13 pool (ideally)
12-14(not tested accurately) extractor
16 queen
17 extractor trick lings
18 roach warren
17 baneling nest
get a few roaches, morph the first couple lings into banelings.

This build will essentially **** on any mass ling builds, as the couple banelings worked in will reduce any all-in that could possibly come at that point to a number much more easily managed by a pittance of roaches. The timings aren't perfect, since I haven't tested this beyond seeing it hold off mass ling, but the essentials of the idea are there. Any panic lings built early on can easily be converted to banelings, and you can take a second with relative comfort. Plus you've now got roaches.

13Pool
14Gas
16Queen
Overlord
Speed then throw down a baneling nest.
Pump lings until you get a decent amount, convert some to banelings. Works great if you have a greater ling force then him after you morph your banelings, then you can run your banelings into his mineral line. Or, you can just run them in first and try and take out half his army before you run yours in.

10 Extractor Trick and use the 11th drone to scout
10 Overpool (Overlord then Pool)
13 Drones
14 Extractor
14 Lings
15 Queen
17-18 Lings
Lair with first 100 gas

Then be aggressive with first 6 lings. If your opponent goes for FE you should be able to take it out with first 6 lings plus some reinforcements. If your opponent doesn't go 1 Base Roach all-in the then expand with 1-2 spine crawlers. Play defensively but try to snipe his expo if possible.

If your opponent is going FE with roaches then you will need to throw down a Roach Warren to match him. Hopefully you got your expo up first. If the map is Kulas Ravine try and steal the gold expo without your opponent knowing.

Mid-game you have 2 options. Mutas or hydras. If you go Mutas basically you need to expand again while denying your opponent any more expansions in order to win. You win by map control. If you go hydras, scout your opponent. If he goes Mutas make sure to put up 2 spore crawlers per base, sit back and keep producing Hydras, because in a straight-up fight your hydras will win. If he is also going hydras, then get +1/+1 and try to out macro him. Eventually you will gain enough of an economic advantage to win the game.

Basically ZvZ is a game of each player trying to secure the higher advantage. If you manage to get an expo and hold it, you will win if your opponent doesn't have one (obviously).

10 Overpool
11/18 scout
Drones to 13/18
13/18 4 Lings/Queen
17/18 Lings
18/18 Overlord/Extractor
17/18 Drone
20/26 Hatch at natural
25/26 Overlord
28/34 Lair (1st 100 gas)
2nd Gas at 2/3 Lair
Hydra den once lair finishes, pump Hydras to defend the push

From this point on many of the variations depending on what you have scouted have been heavily discussed in TL's strategy posts

14 hatch
13 pool
15 overlord
15 queen
Zerglings...
queen at 2nd hatch...
That's how you beat 2 gate.
On close spawn LT, possibly on steppes, he thinks a 14 pool into a 1 base build or an in base hatch is the better build; same with a close proxy 2 gate

14 pool
16 hatch
15 ovi
15 extractor
16 Queen
Next queen builds on same hatch as first, as your second hatch will not be finished,walk first queen to second hatch after injecting larve, it should arrive close to when second hatch completes with almost enough energy for another inject larve.
If you scout starports, build extra queens and fast lair tech to hydras. ELSE
first 100 gas to speedlings (counters reaver, helion harass pretty well)

I have found 2 hatch >> 1 lair vs Terran.

Do not be too quick to fill up your gas to early, you should be focused on drones and speedlings since it is important to keep up with the Terrans very easy mode macro (damn mules).

Speedlings are not really hard countered by anything except by a large MM ball or air, they should give you enough map control to saturate your FE safety.

From here its up to the Terran player, they have a lot of options. Scout. React. Win.
vs MMM- roach hydra infestor (fungal growth)
vs mech- Muta/Roach/infestor (in the case of thors only, remember strike cannons work great on other thors
vs Starport- hydra

14 Pool
13 Gas
15 Overlord
15 Queen/Lings
Nothing but Ling production from this point until the break hits
First 100 gas to ling speed
next 50 gas to Bling
Create 6 Banelings as soon as possible and hit his supply depots at his wall with them, then run the speedlings into his base through the breach

(scout on 9)
13 pool
14 hatch
13 gas
16 queen
18 extractor trick
17 one set of lings
18 roach warren
(timings from here on out are in queen larva cycles 1-1 would mean queen 1, cycle 1)
1-1: 0-7 roaches, 0-7 drones, depending on ling/overlord scouting
Queen #2 from other hatch
1-2: drones
Lair after first cycle of drones
3 extractors up now, put 2 in each extractor (means pulling the third from the 1st extractor)
1-3/2-1: ideally these are more drones, and you fully saturate all extractors. Depends on scout though, these can be turned into enough roaches to ostensibly keep you alive)
1-4/2-2: get a spire out as soon as you get the double-cycle of drones

Ze Midgame
Spire pops: build 2 Corrupters and as many Mutas as your gas buildup allows.
The reasoning behind the Corrupters is their ability to disable buildings. Mutas suffer a *lot* in SC2 from static defense, mainly because said static defense (in the case of T and P) has received a substantial HP increase. Terran Turrets also do a lot of damage to muta harass. I've had games where the terran found a way to scout the spire and was able to get a couple of turrets down. I found that it pretty much shut the mutas down. With corrupters, the static defense gets nullified long enough to make the harass effective, accomplishing what the Terran could otherwise almost ignore with proper turret placement.

If the Terran didn't scout, the Corrupters still aren't wasted, as they can take a couple pot shots at other production buildings in the mean time, then do their proper job on a return trip later in the game. And hey, if there aren't turrets in the first round of harass, then your 5-6 mutas are still having a hey-day in the mineral line.


From this point on I would ostensibly use 1-5/2-3 and 1-6/2-4 on roaches in order to repel any panic all-ins, timing pushes, and to just generally get some ground dominance once the air superiority has been set up. The third hatch should then follow asap, followed by another round of mutas and another corrupter. The corrupters enable the mutas to pose a significant threat to an unguarded base, and I've found that they overall just increase the power of mutas by a lot.

Concerns involve early game harassment and fast banshees. early game harassment can simply be defended with your choice of spine crawlers or lings. Fast banshees tend to get shut down hard by well placed spore crawlers, so respond accordingly to your scouting information.