Bred from the Mutalisk strain, the Devourers are a deadly addition to the Swarm. These large, flying behemoths are capable of spewing their vile acid at any airborne ships or creatures, causing significant corrosive damage. The venom of the Devourer consists of toxins that can eat through any known substance, including the reinforced armor plating of Terran and Protoss capital ships. The venom also contains Acid Spores that hinder the fighting ability of the target, and these Spores often splash off the target to hit additional nearby enemy craft.

The Devourer is the heavy air assault attacker for the Zerg. Despite its large size, the Devourer can travel through the air at surprising speeds (much faster than its Guardian counterpart). Once the Devourer arrives at the battlefield, any enemy aerial unit at the scene will have something to worry about. The Devourer's massive 25 explosive damage attack is quite destructive, but on top of that, the acid spores that splash off the direct impact hinder the enemy in two important ways. Each Acid Spore attached to an enemy unit will increase the Cooldown of the enemy's weaponry by 1/8th of the original cooldown value. The effects of the Acid Spores are cumulative, but any unit can only possess up to nine Acid Spores at any one time. Units with already long Cooldown periods between attacks such as the Valkyrie, Devourer or Battlecruiser suffer tremendously from the Spores, while units such as the Protoss Carrier suffer little since they have no direct attack.

To make matters worse for the enemy, with every Acid Spore that's attached, the unit takes an additional point of damage whenever it is attacked. At a maximum of 9 Spores attached, the affected unit will be taking SERIOUS damage from enemy attacks. Even a non-upgraded Mutalisk will do 18 points of damage per attack with its bounce attack doing 12 and 10 points to any other nearby enemy units that also have 9 Spores attached. So as you can see, having air support for Devourers will not only help protect the Devourers, but they will also help take down the enemy at an incredibly quick rate.

One of the interesting side effects of the Devourer's Acid Spores is that the Spores can be used to counter cloaked units. Once an Acid Spore is attached, cloaking becomes completely ineffective for the affected unit. However, in order for you to use this to your advantage, you must either strike the target before it cloaks or be able to detect it long enough for an Acid Spore to be attached.

Uprades

Flyer Attack - Each upgrade adds +2 to the Flyer Attack for a total of +6 when fully upgraded.

Flyer Carapace - Each upgrade adds +1 to the Flyer Carapace for a total of +3 when fully upgraded.