Egg

[e][h] Egg

Unit Information

Type:

Medium Ground Unit

Unit stats

Defense:

200 10

Sight:

4

Description

The Egg is the unit Larvae and Hydralisks are transformed into in the process of morphing into another Zerg unit (Lurkers from Hydralisks). An Egg has a very high Armor value, making it hard to kill. When a unit is about to hatch from the Egg, it starts the "hatching animation," during which the new unit maintains the Egg's HP percentage. After the hatching animation completes, the hatched unit is restored to 100% HP. If the unit being hatched is killed during the hatching animation, it will simply disappear without death animation. [1]

A Larva Egg will die when you cancel the unit it is morphing into, sacrificing the Larva. However, the Lurker Egg will change back to a Hydralisk. This Hydralisk will maintain the HP percentage of the egg. There is a bug report that when the morph lurker command is given then immediately canceled, the resources spent will not be refunded. [2]

Competitive Usage

General

Blocking a narrow passage. Lurker Eggs are commonly used to block off a ramp to stall for time or deny base entry. This is seen in both ZvP and ZvT.

Pushing a unit away or through an obstacle.

Morphing a Hydralisk to a Lurker Egg, or Larva to an Egg to prevent it from getting killed.

versus Terran

In a Hydra/Lurker build, if a Hydralisk is irradiated, morphing it to a Lurker Egg will negate any further damage done by Irradiate. The effect will still injure other units around it, but once the Lurker hatches, the Irradiate effect is immediately removed.

versus Protos

When fighting Zealots with small armies of Hydralisks, morphing the attacked/front Hydralisks to Lurker Eggs saves them from dying and creates a pseudo-wall, hindering the Zealot advance.

Plasma Map

The map Plasma contains neutral Lurker Eggs that block the shortest Rush Distance between the bases. While they are neutral, they can be destroyed like any other Lurker Egg; hatching is disabled for the neutral eggs. A way to bypass them was implemented into the map. Because Eggs are considered units, they can be “floated” over by workers by issuing the orders to mine a mineral patch that is visible from across the Egg field.

Trivia

First use of an Egg blocking a passage was seen at November 26, 2006 —  YellOw/ Goodfriend vs.  ShinHwA/ Dongrae on Vampire, SKY Proleague 2006 Ro2 Day 27 3set. It was pointed out in a TL thread “YellOw’s Larva Block”, with a short video and an interview translation. At the time, the Larva Trick was not known, but the Egg block originated from the specific Hatchery placement on the map.

An Egg will trigger a Spider Mine and two Mines can kill an Egg.