Alien Hive Order

[ZERO]

You will here many of us NS1 players declare Shift -> Creg -> Shade
There is very good reason for this and it will be explained below.

Any good strategy should assume that both teams are of equal skill or that your team is at a slight disadvantage. Therefore you need to think about what you gain from each of these hive selections and what the real benefits are:

Shift

• Speed
• Energy
• Ability to spawn outside of start hive
• Ability to energize around dropped shift

Creg

• Health
• Regen
• Ability to regen buildings around creg

Shade

• Silence
• Cloak
• Cloak building around shade

In the early game map control is most important and given the size and layout of most maps having speed is key. In addition if you need higher lifeforms to get a 3rd hive what upgrades are most and least valuable. Will shade upgrades help you get a 3rd hive as much as Creg or Shift, NO. Creg is second most important b/c by the time this upgrade comes around marines have weapons 2 and we need the health as a counter.

The one thing to realize is that it is not that you must do Shade last or that shade is bad. It is more that you ALWAYS want shift. You can still get a great combo with speed and silence and subvert the enemy position and counter attack. They key is that you are going to need armor upgrades when weapons 3 is out.

The value of shade for cloak is quickly lost when they hard counter with obs which they should be placing down in key points regardless. Both Shift and Creg are more direct counters to what the marines do in every game. That being trying to take map control and getting weapon upgrades.

It is fine to play around with different hive orders but do so knowing that your team NEEDS to be better than your opponent to actually win in the end.

[Chikun]

Yeah, shade is rather useless against a team that knows anything. However, going shade first before they get an observatory may be interesting early game.

[ZERO]

But the order of things for marines is usually: Amory -> obs -> phase tech

[Tickle Me Emo]

I've seen first hive shade drops devastate marines early game, with cloak providing enough of a surprise advantage to hold the map. That's rare, though, against competent marines, so I don't think it's a good strategy. I think shift should always be first for celerity alone. Second hive could go either way depending on how people are playing and how fast you are dropping hives and/or if you have multiple tech points locked down fairly well. I think crag is the safest build and shade is riskier with potential for high payoff. Silence is very nasty in NS2, since there is no motion sensing outside of obs range, and dropping shades all over the map means you have cloaked, silent aliens all over. Initiate paranoid marine mode, forcing them to play safer and lose map control, or suffer repeated death from previously mentioned cloaked and silent aliens. This works best if your team has a very good early game and takes control quickly. This means you control areas to put shades in, as well as provides the resources necessary for that kind of mass chamber deployment at an early point in the game. It also means early marine research is slowed due to lacking resources. If you don't have good map control, you won't have the areas for shades, you won't have the resources, and you risk not getting a third hive down to then get crag, which absolutely will be necessary as marines tech up.

TLDR: Shade is a great second chamber for snowballing games that are already going well, if aliens use it properly.

As a side note, if someone is planning on an early onos, always go crag. Period. If they do, you're obviously doing well, but crag is going to help that onos more every time.

[Chikun]

Shift is good for more eggs and in more areas closer to the battlefield. Also helps out a gorgie trying to speed production of a second hive if the commander drops one next to it.

[ZERO]

Also with the buff for cregs and regen the creg hive is better than ever! In fact Creg is now viable as a first hive b/c of the buffs.