I haven’t played 1v1 in at least 4 years and I decided recently to come back. Holy moly I barely recognize this game at all, so if someone could catch me up on good build orders and tech paths, I’d be quite grateful. Yeah, my macro and micro is garbage from not using it seriously for years, I’ll work on that on my own
1 Like
Openings are either hatch/gas/pool or pool/gas/hatch in most cases, each off 17 drone supply. 2-3 Queens, a couple lings and a quick 3rd started by 3 minutes. Ling speed with 1st 100 gas. That overlord you start with travels across and does a suicide scout at this point to explore tech choices from opponent. You can macro, tech, or all in from there depending on the opponents race and tech.
It’s really a bit more involved than that, but that’s a good idea of the first few minutes. Roach/ravager is good against most anything, except Terran bio and early ling floods. The roach Warren can go down between 3:30-4 minutes.
I can get some more detailed info tonight once I’m out of work if you want.
Thanks! This is a a great place to start. If you have more time, I’d appreciate it
1 Like
I’ll probably be on in anyone 5 hours or so
OK, so for the most part the opening is as I typed out before in all 3 matchups. The biggest difference being that in ZvZ, you don’t necessarily want to take a 3rd base too quickly as Zerg can switch from defense/eco into aggression very suddenly, and you need to be reasonably sure you can hold it against runbys and harass or timings. Otherwise taking it by 3 minutes isn’t a problem.
Roach/Ravager, made up predominantly of roaches, will hold most aggression from either Toss or Zerg, and seems to do well against terran mech despite the damage bonuses terran mech has against armored units. Apparently the significantly higher health pool of roaches opposed to say hydras makes up for it, while ravagers can bile down sieged tanks and clumped or slow units. Against Terrans who lack map presence, (i.e., letting you run around the map uncontested and just turtle hard) Swarm hosts are a great add-on. 10-13 is about the most swarm hosts you will want, they launch locusts into the air now instead of them crawling on the ground, and they swoop down suddenly. launch them into production, bases, to kill planetaries and command centers, workers, anything that can be killed – kill it. Locusts are free, and have insane dps. However, they have a really long cool down. Your opponent will attempt a counter attack after one of your waves. Build up roaches while the hosts are getting work done. prioritize damage upgrades, carapace doesn’t do anything against mech burst damage.
Hydras eventually can be good once a higher eco is established, and really shine once they have their upgrades and either vipers and/or lurkers to compliment them. Lurkers are the more in-your-face-head-on unit, while vipers abduct expensive and critical units or drop a blinding cloud on clumps of tanks and thors. Hydra viper also has a bit more map control by having superior range to roaches, high ground vision from vipers, and shoot up against the eventual Vikings trying to snipe the vipers. It’s very gas heavy compared to the roach/ravager style, so have like a lot of gases mining for this comp.
Ling/bane is the go-to against terran bio because of the mobilty and lethality the banes provide, particularly after speed is finished. The eco starts off by defending with just queens and lings against all comers while building up drones to an ideal count (start with about 65-ish and go higher if you are spending it well), then exploding into mass ling/bane production and lair tech. Until you hit that drone benchmark, you won’t take more than 1 gas (rule of 1 gas, as it’s called). Once you start taking those gases or have excess gas, get a lair and 2 evo chambers to start melee and carapace upgrades. From a lair you can get bane speed and start being aggressive, add in either hydras (for frontal pushes), mutalisk (surgical strikes and harass, requires more control but gives a lot more map control), or go straight up to hive and ultralisk (bad in most scenarios, as you rely solely on queens for AA, but the ultras tank a ton of damage with all the armor upgrades and still pack a punch against tanks and bio. Infestors are nice to have against stim and kiting because of fungal growth. It can’t be cast from burrow and doesn’t root anything anymore but it might as well given the 75% slow, granting the banes the connections they desire.
Protoss usually does 1 of 3 things:
1- Cannon rush – Basically just fight it with drones and keep cannons from warping in at all costs until lings come out. If cannons finish you will need ravagers to get out. Nydus has been a popular counter to cannon rush, but sometimes just some good macro will be enough to recover (depends on the opponent).
2-Immortal, sentry, archon, chargelot, High Templar compositions. Very powerful in the mid-game, and a sloppy opening will die to it easily (although there are some nice timings against it also). massing roach/ravager with ling bane support can beat it (banes kill chargelots and HT’s, lings draw fire while roach/ravager does the real damage.), but broodlords will crush it, so start a spire the same time you start the hive, they have the same build time. 5-6 broods is all you need, but keep a flock of corruptors to protect them from an air transition, it’s pretty common once a protoss establishes their eco. If you upgrade the roaches consistently and trade well, toss will often GG at the sight of broods, even before you get to use them.
3- tech straight into skytoss. Usually bad, but sometimes they get away with it for one reason or another. If they are trying to get mass air off 2 bases and a very late expo (low eco), a decisive hydra timing can be fatal with hydra speed and +1/+1. If you can’t hit the timing or otherwise deal fatal damage, tech into corruptor/viper with plenty of gases and preferably 2 spires to get them upgrades done asap. skytoss is actually beatable with just these and a small ground force or a few broods for clearing HT’s, but you can’t fight them directly without upgrades. Have plenty of overseers, a mothership is inevitable. Ideally you want to abduct the mothership and a carrier or 2 any chance you get, and toss parasitic bombs on any masses of void rays you may run up against. ling/bane or hydra runbys work well for slowing down skytoss production and preventing expansions from dropping. Eventually they will be pressured to move out against you, and you still need to abduct and pick off units until you are sure you can take a fight or have no choice. Generally their units are more powerful, but they are slower and can be guerrila-warfared into defeat and despair. Eventually they run out of money funding their capitol ships and GG.
Against other Zergs, you usually have a short ling bane phase before mass roaches take over the map that can end the game instantly if it goes wrong in any way. Spreading overlords out on the map in pathways gives a great deal of advance notice against the opponents attacks, while having at least a partial wall off is recommended to funnel their units into a choke, making it easy to defend. It’s better to be the aggressor yourself though, as it’s easier to recover and more likely to get a win for you from there. If you survive or your opponent shows signs of being defensive (full wall-off or spines), take a 3rd and roach warren and move on to the roach war phase.
This phase is made up of gradually building up economy, massing roaches, having roach/ravager skirmishes, and getting upgrades while slowly teching up into hydras and lurkers for most people, but mutas are also common for their mobility and harass. hydra lurker is the ultimate comp for ZvZ, but roaches are the way to get there. They will kill hydras 1 on 1, and don’t get overwhelmed by ling/bane very easily, almost never in fact. Their natural armor makes them resistant to mutalisk attacks too, so it’s never a bad idea to have a few roaches in the army for the entire game, either for tanking shots from banes or for runbys against outlying expos. Ultras and broods are sometimes good, but lurkers are king in ZvZ. The only reliable option to counter them is with vipers (abduct stragglers or exposed units, blinding cloud clumps for head on attacks).
That will give you a brief overlook on the basics of each Zerg matchup and how to overcome the ‘meta’ strategies. There are countless openings, strategies, tech path developments, follow-ups, and transitions for each of these catagories. If you want more, maybe send me an invite or just grind out some ladder or custom games to get an idea for how certain things work.
And finally, after all that has been said, Welcome back to the swarm!
1 Like
Holy hell dude, I didn’t really expect all that and I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to get me back up to speed. Obviously I need to get my macro and APM back, but this is an incredible start. Thank you!
Yeah, I didn’t realize how long that was until I hit reply and saw it pop up. 
Hey, I’m feeling like I’m in the same boat, so maybe we could play together if you’re on west. I’ve been looking for some friends to play with. I’ve also been out for a while and feeling overwhelmed trying to get a handle on how to approach the game.
I think I’m on Central, if memory serves, but the ping shouldn’t be too bad. Maniac#12435 is my battletag, I’ll probably be on in a couple hours
1 Like
Nice, and if OP or anyone else wants to game, I’m Unreal#1387. Sent you a request Maniac.