Starcraft (Original Version) Zerg Units

Hello again! I am terribly sorry for not uploading anything for a few months! Schoolwork is really bogging me down with stuff to do. This is the post about Zerg units that I promised to write last year, I tried to type this up as quickly as possible, so I hope you enjoy this post!

Zerg

The zerg are a species of biologically advanced aliens. They are the third of the three dominant and playable races in the game. The zerg are considered the least technologically advanced of the three races. The zerg are a species aiming for genetic perfection, and assimilate advanced species across the galaxy, incorporating beneficial genetic code into their own.

Drone

Drones, like the probe and SCV, are the basic workers of the Zerg. However, drones are kind of different from the other two starting units. In order to build structures, drones need to sacrifice themselves to commence the construction of the building. They also can burrow, which makes them invulnerable to enemy units unless they bring along a detector.

Larva

Larvae are small units produced at a hatchery, lair, and hive. They basically are the first stage of nearly all zerg units, though there are some units which cannot be produced from the larvae. such as infested terrans, and broodlings. Larvae cannot attack, and have very few hit points, but they take forever to kill, and don't ask me
why.

Overlord

The overlord is the only unit in the game that acts as a supply provider and detector at the same time. They can fly and have no attack. they are slow, but often act as scouts due to their far sight range. They are quite durable and take a long time to kill without a significant force. They also can be used for zerg defenses due to their ability to detect cloaked units.

Zergling

The zergling is the basic melee unit of the zerg. they are cheap and easy to produce, but are weak compared to the other two basic units. Zerglings are useful in early-game rushes and are very fast, allowing them to overun other enemy units in swarms. However, they are weak individually and can be decimated easily by siege tank and bunker defenses.


Hydralisk

Hydralisks are one of the most important units in the game, due to their ability to attack both air and ground units. They are effective in groups, but there are many counters to hydralisk groups. Siege tank and bunker defenses, as well as reavers, psionic storm are able to easily kill off entire swarms of hydralisks. Still, hydralisks are cheap enough to mass produce and can play key roles in the game.



Defiler

The defiler is a unit appearing in the late-game process. The defiler has no direct attack but can cast spells that can help you in battles. Spells of the defiler include Dark Swarm, which prevents friendly and enemy units from taking damage from ranged attacks. The defiler also can burrow like other zerg units, and they can't be killed without a detector.


Lurker

This is one of my least favorite units in this Starcraft 1, at least when I am facing them. I have a tendency to never build detector units, and that's exactly what I need to kill lurkers. Lurkers are ground units which need to burrow in able to attack. Lurkers are vulnerable for a short time after burrowing, making it essential to kill them then if you don't have any detectors on hand. Once a lurker is completely concealed, it is impossible to kill one without a detector, as you are unable to see a lurker completely hidden. Lurkers are a great annoyance to ground units, as their spikes are strong enough to kill a marine in two hits, aside from being able to damage everything within one line.

Lurkers may be powerful, but they are useless against aerial units, so if you want to dispose a group of lurkers, just bring a science vessel (or observer if you are a playing Protoss), along with a few other aerial units that can attack, and then dispose of the noticeable hol
es in the ground. You will see a beautiful explosion of blood as the lurkers blow up, a spectacle I do enjoy.

Ultralisk

The ultralisk is a heavy ground unit that appears in the late game. The ultralisk has a very high amount of hit points, making it hard to kill. They take a long time to produce, but one ultralisk alone can incapacitate many small units at once, namely marines and firebats. It is very hard to kill an ultralisk with individual attacks, so you have to take them out in groups. I like to use siege tanks in siege mode to take out ultralisks, though, they can be taken down with a swarm of zerglings along with a few ultralisks.

Ultralisks take a long time to produce, and are somewhat ineffective individually, especially in the late-game, when more advanced units begin to emerge. Therefore, it is best to use Ultralisks in groups to cause maximum havoc on enemies.

Infested Terran

Infested terrans are mutated versions of regular marines. They do not have a regular attack, but can explode, dealing 500 attack to all ground units around the area. This sort of damage means that any unit hit with the explosion will certainly die. Despite the usefulness of the infested terran, they are hard to produce due to the complicated process required to make an infested command center, the place of their production.

Mutalisk

The mutalisk is a zerg aerial unit that is mainly used for hit-and-run tactics, such as attacking stray units and buildings, then flying away before reinforcements can come. However, mutalisks are weak in head-on aerial battles, and are easily taken out by other flying units, such as wraiths, scouts, corsairs, etc. Mutalisks are also fairly easily defeated by goliaths.

Scourge

The scourge is basically a kamikaze unit, hurling itself into another aerial target and exploding. However, this suicidal attack is not in vain. Dealing 110 damage to aerial units, a singe scourge can severely cripple any light air unit at full health, and a group of scourges can take out a carrier or
battlecruiser. The scourge is only available to use in the original Starcraft, and was not included in Brood War.



Despite being able to deal a devastating amount of damage to aerial units, the scourge has a very low number of hitpoints itself, which allows a group of units with considerable attack to decimate a group scourges if there is enough distance between them. Groups battlecruisers are dangerous to scourges, as a battlecruiser can take out a scourge with a single shot. Therefore, I'd advise you to only use scourges against individual units.

Queen

The queen is a zerg aerial unit which has no normal attack, but is rather a spellcaster unit, which means that they have a few abilities to help change the tide of the battle (Or at least harass the enemy).

The queen is meant to be used as a hit-and-run unit, just like the mutalisk. The queen can use four abilities, two of them starting abilities:

Infest Command Center (Starting ability): This ability allows the player to convert a badly damaged terran command center to an infested command center. When the building is converted, then it is restored to full heath. Infested command centers can be used to produce infested terrans, a suicidal unit (See above).

Parasite (Starting ability): The queen attaches a parasite to an enemy unit. The controller of the parasite can see everything the infected unit sees, which can possibly give out important enemy locations to the user, putting the parasite controller at an advantage.

Ensnare (Evolved at Queen's Nest): All units in a 4x4 area have their speed reduced by half and their attack reduced by varying amounts. Besides this, al cloaked units in the area are revealed for the duration of the spell.

Spawn Broodling (Evolved at Queen's Nest): Two broodlings are targeted at an enemy ground unit. The queen fires the broodlings at the target and it is destroyed instantly. Out emerge two broodlings, which unless killed, will last for about 180 seconds. This ability is useful in destroying valuable units such as siege tanks and ultralisks.

Guardian

The guardian is an evolution of the mutalisk. To be formed, a mutalisk needs to morph into a guardian, this ability available after the construction of a greater spire. The guardian is devastating against light ground units, as their armor is strong enough to withstand the attack of even multiple light units attacking at once. The guardian has a ground attack range that outreaches nearly all ground-to-air units. However, they have no aerial attack and are slow, making guardians useless against air units.

Devourer

The devourer is another evolution of the mutalisk. To produce them you need to evolve them from mutalisks. Devourers attack with corrosive acid, and for every attack, the target is sprayed with spores. Any unit that has spore attached will have its attack speed slowed by 1/8 per spore, and take 1 point of additional damage from every attack for every spore attached. Cloaked units will also be revealed if they are covered with spores. Given time, spores will disappear.

Cat Mario

Cat Mario

Hello! Sorry for a long period of inactivity, I now do this blog as a hobby and not for school. However, I will try to write as frequently as possible. Today, I will write a short passage about Cat Mario, one of the most annoying games I have ever played.

Cat Mario is a spinoff of Mario in where you are a white cat trying to get to a castle. The map and controls are the same as in Mario. Seems simple enough, right? It's not. In order to make your way to the end of the level, you will have to go through tons of booby traps which are invisible for your convenience. The game starts you with 3 lives, but you can go down to -999 lives if you die enough times.

This game can make you feel like giving up on gaming for a long time due to the amount of traps that screw up your game. Some of them include killer clouds, death rays, and in the end of the first level, a blob that kills you just before you get into the castle to complete the stage. This game, I must say, is the type that makes you feel like you need to finish it or die. So play it if you're looking for a challenge. The link to Cat Mario is here:
http://www.cat-mario.com/

Starcraft (Original Version) Protoss Units

Well, I don't use Protoss or Zerg as much as I use Terran (in fact, I barely use them at all). However, I did a bit of research and got to know a bit about the Protoss (Zerg is for the next post). This post will tell you about Protoss units.

Protoss

The Protoss are a sapient humanoid race native to Aiur. Their advanced technology complements and enhances their psionic mastery. The Protoss are known as a race of warriors, despite the fact they were not always at war. They trained incessantly for combat, however, and prior to the Great War, warred with the kalathi and "other types" of protoss.


Probe

The probe is the basic construction unit of the Protoss. However, unlike the SCV, probes don't need to stay with the structure until it is completed. Instead, they warp the structure in and are able to leave to do anything else. Probes are more fragile than SCVs. However, they have faster acceleration than drones and greater attack range than SCVs, giving protoss players an edge in worker harassment, particularly versus terran SCVs, which have the shortest attack range of the three.

Zealot

Zealots are the most powerful of the basic starting units and are more expensive than the others. Being modestly outnumbered by marines or zerglings is not a major cause for concern given the quality of the zealot. Their high hit points and excellent base ground attack with normal-type damage ensure that they are useful until late in the game, and they are arguably the best breakthrough unit due to their low cost and lack of need for micromanagement compared to the unwieldy archons.
Zealots are one of the few small units that can withstand punishment from terran bunker-and-siege tank defenses, due to their high hit points and high movement speed.

Dragoon

Dragoons serve primarily as mobile anti-air defense. It is more reasonable to have zealots take the brunt of fighting enemy ground units whenever possible. Compared to zealots, the dragoon fires slower and has an attack optimized against only large-sized units. The relationship is similar to that between marines and goliaths. Due to their large size and somewhat slower movement to the zealot, dragoons are fairly vulnerable to groups of smaller units such as groups of zerglings and hydralisks. Despite this, many players utilize dragoons as far as a late game due to their important usage as anti-air defense and fire support.

High Templar

High Templar are Protoss warriors that use powerful psionic powers to support other protoss forces.
High templar are support units with powerful abilities. They are not particularly durable and do not have an attack, not to mention their slow movement. Although high templar hover, they still activate spider mines. They are vulnerable to many units such as siege tanks and other powerful units. When two High Templar are merged, they create an Archon.

Archon

Archons are created by merging two High Templar. Their hit points are nearly entirely invested into their shields, making them very vulnerable to the science vessel's EMP Shockwave. Archons are able to attack both air and ground units, doing 30 damage when not upgraded to both. Archons are supposedly one of the strongest land units in the game, but are especially weak against Terran in the later game.

Dark Templar

Dark templar are an exiled tribe from the Protoss. They are a stealth unit, being permanently cloaked, and also have a very powerful attack. Hoever, these units are expensive, and if the enemy has adequate detector units, they can be disposed of very easily. In this situation, dark templar are most effective with zealots, being able to withstand much of the attack. Dark templar are good for stealth missions, however, they are only buildable in the Brood War, the expansion pack.

Dark Archon

The dark archon is a spellcaster with no regular attack, unlike the archon. Like the archon, it is well protected by shields but has few hit points underneath; it is vulnerable to the science vessel's EMP shockwave. It is neither biological nor mechanical, and is immune to many abilities, such as Lockdown and Spawn Broodling. It is also a hovering unit and does not trigger spider mines. Dark archons are created by merging two dark templar. Dark archons can use powerful spells such as Feedback, which can kill most small units immediately, Mind Control, which gives the player control over enemy units, and Maelstrom, which prevents all units in a 4 by 4 radius to atack.

Reaver

The reaver is a powerful beetle-like robot which has one of the most powerful units in the game. Reavers attack by firing scarabs, each costing 15 minerals each. Reavers have a decent sight range, and their attack can take out most units in one shot. Howver, their cooldown time is long and if they run out of scarabs during a battle, they are mostly helpless and will be destroyed very easily. Reavers are great for taking out clusters of small units and are a key unit in sieging an enemy's base.

Arbiter

The Arbiter is a high cost support unit. It relies on fairly high shield and hit point strength to survive, rather than its low powered direct attack. It has a passive cloaking field that cloaks all nearby friendly units, but not itself.  Arbiters are great help in executing aerial attacks, due to their ability to cloak all friendly units around it. A popular strategy is to attach an Arbiter to a group of carriers and take the enemy by surprise.

Shuttle

The shuttle is a unit used to transport units over long distance or rough terrain. Shuttles are commonly used to transport reavers given the reavers' slow speed. One notable strategy is the "Reaver Drop", whereas a group of reavers and dragoons are transported by shuttle and attempt to land near an opponent's mineral and gas harvesting operation. The reavers quickly destroy workers while dragoons provide cover. Compared to the terran dropship and zerg overlord, the shuttle has superior acceleration and top speed once upgraded, but is not as durable. Its carrying capacity is also constricted by the large size of protoss combat units.

Scout

The scout is optimized for the anti-air role, being durable and having one of the most powerful air atack in the game. However, they cannot cloak and groups of small ground units can take the scout out fairly easily. Scouts aren't used in alarge groups very often because of the high cost that would be better used for other means.

Corsair

The corsair is good to use in anti-air defense. They only deal 8 damage but have a very high rate of fire and also cause splash damage. Corsairs are fast units and are always ready to run away if things turn for worst. Despite the corsair being useful against low armor units, but are less effective against units with high armor. Corsairs are best in groups and can do devastating damage to enemy air units.

Carrier

The carrier is a powerful air unit. They attack by using interceptors, small units which fire lasers down at the enemy. Carriers are fairly weak alone, but in large groups, they can do some severe damage. They are less durable than the batllecruiser, and two battlecruisers with Yamato Cannon can easily destroy a carrier. In groups, it is very hard to stop them and will raze nearly anything in their path.


Interceptor

The interceptor is the source of the carrier's attack. 5 can go inside a carrier at once, and they do 8 damage each. Interceptors are automatically repaired upon returning to it's carrier, which helps the player economically. However, interceptors will self-destruct if their carrier is destroyed.









Thats it for Protoss units. Coming up next: Zerg!

StarCraft (Original Version) Terran Units

I love this game. I play this game with delight despite the fact that it was released on March 1998, over 15 years ago. This game is a lot ore complicated than the ones that I've written about so far, so I will do this post as best as I can. Man, this post is going to be longer than usual.

StarCraft is a strategy game created by Blizzard Entertainment which puts you in command of your choice of one of the three races: Terran, Zerg, or Protoss. If you play in campaign mode, the objectives may vary, but in multiplayer, the sole goal is to obliterate the enemy base and their units. After Starcraft, there also is an expansion pack called Brood War. Starcraft 2, the sequel of the original, was released in 2010. This post will explain to you about the Terran.

Terran
The Terran are humans who have been exiled by the government due to overpopulation in the 21st century. They are sent to colonize planets in space. Technologically and pshychologically, they are in the middle of the three races, lower than the Protoss but higher than the Zerg. The units available in Starcraft for Terran are written below. I don't think that I will be able to include every single unit though.


T-280 Space Construction Vehicle (SCV)

SCVs are the basic unit that you will start out with in the game. SCVs are used for mining minerals, harvesting gas, and building structures. SCVs have more HP than the other starting units, the probe and the drone, so they are formidabble in early rushes. They also can attack, and may win against a zergling if the SCV attacks first.






Marine

Marines compose the bulk of most Terran front-line forces. They are the cheapest and easiest units to produce. Marines are generally equipped with powered armor suits and rapid-fire C-14 rifles. The suit provides full life-support and NBC protection, allowing marines to deploy into environments that would otherwise be deadly to human life. Marines are useless alone, but can be very effective in groups.

Firebat

Firebats are armored troopers who shoot barrages of fire at their enemies. The firebat's attack is most effective against groups of small-sized units, for it deals concussive splash damage. Firebats are most effective in the early game, as all of the base units for the three races are small. Later on, when more massive units come out, their effectiveness begins to dwindle. Supported by medics, firebats can stand up to zealots despite the large difference in health between them. With stim packs and medics, firebats can easily defeat swarms of zerglings. The firebat's attack is ranged, but it still works under the defiler's Dark Swarm. Their attack also deals full damage against Protoss shields, regardless of the size of the unit.

Medic

Medics are units which have the ability to heal friendly or allied units. However, they cannot attack so they are vulnerable to enemy units. Medics are most effective when healing marines or firebats during their use of stim packs, a drug that increases the firepower of the marine or firebat. It is always good to have one or two medics when going around in groups.









Ghost

Ghosts are powerful psychics who are trained to be assassins. In the game, ghosts are able to cloak, which enables them to walk past most enemies unnoticed. They also are capable of using the skill 'Lockdown', which prevents enemy units from moving or attacking  for a period of time. Ghosts are the only unit which can call a nuclear strike, a powerful attack which deals 500 damage to everything around an area at the expense of the ghost's life. Ghosts are useful for picking off individual units as most units are helpless against a ghost without a unit or structurethat has the 'Detector' ability.

Vulture

Vultures are ideal for scouting and dealing with small-sized ground units such as zerglings, zealots, marines and firebats. Given that vultures are not very durable, they are most effective when using hit-and-run attacks to harass the enemy and are not recommended for large scale attacks. Vultures are also effective hunters against units such as high templar, defilers and other ground-based spellcaster units and can get rid an expansion base's workers in little time.  

Goliath

Goliaths are most useful against medium and large-sized air units such as Battlecruisers, scouts, wraiths, and Carriers. Their ground attack isn't as great, two or three marines having greater firepower. Goliaths are best used in games where the opponent relies heavily on aerial units, as they are effective in destroying them and becoming moving missile turrets. Goliaths aren't as good against small-sized air units such as scourges and mutalisks but when with a few marines, the problem is solved.

Siege Tank

The siege tank is the most powerful land unit among the Terran. They have two modes: tank mode and siege mode. In tank mode ,the siege tank is decent against large ground units and in groups, certainly capable of dealing with medium and small units with ease. Arguably, it's still not as efficient as a group of marines, especially if a force is being moved by dropship (which can carry 2 tanks or 8 marines).

The siege tank is most useful in siege mode though, fusing a powerful attack with the longest range of any ground unit in the game. They are useful with bunkers, adding devastating firepower to  The tank's siege mode range is greater than its sight range; supporting a tank with spotters is useful.

However, their Arclite Shock Cannon deals splash damage as well, and may end up killing some of your own units instead.

Wraith

The Wraith is best against large-sized air targets. With the Apollo Reactor a Wraith can remain cloaked for over 3.5 minutes. The ground attack and cloak make Wraiths are useful for harassing the workers of poorly defended expansions. They are also useful for picking out lone units scouting before the opposition can react.  Wraiths, however, have a weak ground attack, are fairly fragile against most units, and easily damaged. While this is compensated with the cloaking ability, Wraiths are not very massable due to their cost.

Science Vessel

The science vessel is a terran mobile detector. Like most other spell casters, science vessels have no direct form of attack. Air units such as scourge, wraiths or scouts are ideal for dealing with the slower science vessel. The science vessel can be built at a starport. They are detectors, which enable them to detect cloaked enemies such as wraiths and also are effective against Lurkers, which burrow themselves under the ground.

Dropship

Dropships are transport shuttles which have the ability to transport units to other locations. They can either hold 8 marines, 4 goliaths, or 2 siege tanks. Dropships are useful for transporting units to the battlefield but cannot attack, which makes them vulnerable to enemy fire. Scourges wraiths, and scouts are effective in destroying them, for they are faster than the dropship and do a significant amount of damage.

Valkryie

The Valkyrie fires rockets in salvos of eight. Each rocket has a base damage of 6 (explosive) and causes splash damage to enemy units within a 3x3 matrix around its detonation. The rate of fire overcomes the weakness of the damage type against small and medium-sized targets. However, since target armor affects each rocket individually, high armor units such as battlecruisers and carriers are particularly resistant to the Valkyrie. Valkyries are best used against tightly packed groups of low armor targets, similar to the corsair. This makes them especially deadly against wraiths, mutalisks, overlords, guardians, queens, corsairs, shuttles and dropships. They are not very efficient against groups of scouts however, since the scout has an additional 100 shield points along with its 150 hitpoints and the scout's missiles being one of the most powerful in the game.  Valkryies cannot attack ground units, making them vulnerable to nearly every ground unit in the game except for units such as siege tanks, vultures, zealots, firebats, and zerglings (all which cannot attack air units).

Battlecruiser

Battlecruisers have a staggering 500 hit points, making it the only standard unit able to withstand a nuclear strike. Battlecruisers are devastating against many air and ground units, for their armor makes many unit's weapons ineffective against them. Their Yamato Cannon is their ultimate weapon. Researched at a science facility with an attached physics lab, the Yamato Cannon deals 260 damage, turning most units to dust.  However, battlecruisers are slow which makes it very difficult to run away in the case that things are turning to the worst. Some units are effective against the battlecruiser though, such as scouts and mutalisks.

Well, I suppose that that's all of the units for the Terran in Starcraft. Next time, I will write about the its of the Protoss, and then the Zerg. After that, I will write about the three races' structures. So long for now!

Cookie Run (On Kakao)

Cookie Run is a game that is raging in my country (South Korea). In fact most of my friends play it. I occassionally play it myself when I am bored. I must admit, it is a pretty decent game. This game was derived from the game Oven Break, even though it was made by the same company. This game is about a gingerbread man (or woman) who is running away from the nasty witch in order to avoid being eaten.

In Cookie Run, there are a variety of cookies, pets, and treasures (items that you get after raising your pet or cookie to the max).The real game is kind of hard to explain for there are many terms in Korean which are pretty hard to put into English. Its the kind of game that you have to play for yourself to understand.

While playing this game, you can earn coins and can use them to upgrade your character, cookies, treasures, and pets. Cookies are runners which you control. The two motions are jump and slide. Pets are assistants which have special effects that enable them to help you in the game. Treasures don't appear during a run, but they have special effects such as a small percentage increase in your health or other things. For pets and cookies, there are rankings for them, Rank C being the lowest and Rank S being the highest.

Overall, Cookie Run is a difficult game to explain, but it is very fun to play once you get the hang of it. At first, it will be very frustrating but as your character advances, you will find the joy of playing this game. So give it a try (that is if you manage to understand Korean).

Tap Sonic

Tap Sonic is a relatively old game, I think that it came out about 2 years ago. I don't play it anymore because of how difficult it is to play songs other than those free songs that stay in your playlist forever. This game is kind of like Tap Tap Revenge, except that it can be played with 4, 5, or 6 lines. There are difficulty levels which are represented by dots. The more dots there are, the harder the song is to play.

One downside of this game is that the songs dominantly consist of K-Pop and Instrumental songs. This is a big blow to the variety of songs playable in this game because a foreign song is rarely uploaded on the game. Another problem is that in order to play nearly any song, you are required to use music points, a type of game currency that can only be earned by using real money. This really doesn't make you want to play this game, considering that there are so few options to choose.


This song, despite its downsides, is pretty fun to play for all levels, from beginner to master. The songs when played, are challenging to quite an extent, but not completely impossible. This was the only reason why I played this game for as long as I did.

This game is free, so you won't have to worry about the cost of this app but honestly, if you aren't planning to use money on this game, I wouldn't really suggest that you download. Still, if you want to have a shot at it, be my guest!