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The queen
The queen (a.k.a. "brood queen").[1] is a zerg support unit that appears in StarCraft II. Despite a shared name, it is a vastly different unit from its predecessor, most notably in that it no longer flies.
Overview
A queen with eggs
This breed of queen came into use after the Brood War,[2] observed as early as 2502.[3][4] Abathur altered the essence of an older breed of queen[5], and ultimately from the Arachnis brood-keeper,[2] suppressing their ability to fly in order to improve their abilities to care of the hive.[5]
Psychology
Queens are sapient beings.[6] The queen's brain is encased in an armored skull, and connected to a set of nerve cords that bear resemblance to those possessed by protoss. The queen's brain gives it great mental capabilities,[2] but these queens have severe limits to their mental flexibility (unlike broodmothers),[7] and have limited independent thought and analysis. They play a limited command role in nurturing zerg nest sites.[2] In leadership roles, they oversee hives and[8] easily[2] coordinate lesser strains.[8] Queens can evolve and grow through experience, and can analyze and relay any tactical data fed to them by overlords.[2]
Physiology
These queens are tougher than their predecessors. The new morphology of these queens hints at the incorporation of terran or protoss DNA, or perhaps even the zerg-altered genes of the Queen of Blades herself. Such evolution implies a widespread change occurred within the zerg hierarchy, a redistribution of power making them more difficult to combat. The egg-laying abilities of the Arachnis brood-keeper have been revised and altered for these queens to allow them to produce living globs of tissue, which adhere to creep and accelerate its growth. These queens also produce a thick, protein-based substance that stimulates cellular growth, which they are able to expel in liquid form. When a queen covers the wounds of a zerg organism (structural or otherwise) with this reddish fluid, the damaged tissue regenerates in a matter of seconds.[2] Conversely, if the fluid is combined with a catalyst secreted by a gland located on the queen's neck (which gives it a sickly green coloration), and forcefully injects it into a hatchery, larvae will be incubated more rapidly.
Like all ground-based zerg strains, queens move faster across creep than normal ground. However, their legs are designed so that their movement is impaired when crossing non-creep covered areas. Dominion scientists have speculated that this is to keep more intelligent queens within the vicinity of a hive and reduce the incentive for them to wander off on their own.[2]
Queens have the advanced ability to manipulate their "offspring";[9] for instance, by 2503,[10] they engineered the zergling morph to the baneling, a breed that can contain its explosive energies until just the right moment.[9] They have also been tasked with the spawning of numerous cocoons[11] and can lob projectiles at their enemies.[3]
Game Unit
The queen is now a ground unit with an attack consisting of spines launched by the "wings" on its back.
In the June 2012 build of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the queen had small changes in its appearance, making her similar to the broodmother.[12]
Queens are strong against hellions, mutalisks, and void rays, but are weak against marines, zerglings, and zealots.
A 1:1 ratio of queens to hatcheries will allow the hatcheries to continually produce additional larvae assuming perfect timing of inject larva, though the queen would not be able to generate an energy surplus for other abilities in such a case.
Building excess queens in lieu of or in conjunction with ground units and spine crawlers is a frequent early defense option due to the queen's ability to block small ramps, attack air units, heal with transfusion and later spread creep tumors or relocate to an expansion for larva injection in the mid-game. In addition the queen's lack of an armor type means that few units deal bonus damage to the queen, making her an excellent all-around tanking unit.
The queen's movement speed bonus from creep is much larger than other zerg units, making it especially slow when off of creep, but is fairly quick when on creep.
Blizzard considers Spawn Larva to be harder to use than other race-specific macro mechanics, but believes this balances the easier unit production management.[13]
Production
The queen emerges directly from the hatchery (meaning it is not morphed from a larva but walks out of the hatchery) and requires a spawning pool. You cannot set a rally point for your queen, they always spawn directly next to the hatchery in available space.
Abilities
Many zerg ground units may burrow, becoming invisible and revealed primarily by detectors, and may not move or attack while burrowed.
Exceptions include:
- Roach, which may move while burrowed
- Lurker, which may attack while burrowed
- Infestor, which may move while burrowed
- Baneling, which can detonate while burrowed.
Some units can unburrow via autocast, causing them to emerge and attack when an enemy moves into range.
The ability is not smartcast.
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The queen forces a creep tumor out of her bowels.[14]
Alternatively, each creep tumor may create a single additional creep tumor, using the same build time but no energy cost. This changes the tumor's appearance.
Creep tumors can only be created upon the creep, and within a range.
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Queens can target a hatchery/lair/hive, causing it to eventually spawn four larvae. These join any already-present larvae. The larva-producing structure will not naturally produce any more larvae until the total falls below three. The larva count for any given hatchery/lair/hive cannot exceed nineteen, no matter how many times spawn larva is cast.
In Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, four larvae are spawned. In Legacy of the Void, three larvae are spawned,[15] and multiple casts can be queued on a single base.[16]
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A hatchery spawning extra larvae
The queen instantly restores 75 hit points to target biological unit or structure, plus an additional 50 health over the next 7.14 seconds. Can only be used while on creep.
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Upgrades
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Development
Achievements and Rewards
The queen portrait is unlocked when earning the Solo Zerg 250 achievement.
Queen Variants  A queen
Notes
References
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