddle your army To the ideal composition you will have the stronger army in the late game and become the true Queen of Blades.
Here's 3 games I did playing her just so you can see what it looks like. (note, my computer is not really great so it has some low fps when the fights get big.
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Oblivion (train level) with a maxed out Raynor, comparable kills and commentary.
Rifts of korhal game with level 7 swann, who stacks fast roach wave and i have to defend it alone. Then i stick to the style and make a comeback to have equal kills. No Commentary
Void lauch With level 7 Swann, hard carry with 50% more kills. No Commentary
I chose to do this on Kerrigan since they say she has low win rates and chose the format cause I think its good for other people interested in posting their own coop guides. Thank you for reading this.
Good luck!
I would do more if people find them useful. 
