Starcraft 2 Zerg Tips - Our 12 Best Tips

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The Zerg tips in this list are a quick way to discover key things you should know about Zerg outside of the basic mechanics, strategies, builds, and unit counters.

Some of the tips on the list may come in handy in every game, whereas others may be only used once in awhile. Either way, learning and understanding how to apply each tip will improve your skill level with Zerg a little bit. If you learn all the tips in this list, these little improvements can add up to make a big difference in your win rate!

Tip #1. The Zerg Extractor Trick is Not Economically Efficient

The Zerg Extractor Trick refers to hitting your current supply cap, starting an Extractor or two, training Drones, and then cancelling the Extractors. This will push the Zerg player above the supply cap. However, it is always more efficient to get an Overlord at 9 supplies than it is to open with this trick.

The only time this trick is useful is when you are at 200/200 and want to go beyond the supply cap or during instances where you need the units for immediate use and do not have time for an Overlord. An example would be if you are getting rushed and you needed to make Zerglings - you could use the Extractor trick to free up supply for Zerglings and then cancel the Extractors to help use the Drones for defense.

You can use this trick in large quantities at 200/200 to go well beyond the supply cap. You could start building 20 Evolution Chambers, train 20 supplies worth of units, then cancel the buildings, giving you a very large army.

Tip #2. Infested Terrans Are Really Strong When At Full Energy

While a lone Infested Terran or two is not going to amount to much of anything, when an Infestor saves up 200 energy, it can spawn 8 Infested Terrans at once (and do so from a burrowed position). This is actually a substantial amount of units, particularly if you have 6 or so Infestors all with full energy.

Just 6 Infestors at full energy could spew out 48 Infested Terrans, which is enough to turn the tide of a major battle as well as to take down a lightly defended enemy expansion.

Tip #3. Remember to Use Corruption

When using Overseers to fly over the opponent's base to scout, make sure you remember to use Corruption on important buildings and tech structures as you pass over. If you are there anyway, there is no reason not to drop Corruption and spend some Overseer energy.

A good choice for using Corruption is active upgrade centers. Delaying upgrades at the Engineering Bay, Armory, or Forge is a great use of Corruptor energy. Just using it once or twice in this capacity could mean that the next time you engage your opponent's army they will have 1 less upgrade point than they would if you had not delayed their research.

Tip #4. Use the Inject Larva Trick

Injecting Larva manually is too slow, but you have to use the Spawn Larva ability regularly to remain competitive as Zerg. You can significantly reduce the amount of time this takes by casting inject larva on the mini-map rather than actually manually clicking each Hatchery. You can also use the "Backspace" key to change your camera to center over one of your Hatcheries. Pressing it again will cause the camera to move to the next Hatchery. With hotkeys, you can bring up your Queens then tap "v" and click right in the center of the screen (where the Hatchery will be after you press Backspace) for Inject Larva as you shift through the Hatcheries.

Tip #5. Creep Spreads Faster When There are Multiple Creep Tumors

Creep Tumors will continue to produce new creep until they have fully spread creep around their given radius. This is done at an even pace. If there are more than one Creep Tumor occupying the same radius, creep fills in the area twice as fast. The more Creep Tumors, the faster the creep spreads.

Tip #6: Baneling Costs Can Quickly Add Up

A single Baneling costs 50 minerals and 25 vespene gas when you count the initial Zergling cost. Since Banelings only cost half of a supply, it is easy to think of 10 supplies worth of Banelings as not being very many units. The truth is that this is 1000 minerals and 500 gas worth of Banelings!

Generally, Banelings are not efficient to use against structures outside of breaking down wall-ins or hitting Bunkers. Instead, you need to use Banelings on clumped up light units. They are particularly effective against clumped workers, Marines, and Zerglings. Using Banelings on regular structures or armored units is usually not an efficient use of resources.

Tip #7: Blinding Cloud Can Hurt You

Blinding Cloud (the Viper ability) effects friendly units too. As a result, it is not always wise to use if you are using ranged units like Roaches and Hydralisks. Minimize the negative influence of this ability by targeting static units like Siege Tanks in Siege Mode or by using it with melee units like Zerglings or Ultralisks, as these units are unaffected by Blinding Cloud. 

Tip #8: Uproot Swarm Hosts and Run Away after Spawning Locusts

Swarm Hosts do not have to sit there in between waves of Locusts and wait for the enemy to attack. When the Swarm Hosts are on the offensive, it is usually best to burrow the Swarm Hosts and let them spawn Locusts. As soon as the Locusts spawn and start heading towards the opponent's forces, you can uproot the Swarm Hosts. If you suspect the enemy wants to hit the Swarm Hosts, you can retreat with them and only burrow them once the Locust timer has reset. This helps maintain a barrier of Locusts between the enemy's forces and your own Swarm Hosts at all times.

Tip #9: Sacrifice Overlords for Early Scouting Information

You may have to fly Overlords across your opponent's base around the 6:00 and 7:00 marks in order to figure out what tech and production facilities they are building. Losing an Overlord or two is a small price to pay for this information.

Tip #10: Be As Annoying As Possible With Zerglings

Zerglings are cheap and only cost minerals. Zerg players tend to have a lot of minerals. It only makes sense to spend some of those excess minerals on packs of Zerglings. These Zerglings can patrol the map, looking for proxy Pylons, hidden tech structures, and ninja expansions.

Zerglings can also be routinely sent in to rush down undefended enemy expansions or even to try to sneak into the main base. If you happen to catch your opponent not paying attention, a pack of Zerglings can slip into the main base and cause serious havoc before your enemy even knows what has happened. Sure, you will lose these Zergling packs regularly, but it is a small price to pay for the occasional huge return you get on these units should they find an undefended entrance or expansion.

Tip #11: Pick Off Reinforcing Enemy Units

If you are on the defensive and your opponent has the bulk of their forces at the edge of your creep spread, odds are they will be steadily training new units and rallying to their main forces. Use fast units like Zerglings and Mutalisks to intercept these reinforcements as they stream across the map. An army stranded in Zerg territory with no back up or reinforcements will eventually get worn down by the Zerg macro machine.

Tip #12: Bring a Second Drone to Make Your Natural Hatchery

Are you tired of getting blocked by an enemy Probe at your natural expansion? Protoss players love using their Probe to run around in a circle to prevent your Drone from starting a Hatchery. If you are going Hatchery first, this is a huge delay and extremely annoying. For the cost of just a few seconds of lost mining time, you can send out two Drones. One Drone can attack the enemy Probe while the other can focus on dropping the Hatchery. The Probe cannot delay the Hatchery from two Drones for more than a couple of seconds.