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The lair is the second major step in the evolution of zerg breeds, providing increased toughness and extended access to the stored genetic knowledge of the Overmind compared to the hatchery.[1]

Game Structure[]

StarCraft[]

The lair is responsible for producing larvae, maintaining the creep, digesting minerals\gas, and mutating the Burrow upgrade.

A lair can be mutated into a Hive.

Researched Abilities[]

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

Allows most zerg land units--all but the massive ultralisk and primitive broodling--to burrow into the ground, rendering them immobile and unable to attack, but also safe from enemy fire unless the enemy has a detector nearby. Applies to: Drone, zergling, hydralisk, defiler, infested terran

Usage
Hotkey U
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey B
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 80seconds
VentraSacs Icon SC1
Ventral Sacs

Allows overlords to transport units.

Usage
Hotkey V
Acquisition
Purchased from Lair/Hive
Hotkey V
Cost 200 Minerals 200 Vespene gas 160seconds

Researched Upgrades[]

Antennae SC1 Upgrd1
Antennae
Acquisition
Purchased from Lair OR Hive
Hotkey A
Cost 150 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 133seconds
PneumaCarapace Icon SC1
Pneumatized Carapace
Acquisition
Purchased from
Hotkey P
Cost 150 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 133seconds

Building Abilities[]

Hive SC1 icon
Mutate into Hive

Transforms a lair into a hive.

Usage
Hotkey H
Cost 200 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 120 seconds Lair
Acquisition
Required Queen's nest

StarCraft II[]

The lair reappears in StarCraft II. The lair can set two rally points, one ("Y") for most units and one ("G") for drones.

Each individual egg can be separately rallied; this overrides rally points set from the lair[2]

Researched Abilities[]

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
VentralSacs SC2 Game1
Ventral Sacs

The overlord can transport units.

This upgrade is removed in Legacy of the Void. Overlords must now be upgraded individually.

Acquisition
Purchased from Lair/Hive
Hotkey E
Cost 200 Minerals 200 Vespene gas 130seconds
ve

Researched Upgrades[]

PneumutizedCarapace SC2 Game1
Pneumatized Carapace

Increase speed of the overlord from 0.902 to 2.63, overlords with Ventral Sacs from 1.099 to 2.83, and the overseer 2.62 to 4.73.

Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery (with at least 1 other lair or hive)/Lair/Hive
Hotkey P
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 43seconds
ve

Building Abilities[]

SC2 Hive icon
Mutate into Hive

Transforms a lair into a hive.

Usage
Hotkey H
Cost 200 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 71 seconds Lair
Acquisition
Required Infestation pit
ve

Queen Abilities[]

SpawnLarvae SC2 Icon1
Spawn Larva

Queens can target a hatchery/lair/hive, causing it to eventually spawn four larvae. These join any already-present larvae. The larva-producing structure will not naturally produce any more larvae until the total falls below three. The larva count for any given hatchery/lair/hive cannot exceed nineteen, no matter how many times spawn larva is cast.

In Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, four larvae are spawned. In Legacy of the Void, three larvae are spawned,[3] and multiple casts can be queued on a single base.[4]

Usage
Hotkey V
Cost 25 Energy 29 seconds
Cooldown 1.8 seconds
ve

Co-op Missions[]

Kerrigan, Zagara and Abathur use the lair as their tier 2 primary structure to create larvae and generate creep. Kerrigan and Zagara can create Queens, after morphing a Spawning pool, and can immediately mutate the lair to a hive. Abathur create swarm queens instead of standard queens, with an upgrade to create two swarm queens simultaneously. However, he also requires an infestation pit to mutate the lair into a hive, more like the versus building compared to the other two commanders.

Stetmann use the mecha lair tier 2 primary structure which can build mecha larvae and generate an Egonergy field. After morphing a mecha infestation pit, he can mutate the mecha lair into a mecha hive.

Kerrigan Upgrades[]

PneumutizedCarapace SC2 Game1
Pneumatized Carapace

Increase speed of the overlord from 0.59 to 3.38 and the overseer from 1.88 to 3.38.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey P
Cost 50 Minerals 50 Vespene gas 60seconds
Mastery: -1 Minerals -1 ZergVespene SC2 Game1 -1.2seconds per Expeditious Evolutions mastery point. Down to a maximum 20 Minerals 20 ZergVespene SC2 Game1 24seconds
ve
VentralSacs SC2 Game1
Ventral Sacs

Allows overlords to transport units.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey E
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
Mastery: -2 Minerals -2 ZergVespene SC2 Game1 -1.2seconds per Expeditious Evolutions mastery point. Down to a maximum 40 Minerals 40 ZergVespene SC2 Game1 24seconds
Required Lair/Hive
ve
SC2 Hive icon
Mutate into Hive

Transforms a lair into a hive.

Usage
Hotkey L
Acquisition
Cost 200 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 60seconds
ve

Zagara Upgrades[]

PneumutizedCarapace SC2 Game1
Pneumatized Carapace

Increase speed of the overlord from 0.59 to 3.38 and the overseer from 1.88 to 3.38.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey P
Cost 50 Minerals 50 Vespene gas 60seconds
ve
VentralSacs SC2 Game1
Ventral Sacs

Allows overlords to transport units.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey E
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
Required Lair/Hive
ve
SC2 Hive icon
Mutate into Hive

Transforms a lair into a hive.

Usage
Hotkey L
Acquisition
Cost 200 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 60seconds
ve

Abathur Upgrades[]

PneumutizedCarapace SC2 Game1
Pneumatized Carapace

Increase speed of the overlord from 0.59 to 3.38 and the overseer from 1.88 to 3.38.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey P
Cost 50 Minerals 50 Vespene gas 60seconds
Mastery: -1.2seconds per Structure Morph and Evolution Rate mastery point. Down to a maximum 24seconds
ve
VentralSacs SC2 Game1
Ventral Sacs

Allows overlords to transport units.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Hatchery/Lair/Hive
Hotkey E
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
Mastery: -1.2seconds per Structure Morph and Evolution Rate mastery point. Down to a maximum 24seconds
Required Lair/Hive
ve
IncubationChamber SC2 Icon1
Incubation Chamber

Allows hatcheries, lairs, and hives to mutate two swarm queens at once.

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Abathur Level 6
Acquisition
Purchased from Evolution chamber
Hotkey I
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
Mastery: -1.2seconds per Structure Morph and Evolution Rate mastery point. Down to a maximum 24seconds
Required Lair/Hive
ve
SC2 Hive icon
Mutate into Hive

Transforms a lair into a hive.

Usage
Hotkey L
Acquisition
Cost 200 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 60seconds
Mastery: -1.2seconds per Structure Morph and Evolution Rate mastery point. Down to a maximum 24seconds
Required Infestation pit
ve

Development[]

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

The queen breathes out a giant cloud of dusts and insects which can be controlled. They deal damage to enemy units, including air units, and extra damage to biological units, without injuring friendly units. The swarm eventually exhausts itself.

Acquisition
Purchased from Lair
ve

Achievements[]

ItsMorphingTime SC2 Icon1 It's Morphing Time
Points

10 Achievement SC2 Game1

Criteria

Mutate a lair during the first 285 seconds of a Melee game.

Notes

Evolve an extractor and extract gas as soon as possible.

Edit

Images[]

References[]

  1. Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif. Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.
  2. "for zerg is it the same that the hatchery sets the rally, or can you rally for each individual egg?"

    You can do both. You can set a rally for your hatchery, but can then override it with manual orders per egg as well. Also don't forget, you can set a worker rally point for your hatchery, as well as a unit rally point.
    Karune, Rancid_death75. Another rally question for Kaurne! Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-18.
  3. 2015-09-03, Legacy of the Void Beta Balance Update -- September 3, 2015. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2015-09-09
  4. 2015-09-17, Legacy of the Void Beta Balance Update -- September 17, 2015. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2015-09-30
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