EPTAlso, some people have been asking for similar ZvP or ZvZ guides. The ZvP guide is already out there, you'll find it here.
Table Of Contents
0.0 Intro & Mindset
0.1 Mindmaps
1.0 The Early Game
1.1 Scouting
1.2 Bio Expand
1.3 Tech Expand
1.4 Aggressive Air Builds
1.5 Groundbased All-Ins
1.5 Dealing With 2 Rax
1.6 Dealing With A Reaper Or Two
1.7 Dealing With A Blocked Natural
1.8 Throwing Stuff Around
2.0 The Mid Game
2.1 Mutalisk Harass
2.2 Unit Composition
2.3 Drops And Raids
2.4 Hive Timings
2.5 Beating A Push
3.0 The Late Game
3.1 Brood Lords And Ultralisks
3.2 Planetary Fortresses
3.3 Nydus Worms & Doom Drops
3.4 Burrow
3.5 Drones
4.0 Some Replays
0.0 Intro & Mindset
The first thing a ZvT player must lose is their desire to attack. Sometimes it can be a good idea to attack, but units like the Siege Tank, the Missile Turret and the Planetary Fortress make these opportunities something of a rarity. Of course, if neither of these are around and you have a stronger army, go for the kill. However, mostly they will be around and you can't attack efficiently. Instead, a ZvT player tries to force their opponents army into the open by growing their economy. Their opponent will then have to either attack, or fall behind.
Greed is Zerg’s offensive weapon, but you can’t be too greedy. If you grasp for too much you will lose it all if your opponent tries to punish you. I generally try to have one half saturated base more than my opponent against Bio and two more vs Mech, until the first battle. If I am victorious there I will gain an army advantage, which will allow me to go for an even greater economic advantage.
Then there’s harass. Zergs love Mutalisk harassing, but it is important to know the difference between harassing and attacking. It’s about dedication. If you run 20 Banelings and 50 Zerglings into a ball of Marines and Tanks either of you will lose your whole army, once you start moving towards that army you’re dedicated to finishing the job. But if you run 20 Mutalisks into an SCV line you can back our whenever you’d like to. Don’t dedicate your army to an attack, it’s vastly more likely to lose you the game than win it.
0.1 Mindmaps
These kinda sum up parts of the guide but don’t go into details.
This one describes responses to Terran’s early game options.
![[image loading]](http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9298/earlygameresponses.jpg)
This one describes your army composition in the mid game depending on what you see the Terran doing.
![[image loading]](http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7844/unitcomposition.jpg)
1.0 The Early Game
Real Zergs open with 15 Hatch whenever they can. It’s the best opening against all Terran openings, including the dreaded 2 Rax all-in. More on that in the 2 Rax section.
Standard Build Order:
14 Drone Scout
15 Hatch
14-16 Pool (Depending on distance to enemy)
16 Overlord
Assuming opponent is going 1 Rax:
17-23 Extractor (Later is better against Hellions and earlier is better against Banshees. Chose that which is best against what you fear the most).
Spine Crawlers as necessary, more on that later.
Third Queen asap.
@100 Gas: Speed.
@100 Gas: Lair & second Extractor
@50 Gas: Baneling Nest
From here on a lot will depend on what your opponent is doing. However, your goal in the early game is to saturate both your bases and reach Mutalisk tech, no matter what your opponent does.
1.1 Scouting
Scouting a Terran can be hard and it’s often very helpful to know what strategies your opponent prefers, and which ones you can rule out right away before the match even begin. Therefore, scouting in ZvT begins before the actual game begins. When playing with friends you tend to get this intelligence for free, when playing against famous players you might find replays of them online. However, the best trick is to check out your opponents match list before the game and look for TvZ games on the current map. Don’t count on him doing the same thing again, but if you scout the same openings it’s very likely he’s doing the same follow up too.
On the ladder you normally don’t have any of this intelligence, which can be harsh. So lets move on to the in game scouting.
Drone Scouting
Send out a Drone scout at 14, this will allow you to spot if you’re natural is blocked before you send out your Drone to expand as well as get into two bases before his first Marine is out. Your scouting Drone serves two purposes: First it will let you know if your opponent went 1 Rax, 2 Rax or CC first in time to cut Drones to deal with a 2 Rax.
Second, if he went for 1 Rax and builds a Marine in it (that is, doesn’t begin with a Tech Lab), check the Gas mined on his Refinery when the Rax completes. Around 30 means he went Rax before Refinery and you should steal his other Geyser, around 100 means he went Refinery before Rax and stealing the Geyser won’t accomplish anything. Stealing the Geyser also serves two purposes: First, it will let you know if he’s Bunker rushing you or not and give him strong incitements to not do so. Count on him Bunker rushing you and block him from walling off your ramp if he’s not attacking your stolen Geyser. Second, it will prevent him from going Cloak or 2 Starports and knowing this will allow you to play much greedier thus making up for the investment. However, in order for this to be true it’s important that you don’t just steal his Geyser and let the Extractor finish. In that case he can just kill your Extractor, build his Refinery and do a slightly later version of the two dreaded air builds. You must cancel your Extractor right before it finishes and rebuild it anew. It will take him 3 Marines to damage it quicker than it gains health so by the time he has 3 Marines out you’ll cancel the Extactor right before it hits 0 hp and let the Drone die, you will have gained enough time.
Zergling Poking
If you run a Zergling up his ramp you will be able to tell what buildings there are in his wall, what addons they have and let you see anything he build too close to the ramp. Sometimes this won’t let you know anything, sometimes you can see game winning information. Your Zergling will most likely die but on average it will be worth it. If he went for a quick Hellion it will pop at the same time as your first Zerglings so you will need to run it in a Circle towards the enemy base or the Hellion will kill you on the way.
Overlord Sacrifice
Good player will kill this Overlord before it sees anything important and I rarely do this nowadays. I don’t know what the situation looks like further down the league(s) though. If you find that you normally can get far enough into your opponent’s base to see anything important you’ll want to send the Overlord at 5:00-5:30. This would allow you to see all builds he intend to use in a rush, if there’s a Command Center and if so what tech he intends to harass you with if any at all. It will also give you plenty of time to react to what you see.
Overlord Ledging
On some maps it’s quite efficient to keep a few Overlords around the egdes of your opponents base to spot if he builds anything there, you can also poke in a short distance without risking any harm. Scrap Station is awesome for this as you’re safe on 3 of the 4 sides of his base. On Lost Temple you can use the cliff behind the mains to take a sneak peak at his Geysers and the spot where he normally builds his Command Center.
On some maps you can also keep an Overlord around his natural to look at his expansion timing or his choke point, Lost Temple comes to mind once again but Blistering Sands, Steppes Of War and Shakuras Plateau also offer some possibilities.
Overseer Runby
If you still don’t know what your opponent’s up to when your Lair finishes you’re best of morphing an Overseer right away and running it into his base. Make sure you have an Overlord close to his base when doing this, moving an Overseer from your base takes precious extra time. If he intented to rush you the Overseer will most likely come too late. However, it’s good against silly build orders which are really common when weaker players tries to play their own creations and knowing exactly what your opponent is up to is always a good thing. A Zerg with knowledge can be a greedy Zerg, and this is how we want to play.
1.2 Bio Expand
This means that he expands, masses Bionics and perhaps techs up to Tanks and Medivacs but that he doesn’t harass you with Hellions or Banshees. This is the normal follow up to Reaper and 2 Rax openings but either of those doesn’t necessarily imply this - you still have to scout.
The Terran playing the Bio Expand will have a hard time pressuring you early on and you should be able Drone up to around 45-50 Drones before you start making all Zerglings. However, he will be able to pack quite the punch around 8-9 minutes into the game is you should upgrade Baneling Speed before starting your Spire. Good Creep spread is also vital.
It’s important to know if and when he leaves his base so place a Zergling outside his natural and another one behind that one for confirmation. When he leaves you want to make as many Banelings as you can afford and when he gets onto your creep you attack with Zergling/Baneling. It’s important that you attack before he can Siege his Tanks if he has any.
However, you will crush him and a smart Terran will know this if he Scans a delayed Spire so he might not move out. Therefore it’s important that you expand to your third as quick as possible too. With 45 Drones and 4 Geysers you should have enough minerals to expand before Spire finishes.
1.3 The Tech Expand
This means that he harasses you with Hellions while expanding behind it. He might try to attack you with a small Hellion/Bio army or he might tech to Banshees and harass you with 1-2 of those. If you’d had a maphack, this openings wouldn’t be viable so if you scout what he’s up to you’re set. However, scouting can be hard and you might have to prepare for everything.
Try to send one of your first Zerglings out on the map and hide it, and if he goes Hellions, send it into his natural so that it arrives around 7:20-7:30. This should at least tell you whether he expanded or not.
Anyways, to deal with Hellions you want to make a Spine Crawler in your natural at 4:30. On maps like Xel’Naga Caverns and Metalopolis you will need to make two. On these maps you will also need to back them up with Zerglings. Try to have around 4 Zerglings per Hellion and keep them behind your Spines to prevent runbys, don’t allow them to be needlessly roasted. I like to make around 10-20 of them when I start my Lair.
If he harasses you with Banshees you should get a fourth Queen as soon as you realise, you also need an Overseer asap if you didn’t take his Geyser.
If he Hellion drops you he’ll come around 8:00, you need to be aware of your base and preferebly attack him while he unloads and you should also bring a Queen to shoot the Medivac. You’d preferably have around 20 Zerglings to deal with this and they need to be started before 7:30.
Bio/Hellion pushes can come at many different timings. The proper response is lots of Zerglings, and perhaps a Baneling or two if you have time. However, how much you need and when you need it is a matter of scouting and judgement. The latter is something you’ll have to learn for yourself through experience. The former is done by running Zerglings into his natural once Speed is done. Also, don’t underestimate the power of your Drones against these builds. Drones are really deadly when they surround their enemy.
Against these builds you often won’t have map control until your Mutas are out so it’s often a good idea to place your third Hatchery in your main before Spire is done and then expanding with your fourth Hatchery.
1.4 Aggressive Air Builds
If we successfully steal his Geyser multiple times we won’t have to worry about these builds which is great because you have to deviate some to deal with them. However, should you chose not to Gas steal or if it’s not possible...
The Cloaked Banshee rush and the 2 Port mass Banshee build are nasty to deal with if you don’t know they’re coming. He’ll need at least 3 Banshees or Cloak to deal with your 3 Queens, this will be up around 7:30. If he still hasn’t expanded nor attacked by 7:30 it’s a very good idea to throw up an Evolution Chamber and get some extra Queens and then Spores.
Spreading out Overlords around your base and controlling any Xel’Naga watchtowers greatly increase the chances of you spotting Banshees on their way to your base, thus giving you more time to react.
1.5 Groundbased All-Ins
Auto-repaired Thors, Marine/Marauder/SCV, Hellion/Marauder... These all-in rushes come in many forms but the response to them is always the same. Cut Drones and mass Zerglings while getting Banelings without a Lair. Don’t go over 25 Drones if you can avoid it, if you do you’ll probably need Spine Crawlers to compensate.
1.5 Dealing With 2 Rax
15 Hatch is the best build for countering 2 Rax for a few reasons:
1: It gives more Larva. Yes, Pool first gives just as many Larva in the long run but until that first Inject pops you’ll have less of them. And when it pops it’s already too late cause he’ll have seized control of your natural and walled you in.
2: It provides Creep and thus allows you to make a Spine Crawler. This is crucial against prolonged aggression. The Spine Crawler actually completes before those extra Zerglings from a Pool first inject would.
The proper response to a 2 Rax is to cut Drones at 16, get an Overlord and bring all but 4 Drones to your natural to fight him off until you can get Zerglings out. When Zerglings and later the Spine Crawler comes out you can send Drones to mine in your Natural. If he then comes again with increased strength can bring out your Drones again. Also, get your first Queen in the natural.
If he 2 Raxes you but pulls back without engaging both of you will be set back around 1 minute. Each situation is unique though.
1.6 Dealing With A Reaper Or Two
Reapers have gotten rarer since they got patched. However, one or two early Reapers can still deal damage. First of all, bring around 3 Drones to kill any SCV trying to Bunker you in. If it gets up anyway, make a Spine Crawler out of range and prepare to make lots of Zerglings to kill it, move the Spine into range when you attack.
Even if he doesn’t get a Bunker up a Reaper can often arrive before your Queens are out. In this case, attack it with around 5-7 Drones and make sure to pull back hurt Drones before he can get three hits off on any one of them. Depending on your handspeed and the position of the hurt Drone you might have to begin the move already after the first hit.
Don’t chase a Reaper with slow Zerglings, but do guard your ledges and attack him if he jumps up right next to you.
1.7 Dealing With A Blocked Natural
If he scouts so early that he’s able to prevent a 15 Hatch it pretty much means that he ain’t 2 Raxing so go ahead and do a Gas->Pool Speedling opening but send 1 Drone o kill off his SCV before he can get too much Hp on an Engineering Bay in your natural. Expand as soon as you can and go ahead as normal, this sets both players behind around equally much. All timings needs to be delayed around 15-20 seconds.
1.8 Throwing Stuff Around
Terran are very flexible and very aggressive. Hence practice rarely matches theory perfectly and each game tend to be quite unique so you have to be quite flexible too. For example, if he attacks you early and you somehow end up with 40 Drones before your Lair is even started you’ll be sitting on too much minerals compared to your tech level. Now a good response would be to either get your remaining Geysers earlier than you normally would and/or expand earlier.
Or perhaps you lose Drones and end up with too quick tech. In this case you might want to prioritize more Drones over getting that Spire, even though your Lair is done.
ZvT is a match up where you often have to improvise a lot to get by, and for that reason it’s important to have a solid core idea of how you want to play so you have something to improvise around and so that everything fits together.
2.0 The Mid Game
I define the mid game to start when my Mutalisks reaches his base. This grants me some great intelligence and from now on there will be less guesswork and more solid skills involved. Many Terrans get by on cheeses alone and are terrible at this part of the game.
2.1 Mutalisk Harass
The primary objective of your first Mutalisks is to scout out his production facilities and army composition. However, there should also be plenty of opportunity to harass your opponent. The most important thing is to not lose Mutalisks, taking some damage is fine, it will heal but dead ones stay dead. Beyond that, go for anything that’s unprotected. SCVs and Mules are obviously the most delicious targets and mostly also the best protected ones. Marines tend to be vulnerable just as they pop from their Barracks and Supply depots are often build along ledges. However, the most annoying thing of all, for a Terran that is, is losing building SCVs.
When Mutalisk harassing you’re waging a war on your opponents speed. If you need to macro, you pull them out and do it. But when you moves in he has to defend, even if he’d like to do something else at that time. The more you’re in his face, the less likely he is to move out (which is good) and the more likely he is to screw something up (which is also good).
When you get around 10 Mutalisks you can start picking off stray Turrets. Don’t go for ones in the mineral line though. You need at least 20 to pick off a Turret surrounded by repairing SCVs.
2.2 Unit Composition
Your core units are Mutalisks, Zerglings, Banelings and Roaches. If he goes all Mech, focus on the Roaches and avoid the Banelings completly. If he goes all Bio, focus on the Mutalisks and Banelings and avoid the Roaches. If he goes Bio with 1 Factory Tank support, start mixing in Roaches and cutting Banelings when his tank number gets higher, like over 5. If he choses a 2 Factory BioMech composition you want to mix in Roaches once again, avoid the Mutalisks if he makes Thors from both Factories and avoid the Banelings if he makes Tanks from both. If he mixes in everything you have to too.
Infestors are really only good if he as a lot of Marines but no Medivacs. Or in the late game against Bio dominant compositions. Else, avoid them. Banelings are better and doesn’t open up a timing window.
Medivacs should also be considered when it comes to Roaches. Roaches are bad against Medivacs, and good against Mech units. But more Medivacs means less Mech units. Hence you have double incitements to make less Roaches when there's many Medivacs around.
2.3 Drops And Raids
Good Terrans are aggressive Terrans. They will drop you where you least expect it and run in with 4 Marauders to kill a Hatchery while you’re busy. Perhaps everything will happen at the same time as their main army moves out too.
To defend against drops and raids you need to be mobile, very mobile. A large enough part of your army to deal with at least 3 fully loaded Medivacs should always consist of Mutalisks and Speedlings, unless he doesn't have a Starport. You must also connect all your bases with Creep to speed up movement inbetween them, use Overlords if you’re low on Creep Tumors.
Also, spread out your Overlords around the map and control Xel’Naga watchtowers to gain as much vision as possible too spot drops before they’re in your base. Losing a fully loaded Medivac before it unloads is a huge setback for a Terran.
In the late game you can turtle up your most vulnerable expansions with Spine Crawlers.
2.4 Hive Timings
Sitting back and growing your economy is all nice, but there’s one problem. What if he doesn’t come to you? What if he just sits back and waits for limit before he moves out? He’s likely to demolish you. This is why we get Hive. Your Hive timing should depend on the strength of his potential limit army and how mobile he is early one.
A Mech army is very strong at the limit, you must have Brood Lords to deal with it so we need a quick Hive against Mech. I normally start my Infestation Pit the very moment I realise he’s going Mech.
A BioMech army is also scary at the limit, but not as scary and he’s also more likely to attack before hitting the limit with this composition. I get my Infestation Pit in either of these 3 situations. 1: After I’ve beaten his first push. 2: He expands to his third. 3: I realise that I will hit limit before he moves out.
A normal Bio army isn’t that scary at the limit. You can deal with it just fine with your normal units and I normally only get a Hive for the third level upgrades against this. On that note, start your upgrades after your first round of Mutalisks are out (unless he pushes right at that moment). One or two Evolution Chambers both works well, it’s mostly a matter of taste.
2.5 Beating A Push
Simply A-Moving into the enemy army is sure to net you a lot of losses. Terrans, and hence also their enemies needs to put a lot of thought into how they conduct battle. When you engage your formation needs to be stronger than your opponents.
This means that you can engage with a bad formation, if your opponent’s is terrible. But it also means that you shouldn’t engage even with a good formation if your opponent’s is flawless - you need to make yours perfect or his worse.
A good Zerg position means wide or multiple simulations fronts as well as a Creeped battleground. A good Terran position means sieged Tanks and spread out marines, preferably in a choke point.
The earlier you meet your opponents army, the longer he’ll have to move with perfect care. If he unsieges all of his Tanks at once you can attack, even if there’s no Creep and your front is only decently wide. Meeting him early greatly increases the chances that he’ll do a mistake. It also slows him down no matter how good he is.
Furthermore, when you have a lot of Mutalisks you can cut off his rienforcements from joining with his main army. This means that the longer he stays in the field, the stronger your army will grow while his strength remains the same.
If he doesn’t have Thors you can stack up your Mutalisks and use them to pick of any units that strays too far from his main Marine ball. This can reduce the size of his army somewhat but you’re also waging a war on his speed, constantly forcing him to pay attention to his army. Furthermore, when you move around he has to move around too, and it’s very hard to keep a moving Marine army split up so if you engage while harassing him your Banelings will be that much more effective.
Sometimes, it's simply not worth engaging. He might have gotten an advantage on you earlier on, or you might have over-droned. Don't engage him in this situation. Save the Drones in whichever expansion he is attacking and let the Hatchery die, for this reason it's a good idea to avoid building tech in your natural as there might come a time when you have to sacrifice it.
Let him kill the expansion; in the meanwhile you have two choices. 1: Counter-attacking, this is probably the best choice if he went for an outlying expansion and sometimes also best on when closer expansions are attacked. However, I don't recommend counter-attacking if he goes for your natural. 2: Sit back, save up and attack him whenever he unsieges and tries to move either back home or forwards to another expansion. Often you'll get the upper hand in this situation but at the very least it should minimize your losses.
3.0 The Late Game
I define the Late Game to start when my Hive tech is ready. It’s the part of the game where you use every trick in the book to sieze victory.
3.1 Brood Lords And Ultralisks
Brood Lords are the kings of anti ground units. They will demolish a Terran push or outright kill him when used offensively. Neither Marines nor Thors can fight Brood Lords cost efficiently and they force Tanks to unsiege making the rest of your army so much more effective. However, Zerg cannot battle Viking/Thor for air control for a very long time so you can’t stick with Brood Lords for too long.
Get Brood Lords as your first Hive tech and use them to win one battle, perhaps make some Corruptors to really force him to start producing Vikings, but then you switch to Ultralisks. Ultralisks aren’t that great normally but when your opponent has a large piece of his Supply invested in Vikings they do really well. Also make sure to get the Adrenal Glands upgrade, it makes your Zerglings 15% stronger and you’ll make a lot of Zerglings in the late game as you’ll have a ton of Larva but only so much Gas.
3.2 Planetary Fortresses
For the most part of the game a Planetary Fortress is a big nono, don’t touch them, it’s not worth it. However, with huge armies of Roaches or Ultralisks you can often snipe them if you catch one with the army gone. Especially if you have Banelings to get rid of the SCVs.
You can also blow one up with Banelings, it normally takes around 25-30 Banelings to kill one depending on how many it manages to kill before it dies. This can be a risky move though, if you’re one Baneling short of the required number he’ll simply repair the Fortress and you’ve wasted a lot of resources. Furthermore, killing a Fortress with Banelings leaves a hole in your army and you risk dieing to a counter attack. Therefore I only think it’s worth it when you’re already at limit and with spare resources to rebuild the lost Banelings or some other type of army.
3.3 Nydus Worms & Doom Drops
As the game progresses Terran spread themselves thinner and thinner as they expand, and they also tend to shift their unit composition towards slower Mech units. This leaves their main vulnerable to Nydus Worms and huge Drops.
However, if you do drop, don’t just leave your army in their main to die. Pick it up again and leave when he comes home to defend. And if he moves away again, you move back in.
3.4 Burrow
Burrow has a lot of uses and in the late game 100/100 won’t be too much of an investment. I’m not sure about the best time to get it, but do get it. It could save your mineral line or at least force a scan if you get dropped or raided.
It also allows you to make small Baneling traps. 2 Banelings aren’t that costly but sooner or later he will forget to scan and then you’ll blow up a ton of Marines. Don’t do something silly like burrowing 10 Banelings in the same place though. The payoff isn’t worth the risk.
3.5 Drones
There is something like too many Drones. Drones eat away at your supply and leaves less for your army. The same is true for Queens actually. I try to never go over 4 Queen nor 90 Drones. If I need more production beyond that I’d rather add extra Hatcheries than extra Queens.
4.0 Some Replays
Vs Happy on Blistering Sands
Happy was #1 on the European Top 200 at the time of the game and I think he played better than me. However, I got the advantage early on and clung to it. He begins by blocking my Natural with an Ebay and proceeds into 2 Port Banshee and then an expansion and BioMech. Blistering Sands is a map where you can be more aggressive than on other maps, at the same time it’s a map where it’s hard to play passive since there are so few expansions.
Vs SjoW on Xel’Naga Caverns
My economy takes an early blow when I am forced to defend a Bio/Hellion poke with Drones but I return the favor a few minutes later when my Mutalisks catch his mineral line without Turrets. He proceeds into a quick third and BioMech. There’s lots of action in this one, he likes drops and small raids on my outer expansions and I do some poking too with Mutalisks and Roaches. I think I played rather well overall.
Vs Nihil on Xel’Naga Caverns
He does a 2 Rax opening and pokes around without dedicating but then he adds 2 more Raxes for a total of 4 and pulls all his SCVs for an all-in.
Vs idkfa on Blistering Sands
He does a Banshee/Expand opening and follow up with a Marine/Tank attack right before Spire completes but I hold everything perfectly and secures a nice advantage.
Vs Jester on Metalopolis
He goes for an expansion and a quick Hellion drop but I’ve seen the Starport and am aware of the possibility. From there it transition into a standard game.
Vs Monty on Lost Temple
He opens with Marine/Hellion pressure while expanding and transitions into Thors. I notice that he doesn’t have any tanks and plays it aggressively since we’re on close positions.
Vs BrutalBlitz on Metalopolis
I don’t approve of the way I played the early part of this game, but I do think I did a nice job in the late game.
Vs Daut on Lost Temple
This was the only replay I specifically remembered with a ground all-in. However, it’s quite old and both of us are probably much better players nowadays than when this was played. Nonetheless it shows a good response to a Thor all-in: Blow the SCVs with Banes and swarm him in Zerglings.
Vs EmpireDieStar on Metalopolis
He goes for a 14 min BioMech push and I beat it back with Muta/Ling/Roach, should have mixed in some Banes for even better results though.
vs Jimpo on Metalopolis
Demonstrating the power of the counter attack.
