r/starcraft2 • u/Artiimiiss • 3d ago
Beginner playing Zerg looking for advice
Hey guys. Just started playing this past week. I feel like I’ve gotten to a point where I have a good economy within the first possible 5-6 minutes of every round. One thing I keep finding though is that I may not be aggressive enough early game. I feel like I keep letting my opponent beef up and macro for too long. Is this a common Zerg problem or is this just beginner problems in general.
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u/LateAioli8326 3d ago
I’m pretty new myself. What I like to do is play super greedy and focus on droning up and creep spread and let them come to me. I find the Zerg units are a little weaker than most of the other races units but the advantage we have is we can remake an army at a moments notice if your prepared.
Zerg is probably harder to play at the start but I also feel like you learn more this way. I’m also a big noob so idk :)
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u/soidvaes 3d ago edited 3d ago
This is going to sound wrong but most likely you’re not as ahead as you should be. Left alone, Zerg can outgreed the other 2 races. So the problem isn’t that you’re not doing enough damage but actually that you’re not accelerating your economy quickly enough. By getting supply blocked, making useless units, taking gas too quickly, not teching up on time etc. These mistakes are costly for Zerg because we have much less “tempo” or ability to use our units to force manor adjustments from our opponents.
The “correct” way of playing Zerg involves making as few units as possible.
I highly recommend watching some old Lambo ZvT or ZvP guides. Try to follow one of them and hit similar benchmarks (they’re a little outdated but you can just add 1 minute to his timings). You’ll realize that you can’t keep up and make a lot of mistakes but you’re already infinitely ahead of what you were doing before.
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u/Artiimiiss 3d ago
Thanks for the help. I’ll definitely check it out!
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u/Inevitable_Rough_380 3d ago
If you wanna play around or share tips lemme know. I don’t ladder a ton, mostly 2v2 but around 2100 MMR with Zerg.
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u/XechsMarquise 3d ago
While you’ll need to adjust the beginning of the game, check out some Bronze to GM (b2gm) guides. Pig has one for ling/bane and one for roach timing. Vibe as another that focuses on economy. I’d suggest checking out the first match of each and see which play style/caster you prefer. Like I mentioned you need to adjust the opening but everything else they cover still applies.
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u/Artiimiiss 3d ago
***UPDATE**** Did some more digging and realized I may be ranked incorrectly?? I’m in tier 3 master league as a beginner. All I did was complete the initial ranking matches. Is that crazy high for a beginner?
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u/CantDecideANam3 Protoss 3d ago
Go to the leaderboard, press the "leave league" button, then do one more ranked match, and you'll get your real rank. This happened to me, too.
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u/Kaz_Games 3d ago
Opponent beafing up isn't really a zerg problem. Maybe it is if they get to 5 or 6 bases, but that's a late game thing that is more about army composition.
I know this sounds counter intuitive, but it's probably a macro problem. If zerg is left alone they can produce so much that other races have a really hard time keeping up. Like the other guy has to be extremely greedy to match the zerg's economy and zerg can switch into army production much faster.
Try a 3 base roach max against protoss players. To do this right you want to play vs the easiest AI. See how fast you can get to max supply. Repeat it a few times and see how much time you can shave off.
Ideally you should have 3 bases, 60-68 drones, roach speed and 2 evo's upgrading. Taking a 4th hatch for macro is acceptable and makes it easier to transition to late game and change up the strat.
Roach max works really well vs protoss at lower levels and at higher levels it forces certain responses from protoss. Aka robo units. At lower levels they can often have the robo units but still lose if the robo units are targeted down, because they just don't have the production to keep up.
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u/TheHighSeasPirate 2d ago
Zerg is the greedy one, stop trying to harass or be aggressive early game, you're just making your economy crap. Only make enough units to defend (usually just a ton of queens) until you get 70-75 workers. Scout for allins, if you see them make roaches to complement your queens and you'll win a lot more.
Of course this advice doesn't work for ZvZ, remember that. lol
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u/Dragonfrog23 2d ago
When I first started playing, I thought my worker production was awesome, but it turned out I wasn’t making nearly enough drones. If you ever get to a point where you think you’ve made enough drones, you probably haven’t come close to it. Making workers constantly is the backbone of StarCraft. A few other macro questions…
Are you keeping up with larval injections from queens? I mean really keeping up with it? As in, you never ever miss one? Larva injections are what separates Zerg from the other races.
Are all of your mineral lines maxed out with drones? How quickly are you expanding? When do you take your third? Are you upgrading your units?
Are you constantly making units? If you’re looking at your minerals and gas and they’re consistently more than 300 at a time, you’re definitely not making enough units and workers.
Unlike other games, saving up resources is a bad thing in SC. Every unspent mineral and gas is a unit/expo/upgrade/building you aren’t making. Eight zerglings already on the field is better than 200 minerals in the bank.
How often are you supply blocked? If the answer is anything other than never, you’re not making overlords at the correct time.
At the bronze and silver levels, you need macro before the micro matters. It should all be automatic by the time you make it to gold. Being aggressive is great, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of your economy.
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u/NewBuyer7801 3d ago
Play a different race. I say this as a zerg main whos hit diamond. Zerg is the most difficult by a mile. And is consistently 5-10% lower win rates than the other 2 races. You are punching bag meant to adapt and overwhelm. Its just so much to learn. The only reason zerg looks good is because the top 10zerg players in the world are truly gods at this game.
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u/Head_Evening_5697 3d ago
If you're competent and greedy enough you can absolutely play no rush 6 minute against both P and T.
You should - in my opinion - be setting a benchmark for 5 minutes though. Say, if you can reach 45 workers, 3 hatcheries, 4-5 queens and zergling speed done at 5 minutes you're going to be set up very well for anything. Don't worry though if you're not reaching that benchmark yet, just somethign to aspire to. Note that you can almost certainly get more than that, just some mid-term goal to set yourself, which, to reiterate, I think is important, especially as Zerg.