Starcraft II – Zerg Build: The 7-Roach Rush [Guide]

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• Overview
• Build Order
• Scouting
• Strategy

There are many offensive Zerg build orders that can catch opponents off-guard and make him turtle up while you go about your business and build up your forces for an even bigger attack later. Of course, it can also win you the game if the opponent’s entirely unprepared for the rush altogether.

Overview

The 7-Roach Rush is used for early pressure against your opponent while you establish your expansion and tech. This is quite effective in a lot of scenarios as it can be transitioned into a different unit composition due to the Zerg’s ability to do well with reactionary play. This rush is especially effective against Protoss as Roaches are very good against Zealots and Stalkers when they reach critical mass.

The point of the 7RR is the is to get ahead and not just try to end the game right. It is crucial that you don’t let your Roaches die as it gives your opponent a decisive advantage if you lose out. The combination of an early attack and perhaps surprise should give you enough leeway to then get ahead. As you start your attack, prepare to put down your expansion for best effect.

In that sense, this build is not an all-in as you can transition safely to a more macro-based play even if your rush fails. It’s much better to retreat when you’re being hit back with hard counters to your Roaches like Immortals and Marauders. That shouldn’t be a setback at all though as that indicates the opponent’s higher tech units are delayed.

Build Order

The Rush

• 12 Spawning Pool
• 11 Drone X 5
• 16 Extractor (Mine ASAP)
• 15 Drone
• 16 Queen (Inject ASAP)
• 18 Overlord
• 18 Roach Warren
• 17 Overlord
• 17 Roach x7

Expand/Lair

• 31 Drone x3
• 34 Overlord
• 34 Hatchery (Expand)
• 33 Drone x3
• 36 Lair
• 36 Extractor x3

From here, you can then tech up and go for either Roach/Hydra, a Muta transition, or even Infestors.

Scouting

This build does not require scouting as the objective is to have your opponent scramble for defense and dictate the pace of the game as you do what you can to get more ahead. You get to do scouting while you’re actually attacking, especially since Roaches are durable enough to penetrate deep into enemy territory.

You may only need to scout if there are multiple spawn points for your opponent, so there’s no real need to send a scouting probe in a two-player map like Xel’Naga Caverns. Perhaps you can actually do so anyway to not raise suspicion of some rush or all-in, and/or scout if your opponent is planning some shenanigans like his own all-in, proxy buildings, or a fast expand. If you catch the latter, punish him.

In ZvP, you can scout with an Overlord safely enough and provide vision of the high ground for your Roaches to shoot over if your opponent walled himself in. This is much more difficult in ZvT though as Marines can turn your Overlord into paste. However, it would be a worthy sacrifice if it scouts out something valuable like a Starport with a Tech Lab.

Strategy

This is now the more viable option compared to the 5-Roach Rush due to the two extra Roaches giving the rush an increase in offensive power by a whopping 40%. Perhaps that may be a rough estimate, but those two Roaches are enough to make the rush much more effective while sacrificing speed. If it does fail though, you stand to lose up to seven whole Roaches, so retreat when you’re really on the ropes against his defenses.

With the 7RR, you also don’t follow up with Zerglings right off the bat. After the rush, you just drone up and play a macro game. The most common transition from the rush is expanding and going to lair tech. Whatever is in between can vary, depending on the situation. This build is best for maps with short ground rush distances and with relatively large maps and choke points; backdoors are a plus as well. Don’t expect to do as well in maps like Tal’Darim Altar and most cross positions.

Note that this build is dependent on how well you inject your larva as that’s where you’ll be getting your seven Roaches and everything else you need to move on to the later stages of the game. If you miss an inject, then you will be delayed significantly and your aggression won’t be as strong.

Ideally, the Roaches should spawn at around the 5-minute mark. That should be the time when you head out to attack, as well as take out whatever may be blocking your expansion. As for maximizing your attack, there are various things you can prioritize in order to deliver as much damage as you can. If the opponent is walled in, take out the weakest target first, like the pylon or supply depot. If there are repairing SCVs, take them out as well.

Once you’re in, take out soft targets like Marines, Zealots, Zerglings, and so on. Micro your roaches so they won’t be sitting ducks in the enemy base. You should then take out the hard targets like Marauders and Immortals that may hard counter your Roaches. If there is only one or two hard targets, you may take them out first. You can then kite them and perhaps kill as many workers as you can as well, so you can cripple the opponent economically. You may also take out Supply Depot or Pylons to supply block them.

If the rush is working, then you may pump more units out to finish the job. It’s not entirely necessary to keep the rush up and destroy everything, but you can rally more Roaches and Zerglings to your opponent’s base if you so wish. But just remember that your main priority is to slow him down while you get more ahead.