Zerg General Guide

Zergling
The Zergling specializes in hit and run, attacking weakly defended locations, and mining fast. It can hold items relating to attack upgrades in its equipment slots. This hero has the highest damage output and is the fastest zerg hero.

Its two abilities are Reticence Mode (Cloak), Adrenaline Splash(Temporary Attack Speed Boost), and Battle Jump(Leap).

Ultralisk
The Ultralisk specializes in tanking damage for its team and assaulting locations heavily fortified by turrets. It can hold two items relating to health/armor in its equipment slots. This hero has the highest armor and health, but the lowest movement speed and damage output.

Its two abilities are Devour (Poison Aura and Health Regen) and Ultracocoon(full health recovery after a delay)

Queen
The Queen specializes in providing fire support for its' team. It is unique in that it is the only zerg hero that has a ranged attack when not attacking rocks. The queen can hold two items relating to support items. This hero has the highest energy and energy regen.

Its two abilities are Seismic Shot(Rock Fall) and Corrosive Sprayer(Poison Building)

Goal of the Zerg
The goal of the zerg is pretty straightfoward: Kill all the miners and don't let them kill the Overmind. To do this, zerg players must try to delay the miners as long as possible to create enoug spawners to overwhelm the defenses the miners have.

Earthquake
Periodically, an Earthquake will occur. There is a timer warning just before an earthquake happens.

During an Earthquake, all zerg units have a massively increased attack, armor, and movement speed. DO NOT LET THIS MOMENT GO TO WASTE. Either use it to mine as many rocks as possible to harass the miners. Additionally, much more zerg units will spawn from your spawners and the overmind.

Lava
In the map, there are randomly placed rocks called "Congealed Lava". Break this rock to release lava, which will spread slowly to places without rocks. Use the lava to your advantage to burn the miner's base or delay them. The lava cannot kill the zerg base or the Overmind because they are submerged in water.

If the lava is coming too close to your extractor or infestation pit, then either ask a Queen to use Seismic Shot or if you have 3 levels into carapace, you can cause use Massive Rockfall option from a larvae.

Skills and Experience
Zerg heroes gain experience mining rocks and killing miners' units. The vast majority of experience the zerg gets will be from mining rocks. All the experience gained is shared and divided amongst the zerg heroes so its very important that all zerg heroes keep mining so the team doesn't suffer from a lack of XP. This is especially true since there are less zerg players than miner players. Zerg players should shift queue to attack rocks to reduce the amount of idle time.

For beginners, it is recommended to go 6 claws -> 4 mutation -> 5 armor. Afterwards, focus mostly on claws and armor, with mutation if supply is needed

Reviving
Zerg players respawn at their hatchery when killed after 1 minute. This time is reduced when a zerg player holds a stem cell in their inventory when killed. The stem cell will be consumed upon death.

Items and Upgrading
All zerg players have equipment slots for items to enhance their heroes. This can be accessed using N6 on the numpad. To obtain items, a Zerg player must build an Evolutionary Control (Evolution Chamber). The best claws and armor are situational and class dependent, but if you're new, I would suggest going with: Jagged Claws, Thickened Carapace, and Flexible Joints. Jagged Claws are to be prioritized for faster mining speed, then the Thickened Carapace for defense, then Flexible Joints. It is HIGHLY recommended for 1 zerg player to go 6 attack and 9 mutation as fast as possible to upgrade teammates' Jagged Claws and Thickened Carapace. Although Sharp Claws are generally very slightly better than Jagged Claws, they have a high carapace requirement.

To upgrade items, you first buy the item and equip it onto your Zerg hero. After, you must open the equipment slot, which is opened by pressing N6, and LEFT CLICK the item while near the Evolutionary Control. Upgrading items do have skill requirements depending on the item. This can be bypassed by your teammates upgrading your items for you, if you do not have the sufficient skill requirements.

Consumable items such as Stem cells, Creep Tumor, Symbiote Trap, and Sticky Slime can be bought in Evolutionary Control as well. Consumable items can be used with the Numpad. Creep tumors require a minimum of 3 points into mutation

Stem Cells = Reduced respawn time after death to 20 seconds instead of a minute

Sticky Slime = Fungal Growth that deals 10 damage and makes the target immobile

Symbiote Trap = A mine that spawns 3 broodlings and slows + damages the enemy unit that steps on it

Creep Tumor
Creep tumors are one of the most important tools that the zerg has. They are very cheap at the cost of 25/25 and require only 3 mutation points to buy. The creep prevents miners from building, slow miners' movement speed, and gives zerg vision. Additionally, the creep increases the health regeneration, energy regeneration, and movement speed of zerg heroes on it. Spamming creep tumors are one of the best ways to hinder miner's progress

Using "Digging Under" (Teleport)
All Zerg heroes and larvae have the ability called "Digging Under" that allows them to teleport to anywhere on the map. This is very useful early on because a zerg player can create some larvae to teleport to gaps within the map to scout. Scouting can reveal Mineral Deposits and Metal Deposits, which are very time efficient to destroy for the resources they hold.

Hatchery
The hatchery is the building that spawns larvae and gives supply to Zerg players. Upgrading the hatchery gives players more supply and unlocks additional abilities, but this requires investing points into mutation.

The additional skills unlocked by the hatchery at level 5 are "Call Infestor" and "Call Nydus Worm" Call infestor will spawn an Infestor on creep. It will randomly move while spawning Symbiote Traps around it. Call Nydus Worm will spawn a nydus worm to that location and Zerg units from spawners and the Overmind will spawn there.

Spawners
Zerg players can build 3 types of spawners that spawn zerg units overtime. Spawning Pool, Roach Warren, and Hydralisk Den. As the name suggests, a spawning pool spawns Zerglings, a Roach Warren spawns Roaches, and a Hydralisk Den spawns Hydralisks. The spawners automatically produces units and the units either teleports to miners or a Nydus Worm

To upgrade any spawners, you must cancel all production queues first and have sufficient skill points. Spawning Pools requires mutation points, Roach Warren requires carapace points, and Hydralisk Den requires Attack points. Generally, it's better to prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to spawners

Spawning Pool
Spawning Pools are the cheapest spawner and creates units the fastest. It is recommended to buy these if you have an excess of supply due to their cost.

Roach Warren
Roach Warrens are useful because roaches have the highest health of the zerg spawns. They also poisons their targets so having them into an army composition is important. It is recommended to have a couple of these and to create more if you have an excess amount of metal.

Hydralisk Den
Hydralisk Dens are the most expensive to upgrade and the best spawner zerg can buy. Hydralisks have the highest damage output of the spawns and when fully upgraded will be able to outrange Miners' turrets. Creating and upgrading them costs more minerals than gas.

Zigger
Ziggers are useful for defending locations and attacking miners' forification. Building one costs 2 supply and requires 5 points into carapace. Their range is great enough to outrange tanks, but the zigger itself has no vision.

Extractor
Extractors give the zerg player passive income over time. Extractors should be built as early in the game as possible for maximum income. It is recommended to give the extractor to the player with the highest mutation points so that they can be upgraded. Building one requires 4 points into mutation

Camera Control (Infestation Pit)
Camera Control (Infestation Pit) gives zerg players 3 extra supply and prevents rockfalls in the area. Building one requires 4 points into carapace.

Drones
Drones are the way other than extractors for the zerg players to gain passive income. It is not recommended to have more too many drones as drones costs supply and having too many of them can make it difficult to manage them from digging into miners or standing on Acid pools

Larvae
Larvae can be used to create zerg buildings, scout, and cause Massive Rockfall, if the player has at least 3 points into Carapace.

Acid Aura on Zerg Base
Miners cannot attack your base because any miner unit that comes within a certain distance of the zerg bases in the top right or bottom left will be damaged over time. For this reason, it is recommended to place spawns within the acid aura. The acid aura has a visual indicator with a circle made of skull icons.