Intro

Heart of the Swarm has really mixed up the meta game, which is a welcome change from Wings ZvP. While my previous entries have all broken down build orders from professional players, this one was too fun to pass up. I’ve looked at variations by Psy, CatZ, and Leenock, but the one we’re breaking down today was originally published on TeamLiquid by velvex during beta. A special thanks to my friend Velidra for showing this one to me (you’ve betrayed the Protoss race and brought shame to your people).

Summary and build order

The goal of this build is to put on heavy pressure with Swarm Hosts around 10:30 off of 2 bases (yeah, you heard me). Use spores in front to block detection, and adapt for the kill (or power up your economy back home) depending on your opponent’s reaction.

Basic build order / timings:

12-14 pool

16 Hatch

3:45-4:00 gas #1

2 drones on gas

@100 gas: lair

After lair is started, take 3 more geysers and fully saturate (~6:00)

@100 gas: overlord speed Infestation pit when lair finishes (~7:15)

Infestation pit when lair finishes (~7:15) 2 swarm hosts, enduring locusts upgrade, and nydus as soon as pit finishes (~8:00)

Send 3-4 drones, 2 swarm hosts, and 5 overlords across the map (~8:45)

across the map (~8:45) Make 6 swarm hosts and 2 queens (rallied to your nydus)

Evo chamber (optional)

Drop creep with your overlords and open a nydus worm outside their base

Morph your drones into spore crawlers, and nydus in your reinforcing swarm hosts and queens

Spread creep with queens and burrow your swarm hosts

ATTACK! First wave should hit around 10:30 with 8 swarm hosts, 2 queens, and 3-4 spores

Reinforce with 2-4 more swarm hosts

Take a 3rd base and either get aggressive or drone up

Update: I have been skipping overlord speed lately. Your nydus will spew out enough creep for your spores. Get a queen out to help spread it and to give yourself more room to spread out the spores. I end up using the extra money for quicker swarm hosts, ling speed, or hydra production.

This build will not work without enough gas, be sure to fully saturate after you upgrade to lair. You may opt to take zergling speed at some point too depending on how aggressive the Protoss appears.

Execution

Try to keep your opponent in the dark for as long as possible. Get 4-6 lings out on the map and go probe hunting. If they spot full gas saturation and no 3rd at 6:00, they will know something is up. Some people have even suggested faking a 3rd and canceling it at the last minute. This is a tight built though, and it may disrupt your timing… especially if you accidentally let it finish.

Set up your attack outside of their natural, but stay out of vision! The moment they spot creep, you can expect aggression. Enduring locusts upgrade is really good, you don’t have to get that close.

When you drop your spores, keep at least two in front of your swarm hosts to kill observers and another one or two among your hosts.

There’s nothing worse than having idle locusts (except maybe rage quitting to hallucinations). Make sure to set up a secondary rally for your locusts so after they take out the first structure you rally them to, they move on to another. The locusts will attack everything in their path, so don’t worry too much about microing waves unless you really need to target something down.

If things go south, use your nydus to get out! Losing all of your swarm hosts could be game ending at this point.

Transition

Obviously, you can win more than one way, but this is what I’ve found to be most successful so far. As a general rule of thumb:

If you see robo, go spire or hive

If you see stargate, go hydra

If you see robo, go spire or hive

In Blade’s HotS Zerg guide, he suggests that the best transition out of swarm host (once you have 10-13) is to start adding on overseers and corruptors. They do well against colossi and can continue to snipe observers. Alternatively, you can build mutalisks which do reasonably well against colossus (depending on the stalker count), but more importantly, can harass like crazy. Swarm hosts in the natural and mutas hitting mineral lines can be enough to break some toss.

In either case, you will need a 3rd for the gas, and maybe even a 4th at this point depending on how aggressive your opponent is acting.

If they have a robo, one of the best reactions to swarm host play are warp prism. Kill them with your air if you can, but expect it! You may send a few swarm hosts back home through the nydus to defend. Static defense (spores and spines) isn’t a bad choice either.

If you see stargate, go hydra

This is my favorite scenario as a Zerg player as Hydras will do very well attacking an air army with locust support, and can move quickly through the nydus to defend at home if necessary. Add in lings to protect your hydras and take out probes/production facilities. Build extra spores around your swarm hosts and probably 2 more spores at each of your mineral lines. Be aggressive, this is a decent window for victory.

Summary Video [11:46]

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