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The 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
The queen
The queens of the post-Brood War era are quite different from their predecessors.
Queens play a limited command role in nurturing hive clusters. They appear to have incorporated either Infested Kerrigan's DNA, or that of terrans or even protoss, hinting at a species-wide change amongst the zerg.[1]
History
During the Fall of Tarsonis, a queen resembling the modern breed attacked Starry Lace, a terran entertainer, infecting her with a strange parasite. It could control her to some extent, and was undetectable by terran sensors as late as 2503.[2]
At Shi, the fourth planet of the Baker's Dozen, a mysterious terran ship released a drop pod containing a single zerg drone in an effort to wipe out the remnants of the Old Families. A queen was spawned among the forces. It captured a terran security guard named Jakk, transforming him into a seemingly mindless infested terran.[3]
Queens have the advanced ability to manipulate their "offspring"; for instance, they engineered the zergling morph to the baneling, a breed that can contain its explosive energies until just the right moment.[4]
During the Second Great War, a queen participated in the Battle of Char, defending the giant nydus network beneath Char. It was controlling the spawning of numerous cocoons.[5]
The only queen observed during the early part of the Second Great War, it was attacked by Raynor's Raiders. It popped eggs in order to release a variety of troops, but was eventually killed by the Raiders.[5]
Game Unit
The queen is now a ground unit with an attack consisting of spines launched by the "wings" on its back.
Queens are strong against hellions, mutalisks, void rays, and phoenixes (in numbers), but are weak against marines, zerglings, and zealots.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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The queen forces a creep tumor out of her bowels.[6]
Alternatively, each creep tumor may create a single additional creep tumor, using the same build time but no energy cost. This changes the tumor's appearance.
Creep tumors can only be created upon the creep, and within a range.
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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,[7] and multiple casts can be queued on a single base.[8]
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A hatchery spawning extra larvae
The queen instantly restores 75 hit points to target biological unit or structure, plus an additional 50 health over the next 7.14 seconds. Can only be used while on creep.
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Upgrades
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Development
Known Queens
Images
Notes
Queens have demonstrated the ability to speak in-game as the zerg adviser[9] and are "voiced" by Nika Futterman.[10] The actual units, however, only let out shrieks.
References
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment staff. 2010-07-24. Units: Queen. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2010-07-24.
- ↑ Randolph, Grace (w), Seung-hui Kye (p, i). "Last Call." In StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 3 (paperback binding), pp. 90-131. Tokyopop, July 14, 2009. ISBN 978-1427-80832-5.
- ↑ Gerrold, David (w), Fernando Heinz Furukawa (p, i). StarCraft: Ghost Academy: Volume 2 (paperback binding). Tokyopop, August 10, 2010. ISBN 978-1427-81613-9.
- ↑ 2008-05-23. Baneling. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-05-23.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Belly of the Beast (in English). 2010-07-27.
- ↑ Karune. 2009-02-18. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 49. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-18.
- ↑ 2015-09-03, Legacy of the Void Beta Balance Update -- September 3, 2015. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2015-09-09
- ↑ 2015-09-17, Legacy of the Void Beta Balance Update -- September 17, 2015. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2015-09-30
- ↑ Zarhym. 2010-03-12. #BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter – 3/12 (page 2). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2010-03-13.
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Credits. (in English). 2010.