Brood lord

"I’m happy to announce that lastly, we have learned the details on the most terrifying of all Zerg forces: the Brood Lord. A true monster of the sky, the Brood Lord can unleash utter devastation upon any foes on the ground."

- Radio Liberty^(src)

A brood lord

The brood lord is a powerful zerg flying unit.

Overview

"Evolved to rule the skies, the brood lords are terrifying creatures that hurl destructive broodlings at enemy forces."

- Unit description^(src)

A brood lord up close

Brood lords are massive manta-like flying creatures that serve the Swarm's aerial siege units and used only in the largest conflicts. The brood lord releases biological symbiotes on ground targets. These small creatures regulate some of the brood lord’s biological functions, and can also serve as living ammunition. The brood lord has clusters of broodlings squirming under its carapace at any given time. In combat, the brood lord supercharges the broodlings’ aggression and metabolism, turning them into short-lived—but very effective—air-to-ground weapons that tear through personal armor and vehicular plating with ease. However, brood lords themselves are not very durable, and are vulnerable against aerial-strike combatants.

The brood lord was originally morphed from the corruptor. The glowing bulbs on the brood lord’s back are an evolution of the cancerous growths in the corruptor’s tentacles. Alterations at the genetic level turned the growths into sacs capable of rapidly spawning large batches of broodlings. Its tail is also derived from the corruptor, namely its statocyst. The brood lord’s tail structure (including the spikes) constitutes a large biological gyroscope that maintains the creature’s level and orientation. The tail is directly linked to the brood lord's sensory organs, increasing its capability to locate prey. Bone spikes located on the frontal section of the brood lord's wings house an advanced glandular system capable of emitting and receiving high-frequency electrical pulses. With each pulse, a massive spherical field radiates from the creature, coating its surroundings and targets in bio-electric energy. Afterwards, the brood lord's acute receptor glands pick up and process the gathered data. During deep space flights, the glands mutate to detect sources of radiation, electromagnetism, and light.

An aquatic brood lord

Brood lords are also capable of adapting their biology to suit their theater of combat. During the invasion of a planet with exceptionally large seas, brood lords evolved to be more suited in aquatic combat, allowing them to chase their prey deep into the planet's trenches. Leviathan Brood brood lords retain the brood's pre-disposition for spikes, possibly as a result of Abathur's experimentation.

History

Brood lords are one of the latest additions to the Swarm.

The genetic templates for multiple strains of zerg were lost during the Second Great War when the Swarm fragmented after the Battle of Char, including those for the corruptor and the brood lord.

Plot branch : Sarah Kerrigan chooses to evolve the mutalisk

The brood lord's template was reacquired from feral brood lords at Sigma Centari, a Terran Dominion defense platform. With the viper, it became one of the strains based on the mutalisk.

Plot branch ends here

During the Defenders of Man Insurgency, a number of feral brood lords were lured to Antiga Prime via the Defenders of Man's psi-emitters.

Game Unit

Brood Lord
Unit
Race	Zerg
Affiliation	Amon's Forces (Co-op Missions)
Campaign	Wings of Liberty Heart of the Swarm Into the Void Nova Covert Ops
Role	Heavy Siege Flyer
Armament	Broodling Strike
Properties
Sight	12
Production
Minerals	150
Gas	150
Control	4
Build time	24
Evolves from	Corruptor Mutalisk (Heart of the Swarm, Co-op Missions)
Requires	Greater spire
Hotkey	B
Movement
Speed	1.97
Acceleration	1.063
Lateral acceleration	0
Deceleration	0
Collision radius	1
Protection
Hit points	225
Hit pointregen/second	0.2734
Armor	1
Type	Air Biological Massive
Armor type	Armored
Broodling Strike
Damage	20 per broodling (unleashes 1-2 broodlings per strike)
Targets	Ground
Cooldown	1.79
Range	9.5 (WoL/HotS) 10 (LotV)
Upgrade/level	+2
Meta
Targetpriority	20
Kill score	275
Productionscore	550

Brood lords are the only unit to gain an attack bonus from both Flyer Attacks and Melee Attacks upgrades, as well as both Flyer Carapace and Carapace. This is received indirectly through the broodlings being upgraded by Melee Attacks and Carapace.

Wings of Liberty

Brood lords replace guardians as the zerg aerial bomber. Like the guardian, it has a long-ranged ground attack and no defense against air units. Brood lords launch broodlings; the broodlings do damage upon impact, and then act as separate timed-lifespan ground units. Brood lords can sustain a stream of single broodlings; the first attack after a break launches two broodlings. Unless the enemy uses extensive micro-management or air-to-air fighters, the broodlings are an excellent distraction for ground-to-air units on top of the damage boost. Left unchecked a relatively small group of Brood Lords can end up doing catastrophic damage to an enemy base since very few enemy units or turrets will end up actually firing on them.

Heart of the Swarm

In the campaign, the brood lord is one of the evolution choices for the mutalisk. Choosing the brood lord prevents the use of the viper.

Legacy of the Void

Upgrades and Abilities

The Frenzied ability was removed in Legacy of the Void.

Swarm Seeds

The Brood Lord shoots Broodlings at its target. A Broodling is a small creature that can attack ground units.

v • e

Flyer Attacks

• +1 damage for mutalisks
• +1 base damage and +1 bonus damage for corruptors
• +2 damage for brood lords

Acquisition
Purchased from Spire Greater spire Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Required Lair Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 Required Hive

v • e

Flyer Carapace

Increases armor of zerg air units.

Acquisition
Purchased from Spire Greater spire Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Effect +1 armor Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Required Lair Effect +1 armor Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 Required Hive Effect +1 armor

v • e

Co-op Missions

Brood lords are exclusive to Kerrigan in Co-op Missions. They evolve from the mutalisk once the player controls a greater spire. Brood lords are used by Amon's forces in Co-op Missions.

Upgrades and Abilities

Porous Cartilage

Increases brood lords movement speed by 1.406 and acceleration to 1.875, and increases health by 100.

Usage
Passive

Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Kerrigan Level 11.

Acquisition
Purchased from Spire/Greater spire Hotkey R Cost 150 150 60 Mastery: -3 -3 -1.2 per Expeditious Evolutions mastery point. Down to a maximum 60 60 24 Required Greater spire

v • e

Flyer Attacks

• +1 damage for mutalisks
• +1 base damage and +1 bonus damage for corruptors
• +2 damage for brood lords

Acquisition
Purchased from Spire Greater spire Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Required Lair Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 Required Hive

v • e

Flyer Carapace

Increases armor of zerg air units.

Acquisition
Purchased from Spire Greater spire Level 1 Cost 100 100 160 Effect +1 armor Level 2 Cost 175 175 190 Required Lair Effect +1 armor Level 3 Cost 250 250 220 Required Hive Effect +1 armor

v • e

Development

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

During the development of StarCraft II, it replaced the swarm guardian.

The combat role of the brood lord fluctuated for a very long time. Many variations of the guardian were presented but the intention was always clear that the development team wanted more out of this new flyer. Finally out of the blue, Samwise Didier concepted the brood lord like a bolt of lightning and thus the design team created the 3D art in accordance to his concept. The head design was lifted from the scrapped morphalisk.

The brood lord's frenzied ability was added in the context of swarm host matches, coupled with mass spore crawlers. As swarm hosts were altered in Legacy of the Void to be more mobile, the ability was deemed unncessary.

Images

A brood lord skin

Aquatic brood lord skin

Aquatric brood lord portrait

A Leviathan Brood brood lord skin

A Leviathan Brood brood lord portrait

References

Zerg Units and Structures of StarCraft II v • e

Versus units and structures Terrestrial units Larva Drone Zergling Baneling Roach Ravager (LotV) Hydralisk Lurker (LotV) Infestor Ultralisk Queen Swarm host (HotS) Aerospace units Overlord Overseer Mutalisk Brood lord Corruptor Viper (HotS) Spawned units Broodling Changeling Infested terran Locust (HotS) Basic buildings Hatchery Creep tumor Extractor Evolution chamber Spawning pool Baneling nest Roach warren Automated defenses Spine crawler Spore crawler Advanced buildings Lair Hive Infestation pit Spire Greater spire Hydralisk den Lurker den Nydus network Nydus worm Ultralisk cavern Transition units Baneling cocoon Broodmother cocoon Brood lord cocoon Egg Impaler cocoon Infested swarm egg Lurker cocoon Overseer cocoon Ravager cocoon Ultralisk chrysalis Others Creep Campaign and Co-op Missions units and structures Terrestrial units Aberration Blightbringer Brutalisk Defiler Impaler cocoon Infested colonist Infested diamondback Infested marine Infested trooper Infested medic Infested SCV Infested siege tank Omegalisk Pygalisk Pygalisk cocoon Swarmling Volatile infested Aeropsace units Guardian Leviathan Sac Scourge Swarm guardian Infested banshee Infested liberator Buildings Impaler den Infested terran buildings Infested command center Toxic nest Virophage Automated defenses Bile launcher Impaler colony Scourge cannon Spore cannon Sunken colony Infested bunker Infested missile turret Variant units Zergling Strains Raptor Swarmling Baneling Strains Hunter Splitter Baneling spawn Roach Strains Corpser Roachling Vile Queen Strains Aiur queen Broodmother Swarm queen Hydralisk Strains Hunter Killer Impaler Lurker Ultralisk Strains Noxious Stank Torrasque Swarm host Strains Carrion Creeper Locust Strains Flying locust Mutalisk Strains Brood lord Viper Guardian Strains Swarm guardian Canceled Zerg Units and Structures of StarCraft II v • e Scrapped Removed Units Behemoth chrysalis Bone wasp Cobra Dracolisk Fiend Fury Gigalisk Gorgeling Huge queen Incubus Infested protoss Klurken Large queen Larval queen Leech Lilev coccoon Magnasaur Magnathar Mantalisk Mantis Miasmalisk Morphalisk Nihilisk Primalisk Prowler Scavenger Siegeling Spore host Swarm Swarm guardian Swarm larva Terrorling Trichinella Removed Buildings Broodling nest Creep colony Creep tower Infested protoss buildings Nydus destroyer Nydus warren Shrieker Spore colony Swarm clutch Swarm infestation Underfiend