Alien commander

A practical guide to commanding aliens: cysts and harvesters, hive types, biomass, upgrades and support abilities.

Your job in one sentence#

Spread infestation and harvesters across the map, grow biomass so your players get their abilities, and keep the players alive with healing and drifter abilities.

Opening#

Drifter first: it grows everything faster and scouts.
Cyst toward the nearest free resource nodes and drop harvesters there (8 res each). Harvesters take 38 s; have the drifter grow them.
Upgrade the hive to Crag, Shade or Shift (10 res) and drop the first chamber. Your skulks want their first upgrade early.
Biomass 1 research (15 res) to reach biomass 2: Bile Bomb and Rupture.

Mid game#

Second hive. More biomass, more eggs, a second spawn point and a second hive type (so a second kind of chamber). Build it when the area is safe; an unbuilt hive is a big target.
Abilities. Research Leap (biomass 4) early for skulks. Lerks want Umbra/Spores (6), fades Metabolize (3) then Stab (7), onos Bone Shield (6) and Stomp (8). See Biomass.
Second and third chambers of your main type to push upgrades to level 3.
Harvesters everywhere marines are not. Re-cyst cut chains immediately.

Supporting a fight#

Nutrient Mist on a new harvester or hive.
Enzyme on your team when they engage: +25% attack speed.
Mucous Membrane on a group taking fire.
Rupture before a fight so everyone sees the marines.
Bone Wall to cut a marine push in half or trap marines in a corridor.
Heal Wave and Ink to save a hive under siege.

Lifeform eggs#

With enough biomass you can turn eggs into Gorge, Lerk, Fade or Onos eggs. A free fade or onos for a player who just died can swing a fight, but it costs a lot of team res (80 / 100).

Common mistakes#

Not spending res on harvesters early.
All chambers in one room a single GL marine can clear.
Forgetting to research abilities once biomass is reached.
No drifter: structures take twice as long to build without one.