Queen (StarCraft II)

The queen (a.k.a. "brood queen"). is a zerg support unit that appears in StarCraft II. Despite a shared name, it is a vastly different unit from its predecessor, most notably in that it no longer flies.

Overview
This breed of queen came into use after the Brood War, observed as early as 2502. Abathur altered the essence of an older breed of queen, and ultimately from the Arachnis brood-keeper, suppressing their flight in order to improve their ability to care of the Hive.

Queens are sapient beings. The queen's brain is encased in an armored skull, and connected to a set of nerve cords that bear resemblance to those possessed by protoss. The queen's brain gives it great mental capabilities, but these queens have severe limits to their mental flexibility (unlike broodmothers), and have limited independent thought and analysis. They are tougher than their predecessors, and play a limited command role in nurturing zerg nest sites. In leadership roles, they oversee hives and easily coordinate lesser strains. Queens can evolve and grow through experience, and can analyze and relay any tactical data fed to them by overlords.

The new morphology of these queens hints at the incorporation of terran or protoss DNA, or perhaps even the zerg-altered genes of the Queen of Blades herself. Such evolution implies a widespread change occurred within the zerg hierarchy, a redistribution of power making them more difficult to combat. The egg-laying abilities of the Arachnis brood-keeper have been revised and altered for these queens to allow them to produce living globs of tissue, which adhere to creep and accelerate its growth. These queens also produce a thick, protein-based substance that stimulates cellular growth, which they are able to expel in liquid form. When a queen covers the wounds of a zerg organism (structural or otherwise) with this reddish fluid, the damaged tissue regenerates in a matter of seconds. Conversely, if the fluid is combined with a catalyst secreted by a gland located on the queen's neck (which gives it a sickly green coloration), and forcefully injects it into a hatchery, larvae will be incubated more rapidly.

Like all ground-based zerg strains, queens move faster across creep than normal ground. However, their legs are designed so that their movement is impaired when crossing non-creep covered areas. Dominion scientists have speculated that this is to keep more intelligent queens within the vicinity of a hive and reduce the incentive for them to wander off on their own. Queens have the advanced ability to manipulate their "offspring"; for instance, by 2503, they engineered the zergling morph to the baneling, a breed that can contain its explosive energies until just the right moment. They have also been tasked with the spawning of numerous cocoons and can lob projectiles at their enemies.

Game Unit
The queen is now a ground unit with an attack consisting of spines launched by the "wings" on its back.

In the June 2012 build of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the queen had small changes in its appearance, making her similar to the broodmother.

Queens are strong against hellions, s, and void rays, but are weak against s, s, and s.

A 1:1 ratio of queens to hatcheries will allow the hatcheries to continually produce additional larvae assuming perfect timing of inject larva, though the queen would not be able to generate an energy surplus for other abilities in such a case.

Building excess queens in lieu of or in conjunction with ground units and spine crawlers is a frequent early defense option due to the queen's ability to block small ramps, attack air units, heal with transfusion and later spread creep tumors or relocate to an expansion for larva injection in the mid-game. In addition the queen's lack of an armor type means that few units deal bonus damage to the queen, making her an excellent all-around tanking unit.

The queen's movement speed bonus from creep is much larger than other zerg units, making it especially slow when off of creep, but is fairly quick when on creep.

Blizzard considers Spawn Larva to be harder to use than other race-specific macro mechanics, but believes this balances the easier unit production management.

Production
The queen emerges directly from the hatchery (meaning it is not morphed from a larva but walks out of the hatchery) and requires a spawning pool. You cannot set a rally point for your queen, they always spawn directly next to the hatchery in available space.

Achievements and Rewards
The queen portrait is unlocked when earning the Solo Zerg 250 achievement.

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Queen Variants

 * Broodmother (sapient brood leader)
 * Char queen (unique)
 * Larval queen (cut content)
 * Swarm queen