A Curious Beginner

Hello, I’m a new Sc2 player who decided to pick Zerg and is currently trying out a roach ravager build order. One thing I’m struggling with is how to spend my resources. After about the 5 minute mark, my minerals start breaking a 1000, and the build order ends, leaving me with no clue on how to go forward.

Should I be spending these additional resources on defensive structures, or units or something else?
Also at what time should I start amassing an army other than the initial couple of zerglings for defense? At what number of say roaches should I begin to attack at?

Some other beginner questions:
Do queen injects stack? How many queens should I have at my disposal for defensive purposes (and creep spread)?
Are hydras a good response to air units if I already have roaches? Or do I go corruptors or mutas?
When is an appropriate time for Lurkers or Swarm Hosts? What do Vipers pair up well with?
When do I start filling up my extractors with drones? (so that I can afford to get later game units than roaches)

Hi Maelstrom,

welcome to Starcraft 2 and the competitive area! :slight_smile:
Your general main goal in Sc2 is to max out as fast as possible on something solid (i.e. roaches or roach/ravager or ling/bane/hydra or roach/hydra or …).
As zerg you want to get as many drones as possible as fast as possible before you actually have to build an army to not loose the game.
That is why vibe builds a safe amount of army before saturating the next base (so the higher you get, the less units you have to build because of better micro and multitasking and you can expand faster, too, then.)

If you have problems with spending your ressources, you need more larvae so concentrate more on injects (with queens) and expand faster or build a macro hatch about every 1,000 minerals that you have after spending all of your larvae.
Also check Vibelol’s introduction video and research what “rapid fire” hotkey / usage in Sc2 means.

If you need more specific help, feel free to join any community discord server (lowko, vibe, winter, rotterdam,

guide:
_https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFeZeom2b4Dlt63qmkPO8hCencx-rE8xr

macro build order:
_https://imgur.com/a/o2LAnhy

grid hotkey layout:
_https://www.twitch.tv/videos/181417222?filter=all&sort=time
–>Also check out Vibelol Sc2, Lowko Sc2, Winter Sc2 and PiG Sc2 : videos about hotkeys (and of course the huge amount of gameplay videos - especially PiG has a ton of useful videos and I think Vibe’s BronzeToGM guide is the best though never stop to test out other things).

Edit: Please ignore the people whining about balance. xD
Though if you get flamed ingame, feel free to make screenshots and share the memes. If people insult you with “cheater” or “map hacker”, you will obviously have improved a lot.

Good luck & Have fun!

Edit 2: If your opponent writes more than “glhf” in game, it is very likely that you are getting cheesed (80-90%) so always keep your 2nd overlord around your 2nd hatchery (front, back / mineral line & ramp to your main base).

Ooooooohhhh, lotta questions! First off, welcome to the swarm!

I suspect I know there build your talking about, but I can’t say much about it without knowing more details. Some builds are designed to bank resources for a bit then explode into tech and upgrades with some units. I’m guessing your particular build is designed for an early push, so there are 2 good options for those resources.
1- make more units like zerglings to reinforce the roach ravager force. Zerglings are the fastest unit in the game with their speed upgrade, so they reinforce quickly.
2- make more drones and another hatchery, preferably as an expo. This will make for a very smooth economic transition into the mid and late game.

Gases - you ideally want to take most or all available gases once you start advancing to lair tech. That when Zerg starts using most of its gas. Hive gets even more gas heavy, so don’t be too slow on expanding, roughly every 3-4 minutes.

Queens you generally want 3 or 4 by 4:30. A rule of thumb is to have 2 Queens for each base up to 8. Some are for injects (yes they do stack), some for creep, a couple to stack energy for injects. Arguably the best unit in the game as the only tanky spellcaster w/ healing. These will be your core defense for the early game.

Anti air is situational. If the opponents army is predominantly air units, you will want a spire. Hydras can handle supporting air, but a fleet will generally overpower hydras as they aren’t very tanky. They are better for general pushes tho since they attack air and ground from a reasonable distance for good damage, so they are a good beginners unit.

Number of units to make? Usually timing is more important than the exact number of units. Obviously more is better, but upgrades make a huge difference in this game, so any given timing will consist of starting by making the required economy, tech (including upgrades needed), and then non stop units until upgrades finish. In a nutshell, it depends. Defending is similar, keep an eye out for your opponents army and make units accordingly.

Swarm hosts are situational. They are very good at surgical strikes into defensible areas, locusts fly in and tear down tech or bases very quickly, but have a long cooldown. The hosts are dead weight until the next wave, so be careful to not get them killed. Lurkers are an excellent support unit but can be a bit vulnerable when attacked directly. They are best when forcing an engagement in small areas or chokes as a support damage dealer. Good control is a must but not overly difficult, so add them in as you feel comfortable using them.
Vipers are good with anything really, but best with a pack of hydras or corruptors. The spells synergize well with damage dealing units by negating damage or singling out units.

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Lol just had one of them accusers a couple nights ago. Beat his maxed skytoss

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Remember to saturate 3 base mineral income before taking more than 1 gas though! That’s really, really important unless you want to do a 1 base allin or something similar.

Thanks, for answering my questions, but a follow up I have is why spire for air units? What unit should I be building to counter air?

Going to go over all these guide links soon… But in the meantime, if I get more larvae, do I spend it back into drones or army? Because as I see it, the faster I expand, the more resources I’ll be getting and at some point I’ll have to spend it on something other than drones. Am I stockpiling too much because I’m not skirmishing with my opponent and thereby losing resources in those army trades?

To counter air units, it depends on the time and upgrades:

  • queens are the best choice in early game (+ a few spores like 1 spore per mineral line at 5:00 vs. terran and protoss; earlier if you scout an air unit rush like spores at 3:30 vs. oracles)
  • mid game hydras or corruptors (corruptors only if it’s mass air like BCs, Carriers, Phoenix, Collossi, …)
    –> remember to get greater spire and lurker den with hive to counter the counter
  • Best counter vs. mass BC or mass Carriers is corruptors with full armor upgrades (+a few vipers if possible, research +attack after the armor upgrades)
    –> viper corruptor is also great vs. mass voidrays or mothership and corruptors murder tempests and phoenix but easily die to a couple archons or thors

Vipers and infestors are advanced but can help a ton - especially vs. mass voids/mutas (viper) or big units like Thors, Carriers, Archons, BCs, … (infestor)

scout with over lords or lings

if you see army build army to counter
if not keep droning until that point where you want to max to 200/200 in army

low ladder around 65 drones is fine
as you go up 75 then 85

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About the spire – corruptors are better in head on engagements with anything but void rays, as void rays have very good anti armor bonuses. The vipers parasitic bomb evens the odds and can Abduct one or 2 at a time. The combination of these two can beat nearly anything in the sky. The corruptors themselves have a lot of hp, have natural armor, and have attack bonuses against massive units. Those would be carriers, tempests, battlecruisers, and motherships. Their health alone makes them good against anything else in the air, and upgrades, tho expensive, scale well with them. They also are used to morph into broodlords.
Mutalisks are much faster and more nimble. They do ok against void rays and Vikings, but lack the dps to compete with more powerful units and have no natural armor. Their strength is in their mobility, giving map control to the Zerg by picking off drops and small groups of units, harass, and tactical strikes (i.e. , swinging around behind an army and over terrain to snipe siege tanks or high Templar.) Eventually there comes a time where static defenses and armies are large enough to withstand mutas, so they need to get their usefulness in before these things get out of hand.

Workers vs. units – depends on your opponents army, but early on in learning the game you can get away with having 60-ish workers. Once your spending skills get to be up to par, you will want 70-80 workers in order to keep up consistent production while also taking fights.

Maybe a more simple rule to remember would be too assume if you can’t spend all your resources, you don’t need more workers. The number of workers you NEED depends on your ability to spend those resources, so only add more workers if you begin outspending your income.

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