Hydralisk

"The only good hydralisk is one charred to a smoldering crisp."

- Annual Hydralisk Derby slogan.

The hydralisk is the zerg basic front-line creature, forming the backbone of their onslaughts with its resistant carapace and ranged spine attack.

Overview
The hydralisk is a zerg evolution of the slothien. While slothiens were peaceful herbivores, the hydralisk is noted as being one of the most fierce and sadistic of the zerg strains. The average hydralisk is 5.4m long and weighs 390 kg. Since hydralisks move relatively slowly over open terrain, it is common for hydralisks to burrow and await their prey to enter killing range before attacking, destroying their enemies in a deadly crossfire. Despite their relatively sluggish nature, hydralisks can climb vertical surfaces and continued evolution of the strain through muscular augmentation has resulted in faster hydralisks.

History
Prior to the beginning of the Brood War, hydralisks gained the ability to mutate into lurkers.

The first recorded encounter between terrans and hydralisks was aboard a cargo vessel. The hydralisk was recorded by the derelict ship's security cameras. Since then, hydralisks have established themselves in terran culture to a notable extent. Sometimes colloquially called "hydras," hydralisk skulls have been mounted akin to trophies in Joeyray's Bar and on an ore loader on Sorona. The Annual Hydralisk Derby has also become an established event. Current terran tactics for dealing with the creatures stress the need for siege tank support.

Attacks
Hydralisks may attack directly with scythe-like arms or, more commonly, strike from a distance with volleys of armor-piercing spines. Hundreds of spines are stored in the upper carapace plates and covered by flaps. The flaps fold back before the spines fire, a process which gives a few seconds warning to an impending volley.

The hydralisk has 4,000 muscles, compared to a terran's 629, and a portion of these may be used to launch the spines with enough force to penetrate 2 cm. of neosteel. The spines were evolved from the slothien's defensive urticating (stinging) hairs; they may be "grooved" for increased range and are slightly poisonous.

StarCraft
Hydralisks have a single ranged attack, unlike in the cinematic where they may melee attack. They are the only zerg ground unit able to hit air targets, making them one of the most important zerg units in the whole game. Hydralisk dens are required to spawn them from larvae.

Hydralisks are cheap enough to be mass produced in a short period of time. Although hydralisks can deal huge damage in large groups, there are numerous counters; terrans benefit from large numbers of s, and s paired with medics. Protoss can effectively counter mass hydralisks with reavers with ground support and high templar using Psionic Storm. In competitive StarCraft, hydralisks are most often used against the protoss race (e.g. the 3 hatch hydra opening) because it is an effective counter to many protoss units despite the easy counters against them. This is especially true if the zerg player is skilled at micromanaging his hydralisks. Against terrans, hydralisks do not see much usage because professional players are too skilled with their marines, medics, and siege tanks which are also natural counters to the hydralisk. In zerg vs zerg competitive play, hydralisks are virtually unseen as are most zerg units because the game is usually dominated by zerglings and mutalisks.

StarCraft: Ghost


Hydralisks are featured as a player unit in StarCraft: Ghost, in addition to acting as enemies. Hydralisks maintain their StarCraft abilities but also gain a powerful claw attack. Their poison quills attack interferes with terran vision. They move more slowly than zerglings.

In Invasion mode, transforming a zergling into a hydralisk costs one point.

StarCraft II

 * For StarCraft II gameplay information see: Hydralisk (StarCraft II)

Other Appearances

 * Main article: Hydralisk (Warcraft III)

The hydralisk appears as an Easter egg unit in Warcraft III and its expansion, The Frozen Throne.

Special Hydralisk Strains and Characters

 * Frayne the Feral
 * Hunter Killer
 * Specimen 16G
 * Zergrinch Warg

Images

 * See: the image gallery.