subject: Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy - Stopping the Reaper Rush [print this page] As a Zerg player playing against a Terran opponent one thing you must always be ready for is a potential Reaper Rush. Reaper rushing is a very popular strategy on Battlenet right now for a good reason, many players don't know how to defend against it. In this guide I will show you how you can easily stop Reaper rush when playing as Zerg.
A lot of Zerg players think the best thing to do is place a bunch of Spine Crawlers around their base. While this can work, it can get very expensive and put you behind economically. If you are going to place Spine Crawlers, you should only place one directly in the middle of your Drones harvesting minerals. From this location no Reaper will be able to get in range to pick off your Drones.
While Spine Crawlers can work, they really have no purpose past the Reaper rush. That's why I like to get Zerglings with Metabolic boost as fast as possible. Generally I like to have 100 gas right when my Spawning Pool finishes so I can immediately start researching Metabolic Boost. I also like to get my Queen as soon as possible because her ranged attack can ward off one or two Reapers. However a single queen will not be able to stop a large group of them so you should try and get Speedlings as fast as possible. Speedlings move much faster than Reapers so if they start running you should chase them all down.
Whenever there is a slow point or break in the Rush you should try and get some anti-air structures as fast as possible. Many Terran players like to harass with Reapers and tech to Banshees. That's why I don't recommend getting Roaches unless you know your opponent isn't getting air units. If he's going Banshees you can pair your Speedlings up with some Mutalisks to tear apart his economy or go Hydralisks for more anti-air support. Try using these tactics next time you are up against a Reaper rush, you won't be disappointed.
