The zerg extractor is essentially a giant organ that sits atop a vespene geyser and packages the vespene gas into small fleshy sacs that can be easily carried by zerg drones to a nearby hatchery for absorption. Through this structure, the zerg convert raw vespene into a form that is more beneficial for their organic systems. The refined gas it produces becomes a necessity in the later evolutions of the zerg breeds. As the extractor lives off gas itself, it does not need to be built on an area already covered in creep.^[1]

Game StructureEdit

StarCraftEdit

Extractor
Structure
Race	Zerg
Role	Extract Vespene gas
Production
Minerals	50
Build time	40
Evolves from	Drone
Requires	Hatchery
Protection
Hit points	750
Armor	1

StarCraft IIEdit

Extractor
Structure
Race	Zerg
Role	Extract Vespene gas
Production
Minerals	25
Build time	30
Evolves from	Drone
Hotkey	E
Protection
Hit points	500
Armor	1
Type	Armored Biological Structure

The extractor appears in StarCraft II. It functions almost identically to its predecessor. The extractor no longer yields any gas when it is depleted.

DevelopmentEdit

The extractor went through only a couple revisions before being finalized. The first rendition was simply a adaptation of the original game's artwork to 3D. The main flaw of this first design was the complexity of the different shapes and colors, it looked too busy and was too visually distracting. The final revision simplified the building's distinct elements and unified the Extractor with the rest of the zerg structures.^[2]

Heart of the Swarm CampaignEdit

There is a Kerrigan ability that make the extractor to turn into an automated extractor, it is a tier 3 ability and makes it that it doesn't require drones to mine vespene gas. And there is a tier 5 ability, vespene efficiency, that increases the vespene gas harvesting efficiency by 25%. Both of these abilities are passive.^[3]

ReferencesEdit