Mutalisk

A Mutalisk is a airborne Zerg breed.



Mutalisks have a long body and tend to fly with their tails curved forward in an elongated L-shape. Their wings sprout from their back. A group of mutalisks is often referred to as a 'scream' of mutalisks.

Mutalisks move through air or vacuum quite quickly and possess a unique "Glaive Wurm" (also spelled Glave Wurm) attack: these symbiotes, fired from the tail, will bounce off an initial target and strike two more explosively before disappearing, each time doing successively less damage. Before upgrades, they inflict 9, 3, and 1 damage, respectively.

History
Mutalisks are a modified form of the Mantis Screamer from the desolate Dinares Sector. It was capable of space travel even before it was absorbed into the Zerg Swarm. The Mantis Screamer Hive structure was incorporated into the Swarm and is christened as the Spire, and as with all non-Hatchery structures, it is incapable of actually producing Mutalisks.

Previous Versions
The original version of the Mutalisk used an acid attack rather than a Glaive Wurm. This creature can be seen in the ending video of StarCraft Episode III.

Transformations
If the Spire is upgraded to a Greater Spire, the Mutalisk can morph into a Guardian, a dedicated long-range bomber; which is descended from the nesting form of the original Mantis Screamer.

In StarCraft: Brood War, the Mutalisk can turn into a Devourer, which excels at countering enemy air units. The Devourer was specifically bred by the Zerg.

A Devourer is a poweful counter-air unit added to the Zerg race by the expansion pack of StarCraft: Brood War to the game of StarCraft. Devourers are large, slower flying units than Mutalisks. They spew vile acid at any enemy airborne ships or creatures, causing damage to the enemy unit being attacked, while splashing acid spores to that specific unit and enemy units immediately adjacent to the unit being attacked. The acid spores attach to the enemy units, slowing down their attack speed, and revealing invisible units to the enemy. Acid Spores can be stacked up to 9 times, each added spore increasing the delay for each attack. Acid Spores will eventually disappear overtime.

Building Requirements
Building Devourers requires a Greater Spire and each Devourer take 150 mineral and 50 gas to morph from a Mutalisk. To build a devourer, the player would first need to select a Larva and morph it into a Mutalisk. The player can then select the Mutalisk and morph it into a Devourer.

Gameplay Strategy
Devourers are highly effective against all air units when used in combination with Mutalisks. The venom they spew upon their opponents leaves them covered with acid spores, which increases the damage other units inflict on them and reduces their attack rate.

Against Wraiths, Devourers are good companions to counter Wraith attacks from Terrans because cloaked Wraiths can be seen and is slowed when attacked by Devourers' venom.

Against Valkyries and/or Corsairs, Devourers are life savers to mutalisks against Valkyries and Corsairs thanks to their ability to slow attacking units. Valkyries and Corsairs are normally deadly against Mutalisks because of Mutalisks' lower hitpoints; however, when mutalisks are used in combination with even just two or three devourers, they are able to not only hold their own, but also become serious threats to even larger spacecraft such as Battlecruisers or Protoss Carriers.

Gameplay
In gameplay terms, Mutalisks cost 100 minerals and 100 Vespene gas to create, as well as two Control. The player must also control a Spire to hatch Mutalisks.

The Mutalisk is a versatile unit used both for hit-and-run attacks and full-on assaults. Because of its small size, it deals well with explosive damage (which is decreasingly effective against smaller units).

Because of its speed, multi-hit attack and relavitely low position on the tech tree, the Mutalisk itself is often used to harass enemy resource gatherers in an effort to bring the enemy quickly to their knees by depriving them of vital resources or to force the opponent to react to the Mutalisks rather than attack the enemy base.

The greatest weakness as well as strength of Mutalisk is its ability to stack one Mutalisk on top of another. They are very useful in focus fire and sniping out High Templar and so forth, while damage from Corsairs or psi storms will do devastating damage.