The Heart of the Swarm expansion has released and our Heart of the Swarm strategy guide is now up to date. This expansion introduced 7 new units to the multiplayer version of Starcraft 2, all of which are covered in-depth by this guide.
From Liquipedia StarCraft 2 Wiki This article covers the now superseded Heart of the Swarm multiplayer version. For other versions see Zerg Units (Legacy of the Void) and Zerg Units (Wings of Liberty). We're pleased to present the opening cinematic for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm in full HD glory! Purchase StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm now: http://S. Starcraft 2 Campaign Guide - Heart of the Swarm Campaign Guide - The Crucible (you are here) The Crucible is the second Zerus mission in Heart of the Swarm and one of the few missions you will have to perform without having access to Kerrigan. The Official Collector's Edition Strategy Guide In the collector's Edition Strategy Guide Collectible Paperfold Models - Exclusive pack of paper models printed on high-quality card stock, inspired by the new units in Heart of the Swarm using actual in-game skins.
The HotS campaign also includes 20 new campaign missions, 7 evolution missions, and a host of additional units that are available only in the campaign.
Whether you want info on the multiplayer or single player versions of HotS, we have got you covered! Here are the sections of our HotS guide:
- Heart of the Swarm Overview & Master Change List (Includes brief overview of all the new units, new upgrades, and changes to Wings of Liberty units).
- Heart of the Swarm Strategies (coming soon)
Over time, more HotS-related strategies will be added to this guide, so check back regularly for updates.
HotS Overview & Master Change List
All 3 races see major changes in Heart of the Swarm. Below, you will find a list of all the new units and their functions, as well as an overview of the other changes to each race. Click on the unit names to be taken to a full page with strategies for that particular unit. Videos featuring gameplay and strategies of the new units and changes can be found in the subsections mentioned above as well.
While this page provides a full list of changes to each of the races in Starcraft 2, if you click on the race-specific Protoss, Terran, and Zerg changes listed above you will be taken to an article with a list of specific changes made to each race and the best strategies for taking advantage of these changes.
Quick links to the summaries:
New HotS Units
Protoss Heart of the Swarm Changes
Terran Heart of the Swarm Changes
Zerg Heart of the Swarm Changes
Heart of the Swarm Campaign
More detailed descriptions of the HotS changes can be found in the guides linked at the beginning of the article or by clicking on a particular unit name below. This HotS Guide is just meant to provide a fast overview of all the information and changes in Heart of the Swarm.
New Heart of the Swarm Units
Mothership Core - The Mothership Core is a powerful new Protoss flying unit for the early game. Editor de imagems. You can only create one of these and it has 3 very powerful skills. As a result, at some point in a game players will always add a Mothership Core to their army.
Oracle - The Oracle is a new Protoss flying caster. It has one ability that allows it to become a detector, another ability that grants an enemy unit's vision for 60 seconds, and another ability that gives it a powerful ground attack. However, all of these skills cost energy and the Oracle has no native attacks of its own. Its ability to become a detector however does allow Protoss to go early air without needing to build a Robotics Bay. Its fast movement speed and high damage output against light units makes it great for harassing enemy workers.
Tempest - The Tempest is a massive Protoss flyer that can attack both air and ground units. While its damage is not particularly impressive, it does have two redeeming qualities. First, this unit's true strength is its range of 15 on both air and ground attacks rather than its damage. This is even longer than a Siege Tank; the Tempest can hit units literally across the screen if there is something to provide vision. Additionally, it does almost 3x damage to massive air units, allowing it to kill other Tempests, Colossi, Brood Lords, Carriers, and Battlecruisers with ease.
Swarm Host - The Swarm Host is a new Zerg unit reminiscent of the Lurker from Brood War. It has no attacks of its own when above the ground - it is only effective once burrowed. However, unlike the Lurker, the Swarm Host does not attack directly, instead spawning 2 Locusts every 25 seconds. Locusts are ground units with a high DPS ground attack with a range of 3. With upgrades, the Locusts can live 25 seconds before they die, allowing the Swarm Host to effectively siege enemy expansions 1/4 of the way across the map.
Viper - The Viper is a new Zerg flying unit. It requires Hive technology but is not associated with any building. This unit is a pure support caster with no damage-dealing abilities of its own. Instead, it has two support skills. The first is Abduct, which lets it pull an enemy unit to the Viper's current location. This is good for pulling Colossi and other powerful units into the midst of the Zerg forces. The Viper's Blinding Cloud ability allows units to only attack from melee range and is a good support skill for Ultralisks and Zerglings. It can also use the Consume ability to restore its energy quickly.
Hellbat - The Hellbat is both a new unit and a new form for the Hellion. The Hellbat and the Hellion are the same unit. Once you build an Armory, you can research the 'Transformation Servos' upgrade at the tech lab on the Factory. With this upgrade, your Hellions can morph into Hellbats (and vice versa) for free. Hellbats have more health and do more damage, but have a shorter attack range and are slower than Hellions. Hellbats are essentially a good resource dump for Terrans in the late-game when using mech, as in the late game Hellions are not beefy enough to soak up damage for Siege Tanks and Thors.
Widow Mine - The Widow Mine is a new Terran unit which is produced from the Factory. It does not require a tech lab despite the gas cost. The Widow Mine is a mobile unit with no native attacks, but it can burrow into the ground over a 3 second period. Once burrowed, it will automatically attack an enemy unit in its range (you cannot select this unit) with a powerful missile attack that deals huge single target damage as well as moderate splash damage. It can only perform this attack every 40 seconds.
The Widow Mine is very similar to the Spider Mine, except that it does not get destroyed when it goes off and instead has a 40 second cooldown. It can also attack air units, move itself, and unburrow itself. Widow Mines also deal +35 bonus damage to Protoss shields.
Protoss Heart of the Swarm Changes
Full article: Protoss Changes in Heart of the Swarm
Outside of the new units, there are very few changes to the old Wings of Liberty Protoss units in Heart of the Swarm. There are really only four changes:
- Void Ray - Void Rays now cost 4 supplies and no longer charge their beam on targets. Instead, they have a new ability called Prismatic Alignment. When activated, the Void Ray's attack does +6 bonus damage to armored units. It costs no energy, lasts for 20 seconds, and has a 60 second cooldown. When activated, the new Void Ray does a lot of damage to armored units. Damage is fairly low against non-armored units and when Prismatic Alignment is not active.
- Phoenix - The Phoenix' range has been increased from 4 to 5. No upgrade required for this range boost. If you have not played in awhile, you should know that in February 2012, a new upgrade was made available at the Fleet Beacon called Anion Pulse-Crystals. This costs 150 minerals and vespene gas and takes 90 seconds to research. This upgrade increases the Phoenix's range by 2. This stacks with the new range increase, giving the Phoenix a potential range of 7. This allows them to thoroughly dominate any short-ranged flyer like the Mutalisk or an enemy's Phoenix without the upgrade. However, it does not seem that this upgrade increases the range of Graviton Beam, which means the Phoenix is still vulnerable when picking up enemy units.
- Mothership - The Mothership is no longer created at the Nexus but instead is upgraded from the Mothership Core. Its total cost (including Mothership Core cost) is still 400 minerals, 400 vespene gas, and 8 supplies. The Vortex ability has been removed and instead has been replaced by Time Warp. While Time Warp is a great skill, nothing is quite as game changing as Vortex was, making this a slight nerf.
- Sentry - The Hallucination ability no longer needs to be researched at the Cybernetics Core. Instead, Sentries will start with this ability. This improves the Protoss player's ability to scout early in the game, as a Phoenix Hallucination is an effective (and free) way to scout the map.
Terran Heart of the Swarm Changes
Full article: Terran Changes in Heart of the Swarm
While only two new Terran units ended up in the final version of Heart of the Swarm, Terran does have a significant number of changes and buffs to their old units:
- Reaper - Reapers no longer have a special building-only attack and no longer do bonus damage to light units. Reapers now have 60 HP and heal when out of combat. Reapers now also no longer require a Tech Lab. The speed upgrade has been removed and the Reaper's base speed has been increased.
- Raven - Seeker Missile costs 75 energy and no longer needs to be researched.
- Siege Tanks - The siege mode upgrade no longer exists. All tanks are able to go into Siege Mode without any research.
- Hellion - Can morph into Hellbats once an Armory has been built and Transformation Servos has been researched.
- Medivac - Now possesses the Ignite Afterburners ability. This is an energy-free ability with an 8 second duration and a 20-second cooldown. It increases the Medivac's movement speed by 70% while active.
- Ship & Vehicle Armor - Now a single upgrade benefits both types.
Swarm Host - The Swarm Host is a new Zerg unit reminiscent of the Lurker from Brood War. It has no attacks of its own when above the ground - it is only effective once burrowed. However, unlike the Lurker, the Swarm Host does not attack directly, instead spawning 2 Locusts every 25 seconds. Locusts are ground units with a high DPS ground attack with a range of 3. With upgrades, the Locusts can live 25 seconds before they die, allowing the Swarm Host to effectively siege enemy expansions 1/4 of the way across the map.
Viper - The Viper is a new Zerg flying unit. It requires Hive technology but is not associated with any building. This unit is a pure support caster with no damage-dealing abilities of its own. Instead, it has two support skills. The first is Abduct, which lets it pull an enemy unit to the Viper's current location. This is good for pulling Colossi and other powerful units into the midst of the Zerg forces. The Viper's Blinding Cloud ability allows units to only attack from melee range and is a good support skill for Ultralisks and Zerglings. It can also use the Consume ability to restore its energy quickly.
Hellbat - The Hellbat is both a new unit and a new form for the Hellion. The Hellbat and the Hellion are the same unit. Once you build an Armory, you can research the 'Transformation Servos' upgrade at the tech lab on the Factory. With this upgrade, your Hellions can morph into Hellbats (and vice versa) for free. Hellbats have more health and do more damage, but have a shorter attack range and are slower than Hellions. Hellbats are essentially a good resource dump for Terrans in the late-game when using mech, as in the late game Hellions are not beefy enough to soak up damage for Siege Tanks and Thors.
Widow Mine - The Widow Mine is a new Terran unit which is produced from the Factory. It does not require a tech lab despite the gas cost. The Widow Mine is a mobile unit with no native attacks, but it can burrow into the ground over a 3 second period. Once burrowed, it will automatically attack an enemy unit in its range (you cannot select this unit) with a powerful missile attack that deals huge single target damage as well as moderate splash damage. It can only perform this attack every 40 seconds.
The Widow Mine is very similar to the Spider Mine, except that it does not get destroyed when it goes off and instead has a 40 second cooldown. It can also attack air units, move itself, and unburrow itself. Widow Mines also deal +35 bonus damage to Protoss shields.
Protoss Heart of the Swarm Changes
Full article: Protoss Changes in Heart of the Swarm
Outside of the new units, there are very few changes to the old Wings of Liberty Protoss units in Heart of the Swarm. There are really only four changes:
- Void Ray - Void Rays now cost 4 supplies and no longer charge their beam on targets. Instead, they have a new ability called Prismatic Alignment. When activated, the Void Ray's attack does +6 bonus damage to armored units. It costs no energy, lasts for 20 seconds, and has a 60 second cooldown. When activated, the new Void Ray does a lot of damage to armored units. Damage is fairly low against non-armored units and when Prismatic Alignment is not active.
- Phoenix - The Phoenix' range has been increased from 4 to 5. No upgrade required for this range boost. If you have not played in awhile, you should know that in February 2012, a new upgrade was made available at the Fleet Beacon called Anion Pulse-Crystals. This costs 150 minerals and vespene gas and takes 90 seconds to research. This upgrade increases the Phoenix's range by 2. This stacks with the new range increase, giving the Phoenix a potential range of 7. This allows them to thoroughly dominate any short-ranged flyer like the Mutalisk or an enemy's Phoenix without the upgrade. However, it does not seem that this upgrade increases the range of Graviton Beam, which means the Phoenix is still vulnerable when picking up enemy units.
- Mothership - The Mothership is no longer created at the Nexus but instead is upgraded from the Mothership Core. Its total cost (including Mothership Core cost) is still 400 minerals, 400 vespene gas, and 8 supplies. The Vortex ability has been removed and instead has been replaced by Time Warp. While Time Warp is a great skill, nothing is quite as game changing as Vortex was, making this a slight nerf.
- Sentry - The Hallucination ability no longer needs to be researched at the Cybernetics Core. Instead, Sentries will start with this ability. This improves the Protoss player's ability to scout early in the game, as a Phoenix Hallucination is an effective (and free) way to scout the map.
Terran Heart of the Swarm Changes
Full article: Terran Changes in Heart of the Swarm
While only two new Terran units ended up in the final version of Heart of the Swarm, Terran does have a significant number of changes and buffs to their old units:
- Reaper - Reapers no longer have a special building-only attack and no longer do bonus damage to light units. Reapers now have 60 HP and heal when out of combat. Reapers now also no longer require a Tech Lab. The speed upgrade has been removed and the Reaper's base speed has been increased.
- Raven - Seeker Missile costs 75 energy and no longer needs to be researched.
- Siege Tanks - The siege mode upgrade no longer exists. All tanks are able to go into Siege Mode without any research.
- Hellion - Can morph into Hellbats once an Armory has been built and Transformation Servos has been researched.
- Medivac - Now possesses the Ignite Afterburners ability. This is an energy-free ability with an 8 second duration and a 20-second cooldown. It increases the Medivac's movement speed by 70% while active.
- Ship & Vehicle Armor - Now a single upgrade benefits both types.
- Thor - The cannon ability has been replaced with High Impact Payload, a new anti-air attack. This ability is free to use and takes 4 seconds to activate. Once activated, the Thor's anti-air attack is replaced with a more powerful anti-air attack that does not deal splash damage and does not deal bonus damage to light units. It allows the Thor to be effective versus armored and massive air units. Thors no longer have energy. Thors can freely switch back and forth between Explosive Payload (their original anti-air attack) and High Impact Payload at any time. The transition takes 4 seconds.
Zerg Heart of the Swarm Changes
Full article: Zerg Changes in Heart of the Swarm
In addition to the new units available to the Zerg in Heart of the Swarm, there are some new upgrades and general buffs to the Zerg race in Heart of the Swarm. Here is the list:
Starcraft Ii Heart Of The Swarm Guide 5e
- Burrow - Burrow can now be upgraded at the Hatchery and no longer requires Lair technology.
- Spore Crawler - No longer requires an Evolution Chamber.
- Hydralisk - Now have an upgrade at the Hydralisk Den which allows the Hydralisk to move 25% faster when not on creep. Note that this does not boost on-creep movement speed, whereas Zergling speed boosts the Zergling's speed on and off the creep.
Heart Of The Swarm Free
- Mutalisks - Mutalisks now heal quickly. They gain back about 1 HP per second, both in and out of combat. Mutalisks also now move slightly faster, up to a movement speed of 4 from 3.75.
- Infestor - Fungal Growth has been re-worked. It is no longer instant cast, but is a fast moving projectile. This makes it a bit harder to land, especially if you are using it in several spots at once. Fungal Growth's range is now slightly longer though. Its duration has dropped from 8 seconds to 4 seconds, but it now does 30 damage over 4 seconds, increasing its DPS noticeably. This also cuts the root duration in half, causing players to consider the changes an overall nerf.
- Ultralisk - Now deals 35 damage per swing to all unit types. In Wings of Liberty, Ultralisks dealt 15 damage per swing to light units and 35 damage per swing to armored units. This is a huge buff for Ultralisk damage versus light units like Marines, Zerglings, Zealots, and Hellbats.
- Overlord - Pneumatized Carapace (fast Overlord speed) is now available at Hatchery tech.
Heart of the Swarm Campaign Guide
Our Heart of the Swarm Campaign guide is now complete. It includes text and video walkthroughs for all the missions on brutal mode as well as their associated achievements. Guides are also added that cover the Evolution Pit as well as the best Kerrigan builds and abilities.
HotS Campaign Differences vs Wings of Liberty Descargar imazing heic converter.
The Heart of the Swarm campaign shows a surprising amount of evolution (yes, I went there, and I will not apologize) from the Wings of Liberty campaign. The two major differences are Kerrigan and the introduction of boss battles.
You get to control Kerrigan (or one of several other heroes) in practically every mission. Kerrigan is a really powerful hero unit, and with each passing mission, she gets stronger and stronger. Most of the timed achievements as well as brutal mode missions depend a lot less on your unit choices but rather your ability to control Kerrigan.
While you did fight some hero units in the Wings of Liberty campaign, the main advancement in Heart of the Swarm is the introduction of true boss battles. There are a variety of bosses in HotS that have very high HP and a host of unique abilities and mechanics. These fights are much more like an action game than they are real time strategy (RTS) game and can be quite intense.
The HotS campaign is noticeably easier than the Wings of Liberty campaign. The Heart of the Swarm campaign has added an extra easy achievement to each mission, moving the tougher achievements over to a new 'Mastery' category. For some reason, mastery achievements are not shown on the mission summary card at the end of a mission, so be sure to check in-game in the achievements tab if you are interested in unlocking those achievements.
HotS Campaign Summary
There are 20 regular missions in the Heart of the Swarm campaign. Unlike the Wings of Liberty campaign, there are no instances where you have to choose between one mission or another (i.e. Haven's Fall versus Safe Haven in WoL).
Additionally, there are also 7 evolution missions. These are short missions where you permanently choose a new unit or evolution for an old unit. Once you complete the entire campaign, you can try out the other evolutions via the Master Archives. In the Evolution Pit, players can choose between small modifications and buffs to alter many of the core Zerg units. These mutations can be changed at any time.
Finally, there is a separate section for Kerrigan. As you complete missions and collect bonus levels, Kerrigan's level will increase. Collecting every bonus level and completing all relevant missions will yield a max Kerrigan level of 70. Based on her level, Kerrigan will unlock new abilities. You can change these any time between missions and it is often advisable to do so in order to match Kerrigan's skill set to the current mission.
Check Back For More Updates
While our Heart of the Swarm guide is now complete and fully covers all the new units as well as the campaign, I plan to continue to add HotS specific strategies to this guide over time. Check back regularly to get the latest info and most effective tactics!
Check out GamesBeat's StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm review here.
Welcome to GamesBeat's StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm guide. Below we'll lay out all of the abilities Kerrigan can unlock as well as the mutations and evolutions that are eventually available to her swarm.
A quick note before we start: While you'll probably collect plenty of achievements just through playing the campaign normally, don't sweat missing any on your first run. After you've beaten it, you will unlock the Master Archives, where you can replay any mission on any difficulty with optimized abilities and units. It's kind of like a New Game+. Kind of.
Since you can freely switch mutations and abilities between missions, I won't really go into those much. But since evolution choices are permanent, I'll give some quick insight into what I chose and how that worked out for me. Feel free to share your own thoughts and strategies in the comments below.
Mutations
Buy Heart Of The Swarm
Each Zerg unit has three different mutations. You can switch mutations anytime between missions. Sadly, you won't really know what you need until you're in the mission. Perhaps in the upcoming Legacy of the Void expansion, the Protoss will have some sort of intelligence-gathering capability that tells the player what to expect on the battlefield. Elder scrolls v online gameplay.
Zergling
- Adrenal Overload: +50% attack speed.
- Hardened Carapace: Gain an additional 10 HP.
- Metabolic Boost: +60% movement speed.
Baneling
- Corrosive Acid: Increase damage to primary target by 100%
- Regenerative Acid: Heals nearby friendly units and structures.
- Rupture: Increase splash damage area by 50%.
Roach
- Adaptive Plating: Gain +3 armor when life falls below 50%
- Hydriodic Bile: Gain +8 damage vs. light units.
- Tunneling Claws: Move at full speed when burrowed, and gain 100% life regen rate.
Hydralisk
- Ancillary Carapace: Gain +20 HP.
- Frenzy: Gain +50% attack speed for 15 seconds, with 30 second cool down.
- Grooved Spines: Gain +1 attack range.
Mutalisk
- Vicious Glave: Attacks deal increased damage and travel further, bouncing three more times for up to six targets.
- Rapid Regeneration: Regenerates 10 life per second while out of combat after a minimum of 5 seconds.
- Sundering Glave: Gains +9 damage vs. armored targets (an increase of 100%), but attacks no longer bounce to additional targets.
Swarm Host
- Burrow: Swarm Hosts can now burrow into the ground, preventing them from being seen by enemies without detection while still being able to spawn Locusts.
- Rapid Incubation: Locusts spawn 20% faster.
- Pressurized Glands: Locusts can attack both ground and air units.
Ultralisk
- Burrow Charge: Ultralisk burrows and charges toward a unit; when it erupts from the ground, all nearby enemy units are knocked back and stunned for 2 seconds.
- Tissue Assimilation: Gain life equal to 40% of all damage dealt from normal attacks.
- Pressurized Glands: Gains +20 splash damage (an increase of 400%), dealing equal damage to both primary and secondary targets now.
Evolutions
Through special Evolution Missions, you can eventually evolve each type of Zerg unit. Unlike mutations, however, an evolution choice is irreversible, meaning whatever evolution you don't pick is permanently disabled. Note that while replaying the game via the Master Archives you can choose between evolutions as if they were mutations.
Zergling
- Raptor Strains: Gains the ability to jump up and down cliffs, leap over obstacles and onto targets from range, and gains +2 damage (40% increase).
- Swarm Strains: Spawn 3 Zerglings per egg, and their spawn speed near instant.
Cliffs don't really play into the campaign that much, so there's little need for the Raptorlings. However, combining the Swarm Strain evolution with Kerrigan's Zergling Reconstitution ability means you can always have a massive Zerg army available on the cheap.
Baneling
- Splitter Strain: Banelings split into smaller Banelings upon detonation, each smaller Baneling does 5 damage.
- Hunter Strain: Banelings gain the ability to jump up and down cliffs as well as leap toward opponents.
The Splitters deal very little damage, and while it does add up, the Hunter Strain's ability to close in on enemies more quickly means they're less likely to get gunned down on the way to their target.
Roach
- Corpser Strain: Enemies damaged by the Roach will spawn two Roachlings if killed quickly.
- Vile Strain: Attacks slow enemy movement and attack speeds by 75% (20% for heroes).
The Roachlings are incredibly weak, so sacrificing them in order to slow enemies down to a crawl is not really a choice at all. The Vile Strain is extremely useful against powerful enemies, especially when you brought the wrong units to the fight.
Hydralisk
- Impaler Strain: Can morph into an Impaler, which attacks units from a distance while burrowed. Especially effective against armored units.
- Lurker Strain: Can morph into a Lurker, which attacks multiple enemies in a line while burrowed. Effective against light ground units.
By the time you can evolve the Hydralisk, light ground units aren't much of a problem. However, using the Impaler, you can pretty much take out most enemy outposts or even bases by burrowing out of range and slowly working your way in, impaling all units and structures. They won't even fight back since they can't see you. Just be mindful of certain scout units and towers as they have detection capabilities.
Mutalisk
- Brood Lord Strain: Can morph into a Brood Lord, which besieges ground targets from long range with spawned Broodlings.
- Viper Strain: Can morph into a Viper, which can pull distant units close, slow enemy ground units and prevent them from attacking for several seconds, or drain life from allied units to restore its own energy. Also enables air-to-air combat.
The Brood Lords are very effective at overwhelming enemies and structures from a distance, but the Vipers have two extremely useful abilities. They can pull enemy units (like tanks in siege mode) off of cliffs or away from bases so that you can gang up on them, and they can poison an area, causing any units to slow down and stop attacking for 10 seconds. This was a hard choice, but I eventually went with Brood Lords just because they complement my Swarm Hosts.
Swarm Host
- Carrion Strain: Spawns flying Locusts that can attack ground targets. Flying Locusts are faster and deal 50% more damage than regular Locusts, but have 25% less life.
- Creeper Strain: Swarm Host generates creep while burrowed or rooted. Enables Deep Tunnel ability to quickly travel to any location with creep.
The Creeper Strain's creep generation passive ability enables you to easily place creep anywhere rather than slowly trying to spread it with a Creep Tumor. While the flying Locusts from the Carrion Strain can defeat enemies more quickly, Deep Tunneling a giant group of Swarm Hosts to and from your base as needed becomes a lifesaver in the later levels. A common strategy I used was to send a bunch of Zerglings into a base to draw fire and then plant a Swarm Host in the middle of the base to generate creep. This allowed me to instantly warp dozens of Swarm Hosts from the safety of my own base to the target area and quickly overwhelm it.
Ultralisk
- Noxious Strain: Emits Noxious Cloud that deals 5 damage per second to nearby enemy ground units. Toxic Blast ability deals 20 damage to enemy ground units and structures.
- Torrasque Strain: When killed, enters a Chrysalis for a short period before resurrecting with full health. Rebirth cooldown is 60 seconds.
While the Noxious Strain definitely makes the Ultralisk even more destructive, you just can't deny the value in resurrecting these units. They're extremely expensive and take time to make, so having a dead one come back to life on the frontline is the obvious choice. Combine that with the Tissue Assimilation ability and Ultralisks last for a very long time.
Kerrigan
As Kerrigan gains levels, you unlock new ability tiers. Each tier has two abilities (with a third ability set being unlocked halfway through the campaign), and you can choose between them between missions. Note that leveling Kerrigan to 70 does not unlock any new abilities, only an achievement.
Click here to see the fully unlocked Ability screen at level 70 (mild spoilers).
Tier 1: Level 0
- Kinetic Blast: Kerrigan deals 300 damage to a target unit or structure from long range.
- Heroic Fortitude: Kerrigan gains +200 maximum life. Life regeneration rate increased by 100%.
- Leaping Strike: Kerrigan leaps to her target and deals 150 damage to it. Can be used without a target to travel quickly. Kerrigan also gains a passive +10 damage increase, but attack range is reduced by 3.
Tier 2: Level 0
- Crushing Grip: Enemies in target area are stunned for 3 seconds and take 30 damage over time.
- Chain Reaction: Kerrigan's attacks deal normal damage to her target and then jump to additional nearby enemies. Deals 10 damage to up to four secondary targets.
- Psionic Shift: Kerrigan dashes through enemies dealing 50 damage to any in her path. Overall movement speed is also increased by 30%.
Tier 3: Level 10
- Zergling Reconstitution: Killed Zerglings respawn from your primary Hatchery at no cost. Respawns up to 10 Zerglings every 30 seconds until all Zerglings have returned to life.
- Improved Overlords: Overlords morph instantly and provide 50% more supply.
- Automated Extractors: Extractors automatically extract vespene gas without Drones.
Tier 4: Level 20
- Wild Mutation: Friendly Zerg units in the target area gain +200 maximum life and 100% increased attack speed for 10 seconds. Does not affect heroic units.
- Spawn Banelings: Kerrigan spawns six Banelings with timed life.
- Mend: Heals Kerrigan for 150 life and friendly biological units nearby for 50 life. An additional 50% of the amounted healed regenerates over 15 seconds.
Tier 5: Level 35
- Twin Drones: Drones morph in groups of two at no additional cost.
- Malignant Creep: Your units and structures gain increased life regeneration and 30% increased attack speed on creep. Creep Tumors spread creep faster and farther.
- Vespene Efficiency: Vespene gas harvesting efficiency increased by 25%.
Tier 6: Level – 50
- Infest Broodlings: Enemies damaged by Kerrigan become infested and spawn two Broodlings with timed life if killed quickly.
- Fury: Each attack temporarily increases Kerrigan's attack speed by 15%. Can stack up to 75%.
- Ability Efficiency: Kerrigan's abilities have their cooldown and energy cost reduced by 20%.
Tier 7: Level 60*
- Apocalypse: Deals 300 damage to enemy units and 700 damage to enemy structures in a large area.
- Spawn Leviathan: Summons a mighty flying Leviathan with timed life that deals massive damage to ground and air units and has energy-based abilities.
- Drop-Pods: Delivers 40 Primal Zerglings, 5 Primal Roaches, and 5 Primal Hydralisks with timed life to the battlefield.
*Note that all Tier 7 abilities cost 100 energy and start on a cooldown, meaning you have to wait 5 minutes to use them (or 4 minutes with Ability Efficiency).
