EPTDon't get me wrong, nydusworming is by no means a new strategy.
However, with the new changes made to both queen ground range and overlordspeed, I figured it was time to do this guide.
I would say that the guide is written and would work for players all the way up to high masters, even though it might seem abit too detailed for top tier players.
The build will be focusing on exploiting protoss ffe, or gateway into ffe builds.
The build is ment for you to be able to steal a game of someone, and would work very well in a ladder situation (Players dont know you).
As with all cheesy nydusplay, you will obviouslly NOT be able to win consecutive games against the same player. As you rely on putting down the nydus in their base.
(If they are really looking for your nydus, you will probably not get it down.)
However, the build really punishes sloppy and careless toss players, which there are alot of even in high masters.
The build is no magic. It is based upon a 2 basing zerg, nydusing queens with reinforcing speedlings.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KEO8M.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wVK6g.jpg)
In short terms, the build will look like a normal build.
You will be going standard 15 pool into hatch. However, your first 100 gas goes directly into lair followed by lingspeed and nydus.
By doing this, your nydus will hit around 7:30 - 7:40.
Depending on protoss blocking your hatchery or not, your composition may vary as you will have less queens for the nydus. Your gas timings will still be the same,
hence nydustiming also stays the same.
This is a great timing vs a toss going ffe, and will eventually most certainly lead to a victory.
(*Laughing* - nothing feels better than cheesing a protoss)
So, how does nydusing your ffe-ing protoss win you the game?
While going for ffe, the protoss obviouslly delays teching. They normally focus skyrocketing their economy while building a solid wall at the front.
This makes for a timing before they start producing units, and it's this timing we are trying to exploit.
Some general versions of toss followups:
-If the toss goes for a big gatewaypush, you will hit right before warpgate research finishes,
and you will probably be able to snipe down the pylons powering the gateways before he even
gets one warpin.
He could do his first warpin at around 7:30 when doing super rush builds. These are probably the hardest to kill but, but with proper micro it should atleast make him forfeit the main.
-If the toss goes for early stargate play, he could have about 1 void ray + a pheonix on the way. Queens rape that shit.
-If the toss goes for dt's(nobody really does that), you got lair and an overlord nearby.
-If the toss goes some kind of robo/gatewaymix you would hit way before he could ever build up an army.
-If the toss counters, you got nydus.
My point is, if you get your nydus down, you WILL kill his main, which will eventually lead to victory (bold statement).
How do we proceed?
As mentioned earlier, we are going to use queens and lings for our first attack.
Assuming everything goes according to plan (execution of build), we will be hitting with 6 queens and a dousin (more?) lings at about 7:30 - 7:40.
Remember, queens now have 5 range vs groundunits and are pretty baller. With the amount of transfuses at this point, you shouldn't lose a single queen
while killing his main.
Genreal Build Order
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Stage 1:
-15 Pool
-16 Hatch(prefer 16 over 15 because it is less likely of toss putting down pylon, try to sneak 1 drone out etc.)
-15 queen (number 1 at main, Move it to natural after injecting)
-17 lings
-18 overlord
-18 gas
-17 drone (you are now 18/18)
-18 drone
-19 drone
-20 queen (number 2 at main, Move it to natural after injecting)
Comment: Even though protoss sometimes pylonblock your hatchery, your gas timings will still be the same. You need to build 2 set of lings instead of 1 to kill it off.
As a consequence of this you will have 1-2 less queens for the attack. This doesn't hurt your build too much.
Stage 2:
At this point I will not write food count, as the food count doesn't really matter. Things you should remember: Queen presedence over drones.
Second gas timing. Saving up for lair/nydus
-2 drones
Expo UP -> Rally new drones to natural. Move some drones from main to natural.
-Build first queen at natural
-overlord
-About 10 seconds before your second queen from main pops, build second gas in main
-Once second queen from main pops, build lair in main
-"Fill in some drones"
-Second queen from natural
-You would want to get lingspeed around 5:40 or about 150 gas
-"Fill in some drones"
-Lair done at around 6:10
-Instant nydus network
-5th and 6th queen
-At this point,No more drones. Start pumping lings. You should have about 22-24 drones in total now, mostly in your natural(obviously not more than 16).
-Nydus worm when you have found a good location.
-Reinforce with lings. Remember overlords. I find it easy to get blocked at this point.
Short version:
-15 pool into hatch
-Queen Presedence over drones. Your first gas goes down about 5 seconds after first queen starts. Your second gas should start around 10sec
before lair starts. (Gas timings are obviouslly important)
-lair when second queen from main pops
-Nydus network when lair's done
-Lingsproduction when you got around 22-24 workers
-Nydus worm when nydus network is done
-15 Pool
-16 Hatch(prefer 16 over 15 because it is less likely of toss putting down pylon, try to sneak 1 drone out etc.)
-15 queen (number 1 at main, Move it to natural after injecting)
-17 lings
-18 overlord
-18 gas
-17 drone (you are now 18/18)
-18 drone
-19 drone
-20 queen (number 2 at main, Move it to natural after injecting)
Comment: Even though protoss sometimes pylonblock your hatchery, your gas timings will still be the same. You need to build 2 set of lings instead of 1 to kill it off.
As a consequence of this you will have 1-2 less queens for the attack. This doesn't hurt your build too much.
Stage 2:
At this point I will not write food count, as the food count doesn't really matter. Things you should remember: Queen presedence over drones.
Second gas timing. Saving up for lair/nydus
-2 drones
Expo UP -> Rally new drones to natural. Move some drones from main to natural.
-Build first queen at natural
-overlord
-About 10 seconds before your second queen from main pops, build second gas in main
-Once second queen from main pops, build lair in main
-"Fill in some drones"
-Second queen from natural
-You would want to get lingspeed around 5:40 or about 150 gas
-"Fill in some drones"
-Lair done at around 6:10
-Instant nydus network
-5th and 6th queen
-At this point,No more drones. Start pumping lings. You should have about 22-24 drones in total now, mostly in your natural(obviously not more than 16).
-Nydus worm when you have found a good location.
-Reinforce with lings. Remember overlords. I find it easy to get blocked at this point.
Short version:
-15 pool into hatch
-Queen Presedence over drones. Your first gas goes down about 5 seconds after first queen starts. Your second gas should start around 10sec
before lair starts. (Gas timings are obviouslly important)
-lair when second queen from main pops
-Nydus network when lair's done
-Lingsproduction when you got around 22-24 workers
-Nydus worm when nydus network is done
Remember, the exact dronecount doesn't really matter. Try to execute gas- and queentimings correctly, so your lair/nydus is on time.
Overlord/nydusplacement
A big reason why nydus is better now is the new overlord speedbuff. This make scouting around for possible locations easier, and is a crucial factor why the build works so well.
In most cases you can get 3 overlords scouring around the protoss base.
Below, I have included possible overlord and nydusplacement for the current laddermaps.
Red indicates possible nydusplacement. Red with black indicates where I prefer placing my nudus'. Green indicates overlord placement and movement.
Purple indicates imergency nydus.
If your first nydus gets killed you could try putting up one of these to draw their attention to the front of their base. While unloading from this and attacking his front, try putting up another one in his base. You should have enough gas to do this.
NB. Getting your overlords in the correct spot are key to any nydusplay.
Antiga shipyard:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nxa1L.jpg)
Antiga shipyard is a great map for nydus. As you can see, I prefer the area around the smoky area. In order for protoss to cover this whole area, he needs 3 pylons.
1 inside the smoky field, 1 under and 1 over(see red with black stars). Protoss will probably not do that very often.
Korhal Compound:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/V0z2v.jpg)
As I have vetoed Korhal Compound, I dont have alot of experience nydusing here.
However, this is a map with a big main area, and would be great for this build.
There are a lot of possibilities. Personally, if I see no pylon in the area around the bottom overlord, I love sacrificing him to the natural.
This way I get both vision where I want to put nydus(black stars), in addition to drawing his units and atention away from the nydus
Cloud Kingdom:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/FTLSP.jpg)
Cloud Kingdom is a great map for nydusing. There is alot of room in the top right of his base aswell as the left side.
I love putting nydus' closer towards their ramp and close to their lowground buildings, as I find it less likely for them to have highground vision there.(They often forget)
Also, you could move your top overlord around to the left side of his main.
Daybreak:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/D1CW7.jpg)
Pretty much same as Cloud Kingdom. Good nydusmap. Again, I prefer the positions closer to ramp towards lowground.
Entombed Valley:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UqROI.jpg)
Haven't played this at all since it's on my veto list. It seems like a very good nydusmap however. You even got som spots in their natural.
Metalopolis:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0bsfq.jpg)
Again, maps like metalopolis and antiga with fog from smoky-stuff are great for nydusing.
Ohana:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NVDME.jpg)
Alot similar to Korhal Compound. I like the position close to their lowground natural (black stars).
Shakuras Plateu:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/SZb5o.jpg)
On Shakuras, protoss seem to be more alert to nydusplay. Maybe since the main-area is so big. However, with 3 overlords flying around, you should be able to find a spot.
Tal'darim Altar:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NTk5q.jpg)
There is alot of area to the right, but the protoss are normally good at building pylons over there. There is still a good chance of finding a good spot.
The area is huge! Be sneaky.
Conclusion: Pretty much all the maps are viable for the build.
Tips and tricks
-Your queens should be loaded first into the nydus network. This way you can instantly transfuse your worm if needed.
-You are trying to hide the fact that you are teching to lair and doing a cheesy build. Transfering drones to your natural will make it look like you have more drones.
Also, You will build up alot of larvae. Try building drones and overlords from the natural hatchery.
(It might look suspicious if you got 10 spare larvae on your natural hatchery)
In addition it might be clever to put down a creep tumor from your natural early on, as it would look kinda strange if you have 3 queens and no creep extending.
-You MUST prevent protoss from scouting your main (obviously). That is way you are transfering your first 2 queens from your main to your natural.
When you get to the point where you got 4-5-6 queens, you shouldn't show him all of them if he scoutes the front. Remember you are trying to represent a non-allin build.
-You should instantly put down 1-2 creep tumors in the protoss base after nydus as you want the creep to extend to his ramp (for followup + speed).
-Depending on your followup, pull guys of gas.
-Dealing with zealot scout. 3 queens will kill it before reaching main. Otherwise I suggest blocking ramp. They will not always sacrifice it though.
Followup
One of two things usually happens after he hears the nydus-roar-thingy.
-He's doing some kind of tech and thinks he can defend his main. He pulls all the probes + 1 or 2 sentries + 1 or 2 zealots.
You will most certainly win this with proper transfuses. He leaves the game.
-He pulls all his probes to the natural sacrificing the main. Prioritize killing pylons powering gates/robo etc first.
Dont try running to his natural as he probably got a sentry. At this point you are still reinforcing with lings. You should stop reinforcing with lings when main is dead, unless you are afraid of him retaking his main.
Start droning up abit while teching. Personally I like building 3-5 spinecrawler in his main nearby ramp/cliff to pick of buildings and possibly a few mineralpatches. However you could go with other alternatives.
From this point you have pretty much won the game. Put lings on possible expansionlocations(important) and play out the game vs 1 base protoss.
Turn one of your overlords into an overseer to snipe observer to prevent high ground vision.
It could be convinient to build 1-2 spines back at your base, even though you got your nydus.
I understand that many might think that nydusing is a coinflip situation. Either protoss sees the nydus and wins, or nydus goes up and zerg wins.
Personally I find that this isn't the case, even in high masters.
Remember, a nydusworm takes 20 seconds to build. Probes alone kill the 200 hp worm in about 8-9 seconds (excluded traveltime).
If you place the nydus in a spot far away from their mineral lines (in full protoss sight. remember instant transfuse), they still need to react in a matter of seconds.
Even if I dont get the first nydus up, I have won alot of games by placing the followup nydus' in different locations.
I would say my winrate vs toss after using only this build is about 80-90% (40-50 games). If executed properly, I think alot of lower tier players would have a blast doing this, and get a bunch og free wins.
However, as with all cheesy builds. The more popular it is, the less efficient it will be.
Replays
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I lost all of my old replays. Therefore the quality isn't the best. However, they represent the general idea and build order.
More replays will be comming.
Korhal Compound: http://drop.sc/188262?pass=89d788e2-d43f-450e-9617-0af44b433cc1
Shakuras Plateu: http://drop.sc/188263?pass=31723680-5d08-40a9-a04f-6452d2d46f72
Tal'darim Altar: http://drop.sc/188264?pass=f0f6fdce-0865-4e55-86a3-9de99160c3ca
Tal'darim Altar: http://drop.sc/188268?pass=aea766c5-f336-41fa-9b02-a724692f0ba0
Antiga Shipyard: http://drop.sc/188112
As you can see, I even do alot of minor errors.
Eids, eu server
