GameSpot's Guide to Starcraft

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The Zerg Swarm - Units and Structures

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STARCRAFT
  Race Overview
    Terran
    Zerg Units
    Zerg Structures
      Basic
      Advanced
    Protoss
  General Strategies
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  Contents

Go to GameSpot's Guide to Broodwar

Drone

Strengths:
Inexpensive; can morph into buildings; can burrow
Weaknesses:
Easily killed; virtually defenseless; lost after transformation
The semisentient Drone is the workhorse of the Zerg Overmind and is intimately involved in expanding Zerg territory and maintaining Zerg economy. Drones harvest minerals and collect Vespene Gas. Try and maintain a ratio of two Drones per mineral patch to generate mineral resources as quickly as possible. In most cases, you will need no more than four Drones collecting Vespene Gas, since only one Drone may reside within an Extractor at any given time.

Designation Drone
Hit Points/Size 40/small
Time to Build 20
Cost (minerals/Vespene Gas/control) 50/0/1
Weapon/Strength Spines 5, +0 per upgrade
Armor/Strength Zerg Carapace 0, +1 per upgrade
Special Options Burrow

Drones may also morph themselves into any type of Zerg structure at will. This is at once a testament to the Zerg race's resilience and adaptability and something of a nuisance. Namely, each Drone that morphs into a structure is one fewer Drone collecting resources. You must take this into account in establishing your military presence and understand that it effectively increases the cost of each Zerg structure by 50 minerals.

Drones are next to defenseless, but if you research the ability to burrow, they can escape underground in the event of attack. Should your enemy make an attempt to attack your Drones harvesting resources and you are unable to defend immediately, try burrowing your Drones out of sight then surfacing them once the danger abates.