How To Play Zerg In StarCraft 2

Key Takeaways

• Always maximize Larvae production for quick unit building.
• Spread Creep to control the map and speed up your own units.
• Maintain speed and hit-and-run strategies for Zerg advantage.

The Zerg can be a fairly complicated race to play in StarCraft 2, as their mechanics are much more alien than even the Protoss. Everything in the Zerg Swarm is living, including the buildings, so the various buildings you need to make throughout the game aren’t just built by a worker who then moves on to the next task.

While the Zerg can be complicated to learn, they have a lot of mechanics that can make them much stronger than the other two factions, you just need to know how to play them properly. Here are some tips on how to play Zerg in StarCraft 2.

Never Too Many Workers

Keep Building & Never Lose Speed

• Always be fully saturated for minerals.
• Replace used workers immediately.

To create a building as the Zerg, you’ll need to use a worker and have them morph into that structure. On top of farming minerals and gas, this means you’ll be going through a lot of workers throughout the game, and you’ll need to stay on top of your income while still getting new structures to build new units.

You’ll often want a Hatchery to be fully saturated, meaning the maximum number of workers are currently active and farming. This will lead to less of a noticeable change in your income if you need to build multiple buildings at once, though it’s important to quickly replace any used workers as the number of buildings you need will only increase.

Overlord Surveillance

Free Early-Game Recon

• Place Overlords on high ground to keep them safe.
• Prioritize the speed boost.

Overlords give you more control points when built, but can move around in the air like any other creature. During the early stages of the game, send your first few Overlords to the other side of the map to get information, while setting them up along the path to your base to know of any attacks before they get to you.

You can also get their speed upgrade, Pneumatized Carapace at any Hatchery for 100 Minerals and 100 Gas, which can make them much better at scouting and escaping should they be caught.

Double Evolution Chambers & Spires

Upgrade Your Army’s Base Stats Fast

• Always get the carapace upgrade first since it affects all ground units.
• Always have upgrades in progress.

The Zerg are always trying to evolve and get stronger, and the same is true in any battle. An Evolution Chamber and Spire can only upgrade one option at a time, so it’s best to get two of each to upgrade your armies’ attack and defense at the same time.

Evolution Chambers have three upgrades, and if you have a well-balanced army, you may want to consider three Chambers to make sure you keep up with if not dominate an enemy in terms of upgrades, even if the Zerg don’t have the same futuristic weapons. The cost of these upgrades all at once may be high, but the differences you’ll see in combat make them well worth the effort.

Speed Is King

Hit & Run Strategies That Start Early

• Try outmaneuvering enemies instead of fighting them head-on.
• Buy any speed upgrade when possible.

The Zerg have many fast units and many that can upgrade their speed. Zerglings with the speed upgrade completed in the Spawning Pool have the highest base movement of anything in the game, and that is also one of the best upgrades you should get right away in any game.

While individual Zerg units may not have the highest stats, use speed to your advantage to hit the enemy in different sections of the map before quickly repositioning and being ready to defend against a counter-attack or take advantage of an opening. The best openings will usually see a squad of Zerglings with the speed boost running past your opponent’s army to reach the workers at a nearby base, who they can make very short work of.

Build Many Hatcheries

Dominate The Economy

• Maximize the number of available Larvae.
• Collect all the resources possible before the enemy can get to them.

Larva are generated from Hatcheries and are the backbone of your success. The Zerg tend to move quickly when played right, and that will require a lot of resources on top of a lot of Larva. You’ll want to quickly get a second Hatchery within the first two minutes of a game, and aim for a third at least by minute three or four.

Having multiple Hatcheries that are fully saturated will greatly help you have the resources to mass produce entire armies in seconds. The resources of any map are limited and quickly taking them before your opponent can help cut their legs out during the later stages of a game if it lasts that long.

Hide Additional Structures

Never Slow Your Troop Production

• Also hide an additional Lair or Hive.
• Have two of every building towards the middle of a game.

As long as you have one structure built anywhere, Larva from any Hatchery can morph into the units unlocked from that structure. While it’s best to have the majority of your structures around your main base where they are safest, it’s always a good idea to have a backup somewhere else on the map.

Should you lose your main base and lose all your structures, you’ll have to go through the entire structure tree again to get late-game units. Having an additional backup of every structure somewhere on the map can let you lose your entire home base and not skip a beat in making more units.

Queens Spawning Larvae

Seemingly Infinite Larvae To Use When Needed

• Queen’s get enough energy to constantly use Spawn Larvae.
• Only one set of Larvae from Spawn Larvae can be growing at a time.

Every Hatchery you have should also have a Queen standing nearby using the Spawn Larva ability every chance they can. Spawn Larva places three additional larva eggs on a Hatchery that will hatch and allow you to go beyond the usual limit of Larvae. A Hatchery only produces three Larvae before it stops and waits for them to be morphed.

Using the Spawn Larvae ability, you can go beyond the limit, and give a Hatchery an infinite amount of Larvae. By letting this stack up throughout the game on multiple Hatcheries, you can get to a point where you spawn an entire army in the time it takes to spawn a single unit, you just have to stay on top of spawning larvae on every Hatchery throughout the game.

Mutate Some Overseers

Better Late Game Recon

• Overseers can spot invisible enemies.
• Changelings can hide within enemy armies if not spotted.

As a game progresses, Overlords won’t stay the best option for surveillance but can be morphed into an Overseer once you have a Lair. Overseers naturally move faster making it harder to shoot them down with a single marine, and also have the Recon ability which lets them see invisible units.

The Overseer also has the Changling ability, which creates a harmless Changling that approaches an enemy and morphs into their basic unit. If the enemy has Recon, they will spot and kill the unit, or a skilled player can do the same, though a CHangling is often a great way to walk among your enemy and see what they are doing with less fear of being noticed.

Spread Creep

Control The Entire Map

• Speed up your own units even more.
• Place Spine and Spore Crawlers throughout the map to constantly harass enemies.

Creep spreads from Hatcheries but can also be spread with the Spawn Creep Tumor ability from any Queen. Once a Creep Tumor has been placed, another Tumor can spread from that Tumor onto ground already covered by Creep, but giving a new center to spread from.

Creep makes your units move faster, and lets you build structures anywhere, while also giving you vision of any area covered in Creep. Your goal for every game should be placing a few Creep Tumors and trying to get them to spread across the entire map. Enemy factions that aren’t Zerg also can’t built on Creep, so you can also cut off expansion points, which are a crucial aspect of such a difficult game, using something that is completely free to use.