Learn to play Starcraft - Zerg Beginner Guide #1 - Updated (2017)

We go over the basic mechanics of zerg and show the importance of understanding at least some of what your opponent is doing. This guide is meant for players with an understanding of the objectives of starcraft but without any strong direction or gameplan, especially for each specific race! -- Watch live at / wintergaming
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[@vladtheimpaler9577]

A fun lore fact for geeks: Overlord are a supply structure but in the lore sense they don't supply the zerg with food or energy but what they do is expand the range and power of the hivemind. Every single zerg organism is controlled through a telepathic hive mind to work together under the leaders command and Overlords are basically giant, flying brains with psionic power that act as radio towers to transmit orders to the other zerg. The Leader of the zerg transmits orders to the Overlords and they relay those orders to smaller groups of zerg. Its all part of a huge radio network, but instead of radio singles its telepathic thoughts and images. So when you are at maximum supply in the game it isn't because you don't have enough food to sustain the zerg but its because the hivemind is at its limit and can't control any more zerg(or can but less potent) and as such Overlords are required to expand the control of the hive mind and allow for more Zerg units to be produced without the risk of losing control.

[@FBI-ju5no]

Lore wise, you also only need like 5 overlords for several hundreds of Zerg.

[@cascavalsparizar6472]

i m from vlad the impaler country :)

[@dunkel-zombi_fiziert-heit]

the mighty OVERMIIIIIIIINDDDD!

[@filipeamaral216]

The Overlords transmit Donny Vermillion, the best show in the Galaxy.

[@Vasetoo93]

Tips: 1. Not getting the double gas early. 2. Expanding as quickly as possible (second base by 2 mins, third by 4-5 mins) . 3. Lair at 30 drones at least, upgrade by 5 minutes or evochambers at 5 mins. 4. Keep eye on do you need a switch of army, like if he has immortals make some mutas.

[@ThanhPham-yc8mc]

thanks for your summary!

[@zeon_trl1326]

Pietro Tavares what is gas used for also Zerg is awesome

[@zeon_trl1326]

Pietro Tavares interesting thank you

[@johnrusty2298]

@@zeon_trl1326 early nidus worm and tock later on also any air is pretty gas heavy. Roaches coast some, but not enough to justify 2 gas on nat right away if you aren't going nidus.

[@MyBandCover]

i love the fact, that you don´t throw a build order at people. just explaining what you should pay attention to.

[@GaMeSTaTioN28]

Well said

[@GuardDog42]

Teach a man to fish

[@drunkolxea8682]

why build order when youre zerg. just be me 10 zlings at 4 in the enemy main. then lose the match

[@Zirni254u]

Amen

[@notorious8368]

he's giving us a compass - he's not showing us how to steer the car xd

[@matthewdustin7353]

"You can obviously see he keeps making zerglings based on all the zerglings he keeps making" LOL

[@everythingtaken3674]

great oberservation

[@PartaST1]

"Go in dry and see what happens" -Great life advice.

[@teh_campgoose8439]

This is a starter guide jesus. I have a lot to learn...

[@midge488]

Ti Ragland It's not an easy game, but it is so much fun to learn. Stick with it! :)

[@-Samus-Aran-]

Likewise man. Personally I never bothered with much competitive play besides between me and my friends who are also newbs. To me, taking on the big shots is too much time/stress. Respect for those who can though, and I do love learning these pro tips to improve my lumbering, casual gameplay.

[@oonmm]

This is kinder garden Starcraft.

[@DonWoschto]

@@oonmm You probably just left kindergarten?

[@-Samus-Aran-]

@@oonmm the 'Block' button was invented for naysayers and unpleasant people like you. Good day, sir. Impart your negativity somewhere else.

[@bspinnacle4669]

Damn... New to the game and have zero idea what I just watched 😂all that info hit me like a 10 ton truck

[@FlashxSwazy]

Hows it going a year later

[@captainavilion1516]

I love how you can explain everything you're doing in a simple way, and at the same time keep 100% focus towards the game. Great player!

[@htasul]

"You know what else is wasting your money? NOT SPENDING IT!" Love this guide!

[@wtf-ke4om]

this guide is incredible started doing what he said and building more drones, paying attention to what my opponent has, having good unit placement and always upgrading and it got me from high silver to low plat in less than three days no specific build orders, nothing, just actually paying attention to what my enemy has and havign good positioning thanks for the guides

[@andresabastante9539]

Thx winter for uplpading SO MUCH good SC2 content. Great work!

[@TallFry2]

I gotta say, your guides definitely help. I watched your Protoss guide, followed some of the instructions while adding my own favorite units to the mix, and I had a notable improvement in overall performance. Thank you for that.

[@cosmonauthal7651]

I love this guide because it’s not him just spelling out exactly what you have to do. Which to me isn’t fun I want to learn but not just by reading a spreadsheet. This is perfect!

[@SquirrilahFish]

"I'm afraid my hyadralisks will be fully operational". Haha

[@SquirrilahFish]

I've been playing SC2 for about 2 months now. I love these videos. I think for a 2 moth player I'm pretty good, watching every damn SC video I can find helps. The best thing I pulled out of this one: CONTROL + CLICK! (You were talking about creep tumors, but I forgot about this for army selection. Which is stupid because I use control + click in my terminal all the time to assign units to hot keys, but where I struggle is in selecting units off the map. I've been using double click, and struggling. It's hard to double click a pack of moving hellions to morph into hellbats, control click! I feel dumb, but I'm glad I watched this today.

[@sam09metal]

2018 and getting into SC2. Your guides are so helpful and easy to comprehend as well as your presentation. Thank you Winter, subbed!

[@casualcrusader1547]

"i got my wanker stuck in keyboard" Literally the greatest thing anyone ever said in an sc2 game. period.

[@c2kiyomi]

I just learned to like Starcraft II these days, playing the SC1 campaign. Today, I got into Starcraft II and decided to give it a shot - I got obliterated by the bot :D I'm completely overwhelmed - I find myself reading half the time while building, while creating units, position them around the map and plan a fancy attack ... only to find myself getting killed by his frontline. woops. I fancied the Zerg race the most, even though the Protoss seem like a race I'd like to be one of. But the Zerg is just much more interesting for me ^_^ So I picked them as the race I want to learn to play the game. What I want to say, I thank you a lot for sharing all this information even a completely new player is able to work with. It's very much appreciated :D

[@JecIsBec]

Summary of video: - If in doubt, Queens - Hive tech is good, don't forget it - Expand lots, not forgetting creep spread - Congrats you're in Diamond

[@arielm9847]

Thank you for making these updated guides. I played SC2 back in WoL but then it fell off the map for me due to other things getting in the way. Now I'm back in LotV and I'm lost as to where to start. These guides are a great help for focusing on what's important for beginners and people out of the loop. You've earned a new subscriber. Looking forward to the Protoss guide.

[@ohnoesitsafakename6967]

Oh shit man I used to watch your twitch channel all the time back in the previous expansion when I was first starting to play, I only ever got to Gold, wasn't very good and basically am starting anew after years of not playing. I attribute my success to your informative explanations and watching you play and build orders and what have you. You and Lowko are my favorite personalities in sc2.

[@VinayKapadiaVK]

"In non-freedom units" lol I love you, Winter.

[@cyrunal1167]

I really enjoyed this video. I am new to the Starcraft scene, but after experimenting with the races a bit, I find the Zerg to be the most fun and interesting. I've been frustrated recently with my game play, and I am sure this video will help me tons. Thanks!

[@wagboys42]

You are THE most informative Starcraft 2 player I have found. I thank you for all you have taught me and I wish you well in your climb on the ladders!

[@HellFromLtu]

had no idea was playing against you. gg #1stgame#laquabakhahb

[@kinciscorner]

what did you said after 'seriously'? xD this is really awesome to watch

[@HellFromLtu]

Edmund Woo at the end I just was bit salty and said:honestly.. Gg

[@HellFromLtu]

Alberto Stevanin the sc totorial wasn't clear, so I got stuck it in here

[@sdowncast8871]

i didnt really understand why he blocked you, i mean, you wasnt bm-ing or anything

[@user-fd8xr3gy4d]

LOL

[@Jotunn96]

coming from someone who was just introduced to starcraft yesterday I was really interested in the Zerg and thanks for the guide man

[@Dreekuz]

man dude this was ridiculously helpful. Super easy to understand

[@Milesrgomez]

I am thinking about trying StarCraft 2 to see if I can get into RTS games. This guide helps a lot when I (hopefully) decide to get the game.

[@randomguy7340]

Miles Gomez I’m pretty sure it’s free now

[@Raxmei]

Seeing the whole series in a row, you're clearly playing harder here than in your Protoss and Terran guides.

[@yordancho]

18:30 "non-freedom" units lol

[@pisic9022]

yordancho lol

[@glennwilliams1611]

Platinum confirmed. Watched this video, haven't played much in approx 1.5 years. Got back in because I came across a tutorial and said why not. Proven that a scrub like me can walk into plat just working up macro and watching small cheeze (got cheese'd hardcore 2 of my 5 placement games lol). Thanks for breaking me back in boiz.

[@Edahsrevlis]

Did you know that if you slow your videos down to 0.25 speed, you sound like Bill Cosby?

[@alien256]

LOL

[@Shmandalf]

lmfao accurate.

[@Cygnus0lor]

Wtf shat myself laughing....

[@tonisuikki9934]

That 1 baneling BM XD Its so amazing!

[@Dempsey1]

I swear I get certain tastes when I watch certain youtubers xD I get a coffee type taste when I watch winter xD

[@dglatts]

Part 2 soon plz

[@Perfectionado]

Im a super amatuer player and watch a ton of Pro SC but my lord that bane det was beautiful

[@raphaelaldenmendoza8468]

KZbins recommended this masterpiece again

[@colevanlaren546]

very informative, I've been playing zerg for awhile now, and have always wanted tio know the exact details about them. good Job!!!

[@lolfiish]

Best slime tutorial out there ps please convert to freedom units in the future for us liberated folk

[@tcc5750]

What does that mean?

[@timotejxxxl]

LOL 3 banelings killing 60 zerglings hahaha honestly laughing so hard

[@MrDononino]

hey man! I finally got into the pvp side of SC2 after having seen some of your guides, and went straight into gold 3, so ty for the good advice and keep up the good work :D

[@angelskaixo5188]

Great vid, I see alot of videos about games, and they are either pro or noob. You sir, are a great intermediate step along the way. I for sure am still a noob, but its nice to see someone who helps teach those steps on your way to diamond (ex. Overlord placement). thanks alot, and hope to see more!

[@ryanwang2396]

Loving this format, please do more!

[@qfayne1121]

That 1st baneling hit in game 2 made me cringe

[@CZProtton]

Just the first? He managed to trade like 200minerals 50 gas for about 1000 minerals with those banes...

[@VeniVinnieVici]

'70 meters in non-freedom units'. XD Love it

[@emissarygw2264]

Well I watched this guide and did my placement matches... 1st time playing zerg (or sc2 at all pretty much since wings of liberty), lost 4 in a row and won 1 and somehow it put me in gold. Kinda says a lot about gold I guess, considering i pretty much only ever remembered to tech past zerglings by scouting the enemy bases and seeing how far behind I was lol.

[@frozencloudzzful]

EmissaryGW2 i was gold in wol, but i wasnt verry good.. ehm it might remember your old ladder rank, so it doesnt put u in bronze

[@yordank506]

I love your videos man, good job! I am sharing this with all my friends who play SC2, you deserve it :)

[@petrkorunka8982]

One thing I dont understand - in the third game he pulled the two drones from gas to minerals and has oversaturated base. I guess its useless to have 18 drones on minerals... am I right?

[@tpark89]

Thank you for this, Winter!! Also this map is simply beautiful.

[@seanhallahan9142]

Guides are so amazing. Thank you. Now...to get my APM to 50 without cheating it. At 42 average now....argh

[@FPSvolter]

That explosions at 22:40 was PogChamp worthy and you barely react. My jaw dropped.

[@callmetoast5048]

If the overlord does does your supply decrease

[@omnicore776]

As a newbie and beginner nothing you said made any sense to me

[@callumbrowns]

ZERG were the highlight of this game for sure they got revamped hard!

[@faizkurniawan4755]

Question by a noob here, why he doesn't upgrade the unit armor early on?

[@HCUhardcoreUnited]

Faiz Ganteng maybe because the resources spent on the upgrade would be better spent else were. Just guessing however.

[@lehfeldt1]

You gotta talk about setting the rally point for zerg I just realized how it can make you not have to rally your drone larvas

[@DJDeem17]

when youre talking about builds what do the numbers in front of the order mean? Like in this at one point you said "12 hatchery"

[@jackstewart3357]

DJDeem17 that's the supply count. Gas timing usually apply to worker saturation. So a 14 pool is a 14 supply pool. Where as a 16 gas is a 16 worker mineral saturation on the main and so on so fourth through out the rest of your bases.

[@JerryDunhamJr]

Getting back into the game after taking a break for a few years. Wanted to know if I should starting using grid instead of standard.

[@lolmakeify]

Honestly, you ve the perfect timing, I really want to learn starcraft and I started playing a few days ago :3

[@goulash6737]

How do you mass fire abilities? Like if you have a bunch on evolved roaches how do you fire all of their Cs really fast?

[@BubbliciousBublz]

hold shift, tap the hotkey once and rapid click i believe

[@blasalvice]

Started a week ago. Hard game but very satisfying to get good at. Nice guide, teaching exactly what I need to know right now :p Edit : 18:15 I'm sorry, is that Comic Sans in the upper left corner ? :o

[@mekermax1]

DONT SLIME ME BRO! NIGAH I CANT BUILD ON SLIME!! rofl

[@horner385]

mekermax1 THAT 4V4 KILLED ME XD

[@robertcalver3527]

i need to know the name of this game iwant to see it again

[@phoenixblade1513]

"BRONZE LEAGUE HEROES #18 - NORTH VS SOUTH - Four vs Four Insanity." I believe this is the one you are looking for.

[@robertcalver3527]

thanks

[@adam-fl3jc]

how to manage drone effectively ? I played starcraft around 3 weeks. and i still dunno how to manage drone, cuz drone are important to build your economy structure ..etc. sometimes my drone disappear to build structure and confused what im going to do next cuz i need to makes some units army either

[@mikek9910]

I just used rush zergling tactics to get when I first started playing.

[@ianescher1798]

Yes! Zerg! Wouhouuu !!!!

[@EXoDuZ302]

while i always go spawn before hatch i also like to take a liar as soon as i start my second base and tech up to mutas, sometimes ill tech to hyrdas if i see something but having that muta harrass can end games and not only that but mutas can counter a lot of 1 base all in's eg: couple of matches ago i saw a terran put a techlab on his ramp barrack, so i completely ditched any rouch warren and 3rd base expecting a maruader heavy all in, only zerglings and mutas turns out he had more marauders then marines and a tank, rushed the many zerglings i had against him to whittle down the marines with the mutas and took that momentum to charge 11 mutas at his base, he gg'ed as soon as i entered his main morale of the story, keep your options open and be observant, your 100% right winter, zeg rely on their counters update, just had a match vs protoss where i lost every single engagement, kinda (in terms of supply count i got my ass kicked but, i was also targeting their anti air) i harrassed him with mutas so much he charged straight into my... 2 lurkers with no detection (i was that bad off) and ragequited!!! i didnt even have my 3/3 i was that low on gas!!!

[@ChubyX]

OMG thanks. I was soooo wrong. I didn't know how to use it. I'm use to other RTSs like C&C, and that race is just weird to me, but I like them.

[@thomasthereal4067]

3:30 so there are ALWAYS 3 larvas/Eggs (expect for Queen injects)?

[@marcgebbylauron]

ling/baneling means "zergling and baneling"?

[@Rekthief]

you can make a hotkey that will select all the queens at once? or did i hear that wrong?

[@mr_zergling9662]

Dude good guide I love it as a Zerg guy and you are awesome at Zerg plus you give me some stupidly awesome tactics

[@porkfreegaming5278]

dude, you said all the things I was doing wrong, Thank you so much!!!! you are a fun saver!!!

[@boopbooperson1654]

I'm so happy they added a brood mother [she is not de real queen] in SC2. I member SC1 when we'd just build like 100 hives in the same base to get shit done...

[@dougherrin2749]

can you rate my build order 13 ovi 14 send one of the drones to scout 17 hatch 17 gas 17 pool 19 save for 2 queens and speed Its just my opener, but note that the saving^ i get exactly 400 mins and 100 gas when pool finishes for my queens and speed

[@Puracell]

This is an excellent tutorial, thanks

[@tatotato85]

This is just what i was looking for!

[@Yue4me]

why you not pickup that early drone gas after mining 100 gas for speedlings?

[@tonymlakar276]

most of these videos i he says you can see my camera location video, but i dont see said video anywhere? lol

[@fabiogrundler577]

17:00 no to gases but when he goes for a cannon rush i usualy take them and nydus them shell i let that be ?

[@electronus97]

Okay the hydralisk looming over him in the menu looks sick. yes this is what I took from the video. (not really.)

[@xcoponent]

Thanks for Video, absolutely brilliant! No Lair until you have at least 30 Drones! That's what the Pro's do in Starcraft 2, but in Star Craft 1 Nintendo 64 the Zerg built according to the Map? No way, could I have that many Zerg running around, I start with a 5 Zerg attack as quickly as possible, then my Guardians protect the Base, here in SC 2, If I didn't have a half dozen Brood Lords it would only be - because I had 29 Drones, ha-ha! Permanent validity regardless of fluctuations in theory. Take Care (Do what you're comfortable doing but that's too many Units for me, with no Brood Lords.)

[@lehfeldt1]

So does injecting with the queen before the previous inject finishes cause it to queue up another one to start right after? I'm worried about not missing the injects and being as efficient with my map awareness as to not sit there waiting for it to finish!

[@Zeriel00]

37:45 Did I just see a flying Shark? :O

[@dragonzipper3426]

Nepu-Tech USA it is an underwater map, that is not in the game anymore

[@Allenzo04]

omg that 1 baneling hit at 22:30

[@inadaizz]

bah updated during the wrong portion of 2017. I just saw a protoss mothership core.

[@joeldeserve4685]

What does injecting the main zerg building do?

[@simon.annies]

make more larva

[@Crucifion]

thanks a lot for these l2p videos winter, love you

[@euthenize]

All those little things from the queens r those just to help see the map?

[@Jairstronaut]

Really fun to watch dude! goodjob

[@Villiscaband1]

I did not know about control click that will help out big time

[@invaderxgamez1754]

I played this years ago in the expansion before void and then durning void however after not playing for years after I got pretty good I have found that I’ve come back and suck lol this is one of those games for me anyways you have to play and play and play because if you don’t you will get left behind in strategy and everything nice video I got a bunch of wins off of ling and banes last night before watching this lol

[@eggur0ll289]

Punctuation is important

[@ericaguilar4835]

Hey Winter, thanks for the guides! I've been learning a lot from this, but what should I do to counter photon cannon into voidray as zerg? Should I pressure very early or take bases? I have no idea what to do

[@anattackgoldfish]

Eric Aguilar I've heard winter say that if your opponent is building static defense, like cannons, go for heavy macro and expand so you can get really far ahead economically. If they build lots of cannons, that's lots of money not in units or workers or production, so make sure you have more workers and production than they do.

[@ericaguilar4835]

I'll try to do that, thanks!

[@hmad898]

I love the Zerg, but I’ve been looking at my play style and the way I’m currently playing the game I’d be better off using Protoss, but I’m stubborn so I’m not doing that lol I wanna learn the Zerg.

[@horner385]

Hey Winter should I morph those Overlods that I sent to scout into Overseers?

[@StarTheUltimate]

In ZvZ how should I handle my creep spread? :)

[@nickdeny]

Hoshi x3 only between bases. if you spread furthur the other zerg moves faster on the attack

[@flowfrog101]

it depends you get vision tho

[@dissolution9843]

Most of the time at early levels don't worry about it. There's an argument that if you're the aggressor creep spread favors you and when you're on defense it hurts you. It just depends on whether troops moving fast actually benefits you because of some specific thing. Otherwise it's wasted actions. Hope this helped.

[@zeon_trl1326]

SnowNinja555 weird and interesting

[@karlbjerke133]

how do you move so quickly around the map

[@KaterKarloMawMaw]

Is pool first still viable in general with the current patches?

[@capndecay8999]

can you please do a terminology/lingo for new players that know nothing about sc2?

[@horner385]

Because of you I'm a zerg player

[@S15ken]

Thank you so much man you really improved my skills