Starcraft 2: Getting the Rush – Hydralisks vs Protoss

DISCLAIMER. “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”.

We all remember the classic Hydralisk from Brood War, the heavy Zerg assault unit that, paired with the Zergling, was the backbone of almost every Zerg battle field. Besides, they could morph into Lurkers, which were devastating against almost every ground forces. The upgrades available allowed them to snipe from behind Zergling lines or to traverse large sections of the map in a short time. They were cheap, hatched fast and hit hard almost every other unit in the game. The only back step could be a short amount of health.

But now we’re 4 years past Brood War, and the Hydralisks have adapted and evolved. They’re still the heavy assault hard hitters, but now they have become sluggish, slow and lost the speed upgrade that gave them a chance to flee from lost battles. They cost 25 more minerals and gas, and Lurkers are gone too. Plus they die kinda easily against Marines, Zerglings and Zealots… So… looks like the Hydralisk lost their niche in the game, right?

As you all know, StarCraft 2 is a game where every unit has a counter-unit on the other races, and this greatly favors the Hydralisk, as their advanced attack rate allows them to eat most air and armored units. Now… don’t go around thinking “oh sure, I’ll just build some Hydras ftw”. No. That’s not going to work, and they’re not going to save you from a hard match either. The key to Hydralisks is preventing your opponent from knowing you have them.

The Build Order I will now propose should be used against Protoss players on 1v1 maps, as they tend to be smaller and give your Hydras the advantage of not having to move long distances. This is not recommended against Terran players, unless you know they’re doing the Banshee Rush.

Build Order

1. You start off sending your initial Drones to harvest, set another one to hatch. Send the Overlord to the enemy’s main, and set the Hatchery to group 1 and the Overlord to group 2. Then set the Drone rally point to an unused mineral patch.
2. Build Drones until you hit 10 supplies, and then build another Overlord. When it hatches, you should have something near to 150 minerals and 3 larvas, so build 3 more Drones.
3. Now, you wait until you hit 200 minerals and build a Spawning Pool. Then you build another Drone and 1 Extractor.
4. As soon as the Extractor is finished, send 3 Drones to harvest from it, while you spawn more Drones until 15 supplies. Then you put 1 Overlord to hatch, and then 1 more Drone. At this point, you should have 16/18, and something close to 150 minerals. Your Pool should be almost ready by this point, in which you build a Queen.
5. When your third Overlord hatches, build 1 Drone, 1 Zergling, 1 Drone and 2 Zerglings. It is important to always build more Drones, because you’ll have to build another Extractor soon, and that means 4 Drones off your mineral line. Send the Zerglings to your choke to prevent enemy scouts.
6. Your Queen should be close to birth when you reach 100 gas, at which point you should start morphing the Hatchery into a Lair. It is important to make sure there are no enemy scouts in your base before morphing.
7. Set your Queen to spawn larva from your Hatchery. If you have 4 larvae, build 2 Drones and 2 Zerglings, if you have 3 Larva, build 2 Zerglings and 1 Drone.
8. There’s a chance that by this point you’ll have enough minerals to make a second Hatchery. I recommend doing it at your natural expansion, as it will give you an economic advantage in about 3 minutes.
9. It is VERY important that your opponent doesn’t ninja a Probe in your base after this point, because if he has ANY glimpse at you morphing a Lair, he might suspect a Spire or even the Hydralisk Den, so make sure your Zerglings keep Probes at bay.
10. Build another Extractor, and some more Zerglings to keep your base defended.
11. Build Overlords at any chance you have, because you must be constantly producing units, be that Drones, Zerglings and Hydralisks as soon as you get your Den. If you expanded, it might be a good idea to have Overlords drop creep all around your base, so the Hydralisks get the speed bonus they desperately need.
12. After this, it is a good thing to upgrade your ground units Carapace, the Hydra’s range upgrade and the Zerglings speed. You’ll want Carapace before Attack, because Protoss players usually go for Attack upgrades (do the math, 1 average Zealot 3 hits a Zergling, 1 upgrade into Attack makes that 2 hits, but 1 armor to Carapace turns that back into 3 hits).
13. Now you should be building 2 Zerglings for each Hydralisk you build. Remember to constantly spawn Overlords to allow your army to freely grow, and expand to a third base when you hear the first “minerals have been exhausted” memo from Kerrigan.

I hope this little guide helps the new Zerg players into fighting Protoss players, and be sure to review, comment and rate this article. Happy Hunting!

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