Overview
Stukov is rather unique in that he has both Terran and Zerg qualities, fitting with his infested theme of a grotesque abomination of a fusion of the two races. He control scheme doesn't quite say Terran or Zerg, and it can get some time to get used to. He has creep that spreads automatically and will cover the entire map when you get to the late game. It's required for all of his buildings, which are more Terran than Zerg (even though they don't liftoff, but uproot instead). His army control is strange too; his bio units (which have timed life) will not count as army units, so if you F2 your army, they are not included. He's got access to infested mech units, however at this time they require a lot of babysitting to survive. Overall, he's a great commander for swarming if you go with the infantry route, along with other options for a fresh take on co-op.
Unit Control
I'm adding this section for Stukov because of how wonky it is.
He has Zerg macro mechanics regarding that all unit production comes from eggs that pop from buildings. But he has Terran macro mechanics regarding requiring production buildings to make those eggs. Just remember that he does not have larva. It's weird to be able to hatch 5 infested siege tanks from eggs, but that's how he works :P
His first "calldown" ability is the psi-emitter which attracts his infested infantry towards it, attacking any enemy in their path. It is used as a rally point for your barracks and infested compound. This does not make your infantry not microable though. You can still give them commands like normal units.
His mech units on the other hand, handle just like normal units.
Units
- Infested Civilian: basic melee units that spawn automatically from your infested colonist compound. Nothing really special, but they spawn for free. Some upgrades make them a nice meat shield with their leap attack and broodling spawn. You'll have to work on upgrading the compound early to reap the most benefits.
- Infested Marine: your only AA unit. Cost only 25 minerals. Remember they have timed life, so just spamming them isn't always the best idea if nothing is going on.
- Infested Bunker: considered a unit when uprooted, and a building while rooted. When you finish building one, it comes with 4 (or 6 after you reach level 14) infested marines pre-loaded. It will automatically generate infested marines while rooted over time. Even though you build them from SCVs, they do require 4 supply. Bunkers themselves have a melee attack while uprooted, but keep in mind they do not spawn marines while doing so.
- Infested Diamondback: this unit finally makes an appearance in co-op, though in an unusual state. It can attack while moving, but also has an ability to bring air units to the ground (think of a reverse graviton beam from the phoenix). Later you can upgrade it to leave a trail that hampers enemies too.
- Infested Siege Tank: a siege tank with a large spine colony on top. It eats your own infantry units for ammo for its "volatile infested" cannon (shooting banelings lol). It's quite powerful, but a little fragile. But if you are defending, a few tanks with infested to feed them can do wonders.
- Infested Banshee: comes with cloak for free, and has the ability to burrow to recover health and energy quickly. It's great on hit and run tactics with good micromanagement.
- Infested Liberator: more like infested Valkyrie. It does not have that awesome AtG cannon, so I don't know why it is not the Valkyrie from Brood War. It's range is a bit short too.
- Brood Queen: the BW queen with similar abilities. Ocular symbiote gives any friendly unit detection abilities for a short time. Spawn Broodling simply kills a target and spawns broodlings from its corpse. Fungal growth is your AoE root and damage (basically, a better ensnare).
- Overlord: your source of supply (not depots). Can mutate into overseers.
- Overseer: your detector. They require an infested starport for mutation from overlords.
- Infested Missile Turret: because every race needs something like this.
Calldown Abilities
- Psi Emitter: places a psi-emitter at your target location, attracting all of your infested infantry to it. Works as a rally point and attack-move command. There is no cooldown on this ability.
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Infest Structure: temporarily infests a structure to spawn broodlings. Usable on friendly or enemy structures (once you reach level 2).
- Apocalisk: causes an Apocalisk to burst out of the ground at any visible location. It's a huge ultralisk with a thor on top, shooting missiles and cleaving anything in its path. Just looking at it is a marvel to behold.
- Aleksander: calls down Stukov's flagship, equipped with tentacles and "egg bombs" to rain hell from ground and air enemies alike. Even if it is felled, the crash site spawns broodlings to help out.
Level Upgrades
1) Infestation: just describes the fact that he starts with an infested colonist compound and that his creep spreads from his infested commander center.
2) Hostile Incubation: gives you 2 extra charges of infest structure and allows you to target enemy structures. Doing so will disable them as well, which is perfect for initiating an attack on a base while broodlings distract enemy forces. This is kind of a power spike, as it gives this ability a lot more utility.
3) Epidemic: allows you to upgrade your infested colonist compound 1 extra time, doubling how much you spawn, as well as another upgrade to increase how many broodlings spawn from your infest structure ability. Improves both defense and offense.
4) Apocalisk: grants you the ability to use this calldown.
5) Infested Engineering Bay Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades to increase bunker armor and their regen rate. If you go with an infantry heavy build, you'll want these upgrades for sure.
6) Corrupted Conscription: doubles how many charges of spawn infested marine a barracks can have (from 5 to 10) and reduces their spawn time. This is quite good as it cuts down on infrastructure costs.
7) Infested Infantry Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades to allow broodlings to spawn from felled infested civilians, as well as giving infested infantry a damage-over-time effect on their attacks.
8) New Unit: Brood Queen: allows you to spawn Brood Queens.
9) Infested Factory Upgrade Cache: unlocks an upgrade to buff siege tanks' damage to armored targets and an upgrade for diamondbacks to leave a trail of slime that slows and damages enemy ground units. If you are bringing in some mech to your forces you should consider both upgrades based on what you are facing (e.g. slime could work against heavy ground bio comps).
10) Aleksander: allows you to use the Aleksander calldown ability.
11) Infested Starport Upgrade Cache: unlocks an upgrade for your liberator to take a lot less damage while attacking, and increased banshee life. To be honest I have a hard time justifying building either unit it most situations as they are expensive units to make and are easily destroyed if you look away for even a brief moment.
12) Incendiary Prosthetics: buffs your Apocalisk to do double damage with its AoE attack and initial spawn. Just a straight damage buff, nothing more, nothing less.
13) Brood Queen Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades for the Brood Queen so they can spawn will full energy (along with double energy regen) and to reveal cloaked/burrowed units with their attack. The energy upgrade is well worth it if you can handle queens.
14) Engorged Bunkers: increases the capacity of your bunkers from 4 to 6 (remember they start fully loaded) and spawn infested marines 20% faster. If you go with infantry, this is a significant boost to your effectiveness, giving you more access to free ranged units.
15) Neural Infestation: Aleksander can mass neural parasite units it attacks with its tentacles (meaning, air units). This can turn the tide of any battle that features non-hybrid enemy air units. This looks cool, though I would have preferred something like spawning scourge or doing something else that wouldn't tie up the air attack.
Pointers
- Where your barracks are placed is important when setting up attacks. After you research upgrades from a tech lab attached to a rax, you can give it up to your factory or starport. Bring your barracks just outside where you need to attack or defend, then spawn your marines. This also applies to your colonist compound. But remember that if you are researching an upgrade from it, it will not uproot. But you can accidentally uproot a barracks that has a tech lab researching something, cancelling the upgrade.
- Infinite creep spread will allow you to root your buildings where they are needed, but creep itself is neutral and does not grant vision, with you do need to place them. Kind of annoying, as this makes setting up camp a pain for your barracks and bunkers.
- Going heavy infantry will keep you mineral starved. In fact, many times you'll find yourself with extra gas even if you never take the gas from your expansion if you forego building any factory/starport units.
- Speaking of which, the easiest build is an infantry build that only uses civilians and marines. You'll need a lot of minerals to get started, meaning you'll have to wait a bit before building any refineries. My initial build would go 15 rax/OL/bunker. Then I may go either refinery, ebay, or even 1st colonist compound upgrade (which surprisingly costs no gas, only 400 minerals). The bunker can help clear rocks if you have time to spare before the initial attack wave, as well as infest structure.
- Infest structure only works on completed buildings (contrast to Alarak's photon overcharge). It will work on uprooted buildings except uprooted bunkers. However, this does open up for some hilarity with other infested structures (like moving infested command centers, or if you have an Alarak ally, a structure that is infested and PO'd simultaneously - and don't underestimate how powerful and tanky it is!).
- I highly suggest dedicating one hotkey to your infantry spawning buildings, a separate one for factories and starports, and one more for bunkers. Learn to use hotkeys for them too (holding down A is simple enough for spamming marines, and R for uprooting and rooting buildings).
