• 🏠
• Commanders
• Community
• Guides
• Missions
• Resources
• Tools
• About
• My Account

Co-op Commander Guide: Kerrigan

Queen of Blades

Sections on this Page

Commander Summary

Kerrigan dominates the battlefield with her aggressive abilities combined with some classic Zerg units.

Level Unlocks

Level/Icon	Name	Description
	Mutating Carapace	Kerrigan gains temporary life as she deals damage. If killed, she is revived quickly at her Hatchery.
	Immobilization Wave	Unlocks Kerrigan's Immobilization Wave ability, which damages and stuns enemies in a large area around her.
	Ruthlessness	Increases the damage of Kerrigan's Leaping Strike by 150 to 300 and its cast range from 6 to 12. Increases the damage of Psionic Shift from 50 to 100.
	Spawning Pool Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Spawning Pool: Increases Zerglings' life from 35 to 45. Zerglings' attacks reduced their target's armor to 0 for 10 seconds.
	New Unit:Lurker	Area-damage ambusher. Must burrow to attack. Morphed from Hydralisks. Can attack ground units.
	Hydralisk & Lurker Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Hydralisk Den and Lurker Den: Increase Hydralisks' life from 80 to 100. Unlocks Hydralisk's Frenzy ability, which increases their attack speed by 50% for 15 seconds. Increase Lurkers' attack range from 9 to 12.
	Malignant Creep	All friendly ground units gain increased attack speed (by 30%) and life regeneration (by 1HP/s for Zerg Units) while on creep. Creep tumors spread creep faster and farther. Passive ability.
	Omega Worm	Upgrades the Nydus Network to the Omega Network, which can summon Omega Worms. Omega Worms cost no resources, unload units instantly, and can also be used by your ally.
	Kerrigan Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Evolution Chamber: Upgrades Kerrigan's attacks to deal normal damage to her target and then jump to additional nearby enemies. Reduces Kerrigan's ability cost and cooldowns by 20%.
	Fury	Kerrigan's attack speed increases by 10% with each attack, up to a maximum of 50%. Passive ability.
	Spire Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Spire and Greater Spire: The Mutalisk's attack no longer decreases in damage with each subsequent bounce. Increase the Brood Lord's movement speed by 75%.
	Zergling Evolution: Raptor	Upgrades Zerglings to the Raptor strain. Fast melee unit. Leaps over obstacles and onto targets from range. Deals increased damage. Can attack ground units.
	Ultralisk Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Ultralisk Cavern: Unlock the Ultralisk's Burrow Charge ability. The Ultralisk burrows and charges at an enemy unit. Upgrade Ultralisks' attacks to self-heal for 40% of damage dealt.
	Ultralisk Evolution: Torrasque	Evolves Kerrigan's ultralisks into the Torrasque strain. Heavy assault beast. Has an area-damage cleave attack. When killed, can be revived. Can attack ground units.
	Queen of Blades	Increases Kerrigan's energy regeneration by 50%.

Highlighted rows denote large power spikes for the commander.

Achievements

The commander-specific achievements for Kerrigan are:

Achievement	Name	Description
	In the Name of Love	Stun 5,000 enemy units with Kerrigan's Immobilization Wave in Co-op Missions.
	Make It Rain	Generate 50,000 resources for your ally with Kerrigan's Assimilation Aura in Co-op Missions.
	Now I Am Become Death...	Kill 100 units with Kerrigan in a single mission on Hard difficulty.
	Walking Dead	Kill 50 units with Kerrigan's Leaping Strike in a single mission on Hard difficulty.

Sub-Ascension Leveling

Difficulty: Easy

Kerrigan (the hero unit) is extremely powerful, so utilize her as much as possible. Your army composition should be mass Hydralisk, with Nydus (and then Omega) worms to reinforce. Until you get Omega worms, place Nydus worms further away from where you are taking an engagement, as it will be used to reinforce your army a lot slower than usual.

While leveling through Mastery levels, allocate points into Power Set 1's Energy Regeneration mastery until you hit the desired number of points, before allocating them to Attack Damage.

Masteries

Below are the three Power Sets for Kerrigan with the recommended point allocations for each. Note that these are meant to serve a general, all-purpose build that is effective across all maps with no Prestiges selected. You are highly encourged to change these masteries to suit your playstyle and particular challenges you face (e.g. Weekly Mutations).

Power Set 1:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Kerrigan Energy Regeneration	1.5% per point 45% maximum	22	Both these masteries can help Kerrigan in different ways and it is up to you to determine how to allocate them. If you find that you are lacking energy, put a few more points into the Energy Regereration mastery.
Kerrigan Attack Damage	1 per point 30 maximum	8

This is a matter of preference. The 22/8 split allows Kerrigan to 3-shot Banshees with her auto-attack. A 28/2 split will allow her to 3-shot Mutalisks.

Power Set 2:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Combat Unit Vespene Gas Cost	-1% per point -30% maximum	?	Both these masteries are great, and the point allocation depends on the playstyle. A possible split is 11/19, which will allow Immobilization Wave to 1-shot units like Banshees and Swarm Hosts.
Augmented Immobilization Wave	3.33% per point 100% maximum	?

This is a matter of preference depending the playstyle. For solo Kerrigan builds, the Immobilization Wave mastery is great. Otherwise, the Combat Unit mastery will make your units very cheap to produce.

Power Set 3:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Expeditious Evolutions	-2% per point -60% maximum	29	Generally, the Evolutions mastery is very important. However, possible scenarios can arise where you'd want to increase Kerrigan's Primary Ability damage and attack speed, such as some mutators.
Primary Ability Damage and Attack Speed	1% per point 30% maximum	1

Reducing the cost and research time of evolutions allows you to get "Ability Efficiency" as quickly as possible, improving Kerrigan's power level. The 1 point into the Primary Ability improvement allows you to two-shot burrowed Lurkers.

Prestiges

Below are the prestiges for Kerrigan. Note that "Effective Level" is the level at which the prestige achieves it full effect.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
1	Malevolent Matriarch	Advantages: Malignant Creep effectiveness increased by 100%. Queens are no longer slowed and may place Creep Tumors while off creep. Disadvantages: Nydus and Omega Networks are unavailable.	7	Abathur allies will still have their Nydus Worms upgraded to Omega Worms
This prestige is a prestige that sacrifices mobility for better creep effectiveness. It works by improving the effectiveness of both you and your ally's units by providing them with extra attack speed, healing and map vision. If using this prestige, it is much better to spread Creep using other Creep Tumors than planting new ones. Newly-planted Creep Tumors build much slower than ones that are spread.

Effectiveness Bonuses:

• Attack speed bonus doubled
• Life regeneration rate bonus doubled
• Creep Tumor Build Range increased by 3
• Creep Tumor Vision Range increased by 3
• Creep Spread Range increased by 3
• Creep Spread Speed doubled

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
2	Folly of Man	Advantages: Kerrigan expends stacks of Fury while using Leaping Strike or Psionic Shift, striking nearby enemies for 50 damage and stunning them for 3 seconds. Disadvantages: Kerrigan's Carapace generation reduced by 50%. Kerrigan's ability damage reduced by 50%.	10	You get 1 Fury stack per auto-attack Fury stacks are limited to 5 Stun + Fury Damage range is 10
This prestige works well when pushing into enemy bases with Kerrigan. It allows Kerrigan to not only deal damage to enemy units effectively, but also stun enemy units, allowing you to unload units from Nydus worms without getting abilities casted on them. It works better with low numbers of high-HP units, rather than a large numbers of low-HP units.

Fury Stack Mechanics:

Every auto-attack provides you with one Fury stack, up to a maximum of 5 stacks. Each also increases your attack speed by 10%. If Kerrigan does not auto-attack for 5 seconds, her Fury stacks will disappear.

When either Leaping Strike or Psionic Shift are used, all Fury stacks are expended. Each stack will search for a number of targets as per the table below. The targets selected between stacks may be the same, but each stack may not select the same target. 50 damage is dealt to each of the selected targets. Detection is not required to hit a target.

Stack #	Targets
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	6
5	12

This implies two things:

1. The theoretical maximum amount of damage that can be dealt to a single target is 250 damage. This is caused by each stack selecting that target.
2. The theoretical maximum number of units that can be hit is 24 units. This is caused by each stack selecting different targets from the other stacks.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
3	Desolate Queen	Advantages: Assimilation Aura resource drops increased by 100%. Kerrigan gains Kinetic Blast and Crushing Grip. Disadvantages: Leaping Strike and Psionic Shift are unavailable	1	Crushing Grip can be used to reveal Cloaked/Burrowed units Both abilities hit air Both abilities are affected by the Primary Ability Improvement mastery
This prestige replaces Leaping Strike with an equivalent ability that can also hit air. However, it comes at a cost of losing Psionic Shift, which is generally used for dealing with several units in a line. Crushing Grip has a very small area-of-effect size (1.75 radius), which means she cannot hit as many units as Psionic Shift theoretically can. But the ability to stun units in that area is invaluable. Be careful when using Immobilization Wave with Crushing Grip, because they can overwrite each others stun durations. However, it is compensated for by allowing you to build your army a lot quicker, due to double Assimilation Aura drops.

For general play, Folly of Man provides the player with a good long-range damage as long as Kerrigan is able to build up Fury stacks and not take engagements against several enemy units in close proximity. It allows Kerrigan to more effectively clear enemy bases and keep her army alive. Another competitive prestige is Desolate Queen, which will allow Kerrigan to quickly invest in her army units.

Hero Unit

Spawn time: 4:00

Respawn time: 1:00

The abilities for Kerrigan are:

Ability	Name	Description	Cooldown	Energy Cost
	Leaping Strike	Kerrigan leaps to her target and deals 300 damage. Can be used without a target to travel quickly.	0 seconds	50
	Psionic Shift	Kerrigan dashes through enemies, dealing 100 damage to all enemies in her path.	0 seconds	50
	Assimilation Aura	Causes all nearby enemies to drop resources when killed. Effect lasts for 15 seconds.	120 seconds	0
	Immobilization Wave	Deals 100 damage to enemies in a large area around Kerrigan (27 range) and stuns them for 10 seconds. Heroic units are slowed.	Coolup: 600 seconds Cooldown: 180 seconds	0

Selecting the Desolate Queen prestige replaces your hero unit with a new hero unit. This unit has abilities itself, shown below:

Ability	Name	Description	Cooldown	Energy Cost
	Kinetic Blast	Kerrigan deals 300 damage to target unit or structure from long range.	0 seconds	50
	Crushing Grip	Enemies in target area are stunned and take 50 damage over 5 seconds. Heroic units are slowed.	0 seconds	75
	Assimilation Aura	Causes all nearby enemies to drop resources when killed. Effect lasts for 15 seconds.	120 seconds	0
	Immobilization Wave	Deals 100 damage to enemies in a large area around Kerrigan and stuns them for 10 seconds. Heroic units are slowed.	Coolup: 600 seconds Cooldown: 180 seconds	0

The upgrades for Kerrigan are:

Upgrade	Name	Effect	/	Research Time
	Heroic Fortitude	Kerrigan gains +200 maximum life. Life-regeneration rate increased by 100%.	100/100	60 seconds
	Chain Reaction	Kerrigan's attacks deal normal damage to her target then jump to additional nearby enemies. Deals 10 damage to up to four additional targets.	150/150	90 seconds
	Ability Efficiency	Kerrigan's ability costs and cooldowns are reduced by 20%.	200/200	120 seconds

Recommended Army Composition

The recommended army composition for Kerrigan is below. Note that this assumes no Prestige talent selected and recommended Mastery Allocations. This is a basic recommendation for your army framework. It is recommended to gain an understanding for each of the units in the Units section and further add tech units so that you are able to better handle the situations you face.

Mass Hydralisk builds work very well for Kerrigan because of their large amounts of burst potential from their Frenzy, when they are unloaded from Omega Worms.

Add Lurkers to your army composition when you need to defend at particular choke points.

Combat Units

For more information on Kerrigan's unit stats, comparison between units and upgrade calculations, visit the Data Tables page.

Kerrigan's combat units are listed below:

Build Order

Below is the standard economic build order for Kerrigan. For more information on how to read and construct your own build orders, please check the Build Order Theory page.

14 Overlord
14 Macro Hatchery at Rocks
19 Extractor
21 Extractor
24 Macro Hatchery at Rocks
28 Spawning Pool
33 Overlord
Kerrigan -> Rocks

Gameplay Guide

Playstyle Traps

None

Playstyle Tips

• Ability Efficiency works on all of Kerrigan's abilities, including Immobilization Wave.
• Kerrigan is extremely powerful, especially in the early game. Make sure she's always on the battlefield.
• Use Assimilation Aura as soon as you can. It can propel your economy forward.
• Omega Worms give Kerrigan unmatched mobility. At the very minimum, you should have two worms built, and hotkeyed for use.
• Use Omega Worms for detection and for spreading creep around the map.
• Loading units into Nydus/Omega Worms will prevent them from taking DoT (damage over time) damage.
• Units inside the Worms still gain the Malignant Creep HP regeneration buff.
• Immobilization Wave has a range larger than the screen width. Make sure you position Kerrigan accordingly for maximum value.
• Immobilization Wave decloaks any targets hit by it.
• The first two upgrades you must get are "Heroic Fortitude" which increases Kerrigan's HP and "Ability Efficiency" which reduces Kerrigan's cooldowns.
• Kerrigan's Creep bonuses applies to all creep, including Stukov's automatic creep spread.
• Use Queens to Transfuse Kerrigan to increase uptime of the Hero unit, especially during Hero solos.
• Kerrigan's Psionic Shift does not need detection to damage cloaked or burrowed targets.

Note: All data generated on this site is based on Brutal difficulty. Timings, compositions and other elements may differ on easier difficulty levels.

© Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and StarCraft are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.