Zerg game

View Full Term. By clicking sign up, you agree to receive emails from Techopedia and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Zerg is a slang term for a group of low-level gamers who depend on overwhelming numbers to achieve victory, rather than relying on technique or strategy.

The term is most often used in the context of online role-playing and strategy games, but it also applies to multiplayer first-person shooters. Gamers essentially team up and agree to attack a specific opponent at the same time. By forming a zerg, the gamers can usually kill an enemy while taking general — but not fatal — damage as a group.

This strategy itself is known as zerging. Zerg is also used to refer to a single player in a strategy game who uses enormous numbers of basic fighting units during the initial stages of the game to attack and defeat comparatively small-sized, but higher-level enemy units. The term zerg comes from a playable race of aliens featured in "Starcraft".

In the game, the Zerg targeted weak enemy units and killed them by swarming them with superior numbers. Zerg entered the gaming lexicon when gamers began applying the term to gamers in other games who used a Zerg-like strategy. Zerg functions as a noun and a verb. When multiple gamers target the same opponent in order to score a quick kill, they are referred to as a zerg.

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Tropedia Explore. Flanking involves positioning part of the Zerg player's army away from his or her main force. When the player engages with his or her main force, the player uses the flank force to attack from a different angle.

Coupled with an element of surprise it can maximize the effectiveness of the player's units in the battle. Flanking has several effects:. Backstabbing not to be confused with betraying one's ally during a match up involving more than two players such as 2v2 involves waiting for the main enemy army to move out of the main base, then quickly attacking the enemy's undefended or lightly defended main base.

Zerg is the most effective at backstabbing because of the high speed and damage per second of its units, particularly the Zergling. Once the Zerg player's units enter the opponent's base, he or she must quickly determine how to do the most damage before the main army returns. The best targets are usually the workers, which are essential to the enemy's economy, or the tech buildings, which are essential to the strategy of the enemy.

A common application of backstabbing is against Terran players. When the Terran player has a small army, he or she will often move out and attempt to force the Zerg player to place Sunken Colonies at the Zerg player's main base.

With a force of Speed upgraded Zerglings, the Zerg player may then use the opportunity to backstab the Terran player. Backstabbing requires a careful assessment of the situation, because the Zerg must use the units that would protect his natural from the oncoming army to backstab the enemy.

The Zerg match-up guides provide in-depth explanations of each of the three match-ups as well as offer timing information on the strengths and weaknesses of different play styles. For each race, a match-up guide and a timing article exist. Match-up-specific strategies provide in depth discussion on opening builds, mid-game transitions, and late-game theories.

Against Terran, you usually cannot afford the luxury of five Hatcheries. Still you have more aggressive openings such as 5 Pool , 9 Pool , and more economic as 12 Hatch and 12 Pool. This match-up is considered a rock-paper-scissors match between all very low economy builds. You can cheese with a 5 Pool vs. Zerg , but more stable build orders are 9 Pool , Overpool , 12 Pool , and 12 Hatch.

For each match-up, mastering some micromanagement techniques and learning basic moves of adaptation is vital. Although by no means an advanced maneuver, the Larva Trick is a good technique to have in your Zerg skillset.

Against a Protoss who goes for a fast expansion, a Zergling Run-by can be very advantageous. The essential techniques mentioned above are needed in this match-up.