StarCraft II – Zerg Strategy: 2-Base Muta [Guide]

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• Overview
• Build Order
• Strategy
• Video

Learning how to play Zerg well is not exactly a cakewalk. Out of all the three races in StarCraft II, Zerg has the most tedious fundamentals of all. You have to make drones and queens, make units, make overlords, inject larvae, spread creep, scout, and so on while the other two races don’t have as extensive of a checklist. With that in mind, beginners don’t have much room for a build order. There’s this one though, which is pretty easy to follow and use.

Overview

The increase in speed of the Mutalisks in Heart of the Swarm makes it a deadly unit against opponents when spawned in bulk and made to harass mineral lines. The 2-Hatch Mutalisk build is perhaps the fastest way you can get Mutalisks out while maintaining enough economy to be able to actually churn them out in sufficient numbers, as well as spawn other units to defend your base while you’re asserting air superiority.

Build Order

Fast Expand

@32 Drones: Lair and Extractor (#2, 3, 4)

Roach Warren
Baneling Nest

@100% Lair: Spire and Centrifugal Hooks

Strategy

You use Zerglings for map control and to poke the opponent’s front to know what his unit composition is. You can defend with Roaches against pushes and make time for Banelings to morph. Getting good creep spread early is crucial in order to maximize your ground forces’ mobility. Some may think that it’s not that important as long as you’re able to engage the opponent’s forces, but that extra bit of speed is enough to deliver that extra bit of damage to kill off Marines and Marauders before they can damage yours.

This build is a fairly simple-looking procedure. Basically, it’s an aggressive 2-base rush to Mutalisk that lets you harass the opponent from the back while while you have Ling-Bane right up front. It also lets you go with Roaches when you’re about to go up against some armor. This strategy will get blind-countered by one-base play, so make sure that your opponent has gone for a fast expand in order to be sure that your Mutalisks can deal maximum damage.

Don’t attack static anti-air defenses or large numbers of anti-air units directly since Mutalisks are pretty fragile. In fact, refrain from engaging enemy units anyway and just go for mineral lines and key structures if you can.

If you find your opponent going straight to your base with a sizeable force, then that’s when you must make Banelings as quickly as possible to assail them. If you’re able to blow up a good chunk of their forces, use Zerglings and Mutalisks to clean up the rest.

Your transition to the late game depends on how many bases you’re able to secure. If you can get to 4 bases, then you can safely tech to Brood Lords or Ultralisks, as well as Infestors. You’ll also have macro hatcheries to stockpile larvae, even when you’re on two base since you’ll start accumulating large amounts of resources as you keep spawning more Drone.

This strategy works at maps with short air rush distances and/or long ground rush distances, but not wide open and level terrain. This could work in Cloud Kingdom and other 2-player maps that have lots of stuff in the way on the ground. But if it’s something like Star Station, then it may not work as well and you should go for a Roach-based opening instead.

Video