Table of Contents
Normal Buildup:
Follow the usual build up guidelines. After your seventh drone
get another Overlord. Get Spawning Pool around tenth or twelfth
drone. If you fear a rush, make some Zerglings. If not, get second
hatchery around fifteenth drone, and then your Hydra Den. Go for
hard Hydras for a while till you see what they have. You can build
your gas extractor early if you want to go for Queens soon, or
right around the tenth drone otherwise.
Some of these strats break the normal rules of building up. Follow
the build up rules when applicable though.
Defense:
*On defensive maps, try to get Guardians early. Back them up with
Scourge.
*Use Zerglings to block chokepoints. Have Hydras behind them for best results.
*For most general maps, go for huge amounts of Hydras. If you scout well, they will be very potent. Go for Hydra transport drops in their weak points of their town.
*It's sometimes good to burrow to hide your men. Many players enjoy performing this because it looks fun. However, it is very bad to have your men pop up at the last second during an enemy's attack because it will allow the enemy to penetrate deeper into your town and allow the enemy to gain a few free hits as your men unburrow. Have a scout of some sort ahead of burrowed men in your town and be alert!
*Use tons of Zerglings early and tons of Hydras later to defend. Avoid using sunken colonies which tax your resources. If you do use sunkens, place buildings or Zerglings in front of them to slow down other Zerglings or Zealot attackers. Make sure the Sunkens protect your drones.
*Against Terrans: Be wary of Siege Tanks and spider mines. You need speed on Overlords and one Hydra to get around and disarm the mines. You need Broodling and several Queens to kill the Tanks. If time allows, Guardians are an even better way to beat tanks. Watch for what the Terrans are going for. If they go for air later in the game, get Scourge. Use Ensnare and Plague every chance you get. Be sure to burrow Defilers who are out in the open.
*Always try to expand to islands with the Zerg. They have the best air defense with Scourge and Spore Colonies for support.
*Beware of Reavers. Always parasite them and their counterpart, the Shuttle. Always try to parasite Transports, Wraiths, and a few peons. Always parasite Archons. These guys die easily if you have enough Hydras or Ultras, and especially if you Ensnare the Archons first. Always parasite all of Protoss and Terran air units. Scourge them when they are vulnerable.
*Use Broodling to kill Templars. These guys are your worst enemy in many games. Use ensnare or plague to spot halluciantions.
*Use Broodlings to set off spider mines, or if you need to disarm the mines quickly use Zerglings.
Zerg Offensive
The "four drone only" build up on small rush maps is very powerful for 1 on 1 games. Don't make a drone with the initial 50 minerals. Instead get minerals, then make a Spawning Pool as soon as you have 150 minerals. Then make drones and one Overlord. Save two supply slots for four Zerglings. Be scouting with the Overlord. You can eliminate one of the three other starting spots on maps like Orbital Relay. Make four Zerglings as soon as you can. Go attack the other guy; he shouldn't even have a Barracks. This is very deadly and somewhat cheesy. They need to scout with a super early peon to catch you doing this.
* Hydra and Queens with Broodling can beat almost anything fairly early in the game. Just make sure you make the correct number of queens. An exception is against Reavers plus Zealots, and an incredible number of upgraded marines.
*Place Zerglings in front of Hydras while attacking low level guys. This is Asuka's Zergling Wall, and it protects your hydras well.
*Use Muta's triple hit attack as a sneaky way of attacking towers from a distance without taking any damage.
*Quick to Guardians against Protoss: Make several sunken colonies - maybe five. Quickly climb the tech tree to Guardians. Go attack as soon as you can with the Guardians. They are very hard to counter early on maps with lots of water.
*Mutalisk rush on island maps: This is very powerful. Go straight to Mutas: skip making Zerglings or Hydras. Have all your Overlords watching their island for transports. Attack the transports quickly with Mutas and Scourge. Attack their peons if they have an opening. Watch for Marines. Expand and keep the pressure up. Never let them expand. Eventually get Guardians and take them down.
*Zergling plus Muta rush vs Protoss on land: This is a deadly strategy. Start attacking early with Zerglings, and if the attack works well keep it up. Go to Mutas (don't make Hydra den). Likely they will have few Dragoons, so when you go in with Mutas take any anti air out, and clean up. Use Zerglings to kill any Dragoons you see.
*Zerg against Zerg: Use early Zerglings to defend. Then use all Hydras and a few Qeens to Ensnare to fight them. If they go for Mutas you'll have the advantage. If they go for Zerglings or Queens again you should win.
*In any stalemate type situation, try to get Guardians and Scourge. Back them up with ground guys, and you will probably break through. If the game goes on even more, try Defilers and their tricks to get through. Plague is an excellent way to get through Siege Tanks and bunkers. Make dark swarm clouds and have Zerglings go first to draw fire, then get Defilers in and plague all of them.
*Sometimes it's best just to run in with Ultras and Zerglings. If you have enough of them, they can help break annoying defenses and speed the enemy's death.
*In late game, get Zerglings upgraded well. Either support them with Dark Swarm, or send them in suicide constantly to keep the enemy on guard while you steal resources all over the map.
*Ensnare Protoss Scouts then Scourge them. This will counter their speed upgrade completely.
*If attacking a Protoss defender, take out his shield batteries and Templars first. Then go for the rest. Don't forget you can Plague cannons, pylons, and shield batteries. Remember that Guardians kill Templars well from a distance. Don't let cannons distract you from the deadly Templars.
* To kill air effectively, distract the
enemy air units with a couple of Overlords or Mutalisks, then
come in with the Scourge. Be sure you can kill them because if
they can repair or shield battery, you wasted much gas.