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Co-op Commander Guide: Stukov

Infested Admiral

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Commander Summary

Stukov dominates the battlefield by overwhelming his enemies with large numbers of infested units.

Level Unlocks

Level/Icon	Name	Description
	Infestation	Stukov begins with an Infested Colonist Compound that automatically generates Infested infantry units every 60 seconds for no cost. Stukov’s primary structure generates creep at an accelerated rate and unlimited range.
	Hostile Incubation	Infest Structure can now store two additional charges and can target enemy structures, disabling them in addition to spawning Broodlings.
	Epidemic	Unlocks an additional level of Infestation at the Infested Colonist Compound. Also unlocks an upgrade at the Infested Command Center to increase the number of Broodlings spawned by Infest Structure by 50%.
	Apocalisk	Unlocks the ability to spawn an Apocalisk at the target location. The Apocalisk is controllable and will fight for 60 seconds. Spawn the Apocalisk from the top panel.
	Infested Engineering Bay Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Infested Engineering Bay: Increase the armor of Infested Bunkers. Increase the life regeneration rate of Infested Bunkers while they are rooted.
	Corrupted Conscription	Spawn Infested Marine can now store 10 additional charges and Infested Marines now spawn 100% faster.
	Infested Infantry Upgrade Cache	Unlocks an upgrade at the Infested Colonist Compound that spawns Broodlings when Infested Civilians die. Unlocks an upgrade at the Infested Barracks Tech Lab that enables Infested Marines and Infested Troopers to deal additional damage over time to units they attack.
	New Unit: Brood Queen	Flying support unit. Can use Ocular Symbiote and Spawn Broodlings. Can attack air units.
	Infested Factory Upgraded Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Infested Factory Tech Lab: Increase the damage that Infested Siege Tanks deal to armored targets. Enable Infested Diamondbacks to leave behind a trail of slime that deals damage and slows enemy ground units.
	Aleksander	Unlocks the ability to call down the Aleksander at the target location. The Aleksander is controllable and will fight for 60 seconds. Call down the Aleksander from the top panel.
	Infested Starport Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Infested Starport Tech Lab: Increase the life of Infested Banshees. Reduce the damage taken by Infested Liberators while they are attacking.
	Incendiary Prosthetics	Increases the area damage dealt by the Apocalisk’s attacks and its initial spawn by 100%.
	Brood Queen Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrade at the Infested Starport Tech Lab: Increase the Brood Queen’s energy regeneration rate by 100% and allow it to spawn with full energy. Enable Brood Queens to immobilize and reveal enemy ground units while dealing damage to them over time.
	Engorged Bunkers	Increases the number of units that Infested Bunkers can hold by 2, and increases the spawning rate of Infested Troopers by 20%.
	Neural Infestation	Stukov gains control of enemy units who are under attack from the Aleksander’s tentacles.

Highlighted rows denote large power spikes for the commander.

Achievements

The commander-specific achievements for Stukov are:

Achievement	Name	Description
	A Brood of Your Own	Deal 10,000 damage to enemies with Broodlings spawned from allied buildings in Co-op Missions.
	Apocalisk Now	Deal 100,000 damage with Apocalisks in Co-op Missions.
	Short Term Infestment	Spawn 5,000 Infested Marines in Co-op Missions.
	The Stukov Maneuver	Deal 100,000 damage with the Aleksander in Co-op Missions.

Calldowns

The calldowns for Stukov, at level 15, with no mastery points added are:

Calldown	Name	Description	Recommended Usage	Numbers
	Deploy Psi Emitter	Sends all currently existing and newly constructed infested infantry units to the designated point.	Reposition your Psi Emitter often to ensure your Infested units are moving in the direction you want to.	Cooldown: 0 seconds
	Infest Structure	Infests target friendly or enemy structure, causing it to spawn 60 Broodlings over 20 seconds. Friendly structures are healed for 25 life per second and enemy structures are disabled for the duration of the effect.	Infest Structure cannot target uprooted Bunkers. Root them, then infest, then uproot them. Useful for distracting enemy units while your army attacks.	Coolup: 180 seconds Cooldown: 90 seconds Max charges: 3
	Apocalisk	Spawns an Apocalisk at the target location. The Apocalisk is controllable and will fight for 60 seconds.	Useful for dealing with ground forces. Can deal with minimal air units.	Coolup: 240 seconds Cooldown: 300 seconds
	Aleksander	Calls down the Aleksander Infested Battlecruiser at the target location. The Aleksander is controllable and will fight for 60 seconds.	Useful for pushing into enemy bases. After the Aleksander dies, it crashes to the ground, dealing 300 damage and spawning an infested unit every second for another 30 seconds. Has an aura that reduces incoming damage.	Coolup: 360 seconds Cooldown: 360 seconds

The Apocalisk ability brings an Apocalisk onto the battlefield. This unit has abilities itself, shown below:

Sub-Ascension Leveling

Difficulty: Easy

Stukov plays the same way he does at Ascension levels when he is at lower levels. However, the spawn rate of his infested units is significantly lower (due to the lack of the Engorged Bunkers upgrade). Therefore, be careful when you choose to unload Bunkers for a swell of Infested, as it will take a while before Bunkers get refilled.

Masteries

Below are the three Power Sets for Stukov 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
Volatile Infested Spawn Chance	0.5% per point 15% maximum	30	Players that use Infest Structure more aggressively might consider adding some points into that respective mastery. However, they should also consider the fact that Volatile Infested can deal a lot of splash damage, which can help weaken enemy defenses.
Infest Structure Cooldown	-1.5 sec per point -45 sec maximum	0

The Volatile Infested increase your commander power level. Additionally, it also causes the Aleksander to start spawning Volatile Infested units. While Infest Structure is useful, its power level does not match that of actual units on the field.

Power Set 2:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Aleksander Cooldown	-3 sec per point -90 sec maximum	0	Players that prefer to push into enemy bases backed up by the Aleksander (which provides a damage reduction buff) might find it useful to add some points into the Aleksander mastery. However, they will be taking away points from the Apocalisk mastery, which allows it to be spammed more frequently.
Apocalisk Cooldown	-3 sec per point -90 sec maximum	30

While the Aleksander is significantly more powerful, you probably won't be using it as much as the Apocalisk, which can be spammed to deal with attack waves and small pushes.

Power Set 3:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Infested Infantry Duration	1 sec per point 30 sec maximum	30	Players that rely on a strong presence of Mechanical units (Diamondbacks, Liberators and Siege Tanks) may prefer to add points into the Mech mastery to further strengthen their army.
Mech Attack Speed	1% per point 30% maximum	0

You probably won't be using enough Mech units to justify the Mech Attack Speed mastery. The Duration mastery affects all infested units, which makes it much more powerful.

Prestiges

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

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
1	Frightful Fleshwelder	Advantages: Factory and Starport no longer have tech requirements. Mechanical combat units cost 30% less. Automated Mitosis generates Infested Siege Tank ammunition 200% faster. Disadvantages: The Infested Colonist Compound does not spawn and cannot be built.	1	None
This prestige puts Stukov's mech units well within reach in the early game, allowing him to have map presence by removing tech requirements and providing a cost reduction to his units. It is an extremely powerful prestige and the loss of the Infested Colonist Compound only affects the infested in the infested-specific upgrades (Anaerobic Enhancement and Broodling Gestation). While those upgrades are useful, their value does not match up to that of having significantly cheaper mech units.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
2	Plague Warden	Advantages: Banshees can load up to 16 Infested infantry and can launch their cargo at a ground target. Disadvantages: Infested Civilians have 30% reduced timed life.	1	Banshees can unload units to a target location within 10 range, dealing 20 damage.
This prestige makes Banshees double up as Medivacs to shuttle Infested Infantry to various locations on the map. While this prestige allows for some creative strategies to be utilized, the excessive amount of micro required to load and unload units from Banshees is not worth the payback. Additionally, Infested Banshees generally are not as effective as Diamondbacks in dealing with most ground objectives, especially considering their high cost, rendering this prestige fairly useless.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
3	Lord of the Horde	Advantages: Infested Bunkers spawn Infested Troopers 200% faster. Disadvantages: Infested Bunkers no longer have cargo capacity.	1	None
This prestige converts Bunkers from static defense structures to Infested Trooper generators. Bunkers lose the loaded troopers functionality, but they generate Infested units at a highly accelerated rate. For players that prefer a mass Bunker strategy, this prestige is better than having no prestige talents selected. The prestige works well with the Infested Duration mastery, and on maps where you are required to push in a single direction. Missions like Temple of the Past will provide a little more challenge for players using this Prestige. It can be very effective against mutators such as Boom Bots, Black Death and Kill Bots

Frightful Fleshwelder takes Stukov's most powerful units and puts them within reach of the early game, his weakest phase in the game. The versatility of that prestige is great and causes it to outshine the other prestiges and is the recommended prestige for general Stukov play at the very least.

Recommended Army Composition

The recommended army composition for Stukov 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.

Focus on teching up to an Infested Diamondback build and dump remaining minerals into Infested Bunkers and Infested Colonist Compound upgrades.

Add Infested Siege Tanks to you army if you need to hold certain defensive positions.

Combat Units

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

Stukov's combat units are listed below:

Build Order

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

15 Overlord
15 Refinery
19 Command Center at Rocks
21 Refinery
21 Anaerobic Enhancement
22 Engineering Bay
22 Overlord
24 Broodling Gestation
25 Barracks

Gameplay Guide

Playstyle Traps

A common trap for Stukov players is to opt for a Barracks-based build. While for most intents and purposes this is fine, this strategy may fail on missions which last much longer than the average game time. These situations may arise on some mutators. With a long game time, a Barrack's based Stukov player may run out of minerals as their Infested army is not persistent.

A better build is to go for a Bunker-based build, which spawns free Infested units. The Bunker build is superior to the Barracks build, even on regular missions, due to the higher strength of the Bunker, and its ability to regenerate health. Additionally, the infested troopers inside the Bunkers do not have timed life until they are removed from the Bunker.

The Infested Colonist Compound

The Infested Colonist Compound provides some of the most powerful upgrades and makes up the core of Stukov's army. Every 60 seconds, the Compound creates a wave of Infested Civilians based on its level. The Civilians start off in eggs, and take 30 seconds to hatch.

The Infested Colonist Compound infestation level is persistent. That is, if it is destroyed, it will keep its level when rebuilt.

Level	Eggs	Requirements	/
0	8	-	-
1	16	Infested Barracks	200/0
2	32	Infested Engineering Bay	300/100
3	64	Infested Armory	400/200

Playstyle Tips

• When using Siege Tanks, ensure you place your Psi Emitter near the Siege tanks if they are not near Bunkers.
• Infested Bunkers are structures when rooted and units when uprooted. Root and uproot your Bunkers to effectively counter units (e.g rooted Bunkers vs. Widow Mines and uprooted Bunkers vs. Reapers).
• Before pushing into an enemy base, root a Bunker, cast Infest Structure on it, then unroot it and move it forward. The Infest Structure will heal the Bunker.
• When a Bunker is at low HP, unload it to reduce its aggro rating, providing it a way to escape without dying.
• The Acidic Enzymes upgrade (available at the Factory's Tech Lab) affects Volatile Infested, which happen to be fired from the Siege Tanks. Therefore, buying this upgrade will also affect the Volatile Infested spawned from the compound.

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

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