This guide was created in hopes to help in Zerg vs Zerg mirror matchups. How to transition into mid and late game, and a simplified approach to unit control and the thought process behind it. As always, this is an outlet to further comment and information that may be valuable to other players I and strongly encourage others to contribute. Thanks,
LunaReapinG
Topics Covered
A look in the mirror
Larva, the 3rd resource
Zerg early game
Transitioning to the mid game
Taking engagements
Upgrades
Transitioning into the late game
Summary of key points
Other notes
A look in the mirror
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Each mirror match up has it's own level of volatility for each race. The reason that mirror match ups can be so unforgiving is simple. Any advantage that your race may have had over another, is gone. As zerg, our primary role is a reactive race, and normally what you would see at the start of a non mirror match up is a constant drone up, unless there is some dedication to aggression, Zerg will try to get an early economic advantage. They need to, as zerg is normally the least cost effective race. This is where things get more unforgiving. In zerg vs zerg, if you are not constantly scouting your opponent you can be completely taken off guard and punished if you happen to over drone. The ability to react to the situation is drastically reduced because our opponents tend to have the same production capabilities. That being said, there are steps we can do to help survive the early game, and settle into a more macro focused mid to late game. As always an emphasis on scouting is key as well as map vision, so overlords should be placed to spot early aggression, and watch towers should be taken.
Larva, the 3rd resource
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Now we all know what our resources are, we have minerals, we have gas. But many new players fail to acknowledge larva in the same way. To zerg, larva is a resource, and a very important one. If injects are not diligent, we will wind up with pools of resources that we are unable to spend. Larval injects have an incubation time of 40 seconds, and a sense of rhythm should be established. Queens are needed to proper facilitate larva production as hatcheries will produce only 3 larva naturally, and no more until one is used. The queens add an additional 4 larva once the eggs spawn. As zerg units all share the same production structure, having the larva in essence, is having production. There are a multitude of different inject techniques, and really it's all about your personal preference. You can use camera hot keys or base camera hotkey to jump between your bases. You can have hatcheries set to hotkeys and double click the hotkey to jump to them, you can have queens on control groups and issue injects on the mini map. I personally, prefer to have my queens on a hotkey, and use in conjunction with camera hot-keys and base cam hotkey. I can simply select queens, press shit v and cycle through the camera hotkeys while clicking intended hatcheries. What ever works best for you. I just prefer to have queens hotkeyed as opposed to having to jump to a location then select the queen and issue the injects that way, as this takes much less time/steps.
Zerg early game
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Right from the start, we can see deviations in builds, and every decision can be exploited. Constant scouting and map vision is key to give you an early indicator of aggression, and may give you enough time to react effectively.
6 Pools are the earliest form of aggression that zerg possess. It is virtually, an all in, and if defended the damage done to your own economy is very drastic. If you are caught by a 6 pool, it can be held if reacted to properly. If you have started a second hatchery it should be canceled, you can leave it up temporarily to draw focus, but cancel before completion.you will need the resources. You are going to need to select your drones, and hot keying them can be useful. We need to buy time to get our own pool up, while trying to preserve our drones. Once the pool is up you want to get a queen and some lings. Keep mineral walking your drones by clicking on a mineral patch, and clumping your drones so they cannot be targeted individually. You want to attack and clump, attack and clump, surrounding the zerglings. If you try to run with drones, then your pool will be targeted, or the hatch, and you will be dead anyways, so try to properly micro your drones. If they get surrounded, mineral walk to the other side of mineral field, and do somewhat of a stutter step attack to engage the lings. Keep the tight formation to prevent weak drones from being targeted. Once the queen spawns try to position her between minerals, or at least in the best way to reduce surface area of the attacking lings. Use a combination of your queen, drones, and lings when they spawn, pulling back the weak ones as possible. If you can stabilize without taking much loses, you are in a very good position.
If you are looking for early aggression yourself, there are some builds that are much better, and almost a complete build order win in some cases. The ten pool, can be a coin toss, but if your opponent is going hatch first, or worse, hatch and gas before pool, the ten pool can be devastating. The 2nd hatchery has yet to contribute much in additional larva, or mining when the attack commences. Furthermore, the queen production is delayed, further delaying larva, and they cannot be used to block the ramp. unfortunately, the ten pool also takes commitment, and can put you behind in drone count if it was defended.
Other early pool openers would be 12 pools, or any variants of gas before pool timings, that fall between the above pool timings. Most often what may be encountered is these huge early game ling swells, openers may be standard, like a 14 pool/15 hatch, 14/14, 15 hatch/14gas/14pool etc, you both seem to be putting heavy dedication into droning up. You see a large ling swell pouring across the map. Roaches wont be in time, and you cannot match the ling production. The best way to deal with this is to open safely with a baneling nest as well as a well placed spine near your main ramp. Do not over produce lings, just have a couple pairings, and send in a couple scouts to try to get information on your opponents composition.
Overlords should be kept out of the queens range but placed in the best locations to see any army movements, and also 3rd timings. If you see the early ling swell leaving the enemy base, quickly morph a few banes at home, and have them spread around the ramps far enough back that you can try to surprise your opponent, and produce adequate lings. Place queens on your main ramp and set on hold position to prevent the lings from running by, and keep producing lings and a couple banes as needed. If your opponent brings banelings as well, make sure to split your lings and banes, and even use hold position to prevent them from running into the enemy unintentionally. Try to target the enemy banes with the spine crawler, and the queens when they are in range, but be sure you have your queens positioned properly for blocking the ramp. Send in a ling or two and try to target the enemy banelings, and try to sneak a couple lings to hit any clustered enemy banes in the back, if your opponent miss micros, you can get unintended baneling detonations. If you see clumps of lings use your banes to engage them, send them one at a time, and try not to let them connect unless they are going to hit a large grouping and use small clusters of lings to buffer and force engagements. You can also explode the banes manually if they are within splash range, but not able to catch the units.
If you or your opponent gets the +1 carapace upgrade, your zerglings will take a bane shot. This can make the difference in ling/bane mirror play. If you are quit confident that there will not be a ling swell and see that your opponent is in fact going roaches, it may be advisable to fore go the baneling nest, and throw the roach warren down. If you see that there is going to be an early roach, or roach/ling all in, get as much units out as possible, and if you are unable to match production, you can wall with evo chambers and place some spines behind. This will help to prevent and absorb some damage, combined with transfuses from queens and defenders advantage, should be enough to hold. just keep up scouting and map vision, the more time you can prepare for an attack, the more effective your holds will be.
Transitioning to the mid game
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Once you feel safe enough you can start to go down the types of tech paths you are going to take. We should also be taking our 3rds as soon as we feel safe to do so, and lair tech but timings are completely subjective to how the game has unfolded. Gasses should be added onto the natural as well. This is where some further consideration should take place. Are you planning on going with roach play, if so 3 gasses should be enough to support production at the moment. If you instead are planning on going a more mutalisk oriented play, then 4 gasses should be taken early enough to facilitate that production. Mutas are gas heavy compared to roach compositions, so the extra extractor is needed. It is also a good idea to try to get cancellations on your opponents 3rd. If you are able to cancel their 3rd while taking your own, you will be able to get an advantage both in income, and production. We should also be putting thought into the types of upgrades we wish to get. If going for standard roach play, we should be placing down our evo chambers (if we were not forced to earlier), and they should be placed strat-egically, just like before to help prevent run by's. You may also wish to have a macro hatch established if you are floating minerals to further increase production. Additional queens should be added, to a minimum of 3, but more may be added with great benefit. Roach vs Roach battles can start to have further support either through hydralisk, or even infestor additions, and some thought into which late game direction you wish to go is needed. There are some rare exceptions where a quick jump to late game tech may be made, but this is normally punished before coming to fruitation. Creep spread is something else that differs greatly in this match up. As both sides receive a speed bonus, most players tend to keep creep spread restricted to their bases to facilitate easier movement between bases, and are more reliant on overlords/overseers for map vision. If your opponent is going for mutas, you can either try to outmatch production with your own, tech to hydralisk and/or compliment with infestors. Chain fungals absolutely ravage mutalisks, and can even be supplemented with infested terrans if hydralisks are not present. Spore crawlers are buffed specifically to counter biological air, and should be integrated into your mineral lines and locations that may be targeted. Spines can be added to help deal with run by's also. Extra gasses should be taken as needed, and further expansions should also be pursued when able. Be ready to pull back overlords as
hydras and/or mutas, etc, begin to enter play, and remember to maintain your macro, and keep up on injects.
Taking engagements
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You should always try to take engagements in positions that best compliment your units. It is best to establish s concave before engaging to maximize the amount of units that will be attacking, also, make sure that you position units properly so that units in the back are within firing range. You can micro injured units out of range and back to prolong unit life. Keep your hydras behind roaches, but do have them positioned more centrally so if they are flanked, the outside wings of roaches can fold down to offer support.You want to keep the hydras out of range of your opponents units. Remember that there is a lot to be said for defenders advantage, and be careful not to over extend when attacking. Sometimes an attack, regroup, attack approach is best, allowing you some space to reinforce. Also, if you can, segment off a few units to harass a different location. This can momentarily distract your opponent giving you a chance to get an advantage, or if they fail to react, give you some juicy drone kills. 3 roaches can one shot a drone, so not much dedication is needed for this to achieve some dramatic results. Also, if burrow is available, units can be burrowed at future expansion sites, or roaches can be used with tunneling claws to set up surprise attacks as well. If attacking up ramps, get high ground vision and establish a concave. Without vision, your units will not be able to engage effectively. If you are using mutas, make sure to keep a close eye and have them on their own control group for easier control. The main thing you need to avoid is getting hit by fungals, getting your mutas over extended, or trapped. Always try to maintain angles, having a couple overseers in the control group is helpful too as they can be sent in ahead to scout for infestors or army positioning, and used in conjunction with the mutas to con-taminate hatcheries or other structures. Mutas can also be used effectively to cut off reinforcement lines, target important structures, or high value units while they are separated. Try to use their mobility, and watch taking head on engagements with out proper support. Infestors can be used in roach vs roach effectively by integrating a few into the composition. The fungal growths can be used to force engagements. Infestors can also move while burrowed, and be sent to harass enemy expansions with fungal growth, infested terran, or combination of both. They can also exploit high ground vision to do so, and remain burrowed while spewing infested terran below. Remember, zerg units are all produced from larva, so damage done to workers both affects resource collection, and production abilities if those drones are replaced, as this was larva that was not able to be used to produce fighting units. It is also good practice to time fights with the completion of upgrades. If you are about to finish your 2/2 for instance in like 30
seconds, try to postpone the engagement if feasible.
Upgrades
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The upgrades that we should get will vary on the type of match up we are playing, but for the most part, get the upgrades that will have direct effects first. There is not much sense researching things that are not going to be used until a much later time, as those reso-urces should be dedicated towards either economy, or army value. We are in a mirror match up, so any res-ources which are deviated from out current composition will affect your overall army supply ability. Now this does not mean that you shouldn't be planning tech advancements, but make sure that we are putting enough emphasis on our current forces. This may go with out saying, but if you are playing roach vs roach, would it be better to get +1melee, or use the gas to get roach speed first? I would opt for speed, personally, as the lings usage is restricted. Other things to consider when adding certain units like infestors, is to begin upgrading pathogen glands before actually training the infestors. And try to time their hatching with the upgrade finishing, this way they hatch with fungal capabilities. Burrow is another useful upgrade, it dras-tically increases the regeneration speed of roaches, and used in conjunction with tunneling claws, can cause devastation to an improperly defended mineral line. Always make sure to check the enemies current attack upgrades as well, by clicking on units when you can, and make sure that you are either keeping an advantage, or at the least, keeping par. Make sure to get any other upgrades that may be used at some point as you have the resources to do so, this will allow for better flow and easier transitions. Level 3 upgrades will require Hive tech, if planning on getting them, the infestation pit should be thrown down accordingly if not done so already.
Transitioning into the late game
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As We transition into the later aspects of the game we need to decide some things. Are we going to continue with the type of composition that we have and start to supplement with spell casters and other units or static defense? Or start to progress down a different path? If you are planning on switching tech choices, and need to clear up supply, be sure to do it in a cost effective manner, unless of course you have enough resources banked to facilitate the re-max and the tech change will come too fast for your opponent to respond to. The real end game composition for zerg at the moment seems to be a combination of swarm host, broodlords with some corrupotors mixed in, and these ridi-culous looking walls of static defense. unfortunately, this is really the only way to deal with these units. Things like ultralisks or ground units are just not cost effective against free locust waves and broodlings. And ontop of that, mutalisks and corruptors are unable to ever engage the swarmhost or brood-lords, because the static defense of spores is too high. Vipers are not really helpful, as they can just be abducted if your opponent has any, or simply killed by static defense. Also, broodlords cannot be abducted, so really the only contribution would be blinding cloud, but there will be limited usage for this. Know this, and when you see the transition unfolding, it is better to go with the flow, and tech to this composition if possible. Its either kill them before this composition is reached, or you must match it. Other things to remember with Hive tech, is to research crack lings, they are virtually free at this point, and can be used to snipe bases or some workers for very little supply/resource investment.
Summary of key points
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~Overlord spread is important to spot aggression and enemy movement. Also, proper overlord placement around your bases will help spot nydus attempts, allowing you to kill the network before it reaches completion.
~Larva should be treated like resources. Zerg loves lotsa money, and lotsa larva too! Keep up on injects.
~A couple banelings can dry up a ling flood
~Transfuses are powerful. They can be used offensively to allow a unit to take damage then transfuse that unit to continue tanking, or defensively to save a structure or unit
in a clutch situation. They are extremely strong with ultralisks as queens do offer pretty good anti air, and transfuses done right can be so good.
~Make sure to Macro, and then macro some more! Injects, upgrades, units, economy, tech, keep spending that money! And keep getting more, all zerg are greedy at heart!
~Segment off small groups of units and do multi pronged attacks. This does not have to be a large investment, but the intention is to split your opponents focus and force them
to have to split their units appropriately.
~Mirror matchups are far less forgiving, if you fall behind you will need to take creative steps to get back into the game. Or hope your opponent fails misserably.
~Spores do extra damage to biological air.
~Late game can turn into a late, game.
~Keep up on your upgrades, and try to take fights when you get an advantage
~establish good concaves and positioning when taking fights
~Infestors are versatile spellcasters that can be used to compliment army compositions and to force engagements. They can also be used effectively for harassment.
~Try to think ahead and anticapate the game. Get the tech and units ready that you are going to need, as well as the upgrades to compliment them.
~Overseers can be used for scouting. While in your opponents base, try to contaminate high value structures, and drop changelings if possible to prolonge the scout.
~Keep an eye on your opponents composition and adjust your play accordingly.
Other notes
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Make sure you are constantly scanning your mini map and checking your resource and supply levels. Try to systematically check this, and it will help you to avoid getting supply blocked. If you notice you are floating too many minerals use them. If you are getting close to your current supply limit, get some overlords. You want to keep ahead with ov-erlords in regards to your supply. Not drastically unless you are planning on emassing a force, but enough to allow proper production. Keep in mind to properly saturate bases, normal mineral patches are efficiently mined with 16 workers, gold only need 12. 3 per gas. Specific build orders can be found on teamliquid if needed, or other sources. You can also make your own variations of pro builds and adapt them to your own play. There is a certain korean named life who is absolutely amazing, and a very exciting player. Vods and build orders can be found online, and is worth a look. He is regarded as the number one player currently, and at only 16, has accomplished a monumental feat. Also live streams are a good way to get in depth analysis, good laughs and great games. Some foreign zerg contenders to keep an eye on are pig, snute, and also kane, who this year is posting fantastic results and looking quit dominant in wcs so far. Streams give you a first hand view of their actions, and they often offer insight into what they are thinking and why. This can be real helpful when dealing with new map pools, or just getting ideas you may not have thought about.
Thanks everyone for reading, if anyone would like to add to this please do, your feedback is always appreciated. LunaReapinG