PC - Starcraft 2

By: Furious Paul October 31, 2013

Starcraft 2 Zerg Units Strategy Guide

General Zerg Tips:
Some notes about Larva: Larve spawns from the hatchery every 15 seconds from the hatchery (or lair or hive). Larve allow you to build most zerg units. Even though they only have 25 hitpoints they are very strong thanks to their 10 armor. One hatchery can only contain a maximum of 19 larva out at a time. The queen can speed up the larva production with the spawn Larva ability, which spawns 4 larva in after 40 seconds. Larva cannot be controlled by the player and will die if they are not on creep.

As soon as the game starts send your overlord to go scout the enemy. If you manage to get your overlord in their base keep it in there for a short time, then you need to move it out of there before they get an anti-air unit. If you see any of the following you need to get your overlord out of there quick:

From Protoss: A near finished Cybernetics Core. They will soon be able to afford stalkers which will take your overlord down quickly.
From Zerg: A spawning pool that is nearly done building. The zerg player will soon be able to build a queen after the spawning pool is done to attack and quickly kill your overlord.
From Terran: A barracks. They will quickly get a marine out, and it can kill your overlord. Terrans are the worst, if you see your enemy is terran, I would not even bother to fly your overlord in their base, they can quickly get marines out, and one marine can easily take your overlord out.

Through out the game have an overlord near the enemies main base, if you can, turn that one into an overseer, and use it constantly to spy in their base real quick to see what they are building, then move it out of site. Keep on doing this like every other minute or so, this is important. If you have an overseer, just have your overseer spawn a changeling, and then have the changeling scout around in the base to see what they are building. This way you can easily build up to counter attack them for what they are building. And yeah this is a VERY important tip. You watch any expert 1v1 game, and they ALL do this.

Throughout the game, as you get more overlords, fly each of them out of sight behind each mineral field site. This way you can monitor every mineral site on the map to know if the enemy is mining it or not. If you see the enemy mining somewhere out on the map, you should go take it out quick.

Hatcheries have 2 different kinds of rally points, one for drones (reddish in color), and one for fighting units (whitish in color), you can simply just select a hatchery and right-click on either a mineral patch for drones, or anywhere on the ground for fighting units to go to.

You can set specific rally points (by-passing your hatchery's rally point) for all the cocoons being built. So keep this in mind, it will come in handy a lot. For example you can have each overlord cocoon have it's own rally point to a specific destination, this saves time if you want each overlord going to a specific spot on the map once their built. You can build a bunch of drone cocoons and have the rally point to a gas mine or certain mineral field.

You can even set ctrl-groups for cocoons, so say if you are building a bunch of zergling cocoons, you can press shift-(# for your zergling army), and they will automatically be apart of that control group after they are built. Just another time saver to keep in mind.

As soon as your spawning pool is complete you should definitely get a queen ASAP, and have your queen constantly use the Spawn Larva ability on your hatchery non-stop to get more larva to spawn out, so you can build units quicker.

If you see that your queen has extra energy to spare, then spawn a creep tumor at your main base leading up to your expansion. This will allow your zerg units to move more quickly over it to their destination. And you can start a creep tumor at your expansion base to lead out into the map, this way your zerg units will be able to move more quickly over the map and the creep tumors act as spies as well so you can see more of the map. This is especially more effective when your opponents are either protoss or terran, as you will have the upper advantage. If it was all zerg playing, it would just even it out. To counter zerg creep tumors, the opponent will need detectors to see them. NOTE: Keep in mind creep tumors can spawn one more additional creep tumor (for free), so keep these pumping out all through out the game. The more creep is out on the map, the better it is for you.

You should always get a second hatchery relatively quick, usually when your unit count is around 20ish. And you have the option to build your second one at your expansion site. If you do build your second one at your expansion site, get a second queen for your expansion. You can always just build your second hatchery at your main base, but I generally find that inefficient.

Spine crawlers are great. And I recommend building 1-2 just about every game as zerg (unless you are doing a zergling rush), you can even uproot these and move them to other locations. A good strategy to use with spine crawlers, is to build a few of them in your main base at the beginning of the game, and then once you get your expansion base going uproot and move the spine crawlers to your expansion site.

Upgrade your unit's armor and weapons. Zerg benefit the most from weapon and armor upgrades. They can mass out units quick, and can take extra advantage of upgrades more since they simply are able to build a larger army number. Most weapon and armor upgrades in this game only provide one extra point of either armor or weapon damage, so when you have more units (as the zerg do), you will take advantage of these upgrades more. So definitely keep this in mind.

Use a zergling at the Xel'Naga Towers to reveal a large portion of the map, you can easily spot these towers on your minimap with the small blue eyeballs. Please note that burrowed zerg units will not activate these towers.

If you are being attacked and your spine crawlers are taking in damage, have your queen throw a Transfusion (+ 125 health) to it, that would be a bit more efficient than throwing it to a fighting unit, since spine crawlers have more armor and do more damage.

Build order Options

The zerg have many build order options to choose from, they can do a zergling rush, roach rush, roach/zergling rush, baneling/zergling rush, muta/zergling rush, they can also tech to hydras, Infestors, or Brood Lords even.

Zergling Rush

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk, Ultralisk	Baneling, Roach	Hydralisk
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Void Ray	Archon, Colossus, Dark Templar, Phoenix, Zealot	High Templar, Sentry	Immortal, Stalker
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser,	Hellion, Reaper	Ghost, Marine, Siege Tank, Viking	Marauder, Thor

There are several variations you can do for a zergling rush, you can do what I call the super efficient zergling rush, the build order looks like this:

Drone 7/10
Drone 8/10
Drone 9/10
Drone 10/10
Spawning Pool
Drone 10/10
Extractor
Drone 11/10
Then cancel the extractor.
Overlord
When the spawning pool and overlord completes, build 3 zergling Cocoons
Build your Queen.
Keep building zerglings until you have 18/18, then build another overlord.

At this point, you can keep trying to put the zergling rush on your opponent, if it looks like its working just keep sending in more zerglings, don't bother building more drones. If it doesn't seem to be working pull your zerglings back, and you will have to alternate your strategy. At this point your best bet to win a zergling rush would be to build a second hatchery at your expansion site and build 50% drones, and 50% zerglings, try to get your economy going okay, get a second queen at your expansion site and a third hatchery, and keep cranking out zerglings. You can try to send in another huge wave of zerglings, but in most games this is probably not going to work. But there is the zergling rush for you.

Vs Protoss - This is worth trying, if the protoss does not have his choke point blocked somewhat and he is teching to stalkers, then the zergling rush is way in your favor. However, if a protoss player is building mass zealots, your zergling rush will fail, and you will have to get roaches in your army asap. Or if the protoss player has his chokepoint blocked, you can try to kill a pylon in the way and break through, you just might be able to win.

Vs Zerg - It is worth it to try a quick zergling rush against another zerg player, especially if your opponent tries to fast expand, you just need to watch out for roaches, you can try to run around the roaches to your enemies mineral line to take out worker units or the queen even. Any good zerg player can stop a zergling rush while teching to roaches, which will demolish zerglings. So unless the player is a noobie you probably won't win with a zergling rush, but you may put them in a slight hole. In mid game, you are better off getting a combination of zerglings and roaches, or all roaches, then roaches combined with hydras. A good way for a zerg to stop a zergling rush while teching to roaches would be to build a couple of Spine Crawlers in your base while having a couple of zerglings as well. Also if you still try just the zergling rush, you need to watch out for the zerg teching to mutas, which will pose a serious problem for you.

Vs Terran - This is a joke. If you manage to zergling rush a terran, then congratulations! This is near to impossible to accomplish due to the fact they can easily block of their choke point and get marines/marauders behind it, and possibly even in bunkers. However zerglings are great to include in your army vs terrans during major battles. You just need to watch out for hellions, since they can easily take zerglings out with no problem. If you plan on zergling rushing a terran player, you will need banelings (see the next section)..

Advanced Zergling Rush Using Banelings

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk	Roach, Ultralisk	Hydralisk	Zergling
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Void Ray	Archon, Colossus, Immortal, Phoenix, Stalker	Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Zealot
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser	Marauder, Siege Tank, Thor, Viking	Ghost, Hellion, Reaper	Marine

Banelings, which require a baneling nest, are suicidal units that explode dealing massive splash damage. They do bonus damage to light units, so they are great against tightly packed marines, zealots, zerglings, or worker units to name a few. Banelings thankfully DO NOT hurt your own units, or your ally units.

Banelings can explode while burrowed. So you can strategically burrow banelings in specific places in the map where you think the enemy will run over, or stop over, then you can explode the baneling while burrowed blowing them all up.

In most games banelings are not generally used, and most zerg players don't bother to build them. However, if you plan on winning a quick game, banelings can help you with that. They can also help you break through big defenses (more on that later).

Most well played out zergling rushes involve the use of banelings. Banelings can take out buildings real quick, especially at choke points which will allow the rest of your zergling army to break through and get inside of the opponents base to try and get a quick win in. Banelings also do splash damage when they blow up, so using them against tightly squeezed unit armies is a good tactic, since it will hurt everyone in that small area. But I find it best for breaking though choke points at beginning of games. You will NEED to do this when fighting the terran, and helps some when fighting the protoss, you can blow up a pylon quickly in your way and let your zergling army break through into their base to take them out. I generally do not use this strategy against the zerg since choke point issues are less of a problem. You could however use them to blow up spine crawlers, or tightly packs zerglings.

TIP: When attacking a base with a mixture of banelings and zerglings, have your zerglings go after the enemy fighting units, while your banelings go after defensive structures such as photon cannons, bunkers, spine crawlers, etc.

Here are tips when using banelings vs different races:

Vs Protoss:Banelings are really only useful for killing zealots or probes, and later on can be used to blow up high templar, or even dark templar if you have an overseer to see them. Banelings are weak vs all other protoss units.

Vs Terran: This is the best case where burrowed banelings come in. Tightly packed marines, or even hellions will all crumble to banelings. Try to burrow banelings around their choke point, and when the enemy comes to guard his choke point just blow up your banelings and it could be an easy win for you. You could also burrow banelings in a path all the way to your enemies base, and just keep an eye out when the terrans come and then explode the banelings. It's also harder for the terrans to counter this simply because detection of burrowed units is inconvenient, they would have to use the scanner weeper up (when they could be using it for MULEs). Terrans would need to get a Raven out quick to detect the burrowed banelings.

You can use banelings to break through a well defended base, which can allow your other attacking units to clean up the mess.

Vs Zerg: Banelings work great against tightly packed zerglings, but are weak against roaches. They are okay against hydras as long as their movement speed is upgraded.

Zerglings later on in the game

Zerglings are great the entire game, they are incredibly powerful when upgraded. Once you get a hive you can upgrade the adrenal glands and they become very powerful. Once you upgrade their armor and weapons all the way, they become very deadly, even more so than zealots later on in the game.

Roach Rush

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk		Baneling, Hydralisk, Ultralisk	Zergling
protoss	Carrier, Immortal, Mothership, Void Ray	Colossus, Phoenix, Stalker	Archon, Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Zealot
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser	Marauder, Siege Tank	Ghost, Hellion, Marine, Reaper, Thor, Viking

This is one of my favorites in the game.

They do just about the same damage, have about the same health and armor as a zealot. The main drawback to the roach, is they are armored units, which can be countered by units that do bonus damage to armored units.

The roach rush is my general starting strategy for the zerg. It can wipe out a lot of players quickly. You have to be careful though, you may need to get a mix of zerglings in your army to compensate for what the enemy has. So scouting with overlords or burrowed units is to see what the enemy has is very important.

Vs Protoss: This can be extremely effective if the protoss is massing zealots, since roaches can take them out quick. You have to watch out for just about everything else though as every other protoss unit is a threat to the roach. Sentries can use the Guardian Shield ability to reduce their damage, stalkers are decent against them, and immortals will PLUMMEL them to nothingness. High Templar can storm them easily, and of course roaches cannot attack air, so any air unit is a threat to the roach. When zealots get the charge ability, then they will be right up there to give them a good fight. But overall roaches are good to have in your army, they provide good fodder and provide good extra backup damage, you will want to get a bunch of zerglings in your arsenal to compensate for all the other protoss units.

Vs Zerg: Most zerg battles will be either big roach battles or zergling/muta battles (explained later). Who ever can get the most roaches out quicker will most likely win. You will have to watch out if the opponent is going for mutas, scout their base as see if they have a spire. If they have a spire, you will need to get a Hydralisk Den up quick and crank out Hydralisks to counter them. You should also build a few spore crawlers next to your mineral miners to fend off future mutas trying to kill your workers. whether they are getting mutas or not, it is recommend to have some hydra in your army later on to supplement your roaches.

Vs Terran: Roaches can chew up Marines, Hellions, and Reapers fairly quick. The main thing you have to watch out for early on is mass Marauders, which do bonus damage to armored units and can overpower your roaches easily. To counter the Marauders, you will need to get a bunch of zerglings in your army, and upgrade them for the faster movement speed. Later on you will have to watch out for Banshees since roaches cannot attack air, so make sure to get some hydra in your army to counter that. Also watch out for siege tanks. Siege tanks can quickly wipe out roaches. You will need to get a bunch of zerglings (with the movement speed upgrade) to take out the Siege tanks.

TIP: Research the burrow ability at the hatchery and roaches can then burrow. Roaches recover health at a tremendous rate when burrowed. A good micro tip would be during battle, when a roach is about to die (if he is in the red zone), then simply burrow the roach, it will save it and then his life will fill up quickly.

Advance Roach Rushing technique

A very effective strategy involving roaches, is to research the Evolve Tunneling Claws in the Roach Warren (You will need a Lair first). With this you can burrow the roaches, and then move underground, then pop up in unsuspecting places (such as your opponents workers), and do incredible damage. When the enemy nears you just borrow back under and then pop back up somewhere else to pick off other structures or workers, which will really put a damper in your enemy's chance to beat you. This is a very powerful strategy, and most people tend not to do this. I have won A LOT of games in the beta thanks to this strategy. The only way to counter this, is if they have detection. If they do you need to constantly have an eye out, because your roaches will stay burrowed and take damage and die if not monitored constantly. So if you do this strategy you have to be careful.

When doing this strategy you have to watch out for detectors, here are tips when doing this strategy vs different races:

Vs Protoss: You need to watch out for photon cannons, and kill these off first, then burrow back under for cover. Next thing you have to watch out for is a Robotics Facility (since they can build observers from it), quickly focus fire and kill that off quick, if you're lucky they would not have build an observer in time and you will be safe. You can then proceed to kill off worker units, after that I would attempt to take out the nexus. Keep an eye out for your opponent building more photon cannons, kill them while they are building, same thing applies to a Robotics Facility.

Vs Zerg: This will be tougher, if they have a Lair they can quickly morph overlords into an Overseers, and this strategy will fail. One thing you can do is burrow your way to their lair and quickly focus fire and take it out (so they can't build overseers), that's about the best option you have. If they do not have a lair, then you are in luck, haha. Of course you also have to watch out for Spore Crawlers. If you see they don't have any good, but if you see they have an evolution chamber, take that out quick, and they won't be able to build Spore Crawlers.

Vs Terran: This will be the hardest, simply because they will most likely have the scanner sweeper available to them on their command center, unless they keep spending all of their energy on MULEs. Plus their choke point will most likely be blocked off. I generally do not even try this strategy if Im playing a Terran player, as it is too hard to pull off. You also have to watch out for missile turrets, as they can detect burrowed units as well. Take them out first, or the Engineering Bay, which allows the Terrans to build missile turrets.

Another advanced technique you can use against the terrans to get into their base is to simply transport some roaches in there with overlords or through a Nydus Network. Take out worker units first if you can, don't even bother to try and take out the command center as the terran can easily lift it up and you won't be able to attack it again.

IMPORTANT TIP: Since your army will be comprised of non anti-air units, you will be in trouble if they tech to air units. A simple way around that is, is to have an overseer just right outside of the enemies main base, and fly it in there and spawn a Changeling, then have the Changeling scout the base out. Do this frequently to see what buildings they are building. If you see they have either a Spire (for zerg), starport (for terran), or stargate (for protoss), then you need to get a hydralisk den up and start cranking out hydralisks to counter the air units.

Remember I can't stress how important this is, I lost a lot of games doing this strategy thanks to mass air units. I started spying non stop in their base, and problem solved.

Mutalisk

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg		Corruptor, Hydralisk		Baneling, Brood Lord, Roach, Ultralisk, Zergling
protoss	Carrier	Archon, High Templar, Phoenix, Sentry, Stalker	Mothership, Void Ray	Colossus, Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot
terran		Battlecruiser, Marine, Viking	Ghost, Thor	Banshee, Hellion, Marauder, Reaper, Siege Tank

The mutalisk is the zerg's best all around air unit. It is extremely fast and can attack both ground and air units. It is probably the best harassing unit in the game. When it attacks, it will bounce to 2 additional targets dealing a 3rd of damage than the previous hit. It does have weak hitpoints so any anti-air unit can take them out quickly. Mutas can be in the action non-stop through out the whole game thanks to how fast they are and how much damage they can do. When you get mutas send them immediately over to your opponents base and kill as many worker units as you can, and kill any buildings as you can as well. Just keep hitting and running and you will really make your opponent upset.

Most muta builds involve massing out zerglings with them..

Muta/Zergling Build

This strategy is a very effective strategy, and I highly recommend doing this one a lot. Basically this involves quickly teching up to mutas, while defending your base with zerglings and spine crawlers. You will want to get a second expansion going ASAP, and 4 gas mines going very quickly. Upgrade your zerglings movement speed, and work your way up to adrenal glands upgrade (faster zergling attack speed) quickly. Once you get your economy going get an evolution chamber and upgrade your zerglings armor and damage. Don't bother building anything else, just zerglings and mutas. Only build hydra or corruptors if the enemy is going mass air units.

Once you get your mutas out, it's time to harass NON-STOP. Fly right over to your opponents base and kill as many worker units as you can, if they come after you, simply run away to another area, and keep killing things you see in the open safely. Kill off any buildings you see safely. Mutas are very quick, so running away from harm is no big deal. If the enemy has an expansion, attack the workers there and when the enemy comes go to their main base and attack the workers there, and repeat. You can split up your muta army and keep half at their expansion base, and the other half at their main base, and keep attacking/harassing non-stop, keep the pressure on and you will surely put the enemy in a pit of trouble.

In the meantime you will be stocking up on your zergling army, once you have the adrenal gland upgrade, it's time to send your zerglings in to finish them up.

I personally think this is the strongest overall strategy the zerg can do. I have only lost a few times with this strategy due to the enemy going mass anti-air, along with plenty of towers protecting their base.

Also I like this strategy a lot because since you already got a spire, you can easily branch off your strategy to brood lords, or Corruptors if the enemy is going mass air units.

Vs Protoss: The only thing you have to watch out for is stalkers combined with sentries for killing the mutas, just avoid them while harassing and you will be okay, you should be able to get enough zerglings to take out the stalkers/sentries. Mass void rays and zealots are a big threat to this build. The protoss player may go with some Phoenixes which will help fend off muta attacks.

Vs Terran: Mass marines is a decent counter to this, but the terran player will have to try to get a bunch of hellions to support the marines to take out the zerglings and to protect the marines to take out the mutas. Missile turrets are very effective against protecting a terran base from muta attacks. Thors pose a threat to mutas, but the zerglings will be able to take the thors down. Another way for the terrans to stop a zergling/muta rush, is for them to go mass vikings and siege tanks. They got the air covered with vikings to take care of the mutas, and they can land their vikings in front of their tanks, and let their siege tanks and vikings take care of the zerglings.

Vs Zerg: This strategy is okay against the zerg, a good counter would be for the zerg to go roaches and hydras, but if you can get the zergling adrenal glands upgrade, then enough zerglings should be able to take down the roaches and hydras.

TIP: When playing against either the terran or protoss and they have their choke point blocked, you can build up a bunch of banelings to blow up the choke point and any units behind it, then move in with the rest of your zerglings and mutas to take care of the rest.

Hydralisk

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg		Ultralisk, Zergling	Baneling, Brood Lord, Roach	Corruptor, Mutalisk
protoss		Archon, Colossus, High Templar, Zealot	Carrier, Dark Templar, Immortal, Mothership, Sentry, Stalker	Phoenix, Void Ray
terran		Hellion, Siege Tank	Banshee, Battlecruiser, Ghost, Marine, Raven, Reaper, Thor, Viking	Marauder

The Hyrda is a light ground ranged attacker that can hit both ground and air units. It is the zerg's first arsenal for anti-air. Their major drawback is they are very weak in that they don't have many hitpoints or armor. They can be easily countered by AoE spells or attacks, such as siege tanks, PSI storm, hellions, or colossus to name a few. And upgraded zerglings or zealots can take them out quick as well.

Is rushing with hydras effective? Haha, nope not really. If you guys remember Starcraft 1, you remember how powerful the hydra rush was, well not in Starcraft 2. Hydras are not as nearly as powerful as they were in Starcraft 1 and I do not recommend just teching to hydra and massing them out. It will most likely not work out for you. Hydras are good support units to back up your zerglings or roaches. They are your main ground anti-air unit. I generally only build hydra if I know the enemy is going air units. Or I may have a few in my army for support if I can easily afford it.

On a side note about hydra: I personally think they are underpowered. At least at the time of this writing, in the beta they are actually somewhat weak in my opinion. I think blizzard should give them a +2 bonus damage to armored units. But yeah that's just my opinion.

Vs Protoss: Hydras are great to include in your army to support your zerglings and roaches vs a protoss player who is massing zealots, stalkers, sentries, and immortals. As you scout your opponents base through out the game, and if you see they have a starport, you need to get hydras out quickly to counter any void rays they throw at you. The main thing you have to watch out for is PSI storm or colossi, which can counter hydras good. Have roaches protect you from any upgraded zealots.

Vs Terran: Hydras are good against most terran forces, and you it doesn't hurt at all to include them in your army against them. You mainly have to watch out for siege tanks or hellions. You can use roaches to fend off the hellions, and zerglings to take out the tanks. Try to keep your hydra out of harms way of siege tank shots. Vikings, marauders, reapers, marines, and thors all pose no real threat to hydras.

Vs Zerg: Most zerg battles will be mass roach battles, you can supplement your roaches with hydra and you will be in a better position to win the game. Mass hydra will usually beat mass roaches of the same amount of farm space for each as long as you upgrade the Grooved Spines at the Hydralisk Den so they have a longer attack range.

Ultralisks

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk	Roach	Baneling, Hydralisk	Zergling
protoss	Carrier, Immortal, Mothership, Void Ray	Archon	Colossus, Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry, Stalker	Zealot
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser	Marauder, Siege Tank	Ghost, Thor, Viking	Hellion, Marine, Reaper

The ultralisk is the highest tier unit the zerg have (besides brood lords), they require a hive and an ultralisk cavern.

What are the use for Ultralisks you may ask? Well not many. But they do serve a pretty good purpose. They do incredible amounts of splash damage when they attack, so ultralisks can be used if the enemy is building a lot of tightly packed ground units such as zerglings, roaches, hydra, zealots, dark templar, and marines to name a few. They also have a special attack vs buildings that can take them out quickly. They are armored units, so watch out for units that do bonus damage to armored units.

When doing the zergling/muta build, you can work your way up to a few ultralisks in your army if you know the enemy has a lot of ground units (that don't do extra damage to armored units).

It's actually very rare to see zerg players build ultralisks, generally because they are highest in the tech tree and cost a lot of money to get, and are not that great of a unit, since they can't attack air or can't do anything special besides the massive splash damage they do. But they have gotten stronger since Starcraft 1, and are worth building if you got extra money to spend and the enemy has a lot of small ground units.

Vs Protoss: Ultralisks are very strong against zealots, but everything else is pretty much a threat to them, especially immortals and colossi. Brood Lords generally work better against the protoss than ultralisks.

Vs Terran: Ultralisks can chew up marines and hellions easily. But they need to watch out for marauders and siege tanks.

Vs Zerg: Ultralisks are really only good against zerglings, everything else and the ultralisk will be in trouble. You will rarely see ultralisks in a zerg vs zerg battle, since most games will be over by the time ultralisks can be built, and you generally wouldn't want to build ultralisks against the zerg anyway.

Corruptors

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Hydralisk		Mutalisk	Brood Lord, Overseer
protoss	Stalker	Archon, High Templar, Sentry	Phoenix, Void Ray	Carrier, Colossus, Mothership
terran	Marine, Thor		Viking	Banshee, Battlecruiser

Corruptors are great units for attacking other air units, although they cannot attack ground units. They do bonus damage to massive units like protoss carriers, protoss colossuses, protoss mothership, terran battlecruisers, or zerg brood lords. Corruptors also have the ability to use Corruption, which when casted on an enemy unit, will increase damage taken by 20% for a single target, it cannot target structures. If you are doing the Muta/Zergling build and you see the enemy is building a lot of these type of units, you should definitely get some corruptors in your army to take these down. They will work much better than hydra in these situations. They are also good against any air unit, and still even better than hydra. You can even morph these into Brood Lords..

Brood Lords

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Corruptor, Mutalisk	Hydralisk		Baneling, Roach, Ultralisk, Zergling
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Phoenix, Void Ray	Archon, Stalker	High Templar, Sentry	Colossus, Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot
terran	Battlecruiser, Viking		Marine, Thor	Ghost, Hellion, Marauder, Reaper, Siege Tank

These are great flying long range firing units. They can only attack ground, but are very deadly. You can use these to break through defenses, kill towers at long range, and in large numbers are deadly against any large number of ground units.

Brood Lords are a great choice to get if the opposing player does not currently have an airport (stargate, starport, or spire) to get air units to fight off the brood lords.

TIP: If doing the Muta/Zergling build, you can get a few Brood Lords in your army to kill the towers protecting the enemy's worker units, then you can send your mutas in there safely to kill the workers.

Corruptors/Ultralisks

This is a powerful build and works great for FFA strategies. You got both ground and air covered. During battles have your corruptors use the corruption ability on units that deal a lot of damage, such as any high tier unit. Although it is harder to harass with this strategy, I think going Brood Lord/Hydra work better overall, especially for FFA..

Brood Lord/Hydra

Brood Lords and Hydralisks are a powerful combination the zerg can build, it is powerful against any race, and it's hard to find a counter for this. This strategy requires a lot of gas, so you will need an expansion or 2 to get these units out quicker. This is also a very effective overall FFA strategy the zerg can do.

Here is a rundown of how different races would counter this:

Vs Protoss:The protoss would have to build void rays to beat the brood lords, and a bunch of zealots (with upgraded charge ability) along with high templar for PSI storm to kill the hydra. Mass carriers could also counter this easily as well. If you see them massing out carriers, just use corruptors to take them out. Protoss can also get a sentry or 2 in their army for the shield to reduce the hydra damage.

Vs Zerg: The muta/zergling build should be able to stop it as long as your zerglings are well upgraded, and you have enough of them. Of course you can always get some corruptors in your army to make it even more easy to stop the broodlords.

Vs Terran: This is a tough one. Hellions and Siege Tanks on the ground, to handle the Hydras and Broodlings, with Vikings in the air. Just have your Hellions guard your Siege Tanks from the broodlings while they lay into the Hydras then have your Vikings deal with the broodlords. Mass battlecruisers could also deal with this as well, but in most games it's hard to get enough of them out quick enough to be effective.

Hyrdas will be too worried about all the splash damage from the siege tanks to hurt your Vikings while they have free reign of the air at the Brood Lords.

Infestor

The Infestor is an offensive spell caster for the zerg. It can move while borrowed (without needing an upgrade), you can research the Peristalsis ability which allows them to move faster while borrowed. The Infestor has 3 spells, here are the uses for each:

Neural Parasite - (must be reseached first from the Infestation Pit) Neural Parasite takes control of an enemy unit (ground or air). The player can cancel this ability, or it will automatically cancel if the controlling Infestor is killed. This is a very useful ability used on large expensive enemy units, such as the following:

Protoss: Colossi, Immortals, and High Templar
Zerg: The zerg actually do not have any units worth using the Neural Parasite on.
Terran: Siege Tanks and Thors.

Fungal Growth - Fungal Growth affects all enemy units within the area of effect, immobilizing them and dealing 36 damage. Fungal Growth only affects enemy units. This ability is very useful for killing a bunch of weak units like marines, zerglings and zealots. This ability is not stackable. You can use this ability to stop enemy units from fleeing. You can use this to prevent melee units from attacking by mobilizing them from a distance, however melee units can still attack if in range.

Frenzy - Frenzy affects a friendly, biological unit, boosting all its damage values by 25% as well as making it immune to stun, slow, snare or mind control for a duration of 30 seconds. This is a great ability to use on Ultralisks, second would probably be the Roach. You can also use this on any allied friendly biological unit.

Overseer

Morphed from the overlord, overseers are much faster than overlords and their main purpose is to act as a scouting unit, and secondly a detector. The main drawback to an overseer is it loses its ability to act as a transport (which the overlords have when upgraded). They can spawn changelings which act as spies.

Overseers should be used in pretty much every game a zerg plays. Simply have an overseer camp right outside of your opponents base and drop a changeling in your opponents base frequently to spy and see what they have. You could also use changelings to sit at the Xel'Naga Towers to reveal a large portion of the map. You can also create a changeling anywhere and just have it "wobble" to your opponents base and as soon as it sees an enemy it will blend in to make it look like its theirs, you can then hopefully get some info on what they are building.

Disclaimer: The following sections will describe the Zerg in typical matchups vs different races and type of games. Please keep in mind that this information may change over time as new strategies will develop and new strategies will come into play. This section will be expanded more over time with replay commentaries etc. Also please keep in mind most of the information below is already covered in the information above, but I have it organized if you need to quickly learn what it takes to do the various matchups without reading ALL the info above.

Zerg vs Protoss

Opening Strategy:

Most beginning zerg vs protoss matches involves zerglings vs zealots, however in most cases zealots can overpower zerglings early on in the game. If you see your opponent going zealots, you can get roaches to kill them, but then the protoss may counter your roaches with immortals, in which case you will then want to get zerglings to counter the immortals. Zerglings are also a good counter to stalkers.

Against a Proxy Rush: One thing you have to watch out for early on is a proxy rush, where the protoss builds 2 gateways close to your base and flood you with zealots, in this case you will need to quickly build two spine crawlers quickly and defend your base as best as you can with your queen and drones and any zerglings you can get up. A 13-14 pool build is best to stop a proxy rush.

One thing you can consider if the protoss has a lot of zealots is to get banelings. Banelings can take zealots out effectively.

Mid Game Strategy

You will want to get an overseer just right outside of their base and use changelings to scout frequently. Here are the general counters to the following:

Just Gateways: Mass Roaches with some zerglings. If they go mass stalkers, then go mass speedlings. If they go mass zealots, then go mass roaches.

Robotics Facility: Get more zerglings, and avoid roaches.

Stargates: Get hydras, and avoid roaches.

Templar Archives: Get speedlings, with some roaches.

Dark Shrine: Morph overlords into overseers to scout out dark templars. Roaches and hydra work well to kill the Dark Templar.

A good strategy to do against the protoss is a zergling/muta build. The only thing you have to watch out for is stalkers combined with sentries for killing your mutas, just avoid them while harassing and you will be okay, you should be able to get enough zerglings to take out the stalkers/sentries. Mass void rays and zealots are a big threat to this build. The protoss player may go with some Phoenixes which will help fend off muta attacks.

Hydras are great support units to include mid-game. However you have to watch out for zealots with charge or PSI storm to kill your hydra. Colossi also can eat up hydras quick.

Late Game Strategy

Mass corruptors and Brood Lords work great against the protoss, the only thing you really need to watch out for is mass stalkers.

If the protoss player has a lot of zealots in the late game, then I would highly consider building Ultralisks. Ultralisks can quickly take out zealots easily. Ultralisks combined with mutas and corruptors is also very powerful. You just have to watch out for immortals to take out your ultralisks.

Against Carriers: Mass carriers can be a nasty situation. The best way to counter that would be to go mass corruptors.

Zerg vs Zerg

Opening Strategy:

Most opening zerg battles involves roaches with little zergling use.

It is worth it to try a quick zergling rush against another zerg player, especially if your opponent tries to fast expand, you just need to watch out for roaches, you can try to run around the roaches to your enemies mineral line to take out worker units or the queen even. Any good zerg player can stop a zergling rush while teching to roaches, which will demolish zerglings. So unless the player is a noobie you probably won't win with a zergling rush, but you may put them in a slight hole. In mid game, you are better off getting a combination of zerglings and roaches, or all roaches, then roaches combined with hydras. A good way for a zerg to stop a zergling rush while teching to roaches would be to build a couple of Spine Crawlers in your base while having a couple of zerglings as well. Also if you still try just the zergling rush, you need to watch out for the zerg teching to mutas, which will pose a serious problem for you.

Banelings: If the early game turns out to be a zergling war, you can help that with banelings. Banelings work great against tightly packed zerglings, but are weak against roaches. They are okay against hydras as long as their movement speed is upgraded.

Roach Battles.

Most early game and even most into the mid-game involves a lot of roaches.

Most zerg battles will be big roach battles. Who ever can get the most roaches out quicker will most likely win. You will have to watch out if the opponent is going for mutas, scout their base as see if they have a spire. If they have a spire, you will need to get a Hydralisk Den up quick and crank out Hydralisks to counter them. You should also build a few spore crawlers next to your mineral miners to fend off future mutas trying to kill your workers. whether they are getting mutas or not, it is recommend to have some hydra in your army later on to supplement your roaches.

Mid Game Strategy

Hydra: It is always a good idea to supplement your roach army with hydra in the mid game. Most zerg battles will be mass roach battles, you can supplement your roaches with hydra and you will be in a better position to win the game. Mass hydra will usually beat mass roaches of the same amount of farm space for each as long as you upgrade the Grooved Spines at the Hydralisk Den so they have a longer attack range.

Muta/Zergling Build: This strategy is okay against the zerg, a good counter would be for the zerg to go roaches and hydras, but if you can get the zergling adrenal glands upgrade, then enough zerglings should be able to take down the roaches and hydras.

Late Game Strategy

Most zerg battles will not go into the late game, but if they do, here are things to consider:

Brood Lords: If you see the zerg is still focus on roaches without a spire, you can alter your strategy and get some brood lords in your army.

Ultralisks: Ultralisks are really only good against zerglings, everything else and the ultralisk will be in trouble. You will rarely see ultralisks in a zerg vs zerg battle, since most games will be over by the time ultralisks can be built, and you generally wouldn't want to build ultralisks against the zerg anyway.

Corruptors? Corruptors are generally not used in a zerg battle, the only use for them would be to counter mutalisks, but hydras work just as good. You still may want to get Corruptors if they are going mass mutas. Anything else and Corruptors should not be used.

Zerg vs Terran

Opening Strategy:

Zergling Rush: This is a joke. If you manage to zergling rush a terran, then congratulations. This is near to impossible to accomplish due to the fact they can easily block of their choke point and get marines/marauders behind it, and possibly even in bunkers. However zerglings are great to include in your army vs terrans during major battles. You just need to watch out for hellions, since they can easily take zerglings out with no problem. If you plan on zergling rushing a terran player, you will need banelings (please read the baneling section above.)..

Roaches: Roaches can chew up Marines, Hellions, and Reapers fairly quick. The main thing you have to watch out for early on is mass Marauders, which do bonus damage to armored units and can overpower your roaches easily. To counter the Marauders, you will need to get a bunch of zerglings in your army, and upgrade them for the faster movement speed. Later on you will have to watch out for Banshees since roaches cannot attack air, so make sure to get some hydra in your army to counter that. Also watch out for siege tanks. Siege tanks can quickly wipe out roaches. You will need to get a bunch of zerglings (with the movement speed upgrade) to take out the Siege tanks.

Mid Game Strategy

Against the MMM Army: The mid game usually involves dealing with an MMM army. The zerg have the hardest time stopping this build. The zerg would have to get a lot of upgraded zerglings, and try to get hydra out to kill the medivacs. Roaches aren't too effective against this since the marauders will take them out like nothing. The best way for the zerg to stop this is a combination of hydra and brood lords, but that is more costly and time consuming to get than the terran army can get the MMM army early on. You can try a muta/zergling build against this. If the zerg can manage to kill the terran's worker units with the mutas, then it could be GG for the zerg. If you get too many zerglings, then the terran may get a bunch of hellions to burn them up, so watch out for that.

Mutas and Zerglings. I actually love doing a zergling/muta rush against a terran player. Mass marines is a decent counter to this, but the terran player will have to try to get a bunch of hellions to support the marines to take out the zerglings and to protect the marines to take out the mutas. Missile turrets are very effective against protecting a terran base from muta attacks. Thors pose a threat to mutas, but the zerglings will be able to take the thors down. Another way for the terrans to stop a zergling/muta rush, is for them to go mass vikings and siege tanks. They got the air covered with vikings to take care of the mutas, and they can land their vikings in front of their tanks, and let their siege tanks and vikings take care of the zerglings.

Hydras: Hydras are good against most terran forces, and you it doesn't hurt at all to include them in your army against them. You mainly have to watch out for siege tanks or hellions. You can use roaches to fend off the hellions, and zerglings to take out the tanks. Try to keep your hydra out of harms way of siege tank shots. Vikings, marauders, reapers, marines, and thors all pose no real threat to hydras.

Also if you go mass hydras, you need to watch out for ghosts. So get an overseer in your army, and try to get some zerglings or some roaches to help take out the ghosts.

Against Banshees: The zerg can get hydras and spore crawlers up quickly which can take the banshees down. You can quickly get overseers to get detection, and mutas can fend them off quickly as well.

Late Game Strategy

Against Battlecruisers: Battlecruisers are not that effective against the zerg. The zerg can get hydras, which is a good counter to them. Or even better the zerg can go corruptors, which does bonus damage to massive units like Battlecruisers. Battlecruisers work well to fight off mass brood lords and ultralisks though.

Against Thors: The Thor isn't used a whole lot against the zerg due to the fact that the zerg can get a lot of small units out like zerglings and hydras to quickly take them down. However the thor can be used to support an MMM army against the zerg to act as cannon fodder or to take out spore crawlers quickly with the "250mm Strike Cannons". Thors do work well against mutas, however so do vikings.

FFA Strategy

Should you attempt to zergling rush everybody? Well I do not recommend doing that in a FFA, you may be able to take out one player with it, but you will then be in a hole for the other ones. Pretty much the same thing applies if you try to roach rush everyone..

In FFA games, camping in your base while teching is not a bad strategy at all. Unlike Warcraft 3, where if you camped in a FFA your heroes will be far behind in level and you would probably lose. Well in Starcraft 2 there are no heroes or upkeep, so camping is okay in starcraft 2. I know this I have played over a 100 FFA games in starcraft 2 beta and my record is about 90 wins, 10 losses.

Here are the build order options you can do in FFA with protoss, starting with the least overall recommended strategy to the most powerful overall strategy in my opinion:

4. Zergling/Roach/Hydra Rush: This is great early on in a FFA game, however you will want to quickly move up to higher tier units if you want to win most FFA games as zerg.

3. Muta/Zergling: This strategy is very effective and you may be able to wipe out a few players in a FFA game, you will probably run across someone going mass air that will take this out easily.

2. Corruptors/Ultralisks: You got both ground and air covered nicely. During battles have your corruptors use the corruption ability on units that deal a lot of damage, such as any high tier unit. Although it is harder to harass with this strategy, I think going Brood Lord/Hydra work better overall, especially for FFA..

1. Brood Lord/Hydra: Brood Lords and Hydralisks are a powerful combination the zerg can build, it is powerful against any race, and it's hard to find a counter for this. This strategy requires a lot of gas, so you will need an expansion or 2 to get these units out quicker. This is a very effective overall FFA strategy the zerg can do.

Zerg Team Games

(2v2, 3v3, 4v4)

In team games it is recommend that you focus on rushing as much as possible and keep your enemies from reaching your base.

In team games I recommend getting a plan going right from the start, communicate with your allies and ask them what they are building. Focus on massing out only like 1-2 units only, have your ally do the same, get a good mixture and you will be good. For example, you can have your allied terran player go mass vikings while you go mass roaches. You got both ground and air covered nicely.

I usually start all my team games with a 14 pool and build enough zerglings to rush or prevent rushes. From there I then branch off to other strategies. You can take a risk and tech up in 4v4 games as long as your allies are not teching too. By teching I mean fast expanding while having the focus on skipping zergling/roaches and go into something else such as mass mutas or brood lords, which can be a very powerful strategy, but you will be weak early on, so you will have to rely on your allies to protect you for awhile.