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Burrowed zerg

Burrowing is a ground unit ability in StarCraft and StarCraft II, predominantly used by the zerg.

Overview[]

Burrowing is a zerg ability used to conceal themselves underground. Ground breeds vibrate billions of tiny muscles at a low frequency; this breaks up earth, rock, and vegetation allowing the creature to "swim" through the ground at near running speeds.[1] This ability has led to the deaths of countless terran soldiers. However, the terrans were able to mimic this lethality with the perdition turret, which retracts automatically, when not in combat.[2]

Game Effect[]

StarCraft[]

Lurker SC1 Art1

Lurkers in Brood War can only attack when burrowed

The majority of zerg ground units can burrow in StarCraft, the ultralisk being a key exception. Unlike other units, lurkers may burrow without the ability being researched.

Burrow SC1 Able1
Burrow

Many zerg ground units may burrow, rendering themselves invisible but incapable of moving or attacking.

Usage
Hotkey U
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey B
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 80seconds
Burrowed Attack

Lurkers may burrow even if the ability has not been researched. Lurkers may attack only when burrowed.

Gives each vulture three spider mines. Vultures cannot replenish their supply of mines once expended. New mines may only be created with new vultures.

Mines burrow where deployed and are not player-controllable. Each mine causes 125 damage and has 20 hit points. Mines do not benefit from any upgrades. Air and hovering ground units do not activate mines. Mines can sense and attack nearby cloaked ground units such as ghosts or dark templar even without the aid of a detector. They will not, however, reveal cloaked enemy units. It is possible for ranged units to pick out the mines before being hit.

Usage
Hotkey I
Range 3
Acquisition
Purchased from Machine shop
Hotkey M
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 80seconds
ve

StarCraft II[]

Terrans[]

In StarCraft II, the supply depot has a burrowing ability, allowing it to sink into the ground so that units can pass over it. However, this ability does not prevent it from being seen.

SC2 Supply Depot Lower-Raise icon
Lower/Raise Supply Depot

Lowers the structure into the ground so ground units may pass over it. The structure may be raised back to block pathing. Friendly units standing on the structure are pushed toward the nearest edge when the structure is raised. Enemy units standing on top prevent the structure from being raised.

The structure's attributes, other than blocking movement, are not changed when it is lowered.

Usage
Hotkey R
Cost 1 seconds
ve
DrillingClaws SC2-HotS Icon
Drilling Claws

Reduces the time Activate Mine takes to burrow and unburrow the widow mine from 3 seconds to 1.07 seconds.

Acquisition
Purchased from Tech lab attached to factory
Hotkey C
Cost 75 Minerals 75 Vespene gas 79seconds
Required Armory
ve

Unlocks the perdition turret for production.[1]

This turret fires a deadly wall of flame that is ideal for holding off large waves of enemy units. The turret also conceals itself beneath the ground when out of combat, luring unsuspecting enemies into its field of fire. The zerg's ability to burrow has allowed them to massacre countless terran soldiers in deadly ambushes. The new perdition turret should help even the score.

Campaign Acquisition
Acquired from Hyperion laboratory for 10 zerg research points
ve

Spider Mines pursue enemy units that come in range, and detonate for heavy area damage. Buried Spider Mines can only be seen by enemy Detectors.

Usage
Hotkey E
Notes

Each Vulture stores up 3 charges.

ve

Zerg[]

Hydralisk sc2 burrowanim

A hydralisk burrowing

When zerg units burrow in StarCraft II, the player controlling them can see part of them "sticking out of the ground," making it easier to identify them. However, they remain invisible to enemy units without detection.

Burrowed units are treated as a different unit type for UI tab selection purposes, unlike some other status effects.

Roaches and infestors can move while burrowed. Moving while burrowed produces a distortion similar to cloaking. Infestors can also spawn infested marines while burrowed. Ultralisks gained the ability to burrow. In the Heart of the Swarm campaign, lurkers and impalers can attack while only burrowed.

Some critters can also burrow, like the lava crab.[3]

Many zerg ground units may burrow, becoming invisible and revealed primarily by detectors, and may not move or attack while burrowed.

Exceptions include:

  • Roach, which may move while burrowed
  • Lurker, which may attack while burrowed
  • Infestor, which may move while burrowed
  • Baneling, which can detonate while burrowed.

Some units can unburrow via autocast, causing them to emerge and attack when an enemy moves into range.

The ability is not smartcast.

Usage
Hotkey R
Cost 2 seconds to burrow, 1 second to unburrow seconds
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey B
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 71seconds
Required Lair (WoL)
Hatchery (HotS/LotV)
ve
Burrowed Attack

Lurkers may attack only when burrowed.[4]

Does not require Burrow to be researched.

ve

This unit or structure can detect cloaked, burrowed, duplicated and hallucination enemies.

ve

Development[]

The following section contains information from a previous version of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm which is no longer valid.

During the development of Heart of the Swarm, banelings gained a hive upgrade that allowed them to move while burrowed, and Ultralisks gained an ability that allowed them dash underground into the heart of enemy forces.[5]

The Patch 4.7.1 Balance Update in Legacy of the Void split Burrow and Unburrow into two separate buttons and changed Burrow's hotkey from R to D. Burrowed and unburrowed zerg are now on the same tab-select, and both are selected when double-clicking on units. Zerglings and hydralisks had their Unburrow speed decreased from 0.71 to 0.36 and random delay from 0.36 to 0.08. Infestors can also move through units while burrowed.

Notes[]

The visual effects of burrowing are limited as more fancy animations would take more time and thus lead to balance issues.[6]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Zerg research (in English). 2010.
  2. Perdition turret.
  3. StarCraftLegacy. 09/08/12. (HD) StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty Single Player Gameplay Demo. Youtube.com Last Accessed: 09/08/18.
  4. Burnes, Andrew. 2008-03-10. StarCraft 2 - Zerg Attack: New Screenshots, Unit Images & Unit Info! IGN.com Accessed 2008-03-10.
  5. LordBlackJack. 2011-10-20. Blizzcon 2011 : Zerg new units Starcraft 2 heart of the swarm. Youtube. Accessed 2011-11-08.
  6. 2010, SC2: Zerg Crawlers. Deviantart, accessed on 2011-07-01.
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