If you’re new to Starcraft 2, getting into the online leagues can be a bit intimidating. So you’ve conquered the single player campaign, challenged the AI ​​a bit, then you’ll probably want to test the waters and see what BattleNet is like. But fear not, Jeff is here! I’m going to show you a very simple, effective and deadly strategy using the zerg that will earn you your way to the gold league and beyond. This strategy is not that difficult to implement, but keep in mind that it will probably be well countered in Diamond leagues. Despite this, some pro players still use this method at the highest level, with a few changes (baneling flanking).

Before we begin, a few key points:

– It is vitally important to practice with the 3 races. You may want to focus on your favorite, which is perfectly fine, but don’t ignore the others because as you get better with them, so will your strategy. against them.

– The Baneling Bust strategy is most effective against terrans, but we’ve seen good results against protoss and even zerg, at which point it just becomes a close race, and the ultimate winner will be whoever is fastest and make the best use of it. Micro-ing resources is very important at this point. See my other article on microphones for this part.

Now I’m going to start with what the build order will look like. Follow it to the letter and you can’t miss unless you don’t execute the attack correctly or you are very unlucky. There are some Terran countermeasures and builds for this strategy, but they don’t work very well. Here it goes:

Note: If you’re not familiar with build orders, the numbers below (eg 9/10) indicate when you perform an action. In this case, step 1 means that when you have 9 inhabitants (your 9 drones), you spawn an Overlord. So when pop. reaches 14 of 18, creates an extractor on the gas, and so on.

1. 9/10: Overlord #1 (This is the standard Zerg opening, it maxes out supplies)
2. 14/18: Extractor (put only 3 drones on gas)
3. 14/18: Spawning Pool
4. 18/15: Overlord #2
5. 16/26: Speed ​​buff to Zerglings (aka: speedlings) when gas reaches 100
6. 16/26: Queen + spawning larvae
7. 18-22/26: 8 zerglings
8. 22/26: Baneling Nest
9. 26/23: Overlord #3
10. 23/34: 10 Zerglings

Typically, you’ll want to use your first few Speedlings to start scouting your enemy to see how you’re going to break through their wall. Note that it takes 5 Banelings to destroy a Terran Supply Depot, so you’ll need at least 5 for the initial attack and a couple more for once you’re inside. Keep pumping the Zerglings and don’t forget that your Queen has to maintain the larvae so you have as many Zerglings as possible.

Place your Banelings hidden in a corner near the enemy base, not too close for detection. When all your Zerglings / Banelings are ready, fire your 5 Banelings at the enemy’s supply depot and run into their base. Because you will have a lot of Speedlings, the enemy will not be able to defend against this assault because you can easily outrun them and play with them (move back and forth). Surround the only units, attack their supply lines and use the last Banelings. At this point, you have practically won the game and your opponent has left the game.

Some argue that it’s a cheesy move, some also say that it’s a do-or-die move, but hey, it works! And even if you don’t finish it, you’ll have paralyzed your opponent enough that he can’t recover.