SC2 walkthrough

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |----- STARCRAFT 2 FAQ/WALKTHROUGH -------------------------------------------| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Platform: PC and Mac Version: 1.03 Last Update: Aptril 15, 2011 Email: perfdark@gmail.com Author: Jared Cano (aka James00715, Thander) |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |----- TABLE OF CONTENTS -----------------------------------------------------| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| I. Legal Stuff...........................................................[LGLS] II. Revision History.....................................................[RVSN] III. Introduction........................................................[NTRD] IV. Basics...............................................................[BSCS] A. Interface & Controls.............................................[CNTR] B. Mechanics........................................................[MCHN] V. Races.................................................................[RCSE] A. Terran...........................................................[TRRN] i. Terran Mechanics............................................[TMCH] ii. Terran Units...............................................[TNTS] iii. Terran Buildings..........................................[TBLD] B. Zerg.............................................................[ZRGE] i. Zerg Mechanics..............................................[ZMCH] ii. Zerg Units.................................................[ZNTS] iii. Zerg Buildings............................................[ZBLD] C. Protoss..........................................................[PRTS] i. Protoss Mechanics...........................................[PMCH] ii. Protoss Units..............................................[PNTS] iii. Protoss Buildings.........................................[PBLD] VI. Single Player........................................................[SNGL] A. Campaign Features................................................[CFTR] B. Campaign Walkthrough.............................................[CWLK] i. Mar Sara Missions...........................................[MRSR] a. Liberation Day.........................................[LBRD] b. The Outlaws............................................[THTL] c. Zero Hour..............................................[ZRHR] ii. Colonist Missions..........................................[CLNS] a. The Evacuation.........................................[THVC] b. Outbreak...............................................[OTBR] cA. Safe Haven............................................[SFHV] cB. Haven's Fall..........................................[HVNF] iii. Covert Missions...........................................[CCVR] a. The Devil's Playground.................................[THDV] b. Welcome to the Jungle..................................[WLCM] cA. Breakout..............................................[BRKT] cB. Ghost of a Chance.....................................[GSTF] iv. Rebellion Missions.........................................[RBLL] a. The Great Train Robbery................................[THGR] b. Cutthroat..............................................[CTTH] c. Engine of Destruction..................................[NGND] d. Media Blitz............................................[MDBL] e. Piercing the Shroud....................................[PRCN] v. Artifact Missions...........................................[RTFC] a. Smash and Grab.........................................[SMSH] b. The Dig................................................[THDG] c. The Moebius Factor.....................................[THMB] d. Supernova..............................................[SPRN] e. Maw of the Void........................................[MWFT] vi. Prophesy Missions..........................................[PRPH] a. Whispers of Doom.......................................[WHSP] b. A Sinister Turn........................................[SNST] c. Echoes of the Future...................................[CHSF] d. In Utter Darkness......................................[NTTR] vii. Final Missions............................................[FNLM] a. Gates of Hell..........................................[GTSF] bA. Belly of the Beast....................................[BLLY] bB. Shatter the Sky.......................................[STTR] c. All In.................................................[ALLN] C. Campaign Lists...................................................[CLST] i. Armory......................................................[RMRY] ii. Mercenaries................................................[MRCN] iii. Laboratory................................................[LBRY] iv. Unlocked Units.............................................[NLCK] D. Challenges.......................................................[CHNG] i. Basic.......................................................[BASC] a. Tactical Command.......................................[TCTC] b. Path of Ascension......................................[PTHA] c. For the Swarm..........................................[FRTH] ii. Advanced...................................................[ADVN] a. Covert Ops.............................................[CVRT] b. Psionic Assault........................................[PSNC] c. Infestation............................................[NFST] iii. Expert....................................................[XPRT] a. Harbinger of Death.....................................[HRBN] b. Opening Gambit.........................................[PNNG] c. Rush Defense...........................................[RSHD] E. The Lost Viking..................................................[LSTV] F. Skirmishes.......................................................[SKRM] VII. Multiplayer.........................................................[MLTP] A. Etiquette........................................................[TGTT] B. Melee............................................................[MLLE] i. Ladder......................................................[LDDR] ii. Cooperative................................................[CPRT] iii. Custom Melee..............................................[CSTM] iv. Game Flow..................................................[GMFL] v. Macro.......................................................[MCRA] vi. Micro......................................................[MCRI] C. Custom Maps......................................................[CMPS] VIII. Achievements.......................................................[CHVM] A. Liberty Campaign.................................................[LBRT] i. Mar Sara Missions...........................................[AMRS] ii. Colonist Missions..........................................[ACLN] ii. Covert Missions............................................[ACVR] ii. Rebellion Missions.........................................[ARBL] ii. Artifact Missions..........................................[ARTF] ii. Prophesy Missions..........................................[APRP] ii. Final Missions.............................................[AFNL] ii. Story Mode.................................................[STRY] B. Exploration......................................................[XPLR] i. Guide One...................................................[GDE1] ii. Guide Two..................................................[GDE2] iii. Guide Three...............................................[GDE3] iv. Challenges.................................................[ACHN] C. Custom Game......................................................[CMGM] i. Medium A.I..................................................[CMAI] ii. Hard A.I...................................................[CHAI] iii. Very Hard A.I.............................................[CVHA] iv. Insane A.I.................................................[CIAI] v. Outmatched..................................................[TMTC] vi. Blizzard Mods..............................................[BLZZ] D. Cooperative......................................................[CPTV] i. Medium A.I..................................................[PMAI] ii. Hard A.I...................................................[PHAI] iii. Very Hard A.I.............................................[PVHA] iv. Insane A.I.................................................[PIAI] v. Race A.I....................................................[PRAI] E. Quick Match......................................................[QCKM] i. Solo League.................................................[SLLG] ii. Team League................................................[TMLG] iii. Competitive...............................................[CMPT] F. Combat...........................................................[CMBT] i. Economy.....................................................[CNMY] ii. Melee Combat...............................................[MLCM] iii. League Combat.............................................[LGCM] G. Feat of Strength.................................................[FTFS] IX. Cheat Codes..........................................................[SCRT] X. FAQ...................................................................[SFAQ] XI. Links................................................................[LNKS] XII. Closing.............................................................[CLSN] A. Thanks...........................................................[TNKS] B. Submissions......................................................[SBMS] C. To-Do List.......................................................[TDLS] |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- I. LEGAL STUFF --------------------------------------------------[LGLS]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| This document is copyright (C) 2011 Jared Cano (aka James00715, Thander). This FAQ/Walkthrough is not to be used to make a profit of any kind. Permission is granted to print this document for personal use only. Any and all other means of reproduction are not allowed without my express permission. Websites with permission to host this FAQ: www.CheatCC.com www.StrategyInformer.com www.Eurogamer.net If you see or download this from anywhere else, please email me with the subject "Starcraft 2 FAQ/Walkthrough". You may also send an email to request permission to host the FAQ on your website. The latest version of this FAQ/Walkthrough can always be found on CheatCC. I generally do not post updates on other websites. It is too tedious to maintain accounts on every different website and put updates on all of them. Once I give permission to a website to host my FAQ/Walkthrough, they are free to follow CheatCC and update their files when new updates appear. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- II. REVISION HISTORY --------------------------------------------[RVSN]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| V1.03 - April 15, 2011 - Achievements section: Added all the Portrait rewards to Liberty Campaign I somehow forgot before - Patch 1.3 changes * Custom Maps section: Updated to include the new options available * Achievements section: Added Blizzard Mods section with 20 new achievements for Blizzard's official mods: "Aiur Chef", "StarJeweled", and "Left 2 Die" V1.02 - January 11, 2011 - Revision History updates * Reversed the order so the newest updates are first * Combined many entries to shorten the list - Overhauled Cheat Codes section * Text updates based on the official Blizzard blog post * Improved readability with tables * Added a question to FAQ about cheat codes - Small updates to the document * Corrected errors in Campaign Features * Updated To-Do List * Added new feats to Feats of Strength section * Added some updates based on Patch 1.2 changes V1.01 - September 2010 (5, 15, 19) - Added paragraph to Legal Stuff about latest version - Fixed some formatting errors - Reworded cheat code descriptions to be clearer - Added stuff from submissions * Fixed typos * Made corrections * Reader strategies V1.00 - August 25, 2010 - First release - First drafts finished * Campaign Walkthrough section * Campaign Lists section * Challenges section * FAQ section - Added content * The Lost Viking section * Skirmish section * Liberty Campaign achievements * Challenge achievements - General cleanup of the document * Fixed broken Table of Contents links * Spellcheck and grammar-check V0.40 - July 2010 (1, 10-13, 15-16, 19-21) - Added content * Basics section * More headings in Campaign section for future content - First drafts finished * Races section * Single Player section * Multiplayer section (Macro, Micro) * Achievements section * Links section * Table of Contents section - Links added to Table of Contents and Headings - General cleanup of the document * Headings and line spacing * Spellcheck and grammar-check V0.01 - June 2010 (8, 29) - File creation - General structure - First drafts finished * Introduction section * Basics section |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- III. INTRODUCTION -----------------------------------------------[NTRD]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| As a big fan of RTS games and Blizzard in general, I was really excited when they announced Starcraft 2. I kept up on any news about it and made sure to opt-in to the beta test. After numerous delays, the beta test finally started and I was lucky enough to get an invite. It was a blast being able to play one of the best games of the year before many other people. In a few short months the first phase of beta was over. They said they needed to configure the servers for the final release of the game, but there would be a phase two beta a few weeks before release. With a month's time of no Starcraft 2, it was going to be a long wait. I decided to use the free time I had from not playing to work on a FAQ/Walkthrough for what I predicted would be one of my favorite games in years. I hope you enjoy it. This FAQ/Walkthrough is laid out sort of in the order I would want to learn about the game. It starts with the most basic general information I could think of about the game. It then moves on to the basics for each race like units and buildings they have. All the single player content is next including the walkthrough and challenges. The multiplayer section contains brief overviews of the various multiplayer modes, but does not go into huge detail with strategies and such. There are entire websites devoted to Starcraft 2 multiplayer that have much more information on that subject than I could possibly include here. I provide a special Links section at the end of the document that includes good websites to learn more about multiplayer as well as other websites of interest to a Starcraft 2 player. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- IV. BASICS ------------------------------------------------------[BSCS]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| In this part I assume you are familiar with the RTS genre, but maybe not with the Starcraft mechanics. If you need more basic information, the in-game tutorial walks you step by step through most of the important things. This section is mainly about what's new in Starcraft 2 compared to other RTS games that a new player will want to know. =====A. Interface & Controls===========================================[CNTR]== Once the game starts there are pretty much five areas of the screen you are looking at: The world view, the mini-map, the unit card, the command card, and the resource display. There are many more controls then I list and describe here. In fact, most game functions have a keyboard hotkey associated with them. Hotkeys can speed up how fast you give orders, but they aren't required to play the game. -----World View----- This is where the pretty explosions are. In the world view, you can interact with your units and buildings directly with the mouse. You can Left-click on a unit to select it or Left-Click & Drag to select a group of units. Right-click is context sensitive based on the unit selected and where you click. So a right-clicking a Marine on the ground will order it to move to that location. Right-clicking the Marine onto an enemy unit will order it to move & attack the enemy unit. Other common uses for Right-click are ordering workers to gather resources and setting building waypoints. So the thing to remember: Left-Click is for selection, Right-Click is for orders. -----Minimap----- This is probably the most familiar part of the interface. The world view itself is just a zoomed in portion of the overall map, but the minimap shows the entire map on a small scale. The minimap let's you interact with the overall map faster than just relying completely on the world view. Left-click jumps the world view to that area of the map. Right-click orders units to move or attack units at the clicked point. Many unit special abilities can also be targeted on the minimap. -----Unit Card----- The unit card area has all the information about selected units or buildings. Common things to look at are name, portrait, health, damage, and armor numbers. Some units or buildings also have regenerating energy which is used up when using abilities. Protoss units and buildings also have regenerating shields. One new thing in Starcraft 2 is buff and debuff icons. Next to the image of the unit is an empty area that fills up with buff and debuff icons when the unit is affected by one. In most cases you won't see more than 1 or 2 on a unit at a time. There are only a few buffs and debuffs in the game. A buff is a positive effect like Stimpack, which increases movement and attack speed by 25%. A debuff is negative such as Concussive Shells which slows enemy movement speed by 50%. Buffs appear in a green shade while debuffs appear with red shading. Buffs and debuffs will flash when they are about to expire, but the actual duration left is not shown. Many times you don't have to worry about looking here as the units in the world view will have an animation pertaining to the buff/debuff, or it will be obvious when the ordered units don't behave normally. -----Command Card----- Just like its name, the command card has all of the commands you may wish to order your units and buildings. In Starcraft they are usually called abilities instead of commands. The top row has general abilities that all units have like Move, Attack, and Stop. The middle rows will usually have passive abilities or more rarely used abilities. The bottom row has the unique abilities for that unit. Some abilities require energy which the unit will regenerate over time. Every ability also has a hotkey which can speed up using it in the heat of battle. Since Starcraft 2 is a real-time game, the faster you can give your units orders, the bigger the advantage you will have over other players. -----Resource Display----- This area simply displays how much of each resource you have available. It is generally a good idea to keep your resources as low as possible. This means you will have more units on the field and more research on the way compared to it just sitting in the bank. Many times you don't have time to react to your enemy's army immediately. You have to prepare ahead of time by making the right units and buildings. Your army's current supply is also displayed here. Supply is sort of a resource since you have to decide when to construct buildings or units to support more supply. You start with a few free supply units but must raise it over time. Each game there is a max of 200 supply worth of units per player in the game. Supply is not equivalent to units since many units actually require more than one supply, up to eight supplies for the most powerful units. In contrast to the other resources, higher is better for supply. =====B. Mechanics======================================================[MCHN]== Besides the typical mechanics in other RTS games, Starcraft 2 introduces a few new ones and modifies a few old ones. These mechanics are used with all of the races. Race-specific mechanics are described in the Races section below. -----Resources----- Just like Starcraft 1, there are two resources in Starcraft 2: Minerals and Vespene Gas. The minerals are the most common resource and the first one you need in the game. Many of the first units you can create only require minerals. Vespene Gas is used for the more advanced units. Units require more and more gas the higher you get in the tech tree. The workers for all three races gather resources at the same rates. They carry 5 minerals per trip and 4 vespene gas per trip. One new thing in Starcraft 2 is the idea of high yield minerals. On some maps there will be minerals that appear gold or yellow instead of blue. The reward for gathering at these locations is 40% faster gathering rates (7 minerals per pickup). If you come from Warcraft, the resources are somewhat switched. Minerals are the "wood" and vespene gas is the "gold". Vespene is still scarce though because they have limited the max workers per vespene building to only 3 compared to 5 in Warcraft. Minerals are also gathered a lot faster than wood is chopped in Warcraft games with a max of about 24 workers per expansion. -----High Ground----- Similar to SC1, units on high ground have an advantage over units on low ground. However, there is a big change between SC1 and SC2. In SC2, units on low ground cannot fire at all on units standing on high ground unless they have sight of the high ground. Sight is gained by sending one of your ground units to the high ground or sending a nearby flying unit to spot for your units. Once sight is gained, low ground units do full damage to high ground units. This means that high ground has a bigger effect in the early part of the game when flying units are rare, but is negligible in the mid to late game. -----Environmental Cover----- On most maps there will be little enclosures of grass, weeds, or steam vents. Despite the visual differences, they all have the same effect. They obstruct the site range of ground units. Ground units can walk through them to see inside of the enclosure. This opens up possibilities for surprise attacks or escaping from failed attacks. Similar to high ground, a flying unit's sight range will not be obstructed by cover objects. -----Xel'Naga Towers----- This is a new mechanic for Starcraft 2. It has been done before in other games, but not so much in competitive play. When a ground unit moves near a Xel'Naga Tower, the tower becomes activated revealing a giant area around it. As long as the unit stays near the tower, the player gains constant sight of the area. It's usually good practice to park a cheap unit near them on the map to give early warning of enemy attacks. -----Destructible Rocks/Debris----- This is another new mechanic. Some of the objects on the map in strategic locations can be destroyed to reveal new paths for ground units or to unlock new expansion locations. New paths might be shortcuts to the enemy's base or a hidden back entrance. On many maps the gold (high yield) minerals require the nearby rocks be destroyed before you can build a Command Center (or equivalent) close to the minerals. -----Worker Auto-Mine----- Similar to Warcraft 3, you can set Rally points on minerals for the Command Center, Nexus, and Hatchery buildings. New workers will automatically go to the minerals and start mining. In addition, Blizzard has improved the worker AI when gathering minerals. Workers automatically move to other nearby mineral patches until the best overall gathering efficiency is achieved. This means you as the player never really need to worry about gathering once you have set your rally point. Just keep training new workers and all is well. -----Multiple Building Select----- Many RTS games in the past have had the ability to create multiple production buildings like the Barracks, but Starcraft 2 adds some new functionality making it a little easier and faster. In addition to units, buildings can now be grouped & hotkeyed. When a group of buildings is selected and a unit icon clicked, one building will start to train the unit. If you want more units, you click again. So the general idea is one click, one unit. This new system also automatically chooses the best production building to train the unit. For instance if building A is training a unit with 5 seconds left and building B is training a unit with 10 seconds left, the game will automatically queue a new unit from building A. These changes make it much easier to train units "in the field." You can focus on controlling your army away from base while still training reinforcements with efficiency. -----Smart Casting----- Many RTS games have casted abilities or spells, but Starcraft 2 makes them easier to use. In Starcraft 2 when you have multiple caster units and click on one of their abilities, only one of the casters will use the ability. This makes it a lot easier to control your army compared to Starcraft 1. You no longer have to click on each unit separately and cast abilities. You can maintain your group selection while still casting the necessary abilities in combat. However, smart casting doesn't affect every ability. Stimpack is probably the most common ability that does not smart cast, meaning you click Stimpack once and all of your Marines will use their stim. -----Unit Damage, Armor, and Attributes----- When playing the game it helps to know how much damage your units will do or how many hits your units can take. This lets you make the best decision about which upgrades to research (since you don't usually have time to research everything). Each unit has a certain number of attacks and some damage for each attack. For instance the Zealot has 2 attacks and 8 damage per attack. This means it would normally do 16 damage to another unit. What can be confusing is how armor reduces damage. Rather than dealing 15 damage to a 1 armor unit, the zealot would only do 14 damage. This is because the game calculates armor damage reduction for both attacks. So the first attack of 8 is reduced to 7 and then the same for the second attack for a total of 14 damage. So armor is very important in Starcraft 2. Some units also do Bonus Damage to certain units. One such unit is the Hellion which does 8 normal damage, but 16 damage to Light units. Each unit in the game has a few attributes. Some examples are Biological, Light, and Structure. So for this example the Hellion would do 14 damage to a unit with the Light attribute, but only 8 damage to units without the Light attribute. Looking at the Bonus Damage for each unit can help to show which units it will counter. Since the Hellion does Bonus Damage to Light, we know it is a good counter to Zerglings. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- V. RACES --------------------------------------------------------[RCSE]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Starcraft 2 has three races just like the original. However, there are quite a few differences in this game. Read about all three or just the Terran. The campaign only covers the Terran race with a mini-campaign for the Protoss. All three races are available in multiplayer. Each race has a tech tree made up of three tiers. The tiers are roughly based on when new units are available to be trained. The first tier has the cheapest units. They are usually pretty weak but can do a lot of damage in great numbers. The second tier has slightly more powerful units, but usually more specialized as well. You have a lot of choices of which units you want to focus on and may end up with a very different army than someone else. The third tier has the most powerful units. Usually the first player that gets a tier three unit is going to win the game, but they are pretty difficult to get when being attacked constantly. Key Next to each unit or building name is a letter indicating which parts of the game that unit or building is available in. Protoss units and buildings available in single player are only available in the special Protoss mini- campaign. [M] - available in multiplayer [S] - available in single player =====A. Terran=========================================================[TRRN]== Just like a person from America is called American, someone from Terra is called Terran. Terra is just another name for Earth, so the Terrans are humans just like us. The Terrans crash landed many years ago in the Koprulu sector, where Starcraft takes place. With their ships ruined, they learned very quickly how to reuse parts and make things work. Ingame this can be seen with a lot of the Terran units and buildings that are able to transform on the fly. Even though Terrans are not as advanced as the Protoss or as populous as the Zerg, they are gritty, scrappy, and toughened by years of hard survival away from home. The Terran tech trees are based around the Barracks, Factory, and Starport. The Terran can tech up the fastest out of all the races. Their buildings have fast build times, and they don't need any tech buildings to get to the next tier. -----i. Terran Mechanics-----------------------------------------------[TMCH]-- Lift Off Some Terran buildings have the Lift Off ability. This allows them to fly and move to another spot. While airborne they cannot perform their normal functions like training units. This is useful if you run out of minerals at your current location. You can just fly your Command Center close to some more minerals rather than having to build a whole new one. With unit producing buildings, you can build them in the safety of your base and later move them close to the enemy's base. Your units will be created much closer to your enemy's base, making it easier to catch them off guard or faster to send in reinforcements. Flying buildings can also act as a spotter to attack enemy units on high ground. Available to: Command Center, Barracks, Factory, Starport Building Add-ons In Starcraft 2, the building add-ons are now standardized. This means buildings that are capable of having an add-on can use any of the add-ons. There are no unique add-ons that only work with a certain building. Add-ons provide a way to upgrade buildings directly. Not only that, the add-on can be reused for another building later. You might build a Reactor for your Barracks early on, but then later on you swap out the Barracks with a Starport by clever use of Lift Off. So now your Starport has a Reactor at no additional time or cost. The two add- ons are the Reactor and Tech Lab. Look them up in the Buildings section below for more information about what they do. Available to: Barracks, Factory, Starport Repair/Healing Terran unit health is recovered in different ways depending on the unit. Units with the Mechanical attribute (Factory, Starport units) can be repaired by SCVs, MULES, or the Science Vessel. Buildings can also be repaired. The cost of repairs is based on the original cost of the unit, but it's always cheaper to repair then to buy a whole new unit. Units with the Biological attribute can be healed by Medics or Medivacs. Healing uses up energy, but it takes a long time for them to run out. Most Terran units are Mechanical, so it is good practice to bring a few SCVs behind the army for on-the-go repairs. Available to: SCV (Repair), MULE (Repair), Science Vessel (Nano-Repair), Medic (Heal), Medivac (Heal) Call Down: MULE This ability summons a new unit from the sky in a drop pod. The Mobile Utility Lunar Excavator (MULE) is basically a Super-SCV with a few limitations. It gathers six times as many minerals as an SCV and can repair things. The only downsides are that it's a temporary unit, it can't gather vespene gas, and it can't construct buildings (but can repair). Available at: Orbital Command Call Down: Extra Supplies Sometimes you might forget to build Supply Depots as your army increases. You will try to create a unit, but it will say you need more supply. You then have to wait 30 seconds for a new Supply Depot to be built. With this ability you can correct those mistakes by doubling the supply in a Supply Depot. A regular Supply Depot provides 8 Supply, so it becomes 16 with this ability. Of course if you manage supply perfectly, you probably won't need to use this ability. Available at: Orbital Command Scanner Sweep Just like Starcraft 1, this ability reveals an area of the map for a few seconds. The most common use is for scouting. You can do a scan before attacking to make sure you have enough units to win the battle or the right units to counter their units. You can also use it defensively to detect cloaked and burrowed units. Available at: Orbital Command -----ii. Terran Units--------------------------------------------------[TNTS]-- -----Command Center Units----- SCV [M][S] The Space Construction Vehicle is the basic Terran worker unit. Even though they don't really attack, SCVs are one of the most important units in the game. They gather the resources and construct the buildings for the Terran race. Without resources and buildings, you really can't do much. Only one SCV can construct a building at a time. SCVs can repair Terran buildings, Factory units, and Starport units. Any unit with the Structure or Mechanical attribute can be repaired by SCVs. Multiple SCVs can repair the same unit to speed up the repair at the cost of additional resources. Built at: Command Center, Orbital Command, Planetary Fortress -----Barracks Units----- Marine [M][S] This is the bread and butter infantry unit of the Terran army. They are cheap units with low health and armor and can attack both land and air. They may seem weak at first, but they are very strong in numbers. With their low cost, it's easy to build a lot of them quick. There is also an upgrade to improve their health to 55. The Stimpack ability even further increases their damage in numbers. For the immediate loss of 10 health, their attack speed and movement speed increases by 50%. Built at: Barracks Medic [S] Medics are the first Terran support unit. They come from Starcraft 1 almost unchanged. They are a special infantry unit that can heal any Biological unit, but they have no attack. In Starcraft 2 their heal has a longer range than in Starcraft 1, but otherwise they work the same as before. If you plan for a heavy infantry army, Medics are a must-have unit. You should have a minimum of 1 Medic for every 2 infantry in your army. Built at: Barracks w/ attached Tech Lab Marauder [M][S] Marauders are a new unit in Starcraft 2. Compared to Marines, they have more health and higher damage. The downsides are that they cost a little more and they cannot attack air units. So Marauders combined with Marines forms a well- rounded group. They also have the Stimpack ability, except it does 20 health damage instead of 10. Their attacks can be upgraded to Concussive Shells that slow the target's movement for a short time. Built at: Barracks w/ attached Tech Lab Firebat [S] In the campaign, you get access to Firebats early on. They look different from Starcraft 1, but they pretty much function the same way. They are melee shock troop units that fire two jets of flame at targets in a short area in front of them. This attack also does bonus damage to Light units like Zerglings and Hydralisks making them excellent for any kind of army intending to fight Zerg. Built at: Barracks w/ attached Tech Lab Reaper [M][S] These are pretty much only used for early harassment. To help them with this task, they are able to jump over cliffs with their jetpacks, making it easier to sneak inside the enemy's base. They do a lot of damage to Light units, but not much to other unit types. All workers are Light units, so you can see they are great in the beginning to pick off workers. Once the enemy has gotten a few army units, the usefulness of Reapers will be over. Reapers also do excellent damage to buildings. Sometimes you can use them to pick off buildings when your opponent is distracted. Built at: Barracks w/ attached Tech Lab Ghost [M][S] The ghost is the first Terran caster unit. It does do okay damage to Biological units, but most players build the Ghost for its special abilities. Just like in Starcraft 1, the Ghost can cloak and call a nuclear missile down on a target. It also gets the EMP Round ability, formerly on the Science Vessel, that removes shields and caster energy. A new ability in Starcraft 2 is Snipe, which gives the Ghost the ability to deal 45 damage instantly to any Biological unit. This is great for sniping weak units like other casters. Requires: Ghost Academy Built at: Barracks w/ attached Tech Lab Spectre [S] Spectres are a special alternative to the Ghost available only in the single player campaign. Compared to the Ghost it attacks slower, but does higher damage. While Spectres can cloak, their other abilities are a little different. Spectres don't have the EMP Round ability or the Snipe ability, but have the Psionic Lash ability. This ability requires a lot of energy, but does 200 damage to a single target and stuns it for a few seconds. This ability is the best against big, powerful targets such as Thors, Battlecruisers, Ultralisks, and Carriers. Requires: Shadow Ops Built at: Barracks w/ attached Tech Lab -----Factory Units----- Hellion [M][S] The hellion starts out as a harassment unit, but becomes a good support unit throughout the game. This unit is basically a buggy with a flame thrower attached to the top. The flame thrower only shoots in a straight line but can deal damage to all units in that line. It does extra damage to Light units, making it especially powerful against Zerg. Because of its high movement speed and low cost, it can be used as a scout throughout the game. Built at: Factory Vulture [S] The Vulture is a futuristic hover bike. It functions very similar to the Hellion, but with a few differences. Like the Hellion, it moves fast and does bonus damage to Light units. Unlike the Hellion, its grenade attacks only hit one target at a time. Vultures also have one special ability, Spider Mines. They can drop these on the ground anywhere. Spider Mines will lift out of the ground and pursue any enemy units that walk near them. Spider Mines do pretty hefty damage to any units in range. The easiest way to use them is for base defense where you place them at all the entrances to your base. A less common way to use them is when attacking. You can place a few near enemies and run away to let the Spider Mines do the job of killing them. Vultures are fast enough to pull this off. Built at: Factory Goliath [S] Goliaths return from Starcraft 1 in the campaign. Just like before they have a twin cannon ground attack and a twin missile launcher air attack. Of those two roles, they are best against air units. They do pretty good against ground units as well, but they don't attack very quickly. Cheaper ground units will overwhelm them. They can function as a good mobile anti-air defense for your base taking out any threats that try to get in the base between your defensive buildings. Built at: Factory w/ attached Tech Lab Diamondback [S] Diamondbacks are a unique unit in the campaign, because they are the only unit in the game that can fire while moving automatically. They come with two mounted laser cannons that do bonus damage to Armored units. This means they are the best against Factory units as well as a few Protoss and Zerg units. They also have high enough damage to take on most Light units. They don't have a lot of health though, so it's best to keep them behind the rest of your army. Built at: Factory w/ attached Tech Lab Predator [S] This is a special unit that excels at melee attacks. The Predator looks like a big, mechanical black panther. It moves very quickly and attacks fast as well. Each attack a little wave of electricity will go out doing area damage to all units in range. It is most powerful against masses of weak units like Zerglings and Marines. A few Predators can easily take out lots of these weak units before going down. Unfortunately, they don't have very high health. They end up getting destroyed a lot. Built at: Factory w/ attached Tech Lab Siege Tank [M][S] The Siege Tank returns in Starcraft 2. Its regular attack is pretty good against almost any unit, but it can't attack air units. It can be later upgraded to have a siege mode, where its name comes from. In siege mode, its range is greatly increased and its tank shells do splash damage. It completely decimates units and buildings at long range. The downside is that it cannot attack nearby targets and cannot move in siege mode. It also takes a second or two to switch from siege mode to normal mode and back again. This means the enemy can destroy it in transition pretty easily. Extra care should be taken with siege tanks to get the most use out of them. Built at: Factory w/ attached Tech Lab Thor [M][S] The Thor looks like it came out of a MechWarrior game. It has a small pilot in a huge suit of power armor. This is the most powerful Terran ground unit. It has huge health and huge ground damage. Its ground attack is so high it can kill many ground units in one volley. It doesn't do that bad against air units either, but massed Marines would probably do better against air units. Downsides are their high cost and big size that makes it so only a few can attack at the same time. Requires: Armory Built at: Factory w/ attached Tech Lab -----Starport Units----- Medivac [M][S] This is the new unit in Starcraft 2 that combines the Dropship and Medic of Starcraft 1. This is a pretty big change and makes this unit one of the most important in the Terran army. Not only does it heal your units from the air, it can also move them by air anywhere you need them. It has great utility at all times. You can keep them with your infantry for good combat healing, sneak units inside the enemy's base, and even ferry troops to the battlefield, all with one unit. Built at: Starport Viking [M][S] The Viking is basically the air version of the Siege Tank. The unit can transform into two different modes as needed. The first mode, which it starts out as, is called Fighter Mode. This is the flying version. In Fighter Mode it is a pretty respectable fighter plane, but cannot attack ground units at all. Assault Mode is the ground version. In this mode it can only attack ground units. It doesn't do the best damage compared to other Terran ground units, but can be a good ground support unit if there are no enemy air units to fight. Overall, the air mode is the stronger of the two. Only use the ground mode if there are no air units to attack. Also Vikings can easily be destroyed in the time it takes to transform, so it's best to retreat them if you want to transform them. Built at: Starport Wraith [S] Wraiths are small tactical strike fighters. They return from Starcraft 1 and are available in the campaign. They can attack both air and ground targets, but their ground attack is not very powerful. They do best against big air targets like Battlecruisers and Carriers. They don't have a lot of health, but they do have the Cloak ability. Enemy units without detection nearby will not be able to see the Wraiths giving you free hits on them. This more than makes up for the low health and low damage ground attack. You just have to be a little more strategic with them than some other units. Built at: Starport w/ attached Tech Lab Raven [M][S] The Raven is the second caster unit of the Terran army. Unlike the Ghost, it has no attack at all. Some of its abilities are like an attack, but they all cost energy. You can only use these attacks a few times before needing time to recharge. The first ability is the Auto-Turret, a small turret with moderate damage that attacks air and ground. The next ability is the Point Defense Drone, which shoots down enemy projectiles before they can damage your units. More information on the Auto-Turret and Point Defense Drone can be found in the Summoned Units section below. The last ability is the Seeker Missile. The Raven shoots a homing missile at a target that does huge damage to the target and all units around it. The damage is similar to a siege tank shell, but it is much easier to target and homes in on the target as well. The Seeker Missile will run out of fuel after a short time and doesn't move really fast, so it's possible for the enemy to retreat to avoid any losses. Built at: Starport w/ attached Tech Lab Science Vessel [S] The Science Vessel is similar to the Raven being a caster unit with detection, but has different abilities. This unit was in Starcraft 1, but doesn't have all the same abilities. The first ability is Irradiate which can only target Biological units. The targeted unit is filled with radiation doing damage over time to it and all nearby units. This is very powerful against Zerg units. The other ability it has is Nano-Repair which repairs Mechanical units at the cost of energy. This is just like the Medic's healing ability, but for Mechanical units. You no longer need to bring SCVs for repairs with your army if you bring a few of these along. Since they are flying units, you can have a nice self- sufficient air force going. Built at: Starport w/ attached Tech Lab Banshee [M][S] This unit is the replacement for the Terran Wraith that was in Starcraft 1. The Banshee is a flying unit with no air attack but a powerful ground attack. It can be upgraded with a cloaking ability similar to the Ghost. This gives some good opportunities for harassment in the midgame. After opponents gain detecting units and buildings, it is still a good support unit for your army. Built at: Starport w/ attached Tech Lab Battlecruiser [M][S] The Battlecruiser returns in Starcraft 2. It is exactly the same as in Starcraft 1. It is as strong as a building and a little slow, but still does huge damage. It does higher damage to ground units, but is still pretty powerful against air units due to its massive health. In addition, it also can be upgraded with the Yamato Cannon which does huge damage to a single unit like a mini-nuke. It has no real weaknesses other than a high resource cost and slow build time. Requires: Fusion Core Built at: Starport w/ attached Tech Lab Hercules [S] The Hercules is the Battlecruiser of transports. It has no attack but high armor and high health. When unloading an army, units are unloaded extremely fast. A full Hercules will empty in just a couple seconds which is much, much faster than a Medivac. The Hercules is nice if you want to drop an army into enemy territory, but don't have much of an air army to clear the way for your transports. Also, the units inside can survive if it is destroyed over land. Requires: Fusion Core Built at: Starport w/ attached Tech Lab -----Summoned Units----- MULE [M][S] This Orbital Command ability basically gives you a Super SCV. Instead of just 5 minerals a trip, it can carry 30 minerals per trip. It can also repair units and buildings, just like the SCV. The only thing it can't do is gather vespene gas from Refineries. This is the Terran macro mechanic and essential if you want to keep up with Zerg and Protoss mineral gathering rates. Requires: Orbital Command with 50 energy Auto-Turret [M][S] This is a Raven ability. For 50 energy, you get a stationary turret that does just a little more damage than a Marine. This is the weakest Raven ability, but it is useful for harassment. You can cast it at the back of the enemy's base to attack their workers or maybe for support in battle. Requires: Raven with 50 energy Point Defense Drone [M][S] This is a Raven ability. This is probably the best defensive ability in the game. It creates a little flying, stationary unit with a small laser beam. The laser shoots down all projectiles in a small area. On top of this, it only affects enemy projectiles. This ability can completely turn the battle into your favor. Your enemy's are forced to retreat when you use this ability or face huge losses. Requires: Raven with 100 energy -----iii. Terran Buildings---------------------------------------------[TBLD]-- -----Production Buildings----- Command Center [M][S] The Command Center is the central Terran building. You start with one in every game. Besides producing SCVs, you can also protect up to 5 SCVs inside of the Command Center. It can even Lift Off with the SCVs inside of it. This is a great way to start a new expansion or save SCVs in a destroyed base. It can be upgraded later into the Orbital Command or Planetary Fortress. These two buildings have different strengths and weaknesses described below. Produces: SCV Command Center Reactor [S] This is a special Command Center available only in the campaign. Once you get this upgrade, your Command Centers can then create 2 SCVs at the same time. This means you can get any base up and running quick. After upgrading the Command Center to an Orbital Command or Planetary Fortress, it also retains this ability. With this ability, you can build extra SCVs for all sorts of things like starting new expansions or having dedicated repairers for your army. Produces: SCV Orbital Command [M][S] This is a caster upgrade to the Command Center. Like all casters, it has a number of special abilities and regenerating energy used to cast them. These abilities are the Terran macro mechanics. Call Down: MULE creates a MULE at any visible spot on the map that you can use to harvest minerals or repair things. Casting this ability directly on the minerals will cause the MULE to instantly start gathering minerals without you having to order it to gather. Call Down: Extra Supplies doubles the supply provided by any single Supply Depot you control. This is good for saving time if you forget to build enough Supply Depots in time to create all the units you want. The last ability is Scanner Sweep and is the same as the scanning ability that the Comsat Station had in Starcraft 1. It reveals an area of the map for a short amount of time. It also will reveal cloaked and burrowed units if you don't have detectors ready. Requires: Barracks Produces: SCV, MULE Planetary Fortress [M][S] This is the defensive upgrade to the Command Center. It gains more health than the Command Center, a powerful short range ground attack, and increased capacity for up to 7 SCVs. The downside is that the Planetary Fortress loses the Lift Off ability. Overall, the Planetary Fortress is not as useful as the Orbital Command. It's good for defending an expansion in a high traffic area or in expansions with gold minerals. Basically, anywhere there is likely to be high enemy traffic it would be good to get this upgrade. It's just if no battles happen near the Planetary Fortress, it would have been better to upgrade to an Orbital Command, whose abilities work anywhere on the map. Requires: Engineering Bay Produces: SCV Barracks [M][S] The Barracks trains all of the Terran infantry units. You will build this in every game since it's required to build the Factory and indirectly the Starport as well. Every strategy involves the Barracks and its units in some way. Of the units it creates, the Marauder is most common usually with a few Marines early for support. The Reaper and Ghost are only used in certain strategies or against certain races. Produces: Marine, Marauder, Reaper, Ghost Factory [M][S] The Factory creates all of the Terran mechanized units. Some strategies don't use the Factory units but still require it to make the Starport available. Of the Factory units, the Siege Tank is the most common one built. The Hellion is used mostly early in the game and the Thor is added later as a support unit. This isn't the case in all strategies though. Some specific strategies rely on Hellions or Thors as core units in the army. Requires: Barracks Produces: Hellion, Siege Tank, Thor Starport [M][S] The Starport builds all of the Terran air units. In a short game you might not need one, but in longer games you will definitely need at least one. The Viking and Medivac are critical additions to the army in any game. The other Starport units are more specialized, but are still very useful. Requires: Factory Produces: Viking, Medivac, Banshee, Raven, Battlecruiser Merc Compound [S] The Merc Compound is a special campaign-only building used to call down mercenaries to fight for you. Mercenaries are more powerful versions of the regular units like Marines, Marauders, and Vikings. You automatically get a Merc Compound in all missions once you have unlocked the Cantina in the Hyperion. You only need to build another one if the first gets destroyed. Requires: Barracks Produces: All Mercenary Units -----Tech Buildings----- Engineering Bay [M][S] This building provides the infantry attack and armor upgrades. It also has a few utility upgrades for Terran such as increasing Terran building armor. Requires: Barracks Ghost Academy [M][S] This is the required building to make the Ghost. This building houses all of the research opportunities for the Ghost unit. It also creates and houses the Nuclear Missiles called down by the Ghost. You need a Factory before you can build a Nuke. Requires: Barracks Shadow Ops [S] This is the required building for making Spectres. Spectres start with all of their abilities from the beginning, so you don't ever have to research anything at this building. Requires: Barracks Armory [M][S] The Armory has all the attack and armor upgrades for Terran mechanized and flying units. In a long game you will probably want two of these: one for vehicles and one for ships. This is because attack and armor upgrades research very slowly and a single armory can only research one at a time. Building multiple Armories lets you research at double the speed. Requires: Factory Fusion Core [M][S] This is the required building to make Battlecruisers and Hercules. It also has the Battlecruiser-specific upgrades such as the Yamato Cannon. Requires: Starport -----Utility Buildings----- Supply Depot [M][S] Just like its name, the Supply Depot increases the supply for the Terran army. A Supply Depot provides 8 supplies, but it can also be upgraded to provide 16 supplies with the Orbital Command's Call Down: Extra Supplies ability. Refinery [M][S] Before you can gather from vespene gas geysers, you must build the Refinery over it. It is effectively the same as the Protoss Assimilator and Zerg Extractor. This building is essential since only a few units require solely minerals. Automated Refinery [S] This is the same as the normal Refinery except it harvests vespene gas automatically. No need to task any SCVs on it. This is really nice, because you can build these on any Refinery on the map. Their mineral cost is so cheap you can just build another one if the enemy destroys one. -----Defensive Buildings----- Bunker [M][S] Just like in Starcraft 1, bunkers are great defensive buildings but require some investment. Bunkers by themselves don't do anything unless you put Terran infantry units inside them. Units inside will fire on attackers outside, but they won't take any damage unless the Bunker is destroyed. SCVs can also hide in Bunkers if needed, but they can't attack in them. Only put SCVs in bunkers as a last resort. A fully loaded bunker is the most powerful defensive structure in the game, but it costs more because you need units on hand to put in them. Since Bunkers themselves don't cost much, it is good practice to build them in key defensive areas. If battles happen to occur in that area, you can load some units in them to give you a small advantage. Requires: Barracks Missile Turret [M][S] This is the Terran anti-air building. Of all the races, it is the most powerful defensive building against air. In addition, it also has the ability to detect cloaked and burrowed units in its sight range. Missile Turrets are an excellent building to construct if you have extra minerals in the midgame. Requires: Engineering Bay Sensor Tower [M][S] The Sensor Tower is an interesting building. It's kind of like a Xel'Naga tower, but it doesn't reveal the map. Instead, enemy units in range will show up as red dots in the uncovered area of the map. When built, it will show both you and your enemies the radius of the tower. It's possible that enemies can move their armies around the radius giving you no information about their movements. Therefore, if using Sensor Towers it's important to overlap their radii a little so your enemies cannot do anything but move through them (or destroy the towers). Requires: Engineering Bay Perdition Turret [S] This campaign-only unit is essentially an immobile Firebat. Its attack is pretty much the same as the Firebat, but it has a longer range. These turrets will also hide underground when there are no enemies around, so your army can walk over them. Just like the Firebat, these turrets are very powerful against the Zerg, but not so much against Terran and Protoss. Requires: Engineering Bay Hive Mind Emulator [S] The Hive Mind Emulator is a powerful campaign building that looks similar to a Sensor Tower. It has a small pool of energy that can be used to Mind Control any Zerg unit in range. Once the Zerg unit is Mind Controlled, it is yours for the rest of the game. As the Hive Mind Emulator gains more energy you can use it on more and more Zerg. Eventually, you could have a huge Zerg army just from all the little attacks they have launched at your base. This ability is not auto-casted. You have to manually click on Zerg units to Mind Control them. The best units to cast it on are Ultralisks and Broodlords. Requires: Engineering Bay Psi Disruptor [S] The Psi Disruptor is a powerful campaign building that looks similar to the Sensor Tower. It has a constant effect ability that slows down all Zerg within range by 50%. This means 50% slower movement speed and 50% slower attack speed. This is a nice hands-off bonus to your base defense. Your Bunkers and Missile Turrets are able to get more hits on enemy Zerg before they get in range to attack making your defensive buildings survive longer. Requires: Engineering Bay -----Add-on Buildings----- Tech Lab [M][S] The Tech Lab is the most common add-on you will see attached to buildings. It is required to train the more advanced units in the Terran army. It also provides a bunch of utility upgrades for the units at the building it's attached to: Infantry upgrades for the Barracks, vehicle upgrades for the Factory, and ship upgrades for the Starport. Attaches to: Barracks, Factory, Starport Reactor [M][S] The Reactor doubles unit production to whatever building it is attached to. The catch is that you can't build all the units at that building. The Reactor limits you to the Marine, Hellion, Viking, and Medivac from their corresponding buildings. It's an important strategic decision whether these units are important enough to need double production. Individual units don't actually produce twice as fast. The building acts like it has two separate unit queues up to 4, so for the Barracks you could queue up eight Marines with two Marines produced at the same time. It's usually good to have a Reactor or two but you probably will want Tech Labs on most of your unit production buildings. Attaches to: Barracks, Factory, Starport Tech Reactor [S] The Tech Reactor combines the advantages of both Tech Labs and Reactors in one building. Your production buildings can then produce all units available and produce twice as much. Unfortunately, this is only available in the campaign. Otherwise Terran would be way too powerful in multiplayer games. This is add-on essentially takes the place of another production building. You can have the same production without having to manage as many buildings. Attaches to: Barracks, Factory, Starport =====B. Zerg===========================================================[ZRGE]== The Zerg were formerly controlled by a hive mind called the Overmind. In the events of Starcraft 1, the Overmind infested a Terran Ghost named Sarah Kerrigan. With her psychic powers as a Terran combined with new Zerg traits, she was a formidable foe. Eventually, she orchestrated her rise as the new leader of the Zerg swarm. The Zerg are an insect race adapted to years of harsh conditions including deep space travel and other normally unsuitable habitats. They are able to absorb foreign DNA, taking all the best traits, and incorporating it into them. They have an idea of the perfect being and that by absorbing all other races they will achieve that perfection. Their units are very animalistic and alive than the other races. Nothing is static in the Zerg. Even their buildings are living organisms. Because of their ability to absorb foreign DNA, they are able to emulate any technology the Terran or Protoss have to ensure their survival. Zerg tiers are based around the Hatchery, Lair, and Hive upgrades. This is most similar to the Humans in Warcraft 3. You start with the Hatchery and need to build one tech building before upgrading to Lair. Lair to Hive is the same but requires a different tech building. The Zerg tech up the slowest out of all the races, but their units are generally more well-rounded to make up for this. -----i. Zerg Mechanics-------------------------------------------------[ZMCH]-- Creep Just like in Starcraft 1, most Zerg buildings can only be built on the creep. Also if the creep starts to disappear around the buildings, Zerg buildings will start to die. This would seem like a limitation, but creep provides good bonuses to make up for it. Zerg units move much faster on creep than they do on plain ground helping with their swarming tactics. The Zerg has several ways of spreading creep to give them these advantages all over the map. Creep is most similar to the Blight in Warcraft 3. Creep spread by: Creep Tumor (Queen Ability), Overlords (Generate Creep, requires Lair), Hatchery (circular radius around building) Burrow This ability returns from Starcraft 1. It functions exactly the same, but there are a few changes for specific units. Ultralisks are now able to burrow like every other Zerg ground unit. In addition, a few of the new Zerg units (Roach, Infestor) can move while burrowed. They move slower underground, but it's still a nice advantage. You can sneak into your enemy's base and attack while their army is not there. For the other Zerg ground units, they can't move at all while burrowed. This can still be used to great effect for ambushes and scouting. Available to: All Zerg ground units Regeneration Unlike Terran who need SCVs or Medivacs to recover their units' health, Zerg units and buildings automatically regenerate health at all times. They have no way of boosting their regeneration except the Roach, but it's free, automatic regeneration, even during combat. Available to: All Zerg units and buildings Spawn Larva The Zerg are known for their swarming tactics. Most Zerg units have lower health, armor, or damage compared to Terran and Protoss units, but the Zerg can make their units much faster. Spawn Larva is the primary way to increase Zerg production. The Queen sprouts larva eggs on the Hatchery. After 40 seconds, the eggs hatch to give you four more larvae. This ability can be continually used to stack larva at a single Hatchery, up to a total of 19 larvae. The Hatchery will naturally spawn its own larvae up to three total, but with this ability you can have roughly seven larvae in the same timeframe: three from the Hatchery plus four from Spawn Larva. Available to: Queen Spawn Creep Tumor This is the best ability for spreading creep. When cast it creates a new building anywhere on the creep that will spread the creep even further in a big radius around it. The radius is similar to that of the Hatchery's, but creep tumors are free and build almost instantly. With diligent use, you can form a "creep highway" to the enemy's base for quick movement to and from their base. Available to: Queen -----ii. Zerg Units----------------------------------------------------[ZNTS]-- -----Special Units----- Larva [M] These are special Zerg units that morph into every other unit. So if you want to make 10 Hydralisks, you need 10 Larva to morph into them. Larva are created automatically every 10 seconds by the Hatchery/Lair/Hive up to three total. Additional larva can be stacked on the building with the Queen's Spawn Larva ability. -----Hatchery Units----- Drone [M] This is the basic worker unit for the Zerg. Like the SCV it gathers resources and makes the buildings. The big difference is that it actually morphs itself into the building. This means the Drone is lost after the building finishes. As a Zerg player Drone management is very important. It can be easy to get carried away morphing all kinds of buildings. Sometime later your resources will be much lower than you expect and then you will realize you forgot to replace the Drones you used to make the buildings. Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Overlord [M] Unlike the Terran and Protoss, the Zerg don't have a building for supply. They have an actual unit. Overlords are pretty much the same as they were in Starcraft 1. Just like Supply Depots they provide eight supplies. However, the Overlord has some new abilities in Starcraft 1 and can be morphed into the Overseer later. Once you have a Lair, all of your Overlords gain the ability to spread the creep temporarily below them. For as long as the Overlord is stationary above the spot, they will continue spewing creep onto the ground. Creep Tumors can even be built on this temporary creep allowing you to move the Overlord to another place that needs creep. Overlords can also be upgraded at the Lair to be the Zerg transport unit. In this fashion, Overlords are a great utility unit. The only downside is that they no longer detect cloaked and burrowed units until they are morphed into an Overseer. Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Queen [M] This is a special Zerg unit. Unlike every other Zerg unit, it does not require a Larva. It is built directly from the Hatchery/Lair/Live similar to Terran or Protoss units. The Queen provides the Zerg macro mechanic, so it is a very important unit to get early on. Her first ability spawns a Creep Tumor building at the targeted location. Besides Hatcheries, this is the only permanent way to spread creep. Creep Tumors are described in more detail in the Buildings section. Next we get to the Zerg macro mechanic: Spawn Larva. This ability spawns 4 Larva on a Hatchery, Lair, or Hive after 40 seconds. It's important to keep this up throughout the game very 40 seconds. Her last ability heals 120 health of a friendly Zerg unit or building. This is an excellent defensive ability to use if your Queens have extra energy. Since Queens move slowly, you rarely get to take advantage of this on offense. Requires: Spawning Pool Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Zergling [M] Everyone probably knows about the Zergling, the iconic Zerg unit. Zerglings are cheap, fast melee units. They have low health and damage, but you get two of them per larva morph. This means they can be massed really easily. If they can surround a unit, it will die really fast. Their speed and improved pathfinding in Starcraft 2, make this pretty easy to do if the enemy isn't moving their army much. Even if half of them are killed, it's not a big deal. They at least prevented your more expensive units from taking that damage, and they can be replaced cheaply. Whether defending or attacking, Zerglings are a great all- around unit. They also make good scouting units for being cheap and fast- moving. Requires: Spawning Pool Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Baneling [M] In Starcraft 2, the Zergling can be morphed into a Baneling, giving it the ability to explode like a suicide bomber. This ability does heavy damage to Biological type units, but not a whole lot to other unit types. Enough of them can still destroy non-Biological units, but it's probably not cost effective. Still, these are great units if you see the opponent has mostly Biological units. Even if only half their army is Biological, there's a bunch of targets. Banelings can even be burrowed underground, opening up the possibility for surprise mine-like explosions! Requires: Baneling Nest Created at: Zergling morph Roach [M] The typical Zerg unit is cheap and easy to mass-up but also weak. The Roach is still cheap, but not as easy to mass-up. It is actually pretty strong. It has more health & armor than any other Zerg ground unit except the Ultralisk. The downside is that the Roach requires four times as much supply as the Zergling. Later in the game this won't be much of a problem, but don't expect to get a lot of them in the early part of the game. They start out a little slow moving but can get a movement upgrade to fix that. Once you have a Lair, they can be upgraded to have movement while burrowed underground and on top of that have increased regeneration while burrowed. This is a huge upgrade. You can sneak in to areas unburrow to do some damage and then burrow again. By the time you unburrow again, your Roaches will have full health. Overall, Roaches are very powerful units if invested into. Requires: Roach Warren Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive -----Lair Units----- Overseer [M] The Zergling isn't the only unit with a new morph. The Overlord can now be morphed into the Overseer, turning it into a flying caster unit. The unit moves much faster, but loses the ability to transport units and drop creep. The Overseer still brings a lot of utility though. It can detect cloaked and burrowed units and has a few useful abilities. The Overseer can create a Changeling temporary scouting unit. More information on this unit can found in the Summoned Units section below. The other ability they get, called Contaminate, infests a building temporarily so it can't produce any units. You will probably have a few Overseers with your army just for detection, so you will get many opportunities to slow down their unit production whenever you attack their base. Any units you kill will be that much harder for them to replace. Requires: Lair Created at: Overlord morph Hydralisk [M] The Hydralisk returns in Starcraft 2 but is now a Lair unit. The changes to this unit are down almost all around. First, they cost more supply than they did in Starcraft 1. Second, they cost about twice as many resources to make as in SC1. Lastly, they are much slower this time around and their speed upgrade has been removed. The only good thing in the transition to SC2 is they attack a lot faster than in SC1. Even with these changes they are still a great all around unit. They absolutely destroy air units, and aren't bad against ground units either. They just need a little more support now. Requires: Lair, Hydralisk Den Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Infestor [M] This is the Zerg's new caster unit. They don't have a normal attack and have a high vespene gas cost, but their spells are some of the best all around in the game. Their first ability is to spawn an Infested Terran with similar stats to a Marine. The Infestor shoots a little egg on to the ground that hatches into the unit after a few seconds. More information about the Infested Unit is below in the Summoned Units section. Their second ability is the spawn a Fungal Growth on a group of units. While affected, units lose some health every second and are unable to move. This is a huge ability against Terran but still does well against all races. With this ability you are able to dictate the pace of battle. It's great in all situations. Their last ability is Neural Parasite, which is a mind control ability. For 15 seconds you have complete control of any enemy unit. The only limitation is that you can't use any of their abilities. With this ability you can temporarily acquire some of your enemy's most powerful units. You can then turn them against their former owner for a short time. In most cases the unit's supporting army will be destroyed before the mind control wears off. Popular uses are on the Colossus and Thor units. Requires: Lair, Infestation Pit Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Mutalisk [M] Blizzard didn't forget about Mutalisk. I think they are exactly the same as Starcraft 1. They move fast, attack fast, and still have their bouncing glaive attack. This attack has a special effect that bounces to other targets after the first, up to two times. Each bounce reduces the damage by 50%. When massed, this small splash damage can make a huge difference. Mutalisks are not very strong by themselves. It's only when there are a lot of them that the glaive attack starts win battles. They are probably the best air unit against units, making them one of the most powerful air units in the game when massed. Requires: Lair, Spire Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Corruptor [M] This unit is kind of a replacement for the Starcraft 1 Devourer, which was removed in Starcraft 2. The Corruptor has a powerful, slow attack with bonus damage against Massive unit types. This makes them great against all of the big expensive buildings. Their only downside is that they can't attack ground units. They are also a semi-caster unit with the Corruption special ability. It increases damage done to the targeted unit for a short time. It's a nice bonus for this support unit. Requires: Lair, Spire Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive -----Hive Units----- Brood Lord [M] The Brood Lord is the replacement for the Starcraft 1 Guardian. The difference is that the Brood Lord is much more powerful than Guardians ever were. Like the Guardian they can only attack ground and have a huge range, but now they have the Spawn Broodling ability that the old Starcraft 1 Queen had. Best of all the Broodlings don't cost any energy. They are automatically spawned with every ground attack. Enemy units will automatically target the Broodlings over the Brood Lord, making it extremely tough to take out Brood Lords except by air. With enough Brood Lords, you can flood the battlefield with Broodlings. The Brood Lord is a game-ending unit. Requires: Hive, Greater Spire Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive Ultralisk [M] Just like Starcraft 1, the Ultralisk is the final unit of the Zerg swarm. They are the most powerful ground unit in the game. Their swipe attack now does a small splash damage to units nearby their target. They also do a special attack to buildings that will destroy any building in seconds. You can think of them as a huge upgrade to Zerglings. They are pretty much just as fast but do way more damage. They are also immune to mind control and movement-impairing abilities. It takes a lot to bring one down. Requires: Hive, Ultralisk Cavern Created at: Hatchery, Lair, Hive -----Summoned Units----- Infested Terran [M] These units are almost the same as the Terran Marine. Take a Marine, slow down its movement a lot, and then give it more damage: that is the Infested Terran. Because of the slow movement, it's critical you summon them close enough to deal damage. You also have to be careful you aren't do close, or else, your Infested Terran might get killed before it hatches. With proper position they can be devastating. One popular use is to destroy a Command Center or Nexus. A small group Infestors with their Infested Terran can level even a strong building pretty quickly. Best of all your Infestors can escape safely while your throwaway Infested Terrans do the killing. Requires: Infestor with 100 energy Created at: Infestor special ability Broodling [M] Broodlings are very similar to Zerglings. They have low health and low damage, but they move fast and can be massed easily. They are temporary units and will disappear after a short time, but it's enough to cause great mayhem to enemy forces. Each Brood Lord attack spawns two Broodlings. A single Brood Lord can have roughly 5 Broodlings on the field at once with old ones dying and new ones replacing them. Requires: Brood Lord Created at: Brood Lord special ability Changeling [M] Spawn Changeling let's you create a special, temporary scouting unit. This unit assumes the form of a Marine, Zealot, or Zergling to fit into your enemy's units. With clever movement of your Changeling, you can make it seem like just another unit in the other player's army. So you get some good scouting information at no resource cost, only some energy. Requires: Overseer with 50 energy Created at: Overseer special ability -----iii. Zerg Buildings-----------------------------------------------[ZBLD]-- -----Production Buildings----- Hatchery [M] This is the starting building for the Zerg. A new thing in Starcraft 2 is the ability to have two rally points for the Hatchery. This is because the Zerg produces workers and fighting units from the same building. You can use one rally point to have your workers go to the minerals and the other for wherever you want your army to be. About every 10 seconds it spawns a new Larva. It will spawn up to three total, but only if the Hatchery has less than three Larva. So if your Queen has spawned a bunch of Larva, it's likely your Hatchery won't be spawning Larva very often. If you use up all your Larva, it will start spawning them again like normal. As stated in the units section, Larva morph into all of the Zerg units, ground and air. Produces: Larva, Queen Lair [M] The Lair does everything that the Hatchery does and more. It unlocks all of the second tier units and buildings. The Lair also has some upgrades. The most important one is Burrow. Once upgraded, all of your Zerg ground units can burrow underground. Underground units are the same as cloaked units. They can only be seen with detector units or abilities. This is a pretty powerful ability you will want in any game. The Lair also has all of the Overlord upgrades to turn it into a transport. Produces: Larva, Queen Requires: Spawning Pool Hive [M] The Hive does every thing the Lair and Hatchery do plus unlocks the tier three units and buildings. Besides making tier three available, it doesn't do anything new. It has no new upgrades or abilities. Produces: Larva, Queen Requires: Infestation Pit -----Tech Buildings----- Spawning Pool [M] This is the first tech building you will need. It makes Zerglings available from Larva at the Hatchery/Lair/Hive. It also contains all of the upgrades for the Zergling units including move speed and attack speed improvements. Baneling Nest [M] You need this building if you want to make Banelings. Once completed, you can morph Zerglings into Banelings for a small resource cost. This building only has one upgrade to increase Baneling speed. Requires: Spawning Pool Roach Warren [M] This is just like the Spawning Pool but for Roaches. There are some big upgrades here like giving Roaches the ability to move underground and regenerate fast while burrowed. There is also a movement speed upgrade. Requires: Spawning Pool Evolution Chamber [M] This has all of the basic upgrades for Zerg ground units (armor and attack). It's not required to build any units, but the upgrades will make a big difference in the long run. You also need it if you want to make Spore Crawlers, the Zerg air defense building. Hydralisk Den [M] You can see a pattern for Zerg units. They pretty much all need a tech building before you can make them. This one is for the Hydralisk. Its sole upgrade is for attack range, which helps Hydralisks do better mainly against air units. Requires: Lair Spire [M] This is the required building for all Zerg air units. It has all the basic Zerg air upgrades (armor and attack). Requires: Lair Infestation Pit [M] This building is required for the new Infestor unit. The most important upgrade unlocks their Neural Parasite ability. The other one is the typical caster upgrade that increases starting energy when the unit is first created. Requires: Lair Greater Spire [M] This is an upgrade for the Spire building. It has all the Zerg air unit upgrades just like the Spire, but now allows the creation of Brood Lords from Larva. Requires: Hive, Spire Ultralisk Cavern [M] The final tech building is for the Ultralisk. It has one upgrade to increase Ultralisk armor. This armor upgrade stacks with other armor upgrades the Ultralisk may have from the Evolution Chamber. Requires: Hive -----Utility Buildings----- Extractor [M] This is required to harvest vespene gas from geysers. It is effectively the same as the Terran Refinery and Protoss Assimilator. The Zerg version is cheaper than the other races, because the Drone is lost to make the building. This building is essential since only a few units require solely minerals. Creep Tumor [M] This is the special Zerg building to spread the creep. It has a pretty big radius. Each Creep Tumor can spawn another Creep Tumor, but only once per building. In most cases, you only need to create one using the Queen and then your existing Creep Tumors can spawn more all over the map. Using Creep Tumors you can make a speedy highway for your Zerg army up to your enemy's doorstep. The creep normally spreads slowly, so it takes time to build the next Creep Tumor at max range. You can speed up the process by having an Overlord drop creep. Requires: Queen with 25 energy Nydus Network [M] This is the same as the Nydus Canal of Starcraft 2, but improved. It transports Zerg units from one part of the map to the other. The difference is that you only need to build one. The Nydus Network can create exits all over the map, and even more than once (with a small cooldown). You can put basically infinite units (255 unit limit) in the network as well and choose which exit they will leave. Even better, the Nydus exit doesn't have to be spawned on creep. You only need to have sight range of the area to create one. This opens the possibility to use them offensively, even in your enemy's base! Requires: Lair -----Defensive Buildings----- Spine Crawler [M] This is the Zerg ground defense building. It is the most powerful standalone building for ground defense. Only the Bunker is more powerful, but it requires units garrisoned. Requires: Spawning Pool Spore Crawler [M] This is the Zerg air defense building. Its damage is in the middle between the three races. Not the best, but not the worst either. It also can detect cloaked and burrowed units. Requires: Evolution Chamber =====C. Protoss========================================================[PRTS]== The Protoss are the oldest race in Starcraft. They have a warrior society made up of clans and castes. Historically, they have fought great battles against each other even in the face of bigger dangers. The Protoss are also gifted with a psionic attunement to the world around them. They can communicate without speaking and possess powerful telekinetic powers. Being the oldest, they have the most advanced technology in the galaxy. Their psionic powers give each of them a personal shield that protects them from any permanent harm. They also have advanced robots with impressive AI. This technology comes at a cost. After so many years of fighting fellow Protoss, their numbers have dwindled. They have even lost their home planet to the ravages of war, although not completely through their own fault. The Protoss tiers are based around the unit producing buildings they have. This is similar to the Terran except Protoss need to build extra tech buildings to unlock certain production buildings. The Gateway is the first tier, the Robotics Facility is the second tier, and the Starport is the third tier. Templar units are an offshoot in the second tier because they require more than just the Robotics Facility. The Protoss are the second fastest race at teching up. Compared to the Terran Protoss buildings cost more resources. They don't need to upgrade the Nexus like the Zerg, but they do need to build tech buildings to get to the next tier. -----i. Protoss Mechanics----------------------------------------------[PMCH]-- Psionic Matrix Almost all Protoss buildings require power to function. If they lose power, units cannot be created, buildings cannot be constructed, and research cannot be conducted. The necessary power is provided by the psionic matrix. The Pylon structure is used to extend this power matrix. All buildings need power except the Pylon and Nexus. Buildings can only be constructed in the psionic matrix radius around Pylons. Power spread by: Pylon (circular radius around building), Phasing Mode (Warp Prism Ability) Warp In This signature Protoss ability returns again in Starcraft 2, but with ability to now warp in a few units. When the Protoss start a building, the worker doesn't have to stay and build it. The building will warp in from distant lands over time automatically. This saves time by not having to worry about that worker in the future, since they can go straight back to work gathering resources. The new thing in Starcraft 2 is warping in units. One of the new Protoss technologies is to research Warp Gates. Once researched, any Gateway building can be converted to a Warp Gate. It takes 30 seconds but costs no resources to convert the building. After it is converted, you can warp in any Warp Gate unit over Pylon-powered areas just like a building. Available to: All buildings, Warp Gate units. Shields Being the most advanced race, the Protoss get shields on their units. Shields are like an extra set of health points. The unit will not take any long term damage as long as they still have shields available. Only when the shields are depleted will the unit start taking health damage. Shields have been changed a little since Starcraft 1. They no longer regenerate in combat, but outside of combat they regenerate much quicker. This adds some strategy where you may want to run away a short while to recover some shields before attacking again. Available to: All Protoss units and buildings Chrono Boost The first building the Protoss get also has a nifty ability. Chrono Boost speeds up everything at a building by 50% for a short time. Units will be created faster and research will completed faster. This ability does not work on buildings that are warping in, so it does not help to build stuff faster. You should try to use this ability as much as possible, because there are no downsides. Available to: Nexus -----ii. Protoss Units-------------------------------------------------[PNTS]-- -----Nexus Units----- Probe [M][S] The Probe is the Protoss worker unit. Like the other races it gathers resources and makes the buildings. The difference is that Protoss buildings are warped in instead of built. This means the Probe only has to start the warp in. The Probe can then go straight back to work while the building warps in on its own. Overall, this means the Protoss will probably have a few more resources in the beginning, because they don't tie up workers with buildings. Built at: Nexus Mothership [M] [S] This is the ultimate Protoss unit. It's so powerful you can only have one on the field in any game. It has as much health as a building, heavy single target damage, and a number of powerful special abilities. First, it can teleport friendly units to its location. This spell has a pretty big radius, so you can pretty much move your entire army. Second, it can create a temporary black hole that sucks in all nearby units of the targeted area. With this ability you can take out huge swaths of the opponent's army for a short time. While those units are gone you will easily destroy the rest of their army. This is one of the most powerful abilities in the game. It also has a great passive ability which automatically cloaks all units and buildings near it. So in a way this unit is the Carrier and Arbiter (from Starcraft 1) in one, powerful unit. Requires: Fleet Beacon, only one on the field at a time Built at: Nexus -----Gateway Units----- Zealot [M][S] This is the Protoss starting warrior unit. It dual wields psi blades and attacks in melee range. It has pretty high health and damage but slow movement speed, and that can really kill a melee unit when most other units are ranged. They can get a Charge ability later that mostly offsets this limitation. Built at: Gateway Stalker [M][S] The Stalker is the replacement for the Dragoon that was in Starcraft 1. It is a cybernetic armored Protoss guy that shoots a blue beam. Compared to the Zealot it has a range attack and moves a lot faster. This makes it a good complement to the Zealot. Later, the Stalker can get an upgrade that gives it the ability to Blink. This is similar to a Hero ability in Warcraft 3. The Stalker will teleport instantly a short distance. They can even teleport up cliffs, but you need to have sight over the land they will end up in. They can not teleport across gaps in the terrain such as bodies of water, ravines, or chasms. This ability improves the unit both offensively to advance on weakened units and defensively to retreat from battle. Requires: Cybernetics Core Built at: Gateway Sentry [M][S] This is a new caster unit in Starcraft 2. Its primary attack has low damage, but it has abilities that make up for it. Force Field creates an impassable barrier. You can use it to trap units so they don't escape or to split up armies so they are only half as effective. It's one of the most powerful abilities in the game, and this unit is available early in the game. Guardian Shield, like its name, creates a big shield around the Sentry. All friendly units inside gain two additional armor. Multiple Guardian Shields do not stack. Their last ability was taken from Starcraft 1. Hallucination lets you create fake units. The hallucination has all the qualities of the actual unit. It just has no abilities and deals no damage. They are good for scouting or tricking your opponent into thinking you are massing a certain unit. Requires: Cybernetics Core Built at: Gateway Dark Templar [M][S] This unit is just like its counterpart in Starcraft 1. It is a permanently cloaked Protoss warrior. It's just like a Zealot except it does more damage and has that cloaking field. These are very nice in surprise attacks. Sometimes they can cause an instant win if opponent is not prepared for it with detector units and abilities. Requires: Dark Shrine Built at: Gateway High Templar [M][S] This unit also returns in Starcraft 1 and is not much different than before. Feedback is the same as Mana Burn in Warcraft 3, only it works on energy instead of mana. The target's energy is destroyed and it takes damage for each point of energy destroyed. This is very powerful against any unit with energy. Most units with energy have a 200 capacity so there is a possibility for high, instant damage. Their other ability is the same as in Starcraft 1, Psi Storm. The radius of the spell has been reduced and the total damage reduced a little, but overall it's the same spell. Where Feedback is good against a single target, Psionic Storm is good against groups of units. It is great against all units, but especially the low health ones like Marines and Zerglings. With a direct hit even if the enemy moves their army, they will still take most of the damage. Requires: Templar Archives Built at: Gateway Archon [M][S] The Archon is a morphed unit from combining two Templar units. This Archon is a little different from the one in Starcraft 1. Its damage has been lowered against all units except Biological type units. In SC1 its attack had a splash damage radius, but in SC2 the splash has a tiny radius. It is no longer the powerhouse it was before. You might want to make one if your High Templar ran out of energy and you need units right away. Another use is if your enemy just got detector units, so your Dark Templar wouldn't be very useful. Requires: Any combination of two templar (2 dark, 2 high, 1 dark 1 high) -----Robotics Facility Units----- Observer [M][S] The Observer is also back from Starcraft 1. Like before, it is a cloaked detector unit. This is the best scouting unit in the game. It's not too expensive either. You will want one with your army and a few more flying around the map to give you information. Built at: Robotics Facility Immortal [M][S] This new unit is a more powerful Stalker, but also way more expensive. The cost is so high and build time so slow they won't ever replace the Stalker, but each one is a formidable unit. Their special ability is Hardened Shields. While the Immortal has shields, any damage done to it is reduced to 10. This makes it a great counter unit to Roaches, Marauders, and especially Siege Tanks in siege mode. Built at: Robotics Facility Warp Prism [M] This is the Protoss transport. It also has a special ability that creates a Pylon-like power field over a small area. If a building lost its Pylon, this could be a temporary replacement. The field can also be used to warp in units from the Warp Gate. So this unit is very good for surprise attacks. Built at: Robotics Facility Colossus [M][S] Here we have the other new robotic unit. These units are just like the War of the Worlds alien weapons. They stand on three legs and attack with a powerful laser beam. It shoots two parallel laser beams at the enemy army line doing heavy damage to the whole line of units. It can even kill some units in one hit. Their lasers can be upgraded to have longer range. The Colossus is so big it can be attacked by units with only air attacks including Missile Turrets. This unit is a great edition to the Gateway units. Requires: Robotics Bay Built at: Robotics Facility -----Stargate Units----- Phoenix [M][S] This unit replaces the Scout from Starcraft 1. It loses the ground attack and its air attack is weaker, but it gains a new special ability. With the Graviton Beam the Phoenix can disable any single unit. The catch is that the Phoenix itself is also disabled during this time. It's a great way to keep a powerful unit from helping the enemy though. The Graviton Beam affects both air and ground units. So the base unit is a little weaker, but with its special ability it's probably a little better. Built at: Stargate Void Ray [M][S] This is an all-new, powerful unit. It shoots one laser beam that attacks ground or air units with a special charge up attack. At first the damage is pretty weak, but given enough time the beam does huge damage. A group of Void Rays can demolish buildings in seconds. It can even move while attacking. Void Rays are the best air unit against buildings. They are about equal with Mutalisks as one of the best air units. Built at: Stargate Carrier [M][S] With the new Mothership unit, the Carrier is no longer the top dog in the Protoss arsenal. It is still a pretty powerful unit though. It has a similar advantage as the Brood Lord in that it summons little Interceptors to attack for it. The Interceptors usually take all the damage from any defenders, not the Carrier. Interceptors must be built in the Carrier for a few minerals. It's possible all the Interceptors are destroyed, and then the Carrier is a sitting duck. Interceptors are explained more below. Requires: Fleet Beacon Built at: Stargate -----Summoned Units----- Interceptor [M][S] These are the small robotic fighter planes that attack for the Carrier. They don't do that much damage and have pretty low health but are strong in numbers. Anti-air units and buildings usually attack the closest unit, so their attacks are spread out over all the Interceptors instead of focused on one. If the Carrier is destroyed, all of its Interceptors will die instantly. Requires: Carrier -----iii. Protoss Buildings--------------------------------------------[PBLD]-- -----Production Buildings----- Nexus [M][S] This is the starting Protoss building. Even though it can make the Mothership, it requires a tech building that you can't get until late in the game. This building also has the Protoss macro mechanic: Chrono Boost. This ability speeds up building processes for a short time. This includes both unit production and research time. Produces: Probe, Mothership Gateway [M][S] The Gateway is sort of like the Terran Barracks having all the Protoss infantry type units. You will build one every game, because it is required to get to the later tech buildings and units. It can be upgraded later to turn into a Warp Gate, where units can be warped into any Pylon field. Produces: Zealot, Stalker, Sentry, Dark Templar, High Templar Warp Gate [M][S] This is the upgrade for the Gateway building. You get a special button for all your Warp Gates. In the bottom right corner of the screen just above the command card, the button can be clicked to select your Warp Gates for fast warping. The button also has a number to show how many Warp Gates are ready to warp in a unit. Warping in units is generally much faster than training them in a Gateway, so you should always transform all your Gateways to Warp Gates when you learn the technology. Requires: Warp Gate Research at Cybernetics Core Robotics Facility [M][S] This building can make all the robotic units in the Protoss army. There are a wide variety of robotic units. Anything from scouting, attacking, and transporting can be done with the various robotic units. You will probably want this building in every game. Produces: Observer, Immortal, Warp Prism, Colossus Stargate [M][S] This one makes all the Protoss air units. Carriers are not very popular due to their cost and build time but are still powerful units. The Phoenix is used mainly in specific builds to harass. The Void Ray is the all around Protoss air unit. It is usually the next step for the Protoss army. Produces: Phoenix, Void Ray, Carrier -----Tech Buildings----- Cybernetics Core [M][S] Besides having some upgrades to research, the Cybernetics Core is required to build the Robotics Facility and a few other buildings. It has the all-important Warp Gate upgrade. This is pretty much a required upgrade every game since warping in units is just so powerful. It also has the basic upgrades for Protoss air units. Protoss armies don't usually rely on lots of air units, so the general air upgrades are not obtained very often. If resources allow, extra upgrades will never hurt though. Requires: Gateway Forge [M][S] The Forge houses the basic upgrades (damage, armor) for Protoss ground units as well as Protoss shields. The Shield upgrade is twice the resource cost of the others, but it affects all Protoss units and buildings. It should definitely not be ignored. Requires: Gateway Twilight Council [M][S] This tech building is required to get to the Templar units and buildings. It also has two upgrades for Gateway units. The Zealot Charge and the Stalker Blink abilities are also researched here. Requires: Cybernetics Core Templar Archives [M][S] This is the required building to make High Templar units at the Gateway. It also has the required upgrade for Psi Storm and a caster upgrade that increases starting energy. Requires: Twilight Council Dark Shrine [M][S] This building is required to make Dark Templar. It doesn't have any upgrades, so its only purpose is to unlock Dark Templar at the Gateway. Requires: Twilight Council Robotics Bay [M][S] This is the required building to make the Colossus. It also has a number of upgrades for robotic units. This is where the Colossus range upgrade is as well as movement speed upgrades for the Observer and Warp Prism. The speed upgrades aren't as important, but can be useful for the affected units. Requires: Robotics Facility Fleet Beacon [M][S] This is the last tech building for the Protoss. It opens up the Carrier at the Stargate and the Mothership from the Nexus. It also has some upgrades for air units in general like Void Ray movement speed and one that increases Carrier launch speed of Interceptors. Requires: Stargate -----Utility Buildings----- Pylon [M][S] Pylons are the supply buildings for the Protoss, each increasing supply by eight. It also provides the power matrix for nearby buildings. Protoss buildings can only be constructed in the power matrix. If the pylon is destroyed later, the building will be disabled. Assimilator [M][S] This is required to harvest vespene gas from geysers. It is effectively the same as the Terran Refinery and Zerg Extractor. This building is essential since only a few units require solely minerals. -----Defensive Buildings----- Photon Cannon [M][S] The Photon Cannon is the best all around defensive building. It attacks air and ground equally, but doesn't do as much damage as the more specialized defensive buildings. Of the defensive buildings, it's the third best ground damage and second best air damage. It also can detect cloaked and burrowed units. Requires: Forge |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- VI. SINGLE PLAYER -----------------------------------------------[SNGL]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| =====A. Campaign Features==============================================[CFTR]== Starcraft 2 is radically different from previous RTS games. The campaign gameplay is completely different compared to the multiplayer side. Changes to units for multiplayer or single player will not affect the other side of the game. Also, the campaign is not intended to be a tutorial for how to play multiplayer. Special solo challenges are included for learning multiplayer skills. This gave Blizzard a lot of freedom with the campaign to do pretty much whatever they wanted. Because the campaign is so different than previous Blizzard RTS games, an overview is in order to get the general idea of how the campaign in Starcraft 2 works. The main campaign is called Wings of Liberty, just like on the game box. You start out in a hub where you can select missions to do. This is kind of like an interactive briefing room. You can talk to people to get the main goal of the mission, but can also interact with the objects in the rooms for interesting tidbits about the world. Once the mission starts the game plays like many RTS games of the past, but most of the missions in Starcraft 2 have very different objectives. After completing a mission, you are rewarded with credits that you can use to improve your units and buildings. New missions also become available. Unlike Starcraft 1, the player no longer controls the anonymous "commander". You play as Jim Raynor directly this time. All of the dialog and decisions are given by you through Raynor. For the most part you just watch the story, but there are a few times when you will be required to choose Raynor's decision. -----Background----- Jim Raynor is a laid back country boy. He prefers to stay in the background, but is not afraid to take action when he has to. His main enemies are Kerrigan, the leader of the Zerg swarm, who mysteriously disappeared after the events of the Brood War, and the Dominion Emperor Mengsk, who allowed Kerrigan to become infested by the Zerg in the first place. Raynor used to work with Mengsk's faction, the Sons of Korhal, but ditched him when he allowed Kerrigan to be infested by Zerg. There were many other like- minded individuals who joined Raynor at the same time, and they named themselves Raynor's Raiders. In addition to the Raiders, Raynor has historically also been allies with the Protoss. After fighting Mengsk for years, Raynor has become disillusioned by his original goals and one day may decide to give up the fight. -----Missions----- In previous RTS games, the missions would be mostly the same. You would start out with a small base and some units. You would then build up while defending against attacks. Finally, you would attack with your big mass of units and destroy the computer player. That all changes with Starcraft 2. The missions almost always have something new that add a twist to the gameplay. Anything from new units or new buildings to even entire new game mechanics can be unique to a mission. The hub area before each mission is very similar to those old adventure style games of the 90s. The camera is fixed, but you can use the mouse to interact with things like getting a close-up view of an object or watching the news feed. Jim Raynor can talk to characters of importance and learn what they need help with. After you are done looking at everything, you can start a mission. Sometimes you have a variety of missions to choose from. After each mission Raynor returns to hub. The hub sometimes changes after missions with new things to interact with or old things removed. Difficulty Levels The missions have four difficulty levels: Casual, Normal, Hard, and Brutal. Casual - Enemy units have -50% health. Normal - Enemy units have full health and no upgrades. Hard - Enemy units have full health and start with level 1 upgrades. Enemies attack more frequently and with greater numbers than Normal. Brutal - Enemy special units have +33% health, and units start with level 2 or 3 upgrades (depending on mission). Enemies attack more frequently and with greater numbers than Hard. None of the missions require a certain difficulty to unlock, but many achievements can only be earned on Normal, Hard, or Brutal difficulty. Choosing Missions Unlike previous RTS games, the missions are not completely linear. The campaign starts and ends with a few missions you must do in order, but a big chunk of the missions in between can be done in whatever order you want. Each mission is part of what I call a "mission arc", given by a certain crew member. Within the arc you have to do the missions in order, but you are free to skip between different mission arcs however you choose. Missions have no time limits, so don't worry about choosing the wrong one. You can choose to stick with one mission arc to the end or skip around however you want, but some missions will not show up until you have completed a minimum number of missions. Mission Alternatives When you start certain missions, Raynor will have to make a decision on how to solve the problem. These choices will usually involve Raynor having to decide if he wants to help himself or help others on his ship. After completing the chosen mission, you can see what the other mission would have been like by using the Mission Archives on the Hyperion Bridge. -----Hyperion----- The Hyperion is Jim Raynor's capital ship stolen from Arcturus Mengsk. It is the central hub of the campaign mode. The four areas are the Bridge, Armory, Cantina, and Laboratory. The camera is fixed, you can interact with some things in the environment, and there are crew members to talk to. Each of the four areas has one main point of interest to further your progress in the game. Bridge This is where you give orders to your crew. You can choose missions to do with the Mission Console. For each mission it shows who is giving the mission, what you have to do to complete the mission, and how many credits you get. The crew then flies the ship to the planet for that mission. Another feature of the Bridge is the Mission Archives. With it, you can play cinematics and missions you have previously experienced. If you missed any bonus objectives, you can do the mission again here to get any rewards from those. You can also complete achievements you missed. The Mission Archives is the only thing accessible after beating the campaign. Armory The Armory is where you can buy permanent upgrades for your units. Armory upgrades cost credits instead of minerals or vespene gas. New upgrades unlock as you complete missions. After buying the upgrade, the affected units will start with it from the beginning of all future missions. In a single campaign, you will not have enough credits to get all of the upgrades. The Armory also functions like a trophy case for your progress through the campaign. Many of the new units you get can be examined in the hangar up close. Cantina In this area you can buy special mercenary units. Mercenaries are the same as the base unit, but come with improved health and damage. For a small credit cost, they are unlocked in the Merc Compound. They can be called down from the compound in a mission for a few resources. All but one mercenary comes in a squad, so you usually get more than one unit. Mercenaries also have a squad limit per mission, so you can't just use mercenaries for your entire army. The Cantina also has a little arcade machine in the left corner. By examining the machine, you can play The Lost Viking arcade game. See The Lost Viking section below for more information. Laboratory Some missions will have research objectives. By completing these you will earn Protoss or Zerg research points. These points can be used to choose new technologies for your units and buildings. The upgrades are basically combining Terran technology with Protoss or Zerg technologies. In the Laboratory Research Console is a research tree for Protoss and for Zerg. At each research level, you can make a choice of which upgrade to go with. Your choice is final. You can't change it later to see what the other upgrade would have been like. The only thing you can do is play another campaign to see the other upgrades or load a save game before you made the choice. Note: In the interest of not spoiling all the stuff you can get, full lists for Armory upgrades, Cantina mercenaries, and Laboratory upgrades are after the walkthrough. -----Protoss Mini-campaign----- Early in the campaign you will get access to a special mini-campaign featuring the Protoss race. The missions in this campaign are optional but do provide more back story for the Starcraft universe. The missions feature Zeratul, a Protoss hero from Starcraft 1, and his quest to search for knowledge from ancient Protoss ruins. =====B. Campaign Walkthrough===========================================[CWLK]== This is a spoiler-free walkthrough from mission to mission, but not entirely spoiler-free. What I mean is that within each mission, I will reveal spoilers necessary to finishing the mission. However, I will not reveal anything about how the mission ends or about any later missions, except if the mission has a special reward. I played the campaign with the Hard difficulty. If you play on Casual or Normal, the missions will be a little easier. If you play on Brutal, the missions will be a lot tougher. The walkthrough should still give you the general idea for the mission regardless of what difficulty you play on. These are what the fields mean for each mission: Background: A short description of what you are doing in this mission and why. New Units: Any units you see for the first time in a mission. New Structures: Any structures you see for the first time in a mission. This depends many times on what order you do the missions. Heroes: Any Hero units you get in this mission and what their base unit is. Unlocks: Any new Armory Upgrades, Hyperion Areas, or Mercenaries will be listed here. Rewards: This will show how many credits you get for the mission as well as any Protoss or Zerg research you can get. Difficulty: A rating from 1 to 10 of how difficult I think the mission is to complete on Hard difficulty. Objectives: The list of objectives you must complete to finish the mission. Some objectives are optional, which will also be listed here. Walkthrough: This is the biggest section, with detailed, step by step instructions on how to beat the mission. Reader submitted strategies are shown with a little border. -----i. Mar Sara Missions----------------------------------------------[MRSR]-- These are the introductory missions of the game, just setting up the story and background for the rest of the game. -----a. Liberation Day----- --[LBRD]-- Background: Raynor and a small squad of Marines must destroy the Dominion Logistics Headquarters in Backwater Station to start the revolution against Emperor Mengsk. New Units: Marine Difficulty: 1/10 Objectives: - Destroy the Logistics Headquarters - Raynor Must Survive - Bonus: Destroy 6 Dominion Holoboards Walkthrough: You start with 5 Marines, Raynor, a beefed-up Marine, and one main objective to destroy a key building. Of course, there are enemies along the way. Most of the enemies are Marines, but there are a few Vikings at the end. One key tactic in this mission is focus fire. Since you don't really get reinforcements, every unit needs to last. With focus fire, you will kill enemies faster and reduce damage done to your units. This mission is the first in the game, so it's pretty easy to beat. - Destroy the Logistics Headquarters Follow the road to the first set of enemies consisting of 3 Marines. Focus fire and you shouldn't lose any units. Immediately after, you will see Dominion Holoboard #1 with a small cutscene. Simply right click on it to destroy it. Follow the road again killing 2 Marines on the way until another cutscene occurs. A large force of 9 Marines are guarding the road, but Horner will quickly drop two sets of Marine reinforcements for you that will help kill the Marines for you. After dispatching that group, Dominion Holoboard #2 will be visible. Destroy it and move SE to Dominion Holoboard #3. Two enemy Marines will be guarding it. They should be no trouble for your reinforced group. Now move SW along the road Dominion Holoboard #4. Follow the road NW until you get to a bend where a cutscene will play. Destroy the 5 Marines guarding the road. The transport also has a turret, so it must be destroyed as well. Right next to the transport is Dominion Holoboard #5. Continue NE on the road to find the Dominion Holoboard #6, the last one. The only thing left now is the Logistics building and enemy guards. The colonists you just saved will join you. There is no penalty for losing colonists, so feel free to let them take the brunt of the attacks. There are 6 Marines guarding the compound as well as 2 Vikings that appear after the Mengsk Statues are destroyed. The angry mob with Raynor support should have no trouble dispatching everything. Mission Complete! -----b. The Outlaws----- --[THTL]-- Background: The Dominion are on Mar Sara digging for something. Take out their base and steal what they were after. New Units: SCV, Medic New Structures: Command Center, Supply Depot, Barracks, Tech Lab Rewards: 45,000 credits Difficulty: 2/10 Objectives: - Destroy the Dominion Base - Bonus: Rescue the Rebels Walkthrough: This is the first standard mission with base building and unit training. You start with a small base consisting of a Command Center, Supply Depot, and Barracks. You also get 8 SCVs to start gathering and 6 Marines to defend with. Enemies consist of Marines and some Hellions close to the enemy base. Across the map there are various resource caches that give free minerals and vespene gas. Set your initial SCVs to gather minerals. Use one SCV to build a Refinery, making sure to put 3 SCVs on it when it finishes. Focus your resources on SCVs initially, building Supply Depots as needed. Aim for 16 SCVs gathering minerals. As you start to get extra resources start training Marines from your Barracks. Build two more Barracks as you get extra resources. Don't forget about Supply Depots either. Add a Tech Lab to one of the Barracks so you can train Medics. While you are building up your base, take your initial 6 Marines and move them north. There should be two resource caches that will speed up your base building. Continue north through a small pass and kill 3 Marines guarding a few more resource caches. After that, move the Marines back to your base for defense. - Bonus: Rescue the Rebels Pretty soon this objective will show up. Build up a force of about 12 Marines and 2 Medics to send over. Your reward for helping them is control of all their units and buildings: 4 Marines, 3 Medics, a Barracks with Tech Lab, and 2 Supply Depots. Their base also has some more resource caches. While you are doing this, make sure to continue producing Marines. Set your Barracks rally points to the front of the rebel base as well. All enemy units have to pass through this area, so this will defend your main base as well. - Destroy the Dominion Base You will need a pretty good size force to destroy the Dominion Base. Aim for about 10 Medics and 24 Marines before attacking the Dominion Base. On your way north you will be attacked by 3 Hellions. You then have to crack through a Bunker with 3 Marines inside. As long as you built the right size army, you should have no trouble. Your Medics should keep almost all of your Marines alive. Once you get to the actual base, destroy the Factory first followed by the two Barracks. With no more reinforcements, the base will go down fast. Mission Complete! -----c. Zero Hour----- --[ZRHR]-- Background: Defend your base from the Zerg until evacuation. New Structures: Bunker, Reactor, Engineering Bay, Missile Turret Unlocks: Hyperion Bridge, Hyperion Armory, Armory Upgrades (Bunker, Marine, Medic), Mercenaries (War Pigs - already hired). Rewards: 55,000 credits Difficulty: 4/10 Objectives: - Hold Out For Evacuation - Bonus: Rescue 3 Rebel Camps Walkthrough: This is a holdout mission where you have to last a certain length of time before being rescued, very similar to the third Terran mission in SC1. You start with 5 SCVs and 16 Marines. This sounds like a pretty good start, but it's nothing when the Zerg start attacking. Immediately, put 8 Marines in the two Bunkers on the lower level. Also build one more Bunker at each of those bridges. Station an SCV nearby the Bunkers at each bridge for instant repairs. Build Missile Turrets if you have extra minerals, but they aren't required as long as you repair the existing turrets when they get hit. That should hold the Zerg back for quite a while. With your base defenses okay for a while, you can focus on getting production up. Build your Refinery to get vespene gas going. Also keep building SCVs until you have about 30 gathering minerals. Build Reactors on your starting two Barracks. Build one more Barracks and put a Tech Lab on it. With the Engineering Bay you can now upgrade your units' armor and attack by one level, so remember to start those early. Upgrades make a big difference when you have lots of cheap units like Marines. By this time you have probably got a notification about some rebels that need rescuing. - Bonus: Rescue 3 Rebel Camps At certain intervals in the mission, rebels will request assistance with evacuation from the Zerg. All you need to do is move a unit into the waypoint and they will join your forces. They also have extra resource caches you can pick up. The problem is that there are usually burrowed Zerg and sometimes Spine Crawlers defending the way. Therefore, you need to build up a small army to push your way through to their encampments. Aim for about 10 Marines for the first rebel camp to the NE. Keep your Barracks constantly building Marines and Medics. After the first camp, come back to your base to reinforce your army. Build up a group of about 20 Marines and 6 Medics. Now go up the NW bridge out of your base. The path will branch with one rebel camp to the NW and another to the NE. With your reinforcements, you should be able to rescue both remaining rebels. - Hold Out For Extraction With the bonus objective complete, you just need to hold out for the remaining time. As long as you have been constantly producing new units and repairing your Bunkers, you should have no trouble at all. You might lose the lower area in the last few minutes, but by then the Zerg won't be able to destroy your base before the timer runs out. -----ii. Colonist Missions---------------------------------------------[CLNS]-- -----a. The Evacuation----- --[THVC]-- Background: Help Dr. Hanson to evacuate her colonists from invading Zerg. Missions Required: Zero Hour New Units: Firebat New Structures: Merc Compound (fifth mission) Unlocks: Firebat Armory Upgrades, Hyperion Cantina, Hyperion Laboratory (fifth mission), Mercenaries (War Pigs, Devil Dogs) Rewards: 100,000 credits, 3 Zerg Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 4/10 Objectives: - Reach Dr. Hanson's Settlement - Escort 50 Colonists to the Colony Ships - Do Not Let 20 Colonists Die - Bonus: Collect 3 Chrysalis DNA (Research) Walkthrough: - Reach Dr. Hanson's Settlement You start with only 2 Firebats and 2 Medics. Luckily, the only thing standing in your way to the settlement is a few Zerglings. Your Firebats will chew right through them. - Escort 50 Colonists to the Colony Ships This is your ongoing objective for the mission. The transports will carry roughly 10 colonists at a time, so you need to complete about 5 escorts up to the spaceport. The first one will come before you have time to really build up an army, but fortunately, they only throw you a few Zerglings at a time. On the road you will find two Bunkers you can garrison troops in for support, but don't worry if you lose them. You can easily complete the mission without the Bunkers. At the end of this escort is the Chrysalis DNA #1. During the first escort, make sure to be building up your base. Shoot for 24 SCVs gathering minerals and 3 gathering vespene gas from the Refinery. Build two extra Barracks for three total. Put a Reactor on one Barracks and Tech Labs on the other two Barracks. That way you can constantly pump out Marines, Firebats, and Medics. Remember to build an Engineering Bay for the weapons and armor upgrades. If you have mercenaries available, you can call them down as well. After the first escort, move your army back to your base. Build up Marines, Medics, and Firebats in preparation for the second escort. In the second escort, groups of Zerglings will attack where the Bunkers are as well as from one little offshoot path on the road in between the Bunkers. After this second escort, if you have at least 10 Marines, 4 Medics, and 4 Firebats, you can look for Chrysalis DNA #2. It is at that offshoot path in between the Bunkers on the road. Go south down the offshoot, and you will find Chrysalis DNA #2 there with a burrowed Roach, Hydralisk, and some Zerglings guarding it. In any case, move your army back to base in time for the third escort. Just continue what you have been doing for the third escort. It will feature attacks from the same points, but the enemy groups will now include a few Roaches and Hydralisks. If you didn't get the Chrysalis DNA #2 in the second escort, get it in this one. If you already got it, you can go after Chrysalis DNA #3 which is west down the ramp where the first Bunker is. Like the previous escorts, return your army to base when you finished. For the fourth escort, just do the same thing you've been doing. In this escort, the Zerg attack groups will sometimes have Banelings which are devastating to Marines. In addition to the normal attack points, there are now a few Zerg air drops. They usually just have a few Zerglings, but sometimes can have a few Hydralisks or Roaches. If you didn't get Chrysalis #3 earlier, get it now after this escort. The fifth escort ends the mission, and you won't have time to move your army all the way down there. By the time the fifth escort comes around, you should have a pretty massive army. Nothing the Zerg throw at you should be an issue. In addition to all the other Zerg attacks, they will now spawn Nydus Worms at various points. They will keep spitting out Zerg units if you don't destroy them. Destroy them as fast as you can to reduce how much Zerg you have to kill. Other than the Nydus Worms, this should be a pretty easy escort. Mission Complete! -----b. Outbreak----- --[OTBR]-- Background: Some of Dr. Hanson's colonists were infected by a Zerg virus in their escape in the last mission. This virus has spread throughout the colony infecting almost everyone. You must destroy the infestation and escape with the surviving colonists. New Units: Hellion New Structures: Sensor Tower, Factory, Armory, Merc Compound (fifth mission) Unlocks: Hellion Armory Upgrades Rewards: 110,000 credits, 2 Zerg Research Points Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Cleanse the Infestation (Destroy all Infested Structures) - Bonus: Destroy 2 Zerg Infestors Walkthrough: You start with 6 SCVs, 4 Firebats, 6 Marines and 4 Medics. As always you want 24 SCVs gathering minerals, but your base has 2 vespene geysers this time. That means you need 6 SCVs gathering vespene gas. This mission is similar to the third mission where you had to hold out for a while. The difference is you only get attacked in the nighttime. At daytime the map is pretty safe. - Cleanse the Infestation This is your ongoing objective for this mission. There are 144 structures strewn about the map that need to be destroyed. In the daytime it is pretty safe to venture out and destroy buildings, but at night you will need a heavy defense to survive. Throughout the whole mission, make sure to be building units and upgrading them with the Engineering Bay and Armory. Your base has three entrances, but one is barricaded. This barricaded one will be broken down by the enemies on the third night, so build up some garrisoned Bunkers there whenever you have the resources to spare. At each base, you should have two Bunkers. Of those two Bunkers, one of them should have a Firebat. Fill the rest of the slots with Marines. Once the Bunkers are filled, continue building Firebats and Hellions for defense. Marauders and Reapers are good at destroying buildings if you have them available. Otherwise Firebats, Hellions, and Marines can still destroy buildings. The first night is only made up of Infested Terrans which only have a melee attack. They will get completely chewed up before even touching your Bunkers. After the first wave, empty all your Bunkers and send out the units to destroy buildings. When the adjutant gives you the 30 second warning, quickly move all your units back to base and fill up your Bunkers again. In the second night there will be some Infested Marines added to the mix, which have a ranged attack. Some of your Bunkers may be destroyed, but you should have enough units trained to deal with it until daybreak. Also in this night, the locations for the bonus objective will appear. The targets for the bonus objective are two Infestors that only show up at night. Move out with at least 6 Hellions to a location. Try to pass by the enemies if you can. Only attack if they are blocking the way. If any of their fire happens to hit a building, it will spawn a ton of infested units possibly destroying your Hellions outright. Make your way to an Infestor, destroy it quickly and then run back home. You can try to take out the other Infestor in the same night if you are feeling brave. One other tactic for killing Infestors is to park some Hellions near the spawn points in the daytime. At nighttime the Infestor will spawn with few enemies nearby, letting you snipe it easier and retreating before too many enemies spawn. After daybreak make sure to rebuild your Bunkers. At this point you have enough units to keep your defenses and attack with the remaining forces. You could continue to empty your Bunkers and send them out if you want to finish the mission faster, but it's not required. The third night is pretty much the same as the second night, but the enemies will now include the occasional Abomination unit. They are similar to Ultralisks in that they have a lot of health and high damage. They are the main culprit for destroyed Bunkers at this point. If you missed any Infestors in the last night, you can try again this night. The fourth night adds no new enemy types, but Abominations become more frequent and the enemies have higher upgrades. Each new night, more enemies will spawn per structure and they will get higher upgrades. That's why it's important to keep making progress each day destroying structures. Feel free to leave one structure remaining if you still have an Infestor to kill. With only one structure, the "zombies" won't be able to spawn many units. Once the last structure is demolished, Mission Complete! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Cloaked Ghosts by Night Submitted by: RV | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ This does require the completion of Tosh's mission to unlock the ghost unit. This strategy does take some micromanagement to finish correctly though, specifically, keeping tabs on 3 different teams. This strategy has the same initial idea as yours. Create 2 bunkers at each entrance, place a fire bat in each bunker and fill it with marines from there. During the first real "Day", send out 2 teams consisting of the marines, firebats and medics from each entrance point. Give each of them a set of attack-move waypoints to different areas. DO NOT waypoint specific buildings, as your units will leave the broodlings be. Once the two teams are on their ways, build 2 shadow ops and 2 ghosts, assigning each of them to a separate control group. If you have the upgrade that allows cloak to effectively become permanent, this mission becomes really easy, really fast. With the exception of the spore crawlers all the way at the south end of the map, your enemy does not have any detectors at all, thus allowing your ghosts to continue what they started during daytime. Obviously, when there is about 45 seconds left, you should call in the other infantry units to defend your base. Meanwhile, the ghosts can snipe away the infestors when they emerge without being detected. When the next day comes up, send out your teams on their respective routes again. Use tac nukes on the spore crawlers to get rid of them at a safe distance. Once they are out, have the ghosts take out the spine crawlers, and its an easy game from there. This method also helps with the achievement that requires attacking by night. Another tip for you to consider, regardless of the ghosts, is getting siege tanks on the entrances should you have them. The enemy is helpless against 2 siege tanks at each entrance. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -----cA. Safe Haven----- --[SFHV]-- Background: Help Dr. Hanson's colonists escape from the Protoss. Missions Required: 7 or more completed New Units: Viking New Structures: Starport Unlocks: Viking Armory Upgrades, Hel's Angels Mercenaries Rewards: 125,000 credits, 3 Zerg Research Points Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Destroy the 3 Protoss Nexus - Destroy the Purifier Mothership - Bonus: Stop the First Terror Fleet - Bonus: Stop the Second Terror Fleet - Bonus: Stop the Third Terror Fleet Walkthrough: You start with 6 SCVs, 3 Vikings, 4 Marines, and 2 Medics. You can use Vikings to complete all objectives for this mission, but you will want some Marines and Marauders in Bunkers to defend your base. Get your SCVs to 24 for minerals and 3 per Refinery. For base defense, build a Bunker at each entrance to your base (southwest, southeast). Also build some Missile Turrets. Protoss attacks on your base are frequent but not in great numbers, so one Bunker should be good enough. Build a Reactor on your Starport and Tech Lab on your Barracks. You won't need the Factory in this mission unless you decide to build Mechanical units for defending your base. The Starport should be constantly producing Vikings two at a time. The Barracks should be making Marines and Marauders for your Bunkers plus a few extra for reinforcements if a Bunker falls. With your Armory, focus on ship upgrades for your Vikings. With the Engineering Bay, focus on infantry attacks. Since your infantry will be mostly in Bunkers, you won't need the armor upgrades. Nexus #1 is just east. Add 4 Vikings to your original 3 for a total of 7 Vikings. Move out east to a Protoss base. Destroy any Warp Prisms you come across, because they are powering the Photon Cannons. Then, land on the little plateau near the Nexus. Destroy any Protoss units that attack, but for the most part, your Vikings will be safe attacking from this plateau. While you are destroying this Nexus, the Protoss might send Terror Fleet #1 after the colonists. They will attempt to destroy the colonists' escape transport. You will need to temporarily abandon your Nexus destroying efforts to take out the fleet. This first fleet will only be 2 Carriers. A fleet of 10 Vikings should manage this first air battle with ease. For Nexus #2, build up about 12 Vikings. Move southeast to the Nexus marked on your map. To the north of the Nexus is another convenient plateau you can land your Vikings on. Again destroy the Warp Prisms first to disable Photon Cannons. Then, go about attacking the Nexus picking off any Protoss units that try to defend it. Terror Fleet #2 should be attacking around this time consisting of 2 Carriers and a Void Ray. They should go down even easier now that you have a bigger fleet. Return to base, repair and reinforce. This time build up about 20 Vikings. Nexus #3 has no plateau, but 20 Vikings should be a big enough fleet to destroy the Protoss head on. Approach the Nexus from the west side by the minerals. Start by taking out the Warp Prisms as you did with the other bases. This base will also have some Phoenixes, Void Rays, and Carriers you need to take out. Then, land near the minerals and start taking out any ground units. You will probably lose about half of your Vikings, but as long as you kept building Vikings during the battle, you should have enough for the next objective. Terror Fleet #3 will be attacking soon. Twelve Vikings are enough for this battle, but you will probably have more this long into the mission. Focus on the 2 Void Rays first before destroying the 2 Carriers. Build up 20 Vikings again, this time for taking out the Purifier. It will now have lost its shields, but it still has 7000 health for your Vikings to plow through. When confronted, it will warp in a couple Carriers and some Stalkers. It will also sometimes cast a black hole ability that sucks in half of your Vikings. If this happens, order your remaining Vikings into the hole as well. They cannot be damaged when inside the hole, preventing your few Vikings from being picked off while your other Vikings can't help. Focus on the 2 Carriers first before attacking the Purifier and ignore the Stalkers. You will probably lose a lot of Vikings, but the mission is over after destroying it. You win when the Purifier's health hits zero. Mission Complete! -----cB. Haven's Fall----- --[HVNF]-- Background: Dr. Handon's colonists have been infested. They must be purged to ensure it does not spread to the entire planet. Missions Required: 7 or more completed New Units: Viking Unlocks: Viking Armory Upgrades, Hel's Angels Mercenaries Rewards: 125,000 credits Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Destroy the Zerg Infestation (Destroy all Zerg units and buildings) Walkthrough: - Destroy the Zerg Infestation In this mission your goal is to destroy all Zerg. There are three established Zerg bases from which they launch their main attacks. These bases have some okay defenses, so you will need to build up a large force to deal with them. The other Zerg base just east of your base is an infested colony. It's defended by mostly air units like Mutalisks and Broodlords, but they also have Zerglings on the ground. As time goes on the Zerg will attempt to infest other colonies. Try to prevent these colonies from starting up by destroying the special Virophage building. If you fail to destroy it in time, the colony will be infested just like the one next to your base. Fortunately, these infestations are easy to fight off with Vikings. You start with 6 SCVs, 3 Vikings, 4 Marines, and 2 Firebats. For your economy get 24 SCVs on minerals and 9 SCVs for the 3 vespene geysers. You will need a good sized ground army to take out the three normal Zerg bases as well as a fleet of Vikings to prevent infestation attempts as they happen. Add a Reactor to your Starport so you can build 2 Vikings at a time. For the the first infested colony, 5 Vikings will do well enough. While you are building the Vikings, you can get your base defense going. Build 2 Bunkers at each entrance. Put a Firebat in 1 Bunker at each entrance. Fill the rest of the slots with Marines. Also build a Missile Turret near the Bunkers. Add a Reactor to your starting Barracks. Build 2 extra Barracks with Tech Labs. Train Marines and Firebats until your 4 Bunkers are filled. While working on this the Vikings will probably be finished. Move east of your base to the infested colony. They have no anti-air except for the occasional Infested Marine on the ground. Start by killing the Broodlords and Overlords. Then land your Vikings below. Take out any ground forces, and destroy the Virophage. Return to base for repairs. Keep building Vikings. Your overall goal for the mission is 16 Vikings. Whenever the Zerg try to infest a new area, you can just send any Vikings you have on hand. You should have enough for each part. The next Virophage will spawn a little ways south of your base. This one will have some Mutalisks for air defense, but that is pretty much it. Your Vikings will be able to pick them apart easily. Like before, take out the Broodlords and Overlords next. Then land below and destroy the Virophage. Return to base to repair. Your Viking production will probably be good, so you can start working on your ground force. Aim for 8 Firebats, 20 Marines, 10 Marauders, and 10 Medics. While building up your ground units, the Zerg will start infestation of another colony. This one is straight east of your base. It is guarded by a few more Mutalisks then the last one, but otherwise, it's the same thing as the last one. Return to base for repairs when finished. Continue building up your ground army and Vikings. Your Vikings are likely close to 16 by now or already there. The Zerg will attempt another infestation. This time it's in the far southeast side of the map, but your Vikings are fast enough to get there in time. This one has the same defenses as the last one. You should have these battles down by now. Mutalisks and other air units, then land and attack the ground stuff. The Zerg will attempt another infestation in the northeast. This one will be just as easy as the last one. At this point, the Zerg will have no chance of infesting anymore colonies. Your Viking fleet is huge compared to their defense at the sites. The only thing to worry about this one is that an Abomination might hatch out of one of the eggs. It should be no trouble for 16 Vikings though. Your ground army is probably ready to go now. You can take out the main Zerg bases in any order. None of them have any Spine Crawlers, so they are easy to take with ground units. The northern and eastern bases have quite a few Spore Crawlers. Your Vikings should only help if you land them on the ground. The eastern base has a few Abominations, but nothing to really faze your army. The southern base is the hardest out of all of them having quite a few Banelings. The Baneling nest is very close to the entrance to the base, so just focus on it so they can't make any more after. During your attacks, the Zerg will keep attempting to infest colonies cycling through the previous locations. Just do the same thing you have been doing for the whole mission. Your ground army is strong enough you can just order it to Attack-Move while you focus on saving the colonies. Just continue eliminating the Zerg presence. Mission Complete! -----iii. Covert Missions----------------------------------------------[CCVR]-- -----a. The Devil's Playground----- --[THDV]-- Background: Gather minerals for Tosh in exchange for credits. Missions Required: The Evacuation or Smash and Grab New Units: Reaper New Structures: Merc Compound Unlocks: Reaper Armory Upgrades Rewards: 110,000 credits, 3 Zerg Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 3/10 Objectives: - Gather 8000 Minerals - Bonus: Locate Tosh's Miners - Bonus: Kill the Brutalisk (Research) Walkthrough: You start this mission with 10 SCVs and only 2 Marines. Fortunately, you will get 4 free Reapers early on. Your main goal is to gather minerals, so you don't need to build a huge army, but you still need some units for defense. The Zerg enemies tend to send waves of mostly Zerglings with a few Hydralisks for support and the occasional Mutalisk. A group of 10 Reapers, 10 Marines and a few Medics should do the job of mobile defense wherever you may be gathering minerals. For your starting base build two Bunkers, one at each entrance. Fill the Bunkers with Firebats (if available) and Marines. You can build extra SCVs to speed up harvesting, but it's not a huge deal. The Zerg never get too tough to fight off. For buildings, add a Tech Lab to your Barracks and build one Refinery. You will need just a little bit of vespene gas to train some Medics and Reapers. After you have built your defensive army, you can pull all your SCVs off the Refinery to gather minerals faster. - Bonus: Locate Tosh's Miners This is a pretty easy bonus objective. With your starting Reapers, move past the NE entrance of your base and then NW to another raised area. This area has 3 Zerglings and 1 Hydralisk all burrowed. Right after that, you should find Tosh's Miners. From the free Command Center, move your Reapers NE. Kill off another 3 Zerglings and 1 Hydralisk to get 4 more free Reapers. Go back up the platforms those new Reapers were on for some more free resources. - Bonus: Kill the Brutalisk This bonus objective is also pretty easy. On the way to the Brutalisk will be another small group of burrowed Zerg (3 Zerglings, 1 Hydralisk). After taking them out, continue on to the Brutalisk. He has really high health and damage, but he is very slow. With your 8 Reapers, you can attack and move away, attack and move away over and over until he goes down. You should not lose any Reapers. Once he's down, go into his lair and take all the free resources. - Gather 8000 Minerals Spend some time to build up your mobile army if it's not finished yet. At this point, the mission is basically over. You should have an easy time gathering minerals as long as you keep your mobile army around. While you wait you can look for more free Reapers or free resources on the plateaus. You could even build up a big army and take out the Zerg bases if you wanted to. There are more than enough minerals. Mission Complete! -----b. Welcome to the Jungle----- --[WLCM]-- Background: Help Tosh gather Terrazine from altars before the Tal'darim seal them off. New Units: Goliath New Structures: Factory, Armory (seventh mission) Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Goliath), Mercenaries (Spartan Company) Rewards: 120,000 credits, 3 Protoss Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 6/10 Objectives: - Gather 7 Terrazine - Protoss Can't Seal 7 Altars - Bonus: Find 3 Protoss Relics (Research) Walkthrough: You start with 5 SCVs, 3 Goliaths, and 2 Marines. Get the typical 24 SCVs gathering minerals and 3 SCVs per Refinery. The Protoss mainly attack with air units so focus on anti-air units and buildings. Build one extra Barracks and one extra Factory. Put a Reactor on one Barracks and a Tech Lab on the other. Put a Tech Lab on the extra Factory. From both Factories constantly be producing Goliaths. From the Reactor Barracks build Marines constantly, and from the Tech Lab Barracks build Medics constantly. For base defense, build two Missile Turrets and a Bunker on the east ramp of your base. The Protoss will not attack your base very often. The few times they do, you should have enough time to bring your army back to kill them off. One thing to note with this mission is that the Protoss get stronger the longer the mission lasts. They start attempting to seal altars faster (I've seen two at once) and will send more attack groups to your base and your Terrazine- collecting SCVs. Depending on your speed through this mission, your base may run out of resources or you may start getting too far behind the Protoss sealing efforts. Just keep restarting the mission until you get faster at it. - Gather 7 Terrazine - Protoss Can't Seal 7 Altars These are your ongoing objectives for this mission. You will need to build up quickly. The Protoss waste no time sealing off Terrazine altars. Don't worry about stopping all of the Protoss sealing efforts; try to stop most of them. You might not have the ideal army size when they start sealing. Just attack with whatever you have. The first unit you should attack is the Probe that is sealing the altar. It should go down pretty much instantly. Then you can take down the defending units. That way if you lose all your units, you at least make them bring another Probe down from their base. Bring an SCV behind your attack group to start gathering from the freed Terrazine node immediately. While you are preventing the Protoss from sealing altars, you need to be gathering Terrazine. Keep in mind you can gather Terrazine from the altars in any order. This is just my recommended order for doing it the fastest and easiest. Terrazine Altar #1 is just outside the west ramp of your base. Send an SCV over there right away. The Protoss will not attack this early, so he can go undefended. The other altars your SCV will need defense. Keep building up your base and army while he is collecting. Terrazine Altar #2 is just north of the first one. The Protoss will start sealing it probably before you are ready, but your army should be big enough to manage this battle. Steal the Terrazine after you win the battle. Keep your army a little bit north of the altar to catch any Protoss trying to destroy your SCV. While doing this remember to keep building up your base, training more units, and researching armor and attack upgrades. Terrazine Altar #3 is just north of the second one. Again the Protoss will start sealing the altar before you are ready. Try to have at least 4 Marines, 3 Goliaths, and 4 Medics to take them out. After the battle bring in reinforcements if you need to while your SCV gathers the Terrazine. Just as the SCV finishes this altar, the Protoss will probably attack your main base with a few Scouts, Stalkers, and Zealots. Hopefully you have been training some units at your base to deal with this. Otherwise, your army on the field should be able to deal with them. Immediately after, the Protoss will start sealing another altar. This one is pretty far away, and you're army is probably reeling a little from the last two battles. You can ignore this one and build up your army. When you have at least 6 Marines, 6 Medics, and 6 Goliaths, you can go after Terrazine Altar #4. It is located east of the third one, north-northwest of your main base. As you go north from your base, you will see the Protoss Relic #1. Be careful not to get to close to the Photon Cannons near it. Your army probably isn't big enough to take out that satellite Protoss base yet. Continue slightly northwest until you get to the altar. Kill off the surrounding Protoss and wait while your SCV gathers the Terrazine. While collecting this Terrazine, the Protoss will probably attack your base. This time they will have some Void Rays instead of Scouts and no Zealots. I didn't have any units at my base to defend, so they started tearing it up. Luckily, they don't know to focus fire on your buildings, so you shouldn't lose too much. Shortly after this attack, the Protoss will start sealing another altar. You probably aren't ready to go back out and fight again after your base was damaged and your army somewhat weak. Rebuild base defenses and repair buildings. Then build up your army again, this time getting at least 16 Marines, 10 Medics, and 16 Goliaths. You are going to steal Terrazine from two altars at once, so your army needs to be bigger. You will probably be attacked at your base again while you are building up. Fight it off and continue until your army is big enough. When you are ready, move out to the far NW of your base with 2 SCVs following. On left edge of the map, you will see two altars almost in a straight north- south line. These are Terrazine Altar #5 and Terrazine Altar #6. On your way there, you will have to fight through a small satellite Protoss base. Continue past this area making your first left to get to the area with the two altars. In the middle between the two altars is Protoss Relic #2 guarded by two Zealots. Position your army near the northern altar to defend. Protoss trying to attack your SCV at the southern altar will have to come through your army first, so both SCVs will be safe. Your army will suffer heavy losses defending two altars. You might even lose your army, but your SCVs should get out safe. During this time the Protoss will probably seal another altar, but it's okay. At the end of this you will only need one more altar to finish the mission. Protoss attacks on your base will now start to include Colossi which are deadly against Marines. Focus fire on them with every unit when you see them. Build up your army again for the last altar. Depending on your speed through the mission, there may be only one left so it's critical to get your army up fast. Terrazine Altar #6 will be on the NE edge of the map. From the east ramp of your base move your army as far east as you can. Then continue north killing any Protoss in the way. You will pass by two previously sealed altars. The last one will still be open. After collecting the Terrazine, save your game and move north to collect Protoss Relic #3. It is guarded by a few Protoss units and Photon Cannons. If you army doesn't seem like it will last against all the attacks, run your SCV back to base the same way you came while your army sacrifices itself. There should be no enemies on the way. Otherwise, move your army with your SCV like before. Mission Complete! -----cA. Breakout----- --[BRKT]-- Background: Help Tosh break his Spectre buddies out of New Folsom Prison. Missions Required: 8 or more completed Heroes: Tosh (Spectre) Unlocks: Spectre, Armory Upgrades (Spectre) Rewards: 125,000 credits + 25,000 credits per Cell Block freed Difficulty: 3/10 Objectives: - Destroy the Main Prison Base - Tosh Must Survive - Bonus: Kill Guards at Cell Block A - Bonus: Kill Guards at Cell Block B Walkthrough: - Destroy the Main Prison Base In this mission you only get Tosh, who is a special hero unit. Your mission is to destroy every enemy unit and building. Tosh by himself is pretty powerful, but there are certainly places where he can't go it alone. That's where your ally, Raynor's base, comes in. Raynor will send units down the path to fight whatever they come across. Just like Tosh they can only do so much by themselves. Tosh is permanently cloaked, but there are plenty of Missile Turrets and Ravens around to make his job harder. Your first priority should always be to take out those detector units and buildings. The next thing on the priority list is Siege Tanks. So whenever you find a new pocket of enemies, you should take out the detectors, the Siege Tanks, and then help Raynor's army finish off the rest of the units and buildings. As you clear more areas, Raynor will build up more increasing his overall army size and training rate. Raynor's forces include Medics that can heal Tosh if he get's low health. From the start, move Tosh to the northeast to take out the 3 Marines standing there. You will see a group of Marines to the northeast. Tosh will tell you about his Mindblast ability that stuns and damages groups of enemies. This is a pretty powerful ability. It affects both units and buildings. You can use it on Missile Turrets and Siege Tanks to destroy them before you take much damage. Use Mindblast on the Marines and kill them one by one. To the northwest are 4 Marines and a Missile Turret. Use Mindblast on 3 Marines and the turret. Kill the Marines first and then finish off the turret. The path continues northeast. You will be confronted by a Siege Tank, 2 Marines, and a Missile Turret. Tosh will tell you about his Psi Shield ability. It's basically the same thing as a Protoss shield but only temporary. Use the ability, then get close to the Siege Tank so it can't do too much damage. Destroy the Siege Tank and then the 2 Marines. Finally destroy the Missile Turret. Continuing northeast you will get to the first of many small prison bases. Raynor will start sending units to help. He sends mostly Marines with a few Medics and the occasional Marauder. There is a Missile Turret just above the right Bunker. It's too dangerous right now to go after it solo. Instead go up the ramp on the left side. There is a Siege Tank within range you can destroy. Take out the nearby Bunker next and any units inside. Now wait until Raynor is sending another wave of units. When the next wave comes, get behind them and help take out the Bunker. Also help take out any units nearby. Raynor's forces are not very strong yet, so be careful. Once the Bunker is gone and there aren't too many enemy units around, use Psi Shield and take out the Missile Turret. Now you can move in further behind the Missile Turret to find a Siege Tanks that needs to die. When there aren't too many units around, use Psi Shield again to take out the Missile Turret just northwest of the Factory. Take out the Tech Reactor and Factory last. Once destroyed, Raynor will send in a bunch of units in drop pods to build up his own base over the one you just destroyed. Leave from the west entrance of the base. A Ghost will use an EMP Round on Tosh removing all of his energy. Tosh will tell you about his Consumption ability that takes away a friendly unit's health to give Tosh energy. The best targets for this ability are Raynor's Marauders. They are the highest health Biological unit in this mission. Kill the Ghost and then use Consumption on a Marauder to get most of your energy back. Where the Ghost attacked you, is a small alleyway to the south. Follow this path around to the other side of the fortification. You will see 3 Siege Tanks in range for easy pickings. After destroying them, wait for another of Raynor's army waves. Mindblast the Missile Turret and a Bunker, use Psi Shield, and then take out the Missile Turret. You are then free to destroy the Bunkers and any enemy unit. By this time Horner probably told you about Prison Block A. It's just up the northwest path from where you just took out the Bunkers. Use 2 Mind Blasts on the Marines to kill them instantly. Then use Psi Shield and move around the fence to destroy the Siege Tank. Take out the remaining Marauders and the Missile Turret to free the prisoners. They will start piloting Diamondbacks with Raynor's forces against the prison defenders. Go back to where you took out the 3 Siege Tanks earlier and head west to find another little alleyway. Go up the ramp to find a good vantage point of the next base to fight through. Watch out for the patrolling Raven. Siege Tanks down below will waste no time shelling Tosh if a Raven is in range. When the Raven patrols to the right side, take out the Siege Tank in view. Then wait for the Raven to come back. Stun it with a Mindblast and destroy it before it moves away. Now destroy the Missile Turret roughly in the middle of the base. Go back to the front entrance of this little base with the 2 Bunkers. Wait for another of Raynor's army waves to attack. Once they engage, use Psi Storm and target the Missile Turret just behind the Bunker on the right side. Take out the Siege Tank next to it after. There are no more detectors near the Bunkers, so destroy them now. Raynor's army should be able to put up a good fight here. Wait for another wave of friendly units to get there. Move south and west after the units are engaged. Destroy the Siege Tank south of the Factory and then the Missile Turret just west of it. Take out the Factory and Tech Reactor to secure another base for Raynor. Continue west to find Prison Block B. There's a big group of units in the center with a Siege Tank on both sides and a Raven patrolling overhead. When the Raven Patrols to one side, take out the southern Siege Tank. Then use a couple Mindblasts to take out most of the units. If the Raven's detection gets close, just move out of range until it goes away again. Use Psi Shield to take out the last Siege Tank. Pick off the now-defenseless Raven to free the prisoners. Like the prisoners from the other cell block, they will pilot vehicles for your cause, this time Siege Tanks instead of Diamondbacks. Now move north of the cell block to finally get to the main base. Tosh is given 4 Nukes to drop on the base. Use your first nuke on the main entrance to the base making sure the 2 Missile Turrets and 2 Bunkers are in range. In the next area go up the ramps to both sides to take out the Siege Tanks there. This area has 2 Missile Turrets that need to go down as well as 2 powerful Thors. Another Nuke will do the job. Up above the ledge to the northwest you will see 3 Siege Tanks. Take out the 2 closest to the edge. You can destroy them without having to go up the ramp. Also take out the 2 Bunkers in range. You will now need to wait for a big group of Raynor's units to come. When they push in, quickly take out the Missile Turret and the Siege Tank followed by any Bunkers in this area still standing. There is a Planetary Fortress just past the Bunkers. On both sides are Siege Tanks with Missile Turrets. Use your last 2 Nukes on each of these areas to take out the Missile Turrets. To the right and left you will see many production buildings along with the last 2 Missile Turrets. Take out those turrets when there aren't many enemy units around and the mission is pretty much over. Just help Raynor's army mop up the leftovers. Mission Complete! -----cB. Ghost of a Chance----- --[GSTF]-- Background: Help Nova to destroy Tosh's Spectres and his main base of operations. Missions Required: 8 or more completed Heroes: Nova (Ghost) Unlocks: Ghost, Armory Upgrades (Ghost) Rewards: 125,000 credits + 5,000 credits per Spectre killed Difficulty: 3/10 Objectives: - Destroy Jorium Stockpile - Destroy Terrazine Tank - Destroy Psi-Indoctrinator - Nova Must Survive - Bonus: Kill 10 Spectres Walkthrough: - Destroy the Jorium Stockpile You start with Nova on the high ground and a group of 12 Marines and 4 Medics on the low ground. The mission functions kind of like a puzzle. You use Nova to kill as much as she can solo. When Missile Turrets uncloak her, you use your army to take them out. Move Nova east through the narrow path to take out a lone Marauder. Nova will tell you about her Snipe ability which does high damage to a single non- Mechanical target. Take out the Marines on the lower level. There is a path to go northeast, but there is a Missile Turret and Bunker nearby that can kill Nova. It's time to go back to your army to take out that turret. Move them northeast to find a Bunker with Marines inside. Don't worry about losing units. You are supposed to lose units here. Follow the path to find a ramp with 4 Marines on it. Up the ramp you will find 3 Marines and a Marauder to kill. Lastly, take out the Missile Turret. Nova is safe now, so continue with her. Move her north and destroy the gate control. Your army can now join up with Nova, but you don't want them to fight together. You will still use them separately. Go north with Nova to find 2 Marauders, a Medic, and a Goliath. Take them out in any order. Remember Snipe can speed up the process. Up the nearby ramp are 2 Missile Turrets with Marauders and a Firebat. Use your army to take out the units and the Missile Turrets. Then go back to using Nova. Move west towards another ramp will prompt Nova to tell you about her Domination ability. When used you get control of the unit including all special abilities permanently, but Nova can only Dominate one unit at a time. The ability has a cast range, but Nova and the controlled unit can be as far apart as you want afterwards. You can give Nova orders while she is dominating a unit as well. As Nova suggested, use Domination on the Siege Tank. Use it to take out the Missile Turret and any units that come to guard it. With Nova, attack the Raven to get it to move away. Then move south to spot for your Siege Tank. It should be able to kill everything that comes. Go up the ramp and then up another smaller ramp to find Spectre #1. A single Snipe will take him out before he can attack. Move Nova north to another ramp, being careful not to get in range of the Missile Turret detection range. You will see Spectre #2 on a ledge to the left and 2 Battlecruisers to the north. Move your Siege Tank in range of the Spectre and put it in Siege Mode to take him out. Then move the Siege Tank up a ramp to kill the first Missile Turret. When the Battlecruiser destroys the Siege Tank, use Domination on it. Command it to attack the other Battlecruiser. If you use Yamato Cannon, your Battlecruiser should be able to take out the other one. Then attack with the Battlecruiser and Nova to destroy the Jorium Stockpile. - Destroy the Terrazine Tank Be ready for this next part. At the very beginning a group of Marines, Marauders, a Diamondback, and a Raven will come to attack Nova. Quickly use Domination on the Raven, so the enemy units can't see Nova. They will start attacking your Raven now. Use a Point Defense Drone and an Auto-Turret. At the same time have Nova attack as well. You should be able to take out all the units with the Raven still alive. With Nova move west to kill 2 Marines guarding a door. Then move south to find 3 Vikings. Destroy them, and your army will show up consisting of 2 Siege Tanks, 8 Reapers, and a Raven. With your Reapers, jump over the platform. There are 4 Marines and a Siege Tank guarding the Gate Controls. Keep your Reapers on the upper ledge while attacking, and the enemy units won't be able to retaliate. Start with the Siege Tank and then move on to the Marines. Then take out the Gate Controls and Missile Turret on the lower ledge. With Nova, move through the open doorway and then north to find a Bunker and a Missile Turret. Use your Siege Tanks to take out the Bunker and the units inside safely. Then have them take out the Missile Turret. If Nova is still dominating the Raven, destroy it now. Move Nova north up a ramp to find a Siege Tank on top of the ledge. Dominate the Siege Tank. Then, have it destroy the Missile Turret and any units within range. Move on the lower area with Nova. A Spectre will attempt to nuke the area. Just move back until it hits. Move your Raven up to this area so you can see the units and buildings on top of the ledges. With your Siege Tanks, take out everything dangerous on both sides of the path. Just be careful to keep your Raven out of Missile Turret range. On the path you should see Spectre #3 who tried to nuke your units earlier. He will go down instantly from Siege Tank fire. Keep killing everything until you see a big ramp here. This leads to the Terrazine Tank, but there is more to do before you destroy it. There should be a smaller ramp near the big ramp. Up this ramp will be a few Firebats and a Missile Turret. Take these all out and then have your Reapers go to the area where the Missile Turret was. Also notice the little waypoint here. Order your Reapers to jump down to the lower ledge. Take out the Missile Turret. There are some cliffs to the northwest of here. Order your Reapers over the cliffs to find Spectre #4 and an Auto-Turret. It's okay if you lose a few Reapers. Now move Nova to the little waypoint you found. Nova will get a free nuke. Go up the big ramp you saw earlier to find a sizable enemy force. Target the nuke near the Terrazine Tank to destroy it. This should also kill Spectre #5 who was guarding the tank. - Destroy the Psi-Indoctrinator You start with Nova, 4 Banshees, and 4 Vikings. Move down the ramp to find a Siege Tank guarding the area. Use Domination and the Siege Tank will get destroyed by his own friends. With your Banshees move south to find some units you can kill. One of them is a Viking that will go into air mode to attack. Have your own Vikings ready to take it out. That should eliminate everything near the Missile Turret. Have Nova deal with the remaining units and then take out the turret. On this ledge another turret is nearby to the southeast. Go back to the area you started with and go northeast to find a Siege Tank you can dominate. Make sure to kill the Marines first so they don't just kill it instantly. Put the Siege Tank in Siege Mode near where the Missile Turret was. With its attacks and Nova's Snipe you should be able to take out everything except the Raven. Destroy the Siege Tank, and then dominate the Raven. Move north with the Raven ignoring the Missile Turrets. Cast a Seeker Missile on Spectre #6 to kill him. Move south with Nova to find some barriers. If you destroy them, the Ultralisk will be released. He will destroy a large group of Marines and Missile Turrets for you. Kill him afterwards, and continue east. You should see a Thor to the south Nova can dominate. With the Thor, go north on the path to a small ramp. All of the units here are on the low ground, so they won't be able to return fire. One of the units is Spectre #7. Destroy them all. Go down the ramp and move a bit southeast to see the final objective. Don't attack that area. Instead, notice a Raven near a Missile Turret. Take it out and the Missile Turret, so Nova can move freely through this area. You are done with the Thor now, so you can suicide it on any units you want. With Nova, move back to the area where you killed Spectre #6. Kill the Goliath and two Missile Turrets. Then Dominate the Raven patrolling over head. Move north with Nova and take out the Bunker and as many Marines as you can without getting in range of the Missile Turret. With the Raven, put down Auto-Turrets to take out the remaining units near the Missile Turret. Nova can then destroy the Missile Turret and the 2 Auto-Turrets near the waypoint. Enter the waypoint to get the nuke for the last objective. Move Nova east down the ramp. Another Spectre will attempt to nuke your units. It's just as easy as before to avoid. Go up the ramp with Nova and quickly Snipe Spectre #8. Then run back down the ramp. There are too many units here to destroy, so you just have to run away. Go back to where you attacked the units with the Thor. You should have enough range to use the nuke on the Psi-Indoctrinator. The nuke will also kill Spectre #9 and Spectre #10. Mission Complete! -----iv. Rebellion Missions--------------------------------------------[RBLL]-- -----a. The Great Train Robbery----- --[THGR]-- Background: Rob some Dominion trains and find out what they are looking for in the Confederate ruins. Missions Required: 6 or more completed New Units: Diamondback Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Diamondback) Rewards: 110,000 credits, 3 Zerg Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 6/10 Objectives: - Destroy 8 Dominion Trains - Don't Miss 3 Trains - Bonus: Locate 6 Diamondbacks - Bonus: Collect 3 Defiler Bone Samples (Research) Walkthrough: You start out with a small base of 4 SCVs, 4 Marines, a Barracks, and a Factory. Put a Reactor on your starting Barracks. Build an extra Barracks, and put a Tech Lab on it. Your ideal force for destroying trains will be 10 Diamondbacks, 20 Marines, 10 Medics, and 10 Marauders. Remember to get upgrades from the Engineering Bay and Tech Lab. Also build 2 Bunkers and fill them each with 4 Marines. For economy there aren't a lot of mineral patches at your base or anywhere really. Only build 16 SCVs or so for minerals. You should still get 3 SCVs per Refinery, though. Throughout the map you will find resource caches on the ground you can pick up to speed things up. Each Dominion Train you destroy will also drop lots of resources to help bolster your forces. - Destroy 8 Dominion Trains - Don't Miss 3 Trains These are the ongoing objectives. You will get a notification on the map whenever a train is coming. Attack it early on before it gets too far along. Otherwise it may escape causing a waste of time. As long as you keep building up while you fight, you should have no problem destroying every train that appears with time to spare. Pretty soon after the mission starts, Horner will point out 3 Diamondbacks on the map. Order a Marine to each one to get the west Diamondback #1, northwest Diamondback #2, and north Diamondback #3. To the east of Diamondback #2 is Defiler Bones #1. Just northeast of Diamondback #2 is Diamondback #4 near a ramp. There is a base northwest of here if you need more resources later in the mission. It is guarded by only a few units and the enemy will not usually attack this area after. You can leave it undefended. With the 4 Diamondbacks, 4 Marines, and any other units you have trained since the mission started, you should be able to take out the defenseless Dominion Train #1. It will move on the northern tracks. For the Dominion Train #2, aim for 6 Diamondbacks, 14 Marines, and 6 Medics. It will move on the middle tracks and be guarded by a few Firebats and Marines. After taking out the train, go a little ways east and south on the tracks until you see a little ramp. Up this ramp are two Marines guarding Diamondback #5. Go back down the ramp and continue east to pick up Defiler Bones #2. Return to base to reinforce your army. The enemy may attack your base using some Firebats with Medivac support, but your Bunkers should have no trouble dealing with it. The Dominion Train #3 will move on the southern tracks and will be guarded by a few Marauders, Firebats, and Marines. After destroying it, the Dominion will start building Bunkers on the tracks. They will fill each one with 4 Marines with a Marauder outside for support. Follow the tracks east where the train was until you see Defiler Bones #3. Continue following the tracks south, east, and then north until you see a ramp north of the tracks. Up this ramp will is Diamondback #6 guarded by a Firebat, some Marines, and a Medic. The Dominion Train #4 will be on the middle tracks guarded by Goliaths, Firebats, and Marines. An army of 10 Diamondbacks, 12 Marines, and 5 Medics should be able to take care of it. Attacks on your base will now include Ravens with Seeker Missiles and Siege Tanks. The Dominion Train #5 will be on the northern tracks guarded by a Raven at the front, Siege Tanks, Goliaths, Marauders, and Medics. Be careful with the Raven. It has the Seeker Missile which does 200 damage to the target and all surrounding units. It can destroy quite a few units in one shot if you aren't careful. You can outrun the missile if you back away long enough, but the train my escape. Best to just move the unit the missile targets away from your army and let it take the hit. You can rebuild a single unit without much trouble. After this train is destroyed, a "Marauder Kill Team" will spawn on the map. It's a bunch of Marauders with attack and armor upgrades. They will shred through Diamondbacks, so avoid them if you can. The Dominion Train #6 will be on the middle tracks. It is another undefended one, but it moves much faster than normal. As long as your army is the right size, this should be an easy one. Enemy attacks on your base will now consist of Goliaths, Siege Tanks, and Banshees. The Dominion Train #7 will be on the northern tracks, but otherwise, it is the same as the sixth train. It has increased speed but no units defending it. At this point the mission should pretty much be in the bag. Just sit in your base and wait for the last train. The Dominion Train #8 is normal speed, but is much better defended than the last ones. It is guarded by Goliaths, Spartan Company Goliaths (Mercenaries), lots of Siege Tanks, and 2 Ravens that like to use Seeker Missiles. Save before engaging just in case you make any big mistakes. After destroying this last train, Mission Complete! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | A Faster Strategy Submitted by: Esto | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Head out right away and build bunkers (about 3) on the tracks just outside the Dominion bases on the east side of the map. (I did two on the top 2 tracks right away, and then went to the south track with 3 SCVs and built all at once before the third train came.) If you have the Shrike Turrets upgrade and Neosteel Frames, 4 Marines and a Marauder in each, with an SCV for repairs and about 6 roving Diamondbacks will handle EVERY train, and keep attacks out of your base entirely. Even if you can't fill the bunkers, the Shrike Turrets will help out 'til you can. I was able to beat the level almost too easily and forgot to go find the last defiler bones, LOL. When the Marauder strike team pops up, about 10 Marines and 3 Medics, along with the Bunkers at whichever base will take them out quite handily. I used a couple of Perdition Turrets in some important point-defense places too. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -----b. Cutthroat----- --[CTTH]-- Background: One of Raynor's old associates, Colonel Orlan, is capable of decrypting the Confederate Adjutant. Unfortunately, Orlan has other plans for the adjutant. Force Orlan to reconsider. New Units: Vulture Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Vulture) Rewards: 120,000 credits, 3 Protoss Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 7/10 Objectives: - Buy Merc Contract Before Orlan (Collect 6000 Minerals) - Destroy Orlan's Mercenary Forces - Bonus: Find the 3 Protoss Relics Walkthrough: You start out with 5 SCVs and 5 Marines. Within a few minutes you will get 4 Vultures free from Mira. Since there aren't that many minerals here, only build about 12 SCVs. Don't build any Refineries, since you won't need any vespene gas for a while. For base defenses build a Bunker at each entrance to your base filled with 2 Marines and 1 Marauder. Also plant Spider Mines with your Vultures at the entrances in front of your Bunkers to do some early damage to any attackers. - Buy Merc Contract Before Orlan (Collect 6000 Minerals) Your starting base doesn't have many resources, so you won't be able to get all 6000 minerals just gathering minerals there. Also Orlan has expansions all over the map, so he can gather minerals a lot faster than you can. Instead, use your Vultures to move all over the map scavenging junk for minerals. They are very fast, so you can avoid a lot of enemies or kill them before they get close. Junk that can be scavenged will show up as tiny white dots on the minimap. There are a few places around where junk will "respawn". Horner will speak up when you discover an area like this. In additional to the 4 Vultures you get for free, build 2 more for a total of 6 Vultures. After planting Spider Mines around your base, take the north entrance out scavenging junk and killing any enemies you come across. Along the way you will see a place that regenerates junk to scavenge. New junk will appear every few minutes. This can be used if you just need a few more minerals to reach 6000. Continue north to a Command Center defended by mostly Marines, a few Medics, and a few Firebats. Try to only attack one unit at a time, moving back after each kill. This will reduce the damage your Vultures take greatly. Destroy the Command Center and SCVs to slow down Orlan's gathering process. Just west of where you took out the Command Center you will see Protoss Relic # 1. Simply destroy the scrap to access it. Further west of this location are some Missile Turrets and a pocket of enemies. You should avoid this area. It is pretty close to the main enemy base, and they can bring a lot of reinforcements. Send your Vultures back to base the same way they came, picking up any regenerated junk along the way. Repair your Vultures if they are damaged since building all new ones will cost a lot more minerals. Now you will be leaving from the southwest entrance of your base. You should see Protoss Relic #2 immediately. Destroy the scrap to take it. Stick to the southern part of the map to avoid any large groups of units. There is another enemy Command Center here as well you can destroy. Just west of this Command Center is Protoss Relic #3 guarded by a few Marines and a Goliath. By now, you should have gotten 6000 minerals. - Destroy Orlan's Mercenary Forces After you get the minerals, you will gain full control of Mira's base. She has a really nice base with multiple Barracks, multiple Factories, lots of Supply Depots and many powerful Mercenary units. If your main base gets destroyed, it won't be a problem. Mira's base will be strong enough for you to take out the last enemy Command Center. With Mira's pretty big army, you won't need to train a whole lot more to destroy the last base. At this point, you probably have bought a number of upgrades at the Hyperion Armory. Train the units you have bought upgrades for. Besides building up some more units, remember to get the Engineering Bay and Armory upgrades before your final attack. You have access to two levels of upgrades. Keep building more units until the upgrades have finished. Your army will be huge and nothing will stop it. The lower part of Orlan's base is defended with Bunkers and Siege Tanks. Try to move your units up the ramp before attacking, so all of your units will be in range to fight back. Shortly after destroying the Bunkers, Orlan will attempt to nuke your army. Quickly move your army farther into his base where all his Factories and Starports are before the nuke hits. You should not suffer any losses from the nuke this way. You can wipe out everything here or continue up the northeast ramp to Orlan's Command Center. His only remaining defense is a Battlecruiser, but your Goliaths should have no trouble destroying it. Putting the Command Center in the red will end the mission. Mission Complete! -----c. Engine of Destruction----- --[NGND]-- Background: Steal the Dominions newest super weapon right out from under their noses, and then use it to destroy all their forces on the planet. New Units: Wraith New Structures: Starport Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Wraith) Rewards: 120,000 credits, 3 Zerg Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Escort Tychus to the Odin - Tychus Must Survive - Destroy the 5 Dominion Bases - Odin Must Survive - Bonus: Find and Destroy the Loki - Bonus: Find 3 Devourer Tissue Samples (Research) Walkthrough: - Escort Tychus to the Odin - Tychus Must Survive You start with 5 Marines and 2 Medics. This objective is pretty easy. Tychus is so buff he could probably solo the way to the Odin. Still, your units are good support. Try to have Tychus take enemy attacks while your units attack from behind. Your Medics can heal Tychus pretty quickly, so he shouldn't get too hurt. On your way you will see a small capsule containing Devourer Tissue #1. - Destroy All Dominion Bases - Odin Must Survive Now Tychus is inside the Odin. You can repair it with SCVs or a Science Vessel if you have unlocked them. The way this part works is Tychus will attack on his own whenever he feels like it. When he does this, you need to make sure you have good support for him so he doesn't die. Your base starts with 6 SCVs and 3 Marines and a Bunker. All enemy attacks will come from the side with a Bunker. Build an additional Bunker and some Missile Turrets to keep your base safe while your Wraiths are gone. You also might want to build some extra Marines and Marauders in case you get attacked by multiple groups at once. This is not very common, but can happen. Build a Tech Lab on the Barracks and on the Factory as well. From the Barracks and Factory you can build units to support your defense or to support Odin. You really only need Wraiths to win this mission, but some ground units will definitely make Odin's job easier. Soon the Odin will be attacked by two Battlecruisers. Swann introduces you to the Wraith which is a powerful anti-air unit. You get 3 Wraiths for free, but then must build any extras yourself. Odin is extremely powerful against ground units, but pretty weak against air units. You will need a pretty big complement of Wraiths to support him. On your Starport build a Reactor so you can pump out Wraiths fast. Remember to build your Engineering Bay and Armory for upgrades. Focus on the air upgrades for your Wraiths, but you can get other upgrades if you have the extra resources. For Dominion Base #1, try to have 10 Wraiths ready to go. Also bring a few SCVs to repair Odin in combat. Early on, he will definitely need some repairing as you build up your army. This base is mostly infantry. Aim for Marauders over Marines since Marauders do extra damage to Armored units like the Odin. Also take out the Medivacs fast to reduce healing to their units. There are no detector units or buildings, so your cloaked Wraiths will be safe. For Dominion Base #2, the same army size of 10 Wraiths should do the job. Also about 5 SCVs should be good to keep Odin topped off even in combat. In the northeast corner of this base is Devourer Tissue #2. This base is a mix of infantry and vehicle units with Marines, Marauders, Vultures, and Goliaths. There is also one Battlecruiser to destroy, but it should go down fast. Dominion Base #3 is more of the same. Just keep pumping Wraiths and you should do fine. There is one Missile Turret in the base near the Command Center. Other than that, your cloaked Wraiths should be safe. This base is mostly vehicle units such as Vultures, Goliaths, and Siege Tanks. There are also some Vikings and Banshees to take out. Target air units first if there are any followed by Siege Tanks which have high damage in siege mode. Dominion Base #4 is where they keep all their air units. At the front of the base is a Barracks. Just to the left of it is Devourer Tissue #3. Try to pick off Siege Tanks like the last base, then the Banshees and Vikings. Keep your Wraiths near Odin taking out all the air units, and he should stay alive. There is one Missile Turret near the Command Center again. Let Odin take it out before proceeding. Where that Missile Turret was, go north to find a Battlecruiser that seems to be getting repaired. Get close and it will come to life as Loki, the hero Battlecruiser. Destroy Loki to finish that bonus objective. You will probably lose a unit or two in this battle since Loki has the Yamato cannon that will instantly kill any unit. For Dominion Base #5, try to have at least 20 Wraiths with level 2 attack and armor upgrades. Also replenish any SCVs you may have lost. Odin should survive with about 5 repairing him. This base is a heavy air base with numerous Battlecruisers, Vikings, and Banshees. There are also some Marines, Marauders, and Ravens (with Seeker Missiles). The hardest part will be pushing through their initial standing army. They won't be able to rebuild units fast enough after it is destroyed. Once Tychus gets closer to the Command Center, he will take out everything with a nuke. Mission Complete! -----d. Media Blitz----- --[MDBL]-- Background: Use the Odin in a surprise attack on Korhal to commandeer the UNN station headquarters and broadcast a special message to the millions of viewers. New Units: Thor Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Thor), Piercing the Shroud (Secret Mission) Rewards: 120,000 credits Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Destroy Dominion during the Surprise Attack - Access Broadcast Tower 1 - Access Broadcast Tower 2 - Access Broadcast Tower 3 - Secret: Unlock the Secret Mission Walkthrough: - Destroy the Dominion during the Surprise Attack You start with just the Odin. It is just a more powerful Thor unit. If you have read about the Thor in the Terran Units section, you will know what expect. Besides having beefed up health and damage compared to the Thor, the Odin also has a different ability called Barrage. While the 250mm Strike Cannons of the Thor stuns and damages a single target, the Barrage ability of the Odin does huge area damage and does not stun any units. Overall Barrage is more powerful since you can destroy huge groups of units and buildings in seconds. It's basically as powerful as a nuke, only with a smaller area. Begin by using Barrage on the units behind the Odin. This should take out about half the units in one swoop. Then pick off the rest of the units. Now you have three choices of Dominion bases to attack. The northwest base is the Dominion's air base. The northeast base is the Dominion's vehicle base. The southeast base is the Dominion's infantry base. Dominion units will not attack the Odin until you attack. This means you can get up close to Siege Tanks or other dangerous units before attacking to limit damage. You can also make careful use of Barrage to hit the most units with one volley. The best base to attack is the vehicle base, because most of the units there have bonus damage to Armored units like the Odin. The fastest way to get to this base is just behind the celebration area. Try to get close to Siege Tanks before attacking them since they cannot attack while in Siege Mode. Take out all enemy units except SCVs. For buildings, destroy every production building. Ignore the Command Center, Supply Depots, Missile Turrets, and Bunkers. For this base, use a Barrage on the middle 2 Factories making sure to get the Siege Tank as well. Use another 2 Barrages on the 2 remaining Factories further in taking out the groups of units near them as well. Now move to the southeast Dominion base. You will not have time to take out this base entirely, but you should be able to destroy most of the production buildings. Be careful not to attack too many units at once, because the Odin will have low health by this time. Try to kill units first whenever they come in range before destroying buildings. When time runs out, there will probably be a Factory or Barracks that you couldn't destroy, but you have taken out almost two bases worth of production buildings. For your main base you only have to prepare for air attacks from the Dominion's air base and maybe a few Reapers or Hellions from the Barracks or Factory you couldn't destroy. - Secret: Unlock the Secret Mission After the surprise attack, the mission moves into a traditional "build up and destroy the enemy base" mission. You start with 6 SCVs, the Odin (if it survived the surprise attack), and 4 Marines. You will want the typical 24 SCVs on minerals and 3 per Refinery. Remember the upgrades as well. Focus on the vehicle upgrades (attack, armor) and the infantry attack upgrades. Send one SCV at the start to repair the Odin, since it is probably in the red. For this mission, you can pretty much use Thors and the Odin for all of your attacks. Swann will give you a free Thor in the first minute. Build a total of 6 Thors plus the Odin for your attack force. For base defense, build two Bunkers at both entrances to your base. Fill them with Marines since they are cheap, build fast, and you will mostly fight air units when defending. Also build liberal amounts of Missile Turrets at the entrances as well as the north side of your base. If you've looked around the map a little bit during the surprise attack, you maybe noticed there was an unrevealed area in the southeast corner of the map. While you are building Thors and when Odin is fully repaired, send him out the northeast entrance of your base solo to a small Dominion base consisting of a single Bunker for defense, a Command Center, and a few SCVs. The Odin should have no trouble dealing with this small base. After destroying this small base, you should see a small path behind the minerals that goes southeast. Follow that path to a small platform with a secret undefended Science Facility, which is a building that was in the first Starcraft. Destroy the Science Facility with the Odin. On the ground will be the Secret Documents. Just have the Odin walk over them to pick them up. There you go, the secret mission unlocked. Note that this is the only way to unlock the secret mission. There is no way to unlock it by replaying the mission in the Mission Archives or beating the game. You must do this now, the first time you play the mission. Unlocking and completing the secret mission is required for getting 26/26 missions completed in the campaign as well as a number of achievements, so you definitely want to do this. Now move the Odin northwest on the road past the base you destroyed to another Dominion base. This one has two Barracks and a few Bunkers, but is overall pretty weak compared to the Odin. The Odin will chew through Marines and Medics with ease and has enough damage to destroy a base quickly. Feel free to use the Barrage on this base to take out the Command Center and a Barracks. - Access Broadcast Tower 1 Once you have 6 Thors and the Odin all fully repaired, move out the northwest entrance of your base past the small Dominion base you destroyed earlier to get to the Dominion's air base. Bring 5 SCVs behind your Thors for on-the-go repairs. Move in with the Odin first since he has better armor and health than your Thors. Try to position your units so they can focus fire on air units. Thors and the Odin aren't the best at air targets, but they will do fine when attacking the same target. After destroying everything here, repair all of your units to 100%. Set one Thor to stand ground on the waypoint. Broadcast Tower #1 will start to increment. Progress is fast, but you will be subjected to a number of attack waves. Always put the Odin in front to take hits while your other Thors provide supporting fire. Enemy waves will consist of Reapers/Hellions, Siege Tanks/Diamondbacks, Reapers/Goliaths, or the occasional Raven with Seeker Missiles. Siege Tanks and Diamondbacks are the dangerous ones. Save Barrage for use on waves with those units. In total you will face about six waves, two per unit combo. - Access Broadcast Tower 2 With Broadcast Tower 1 complete, repair your units with the SCVs you brought. Then move northeast for the next broadcast tower. Along the way there will be a Bunker, Barracks, and a few units, but they will be nothing for your Thor army. Continue to the base you pretty much destroyed earlier. Destroy the Command Center and SCVs to put this base completely out of commission. Repair up and start the process of transmitting from Broadcast Tower #2 just like the last one. The enemy waves will be the same except a new wave type of 6 Vikings will appear. Vikings are weak versus ground targets, so it shouldn't be a problem. Keep the Odin in front and repair when able to. - Access Broadcast Tower 3 Ensuring your units are repaired, move southeast to the last Dominion base. They will probably have a few Reapers built up since the last time you were here. Take out everything here taking care not to step on the waypoint before you are ready. The Dominion forces in this mission are now completely gone. To complete the mission you simply have to transmit at the last Broadcast Tower # 3. The enemy waves will be the same as the second tower, but this time there is Battlecruiser in the last wave. The transmission should be pretty much over by the time it arrives, so you can just ignore it. Mission Complete! -----e. Piercing the Shroud (Secret)----- --[PRCN]-- Background: The secret documents stolen from the science facility have led to a secret Dominion science lab. Raynor has come to investigate. Heroes: Raynor Rewards: 125,000 credits, 4 Protoss Research Points, 3 Zerg Research Points Difficulty: 3/10 Objectives: - Investigate the Dominion Lab - Destroy the Fusion Reactor - Escape From The Facility - Raynor Must Survive - Bonus: Find 2 Protoss Relics (Research) - Bonus: Kill the Brutalisk (Research) Walkthrough: - Investigate the Dominion Lab You start with Raynor, 5 Marines, and 2 Medics. You only get reinforcements once in this mission, and you don't get many units that one time, so try to keep most of your units alive. Next to Raynor, the Medics are the most important units to keep alive. Raynor will tell you about his Breaching Charge ability. Use it on the door to proceed. You will find a waypoint on the other side guarded by a Firebat and 3 Marines. Focus on the Firebat first since he does bonus damage to Marines and Medics. After they are dead, enter the waypoint and then click the button to view the camera feed. After the little cutscene, you have a choice of the left side guns or right side guns. Near the left side guns are Firebat and near the right side guns are Marines. I think the best choice is the right side guns since Marines have lower armor. The guns will take out 5 Marines or so whereas the left side guns would only be able to take out 1 or 2 Firebats. Five Marines will do more damage than 2 Firebats especially since you can pretty much kill a Firebat before it gets in close range. In the next room you will be closed up with a Holding Pen full of Zerg units. Use a Breaching Charge on the Holding Pen to destroy it. Then pick off any remaining Zerg units. Open the northeast door with a Breaching Charge to continue. In this next room you will be able to exact revenge on the Marines that locked you up with the Zerg. Take the Grenades next to them. Grenades do powerful area damage to a small area. There are plenty of Grenades in the level, so use them whenever there are three or more units together. Continue east to find a Marine by itself, but then a big group of enemy units. They have 4 Marines, a Firebat, and 2 Medics healing. Use a Grenade on the Marines to take them out in one hit. Then finish off the Firebat and the Medics one at a time. Go up the nearby ramp to find another pretty big group of units consisting of 2 Marauders and 6 Marines. Take out the Marines with 2 Grenades, then finish off the Marauders. It's okay if you lose a Marine here. Now enter the waypoint and click the button to view the camera feed. In the next room is a huge group of Marines and Marauders with supporting turrets. You get the choice of which units to unleash on them to soften them up before you attack. Your choices are 19 Zealots, 75 Zerglings, or 5 Ultralisks. The Zerglings are overall the easiest choice. Once you choose, hit the back button to get back to your units. The door will open. Have your units attack a few Zerglings and a few Dominion forces. If you go back and forth, the battle will be pretty much even with Zerglings and Dominion forces dying at about the same time. After all enemy units are dead, destroy the Holding Pen to find Protoss Relic #1. - Destroy the Fusion Reactor In the next area is a hallway with a door to the northeast. Grab the Restoration Charge to instantly heal and energize (full energy) all of your units. Then, break open the nearby door with a Breaching Charge. Inside will be a new weapon for Raynor, the Plasma Gun. It does high damage to a single target. It has no cooldown, so you can keep using it over and over on a tough unit to bring them down quicker. Follow the hallway southwest to the next area. Down the ramp you will see a Spartan Company unit (Goliath Mercenary). Take it out with a Plasma Gun shot. Continue to find a group of 3 Marines and 2 Medics. Take them out with a Grenade and some gunfire. There is also a patrolling Siege Tank. It will go down with a single Plasma Gun shot. The next room is filled with a pretty big army. Fortunately, you can activate a battlebot with the nearby waypoint/terminal. You get a choice of giving it bonus damage to Armored units, bonus damage to Light units, or a smaller bonus damage to all unit types. I think the best one is bonus damage to Light units. He will take care of the Marines and Medics. Order the A.R.E.S. to Attack-Move into the room. With your other units destroy the explosive barrels and target the vehicles with Raynor's Plasma Gun, but save 2 Plasma Gun rounds. Move down the ramp to find some Marines with a Thor. If you moved fast enough, your robot should last until the Thor dies. Enter the waypoint to get your choice of reinforcements. You get a choice of 8 Marines, 3 Marauders, 4 Firebats, or 3 Marines and 3 Medics. Firebats have too short of a range, so they should not be chosen. The group with Medics you should get if you lost all your Medics getting here. The Marine and Marauder groups are about equal as far as usefulness, but for the bonus objective, Marauders are going to be better. In the next room, pull the units away from the turrets into the room you were in before. This will help reduce the amount of stuff you have to kill at once. Take out the turrets next and then any remaining units inside the room. In the northwest of this room are more Plasma Gun rounds and a waypoint. Avoid the waypoint for now. The southeast of this room is a Restoration Charge to heal your units, Protoss Relic #2, and more Grenade Ammo. Go back to the northwest side of the room with the waypoint. Enter it and release the Brutalisk. You have to kill him to complete the bonus objective (Zerg research). Don't worry about saving every unit, but try to lose only a couple. Position Raynor and the Marauders at the front of your units since they can take a lot more hits than Marines and Medics. Use all of Raynor's Plasma Gun rounds on the Ultralisk. They should take out most of his life. For his remaining health you can attack and move back, then attack again and move back and so on until he is dead. If performed well, your units can almost attack and move at the same time instead of having to stop and shoot. Go northeast breaking through the door into the next area. You will find a group of 4 Marines and a group of 3 Marauders to kill. They should be easy compared to the Brutalisk. Feel free to use Grenades on them as you don't need to kill much stuff for the rest of the level. - Escape From The Facility Head northwest killing Zerglings, Marines, and a Marauder that gets in the way. There are Plasma Gun charges here as well. There is a blown out doorway you can go through. Kill the Zerglings that get in your way. You will find some Dominion units and Zealots fighting. Let them fight to the death, only killing whatever is left at the end. Just to the left of that battle you will find the Chrono Rift Device. This special weapon slows down all units in a pyramid-like area. Move southeast to find some debris you need to destroy to continue. Raynor can place a Breaching Charge on it to speed things up. As you move southeast, fight off any Zerglings in the way. You will see the Hybrid pretty soon breaking through debris. He is immune to your attacks, does area damage, and can slow your units down. Escaping from him is your primary goal. Use the Chrono Rift Device if he gets really close. Try to avoid as many enemy units as possible. Pick up extra ammo for the Chrono Rift Device, but ignore other weapons you may find. You don't need any other special weapons to make it through. Go southeast and then southwest destroying any debris in the way. Eventually you should get to a group of Zealots fighting Zerglings and Roaches. Behind them near the west wall is Protoss Relic #3. Try to ignore as many units here as possible, because the Hybrid will spend time killing them before he continues chasing you. Shortly, you will get to room where you can go southeast further into the room or northeast through a doorway. Go southeast further into the room. Avoid the Zealots and destroy some debris. You should find Protoss Relic #4 on your way. Afterwards, go down the ramp to the southwest. The Hybrid will disappear. You will then pass through an area with egg sacs that hatch into baby Ultralisks. A big Ultralisk will appear if you stick around, so move fast through this area. Continue southeast avoiding enemies. Use any grenades you have to clear enemies up that completely block the way. Otherwise, just run through. You can use the Chrono Rift Device on them if you want since you are almost done with the mission. Get to the waypoint near the transport, and you are done. Mission Complete! -----v. Artifact Missions----------------------------------------------[RTFC]-- -----a. Smash and Grab----- --[SMSH]-- Background: Help Tychus get another artifact guarded by the Tal'darim. Missions Required: Zero Hour New Units: Marauder New Structures: Merc Compound if this is your fifth mission. Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Marauder), Hyperion (Cantina, Laboratory if this is your fifth mission), Mercenaries (Hammer Security) Rewards: 110,000, 4 Protoss Research Points Difficulty: 3/10 Objectives: - Get to the Artifact - Destroy the 3 Stone Zealots - Bonus: Find 4 Protoss Relics (Research) Walkthrough: You start out with 5 SCVs, 3 Marines, and 1 Medic. Soon after Swann will drop 3 Marauders to fight off some Stalkers. Marauders are pretty powerful against almost all Protoss units, so they are a pretty good unit for this mission. Again, you will want about 24 SCVs gathering minerals and 3 gathering vespene gas. Build two additional Barracks. Put a Reactor on one of them and a Tech Lab on the other. Use one Barracks exclusively for Marauders, one exclusively for Marines, and one Barracks alternate between Marauders and Medics. Build an Engineering Bay for the infantry upgrades. Build two Bunkers and a Missile Turret at the ramp to your base. Fill up one Bunker with 2 Marauders and the other with 4 Marines. These defenses will pretty much be enough to hold off any attacks. Build up an army of 10 Marauders, 16 Marines, and 4 Medics. Collect Protoss Relic #1 just north of your base. For Protoss Relic #2, you will want to go west up the ramp, through a small Zerg-controlled area, and then, south through a small Protoss-controlled area. Zerg defenses include 2 Spine Crawlers and some Zerglings. The Protoss defense is 2 Photon Cannons and 1 Stalker. After getting the relic, come back to base to build up for the main objective. - Get to the Artifact Build up an army of 30 Marines, 16 Marauders, and 10 Medics. Also hopefully you have gotten the infantry upgrades from the Engineering Bay. If not, start them before you leave your base. Even after you move out, continue to build units at your base just to help with defense. Some of the Zerg waves with Banelings can easily destroy your Bunker. From your base, go east destroying any Protoss in your way. The Photon Cannons can be disabled by destroying the Pylons near them. Sentries will block your way with Stasis Fields at various points so make sure to destroy those Pylons. Eventually you will cross a blue bridge. Venture south a short ways and then southwest a little further for Protoss Relic #3. Continue east killing more Protoss to get to the main Protoss base on your side of the map. Destroy it to prevent any further Protoss attacks on this mission. You are almost at the artifact. A couple Sentries will again block your way. Just east is a small path with some Pylons. Protoss Relic #4, the last one, is located at the end of this tiny path. Go back to where the Sentries blocked you off and continue to the waypoint to finish this objective. - Destroy the 3 Stone Zealots Somehow the Protoss infused power into ancient stone guardians to attack any thieves. You must destroy them before you can retrieve the artifact. If your army is pretty weak from taking out the Protoss up to this point, you can spend some time to reinforce it. The Zerg should not be too far in taking out the northern Protoss base, so you should have some time. The Stone Zealots are not all that tough under focus fire especially if you have Marauders. Once they are destroyed, Mission Complete! -----b. The Dig----- --[THDG]-- Background: The Moebius Foundation sent out a specialist team to dig up an artifact on Xil, but they lost contact with them recently. Find out what happened to the dig party and finish the job of recovering the artifact. Missions Required: 8 or more completed New Units: Siege Tank Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Siege Tank), Mercenaries (Siege Breakers) Rewards: 120,000 credits, 3 Protoss Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Recover the Laser Drill - Destroy the Xel'Naga Temple - The Laser Drill Must Survive - Bonus: Find 3 Protoss Relics (Research) Walkthrough: - Recover the Laser Drill You start out with just a few units: 4 Marines, 1 Marauder, and 2 Medics. Your main objective is to get to the Laser Drill. Along the way Raynor will find out his old Tal'darim buddies are guarding the artifact. Move south from the starting point to find 2 Zealots and 2 Stalkers. They will destroy most of your army. Luckily, Swann will deliver 2 Siege Tanks to help you the rest of the way to the Laser Drill. Let the Siege Tanks destroy the Photon Cannons guarding the way. Continue east until you get to a long canyon area. As Raynor says, you should siege up at the top to destroy the remaining Protoss in between you and the Laser Drill. Take the few remaining steps to the drill to complete this objective. - Destroy the Xel'Naga Temple - The Laser Drill Must Survive This becomes your new main objective. The temple that holds the artifact is indestructible by normal weapons. Only the Laser Drill can destroy the temple doors, but it will take a long time. As always get your SCVs training to boost your economy. You will also need Bunkers and Missile Turrets to defend your base and the drill. Build 2 Bunkers at the two big entrances to your base (north and southeast) adding extra Missile Turrets in these areas as well. For production, build an additional Barracks and put a Reactor on it. Also build an Armory so you can upgrade your Siege Tanks. Fill each Bunker with 2 Marines and 1 Marauder. Also put at least 3 Siege Tanks in Siege Mode at each entrance. When you are attacked, try to have the Siege Tanks target the Stalkers and other ranged units instead of Zealots. When attacking Zealots near Bunkers, they can easily destroy your Bunkers at the same time with splash damage. Early on the Protoss will mainly attack with Stalkers and Zealots, easily dispatched by your Siege Tanks and filled Bunkers. Just a little ways into the mission though, they will start fielding Archons, Immortals, and Colossi. These units are way too powerful for your base defenses. The best thing to do is follow Horner's suggestion of destroying them from a distance with the Laser Drill. The game will display little map pings whenever one of these dangerous units appears. Make sure to get the drill working on them early, because it doesn't switch targets very fast. Periodically, your base will be subjected to air raids consisting of Void Rays, Scouts and Warp Prisms. It is critical you take care of these as soon as possible, because the Warp Prisms will warp in Zealots and Stalkers behind your main defense lines attacking the Laser Drill. Missile Turrets will not last in these air raids, so make sure you have an extra 15-20 Marines in your base to deal with the enemy units. Once defenses are in order, it's time to build a small army to work on the bonus objective. Build up an army of 20 Marines, 10 Marauders, and 10 Medics. Move out the southeast entrance to your base. There will be a small area with more resources in case you run out at your main base. Continue east to a small path with some Photon Cannons guarding it. Destroy all the Protoss forces nearby. To the north you will see a temple similar to the one holding the artifact, but smaller. Just like the bigger temple, this one is impenetrable with normal weapons. Use the Laser Drill to destroy it and take Protoss Relic #1. Just a little ways east and south you will find another temple up a little ramp. Again, use the Laser Drill to destroy it and collect Protoss Relic #2. Now move your army back to base to get reinforcements if you lost any units on the last trip. Build up a similar-sized army as the last time (20 Marines, 10 Marauders, and 10 Medics). This time leave from your north entrance and head west to find another temple guarded by Photon Cannons. You may have to destroy the Protoss units stationed outside your base to get to this area. Once the defenders are destroyed, use the Laser Drill to destroy this temple just like you did with the other temples. Then recover Protoss Relic #3. By now, the drill should be close to finishing the temples doors. Move your army back to base and use it to reinforce your Bunker line whenever the Protoss launch attacks. They will also help a lot with the air raids. Now just sit back and wait until the drill finishes the job. Mission Complete! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Scanner Sweep with Mining Laser Submitted by: agentheart | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ first you need orbital command. when you get control of the laser you can use scans to allow you to see the protoss bases and then you can target buildings with the laser. The far right protoss base does not have a nexus/probes to rebuild buildings. I use the scans and targeted all the pylons and this stops about a third of the attacking forces and made the mission much easier. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -----c. The Moebius Factor----- --[THMB]-- Background: Kerrigan has attacked the Moebius Foundation's main base of operations. It's up to you to destroy the sensitive information before Kerrigan can steal it. Missions Required: 11 or more completed New Units: Medivac New Structures: Starport Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Medivac) Rewards: 120,000 credits, 3 Zerg Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Destroy the 3 Data Cores - Kerrigan Must Not Access a Data Core - Bonus: Destroy the Brutalisk (Research) Walkthrough: You start with 5 SCVs but no army. Shortly you will get 2 free Medivacs as well as 4 Marines and 4 Warpigs Marines. After fighting off the attack, load up the Medivacs and move southwest to the first building with Data Core #1. Land on a nearby building to get more free units. Have them attack the data core building from the building rooftop to destroy it. While you are doing this, you should be building up your base. Build 2 Bunkers filled with 1 Firebat and 2 Marines each. Also build Missile Turrets on three sides of your base. For your production buildings, build a Tech Lab on your Barracks, Tech Lab on your Factory, and Reactor on your Starport. Build Marines from the Barracks, Goliaths and Siege Tanks from the Factory, and Medivacs from the Starport. There are many free units you can rescue on the map that you will want extra space to carry. When you get back from the first data core, a Nydus Worm pops up on the lower ground near your base. Build up an army of 16 Marines, 8 Goliaths, and 6 Medivacs. Then go down and take out all Zerg units. It should be an easy battle. Repair back at base and then you are ready for the second data core. Load up your Medivacs and then move west to another building rooftop with more free units. Unload a few units here and take out the 2 Spore Crawlers on the lower ground. Be careful not to lose any Medivacs here. After the Spore Crawlers are gone, load up your units and move northwest to another rooftop with free units. Just northeast of this location is a small Zerg base and a building with Data Core #2. Take out the Zerg base and then the building. The Zerg will launch a last ditch attack in the form of lots of Nydus Worms to try and stop you, but you should have no trouble with all the free units you got. Return to base when you are done and repair/rebuild your army. Now you should have a lot of time until Kerrigan hits the last data core. It's time to go after the bonus objective. Near the Brutalisk is a small ledge with no Spore Crawlers you can use to land your units without your Medivacs dying. Destroy the Brutalisk, then the Spore Crawlers and return to base. At this point the Zerg will start doing Overlord drops with Zerglings, Banelings, Roaches, and Hydralisks. They will also start sending Mutalisks and Corruptors around. Occasionally, a Broodlord will be included as well. Be careful your Medivacs don't get caught by them in mid-route. All the units inside will be lost as well as the Medivac. It's too big of a cost to lose. Repair your units and rebuild you until you have 16 Marines, 10 Goliaths, and 5 Medivacs. Move out to the rooftop where the Brutalisk was. Continue south and west. You should see an open area with only a few Spore Crawlers. Land a few of your Medivacs, take out the Spore Crawlers, and then land the rest of your units. The building with Data Core #3 is just west of here. There is a small Zerg base here, but you can ignore it if you want. You can also ignore any attacks on your base. Either way, destroy the last data core building. Mission Complete! -----d. Supernova----- --[SPRN]-- Background: An artifact has been found on Typhon, but its nearby star is about to go nova. Steal the artifact from the Tal'darim before everything is burned to ashes. Missions Required: 14 or more completed New Units: Banshee Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Banshee), Mercenaries (Dusk Wings) Rewards: 120,000 credits, 4 Protoss Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 9/10 Objectives: - Clear the Landing Zone - Destroy the Artifact Vault - Bonus: Find 4 Protoss Relics (Research) Walkthrough: This is one of the hardest missions in the game. You have to be very quick to build up, very efficient with your units, and able to multitask well. Just keep on it if you fail. - Clear the Landing Zone This is very easy compared to the rest of the mission. You get 4 free Banshees. Just use them to take out the few Protoss here. With their cloak, your Banshees shouldn't take much damage. You will first see a Stalker and a Pylon you can take out. Farther northeast you will find 2 Photon Cannons, a Pylon and a Stalker. Take out the nearest Photon Cannon, then the Stalker, Pylon, and last Photon Cannon. Also take out the poor Probe. - Destroy the Artifact Vault Once your base starts you will get 6 SCVs, 4 Marines, and 2 Marauders. You will need to build up very fast, but there are a few caveats. Don't build any add- ons for your Barracks or Factory. You just don't have enough time or resources right now to make use of add-ons on those buildings. For base defenses, build 2 Bunkers filling them with the starting ground units. Bunkers can be salvaged to get all of the resources back when you are finished with them. One bonus of this mission is that you don't need any Supply Depots. Use your ground force to pick up Protoss Relics as you find them. There are also resource caches scattered around you can pick up. Spend all your other resources on Banshees. Save your game often in case you base gets attacked while your Banshees are gone. When you reload keep your Banshees there long enough to take out the attack, then you should have a long window to attack safely. Train 16 SCVs for minerals and 6 SCVs for vespene gas. Build 2 Banshees to get your Banshee fleet to 6 total. You can start exploring the map with them, but continue to build Banshees back at base. Move out just east of your base to find Protoss Relic #1. Kill all enemies around it with cloaked Banshees. Continue southeast to find Protoss Relic #2. Again kill the Protoss with your Banshees. Now move your Banshees back to base to defend any attacks. When ready, move a little northeast to find some more Protoss units with Photon Cannons behind them. Engage the units away from the cannons destroying the cannons next. Protoss Relic #3 is now open. Return your Banshees to base for repairs. Grab any additional Banshees that have trained. Aim for about 10 Banshees total. Then move straight to the east to attack the first Protoss base in the way. Focus on Photon Cannons first and then any anti-air units. You should be able to take this base out just with your Banshees with minimal losses. While this battle is going on, the fire should be getting close to your base. Lift Off any building that can and move it to the east where your Banshees are attacking the Protoss base. Also group your SCVs and move them a little ways east. Don't move them to the former Protoss base until your Banshees have dealt with all Protoss units and buildings. When the Protoss base is gone, move your buildings to this location and set up a base. Again build 2 Bunkers as base defense, filling them with Marines. Put a Tech Lab on your Starport and continue building Banshees. You also have room now to build up your ground force a little bit. It will help with the next Protoss base. Build up about 12 Banshees and 20 Marines. The next base is just a little south and east of this location. Move along the path with your Banshees, destroying any defenses in the way. Stop when you get to the enemy base. Return to your own base and repair your Banshees. Hopefully your Marine army is almost done. When you are ready to attack, move out with your Marines first. They are basically the cannon fodder for your Banshees, but they are also for taking out enemy Scouts that your Banshees can't attack. The Protoss base is defended mainly with Photon Cannons, Stalkers, and Scouts. They don't train units all that fast, so you should be able to pull it off. The fire will probably be getting close to your base again when this attack starts, so Lift Off buildings again and Salvage Bunkers. Move them just north and east temporarily. Your SCVs can gather some minerals here while your attack force takes out the Protoss base. With another Protoss base destroyed, move your buildings there and set everything up again. There is just one more Protoss base in between you and the Artifact Vault, but it's a tough one. You will need to be fully prepared. Build your Bunkers and fill them up again with Marines. Build Tech Labs on your Starport, Factory, and Barracks. Build one additional Barracks with a Tech Lab. Build up your army until you have at least 14 Banshees, 20 Marines, 20 Marauders, 4 Siege Tanks, and Medivacs or Medics (your preference). While building up, explore just east of your base with your Banshees to find some Protoss units and Protoss Relic #4. Be careful taking out these units. There is a High Templar with Psi Storm that can do huge damage to any units in a bunch. Return your Banshees to base and repair up. When your force is ready to go, don't attack yet. Keep building units until you use up every last resource. Lift Off all your buildings and move them to the far east. Now just wait until the fire starts destroying the Protoss bases. This will make the coming battle much easier with many of their production buildings and standing forces destroyed. Save often at this point. When the Protoss attack, they will many times bring in a High Templar that can decimate your infantry. If you reload your save you can snipe the High Templar with your Banshees before he can do much damage. When the fire is pretty close to your army, attack as fast as possible. The Protoss base is defended by the same units you saw in their other bases, but now they have Carriers, Archons, and High Templar. Ignore as many Protoss buildings as possible, aiming solely for the Artifact Vault. It was a hard one, but Mission Complete! -----e. Maw of the Void----- --[MWFT]-- Background: Retrieve the last artifact from a derelict Xel'Naga ship guarded by the Tal'darim. New Units: Battlecruiser New Structures: Fusion Core Unlocks: Armory Upgrades (Battlecruiser), Mercenaries (Jackson's Revenge) Rewards: 125,000 credits, 4 Protoss Research Points Difficulty: 7/10 Objectives: - Clear the Landing Zone - Destroy the Xel'Naga Vault - Bonus: Rescue the 4 Protoss Prisoners (Research) Walkthrough: This mission starts out just like the last one, Supernova. Fortunately, it is a much easier mission. You pretty much have as much time as you want to complete the mission. You just have to be methodical and careful. - Clear the Landing Zone The start with 3 Battlecruisers. Move a little west to find some Stalkers and the first Rip-Field Generator. I will guide you through destroying most of them, as they can easily eat through your forces in a short time. Take out the Stalkers first with focus fire. Then use your Battlecruisers' Yamato Cannon ability on the generator. Finish it off with regular attacks. - Destroy the Xel'Naga Vault Build up your base with 24 SCVs gathering minerals and 3 SCVs gathering vespene gas. Add a Tech Lab to the Starport. Constantly build Battlecruisers until you have 6. Then build a Medivac. For base defenses, build 2 Bunkers at the ramp with 2 Missile Turrets behind them. Fill the Bunkers with Marines. Build an Engineering Bay so you can build Missile Turrets, but you won't need any upgrades from it. Build the Amory for the air unit upgrades. Fully upgraded Battlecruisers will make this mission much easier. By the end of the mission, you should have 12-14 Battlecruisers with level 3 upgrades. Save often and reload if you ever lose a Battlecruiser. They are way too expensive to lose. While you are building up, move your 3 Battlecruisers south to fight 2 Stalkers. Then follow this lower ledge to the southeast to find an Archon and 2 more Stalkers. Take them all out, and your island will be safe. Have an SCV move around and pick up all the resource caches. When you have 6 Battlecruisers, you are ready to take out the next Rip-Field Generator. This will open up a place for an expansion as your starting base is likely running out of minerals by now. As part of this attack, destroy all of the Protoss Gateways and any units nearby. Lift Off your buildings and move them to the new resources. Leave your Bunkers and Marines at your island base for defense of your Armory and Supply Depots, but be ready to rebuild them if the island base is overrun. Your Battlecruisers are too slow to be moving back and forth defending both of your bases and attacking the Protoss base at the same time. Use your Medivac to transport your SCVs over to the new resources. Immediately build 2 Bunkers right next to the Command Center just outside of the Rip-Field. You will need them to buy you time while your Battlecruisers come back to defend. Use your Medivac to transport an SCV to the nearby plateaus to gather resource caches. Have your SCVs repair all your Battlecruisers. Add 2 more Battlecruisers to your fleet for a total of 8 Battlecruisers. Then you can go after the next Rip- Field Generator. First, move west to a building that can be destroyed for Protoss Prisoners #1. You get 3 free Dark Templar. Use these units and any future Dark Templar as extra defense for your expansion. Watch out for the High Templar nearby that will Psi Storm your clumped-up Battlecruisers. There is not much you can do about the damage. Just be ready to move back and have your Battlecruisers repaired if their health gets too low. Move southwest over the gap to the next Rip-Field Generator taking out any Protoss along the way. Use 5 Yamato Cannons to take it out instantly. The Protoss will summon in a Mothership. It will patrol the area around the Xel'Naga Vault. Go back to your expansion and repair. Then go south of your expansion for Protoss Prisoners #2, 3 Dark Templar. From the destroyed prison, go directly west destroying 2 Carriers, a Void Ray, and a Photon Cannon. Then continue on to another Rip-Field Generator. Go back to base and repair again after destroying it. The next part will be a little harder, so get 12 Battlecruisers. Your expansion will be running out of resources at this point, so be frugal from now on with any expenses. You will probably need about 2000 minerals and vespene gas for repairs. Head to the far north of the map. Then head west to get to Protoss Prisoners # 3, 3 Dark Templar. Leave the Dark Templar where they are until you clear out the area below. It's too dangerous to clear the area with the Rip-Field Generator, though. Move southwest with your Battlecruisers killing any Protoss units that get in the way. Destroy the generator with 5 Yamato Cannons, then return to base for repairs. With fully repaired Battlecruisers, go to the area south of the Dark Templar you just freed. Destroy everything here to slow down the Protoss attacks. In particular, losing 2 Stargates, 3 Gateways, and a Robotics Facility will slow them down a lot. They still have production buildings further in, but they have no probes to rebuild anything you destroy. Repair again back at base. Then move out to either the north or south Rip-Field Generator depending on which area the Mothership is in. You will want to destroy both, but you don't want to take on the Mothership at the same time. On the way to the south Rip-Field will be Protoss Prisoners #4, 2 Dark Templar. While attacking this Rip-Field Generators, feel free to take out the Mothership if your Battlecruisers have good health. It will teleport away when it's health gets low, so it will probably take two fights to destroy it. Otherwise, finish the generators and then take it out. Keep repairing after each attack. The last Rip-Field Generator you can ignore. Attack from the east side of the base, taking out any Protoss units and buildings you come across. The Protoss are crippled now. It should be an easy battle. When you finally get in range of the Xel'Naga Vault, use your Yamato Cannons to destroy the door to release the artifact. Mission Complete! -----vi. Prophesy Missions---------------------------------------------[PRPH]-- These are the Protoss mini-campaign missions. You play as the Protoss race. Upgrades you have bought on the Hyperion do not help in these missions. Note: The game will give you a lot of tips about the Protoss units and buildings you can use. If you need more information feel free to consult the Protoss section which covers Protoss mechanics, units, and buildings. -----a. Whispers of Doom----- --[WHSP]-- Background: Zeratul must search the ruins for parts of the prophesy while fending off Zerg along the way. Missions Required: The Dig New Units: Stalker Heroes: Zeratul (Dark Templar) Rewards: 3 Protoss Research Points, 3 Zerg Research Points Difficulty: 3/10 Objectives: - Bring Zeratul to the 3 Xel'Naga Shrines (Research) - Zeratul Must Survive - Escape To The Void Seeker - Bonus: Destroy the 3 Zerg Hatcheries (Research) Walkthrough: - Bring Zeratul to the 3 Xel'Naga Shrines - Zeratul Must Survive You start with only Zeratul and no base. Occasionally, you will get some Stalkers that join you. Other than that, there are no reinforcements. Try to keep as many units alive as possible. If you lose too many units in a battle, reload a save. The level will become too hard if you lose all your Stalkers early. Zeratul is the same as a Dark Templar unit, but has much higher stats and more special abilities. Like all Dark Templar he has a permanent cloak ability. He also has a Blink ability just like the Stalkers to instantly teleport a short distance in any direction you choose. His last ability is Void Prison which disables a single unit for a short time. The most common use for this is to disable a Detector unit or building. You can use it on a Spore Crawler and then destroy it to remove Zerg detection. You can also use it on an Overseer to prevent it from moving while your Stalkers destroy it. The first Xel'Naga Shrine is pretty easy to get to. Follow the path until you get to a Spine Crawler, some Zerglings and a Hydralisk. They have no detection, so Zeratul can kill them freely. Continue north until you get to a chasm. Use Zeratul's Blink ability to get across. There are Zerg there, but again they have no detection. Blink across another chasm to get to some destructible rocks. You can destroy them or Blink over them. Keep following the path to get to the first Zerg units with detection. This one is pretty easy though. Simply use Void Prison on the Spore Crawler, destroy it, and then have fun taking out the rest of the Zerg without retaliation. Go up the nearby ramp to get to another area with a Spore Crawler. This time is a little more dangerous with an Ultralisk guarding it. Use Void Prison quickly before the Ultralisk and other Zerg units can do much damage to Zeratul. Destroy the crawler and then take out the Zerg. Just a little ways further is another chasm, but this time there are Zerg units on the other side with a Spore Crawler. Blink across and then use Void Prison quickly before the Zerg can do much damage. Kill the crawler and then slice up the Zerg. The last little Zerg camp before the first Xel'Naga Shrine is the same as before, but instead of a Spore Crawler there is an Overseer. Void Prison the Overseer then Blink across and kill the 4 Hydralisks before the prison wears off. There is no way to kill the Overseer, so just ignore him. Continue north to the waypoint for Xel'Naga Shrine #1. Go up the ramp and around to another chasm. Blink across and 3 Mutalisks will appear with Scourge and an Overseer. Void Prison the Overseer to keep the Mutalisks from seeing Zeratul. Four Stalkers will then warp in. Use them to focus fire the Mutalisks down. If any Stalkers lose their shields, use their Blink ability to force the Mutalisks to attack a different one. Blink up to the nearby ledge. There is a patrolling Overseer and 5 Hydralisks on a lower ledge. Void Prison the Overseer and then destroy it with your Stalkers out of range of the Hydralisks. Then Blink down with Zeratul and destroy the Hydralisks. Some of them will burrow down, but your Stalkers should be safe crossing the bridge. The next group of Zerg consists of an Ultralisk and 3 Mutalisks supported with a Spine Crawler and Spore Crawler. With Zeratul Blink down to the lower level, Void Prison the Spore Crawler, and destroy it. Then he can safely remove the Ultralisk and the Spine Crawler. The only enemies remaining are the 3 Mutalisks. Attack them like you did before with focus fire and Blinking shieldless Stalkers behind. Continue southeast to find a couple Broodlords supported by an Overseer, Spore Crawler and Spine Crawler. The best thing to do here is to focus on taking out the Broodlords. Start with the northern Broodlord using Zeratul to Void Prison him and then moving your Stalkers back to avoid the second Broodlord. Then attack the Overseer while the Broodlord is at the very back. Back away once it is dead. Now Zeratul can Void Prison the Spore Crawler and destroy it followed by the Spine Crawler. The only thing left is the second Broodlord. Simply Void Prison and destroy with Stalkers. Blink south to the next area. A number of Scourge will appear to distract your Stalkers. Ignore them, destroying the first Mutalisk that appears and then an Overseer. Then have them kill any remaining Mutalisks. While you are doing this, have Zeratul down below killing an Ultralisk and 2 Roaches that appear. Without detection Zeratul will decimate them. Blink up to another ledge and go south to find the first Hatchery #1. It has a lot of defense, but it can all be whittled down. Start by destroying the closest Overseer with Void Prison and Stalker focus fire. Make sure to be out of Spine Crawler range when attacking it. Slowly work your way around taking out the 2 Mutalisks and Broodlord. Finally take out the second and last Overseer here. With the air units and detection removed, Zeratul can take out the Hatchery and Spine Crawlers safely. Now move southwest to the waypoint for Xel'Naga Shrine #2. The next area is one of the tougher ones. Start with the Overseer, so Zeratul can safely destroy the Spine Crawlers. This will leave you with 3 Mutalisks and a Broodlord. It's very important not to engage the Broodlord at the same time as the Mutalisks. You should be able to safely take out all 3 Mutalisks at once using Stalker Blinks if necessary. Destroy the Broodlord next. Now it will appear everything is safe, but there is actual an Ultralisk burrowed at the bend of the path. Move your Stalkers in but be ready to back them up. Make sure Zeratul is in front to start taking it down fast. Now go south and then up the ramp to the next area. This part is pretty hard until you know the trick. The Banelings will move all the way around to attack your Stalkers, and they will destroy all of them if don't do anything. The trick is to Blink across the chasm to the west when the Banelings get close. When the Banelings get close again, Blink back across to the middle area. Continue doing this until all the Banelings are dead. You should not lose a single Stalker this way. Where the Banelings started, Blink across the southwest chasm to find Hatchery #2 hidden. Void Prison the Overseer and destroy it. Move your Stalkers back after as there is a burrowed Ultralisk, you don't want to deal with. Wait for Void Prison to recharge to use it on the Spore Crawler. Then destroy it, the Spine Crawler, and the Hatchery in that order with Zeratul. You are done in this area so Blink all your units back across the chasm. Go north down a platform to see an Overseer. Destroy it quickly and then move your Stalkers back. Zerg will start unburrowing to attack, but Zeratul will be able to deal with them with the Overseer gone. Be careful here as there is one Baneling burrowed. Try to Blink away as it unburrows, so your units don't take the splash damage. The next area you will see a bunch of Spine Crawlers and one Spore Crawler. Try to take out as many Spine Crawlers as possible before they can dig in to the creep. Destroy the Overseer with your Stalkers and Void Prison. Then wait for Void Prison to recharge to use on the Spore Crawler if you missed it. Then Zeratul can deal with any remaining Spine Crawlers. The next part is a big battle to the last Xel'Naga Shrine. Luckily, you are allied with a huge army of Zealots that hold the line. Stay back and pick off key units like the Mutalisks. Have Zeratul use Void Prison on any Ultralisks that appear. There is a little ledge with a ramp that's a good spot for your Stalkers. After the Spore Crawlers are down, Zeratul can help take out the Spine Crawlers and Nydus Worms safely. The last waypoint is before you, but don't activate it yet. There is one more Hatchery to destroy. Blink to the ledge south of the waypoint. Blink again across a small chasm. Then come around the south and east to get to the last Hatchery. This Hatchery has a Roach Den near it, and it will create 3 more Roaches for defense when you start attacking. Try to only take one thing out at time to be safe. Have Zeratul Void Prison the Spine Crawler and then pull just a few Roaches at a time. Keep doing this until the Roaches are all dead. With the Roaches dead, your Stalkers can sit back and watch the show. Zeratul can finish the rest on his own. Use Void Prison again one Spine Crawler and destroy it. Then destroy the 2 Spore Crawlers, Roach Den, and Hatchery in that order. To leave this place, Blink behind the Hatchery to the area where you joined the Zealots. Go back to the waypoint for Xel'Naga Shrine #3. - Escape To The Void Seeker Compared to the rest of the level, this next objective is a cinch. You just need to think fast and move fast. You will be escaping to Zeratul's ship to the east. Blink up any ledges to reduce the distance you have to travel. Void Prison Spine Crawlers to reduce the damage your units will take. Also Blink over any destructible rocks instead of destroying them to slow Zerg ground units. Get to the ship to survive. Mission Complete! -----b. A Sinister Turn----- --[SNST]-- Background: Zeratul goes in search of the Protoss Preservers who can make sense of the prophecy he found in the ruins. New Units: Probe, Zealot, Immortal, Dark Templar, High Templar New Structures: Pylon, Assimilator, Nexus, Gateway, Twilight Council, Forge, Photon Cannon, Cybernetics Core, Robotics Facility, Dark Shrine, Templar Archives Rewards: 3 Protoss Research Points, 3 Zerg Research Points Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Power Up The Encampment - Free the 3 Preservers (Research) - Bonus: Power Up 3 Protoss Buildings (Research) Walkthrough: - Power Up The Encampment You start with just 6 Probes but a lot of resources. Immediately, build two Pylons in the locations the game shows you to power up all the buildings. Then, build two Assimilators. Just like Terran you will want 24 Probes gathering minerals and 3 Probes per Assimilator. For production, build 3 more Gateways so you have 4 total. This will be enough for you to produce a big army in a short time. When you have resources, also get upgrades from the Forge. Try to build an even mix of Zealots and Stalkers. There are other buildings around that you can warp in for the bonus objective. I will cover the best time to warp those in to finish the objective, but I didn't need the units those buildings unlocked to complete the mission. You are free to use those units if you want. Powering up the Robotics Facility gives you 1 free Immortal and unlocks Immortals for production at the Robotics Facility. Powering up the Dark Shrine gives 2 free Dark Templar and unlocks Dark Templar at your Gateways. Powering up the Templar Archives gives you 1 free High Templar and unlocks High Templar at your Gateways. - Free the 4 Preservers At the start you get attacked by an enemy Stalker. What seems like a normal "kill the enemy's base" mission becomes much harder when Maar appears. He is a powerful unit. It takes a long time to bring him down. When he spawns he will come straight towards your base. Even when killed, he respawns very soon. He also get's stronger the longer the mission lasts. His health and shields will increase, he will start to use special abilities, and he will respawn faster. You will definitely need your army at your base when he attacks. Even though Maar is powerful and respawns throughout the mission, you can actually methodically take out all the Protoss. This is what I recommend. It makes the bonus objective easier. You also won't have to worry about so much going on at once. There are three Protoss bases on the map. Their main base will be shown to you on the map where the main objective is completed. To the southwest of your base is small Protoss base with resources. To the southeast is another small Protoss base. The attacks are your base will generally come from these two bases. Only after they are destroyed will the main base start sending units to attack. Build up a force of 20 Zealots and 20 Stalkers to take out the small Protoss base to the southwest. They have a pretty big standing army even at this small base, but it should go down fast. Start your attack right after Maar is destroyed to ensure you have time to take out the Protoss base before he respawns. While you are taking out this base you might get attacked by other Protoss, but you should have some Zealots and Stalkers in your base you were training while you are attacking the base. After this first one goes down, go back to base and build up your army again to 20 Zealots and 20 Stalkers. Also build about 5 extra Zealots and Stalkers to defend while you are away from your base. This Protoss base is much further away. Your main army will be too far away to defend from Protoss attacks. Time your attack again when Maar has just been killed. Then take out the small Protoss base to the southeast. It should go down faster than the first one. Build up your army to take out the Protoss main base. Build up an army of at least 40 Zealots and 40 Stalkers. Park them at the bridge entrance to the Protoss main base, but you are not going to attack yet. They can deal with Maar when he respawns and any Protoss attacks. Now you are ready to do the bonus objective. The game will point out where each abandoned building is. Move some units as escorts with the Probe to each building to kill any Protoss guarding it. Then move a Probe in to build a Pylon. You can power up the buildings in any order giving you Abandoned Building #1, Abandoned Building #2, and Abandoned Building #3. It's finally time to take out the Protoss main base, destroy the Preserver prisons and end this mission. This can be a tough battle, but with your superior numbers you should do fine. Wait for Maar to attack. Once he is destroyed quickly move in to take out the base. Maar will probably respawn while you are still attacking the base, so be ready to fight the Protoss and Maar at the same time. Key Protoss units to destroy include Void Rays, Archons, and High Templar. If you have a lot of Stalkers, use Blink to get them in better positions for taking out Void Rays or letting your Zealots get to the front lines. With the Protoss base destroyed, all you have to do is destroy the prisons holding the Preservers. They are all next to each other right where Maar respawns. Your army should be big enough by now to deal with him no problem. Destroy the 3 prisons to end the mission. Mission Complete! -----c. Echoes of the Future----- --[CHSF]-- Background: Zeratul must commune with the Overmind's remains in order to get his last thoughts containing the prophecy. New Units: Observer, Colossus New Structures: Warp Gate, Robotics Bay Heroes: Zeratul (Dark Templar) Rewards: 4 Zerg Research Points, 2 Protoss Research Points Difficulty: 5/10 Objectives: - Reach the Nexus - Bring Zeratul to each of the 4 Overmind Tendrils (Research) - Zeratul Must Survive - Bonus: Power the 2 Obelisks (Research) Walkthrough: - Reach the Nexus Similar to the first Protoss mission, you only start with Zeratul. Follow the terrain east killing any Zerg until you get to the base. You will get 5 Probes and 2 Colossi for free. Like the last mission, you will need to build a few Pylons early to power up the rest of the buildings. - Bring Zeratul to each of the 4 Overmind Tendrils Build 3 Gateways to add to your first one for a total of 4. Like the last mission there are abandoned buildings out in the wilderness you can power up with Pylons. The bonus objective is completed by powering two specific Obelisk buildings, which I will cover later. Don't worry about building more Photon Cannons. They will probably be destroyed just wasting your minerals. With your 4 Gateways, create an army of Zealots and Stalkers initially for defense. Also remember to be researching the upgrades. In this mission you now have access to the level 2 upgrades. Every few minutes the Zerg will launch an attack on your base with Nydus Worms from two sides. Enemy units will be Zerglings, Roaches, Hydralisks, Banelings, and Ultralisks. The more powerful units will appear over time, not in the first attacks. These attacks are easy to defend if you have your army nearby. If not, they can easily destroy your entire base while you are gone. So you must time your attacks in between the Zerg attacks. Other than that, this is a pretty easy mission. Overmind Tendril #1 is just east of your base. It is protected by two Spine Crawlers and a number of Zerglings and Roaches. Build your army up to at least 10 Zealots and 10 Stalkers for this first attack. Include your Colossi whenever you move out to attack as well. Near the tendril you will also find a Warp Gate, which is a special Protoss Gateway that can warp in Protoss units almost instantly to any Pylon power field. Just by encountering this Warp Gate, you can now transform all of your Gateways into Warp Gates. Warp Gates also train units faster than Gateways, so there is really no downside to this. You will probably run out of resources soon. You can start an expansion here at these resources. Just remember to build a few Photon Cannons to fend off the occasional Mutalisk. At this point there will also be Broodlords attacking sometimes, which have longer range than Photon Cannons. Keep some Stalkers nearby to take them out if needed. While building your expansion, also build a Pylon near the Warp Gate and Obelisk #1. You will get 3 Stalkers and 1 High Templar for free. Reinforce your army back at base until you have about 20 Zealots and Stalkers. After the next Zerg attack, move east past the first tendril to an Infested Terran base. Take out all of the units, and pick up all the little resource nodes. Now go north taking out a couple Spine Crawlers. There are also 4-5 Ultralisks here that will decimate your Zealots. Have Zeratul Hold Position behind your army so he doesn't get destroyed with your Zealots. Afterwards, move Zeratul to the waypoint for Overmind Tendril #2. Return to base and build up again 20 Zealots and 20 Stalkers. After the next Zerg attack, move north to another Zerg base. Along the way you should see Obelisk #2 as well as other buildings you can power up. For powering the Warp Gate you will get 3 Stalkers and 1 High Templar. Continue north and take out the Zerg base. You can build a Nexus here for later gathering if you think you might need it. Now go east for Overmind Tendril #3. It is guarded by a lot of Mutalisks, so have Stalkers ready with Blink to shoot them down. After taking out all the Zerg in this area you will notice a ramp further east. This ramp leads to a sizable Zerg base including Zerglings, Roaches, Mutalisks, Banelings, and numerous Spine Crawlers. You need to be prepared before entering with 30 Zealots and 30 Stalkers. Attack the base doing your best to take out Spine Crawlers and Banelings before they can do too much damage. Like before your Zealots might be destroyed making it dangerous for Zeratul. Keep him in the back if you're nervous with Hold Position. Your base might be attacked while this is going on, but you can just ignore it. The mission is almost over. Fight your way to the waypoint for Overmind Tendril #4. Then quickly send in Zeratul before he can get hurt. Mission Complete! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dealing with Hybrids (Maar): Feedback Submitted by: K S | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ I suggest using the high templar's feedback on hybrids. For example, in the mission "A Sinister Turn", Maar's ability is very annoying, as it can disable many units and damage them. Using feedback depletes his energy (from quite a safe range too, or it's just too fast to cast), as well as dealing some damage. Then 2-3 immortals should be enough to kill him. This is also useful in the mission "In Utter Darkness", albeit a little harder to do with all the commotion around, and the hybrid reavers possessing no mana. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -----d. In Utter Darkness----- --[NTTR]-- Background: The Terrans have been destroyed. The Dark One has taken command of the Zerg. The last hope for the galaxy lies in Protoss hands. New Units: Phoenix, Void Ray, Carrier, Mothership New Structures: Stargate, Fleet Beacon Heroes: Zeratul (Dark Templar), Urun (Phoenix), Mohander (Void Ray), Selendis (Carrier), Artanis (Mothership) Rewards: 3 Zerg Research Points, 3 Protoss Research Points (bonus objective) Difficulty: 7/10 Objectives: - Destroy 2000 Enemies (Research) - Defend Until the Last Protoss Falls - Bonus: Protect the Protoss Archive for 25:00 (Research) Walkthrough: This is a long mission and can be pretty tough towards the end. You start out with a big base with almost everything you need already there. You also have a pretty big ground force including Zeratul. At first you can't build any air units, but they will be available later on. Build 5 Probes at each Nexus and rally it to the nearest minerals. Then make sure to have all of the Assimilators filled with 3 Probes. You have a Forge and a Cybernetics Core ready to start upgrades. I suggest getting only the first level of ground upgrades (attack, armor), but try to get all three levels of the air upgrades (attack, armor, shields). Phoenixes, Void Rays, and Carriers are your best bet for getting lots of kills. - Bonus: Protect the Protoss Archive The only thing you have to do to complete this objective is to hold back the enemies for the time limit. It will then lower underground protected for the rest of the mission. Even when it goes down, you should still try to hold out as long as possible in this area. You can get kills easier when they come from three entrances versus two entrances. - Destroy 2000 Enemies Your base is pretty much built, but you can't build air units yet. It would seem you don't have much to do with your resources. Well, a good tactic on this mission is to wall off the three entrances with Photon Cannons. You will have more than enough minerals to do this. When you get air units later, they can attack from behind the cannons safely while still doing good damage. The first air units you get are Phoenixes. You get 7 Phoenixes, one of them the Urun hero. You also get 4 Zealots. They have the Graviton Beam ability that disables a ground unit for a short time. The best use for this is against the Hybrids. They are the most powerful unit you will face and can easily destroy cannons and your other units. Simply Graviton Beam the Hybrids and let the cannons destroy them. After this point, 2 Stargates will warp into your base, and you can train Phoenixes. The second air units you get are Void Rays. You get 5 Void Rays, one of them the Mohander hero. You also get 4 Zealots. Use the Void Rays with Phoenixes to take out the Hybrids. Their charge beam is great against targets that have a lot of health. Void Rays will now be available in your Stargates. The third air units to arrive are Carriers. You get 5 Carriers, one of them the Selendis hero. You also get 4 Zealots and 2 Immortals. Carriers are great general purpose units. While your Phoenixes and Void Rays take out Hybrids, let your Carriers take out everything else. Carriers greatly increase your air units' survivability, because their little Interceptor units will take most of the enemy hits. After this point you can build Carriers. The last air unit to arrive is the Mothership hero Artanis. It is the most powerful Protoss unit able to cloak other units, teleport Protoss units, and disable enemy units. Keep it with your flying units at all times. Only your Mothership will be attackable by Zerg, but most enemy units will die before they get that close. With Artanis, you also get 2 Phoenixes, 2 Void Rays, 4 Zealots, and 4 Stalkers. Throughout all the fighting, keep building Photon Cannons. When the three entrances are walled off, build more Photon Cannons at the two closer entrances to your base. This will delay the units for the longest time. Also build a few cannons deeper inside your base to grab the attention of Nydus Worms that start to appear later. Use your air force to clean up after Nydus Worms when they appear. - Defend Until the Last Protoss Falls The last objective means you don't lose when your buildings die. The mission only ends when the last of your units are destroyed. When they destroy your base, move your air units away from the ground. That way you can only be attacked by air units. This increases your units' survivability greatly and lets you get a lot more kills. Hopefully you got 2000 kills before your units died. Mission Complete! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Defense with Dark Templar and Phoenixes Submitted by: Montegoraon | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Unlike Maar in A Sinister Turn, the Hybrid Destroyers in this mission are not detectors, and the enemy will not send Overseers in the first few waves, and will never send them in great numbers. It's helpful that your enemy will always come to you in this mission, since it lets you use a combination of units which if you tried it against an enemy base it would not end well for you. Dark Templar supported by Phoenixes works extremely well in this mission. Using four to six warp gates you can quickly make eight to ten Dark Templar for each of your base's three entrances. In the beginning you can just put the Dark Templar on one entrance and cover the other two with the remainder of your starting forces. Once you have your Dark Templar in place, they'll drive back your enemy's Zerg rush faster than they get sent at you. You'll want to keep a good supply of Phoenixes ready very nearby. Use their graviton beam ability to shut down the enemy's Overseers for their detection ability and Hybrid Destroyers for their strong anti-air attack. Twelve Phoenixes should be plenty if you keep them mobile. With that defense in place, you can dedicate your resources to building up a fully upgraded backup force for when the Nydus Worms start coming out. If you manage your forces well and be aggressive with your Phoenixes against the Overseers then even 3000 kills isn't impossible, even playing hard difficulty. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -----vii. Final Missions-----------------------------------------------[FNLM]-- -----a. Gates of Hell----- --[GTSF]-- Background: Ferocious Zerg attacks have scattered the Dominion forces during the landing. It's up to Raynor to gather the surviving troops and establish a foothold on the surface of the planet. Missions Required: Maw of the Void Difficulty: 8/10 Objectives: - Build A 100 Supply Army - Destroy the 3 Nydus Worms Walkthrough: - Build A 100 Supply Army You need to build a big army to establish a foothold. SCVs do not count towards the Supply total for this objective. You start with 5 SCVs, 2 Siege Tanks, 6 Marines, 4 Marauders, and 4 Medics. This seems like it would be a pretty strong force, but not compared to what the Zerg will throw at you. You will need one more Bunker at each entrance filled with Marines and Firebats. Your initial Marauders and Medics can be part of you rescue force. Build a Tech Lab on your Barracks for filling up your Bunkers. One thing you don't have to worry about in this mission is Supply Depots. At this point in the game, you probably have access to all of the units in the game. This means it's largely up to you what units you will produce to win this mission. Your choice should be based on which Hyperion Armory and Hyperion Laboratory upgrades you purchased. You probably won't have enough resources to go solely air units or solely vehicles, but you should be able to use those units as complements to your other units. I chose to go with infantry units since they are the easiest to make. Just remember to get the upgrades for the units you use. As always, 24 SCVs on minerals and 3 SCVs per Refinery should continue in this mission. Throughout the mission drop pods with free units and buildings will appear on the map. A group of Zerg will also be nearby. After a short time the Zerg will attack the units, usually overwhelming them. If you can make it to the units before then, you are awarded those units and buildings. Saving all of the units is pretty tough on Hard difficulty, but it's optional. Feel free to just go after the units you want and ignore the rest. Even if you ignored all of the drop pods you could still beat the mission. It would just take you longer to build up 100 units. - Destroy the 3 Nydus Worms After you have built up 100 supply worth of units, your main objective will change to this one. This would be pretty easy, but there are some big obstacles ahead including two heavily fortified bases to smash through as well as constant heavy attacks on your own base. Warfield can hold for quite a while, so build up as much as you can before attacking. You won't be able to defend your base while going after the Nydus Worms. Lift Off and fly a Terran building near your army in case you lose your base. Once you are satisfied with your army, move out through your base's east entrance and then southeast through a small pass with no Zerg creep on it. There are some resources here if you run out at your main base, but it will be hard to guard. There are two bases to push through to get to the Nydus Worms. The first one is an infested Terran base. It has quite a few Spine Crawlers, so try to attack with air units or Siege Tanks. They can create new units almost instantly. You will have to push through the infested units and take out Spine Crawlers at the same time. The second base is a regular Zerg base, but it is mainly a Hive with a bunch of Zerg units standing around defending. It has an even mix of Spine Crawlers and Spore Crawlers. The one thing to watch out for is the Banelings. They can easily take out a group of infantry. There are about 10 Banelings in a small area that will mostly all attack at once. Even when you get to the Nydus Worms, it's still not over. They will constantly spit out large groups of Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Banelings. Hopefully, your army is strong enough to take all three out. You won't have enough the time or resources to build up another big army this late in the mission. Focus on the Nydus Worms over the other Zerg units since they can reinforce so fast you will never deal damage to the Nydus Worms if you just attack their units. Mission Complete! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Heavy Ghost Strategy Submitted by: RV | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ I found that the use of ghosts is invaluable, as long as they have both upgrades researched at the Hyperion Armory. Once I had my base defenses set up, consisting of 3 siege tanks guarding each of the entrances, missile turrets protecting airways, and a small team of wraiths or vikings for dealing with broodlords, I built two Shadow Ops in my base. I assigned them to Control groups 9 and 0 for easy manufacture of tactical nukes. After receiving the objective to save Warfield, I quickly took out the first base encountered on the path to the Nydus worms using the method you suggested. After that, I simply move my ghost in, sniping any units that get in my way. Be careful of overseers and spore crawlers while doing this. Should the Zerg see you, simply retreat until they cannot. Once you encounter the last base, start lazing targets for tac nukes. Even if an overseer has you in its sights, the zerg units will not attack you unless you target a unit within its own sight radius. Give your ghost the command to call in a nuke, then tell him to move away so that in the short time between you regaining control over the ghost and the nuke coming down, you will be able to get out of overseer sight range. Keep doing this and the bases, and worms will eventually fall. I would also like to suggest that if an overseer tries to move to detect you and no one else is around, tell your ghost to hold position. The overseer will try to designate you as a target but will also try to run away when hit, thus causing the ghost to have an easy kill. It is also recommended that you use the Hold Fire command liberally. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -----bA. Belly of the Beast----- --[BLLY]-- Background: Raynor has chosen to destroy the Nydus Networks to prevent Nydus Worms in the final battle. Lead him and his team to destroy key points in an underground cave system. Heroes: Raynor (Marine), Findlay (Marine), Swann (Marauder), Stetmann (Medic) Difficulty: 6/10 Objectives: - Plant Seismic Charges at the 3 Fissures - Kill The Queen - Escape The Cave Walkthrough: - Plant Seismic Charges at Fissure #1 Follow the path southwest. Raynor will tell you about his Penetrator Round ability. Use it to take out the units ahead that are in a straight line. Continue further to find another group of Zerg with 2 Spine Crawlers. Try to take out the Spine Crawlers with a Penetrator Round. The rest of the Zerg units are nothing compared to your Heroes. Keep going west to find another group of Zerg units. This time Tychus will tell you about his Shredder Grenade ability. Using it on the Zerg units on the ramp should kill most of them. Just finish off the few remaining Zerglings with regular attacks. Up the ramp you will find more Zerg with 2 Spine Crawlers. Hit both of them with a Shredder Grenade. Then have Raynor finish one off with a Penetrator Round. Retreat out of range of the surviving Spine Crawler killing any Zerg units that follow you. Then come back and take out the Spine Crawler with its defenders dead. Go around and then down the ramp to find a big group of Zerglings in the next room. Before you get there, Swann will tell you about his Flaming Betty turret. It functions pretty much the same as a Perdition Turret. Place it in the indicated spot to kill most of the Zerg. You can use your other hero abilities if you want to speed up the killing. Continue east up a ramp killing Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches that get in the way. You will get a transmission from Warfield about some units you can free nearby. Go towards that direction. You will get to an area with 4 Spine Crawlers and some enemy units. Retreat and then focus fire on the Abomination. Then take out the Spine Crawlers safely with Penetrator Rounds and Shredder Grenades. Go north to rescue 4 Marines and a Medic. Now go south destroying some rocks. You will cross a little bridge, and a bunch of Zerg units will unburrow to attack. Use a Penetrator Round on the ones in front and a Shredder Grenade on the units behind you. Continue west to find a bunch of Zerglings with a few Hydralisks, Roaches, and an Abomination. A Penetrator Round should take out most of them. Watch out for the Abomination. It can kill your Marines and Medic in only two shots, faster than they can be healed. Just west 4 Nydus Worms will spawn with Broodlings and an Abomination. Use a Penetrator Round to take out 2 worms instantly. Then use a Shredder Round to take out the other 2 worms. Finish the remaining units then continue west. You will find Fissure #1. You need to guard it for 2:20. There are 3 paths into the area, and Zerg units will come from all three. Have Swann place a flame turret on one path. Then, you will only have to worry about two of the paths. Be sure to keep placing turrets when the last one disappears. Periodically, Nydus Worms will spawn. Take them out as fast as you can to prevent your units from getting overwhelmed. - Plant Seismic Charges at Fissure #2 In the next area, go east to find an Infestor with infested Terrans. A single Penetrator Round should kill most of the units. Move south and a little west to find a large group of infested Terrans with an Infestor. With a Penetrator Round and a Shredder Grenade you should be able to take care of them. Go a little south and then east to find another big group of infested Terrans with some Spine Crawlers. Lead them back a little ways away from the Spine Crawlers. Use all three of your hero abilities to take them out without much trouble. Then use a Penetrator Round to take out both Spine Crawlers in one shot. Go southwest to find lone Abomination. He is still pretty tough to kill even solo. Just southeast will be another Abomination, but don't use any special abilities on it. A bunch of Banelings will come from behind. They can decimate your units if they get too close. Use your hero abilities on the Banelings while a hero takes the hits from the Abomination. Head east to find an Infestor with Hydralisks and Banelings. Try to take out the Banelings and Infestor with one Penetrator Round. Zerg units will also come from behind. Take them out with a well-placed Shredder Grenade. Lastly, take out the 2 Nydus Worms and move north up the ramp to rescue 2 Firebats and a Medic. Take the other path just west of the ramp you went up to rescue the units. You will face a long battle against Nydus Worms spitting out infested units. Fight your way up to each one using a grenade or round to take out the worms instantly. At one point, some Banelings will unburrow. Use a grenade to kill them at a distance. A little ways further an Ultralisk will appear in front of you and an Abomination behind you. Try to get one of them to attack Flaming Betty while you fight the other. While fighting this battle, use a Penetrator Round on the nearby Nydus Worm. This can be tough towards the end, so try to move fast. After the last Nydus Worm is Fissure #2. This room is a little more open than the one containing the last fissure. A good choke point to put the flame turret is on the southeast side of the fissure. On the west and southwest, you will need to move around with your units. Compared to the last fissure, enemy attacks will now include some Ultralisks and Banelings. - Plant Seismic Charges at Fissure #3 The next area starts with a number of rooms full of Zerg eggs. When nearing them they will pop open with infested Terrans and Infestors. Also there are occasionally Zerglings, Banelings, Hydralisks, and Roaches to kill. After going north a ways you will get a transmission for some more units to rescue. An Omegalisk is attacking the rocks next to them. You must take it out before it destroys the rocks. In this room are also a bunch of eggs that will pop out trying to distract you. Try to focus on the Omegalisk the whole time. Stetmann's healing should keep your heroes a live through it. Move southeast to the waypoint for Fissure #3 and the Queen. - Kill The Queen This part is similar to the last one where you have to defend, but it's more of a boss fight. Eggs are all over the room. A Zerg Queen boss will appear. She will break open nearby eggs for awhile and then move in to attack your units. Use all your hero abilities as often as possible to reduce her life. When she loses 25% health, she will burrow. A little while later she will unburrow in another area with some health healed and start breaking more eggs open. When the Queen attacks, try to get her to attack the Flaming Betty. Let the turret take all the hits while your heroes dish out the damage. After the third time she burrows, she will come up at the fissure to attack your units directly. She will have a new ability as well. Whenever she unburrows, your units will be stunned for a little bit giving her and her minions free hits. More eggs will also start popping at this time. As long as you keep up on using your abilities, you should be fine. - Escape The Cave This objective is pretty straightforward. Just follow the path to the end. For the first Zerg group, use a Shredder Grenade. You will get to an area with eggs and some Spine Crawlers. Use a Penetrator Round on the Spine Crawlers, but ignore the eggs. You don't have enough time to fight them. You will get to another area with Infested Terrans and an Infestor. Use a grenade if your Penetrator is still be on cooldown. A little further you will face an Abomination. Use a Flaming Betty to distract it. Some Zerg units will try to attack you from behind. Just keep moving to the waypoint. They won't be able to catch up. Mission Complete! -----bB. Shatter the Sky----- --[STTR]-- Background: Raynor has chosen to destroy the Zerg platforms in orbit around the planet to prevent Zerg air support in the final battle. Difficulty: 6/10 Objectives: - Destroy the 4 Coolant Towers - Bonus: Destroy the Zerg Leviathan Walkthrough: You start with 9 SCVs, 8 Marines, 3 Medics, 2 Banshees, and a Battlecruiser. This is a pretty good start, but not enough to do anything yet. There are two entrances to your base. You will want to build 2 Bunkers per entrance along with an array of Missile Turrets all around the southwest edges of your base. Fill the Bunkers with Marines. The Zerg rarely send Zerglings or Ultralisks, so Firebats wouldn't be very useful. For production, put a Reactor on your Barracks, a Tech Lab on your Starport, and a Tech Lab on your Factory. Pump out Marines from the Barracks, Battlecruisers from the Starport, and Siege Tanks and Goliaths from the Factory. - Destroy the 4 Coolant Towers The Zerg base defending the first tower is pretty weak. They have a few Spore Crawlers and Spine Crawlers, but not in great numbers. They don't have many standing forces either. Build up 6 Battlecruisers for this first tower. Then move straight southwest to the coolant tower. Keep building Battlecruisers while you do this. Use the Yamato Cannon on one Spore Crawler in the way and finish it off with lasers. Continue southeast to the Coolant Tower #1. On the way you may attract some Zerg forces, but they are weak compared to Battlecruisers. Use 5 Yamato Cannons on it to destroy it instantly. Quickly move your Battlecruisers back to base before the platform explodes or else you will lose all of them. Around this time you will probably be running out of minerals at your main base. Through the south entrance of your base, there is a fairly close location with more resources that you can expand to. Destroy the Hatchery and Crawler defenses with your Battlecruisers. Then build a Command Center and 2 Bunkers to defend it. With more resources secured, you can build up to take out the next coolant tower. This one is northwest of your new expansion. As Horner said, it is mainly defended with Spine Crawlers and ground attack units. That means it's the perfect target for your Battlecruisers. For this attack build up 12 Battlecruisers. Also start building up your ground force now. Any extra resources you have after queuing Battlecruisers should go to Marines, Siege Tanks, and Goliaths. When you are ready to attack Coolant Tower #2, move in targeting any Spore Crawlers, Mutalisks and Hydralisks you find. Use Yamato Cannons on the Spore Crawlers. When you get to coolant tower, use Yamato Cannons if your Battlecruisers have any left over energy. Otherwise, even regular attacks should bring it down quick. Just like the first coolant tower, move away quickly to prevent your units from being caught in the explosion. At this time, the Zerg will introduce a new unit, the Leviathan. It is a powerful air unit with high health, area damage attacks, and a few abilities. First, it can summon other Zerg units to help it. They basically hatch out of its body. Second, it can cast an ability on your flying units that prevent them from moving or attacking for a little while. Its last ability is a single target heavy damage shot against Battlecruisers. It does somewhere around 350 damage in one shot. It casts all of these abilities fairly often as long as it has energy. It patrols in front of the last coolant tower and through many of the ground passes, so you should destroy it before attacking another tower. Your 12 Battlecruisers plus any Marines and Goliaths you have produced will make short work of it. Wait for the Leviathan to move over land. Then engage with your Marines. They are cheap units and fast to replenish. Use Yamato Cannons liberally until it dies, then deal with the other Zerg flyers it summoned. Return to base for repairs. Build up your ground force until you have 30 Marines, 5 Siege Tanks, and 5 Goliaths. Coolant Tower #3 is just south of your expansion base, but the land route is a little longer. Clear the way to the base with your Battlecruisers. There is a small Zerg base with Hatchery and some defenses. After destroying this base, keep your Battlecruisers here while your ground army goes after the third coolant tower. The base defending it has strong defenses against air units, but not very much against ground units. Use your Marines as cannon fodder while your Siege Tanks do the real damage focusing on Spine Crawlers and the few ground units they have. Use Goliaths to take out Broodlords. Keep edging forward with your Siege Tanks until you get in siege range of the tower. From the upper ledge, your Siege Tanks should be able to attack the tower when in Siege Mode. Once it's destroyed, remember to move your forces out fast before it explodes. For the last cooldown tower, build up your armies again until you have 30 Marines, 5 Siege Tanks, and 12 Battlecruisers. Move southwest towards Coolant Tower #4. Just like before, the Marines will act as cannon fodder while your Battlecruisers and Siege Tanks do damage. Target Spine Crawlers with Siege Tanks and Spore Crawlers with Battlecruiser Yamato Cannons. Try to ignore other buildings unless they are blocking the way. When you get to the tower, a combination of Siege Tanks and Battlecruiser Yamato Cannons should take it out fast. Once it is destroyed, Mission Complete! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Alternate Strategy: Coolant Towers #3 and #4 Submitted by: Andrew | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ After you've destroyed two cooling towers and the Leviathan, you'll probably have 10-14 battle cruisers knocking around. If so, and your BCs have the shield ability from the Armory, there's really no point in doing anything else, since the mission ends immediately when all towers are destroyed. Make sure all the BCs are repaired, and have enough energy to Yamato and to also start up the shield. Split your BCs evenly into two control groups, and drive them right up to the last two bases. Start up the shields if available, and tell them all to Yamato their respective towers in a suicide charge. If you have at least 5 in each group, enough should survive to take out the towers and end the mission. Sending other (faster) flyers in ahead can distract the AA defenses for a little while. I haven't tried this without the shield; you'd probably just need another BC or 2 in each group. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Heavy Ghost Strategy Submitted by: RV | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ I found that the use of ghosts is invaluable, as long as they have both upgrades researched at the Hyperion Armory. Once I had my base defenses set up, consisting of 3 siege tanks guarding each of the entrances, missile turrets protecting airways, and a small team of wraiths or vikings for dealing with broodlords, I built two Shadow Ops in my base. I assigned them to Control groups 9 and 0 for easy manufacture of tactical nukes. In "Shatter the Sky", this strategy only works with the base closest to your original LZ. Learning how to use overseers and tac nukes will make easy, albeit time consuming, work of the Zerg forces. I would also like to suggest that if an overseer tries to move to detect you and no one else is around, tell your ghost to hold position. The overseer will try to designate you as a target but will also try to run away when hit, thus causing the ghost to have an easy kill. It is also recommended that you use the Hold Fire command liberally. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -----c. All In----- --[ALLN]-- Background: Defend the Xel'Naga Artifact long enough to fully charge up. Difficulty: 10/10 Objectives: - Defend the Artifact Walkthrough: Your one objective here is long and hard. This is another base defense mission. The artifact has to charge to 100% to beat the mission. You can activate the artifact at any time to release a minor wave that will kill all nearby Zerg units. This does not affect the overall charge rate, so you should use this ability often. Good times to use it are when Nydus Worms appear, when Kerrigan gets close, and when air waves come. This mission plays out a little differently depending on whether you chose to do Belly of the Beast or Shatter the Sky. Read the General Strategies and then follow the walkthrough for the mission you chose before. - Defend the Artifact ---General Strategies--- Kerrigan will appear every so often to attack your base and the artifact. She has a few different abilities. One ability a more powerful Psi Storm that does huge area damage over a long time. Bunkers, Siege Tanks, and Marines will all go down in just a few seconds. Try to move units out of the way that are not attacking. You will have to rebuild any buildings hit by it. Her other ability is an instant kill where she lifts up a unit for a short time and drops it to its death. To take her out, use the artifact and send in any available units. She takes reduced damage from Siege Tanks, so don't rely on them to kill her. Mass Marines are good if you can avoid her area attack. The Battlecruiser's Yamato Cannon is also good, but she may instant kill them. Once you do enough damage, she will burrow and attack later when she has regained her strength. ---Belly of the Beast completed--- Your base is well developed at the beginning, but you still need to build a lot. You start with quite a few SCVs, but you should try to have 40 total. You also get a lot of Supply Depots, but you are going to need more to get to the 200 supply cap. For production, build a Barracks with a Reactor, a Factory with Tech Lab, and a Starport with Reactor. Constantly build Marines from your Barracks, Siege Tanks from your Factories, and Vikings from your Starport. For armor and attack upgrades, focus on ship upgrades and infantry upgrades. By the end of the mission, you should be close to level 3 upgrades or already have them finished. Have 5 filled Bunkers at each entrance of your base along with 5 Siege Tanks. Around the artifact, put 4 Missile Turrets on the cliffs and 4 Bunkers around it. Fill Bunkers with only Marines since you will mostly be attacking air units. Keep 3-5 SCVs at each entrance for repairs and rebuilding. On the southeast cliffs of your base build Missile Turrets to defend from Overlord drops that will occur later in the emission. Bunkers will not last long against the Banelings Kerrigan is sure to send at the artifact, but it's better than Marines by themselves that are instantly killed by Banelings. Bunkers also can't be instantly destroyed with Kerrigan's instant kill ability, because it only affects units. Throughout the mission, you will be subjected to many air attacks. A fleet of Vikings will make short work of them. A goal of 30 Vikings is good for the entire mission. This may be an unobtainable goal, but just keep aiming for it by producing them constantly. About halfway through, Kerrigan will send an Overlord drop. Many of the Overlords are decoys with no units, but some of them do have units that can take out your SCVs and buildings. As long as you built Missile Turrets around the cliffs of your base, you should be fine here. Send a few Vikings if you are worried. A little after the Overlord drop, the Leviathan will appear on the field. It is a powerful air unit with 3000 health. It has two powerful abilities. The first one prevents your air units from moving or firing for 30 seconds or so. There is really nothing you can do about this. Just bring tons of Vikings and some of them should survive to kill it. The second ability does heavy damage to Battlecruisers. Keep your Battlecruisers away from this fight if you don't want to lose them. This mission can take a lot of tries to beat. Just keep working on it if you fail. You might want to make saves at various points to recover from mistakes. Keep your defenses up, keep building units, and you should be able to pull it off. Mission complete and congratulations on finishing the Wings of Liberty Campaign! ---Shatter the Sky completed--- Your base is well developed at the beginning, but you still need to build a lot. You start with quite a few SCVs, but you should try to have 40 total. You also get a lot of Supply Depots, but you are going to need more to get to the 200 supply cap. For production, build a Barracks with a Reactor, another Barracks with a Tech Lab, a Factory with Tech Lab, and a Starport with Tech Lab. Constantly build Marines from your Barracks with Reactors, Siege Tanks from your Factories, and Banshees from your Starport. Build Firebats as needed to fill the occasional Bunker slot, but you don't need a lot of them. For armor and attack upgrades, focus on ship upgrades and infantry upgrades. By the end of the mission, you should be close to level 3 upgrades or already have them finished. Have 5 filled Bunkers at each entrance of your base along with 5 Siege Tanks. Fill Bunkers with mostly Marines since you will need their range. A few of the Bunkers that get attacked the most by Zerglings can have one Firebat. Put 4 Missile Turrets on the cliffs near the Xel'Naga Artifact. Around the artifact, build 3 Planetary Fortresses if you unlocked them with research. They have high armor, high health, and pretty good damage to ground units. Otherwise build Bunkers around the artifact. Keep 3-5 SCVs at each entrance for repairs and rebuilding. On the southeast cliffs of your base, build Missile Turrets to defend from Overlord drops that will occur later in the emission. Bunkers will not last long against the Banelings Kerrigan is sure to send at the artifact, but it's better than Marines by themselves that are instantly killed by Banelings. Bunkers also can't be instantly destroyed with Kerrigan's instant kill ability, because it only affects units. About halfway through, Kerrigan will send an Overlord drop. Many of the Overlords are decoys with no units, but some of them do have units that can take out your SCVs and buildings. As long as you built Missile Turrets around the cliffs of your base, you should be fine here. Send some Marines or your Battlecruisers if you are worried. Nydus Worms will spawn all over the map every so often. A fleet of Banshees will be able to quickly move to the worms and destroy them before too many units can escape. Aim for a fleet of 30 Banshees in two separate control groups. Use one control group to take out all the Nydus Worms that spawn in the southwest and another control group to take out the ones that spawn in the northeast. This mission can take a lot of tries to beat. Just keep working on it if you fail. You might want to make saves at various points to recover from mistakes. Keep your defenses up, keep building units, and you should be able to pull it off. Mission complete and congratulations on finishing the Wings of Liberty Campaign! =====C. Campaign Lists=================================================[CLST]== This section lists all of the upgrades available from the Armory, mercenaries from the Cantina, new technologies from the Laboratory, and units you can unlock in each mission. -----i. Armory---------------------------------------------------------[RMRY]-- Use the Armory console in the Armory to buy upgrades for your units and buildings. These upgrades are permanent for the rest of the campaign. You can choose to focus on certain categories of units that you like to use or just skip around to get upgrades that sound interesting. You can complete the campaign with pretty much any combination of upgrades. The Armory consists of 5 categories covering the various unit types and some buildings. Each unit or building has two associated upgrades. Whenever that unit is unlocked in a mission, both of its upgrades will be available in the Armory afterwards. ----Base Upgrades----- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Bunker Unlocked After: Zero Hour | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Projectile Accelerator | 40,000 | Neosteel Bunker | 50,000 | | Bunkered units gain +1 range. | Bunkers gain 2 additional slots. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Missile Turret Unlocked After: 6 missions completed | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Titanium Housing | 50,000 | Hellstorm Batteries | 80,000 | | Missile Turrets gain +75 life. | Missile Turrets gain a second attack | | | that does area damage. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | SCV Unlocked After: 9 missions completed | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Advanced Construction | 60,000 | Dual-Fusion Welders | 80,000 | | Multiple SCVs can build the same | SCVs repair twice as fast. | | structure to reduce build time at | | | no additional cost. | | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Terran Building Unlocked After: 12 missions completed | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Fire-Suppression System | 90,000 | Orbital Command | 125,000 | | Structures automatically put out | Adds the Scanner Sweep and Call Down: | | their own fires repairing | MULE abilities to the Command Center. | | themselves up to 50% life. | Refer to the Orbital Command in the | | | Terran Units section for more info. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ -----Infantry Upgrades----- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Marine Unlocked After: Zero Hour | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Stimpacks | 50,000 | Combat Shield | 60,000 | | Adds the Stimpack ability to | Marines gain + 10 life | | Marines that increases move and | | | attack speed by 50% for 15 seconds | | | at the cost of 10 life. | | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Medic Unlocked After: Zero Hour | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Advanced Medic Facilities | 60,000 | Stabilizer Medpacks | 105,000 | | Medics no longer require the Tech | Medics heal targets 25% faster and | | Lab add-on. | use 33% less energy per heal. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Firebat Unlocked After: The Evacuation | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Incinerator Gauntlets | 40,000 | Juggernaut Plating | 85,000 | | Firebats gain a 40% larger attack. | Firebats gain +2 armor. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Marauder Unlocked After: Smash and Grab | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Concussive Shells | 70,000 | Kinetic Foam | 90,000 | | Marauder attacks slow all units in | Marauders gain +25 life. | | the target area. | | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Reaper Unlocked After: The Devil's Playground | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | U-238 Rounds | 60,000 | G-4 Clusterbomb | 75,000 | | Reapers gain +1 range and do an | Reapers gain an anti-personnel charge | | additional +3 damage to Light armor.| with a large blast radius that ejects | | | smaller payloads in the radius for | | | increased damage. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ -----Vehicle Upgrades----- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Hellion Unlocked After: Outbreak | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Twin-Linked Flamethrower | 40,000 | Thermite Filaments | 60,000 | | Doubles the width of the Hellion's | Hellion's do an additional +10 damage | | flame attack. | to Light armor. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Vulture Unlocked After: Cutthroat | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Cerberus Mine | 50,000 | Replenishable Magazine | 60,000 | | Increases mine blast radius and | Allows Vultures to replenish mines in | | trigger radius by 30% | the field for 15 minerals. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Goliath Unlocked After: Welcome to the Jungle | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Multi-Lock Weapons System | 50,000 | Ares-Class Targeting System | 80,000 | | Goliaths can fire both weapons | Goliaths gain +3 missile range and +1 | | simultaneously. | cannon range. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Diamondback Unlocked After: The Great Train Robbery | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Tri-Lithium Power Cell | 75,000 | Shaped Hull | 90,000 | | Diamondbacks gain +1 range. | Diamondbacks gain +50 life. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Siege Tank Unlocked After: The Dig | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Maelstrom Rounds | 105,000 | Shaped Blast | 140,000 | | Siege Tanks do +40 damage to the | Shock Cannon does 75% less damage to | | primary target, but splash damage | friendly units. | | remains the same. | | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ -----Ship Upgrades----- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Medivac Unlocked After: The Moebius Factor | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Rapid Deployment Tube | 50,000 | Advanced Healing AI | 115,000 | | Medivacs deploy loaded troops | Medivacs can heal two targets at | | almost instantly. | once. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Wraith Unlocked After: Engine of Destruction | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Tomahawk Power Cells | 80,000 | Displacement Field | 125,000 | | Wraiths start with +100 energy. | Wraiths evade 20% of attacks when | | | cloaked. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Viking Unlocked After: Safe Haven or Haven's Fall | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Ripwave Missiles | 75,000 | Phobos-Class Weapons System | 90,000 | | Viking missiles do area damage. | Vikings gain +2 missile range and +1 | | | cannon range. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Banshee Unlocked After: Supernova | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Cross-Spectrum Dampeners | 80,000 | Shockwave Missile Battery | 110,000 | | Banshee can remain cloaked for | Banshee attacks fire multiple | | twice as long. | missiles in a line. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Battlecruiser Unlocked After: Maw of the Void | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Missile Pods | 140,000 | Defensive Matrix | 150,000 | | Grants the Missile Pods ability | Grants the Defensive Matrix ability | | that does area damage to air | that absorbs 200 damage before | | targets. | failing. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ -----Dominion Upgrades----- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Spectre Unlocked After: Breakout | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Psionic Lash | 100,000 | Nyx-Class Cloaking Module | 125,000 | | Spectres gain the Psionic Lash | Cloak becomes permanent at no energy | | ability that deals 200 damage to a | cost. | | single target. | | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Ghost Unlocked After: Ghost of a Chance | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | Tomahawk Power Cells | 85,000 | Displacement Field | 125,000 | | Ghosts gain +2 range and +3 sight | Cloak becomes permanent at no energy | | radius. | cost. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Thor Unlocked After: Media Blitz | +---------------------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+ | 330mm Barrage Cannon | 130,000 | Immortality Protocol | 140,000 | | Improved bombardment cannon that | Grants the Immortality Protocol | | deals massive area damage and | ability that allows Thors to be | | stuns central targets. | reactived in the field. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ -----ii. Mercenaries---------------------------------------------------[MRCN]-- Talk to Graven Hill in the Cantina to buy mercenaries. Mercenaries are produced from the Merc Compound, which is a campaign-only building. On every mission where you get a base, you start with a Merc Compound. You only need to build one if your first one is destroyed. Refer to the Terran Units section for information about the base unit. Mercenaries work the same as the base unit. They just have more powerful stats. Upgrades that affect the base unit also affect the mercenaries, and these will stack with the mercenary stat bonuses. Stat Description Health - The health bonus over the base unit. Damage - The damage bonus over the base unit. Squad Size - How many units you get in one call down. Limit - How many squads you can call down in a single mission. Time - How many minutes before you can call down your first squad and how long before you can call down another squad after that. Credit Cost - How much it costs to hire the mercenaries to work for Raynor's Raiders Resource Cost - How many resources you need to call down this unit in a mission. An uppercase 'M' stands for minerals and 'G' for vespene gas. +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Health | Damage | Squad Size | Limit | Time | Credit Cost | Resource Cost | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | War Pigs (Marines) Unlocked After: Zero Hour | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +65% | +35% | 4 | 3 | 5:00 | 0 | 250M | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Devil Dogs (Firebats) Unlocked After: The Evacuation | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +60% | +25% | 2 | 2 | 5:00 | 35,000 | 250M, 75G | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Hammer Securities (Marauders) Unlocked After: Smash and Grab | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +25% | +20% | 2 | 2 | 6:00 | 30,000 | 250M, 75G | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Spartan Company (Goliaths) Unlocked After: Welcome to the Jungle | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +33% | +33% | 2 | 2 | 6:00 | 40,000 | 300M, 125G | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Siege Breakers (Siege Tanks) Unlocked After: The Dig | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +33% | +66% | 2 | 2 | 7:00 | 45,000 | 400M, 200G | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Hel's Angels (Vikings) Unlocked After: Safe Haven or Haven's Fall | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +45% | +40% | 3 | 2 | 5:00 | 45,000 | 400M, 300G | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Dusk Wings (Banshees) Unlocked After: Supernova | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +25% | +50% | 2 | 2 | 7:00 | 60,000 | 350M, 200G | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | Jackson's Revenge (Battlecruiser) Unlocked After: Maw of the Void | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ | +30% | +33% | 1 | 1 | 7:00 | 80,000 | 400M, 300G | +--------+--------+------------+-------+------+-------------+-----------------+ -----iii. Laboratory---------------------------------------------------[LBRY]-- Check the research console in the Laboratory to pick which upgrades you want. Research points are gained in missions. Objectives with "(Research)" award research points at the end of the mission. For each research level you get the choice of one upgrade or the other. Your choice is final, and there is no way to change it other than reloading from a save file before you made the choice or starting a new campaign. Many of the choices seem to be offensive or defensive in nature. You can choose to specialize on offensive or defensive upgrades, or just skip around choosing upgrades that sound interesting. For the unlocked units or buildings, see the Terran Units or Buildings section for a full description. Choices that are mostly just upgrades like the Bunker upgrades are not described in those sections. -----Zerg----- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Level 5 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Strike Turret | Fortified Bunker | | Outfits all Bunkers with an | Bunkers gain +150 life. | | automated turret. | | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 10 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Perdition Turret | Planetary Fortress | | A flame turret that does massive | Command Center can upgrade to a | | damage and conceals itself when not | Planetary Fortress with extra armor | | in combat. | and heavy ground damage, but loses | | | the ability to Lift Off. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 15 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Predator | Hercules | | An anti-infantry specialist unit | A massive transport ship that | | with a powerful area shock attack | unloads almost instantly built at | | built at the Factory. | the Starport. Loaded troops survive | | | if the Hercules is destroyed. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 20 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Cellular Reactor | Regenerative Bio-Steel | | Specialists (Spectre, Ghost, Raven, | Ships and vehicles slowly regenerate | | Science Vessel) gain +100 starting | life. | | energy and +100 max energy. | | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 25 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Hive Mind Emulator | Psi Disruptor | | A defensive structure that can | A defensive structure that constantly| | permanently Mind Control Zerg units. | slows movement and attack speeds of | | | nearby Zerg. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ -----Protoss----- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Level 5 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Ultra Capacitors | Vanadium Plating | | Armory and Engineering Bay weapon | Armory and Engineering Bay armor | | upgrades increase unit attack speed | upgrades increase unit health by 5% | | by 5% each. | each. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 10 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Orbital Depots | Micro Filtering | | Supply Depots are built instantly. | Refineries and Automated Refineries | | | produce vespene gas 25% faster. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 15 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Automated Refinery | Command Center Reactor | | Refineries no longer require SCVs to | Allows two SCVs to be trained | | harvest vespene. | simultaneously. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 20 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Raven | Science Vessel | | A Starport unit that can detect | A Starport unit that can detect | | cloaked and burrowed enemies, drop | cloaked and burrowed units, Irradiate| | Auto-Turrets, place Point Defense | enemy biological units, and repair | | Drones, and deploy Seeker Missiles. | nearby mechanical units. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Level 25 | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Tech Reactor | Orbital Strike | | Combines the Tech Lab and the Reactor| Barracks units now arrive by Drop-Pod| | in one building. | at the Barracks' rally point. | +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ -----iv. Unlocked Units------------------------------------------------[NLCK]-- This is a list of units you can unlock in the campaign and which mission unlocks it. Use this list if you want to make sure you have a particular unit before doing a mission. The description of each unit can be found in the Terran Units section. +----------------+----------------------------+ | Unit Name | Mission Unlocked In | +----------------+----------------------------+ | Marine | Liberation Day | | Medic | The Outlaws | | Firebat | The Evacuation | | Marauder | Smash and Grab | | Reaper | The Devil's Playground | | Hellion | Outbreak | | Vulture | Cutthroat | | Goliath | Welcome to the Jungle | | Diamondback | The Great Train Robbery | | Siege Tank | The Dig | | Medivac | The Moebius Factor | | Wraith | Engine of Destruction | | Viking | Safe Haven or Haven's Fall | | Banshee | Supernova | | Battlecruiser | Maw of the Void | | Spectre | Breakout | | Ghost | Ghost of a Chance | | Thor | Media Blitz | | Predator | 15 Zerg Research Points | | Hercules | 15 Zerg Research Points | | Raven | 20 Protoss Research Points | | Science Vessel | 20 Protoss Research Points | +----------------+----------------------------+ =====D. Challenges=====================================================[CHNG]== Challenges are special missions to help you get ready for multiplayer games. Starcraft multiplayer is extremely fast paced and can be hard to pick up. There are skills you use in multiplayer that you don't really need in campaign missions. The challenges do a good job to teach these skills. Each challenge has three different achievements awarded (Bronze, Silver, Gold) based on how well you do. The challenges are split into three groups based on difficulty: Basic, Advanced, and Expert. Once you get gold medals on every challenge, you can move on to Multiplayer melee games knowing a lot of good tactics. You might also keep playing challenges to get even better scores. The game keeps track of your best score in every challenge making it easy to show your friends how well you did. These are what the fields mean for each challenge: Goal: The main thing you are trying to do to win the challenge. Tests: Multiplayer skills the challenge tests you on. Bronze: Successfully completely a challenge with any score awards a Bronze medal and achievement. Silver: Additional requirements to get a Silver Medal. Gold: Further requirements to get a Gold Medal. Gold Medal Strategy: My strategy for getting gold. Reader submitted strategies are shown with a little box around them. -----i. Basic----------------------------------------------------------[BASC]-- -----a. Tactical Command----- --[TCTC]-- Goal: Choose the right Terran units to counter enemy units defending three Supply Depots from enemy waves. Tests: Terran Unit Counters Bronze: Destroy all enemies. Silver: Lose 20 units or less. Gold: Lose 10 units or less. Gold Medal Strategy: The map for this challenge has a center area and 3 offshoot paths. In the center area you are given a few different unit types. In each offshoot path is a Supply Depot you need to defend and some enemies that will attack it. Your job is to decide which units to defend with in each path and then to micromanage your units to victory. You do this for three rounds with your cumulative total units lost used for determining whether you get Gold or Silver. Round 1 Your forces: 20 Marines, 2 Medivacs, 10 Hellions, 1 Siege Tank, 1 Ghost Northwest Enemies: 40 Zerglings Target Losses: 0 Use all the Hellions against the Zerglings. The Hellions are faster than the Zerglings, so keep moving them around out of melee range until all the Zerglings are dead. East Enemies: 8 Banelings Target Losses: 0 Use the Siege Tank in Siege Mode by itself against the Banelings. It will take out almost all of them before they get to it. The few that remain will suicide on your Siege Tank, but they won't do enough damage to destroy it. Southwest enemies: 12 Mutalisks Target Losses: 5 Use all of the Marines, Medivacs, and the Ghost against the Mutalisks. With the Marines try to focus fire using Shift-Right-Click to queue Mutalisks to fire on. With the Ghost, use Cloak and Snipe as many Mutalisks as you can before they engage the Marines. Round 2 Your forces: 9 Marines, 2 Medivacs, 9 Marauders, 1 Ghost, 6 Siege Tanks. Northwest Enemies: 9 Roaches Target Losses: 0 Use 8 Marauders. Marauders have twice the range of Roaches, and both units have the same move speed. Attack and then move back, then attack and move back so your Marauders won't get hit very often. The Roaches should go down before you lose any units. East Enemies: 1 Ultralisk Target Losses: 0 Use 3 Siege Tanks and 1 Marauder. Have the Marauder lure the Ultralisk around, so it doesn't attack the Siege Tanks. They will keep whittling his health down. When the Marauder's health is low, back him away until the Ultralisk goes after the tanks. Southwest Enemies: 20 Hydralisks (verify) Target Losses: 4 Use 9 Marines, 2 Medivacs, 3 Siege Tanks and 1 Ghost. Use cloak on the Ghost. Then have him Snipe Hydralisks, two shots per Hydra. You should be able to take out 2 or 3 with Snipe. Then the Ghost can just help with extra damage. Focus fire with the Marines while the Medivacs heal them. The Siege Tanks will do the rest of the damage. Round 3 Your forces: 10 Vikings, 10 Hellions, 7 Marauders, 3 Medivacs, 1 Ghost, 6 Siege Tanks, 5 Thors. Northwest Enemies: 22 Zerglings, 5 Broodlords Target Losses: 0 Use 5 Hellions and all 10 Vikings. Send the Vikings in right away focus firing on one Broodlord at a time. Then use the Hellions to take out the Zerglings just like you did in the first round. East Enemies: 12 Hydralisks, 9 Roaches Target Losses: 1 Use all 6 Siege Tanks, all 7 Marauders, 5 Hellions, all 3 Medivacs, and the Ghost. Use the Ghost early with Cloak to Snipe as many Hydralisks as you can. Use two Snipes per Hydralisk to take out 2 or 3 before running out of energy. Let the remaining units get in range of your Siege Tanks. Then, attack the Hydralisks with your Hellions and the Roaches with your Marauders. Move back any units that start to get low health. Southwest Enemies: 17 Mutalisks Target Losses: 0 Use all 5 Thors and position them in a line blocking the pass. Try to focus fire on the Mutalisks. If any Thors start to get low health, move them back. -----b. Path of Ascension----- --[PTHA]-- Goal: Choose the right Protoss units to counter enemy units defending three Pylons from enemy waves. Tests: Protoss Unit Counters Bronze: Destroy all enemies. Silver: Lose 20 units or less. Gold: Lose 20 units or less. Gold Medal Strategy: The map for this challenge has a central area and 3 offshoot paths. In the central area you are given a few different unit types. In each offshoot path is a Pylon you need to defend and some enemies that will attack it. Your job is to decide which units to defend with in each path and then to micromanage your units to victory. After three rounds, your total units lost from every round is used to determine whether you get Gold or Silver. Round 1 Your forces: 9 Stalkers, 5 Colossi, 1 Sentry, 14 Zealots North Enemies: 13 Hellions Target Losses: 0 Use all 9 Stalkers and 2 Colossi. Position your Stalkers in a line, so the Hellions will also be in a line. That will give a good area for your Colossi to do big laser sweeps. Try to focus fire with the Stalkers as well. Northeast Enemies: 55 Marines Target Losses: 0 Use 3 Colossi and the Sentry. Position your Colossi in a line. Then, use your Sentry's Force Field to block off the path. The Colossi will have 15 seconds to chew through the Marines. If any Colossus starts to get low health, just move it back so the Marines will attack a different Colossus. East Enemies: 12 Marauders Target Losses: 3 Use all 14 Zealots. Your Zealots have Charge, so they can instantly close on the Marauders. They will cut through the Marauders like a knife through butter. Round 2 Your forces: 7 Carriers, 7 Immortals, 6 Void Rays, 1 High Templar North Enemies: 10 Thors Target Losses: 2 Use all 7 Carriers here. Focus fire on one Thor at a time. Move back any Carriers that lose their shields. Northeast Enemies: 20 Siege Tanks (verify) Target Losses: 2 Use all 7 Immortals. Move close to the tanks before attacking to force them out of Siege Mode. Also give Move and Attack orders quickly, so your Immortals can almost move and attack at the same time. East Enemies: 3 Battlecruisers Target Losses: 1 Use all 6 Void Rays and the High Templar. Have the Void Rays focus fire on one Battlecruiser at a time. Use the Feedback ability from the High Templar on each Battlecruiser to instantly deal 200 damage to them. Round 3 Your forces: 8 Stalkers, 3 Colossi, 7 Immortals, 4 Archons, 4 Phoenixes, 8 Zealots, 1 Sentry, 1 High Templar. North Enemies: 1 Battlecruiser, 5 Vikings Target Losses: 1 Use 8 Stalkers and the High Templar. Focus fire on the Battlecruiser first. Also use Feedback on it with the High Templar. Use the Stalker Blink ability to teleport underneath the Battlecruiser. Use Psi Storm on the remaining Vikings and focus fire them down with Stalkers. Northeast Enemies: 14 Hellions, 14 Reapers Target Losses: 0 Use all 3 Colossi and the Sentry. This is basically the same as the first round. Block off the path with Sentry Force Fields and then let the Colossi kill everything. If the Colossi are at max range, none of the units can retaliate until the Force Fields go down. East Enemies: 11 Siege Tanks, 6 Marauders Target Losses: 0 Use all of your Immortals, Archons, Phoenixes, and Zealots. Use the Graviton Beam on 4 Siege Tanks immediately to put them out of the fight. Then move in with Immortals on the front line and Archons next. Use the Zealots to flank the enemy units from the top or bottom. -----c. For the Swarm----- --[FRTH]-- Goal: Choose the right Zerg units to counter enemy units defending three Spires from enemy waves. Tests: Zerg Unit Counters Bronze: Destroy all enemies. Silver: Lose 20 units or less. Gold: Lose 10 units or less. Gold Medal Strategy: The map for this challenge has a central area and 3 offshoot paths. In the central area you are given a few different unit types. In each offshoot path is a Spire you need to defend and some enemies that will attack it. Your job is to decide which units to defend with in each path and then to micromanage your units to victory. After three rounds, your units lost from each round is totaled to determine whether you get Gold or Silver. Round 1 Your forces: 4 Ultralisks, 10 Zerglings, 21 Hydralisks, 1 Infestor West Enemies: 5 Colossi Target Losses: 0 Use all 4 Ultralisks and the Infestor. Have the Infestor use Neural Parasite on one Colossus. Then have your Ultralisks move in to attack the remaining Colossi while they are in disarray. Lastly, destroy the mind-controlled Colossus. Northwest Enemies: 1 Immortal Target Losses: 1 Use all 10 Zerglings. The Immortal attacks slowly. Whenever a Zergling takes a hit, move it out of range and tell it to Hold Position. Keep doing this for minimal losses. North Enemies: 8 Void Rays Target Losses: 4 Use all the Hydralisks. Put them in a line so they can hit the most units at once. Try to focus fire on certain Void Rays. If a Hydralisk gets low health, move it away and Hold Position to try to keep it alive. Round 2 Your forces: 11 Mutalisks, 20 Roaches, 2 Ultralisks, 1 Infestor West Enemies: 19 Zealots Target Losses: 3 Use all 20 Roaches. Zealots are not ranged, so just keep moving back after each attack. The Zealots will rarely get a hit in. Northwest Enemies: 5 Void Rays Target Losses: 0 Use all 11 Mutalisks and the Infestor. Use Neural Parasite on one Void Ray. Then, spawn 4 Infested Terrans. Let the Void Rays attack the Infested Terrans since they don't count if they die. Then, move your Mutalisks in to do the real damage. Have them focus fire on one Void Ray at a time for best results. North Enemies: 9 Stalkers Target Losses: 0 Use both of your Ultralisks. They have so much health, they shouldn't die. If one of them happens to get low, just pull it back. The second one should be able to finish off the last few Stalkers easily. Round 3 Your forces: 4 Ultralisks, 12 Roaches, 5 Broodlords, 14 Corruptors, 1 Infestor West Enemies: 11 Stalkers, 3 Immortals Target Losses: 1 Use all 4 Ultralisks and all 12 Roaches. Have the Ultralisks focus on the Stalkers while the Roaches take out the Immortals. There is no fancy technique here other than moving wounded units away from battle. Northwest Enemies: 4 Archons, 10 Zealots Target Losses: 1 Use all 5 Broodlords and the Infestor. Have the Broodlords focus fire on the Archons. Then, Neural Parasite one Archon and let the Zealots kill it. If another Archon remains, use another Neural Parasite on it. North Enemies: 4 Carriers Target Losses: 0 Use all 14 Corruptors. Cast Corruption on each Carrier. Then, focus fire on one at a time. Move back any Corruptors that get low health. -----ii. Advanced------------------------------------------------------[ADVN]-- -----a. Covert Ops----- --[CVRT]-- Goal: Kills as many units as possible with Ghosts and Ravens in 3:30. Tests: Micromanagement and Multitasking with Terran caster units. Bronze: Kill 125 enemies. Silver: Kill 150 enemies. Gold: Kill 175 enemies. Gold Medal Strategy: In this challenge you need to get a lot of kills in a limited time. There are Zerg enemies all over the map. You have a lot of choices of where to go to get kills, but for the gold medal, the best path is the one that takes you near the most enemies. This path starts right in front of your units to the northeast. This path takes you near three big concentrations of enemies, perfect sites for nukes. You get 11 Ghosts and 8 Ravens for this challenge. A good idea is to put all your Ghosts in one control group and all your Ravens in another control group. That way you can use both of their ability sets more quickly in combat. Both of these units are described in further detail in the Terran Units section above, but I will briefly go over their abilities here. Ghost Snipe - This does high damage to all Zerg units. Use it on every unit you face except Zerglings and Broodlings. EMP Round - This ability has no use in this challenge. Ignore it. Cloak - You can cloak to kill the Zerg safely, but it takes longer because the Zerg units will run away after each hit. The best use for this in the challenge is when firing off a nuke. Be sure there are no Spore Crawlers or Overseers nearby to detect him. Raven Build Auto-Turret - Auto-Turrets are special defensive buildings. They have pretty high health and armor, making them a good choice to take hits for your Ghosts while they do damage from afar. Build Point Defense Drone - This is a special stationary unit that shoots down all enemy projectiles. For this challenge, it is effective against groups of Hydralisks and Mutalisks, but only use energy on it if they are in big numbers. Seeker Missile - Like a mini-nuke, the Seeker Missile does pretty big damage to a small area. Its best use in this challenge is on Mutalisks. With these two units you have a wide variety of ways to deal with any threats you may face against the Zerg base. Here is a list of threats you will face and how best to deal with them: Zergling - Attack with Ghosts using regular fire. Baneling - Use 1 Snipe for an instant kill. Roach - Use 3 Snipes for an instant kill. Hydralisk - Use 2 Snipes for an instant kill. Mutalisk - Occupy them with Auto-Turrets, and then use 2 Snipes per Mutalisk. If there are 4 or more, use 2 Seeker Missiles. Infestor - Use 2 Snipes for an instant kill. Queen - Use 4 Snipes for an instant kill. Overlord/Overseer - Use 4 Snipes for an instant kill. Spine Crawler - Place 1 or 2 Auto-Turrets near it. Then attack with Ghosts while it's occupied by the turrets. Spore Crawler - Attack with Ghosts using regular fire. Walkthrough * Move your Ghosts northeast on the path in front of them. * Kill the Roach with Snipes and the Zerglings with regular fire. * Put 2 Auto-Turrets down near the Spine Crawler. Kill it with Ghosts after it starts attacking the turrets. * Have a Ghost nuke the lower area further northeast over the cliff. Target it near the Creep Tumor in the lower area. * While waiting for the nuke to hit, have your other Ghosts kill the Zergling/Roach pack to the east. * Kill the 2 Overlords with Snipes. * After the nuke has landed, finish off the Ultralisk Cavern with Ghost regular fire and kill any Broodlings that spawn. * Move your Ghosts northwest and kill another Zergling/Roach pack. * Kill the 2 Overlords with Snipes. * Have a Ghost Nuke the lower area to the northwest over the cliff. Target it a little northwest of the Creep Tumor. * While waiting for the nuke to hit, destroy the Baneling Nest with regular attacks and kill any Broodlings that spawn. * Using Ravens, lay down 2 Auto-Turrets where the Baneling Nest was. Kill the Mutalisks that show up with Snipe. * Lay down 1 Auto-Turret near the Spine Crawler to the northeast. Destroy it with Ghosts. * Destroy the Greater Spire with Ghosts. * While attacking the Greater Spire, look for 2 Overseers that patrol to the north. Take them out with 4 Snipes each. Destroy any Broodlings from the Greater Spire. * Have one Ghost use Cloak and target a nuke on the Hatchery to the west. The Zerg should have no detection in this area after you killed the Overseers. * While waiting for the nuke to hit, move your other Ghosts northeast. * Kill the Zerglings with regular attacks and Hydralisks with Snipe out of range of the Spine Crawler. * Put 2 Auto-Turrets down near the Spine Crawler. Then finish it off with Ghosts. * Group up all your Ghosts where the Spine Crawler was you just destroyed. * Kill the Overseer to the east with Snipes making sure to stay out of Spine Crawler range. * Have one Ghost use Cloak and target a Nuke in the center of the Spine Crawlers. * While waiting for the Nuke to hit, move your Ravens north and put down a Point Defense Drone. Then, use 2-3 Seeker Missiles on the Mutalisks until they are all dead. * When the Nuke lands, be ready to fight a number of Zerg including Zerglings, Mutalisks, a Queen and an Infestor. A Seeker Missile will do nicely with Snipes on the rest. * In the base where you nuked all the Spine Crawlers, cloak 2 more Ghosts and have them target nukes over the Hive and Spore Crawler. * By now time is sure to be running out. * Send in all of your Ravens to the Hive area using Seeker Missiles on any units outside of nuke range. Don't worry about losing the Ravens. If you don't get the gold medal on the try, you can make some changes to get more kills. If time ran out before you nuked the Hive at the end, practice targeting nukes early while you are killing other things so you aren't waiting on them to progress. If you lost a lot of units, practice using your abilities quicker and positioning your units better. If you were just off by a few units, maybe you can adjust the target of your nukes to hit a few more enemies. In any case, it shouldn't be too hard to do now that you have a good plan. -----b. Psionic Assault----- --[PSNC]-- Goal: Kill as many units as possible with Sentries and High Templars. Tests: Micromanagement and Multitasking with Protoss caster units. Bronze: Kill 75 enemies Silver: Kill 150 enemies Gold: Kill 225 enemies Gold Medal Strategy: Unlike the other Advanced Challenges, this one doesn't have a time limit. In this challenge you have to fight waves of enemies with limited units. The longer you last, the more kills you will get. The map is made up of a center area and 3 corners. One corner has destructible rocks blocking the way, but the others are open. Each corner has a spawn area for new enemy waves. New enemy waves spawn every 30 seconds in one corner of the map. In the early waves they only spawn in the northeast corner. They start spawning in the southeast in the middle waves and the northwest corner in the last waves. You get 11 Sentries and 6 High Templar to do the killing. A good idea is to put all your Sentries in one control group and all your High Templar in another control group. That way you can use both of their ability sets more quickly in combat. Both of these units are described in further detail in the Protoss Units section above, but I will briefly go over their abilities here. Sentry Force Field - This makes a small area impassible to ground units. Use it to block off the ramps giving your High Templar time to use Psi Storm more effectively. Guardian Shield - This creates an aura around your units that reduces 2 damage per ranged attack. Use it when you will be attacking ranged units for more than a few seconds. Hallucination - You can create fake illusion units. They don't do any damage, but they will distract enemy units. While they are attacked, your real units can do damage from the back. High Templar Feedback - This is good on other caster units and any unit with high energy, but Psi Storm is more efficient if you are attacking a group. Psi Storm - This is your main damage for this challenge. Weak units will be killed in one storm. Stronger units will take two or three. Make sure to let it go the full duration if you are going to use it more than once on the same units. Psi Storm does not stack, so the extra casts will be wasted energy. Try to conserve Psi Storms whenever possible. Archon Warp - When your High Templar run out of energy and you need damage right now, use this ability to turn them into an Archon. They won't be able to change back and use their abilities, but you will at least have some damage. Waves Number - Direction - Units - Tactics 1 - Northeast - 14 Zerglings - Use your Sentries' Sentry fire. Pull back any Sentries that lose their shields. 2 - Northeast - 10 Marines - Use one Psi Storm and then finish them off with Sentry fire. 3 - Northeast - 8 Zerglings, 4 Hydralisks - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use one Psi Storm and finish them off with Sentry fire. 4 - Northeast - 13 Marines, 1 Marauder - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use one Psi Storm and finish them off with Sentry fire. 5 - Northeast - 16 Zerglings, 8 Banelings, 1 Roach - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use one Psi Storm and finish them off with Sentry fire. 75 kills completed 6 - Northeast - 10 Marines, 3 Marauders - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use 2 Psi Storms and finish them off with Sentry fire. 7 - Southeast - 23 Zerglings - On the cliff overlooking the ramp, there is a choke point. Place 2 Force Fields down and use Sentry fire over the cliffs to finish them off. 8 - Southeast - 6 Zealots, 5 Sentries - On the cliff overlooking the ramp, there is a choke point. Place 2 Force Fields down to block the choke point. Use one Psi Storm and finish them with Sentry fire over the cliffs. 9 - Northeast - 10 Reapers - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use one Psi Storm and finish them off with Sentry fire. 10 - Southeast - 6 Reapers - Make an Archon and have it take hits. Use one Psi Storm and then finish them off with Sentry fire. 11 - Southeast - 6 Hydralisks, 4 Banelings - On the cliff overlooking the ramp, there is a choke point. Place 2 Force Fields down and use Sentry fire over the cliffs to finish them off. 12 - Northeast - 2 Banshees - Use 1 Feedback per Banshee for an instant kill. 150 kills completed 13 - Northeast - 4 Stalkers - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use 2 Psi Storms and finish them off with Sentry fire. 14 - Southeast - 10 Reapers, 2 Ghosts - Create 2 Archon illusions to take hits. Use 1 Psi Storm on the Reapers, and 1 Feedback per Ghost (instant kill). Finish them off with Sentry fire. 15 - Northeast - 6 Mutalisks - Create 2 Archon illusions if your other ones died. Use 2 Psi Storms and finish them off with Sentry fire. 16 - Southeast - 2 Vikings, 10 Marines, 2 Marauders - Block off the choke point with 2 Force Fields. Then focus fire on the Vikings with Sentries. Use one Psi Storm on the units below and finish them off with Sentry fire. 17 - Northwest - 20 Zerglings - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use one Psi Storm and finish them off with regular attacks. 18 - Northwest - 6 Roaches - Use Psi Storm on them while they attack the rocks. Then finish them off with Sentry fire. Use Archon Warp on 2 High Templar that have run out of energy. 19 - Northwest - 1 Ultralisk - Use your real Archon to attack and take hit from the Ultralisk. Finish it off with Sentry fire. 20 - Northeast - 10 Banelings - Block off the ramp with 2 Force Fields. Use 1 Psi Storm and finish them off with Sentry fire. 21 - Southeast - 2 Siege Tanks - On the cliff overlooking the ramp, there is a choke point. Place 2 Force Fields down and use Sentry fire over the cliffs to finish them off. 225 kills completed If you don't get the gold medal the first time, there are a few things you can try. When finishing off units, try to focus fire on the low health ones to reduce the overall damage your Sentries will take. Also position your Sentries in a nice arc around the ramp, so they will all be in range to attack the same target. This also helps if a Sentry loses its shields. There will be no friendly units behind it blocking the way. If it's a problem of not have the units in the right place at the right time, memorize the location and units of waves you are having trouble with. That way you will be able to move them at the earliest chance, not having to wait to see where the next wave is or what units will be in it. -----c. Infestation----- --[NFST]-- Goal: Kill as many units as possible with Roaches and Infestors in 5:00. Tests: Micromanagement and Multitasking with Zerg caster units. Bronze: Kill 100 enemies Silver: Kill 125 enemies Gold: Kill 150 enemies Gold Medal Strategy: In this challenge you are given 10 Roaches and 9 Infestors with the goal to get as many kills as possible. Both of these units can move while burrowed. This is key to getting around safely. Roaches are regular attackers, but they regenerate quickly when burrowed. Infestors are caster units that have three abilities: Spawn Infested Terran, Neural Parasite, and Fungal Growth. Neural Parasite will mind control any enemy unit. Of the three abilities, Neural Parasite is the only one you need for this challenge. Key units to use this ability on are Siege Tanks, High Templar, and Colossi. The fastest way to kill units is to split your forces down the line and attack from both the southwest and northeast path. Each side you should have 5 Roaches and 4-5 Infestors (9 Infestors can't be split evenly). Here is a good order to do things for both sides. Try to do both sides simultaneously for the most kills in the time limit. Southwest Side * Send 5 burrowed Roaches all the way southwest to some Marines. * Unburrow the Roaches and kill the Marines. * Burrow and move further southwest to some Marines and a Marauder. * Unburrow and kill these units. * Send 4 burrowed Infestors to the Siege Tank to the west. * Unburrow 1 Infestor and use Neural Parasite on it. * When the tank destroys all Marines and Reapers in range, destroy it with Roaches and burrow the Infestor that was controlling it. * Unburrow another Infestor and Neural Parasite the High Templar to the west. * Have it use Feedback on the Ghost to the west and cast Psi Storm on the Marines. Then, kill the High Templar with Roaches and burrow the Infestor that controlled it. * Move your Infestors to the ramp. * Unburrow an Infestor and Neural Parasite the Siege Tank to the north. * After it has destroyed all Infantry in range, destroy it with Roaches and burrow the Infestor that controlled it. * Unburrow another Infestor and Neural Parasite the Colossus to the northwest. * Let it destroy anything in range. Then, destroy it with Roaches and burrow the Infestor that controlled it. * Move your burrowed Roaches and Infestors to the ramp where the Colossus stood. * Unburrow an Infestor and Neural Parasite the High Templar to the north. * Use Psi Storm on two groups of Marines, one group northeast and another group in the north. Keep this High Templar alive to use one more Psi Storm on the SCVs when he gets enough energy. Then destroy him with Roaches. * Move two Infestors to the Siege Tank and Colossus near the Command Center. * Unburrow them and Neural Parasite the Colossus first, followed by the Siege Tank. * Have the Siege Tank and Colossus attack the nearby SCVs. Your 5 Roaches can help destroy the SCVs. Then destroy the Siege Tank and Colossus with Roaches. Northeast Side * Send 5 burrowed Roaches far northeast to some Marines. * Unburrow the Roaches and kill the Marines. * Send 4 burrowed Infestors to the Siege Tank to the north. * Unburrow 1 Infestor and Neural Parasite the Siege Tank. * When the tank destroys all Marines and Reapers in Range, destroy it with Roaches and burrow the Infestor that was controlling it. * Unburrow an Infestor and have it Neural Parasite the Colossus to the north. * When the Colossus has destroyed the Marines to its west and northeast, destroy it with Roaches and burrow the Infestor that controlled it. * Unburrow an Infestor and use Neural Parasite on the Siege Tank down the ramp and to the west. * After it has destroyed all Marines, Reapers, and Marauders in range, destroy it with your Roaches and burrow the Infestor that controlled it. * Unburrow an Infestor and Neural Parasite the High Templar on the ramp. Psi Storm the two sets of infantry to its west. Then destroy it with Roaches and burrow the Infestor that controlled it. * Unburrow an Infestor and Neural Parasite the Siege Tank to the north of the ramp the High Templar was on. * Let the Siege Tank destroy all infantry in range except for High Templar. Then destroy it and burrow the Infestor that controlled it. * Unburrow an Infestor and Neural Parasite the High Templar you avoided with the Siege Tank. Use Psi Storm on the nearby Marines to the southwest. Then, have it help take out SCVs with Psi Storm. * Move your Roaches to the Command Center to help take out SCVs. This is the ideal way to go about it, like if you had no time limit. With a time limit, you will be hard pressed to kill every single unit. You have to switch between all your units constantly giving them orders which is not always possible. It will be hard to control both sides at once, but that is a good goal to have. Improve in that area, and you will get the kills for the gold medal easily. -----iii. Expert-------------------------------------------------------[XPRT]-- -----a. Harbinger of Death----- --[HRBN]-- Goal: Use hotkeys alone to kill as many enemy units as possible before time runs out. Tests: Multitasking, Control Groups, Hotkeys Bronze: Kill 50 enemies. Silver: Kill 100 enemies. Gold: Kill 150 enemies. Gold Medal Strategy: You play as Protoss against a Zerg enemy. You have 2:30 to kill as many enemies as possible. Your base is in the central area of the map. On the outskirts you will find various Zerg units you can use to attack. Each set of units is positioned near enemies to kill. You can order them to Attack-Move, but they won't kill units as effectively as manual control. Some of the units don't even have a regular attack, only special abilities. This challenge has a unique requirement compared to the others. You can only issue orders with the mouse Right-Click or keyboard hotkeys. Memorizing the hotkeys and practicing them over and over is key to using them without having to think about it. For each set of units, you should assign a control group in the planning stage. In case you didn't read the ingame tips, you can assign a control group by selecting some units, holding Ctrl, and then pressing a number key from 1 to 0 on the keyboard top row. Any time later you can hit the key you assigned to select that unit group. You can also double tap the key to make the camera snap to that group's location. Here are the unit groups and how best to use them 7 Sentries, 8 High Templar - With the Sentries, summon Force Fields around the Marines to keep them in a clump. Then, use Psi Storm with your High Templars to take out the Marines. If your Sentries run out of energy, use them as attackers to take hits while your High Templar use their Psi Storm safely. 11 Stalkers - Blink up the cliff to the southeast and Attack-Move to the other side of the cliff. They will kill all the Reapers here. Continuing Blinking to the nearby ledges to kill all the Reapers. Reapers are weak against Stalkers, so you don't have to manage any of the fighting. You only have to worry about getting your Stalkers in the right places to attack. 5 Carriers - Queue up 4 Interceptors in all of them. After the Interceptors are fully trained, have the Carriers attack the Marines and Missile Turrets to the east. Focus fire on the Missile Turrets before attacking the Marines. Other than that, you can just Attack-Move with the Carriers. 8 Phoenixes - Use the Graviton Beam on any Hydralisks. While they are disabled, focus fire on the Mutalisks. After the Mutalisks go down, destroy the Hydralisks while they are in the air. Finally, Graviton Beam the Zerglings and destroy them one at a time. There are several groups like this to kill. 3 Phase Prisms - Move them north a tiny bit, and put them in Phasing Mode. Then, use the Warp Gate hotkey and a unit hotkey to warp in units. Float your mouse over the Warp Gate icons to learn the hotkeys for each unit. Templar units are the best to use here. Use Dark Templar to take out all ground forces. The Zerg only have two Overseers for detection. Kill the Overseers instantly with High Templars using Feedback. Groups of Mutalisks can be killed with 2 Psi Storms each. Obviously, you can't manage all of these at once perfectly. You just have to do your best to get as many kills as possible. There are no challenges like this for Terran or Zerg. Once you have done this challenge, you can apply the same ideas to the other two races but will have to learn it in normal games. -----b. Opening Gambit----- --[PNNG]-- Goal: Train 30 Marines, 8 Siege Tanks, and 8 Ghosts in 18:00 minutes while defending against Zerg attacks. Tests: Build Orders, Macromanagement Bronze: Complete the objectives. Silver: 2 minutes remaining on the clock. Gold: 4 minutes remaining on the clock. Gold Medal Strategy: You play as Terran against frequent Zerg attacks. You have 18 minutes to build up your base and an army. The intro cutscene shows you basically the ideal building layout to get gold in this challenge. There is a ramp up to your main base to the northeast. You can kind of see some ghost buildings here. Use these as a guide for placing your Supply Depots and Barracks to block the ramp. Here is the order you should do things: * Build SCVs until your Supply counter is at 9/11. * Queue up one extra SCV. * When you have 50 minerals, send out an SCV to build a Supply Depot at the ramp leading up to your base. By the time he gets there, you should have 100 minerals ready for it. * While the Supply Depot is building keep making SCVs until you hit the Supply cap (11 at this point). * When the SCV finishes building, have him start a Barracks as soon as you have the resources. * At 13/19 supply, build a Refinery over one of the vespene geysers. * When the Barracks finishes, immediately start training a Marine and have the SCV start a Supply Depot. Your ramp should now be blocked. * You will be attacked pretty soon by some Zerglings. Kill them safely with your Marines behind the Supply Depots. * Save up 150 minerals and upgrade your Command Center to an Orbital Command. * From this point on, constantly train SCVs and Marines, build Supply Depots as needed, and use the Call Down: MULE ability from the Orbital Command whenever you have the energy. * Save up minerals until you have 300. * Send an SCV to the expansion area to build a Command Center. By the time he gets there, you should have the 400 required minerals. * Send another SCV to build a Bunker at the choke point north of the expansion resources. * While the Bunker and Command Center are being built, have an SCV built a second Refinery at your main base over the other vespene geyser making sure to fill the Refinery with 3 SCVs when finished. * When that SCV finishes, fill the Bunker with Marines, and build another Bunker right after. * When the second Bunker is finished, fill it with SCVs and have the SCV build 2 Refineries at the expansion vespene geysers. * When the 2 Refineries are complete, fill them with 3 SCVs each. * When the Command Center finishes, immediately upgrade it to an Orbital Command. * Add a Tech Lab to your Barracks after the Bunkers are filled. * Build the following buildings in this order as resources allow: - Factory with Tech Lab - Barracks with Reactor - Ghost Academy - Barracks with Tech Lab - Factory with Tech Lab - Barracks with Tech Lab. * When the first Factory with Tech Lab is finished, research Siege Mode for Siege Tanks from the Tech Lab as soon as you have the resources. * From this point on, constantly train units from every production building that finishes until you meet the unit requirement. You will be attacked with increasingly powerful Zerg forces as the game continues, but you should have no trouble dealing with it as long as you have constantly produced units from the start. Starting enemy attacks will be just be Zerglings, but they will grow to include Hydralisks, Roaches, Mutalisks, and Ultralisks. The first time you might not get the gold, but it shouldn't be too hard with some practice. You just have to get the timings down for every little part. One common problem is getting supply blocked, which is when you try to build a unit but haven't built enough Supply Depots to support it. You can mitigate this a little bit with Call Down: Extra Supplies from the Orbital Command, but you shouldn't rely on that ability. Extra minerals from MULES are always better than extra supplies. Another common problem is not building your Refineries early enough, slowing down your ability to train Siege Tanks and Ghosts. -----c. Rush Defense----- --[RSHD]-- Goal: Survive the Zergling rush and the Zealot rush. Tests: Build Orders, Micromanagement, Macromanagement, Multitasking Bronze: Complete the objectives. Silver: Lose 16 units or less (separate counter per part). Gold: Lose 9 units or less (separate counter per part). Gold Medal Strategy: This challenge has two parts in it. The interesting thing about this is that the requirements for Silver and Gold are not cumulative. Whatever kills you got in the first part are wiped clean in the second part. That means you just need to get less than 9 units lost in the first part and then do the same thing in the second part. If you got 5 units lost in the first part, you don't have to count that against you for the second part. Zergling Rush You will want to wall off your entrance from the start with 2 Supply Depots and a Barracks and train Marines to attack the Zerglings over the wall. You have enough resources at the beginning to immediately build a Supply Depot and a Barracks with 2 SCVs. When the first Supply Depot finishes, start the second one right away. When the Barracks finishes, constantly train Marines. Zerglings will attack 1 minute after the start, which is about 10 seconds before you have any Marines. Just pull some SCVs off minerals to repair your wall buildings. About 4 SCVs should be able to do it. Once you have a Marine out, it's an easy win. Just constantly produce Marines and repair your wall buildings until all the Zerglings have been killed. Zealot Rush This part is similar to the Zergling rush but much tougher. Zealots are three times as strong as Zerglings, and you don't have a wall blocking them to fire from behind. The first Zealot will attack after 1:20. Build a Barracks at the beginning ASAP and then a Bunker right after that. With your first Marine lure the Zealot around until the Bunker finishes. You can surround it with workers to kill it faster although you might lose an SCV or two. Make sure you are constantly training Marines and building Supply Depots when necessary. Do not worry about teching up, just constantly train Marines. If you have extra resources, build an extra Barracks to speed up production. Once you have two Bunkers full of Marines, you have pretty much won. Just build up an additional 4-6 Marines, evacuate all the Marines in Bunkers, and attack with your 12+ Marine army. Keep producing Marines as you destroy the Protoss buildings just in case. Save the Photon Cannon for last. Without the Protoss buildings above, it won't be able to see your Marines. =====E. The Lost Viking================================================[LSTV]== After you complete your fifth mission in the campaign, you can access the Cantina. One of the main features in the Cantina is an old arcade machine. If you examine it you can play a game of The Lost Viking. The name is an Easter egg for one of Blizzard's first games called The Lost Vikings (note the s), which was a puzzle game with three Vikings each having different abilities. The arcade game, however, is a completely different game. It is a topdown arcade shooter, where you control a Terran Viking unit. You start with some basic guns, but can pick up power-ups to improve them. The goal is to kill as many enemies and bosses as you can before losing your lives to get a high score. The Lost Viking is a fun little game to take a break between missions. There are also some achievements for getting high scores. Here is a little overview of the things you will see. -----Power-ups----- Like all good topdown shooters, The Lost Viking has power-ups you can get. There are four power-ups available, all with a different color. Side Missiles (Orange) - With this power-up, your ship adds a side missile to each side to give you better coverage of the screen. If you pickup the power-up a second time, it will be upgraded to give you two side missiles on each side of the ship. This is the best weapon for taking out large groups of weak enemies. Drones (Red) - Drones will circle around your ship guarding it from bullets and attackers. For most attacks if you get to close, the Drone will be sacrificed to save your ship. Drones also fire a homing missile that does light damage to any target it hits. You can have a maximum of two drones at a time. Plasma Cannon (Pink) - The plasma cannon changes your two default missiles into a plasma cannon. It does higher damage than the default missiles. It can be upgraded a second time to do even higher damage. This is the best weapon for taking out bosses. Bombs (Blue) - Bombs will clear the screen of bullets and most enemies. Bosses and other tougher enemies will not go down from a single bomb, but it will take out a chunk of their life. When power-ups appear they will start as one color. Every few seconds they will change to another color. Using this feature, you can wait to pick up power-ups until they have the bonuses you want. Power-ups will rotate in the order I have them listed here wrapping around to the top if they get to the bottom. They will only do one full rotation before moving off the screen, so be quick if you want a certain power-up. -----Extra Lives----- There is no extra life power-up for extra lives, but you can get a few for scoring high points. As high as I have scored, you get extra lives at 25,000; 75,000; 125,000; 250,000; 375,000; and 525,000 points. -----Levels----- There are only three levels in the game: Protoss, Zerg, and Terran. Each one features units from that race to shoot down. Protoss Units Scout - These are the weakest Protoss units. They fire a blue orb, but not very often. They tend to go in straight lines, sometimes veering off in a different direction. Phoenix - These are a little tougher than Scouts. They hover at the top of the screen and will fire two sets of two lasers in the direction of your Viking. They generally attack in groups of three or four, making it sometimes hard to dodge all their lasers. Carrier - This is the boss for the level. Its attacks have two rounds. The first round it launches a bunch of interceptors. Interceptors move somewhat randomly occasionally firing a blue orb at your Viking. The second round it will shoot rapid fire blue orbs sweeping across the screen. The shots look similar to the Scout shots, but are very close together. These rounds repeat until it is killed. Zerg Scourge - This is the basic Zerg unit. They will fly all over the screen en masse. They do not fire at you but emit four small poison spores when destroyed. If you kill a bunch of them at once, you can have a hard time dodging all the spores. Corruptor - They function similar to Phoenixes in that they hover at the middle of the screen firing at your Viking. They shoot green goo, but they don't fire very quickly. Swarm Guardian - These are a mini-boss in the Zerg level. You have to fight two of them at once. They fire a long line of little green goos. It looks similar to the Corruptor's attack, but much smaller. When not firing, they kind of meander around the middle of the screen. They appear twice in the level. Leviathan - This is the Zerg boss. The fight is made up of two rounds. In the first round, it attempts to poke your Viking with its tentacles. While doing this it also emits green spores that explode to release poison spores in circles. In the second round, it tries to ram your Viking. It has a warning animation before it does this, so you should see it coming. These rounds repeat until it is killed. Terran Wraith - These are the most abundant units in the level. They fly in lines of one or two. Sometimes they will go straight and sometimes they will fly in curved paths. They will occasionally shoot a red laser at your Viking. Laser Gun - At certain points of the level, laser guns will appear on the side and emit a long laser. These do not appear the first time through the level. If your Viking is there when it appears, it will be destroyed. The laser does not cover the entire screen left to right and it will fade in and out, so there are chances to get around it. It is just another thing to worry about. The laser emitters cannot be destroyed. Laser Batteries - You have to fight two of these at a time. They hover in the middle of the screen. They will fire a big arc of red lasers at your Viking and then fade out. They will reappear somewhere else to fire another arc. They only appear three or four times in the level. Battlecruiser - These are a mini-boss for the Terran level. You have to fight two at once. They have two attacks. In one attack they fire lasers straight downward. In their other attack, they launch Seeker Missiles that will home in on your Viking. The Seeker Missiles are not very fast, so you do have time to shoot them down before they get too close. Terra-Tron - This is the Terran boss. He is made up of a bunch of Terran buildings combined into a big transformer guy. He has three attacks. In one attack he will fire flaming orbs with both of his arms in big arcs across the whole screen. He will also create two space platforms that hover at the top firing red lasers in big circles all around them. His last attack is a big blue gear that he will throw across the screen. It will bounce on the edges for a while before disappearing. -----Winning the Game----- When you beat the last level, you get to see a little ending movie where your Viking finally makes it home. You are then given the choice of quitting right there or continuing on with a higher difficulty. This is the way to get a higher score. You will play through the same levels over again (Protoss, Zerg, Terran), but the enemies will move faster, fire faster, and take more hits to destroy. If you are going for all of the achievements, it will take about three full playthroughs (nine levels) to get the last one. =====F. Skirmishes=====================================================[SKRM]== Skirmishes are available in Starcraft 2 like every other RTS. This time the AI is a little better though. The computer no longer "cheats" to win the game except on the Insane difficulty. They pretty much play just like the player, scouting to see what you are doing and guessing the best units to build to counter your army. After completing the challenges, skirmishes are a good way to test your overall Starcraft 2 skills to prepare for Multiplayer. Skirmishes are the single player version of Custom Melee, which is discussed in more detail in the Multiplayer section below. Note: Some Custom Melee achievements seem like they would be possible in skirmishes, but this is not so. If you want to be working towards achievements, play all of your games in Custom Melee in Multiplayer. You can setup the games the same way and play solo against the AI. You just have to be online and connected to Battle.net. -----Map Settings----- Category Melee, Custom For Melee maps your choices are only Melee or Custom. Melee makes available 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and FFA depending on the map size. These are the balanced groupings. Custom opens up all the other possibilities such as 1vs2, 3vs5 or even 2v2v2v2, but only if the map creator added those options. Mode 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA, Custom Here you choose the type of Melee game you want to play. If you chose Custom above, then this will probably be Custom as well. If the map creator allowed it, you can make more than two teams or make unbalanced teams. This is good if you just want to beat on one computer or alternatively, you want to take on a bunch of computers at once. Game Speed Slower, Slow, Normal, Fast, Faster Faster is the default speed, but that may be too fast for newer players. At lower speeds you have more time to make decisions. You will make fewer mistakes, but you might have a hard time transitioning to Multiplayer games that are played at Faster speed. Locked Alliances Yes, No This is only available if you chose Custom for the category. You can think of the teams as alliances. If alliances are unlocked, you can switch teams in the game. The computer players will never break alliances, so this isn't a very useful option in skirmishes. -----Player Settings----- Based on the map settings you chose, the player slots and teams will show on the left side of the game creation screen. If you chose the Custom category, this area will have some basic teams. There will be empty slots where you can drag more player slots to if you want to make new teams or increase the size of a team. Use the +AI button to add computer players to the game. One slot will be for you. Each additional slot will correspond with a computer player. You have three player settings you can change. The first one is the race you want to play. The second is the color you want to be. You can choose your favorite color or maybe a color that fits the race you play. The last thing is the handicap. It reduces the health of that player's units and buildings by the percentage. So at 50% their units and buildings will have 50% less health than normal. The computer slots have one extra setting, and that is how good you want their AI to be. It goes from Very Easy to Insane. With Insane the computer gets free resources, but on all the others it plays fairly. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- VII. MULTIPLAYER ------------------------------------------------[MLTP]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Just like previous Blizzard games, Starcraft 2 has a big online community. The most popular game type is Melee, but there is also Custom Melee where players can tweak basic map and game settings. Then there are custom maps where players can create almost anything they want using the free map editor included with the game. The single player may only last a few months, but the multiplayer can last for years if you like the gameplay and competition. =====A. Etiquette======================================================[TGTT]== Just like in boxing the two boxers shake hands before and after the fight, in Starcraft players do the equivalent of shaking hands with in-game chat. At the beginning of the game, all the players type "glhf" which stands for "Good Luck. Have Fun." Generally it is considered bad manners ("bm") to ignore the other player's "glhf". It is not considered bad manners for both players to be silent. Just when one player wishes good luck, the other player should respond. At the end of the game, the losing player types "gg" for "Good Game". It is usually humiliating to watch all of your buildings get destroyed. This is why most players will leave early with a "gg". Saying "gg" is essentially the same thing as saying "I give up." However, the winning player can say it as well if they think the other player has no chance left to win. Now, you don't have to follow these guidelines. They are just considered the nice thing to do, like you respect the other players. If you are respectful to other players, you may be labeled "good manners" ("gm") and build up a good reputation. =====B. Melee==========================================================[MLLE]== Think of Melee as the standard online Starcraft 2 game type. Each player has a separate start location. In team games some maps have players on the same team near each other. Other team maps have all the players separate. Players start with a central building (Command Center, Hatchery, Nexus) pre-built next to some resources and six workers. Players build up their base, make an army, and destroy their enemies. The game is won by destroying all of the enemy's buildings. In most games there are a lot of back and forth battles until one player makes a critical mistake. A limited set of units from each race are allowed that Blizzard has balanced, so that each race does not have an overall advantage against any other race. This means you can largely expect a fair game. Blizzard releases frequent patches with fixes for hacks that some players will use to win unfairly, and also changes to the units to make the races more balanced. -----i. Ladder---------------------------------------------------------[LDDR]-- Ladder games, sometimes called League games or Quick Match games, are the most competitive type of game in Starcraft 2 multiplayer. Every player in the ladder system is ranked against other players with similar skill levels. It gives you a quick at-a-glance idea of how you are doing compared to the majority of the population. This game mode is what real Starcraft enthusiasts are interested in. Some players are even good enough to play professionally, although there isn't much money in it yet. The best players barely make the equivalent of minimum wage playing professionally. -----Leagues & Placement----- The primary reason to play ladder games is to increase your rank. The new Battle.net doesn't have a single ranking for all the players. Instead, there are six leagues based on player skill level. At the beginning of each ladder season, you first have to complete five placement matches. These serve to tell Battle.net how you stack up against other ladder players. Of course, Battle.net can only make a rough estimate with only five games. You might end up in a league too high or too low to start off. Battle.net will move you around based on your future games though, so eventually you should be in a pretty good spot for your skill level. The seven leagues (worst to best) - placement wins (out of five) Bronze - 2 wins or less Silver - 3 wins Gold - 4 wins Platinum - 5 wins Diamond - Platinum promotion only Master - Diamond promotion only Grandmaster - Master promotion only Within the leagues (except Grandmaster) there are also divisions, each with 100 players. They have random names and are kind of meant for more casual players to see how they compare to players close to their skill level. Rather than seeing you are number 50,600 out of 100,000, you see you are 45 out of 100 in your division. Grandmaster being the top league is only one division of the top 200 1v1 players in the region, but there is no way to see any other player's overall rank. Maintaining the top spot in a division for a number of games (estimated to be about 15-20 games) will reward you with being promoted to a higher league (unless you are already at the top in Grandmaster league). Promotion is the only way to get into the Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster leagues by being promoted from Platinun, Diamond, or Master league respectively. Grandmaster is the hardest not only because you have to be one of the best in the game, but also because there are only 200 spots total. For players below Grandmaster, there isn't really any way to see exactly where you are compared to all the other Battle.net players. You can only tell things like "I'm Gold, so I'm middle of the pack." or "I'm Master, so I'm better than most." The most important ranking of the top players is available from the Grandmaster league. All players are able to see that ranking in the Leagues and Ladders section of their profile. -----Options----- In the Multiplayer menu of Battle.net, the ladder Quick Match area fills the majority of the screen. Mode 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA With this setting you can choose how many players you want in the game. Ladder games are always balanced to make sure they are fair. After all, you are ranked for these games. FFA stands for free-for-all, so it's the same thing as 4v4 just with no teams, everyone for themselves. All of these modes are available to the solo player. You will be ranked based on your own performance, but it can be very hard to compete against organized teams. You can start a quick match as a team with your friends. You will have a persistent team and can work together to get better at the game. Race Terran, Zerg, Protoss, Random You can choose the race you want to play, or choose Random to have the game choose one for you. You will not know which race you get until the game starts. Your opponent(s) will not know until they scout your base. Map Preferences Each mode has a set of ladder maps associated with them. These are usually Blizzard created maps which they have deemed to be the most balanced between the races. Clicking the Map Preferences button brings up a screen where you can choose your preferred maps. Battle.net will attempt to put you in a game with one of your preferred maps. If there are no other players with agreeable map preferences in the queue, Battle.net will disregard your preferences in the interest of getting you into a game faster. So if your preferences fit with the majority of the players, you should mostly get the maps you like. -----ii. Cooperative---------------------------------------------------[CPRT]-- This is a popular game type from the Starcraft 1 days. Some people don't like the pressure of competition against real people. Teaming up against the AI can be a fun alternative. This is a good multiplayer mode for learning how Starcraft 2 works as well. These games usually last a long time giving you time to build up and see all the units your race has. There are even some achievements associated with this game type. -----Options----- In the Multiplayer menu of Battle.net, Cooperative is located in the top right. Mode vs 2 AIs, vs 3 AIs This choice is basically choosing between a 2v2 or 3v3 game. One side is human players and the other side is computer players. I'm not sure why 4v4 is not available. Maybe Battle.net can't control that many AIs at once. Difficulty Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard, Insane Very Easy is missing, because most players should be able to beat it solo. For some of the harder AIs, you will probably need to work together with your allies to win. Race Terran, Zerg, Protoss, Random This is the same as the ladder games. You can choose a race or let the game choose one for you randomly. -----iii. Custom Melee-------------------------------------------------[CSTM]-- In the Custom Games area of Battle.net, you can play Custom Melee games. With Custom Melee, you can tweak any of the settings to your likings. Maybe the game is too fast in ladder. Well you can set it to "Slow" if you want. Maybe you are really bad against one race. Well you can have a friend play that race and test you over and over until you improve. You first have to choose a map you want to play on. The maps are sorted by their category. Most of the Blizzard-created maps are melee maps. Check the map description to make sure it is made for melee and to verify it supports enough players. Then you are on the game creation screen. The right side is a box for changing map settings. The left side is for changing player settings. -----Map Settings----- Category Melee, Custom For Melee maps your choices are only Melee or Custom. Melee makes available the same groupings as the league games (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and FFA), which are the balanced groupings. Custom opens up all the other possibilities such as 1vs2 or 3vs5 or 2v2v2v2 if the map creator added them. Custom also lets you create special spectator slots if you have friends that want to watch you play. Mode 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA, Custom Here you choose the type of Melee game you want to play. If you chose Custom above, then this will probably be Custom as well. With Custom, you can make more than two teams or make unbalanced teams. This is good if maybe one person in your group is much better than the rest. Game Speed Slower, Slow, Normal, Fast, Faster Faster is the default for ladder games, but that may be too fast for newer players. At slower speeds you have more time to make decisions, so you will make fewer mistakes. The only problem with the slower speeds is that it can be boring for players used to Faster. Locked Alliances Yes, No This is only available if you chose Custom for the category. You can think of the teams as alliances. If alliances are unlocked, players can change teams in the middle of a game. Players might form a new team or leave their team and just play by themselves. This can make the game more dynamic, but it might not be all that fair. This can be a lot of fun with friends, though. -----Player Settings----- Based on the map settings you chose, the player slots and teams will show on the left side of the game creation screen. If you chose the Custom category, this area will have some basic teams. There will be empty slots where you can drag more player slots if you want to make new teams or add a player to a team. To add more slots, use the +AI and +Player buttons at the top of the screen based on whether you want Computer or Human players. Each player that joins the game has three player settings they can change. The first one is the race they want to play, just the same as ladder games. The second is the color they want to be. You can choose your favorite color or maybe a color that fits the race you play. The last thing is the handicap. A good player can set this to 50%. Their units and buildings will have 50% less health than normal. Computer players have one extra setting, and that is how good you want their AI to be. It goes from Very Easy to Insane. With Insane the computer gets free resources, but on all the others it plays fairly. Only the game host can change Computer player settings. Once you have the settings you like, you still need to get Human players in the slots. There are two ways to do this. The first way is if you want strangers in your game. The button at the top Open to Public will list your game in the Join Game listing. Other players will see the map you selected and the team setup. They can then decide if they like the options and join. The second way to get players in your game is with friends. From your friends list you can invite individual players to your games. If you have a party, you can also invite the entire party. -----iv. Game Flow-----------------------------------------------------[GMFL]-- Even in single player there is a sort of flow to the game, but it's drastically different than multiplayer. In single player, you can kind of do things at your own pace. The computer will attack from time to time, but it's usually not so bad to just stay in your base and build up. This section serves as an introduction to how Melee games play out. -----Early----- The early game lasts about the first five to seven minutes. At the beginning of this period, both players are just starting out. They will be creating workers and building the structures they need for their first units. Many players will memorize an optimized order of building things called a build order. This is just like an opening in Chess. It's a proven way to start the game that puts them in a good position for whatever their strategy is for this game. All build orders have strengths and weaknesses. The choice is usually based on which units they want to build and when they want to launch their first attack. By asking on forums, you can get a good general build order to start with. You can add your own custom flair to it when you are more experienced. Of course you could just try to come up with everything yourself as well if you want. It can feel like a bigger accomplishment if you didn't get help. One good thing about build orders is the reduced chance of supply block. This is when you forget to make the buildings or units required to increase supply. In the middle of the game, you might click on a unit to build it and realize you forgot to increase your supply. This can add a lot of delay to your progress since you have to wait 30 seconds or so for the supply building or unit to finish before you can get back to making the units you want. Supply block is bad at all times of the game really, but especially devastating in the early game. You want to always be predicting how much supply you will need and when, so you can be prepared with ample supply buildings or units. A good build order takes into account when you need to build supply buildings or units giving you a good start to the game. -----Middle----- The midgame starts when one player moves out with a small army to attack. The midgame usually lasts about ten to fifteen minutes. With this first attack, the army sizes are usually pretty small, so it is critical the defending player has the right units to defend. A failed defense at this point may mean a short end to the game. Assuming the defending player succeeded in repelling the attack, both players will tech up to better units and technologies. After each new unit or technology they attack in the hope the other player will not be ready to counter that new unit or technology. This attacking and teching continues back and forth through the midgame. While the early game doesn't give players much choice about which units to bring to the field, the midgame gives players lots of choices. In most games you will not have time to get every single unit available. There are a lot of branching decisions in this period where you must decide which units to work towards. You must ensure you end up with a balanced unit combination that can take on anything your enemy throws at you. -----Late----- The late game starts when one player gets to tier three, the best units for their race. It usually lasts about five to seven minutes. By this time both players have chosen the unit combination for their army. One player has probably been doing better for the majority of the game and is ready to end the game. The other player is hoping they will make a comeback somehow and steal the win. Some of the tier three units are very powerful and can end the game fast unless the other player is able to play superbly with counter units. Once a player has lost most of their base it's possible they will be revealed by the game. Player revealing only happens when one player has lost all of their Command Centers, Hatcheries, or Nexuses (depending on race). The player about to be revealed is given a warning and about 30 seconds to build another central building (Command Center, etc.). If they fail to build one, their remaining buildings will be revealed to the other player. This mechanic is to speed up the process of ending the game when there is little chance the player has of winning the game. You win the game by destroying all of your opponent's buildings, but most times the other player will just say their "gg" and leave the game before it gets to that. -----v. Macro----------------------------------------------------------[MCRA]-- In Starcraft 2 you ultimately win by destroying your opponent's base. The only way to do that is to build up an army. But before you can have an army, you have to gather resources, build up your base, and produce the units. Macro, short for macro-management, is all of the stuff you have to do just to get your army on the field. The other side of the game, moving and ordering your army, is called Micro and is explained more in its own section below. -----Macro Mechanics----- New in Starcraft 2 is the idea of Macro Mechanics. When Blizzard made SC2 they realized the better user interface and unit AI would make the game a lot easier to play compared to the first game. They wanted to keep the game as difficult as Starcraft 1, but not be bound to primitive controls for slowing the player down. Blizzard came up with the idea of macro mechanics, which are optimally used every 25 to 50 seconds. This extra step required by the player keeps them from having a lot of free time, so they are more pressed to make quick decisions. The individual abilities are described in the Races section above. -----Base Building----- When building up your base, of course you have to decide which units to build, and consequently, which tech buildings to construct. However, there are many other possible decisions to make having to do with where you want to place your buildings. You could just stack them all next to each other in your base, but with some thought, you can enjoy some advantages. -Defensive- Wall Off Most maps have choke points near the starting location. Both Terran and Protoss can setup their buildings to block off some or all of the choke point, leaving a few units to close the "door". You can even use buildings to create partial choke points inside your base to protect your workers or funnel enemy units into a trap. Scouting Some Terran players build a Barracks and fly it around for scouting purposes. Since there are not that many anti-air units in the early game, you are pretty safe to do some early enemy base scouting with it. The flying Barracks can also be used to spot the high ground if your enemy catches you in a bad position. Protoss and Terran can also build cheap buildings like Pylons or Supply Depots to reveal more of the map. They help to give advance warning of players trying to sneak into your base. They also bolster your supply limit. -Offensive- Proxy Buildings In the early game production buildings can be built close to the enemy base. Once the buildings finish they can start churning out units really close to the enemy and attack before they are ready for it. This can also be done later in the game to provide fast reinforcements when attacking their base and put constant pressure on them. Protoss players can choose to hide Pylons around the map from which they can warp in units with their Warp Gates. Bunker Rush This is unique to the Terran. This is a special kind of proxy building technique where you build a Bunker in firing range of the enemy's buildings. You then send some Marines or Reapers into the Bunker. Early in the game you can delay your enemy quite a bit because a Bunker is hard to destroy that early. Containment You can also do a wall off at the enemy's choke point. Then you can slowly starve them of resources until they give up or are forced to attack you where you are strongest. This will usually result in a long game, but it is almost an assured victory if you can pull it off. -Subtlety- Hiding Tech Many players will hide some of their tech buildings. Their opponent may not see this building because it's far from their other buildings or outside of the main base entirely. They might not have the right units to defend against the unit, giving the other player an advantage. -----Producing Units----- Hotkeys When it comes to competitive games, the faster player usually wins. With Starcraft 2 (and most RTS games), almost all actions can be performed solely with keyboard shortcuts. These keyboard shortcuts are called hotkeys. If you float your mouse cursor over anything in the command card, it will show you the hotkey. There are also hotkeys for navigating around the map and selecting units and buildings. Patch 1.2 added the ability to customize all of the hotkeys in the game. You might take some time to think of your most commonly used hotkeys and customize them to be easier to reach. There are is a set of special hotkeys for controlling your armies and buildings. These selection hotkeys are on the top row of the keyboard starting at '1' and ending at '=' (equals key). By holding Ctrl and typing one of the keys on the top row, you can save the current selection to that number key. In the future a simple touch of that key will select those units or buildings again. This makes it a lot easier to control your army. Customizing and memorizing hotkeys is one easy way to get a lot better at the game in a short amount of time. Building Queues All production buildings have a unit queue. You can queue up to five units at a time. You have to pay for the resources of all the units up front, but the building will train each one automatically over time. New units will follow any rally points you set for the building as well. You can also hotkey multiple buildings to have full production capabilities at your fingertips wherever you may be on the map. -----Research----- Upgrades In every game there will be a bunch of upgrades you want to get. Some of them are general attack and armor upgrades, but many times it's that one special upgrade you need to make a unit powerful. Many upgrades take a long time to research, so you should start as early as possible. Plan ahead which upgrades you want based on the units you will build. Then make sure to start them early so you have them in that critical battle. New Abilities Many upgrades will unlock abilities for your units. These abilities are usually very powerful and can force your opponent to build different units or change their strategy. These abilities, in combination with new units, are usually what cause the back and forth motion of games. Player A gets a powerful ability leaving Player B reeling. Then, Player B gets a powerful ability, and Player A is pushed back. -----vi. Micro---------------------------------------------------------[MCRI]-- Micro, short for micromanagement, is all the little things you do with your army to win the game. Units can be ordered to Attack-Move where they will automatically attack all enemy units to the best of their ability, but that's not enough to beat most players. Many units have special abilities that need to be used. Other times you might have equal numbers, so you need to use terrain or range to your advantage. -----Basic----- Focus Fire Most Starcraft 2 units have ranged attacks, so this is very important. With a normal Attack-Move order, your units will split their attacks somewhat evenly between all enemy units. It would be better if your units focused on one unit and then the next and so on, because each unit killed lowers the damage your units are taking by a small amount. This isn't always possible with all the other things going on in the game, but should be seen as an ultimate goal if you want to get better. Kiting There are a few melee units in the game. They are deadly up close, but not so much when you can kill them before they get to your units. With kiting, you keep moving your army away after each attack. This adds a little bit more distance between the enemy units and your units while still giving your units the ability to fire. You are essentially working the game to give your ranged units the ability to fire while moving. Kiting can even work against other ranged units if your units have much longer range. It is a little harder than kiting melee units, though. -----Special Abilities----- There are a few different types of abilities in the game. These types should be familiar to anyone that has played Warcraft 3, but they may be different from other RTS games. Passive Passive abilities don't have to be clicked to use. They are either active at all times or they activate automatically by the unit when it attacks or moves. They also cost no energy to use. Active Active abilities must be clicked to activate them. They almost always use energy. They also usually have a cooldown, so you can't just keep using them over and over. Active abilities are more powerful than passive abilities, but always have a short duration. Auto-cast Some active abilities have auto-cast functionality. Auto-cast is like a toggle for the ability. When it is toggled on, the unit will automatically use the ability when needed. One example is the Zealot Charge. If you tell it to attack a unit, it will Charge when it gets in range automatically. When auto-cast is disabled, you have to use the ability manually just like an active ability. -----Counters----- A counter is just a unit that's strong against another specific unit. So maybe the unit is strong against Light units or strong against only flying units. In your army it's important to have a variety of units that will be able to counter any units your enemy has. Bonus Damage Some units will do extra damage towards certain units. For example, the Hellion unit has two damage values in its unit card: one for Light units and one for any other unit type. Some units have a separate attack that is only used against that unit. These separate attacks usually have different qualities than the normal attacks such as longer range or faster attacks that cater to the purpose. Area of Effect (AOE) Many units have attacks that do damage to more than one unit. These attacks are generally good against smaller units that move about in a tight group. Smaller units also usually have a lot less health than the bigger units. Splash damage is one kind of AOE, in which the attack hits one target and then does some extra, smaller damage to nearby units. Many special abilities have an AOE. Some of them do damage (Psi Storm), but some of them cause other negative effects (EMP Round). Range Ranged units have varying amounts of range on their attacks. Some units have pretty much the whole screen. Others can only fire a short distance in front of them. The longer range units can counter the shorter range units with kiting. Ranged units will also counter melee units, but most melee units can get speed upgrades to close the gap a little bit. =====C. Custom Maps====================================================[CMPS]== Starcraft 2 comes with a full-featured map editor nicknamed the Galaxy Editor. Using the editor, players can create pretty much any kind of game they want. Some examples I have seen are shooters (both third- and first-person), role- playing games (with heroes and loot), and various classic games (such as Tetris, Chess). There are many original games as well. The mapmaker can publish their maps to Battle.net. They can then create games using their map, and optionally open up the map publicly for other players to use in their custom games. Custom maps are the most popular game type in multiplayer. Long after you have gotten bored of the campaign and other multiplayer game types you will probably find a fun map to play in the Custom Games area. Most custom maps are set up so you only have to invite players and are ready to start. No need to mess with settings. This makes it really easy to get a game going. Earlier, I said the Custom Games area is where you played Custom Melee games. Well, you can also play custom maps there. The interface for creating a game is the same, so I will focus here on joining a Custom Game. In patch 1.3 Blizzard has greatly improved the Join Game area. On the left side are tabs that split up the set of maps based on certain criteria. -----Join Game Tabs----- Most Popular These are the most popular maps based on how many games have been played on them. Featured Custom maps Blizzard thinks are really good, which may or may not be popular. This is a way for unknown maps that are really fun to get into the popular ranks. Featured maps change every few weeks. By Category This tab has a few of the more popular map types such as Tower Defense and Tug of War. If you have a favorite "genre" of custom map this is the place to go. Blizzard adds new categories as they become popular. Up & Coming This tab lists maps players have voted as being fun to play but haven't quite gotten popular enough yet to get on the Most Popular listing. Fun or Not This section is where you vote on maps as "fun or not". You click on the join button, and Battle.net puts you in a random custom map with other people. After the game ends, you are given the option to vote. Maps that get a lot of votes here will move up to the Up & Coming area. Recently Played The last few maps you played will be in this area. Good for times when you played a fun map but forgot what its name was later. Bookmarks At the end of every custom game, one of the new options is to bookmark the map. This is just like a web browser, but for custom maps. You can have up to 30 bookmarks. This screen lets you join the map directly without having to find it in one of the other tab areas. You can also get games externally from the game if you want to try them out in single player. Check the Links section for some of the more popular Starcraft 2 map hosting sites. Most of them have rating or popularity systems to rank the maps. After downloading maps from a website, you can open them up in the map editor, and use the "Test Document" button to play them. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |---- VIII. ACHIEVEMENTS ----------------------------------------------[CHVM]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Most new games have achievements these days, and Starcraft 2 is no exception. The achievement system is very similar to World of Warcraft if you have played that game. A lot of the achievements you will get just playing the game, but some of them are creative challenges that you wouldn't consider if not for achievements. You might try to get all of them or just focus on a few areas. -----Rewards----- Completing achievements almost always awards points, but sometimes you can also unlock new portraits and decals to use. Points These just show your overall achievement progress. They can't be traded in for anything. They are pretty much the same as Xbox Live gamer points. Portrait These are avatars people can see when checking your profile. In your profile you can look through all of the unlocked portraits you have gained and choose the portrait you want displayed. You can view all of the portraits in your profile, but can only select it for your avatar after you have unlocked it. Decal This is a little insignia on some of your ingame units and buildings. In your profile you can look at all the decals you have unlocked and choose one for each race that you want other players to see in your games. Your decals will show up in your game replays as well. You can view all of the decals in your profile, but can only select one for display after you have unlocked it. -----Earning Achievements----- Here are just a few notes about how to earn the achievements. * In each top level category, I tell which game modes the achievements in that category can be earned in. League games are on the first screen you see when you click Multiplayer in Battle.net. Cooperative vs AI is on that same screen in the top right. Custom Melee is in the bottom right. * Some achievements can be earned in solo play against AI players even when it's not clear that would work. I note this when it is not obvious. * Most achievements that require killing units only activate when you kill enemy units; friendly fire doesn't count. * After the Victory/Defeat screen shows up, Battle.net considers the game to be over. Achievements can no longer be earned in that game, even if they don't require other players. Just make sure to meet the achievement's requirements while the game is ongoing. Here's how the achievements are listed: -----Achievement Name--10p (this is the name and how many points you get) A description of what you have to do to earn the achievement. Ranks: Some achievements have multiple ranks, and you get rewards for each rank. Steps: Some achievements have multiple requirements. You won't get any reward until to meet all of the requirements. Reward: Special rewards you might get like portraits and decals. =====A. Liberty Campaign==1600p========================================[LBRT]== These are all earned in the Wings of Liberty campaign. Achievements that require a certain difficulty can be achieved on a harder difficulty but not an easier one. For example, if it says to do X on Hard difficulty, it can be earned on Hard as well as Brutal difficulty. This means if you play missions on Brutal, you are eligible for every achievement. Some achievements can be obtained in the middle of the mission, but most of them require you to complete the mission first. -----i. Mar Sara Missions--125p----------------------------------------[AMRS]-- -----Liberation Day--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Liberation Day" mission. -----Raynor's Back--10p Kill 5 enemy units in the "Liberation Day" mission with Raynor on Normal difficulty. -----Down with Mengsk--10p Kill every enemy unit in the "Liberation Day" mission on Hard difficulty. -----The Outlaws--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "The Outlaws" mission. -----Cash Reward--10p Collect all Mineral and Gas Pallet pickups in "The Outlaws" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Be Quick or Be Dead--10p Complete "The Outlaws" mission on Hard difficulty in less than 10 minutes. -----Zero Hour--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Zero Hour" mission. -----Hold the Line--10p Complete the "Zero Hour" mission on Normal difficulty without losing or salvaging a structure. -----The Best Defense...--10p Destroy 4 Zerg Hatcheries in the "Zero Hour" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Mar Sara Mastery--20p Complete all of the above Mar Sara mission achievements. Reward: Adjutant Portrait -----ii. Colonist Missions--160p---------------------------------------[ACLN]-- -----The Evacuation--15p Complete all mission objectives in "The Evacuation" mission. -----Handled with Care--10p Complete "The Evacuation" mission on Normal difficulty without losing a Transport Truck. -----Sacrifice Nothing--10p Complete "The Evacuation" mission on Hard difficulty without losing or salvaging a structure. -----Outbreak--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Outbreak" mission. -----28 Minutes Later--10p Complete the "Outbreak" mission on Normal difficulty before the 5th night. -----Army of Darkness--10p Destroy 15 Infested structures at nighttime in the "Outbreak" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Safe Haven--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Safe Haven" mission. -----You Shall Not Pass--10p Save 3 Colonist Outposts in the "Safe Haven" mission on Normal difficulty. -----My Precious!--10p Save 2 Colonist Outposts in the "Safe Haven" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Haven's Fall--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Haven's Fall" mission. -----Outpatient--10p Complete the "Haven's Fall" mission with 3 settlements protected on Normal difficulty. -----House Call--10p Complete the "Haven's Fall" mission with 5 settlements protected on Hard difficulty. -----Colonist Mastery--20p Complete all of the above Colonist mission achievements. Reward: Dr. Ariel Hanson Portrait -----iii. Covert Missions--160p----------------------------------------[ACVR]-- -----The Devil's Playground--15p Complete all mission objectives in "The Devil's Playground" mission. -----Red Lobster--10p Kill the Brutalisk with lava in "The Devil's Playground" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Reaper Man--10p Locate all of Tosh's Crew in "The Devil's Playground" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Welcome to the Jungle--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Welcome to the Jungle" mission. -----Appetite for Destruction--10p Prevent the Protoss from killing an SCV in the "Welcome to the Jungle" mission on Normal difficulty. -----It's So Easy--10p Prevent the Protoss from capping a Tal'darim Altar in the "Welcome to the Jungle" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Breakout--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Breakout" mission. -----Cool Hand Tosh--10p Complete the "Breakout" mission without Tosh going below 100 life on Normal difficulty. -----Jailhouse Rock--10p Complete the "Breakout" mission on Hard difficulty in less than 25 minutes. -----Ghost of a Chance--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Ghost of a Chance" mission. -----Dominate Tricks--10p Complete the "Ghost of a Chance" mission using Dominated units to kill at least 15 enemy troops on Normal difficulty. -----Total Protonic Reversal--10p Kill every enemy unit in the "Ghost of a Chance" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Covert Mastery--20p Complete all of the above Covert mission achievements. Reward: Gabriel Tosh Portrait -----iv. Rebellion Missions--195p--------------------------------------[ARBL]-- -----The Great Train Robbery--15p Complete all mission objectives in "The Great Train Robbery" mission. -----Bully the Bullies--10p Kill the Marauder Kill Team in "The Great Train Robbery" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Silver Streak--10p Complete "The Great Train Robbery" mission without letting a Train pass by on Hard difficulty. -----Cutthroat--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Cutthroat" mission. -----Minesweeper--10p Kill 25 total units with Vulture Spider Mines in the "Cutthroat" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Solitaire--10p Don't train additional SCVs before purchasing Han's contract in the "Cutthroat" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Engine of Destruction--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Engine of Destruction" mission. -----Kicking Asgard--10p Destroy the Loki in the "Engine of Destruction" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Ragnarok & Roll--10p Don't let the Odin drop below 30% of its total life in the "Engine of Destruction" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Media Blitz--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Media Blitz" mission. -----Seek & Destroy--10p Destroy an enemy Barracks, Factory, and Starport in the "Media Blitz" mission during the sneak attack on Normal difficulty. -----Blitzkrieg--10p Complete the "Media Blitz" mission on Hard difficulty in less than 20 minutes. -----Piercing the Shroud--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Piercing the Shroud" mission. -----Not So Brutalisk--10p Kill the Brutalisk in the "Piercing the Shroud" mission without losing a unit to the Brutalisk on Normal difficulty. -----Lock and Load--10p Locate all 13 weapon pickups in the "Piercing the Shroud" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Rebellion Mastery--20p Complete all of the above Rebellion mission achievements. Reward: Matt Horner Portrait -----v. Artifact Missions--195p----------------------------------------[ARTF]-- -----Smash and Grab--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Smash and Grab" mission. -----Rock Solid--10p Complete the "Smash and Grab" mission on Normal difficulty without losing a unit to a Protoss Stone Guardian. -----Hit & Run--10p Complete the "Smash and Grab" mission on Hard difficulty in less than 15 minutes. -----The Dig--15p Complete all mission objectives in "The Dig" mission. -----Drill Hard--10p Kill 20 enemy units with the Laser Drill in "The Dig" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Yippie-ki-yay...--10p Destroy 50 Protoss structures in "The Dig" mission on Hard difficulty. -----The Moebius Factor--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "The Moebius Factor" mission. -----Alive Inside!--10p Complete the "The Moebius Factor" mission before Kerrigan destroys 6 Abandoned Structures on Hard difficulty. -----Hard Core--10p Complete the "The Moebius Factor" mission before Kerrigan destroys 6 Abandoned Structures on Hard difficulty. -----Supernova--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Supernova" mission. -----Cool Running--10p Complete the "Supernova" mission on Normal difficulty without losing a unit to the wall of fire. -----Shock 'n' Awe--10p Kill 75 enemy units or structures with cloaked Banshees in the "Supernova" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Maw of the Void--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Maw of the Void" mission. -----I Have the Power--10p Destroy all Rip-Field Generators in the "Maw of the Void" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Master of the Universe--10p Complete the "Maw of the Void" mission without losing a unit inside the Rip- Field on Hard difficulty. -----Artifact Mastery--20p Complete all the Artifact mission achievements. Reward: Tychus Findlay Portrait -----vi. Prophesy Missions--160p---------------------------------------[APRP]-- -----Whispers of Doom--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Whispers of Doom" mission. -----Stalker Delight--10p Complete the "Whispers of Doom" mission on Normal difficulty with 3 or more Stalkers. -----Merely a Flesh Wound--10p Complete the "Whispers of Doom" mission on Hard difficulty without Zeratul suffering life damage. -----A Sinister Turn--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "A Sinister Turn" mission. -----Out of Justice--10p Kill all Protoss in the "A Sinister Turn" mission on Normal difficulty. -----A Sinister Turn--10p Complete the "A Sinister Turn" mission on Hard difficulty in less than 25 minutes. -----Echoes of the Future--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Echoes of the Future" mission. -----Army of One--10p Complete the "Echoes of the Future" mission with Zeratul killing 50 Zerg units on Normal difficulty. -----Overmind Dead Body--10p Complete the "Echoes of the Future" mission on Hard difficulty in less than 20 minutes. -----In Utter Darkness--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "In Utter Darkness" mission. -----Semi-Glorious--10p Kill 250 additional Zerg units in the "In Utter Darkness" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Blaze of Glory--10p Kill 750 additional Zerg units in the "In Utter Darkness" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Prophesy Mastery--20p Complete all of the above Prophecy mission achievements. Reward: Zeratul Portrait -----vii. Final Missions--160p-----------------------------------------[AFNL]-- -----Gates of Hell--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Gates of Hell" mission. -----The Big Bang Cannon--10p Destroy all the Spore Cannons in the "Gates of Hell" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Dominion Roundup--10p Rescue 10 Drop-Pods of Dominion Troops in the "Gates of Hell" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Belly of the Beast--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Belly of the Beast" mission. -----Unbreakable--10p Complete the "Belly of the Beast" mission without letting a hero fall Incapacitated on Normal difficulty. -----One Shot, Fifty Kills!--10p Kill 50 units with a single Penetrator Round in the "Belly of the Beast" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Shatter the Sky--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "Shatter the Sky" mission. -----Demolition Man--10p Complete the "Shatter the Sky" mission without losing a unit to a Platform explosion on Normal difficulty. -----Speed Too!--10p Complete the "Shatter the Sky" mission on Hard difficulty in less than 25 minutes. -----All In--15p Complete all mission objectives in the "All In" mission. -----Burn and Turn--10p Kill 150 Zerg units with the Artifact in the "All In" mission on Normal difficulty. -----Aces High--10p Use the Artifact only once in the "All In" mission on Hard difficulty. -----Final Mastery--20p Complete all of the above Final mission achievements. Reward: Valerian Mengsk Portrait -----viii. Story Mode--435p--------------------------------------------[STRY]-- -----Mar Sara Missions--10p Complete the Mar Sara missions in the Wings of Liberty campaign. -----Dr. Ariel Hanson Missions--10p Complete the Dr. Hanson storyline in the Wings of Liberty campaign. -----Gabriel Tosh Missions--10p Complete the Tosh storyline in the Wings of Liberty campaign. -----Matt Horner Missions--10p Complete the Horner storyline in the Wings of Liberty campaign. -----Zeratul Missions--10p Complete the Zeratul storyline in the Wings of Liberty campaign. -----Nice Suit--10p Find out why Tychus Findlay is always in a Marine suit. -----Ihan Crystal--10p Acquire an Ihan Crystal. -----Couch Surfer--10p View 10 television news broadcasts. Reward: Kate Lochwell Portrait -----The Artifact--10p Collect all 5 Xel'Naga Artifacts. -----Stay Awhile and Listen--10p Start a conversation with all the main characters. -----Dead Man's Hand--10p Find out what Matt Horner won playing poker. -----Terra-Tron Terrorized!--10p Beat the Terra-Tron on the Lost Viking arcade machine. -----Lost Viking--30p Score points on the Lost Viking arcade machine. Ranks: 125,000; 250,000; 500,000 (10p each) -----Band of Legends--10p Purchase all Mercenary contracts. Reward: Hill Portrait -----Wings of Liberty--10p Complete the Wings of Liberty campaign. Reward: Jim Raynor Portrait -----Wings of Liberty: Hard--50p Complete missions in the Wings of Liberty campaign on Hard difficulty. Ranks: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 (10p each) -----Wings of Liberty: Brutal--50p Complete missions in the Wings of Liberty campaign on Brutal difficulty. Ranks: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 (10p each) -----Liberty Completionist: Normal--15p Complete all 29 Wings of Liberty campaign missions on Normal difficulty. Reward: General Warfield Portrait -----Liberty Completionist: Hard--15p Complete all 29 Wings of Liberty campaign missions on Brutal difficulty. Reward: Arcturus Mengsk Portrait -----Liberty Completionist: Brutal--15p Complete all 29 Wings of Liberty campaign missions on Brutal difficulty. Reward: Sarah Kerrigan Portrait -----Hurry Up: It's Raid Night--10p Complete the Wings of Liberty campaign under 8 hours of total played mission time on Normal difficulty. -----Base Tech Master--10p Purchase 8 base upgrades from the Armory console. -----Infantry Tech Master--10p Purchase 10 infantry upgrades from the Armory console. -----Vehicle Tech Master--10p Purchase 10 vehicle upgrades from the Armory console. -----Starship Tech Master--10p Purchase 10 starship upgrades from the Armory console. -----Dominion Tech Master--10p Purchase 4 Dominion upgrades from the Armory console. -----Master Mechanic--20p Complete the above Tech Master achievements. Reward: Rory Swann Portrait -----Master Technician--20p Complete the above Xenobiology achievements. Reward: Egon Stetmann Portrait -----Zerg Xenobiology--10p Complete 5 Zerg research console projects. -----Protoss Xenobiology--10p Complete 5 Protoss research console projects. =====B. Exploration==160p==============================================[XPLR]== These achievements are meant to get players to "explore" all the various online game modes Starcraft 2 offers. -----i. Guide One--50p-------------------------------------------------[GDE1]-- -----Challenge Accepted--10p Complete 3 challenge missions with a Bronze rating or higher. -----Custom Game Novice--10p Win 3 solo evenly matched Custom Games against any A.I. opponents. -----Cooperative Novice--10p Win 3 Cooperative Games -----Medal of Combat--20p Complete all of the above Guide One achievements Reward: Tiger Marine Portrait -----ii. Guide Two--70p------------------------------------------------[GDE2]-- -----Challenge Accepted, Too!--10p Complete 6 challenge missions with a Bronze rating or higher. -----Custom Game Terran--10p Win 3 solo evenly matches Custom Games as Terran against any A.I. opponents. -----Custom Game Protoss--10p Win 3 solo evenly matches Custom Games as Protoss against any A.I. opponents. -----Custom Game Zerg--10p Win 3 solo evenly matches Custom Games as Zerg against any A.I. opponents. -----Qualified For Action--10p Play enough qualifying games to get placed in a Quick Match league. -----Medal of Valor--20p Complete all of the above Guide Two achievements. Reward: Panda Marine Portrait -----iii. Guide Three--70p---------------------------------------------[GDE3]-- -----Challenge Completed--10p Complete all of the challenge missions with a Bronze rating or higher. -----Free-for-All Crusher--10p Destroy a total of 100 enemy units in Free-for-All Quick Match games. -----Play Replay--10p Watch any Battle.net replay -----Flying Solo--10p Win 5 1v1 league Quick Match games. -----That's Teamwork--10p Win 5 Team league Quick Match games. -----Medal of Honor--20p Complete all of the above Guide Three achievements. Reward: Wolf Marine Portrait -----iv. Challenges--290p----------------------------------------------[ACHN]-- -----Tactical Command--30p Earn medals in the "Tactical Command" challenge Mission. Ranks: Complete the challenge objectives, lose 20 units or less, lose 10 units or less (10p each). -----Path of Ascension--30p Earn medals in the "Path of Ascension" challenge Mission. Ranks: Complete the challenge objectives, lose 20 units or less, lose 10 units or less (10p each). -----For the Swarm--30p Earn medals in the "For the Swarm" challenge Mission. Ranks: Complete the challenge objectives, lose 20 units or less, lose 10 units or less (10p each). -----Covert Ops--30p Earn medals in the "Covert Ops" challenge Mission. Ranks: 125 kills, 150 kills, 175 kills (10p each) -----Psionic Assault--30p Earn medals in the "Psionic Assault" challenge Mission. Ranks: 75 kills, 150 kills, 175 kills (10p each) -----Zerg Infestation--30p Earn medals in the "Zerg Infestation" challenge Mission. Ranks: 100 kills, 125 kills, 150 kills (10p each) -----Harbinger of Death--30p Earn medals in the "Harbinger of Death" challenge Mission. Ranks: 50 kills, 100 kills, 150 kills -----Opening Gambit--30p Earn medals in the "Opening Gambit" challenge Mission. Ranks: Complete the challenge objectives, 2 minutes or more left on the clock, 4 minutes or more left on the clock (10p each). -----Rush Defense--30p Earn medals in the "Rush Defense" challenge Mission. Ranks: Complete the challenge objectives, lose 16 units or less, lose 9 units or less (10p each). -----Solid Gold--20p Score the rank of Gold in all the challenge missions. Reward: Spectre Portrait =====C. Custom Game==680p==============================================[CMGM]== These are earned in the Multiplayer Custom Games area of Battle.net. The "A.I. and Outmatched" achievements require an official Blizzard map and one or more computer AIs. The "Blizzard Mods" section requires one of the following official Blizzard custom maps: "Aiur Chef", "StarJeweled", or "Left 2 Die". -----i. Medium A.I.--200p----------------------------------------------[CMAI]-- -----Terran AI Romp--10p Win solo evenly matched Custom Games as Terran against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins -----Zerg AI Romp--40p Win solo evenly matched Custom Games as Zerg against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins (10p each) -----Protoss AI Romp--40p Win solo evenly matched Custom Games as Protoss against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins (10p each) -----Random AI Romp--40p Win solo evenly matched Custom Games as Random against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins (10p each) -----Medium FFA--10p Win a Free-for-All Custom Game against 7 Medium A.I. opponents. -----Medium Blitz--10p Win a 1v1 Custom Game against a Medium A.I. opponent in under 5 minutes. -----Medium A.I. Crusher--20p Complete all of the above Medium A.I. achievements. -----ii. Hard A.I.--120p-----------------------------------------------[CHAI]-- -----Hard AI Romp--40p Win solo evenly matched Custom Games against Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins (10p each) -----Hard FFA--10p Win a Free-for-All Custom Game against 7 Hard A.I. opponents. -----Hard Blitz--10p Win a 1v1 Custom Game against a Hard A.I. opponent in under 5 minutes. -----3v3 Mix vs Hard AI--10p Win a 3v3 Custom Game with Hard A.I. allies using all three races against Hard A.I. opponents. So between your allies you need 1 Terran, 1 Zerg, and 1 Protoss. The other team can be any races. -----3v3 vs Hard AI Mix--10p Win a 3v3 Custom Game with Hard A.I. allies against all three races of Hard A.I. opponents. So you and your allies can be any race, but the other team needs to be 1 Terran, 1 Zerg, and 1 Protoss. -----4v4 Kin vs Hard AI--10p Win a 4v4 Custom Game with Hard A.I. allies using the following race combinations against Hard A.I. opponents. So you and your allies need to all be the same race. Steps: 4 Terran, 4 Protoss, 4 Zerg -----4v4 vs Hard AI Kin--10p Win a 4v4 Custom Game with Hard A.I. allies against the following race combinations using Hard A.I. opponents. So the opposing team needs to all be the same race. Steps: 4 Terran, 4 Protoss, 4 Zerg -----Hard AI Crusher--20p Complete all of the above Hard A.I. achievements. -----iii. Very Hard A.I.--120p-----------------------------------------[CVHA]-- -----Very Hard AI Romp--40p Win solo evenly matched Custom Games against Very Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins (10p each) -----Very Hard FFA--10p Win a Free-for-All Custom Game against 7 Very Hard A.I. opponents. -----Very Hard Blitz--10p Win a 1v1 Custom Game against a Very Hard A.I. opponent in under 5 minutes. -----3v3 Mix vs Very Hard AI--10p Win a 3v3 Custom Game with Very Hard A.I. allies using all three races against Very Hard A.I. opponents. So between your allies you need 1 Terran, 1 Zerg, and 1 Protoss. The other team can be any races. -----3v3 vs Very Hard AI Mix--10p Win a 3v3 Custom Game with Very Hard A.I. allies against all three races of Very Hard A.I. opponents. So you and your allies can be any race, but the other team needs to be 1 Terran, 1 Zerg, and 1 Protoss. -----4v4 Kin vs Very Hard AI--10p Win a 4v4 Custom Game with Very Hard A.I. allies using the following race combinations against Very Hard A.I. opponents. So you and your allies need to all be the same race. Steps: 4 Terran, 4 Protoss, 4 Zerg -----4v4 vs Very Hard AI Kin--10p Win a 4v4 Custom Game with Very Hard A.I. allies against the following race combinations using Very Hard A.I. opponents. So the opposing team needs to all be the same race. Steps: 4 Terran, 4 Protoss, 4 Zerg -----Very Hard AI Crusher--20p Complete all of the above Very Hard A.I. achievements. -----iv. Insane A.I.--120p---------------------------------------------[CIAI]-- -----Insane AI Romp--40p Task: Win solo evenly matched Custom Games against Insane A.I. opponents. 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins (10p each) -----Insane FFA--10p Win a Free-for-All Custom Game against 7 Insane A.I. opponents. -----Insane Blitz--10p Win a 1v1 Custom Game against a Insane A.I. opponent in under 5 minutes. -----3v3 Mix vs Insane AI--10p Win a 3v3 Custom Game with Insane A.I. allies using all three races against Insane A.I. opponents. So between your allies you need 1 Terran, 1 Zerg, and 1 Protoss. The other team can be any races. -----3v3 vs Insane AI Mix--10p Win a 3v3 Custom Game with Insane A.I. allies against all three races of Insane A.I. opponents. So you and your allies can be any race, but the other team needs to be 1 Terran, 1 Zerg, and 1 Protoss. -----4v4 Kin vs Insane AI--10p Win a 4v4 Custom Game with Insane A.I. allies using the following race combinations against Insane A.I. opponents. So you and your allies need to all be the same race. Steps: 4 Terran, 4 Protoss, 4 Zerg -----4v4 vs Insane AI Kin--10p Win a 4v4 Custom Game with Insane A.I. allies against the following race combinations using Insane A.I. opponents. So the opposing team needs to all be the same race. Steps: 4 Terran, 4 Protoss, 4 Zerg -----Insane AI Crusher--20p Complete all of the above Insane A.I. achievements. -----v. Outmatched--120p-----------------------------------------------[TMTC]-- -----Outmatched: 2 Medium AI--10p Win a 1v2 Custom Game with no Allies against 2 Medium A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 3 Medium AI--10p Win a 1v3 Custom Game with no Allies against 3 Medium A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 4 Medium AI--10p Win a 1v4 Custom Game with no Allies against 4 Medium A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 2 Hard AI--10p Win a 1v2 Custom Game with no Allies against 2 Hard A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 3 Hard AI--10p Win a 1v3 Custom Game with no Allies against 3 Hard A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 4 Hard AI--10p Win a 1v4 Custom Game with no Allies against 4 Hard A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 2 Very Hard AI--10p Win a 1v2 Custom Game with no Allies against 2 Very Hard A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 3 Very Hard AI--10p Win a 1v3 Custom Game with no Allies against 3 Very Hard A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 4 Very Hard AI--10p Win a 1v4 Custom Game with no Allies against 4 Very Hard A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched: 2 Insane AI--10p Win a 1v2 Custom Game with no Allies against 2 Insane A.I. opponents. -----Outmatched Crusher--20p Complete all of the above Outmatched achievements. -----vi. Blizzard Mods--200p-------------------------------------------[BLZZ]-- -----Executor Chef--10p Win a game of Aiur Chef. -----Virtuoso--10p Cook at least one of each dish in all three rounds of one game of Aiur Chef. Reward: Zealot Chef Portrait -----Supreme Cuisine--10p Score 2000 points in a game of Aiur Chef. -----The Heat Is On--10p Kill another zealot chef when hit by the Great Equalizer. -----Allez Cuisine--10p Cook two dishes within 30 seconds of each other. -----Tag Team--10p Win a 2v2 of 'StarJeweled' with no A.I. players. -----Jewel Crafter--10p Win a 1v1 of 'StarJeweled' against a Medium A.I. opponent. -----Jewel Star--10p Win a 1v1 of 'StarJeweled' against a Hard A.I. opponent. -----Jewel Super Star--10p Win a 1v1 of 'StarJeweled' against a Very Hard A.I. opponent. -----Jewel Rock Star--10p Win a 1v1 of 'StarJeweled' against a Insane A.I. opponent. -----Jewel of Denial--10p Heal 3000 points of damage in a game of 'StarJeweled' using the Healing Wave ability. Reward: Ornatus Portrait -----World of Orecraft--10p Do a 6 combo gem break and receive the "For the Swarm" notification in a game of 'StarJeweled'. -----Live and Let Die--10p Complete the "Left 2 Die" scenario on Normal difficulty. -----Die Another Day--10p Complete the "Left 2 Die" scenario on Hard difficulty. -----Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em--10p Kill a Stank before it kills anything on Hard difficulty. Reward: Stank Portrait -----License to Kill--10p Complete the "Left 2 Die" scenario on Brutal difficulty. -----Here Comes the Hammer--10p Complete the "Left 2 Die" scenario before the fifth night on Brutal difficulty. -----Night of the Living--10p Survive 5 Infested Horde Attacks in the "Night 2 Die" mode of the "Left 2 Die" scenario. -----Night of the Living II--10p Survive 10 Infested Horde Attacks in the "Night 2 Die" mode of the "Left 2 Die" scenario. -----Night of the Living III--10p Survive 15 Infested Horde Attacks in the "Night 2 Die" mode of the "Left 2 Die" scenario. =====D. Cooperative==820p==============================================[CPTV]== These are earned using the Cooperative vs A.I. Quick Match mode. -----i. Medium A.I.--150p----------------------------------------------[PMAI]-- -----Coop Stomp: Medium--50p Win Cooperative games against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----2v2 Coop Streak: Medium--30p Win 2v2 Cooperative games in a row against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----3v3 Coop Streak: Medium--30p Win 3v3 Cooperative games in a row against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----2v2 Stomp Coverage: Medium--10p Win a 2v2 game as all race combinations against Medium A.I. Steps: 2 Terran, 2 Zerg, 2 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg, 1 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Zerg 1 Protoss -----3v3 Stomp Coverage: Medium--10p Win a 3v3 game as all race combinations against Medium A.I. Steps: 3 Terran, 2 Terran 1 Zerg, 2 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Zerg, 2 Zerg 1 Terran, 2 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Protoss, 2 Protoss 1 Terran, 2 Protoss 1 Zerg -----Gosu Comp Stomp: Medium--20p Complete all of the above Medium A.I. achievements. -----ii. Hard A.I.--150p-----------------------------------------------[PHAI]-- -----Coop Stomp: Hard--50p Win Cooperative games against Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----2v2 Coop Streak: Hard--50p Win 2v2 Cooperative games in a row against Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----3v3 Coop Streak: Hard--50p Win 3v3 Cooperative games in a row against Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----2v2 Stomp Coverage: Hard--10p Win a 2v2 game as all race combinations against Hard A.I. Steps: 2 Terran, 2 Zerg, 2 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg, 1 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Zerg 1 Protoss -----3v3 Stomp Coverage: Hard--10p Win a 3v3 game as all race combinations against Hard A.I. Steps: 3 Terran, 2 Terran 1 Zerg, 2 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Zerg, 2 Zerg 1 Terran, 2 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Protoss, 2 Protoss 1 Terran, 2 Protoss 1 Zerg -----Gosu Comp Stomp: Hard--20p Complete all of the above Hard A.I. achievements. -----iii. Very Hard A.I.--150p-----------------------------------------[PVHA]-- -----Coop Stomp: Very Hard--50p Win Cooperative games against Very Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----2v2 Coop Streak: Very Hard--30p Win 2v2 Cooperative games in a row against Very Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----3v3 Coop Streak: Very Hard--30p Win 3v3 Cooperative games in a row against Very Hard A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----2v2 Stomp Coverage: Very Hard--10p Win a 2v2 game as all race combinations against Very Hard A.I. Steps: 2 Terran, 2 Zerg, 2 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg, 1 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Zerg 1 Protoss -----3v3 Stomp Coverage: Very Hard--10p Win a 3v3 game as all race combinations against Very Hard A.I. Steps: 3 Terran, 2 Terran 1 Zerg, 2 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Zerg, 2 Zerg 1 Terran, 2 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Protoss, 2 Protoss 1 Terran, 2 Protoss 1 Zerg -----Gosu Comp Stomp: Very Hard--20p Complete all of the above Very Hard A.I. achievements. -----iv. Insane A.I.--150p---------------------------------------------[PIAI]-- -----Coop Stomp: Insane--50p Win Cooperative games against Insane A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----2v2 Coop Streak: Insane--30p Win 2v2 Cooperative games in a row against Insane A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----3v3 Coop Streak: Insane--30p Win 3v3 Cooperative games in a row against Insane A.I. opponents. Ranks: 5 games, 10 games, 15 games (10p each) -----2v2 Stomp Coverage: Insane--10p Win a 2v2 game as all race combinations against Insane A.I. Steps: 2 Terran, 2 Zerg, 2 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg, 1 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Zerg 1 Protoss -----3v3 Stomp Coverage: Insane--10p Win a 3v3 game as all race combinations against Insane A.I. Steps: 3 Terran, 2 Terran 1 Zerg, 2 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Zerg, 2 Zerg 1 Terran, 2 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Protoss, 2 Protoss 1 Terran, 2 Protoss 1 Zerg -----Gosu Comp Stomp: Insane--20p Complete all of the above Insane A.I. achievements. -----v. Race A.I.--220p------------------------------------------------[PRAI]-- -----Terran Command--50p Win Cooperative games as Terran against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----Protoss Command--50p Win Cooperative games as Protoss against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----Zerg Command--50p Win Cooperative games as Zerg against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----Random Command--50p Win Cooperative games as Random against Medium A.I. opponents. Ranks: 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 250 wins (10p each) -----Supreme Command--20p Complete all of the above Race A.I. achievements. =====E. Quick Match==870p==============================================[QCKM]== These are earned in league Quick Match games (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA) with the Find Match button. -----i. Solo League--360p----------------------------------------------[SLLG]-- -----Solo Terran--80p Win 1v1 league Quick Match games as Terran. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, Marine Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Marauder Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Medivac Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Siege Tank Portrait 250 wins - 10p, Ghost Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Thor Portrait, Mar Sara Separatists Decal 750 wins - 10p, Battlecruiser Portrait, Terran Max Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Nova Portrait, DMW Decal Reward Total: 80p, 8 portraits, and 3 decals -----Solo Zerg--80p Win 1v1 league Quick Match games as Zerg. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, Zergling Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Roach Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Baneling Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Hydralisk Portrait 250 wins - 10p, Queen Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Infestor Portrait, Char Brood Decal 750 wins - 10p, Ultralisk Portrait, Aiur Brood Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Queen of Blades Portrait, Spine Brood Decal -----Solo Protoss--80p Win 1v1 league Quick Match games as Protoss. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, Zealot Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Stalker Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Phoenix Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Immortal Portrait 250 wins - 10p, Void Ray, Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Colossus Portrait, Hybrid Honors Decal 750 wins - 10p, Carrier Portrait, Judicator Caste Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Tassadar Portrait, Daelaam Regalia Decal -----Solo Random--80p Win 1v1 league Quick Match games as Random. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, Reaper Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Sentry Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Overseer Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Viking Portrait 250 wins - 10p, High Templar, Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Mutalisk Portrait, Claw Brood Decal 750 wins - 10p, Banshee Portrait, Templar Caste Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Hybrid Destroyer Portrait, Pan-Terran Decal -----Solo Hot Streak--20p Win 1v1 league Quick Match games in a row. Ranks: 3 games, 5 games (10p each) -----Solo Zen Master--20p Complete all of the above Solo League achievements. Reward: Dark Voice Portrait -----ii. Team League--360p---------------------------------------------[TMLG]-- -----Team Terran--80p Win Team league Quick Match games as Terran. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, SCV Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Firebat Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Vulture Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Hellion Tank Portrait 250 wins - 10p, Medic Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Spartan Company Portrait, Moebius Forces Decal 750 wins - 10p, Wraith Portrait, War Pigs Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Diamondback Portrait, Terran Dominion Decal -----Team Zerg--80p Win Team league Quick Match games as Zerg. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, Drone Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Infested Colonist Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Infested Marine Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Corruptor Portrait 250 wins - 10p, Aberration Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Broodlord Portrait, Redstone Brood Decal 750 wins - 10p, Overmind Portrait, Zerus Brood Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Leviathan Portrait, Lost Brood Decal -----Team Protoss--80p Win Team league Quick Match games as Protoss. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, Probe Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Scout Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Urun Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Nyon Portrait 250 wins - 10p, Executor Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Mohander Portrait, Shelak Tribe Decal 750 wins - 10p, Selendis Portrait, Lost Tribe Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Artanis Portrait, Tal'darim Standard Decal -----Team Random--80p Win Team league Quick Match games as Random. Ranks & Rewards: 10 wins - 10p, Overlord Portrait 25 wins - 10p, Hydralisk Marine Portrait 50 wins - 10p, Zer'atai Dark Templar Portrait 100 wins - 10p, Goliath Portrait 250 wins - 10p, Lanassa Dark Templar Portrait 500 wins - 10p, Mira Han Portrait, Mira Mercs Decal 750 wins - 10p, Archon Portrait, Sky Brood Decal 1000 wins - 10p, Hybrid Reaver Portrait, Spectre Ops Decal -----Team Hot Streak--20p Win Team league Quick Match games in a row. Ranks: 3 games, 5 games (10p each) -----Team Zen Master--20p Complete all of the above Team League achievements. Reward: Predator Portrait -----iii. Competitive--150p--------------------------------------------[CMPT]-- ----FFA Gladiator--10p Destroy a total of 5,000 enemy units in Free-for-All Quick Match games. ----FFA Destroyer--10p Win a Free-for-All Quick Match game as each race option. Steps: Terran, Protoss, Zerg, Random ----FFA Wins--80p Win Free-for-All Quick Match games. Ranks: 5 wins, 10 wins, 25 wins, 50 wins, 100 wins, 200 wins, 400 wins, 800 wins (10p each) ----League Qualifier--10p Qualify for league Quick Match in each of the following modes: (this means get through placement matches) Steps: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 ----Two-Way Dominant--10p Win a 2v2 league Quick Match playing all race possibilities. Steps: 2 Terran, 2 Zerg, 2 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg, 1 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Zerg 1 Protoss ----Three-Way Dominant--10p Win a 3v3 league Quick Match playing all race possibilities. Steps: 3 Terran, 2 Terran 1 Zerg, 2 Terran 1 Protoss, 1 Terran 1 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Zerg, 2 Zerg 1 Terran, 2 Zerg 1 Protoss, 3 Protoss, 2 Protoss 1 Terran, 2 Protoss 1 Zerg -----Competitive Zen Master--20p Complete all of the above Competitive achievements EXCEPT FFA Gladiator. =====F. Combat==520p===================================================[CMBT]== This category has all of the creative multiplayer achievements like performing a certain action with a unit or doing things in a time limit and more. The Economy and Melee Combat achievements can be earned in any melee game (League, Cooperative vs AI, Custom Melee). Many of them you can get solo with other AI players. The League Combat achievements can only be earned in League games with the Find Match button. -----i. Economy--110p--------------------------------------------------[CNMY]-- -----Training Day--10p Train 10 Marines during the first 320 seconds of a single Melee game. -----Zergling Rush--10p Morph 20 Zerglings during the first 255 seconds of a single Melee game. -----Zealot Push--10p Warp in 5 Zealots during the first 250 seconds of a single Melee game. -----Fast Expand--10p Expand during the first 225 seconds of a Melee game. -----Erector Time--10p Build a Factory during the first 270 seconds of a Melee game. -----Warp In Time--10p Warp in a Twilight Council during the first 275 seconds of a Melee game. -----It's Morphing Time--10p Mutate a Lair in the first 285 seconds of a Melee game. -----The Rich Get Richer--10p Deplete 10 Rich Mineral Fields in a single Melee game. -----Just a Scratch--10p Repair a 1,000 life on allied structures in a single Melee game. -----City Builder--20p Complete all of the above Economy achievements. -----ii. Melee Combat--130p--------------------------------------------[MLCM]-- -----I See Dead Units--10p Destroy 10 cloaked or burrowed units in a single Melee game. -----Psionic Death--10p Destroy 20 units with a single High Templar in a Melee game. -----Meatgrinder--10p Kill 50 supply worth of units in 15 seconds in a Melee game. -----The Back Door--10p Using Warp Prisms, warp in 50 units in a single Melee game. -----Zerglot--10p While playing as Zerg, warp in a Zealot in a Melee game. -----Distorted Reality--10p Capture 50 enemy units in a single Vortex in a Melee game. -----To the Shadows I Run--10p Use Blink to save a Stalker in a Melee game. -----Can't Touch This!--10p Dodge a Raven Seeker Missile in a Melee game. -----Fire Fighter--10p Save 8 burning Terran structures in a single Melee game. -----One-Finger Discount--10p Cancel construction of a structure that is being destroyed by an opponent in a Melee game. -----Just an Illusion--10p Control 15 hallucinations at once in a Melee game. -----Welcome Back, Commander--20p Complete all of the above Melee Combat achievements. -----iii. League Combat--280p------------------------------------------[LGCM]-- As the name implies, these can only be done League games (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA). -----Yamato Master Blaster--10p Destroy 20 units with Yamato blasts in a single League game. -----Professional Have Standards--10p Destroy 20 units with Sniper Rounds in a single League game. -----Infested Terror--10p Destroy 30 units with Infested Terrans in a single League game. -----Beep, Beep, Boom!--10p Destroy 6 units with a single Seeker Missile in a League game. -----Would You Kindly...--10p Destroy 5 units with a single Neural Parasited unit in a League game. -----Unbreakable--10p Destroy 40 units with a single unit in a League game. -----Auto-Kill--10p Using Auto-Turrets, destroy 20 SCVs in a single League game. -----Raining Blood--10p Destroy a fully loaded transport in a League game. -----Nuclear Launch Detected--10p Kill 15 enemy units with a single Nuke in a League game. -----Terran Macro Master--10p Have 9 Terran units training simultaneously in a League game. -----Protoss Macro Master--10p Have 9 Protoss units training simultaneously in a League game. -----Zerg Macro Master--10p Have 9 Zerg units training simultaneously in a League game. -----Warp In Madness--10p Warp in 100 units with Warp Gates in a single League game. -----Centurion Queen--10p Create 100 Larvae with Queens in a single League game. -----Neighborly Help--10p Heal 300 life on friendly units in a single League game. -----The Flying Heal Bus--10p Heal 5,000 life with Medivacs in a single League game. -----Frugal Fighter--10p Task: Regenerate 500 shield energy on a single unit without taking friendly fire in a League game. -----A Roach's Life--10p Regenerate 1,000 life on a single Roach without taking friendly fire in a League game. -----Shroom Absorption--10p Absorb 1,000 damage with hallucinations in a single League game. -----Counter Proof--10p Attack for 20 seconds with no counterattacks in a League game. -----Carnage Hell--10p Destroy 4 Command Centers, Hatcheries, or Nexuses in a single League game. -----Denied--10p Destroy an enemy Command Center, Hatchery, or Nexus while it is under construction in a League game. -----Hot Pickup--10p Load a Dropship (Medivac, Overlord, or Warp Prism) with a unit that is under attack in a League game. -----MULE X'ing--10p Call down 30 MULEs in a single League game. -----Big Brother Is Watching--10p Hold a Xel'Naga Tower for 5 consecutive minutes in a League game. -----Meet the Spy--10p Kill 5 Changelings in a single League game. -----Supreme Being--20p Complete all of the above League Combat achievements. =====G. Feat of Strength===============================================[FTFS]== -----Devoted Fan----- Purchase the Starcraft 2 Collector's Edition. Rewards: Raynor Marine, Tauren Marine, Night Elf Banshee, Diablo Marine -----BlizzConqueror 2010----- Purchase physical (or virtual) tickets to Blizzard's convention taking place in Anaheim, California on October 22 & 23, 2010. Rewards: Murloc Marine Portrait, Murlocalypse Now Ddecal, Tide Hunters Decal -----Cataclysmic Devotion----- Purchase World of Warcraft Cataclysm Collector's Edition. Rewards: Worgen Marine Portrait, Goblin Marine Portrait, Worgen Decal, Goblin Decal. -----Hot Shot----- Finish a Qualification Round with an undefeated record. Note: This feat seems to be somewhat unreliable. Some people have gotten it from finishing their placements undefeated, but others have not. -----Monster Mash----- Use the A.R.E.S. to kill the Brutalisk in the "Piercing the Shroud" mission on Normal difficulty. -----The Scenic Route----- Destroy all Zerg Structures in "The Devil's Playground" mission on Normal difficulty. -----You'ze So Crazy!----- Destroy all Protoss structures in the "Welcome to the Jungle" mission on Normal difficulty. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |----- IX. CHEAT CODES ------------------------------------------------[SCRT]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Starcraft 2 has many cheat codes available for players to have fun with. While achievements are disabled when cheat codes are active, you can still have some fun with them until you decide to reload your save. Caution: Once you use a cheat code, any saves after that point are flagged as unable to earn achievements. Make sure you keep track of which saves you have cheated on, because the game gives no indication. You might do everything for that really hard achievement and get nothing for it, because you forgot you used a cheat code earlier in the campaign. -----Starcraft 2 Cheats----- These cheats only work in the single player Campaign or vs AI game modes. +-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | General Cheats | Effect | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | = (equals key) | Re-enters the last cheat you entered. | | WhatIsBestInLife | Instant Victory. | | LetsJustBugOutAndCallItEven | Instant Defeat. | | TookTheRedPill | Disables Fog of War. | | Bunker55AliveInside | Disables the need for Supplies (Food). | | TerribleTerribleDamage | Enables God Mode. | | SpectralTiger | Adds 5000 Minerals to the Available | | | Resources. | | RealMenDrillDeep | Adds 5000 Gas to the Available Resources. | | WhoRunBartertown | Adds 5000 of each Resource to the Available | | | Resources. | | SoSayWeAll | Allows the use of all Tech. | | IAmIronMan | Instantly Allows all Upgrades. | | CatFoodForPrawnGuns | Enables Fast Builds and Fast Upgrades. | | HanShotFirst | Disables Cooldowns on Spells. | | TyuHasLeftTheGame | Disables Victory Conditions to Allow | | | Continued Play. | | NeverGiveUpNeverSurrender | Enables Continued Play After a Defeat. | | ImADoctorNotARoachJim | Enables Fast Unit Healing. | | MoreDotsMoreDots | All Units and Buildings are Free to Build | | | (No Cost). | | OverEngineeredCodPiece* | Plays the Song "Terran Up the Night". | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | Campaign Only Cheats | Effect | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | WhySoSerious | Adds 5 Million Credits. | | LeaveYourSleep | Opens all Missions (Ability to Jump to | | | Missions). | | EyeOfSauron | Allows Access to all Cinematics. | | StayClassyMarSara | Allows Access to all UNN TV News Broadcasts. | | HoradricCube | Opens all Research Options. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | Special Cheats | Effect | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | OverEngineeredCodPiece | Plays the Song "Terran Up the Night". Does | | | not disable achievements. | | Jaynestown | Adds 5000 Terrazine to the Available | | | Resources. (custom maps only) | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ -----Lost Viking Mini-game Cheats----- These cheats only work in the Lost Viking mini-game within the campaign. The beginning dash for these cheats is required. Uppercase cheats are normal game cheats. Lowercase cheats were mainly for Blizzard to test things when they were making the mini-game. Credit goes to Sixen on the US Starcraft 2 forums for these cheats. +-------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | Cheat Code | Effect | +-------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | -BOSS | The level end boss appears immediately. | | -LEVELCLEAR | Skip to the next level. | | -BONUS | End the game, victory/defeat screen shows up. | | -pu | Creates a power up in the middle of the screen. | | -LIFE | Set number of lives to 10. | | -end | Show ending cinematic. | | -ss | Display "boss incoming" message. | | -score x | Add x to current score. | | -NOQUIT | Hide the quit button. | | -ADDLIFE | Add one life to total lives. | | -mb | Change the background (Protoss, Zerg) | | behind | A new wave of enemies appears. | | sine | Displays the sine of 180, 90, and pi on the screen. | +-------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |----- X. FAQ ---------------------------------------------------------[SFAQ]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| This section contains some spoilers in the campaign section. I have put those questions at the end to make them easier to avoid if you haven't played through the campaign yet. Q: Want your question answered here? A: Submit a question, and I will answer it to the best of my abilities. -----General----- Q: Which race is the most powerful? A: Blizzard has done a pretty good job balancing the races that no race is completely more powerful than any other race. Each race has various strengths and weaknesses. Pushing your race's strengths while avoiding your race's weaknesses will win you games. There are of course small imbalances from time to time. These imbalances will make one race a little too powerful in some situations, but it's never a complete advantage. Blizzard releases patches to fix these small imbalanced things every so often. Q: What is a macro mechanic? Why are they in the game? A: Macro mechanics are special abilities each race has that are used ideally every 25 or 50 seconds. They are meant to make the player always have something to be working on. Blizzard added these to Starcraft 2, because they were fixing a lot of the little annoying control and interface issues in Starcraft 1. These issues were the main reason Starcraft 1 was so hard to play well, but for Starcraft 2 they were fixing all of that. With the interface and controls working so well, they needed something to keep the player occupied to ensure the sequel was just as hard to master as the first game. Q: What units for each race can detect cloaked and burrowed units? A: Terran has the Raven unit and Missile Turret building. Zerg has the Overseer unit and Spore Crawler building. Protoss has the Observer unit and Photon Cannon building. There are some abilities that also reveal cloaked and burrowed units. Terran has Scanner Sweep from the Orbital Command and EMP Round from the Ghost. Zerg has Fungal Growth from the Infestor. Q: Do Archons require 2 of the same templar unit? A: No, Archons can be morphed with any combination of templar including a Dark Templar and a High Templar. Q: Does the Viking need both Vehicle and Ship upgrades? A: No, the Ship upgrades from the Armory boost both its air and ground attacks. Q: How many units are in the game? A: Not counting summoned or special units, there are 51 units in the game. Of those 50 units, 15 are Protoss, 13 are Zerg, and 23 are Terran. All 23 Terran units are available in the campaign, but only 13 of them are available in multiplayer. Q: How do I upload replays to video sites like YouTube? A: Replays are not movie files, so there is no direct way to convert a replay file into a video file for uploading. What people do is get video recording software like Fraps and have it record the entire replay from start to finish as their computer displays it. They will also record their voice as it plays if they are doing commentary for the replay. Then, they upload the video file to YouTube. Q: When will the next expansion, Heart of the Swarm, be released? A: Based on their past games, the next expansion should come early 2012 although only Blizzard knows for sure. Q: Will my account be banned for using cheat codes? A: No, the cheat codes Blizzard provides are for you to have fun and totally allowed. Using cheat codes does disable the ability to earn achievements, though. Cheat codes don't work in multiplayer either. -----Multiplayer----- Q: How do I find out my character code? A: The easiest way is to float your mouse over the character portrait on the Battle.net screen. A little help text will show up with your character code. You can also find it in your friends list when you go to the Add Friend screen or on the official Starcraft 2 forums any post you make you can check your character code. Q: How do I use voice chat in the game? A: Voice chat is very buggy currently. Most players do not use it. If you are in a clan, you might have a Teamspeak or Ventrilo server. These are popular external voice chat systems. Q: What is bonus pool? A: The bonus pool is a pool of points every player gets in the ranked ladders at a rate of 1 point every 2 hours. Whenever a player wins a ladder game, points in their bonus pool will match the points they won for the match, which makes it possible to double the points they get in a match. These points are intended to help players maintain their rank by limiting the effectiveness of increasing rank by grinding games. Every player in the ladder gets the same amount of points regardless of when they first qualified. Q: How many teams can I be on at once? A: There is no limit to how many teams you can be on. However, if you are on a large number of teams, your profile may not display all of them. Q: How does team rating work in the ladders? A: There are two kinds of teams in Starcraft 2: Arranged Teams and Random Teams. Both of these kinds of teams are on the same ladder. Arranged Teams are a group of friends in a party that join together to create a persistent team. They go through placement matches together and play all games together. The team roster never changes. It is always the founding players. If the players want to play with other people, they can create a party with the desired players and start their placement matches. A new team is automatically created. Random Teams are individual players who use the Battle.net matchmaker to find a teammate and an opposing team to play. In Random Teams there is no team rating. Each player has their own rating base on their own wins and losses since they are not expected to play with the same people ever again. Q: What is Real ID? A: People who know each other in real life can add Real ID friends to their friends list. This requires the other person's Battle.net user name. After both people accept the friendship, Battle.net will display them with their real first and last names. They can also chat across Blizzard games and servers. Currently, this feature only works between World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2, but is expected to work with Diablo 3 when it comes out as well. Real ID friends can also see more information about what the other person is doing like which server a World of Warcraft player is on or what kind of game a Starcraft 2 player is playing. -----Leagues and Ladders----- Q: What are the possible leagues in the ladder system? A: The five possible leagues are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Blizzard has hinted at creating a Pro league for exceptionally good players, but there is none as of the last update. Each league is broken up into divisions made up of 100 players of similar skill. Q: When does Blizzard reset the ladders? A: Blizzard does not reset the ladders on any kind of schedule. Usually a month before the reset, they will make an announcement. Based on their previous strategy games, ladder resets usually occur about every six months. Q: What does a ladder reset actually reset? A: When Blizzard does a ladder reset, the ladders are completely cleared of all rankings. Your rank in all of your ladders will be removed along with your wins and losses. All teams you may have been in are also cleared. Achievements, Rewards, and Career Stats are never cleared. Q: What causes promotions or demotions between leagues? A: Promotions occur if you win a lot of games against players in higher leagues. Demotions occur if you lose a lot of games against players in lower leagues. They are not based on activity at all. If you stop playing for a few months your ranking in your division may go down, but you will never be demoted for inactivity. -----Custom Games----- Q: How do I make a custom map? A: Custom maps are created with the Starcraft 2 Map Editor. This is included on both Mac and PC when you install the game. On Mac, it is found in the Applications folder where you would normally go to launch Starcraft 2. On PC, the shortcut is found in the Start Menu or you can open it directly from your Program Files. Note that the PC installer does not create a desktop shortcut, only the Start Menu shortcut. Q: How do I use my custom map with friends? A: Starcraft 2 uses a new system for custom games compared to Starcraft 1. All maps that you want to play online with others you have to publish to Battle.net. You can choose whether you want it to be a public map or a private map. Public maps anyone can see and use when they go to create a game. Private maps only the author is allowed to create maps with. Q: What kinds of games are possible in the map editor? A: All the map types that have been done before in Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 3 are possible. The new map editor also includes a new data editor that lets you change almost anything about the units and buildings in the game. It also has more powerful scripting features to do more advanced maps. So far I have seen Defense of the Ancients remakes, topdown shooters, single player RPGs, tower defense games, first and third person shooters, and side-scrolling fighting games. There is a lot of variety already, but these are just the beginning of what will be possible. -----Achievements ----- Q: Can achievements be earned offline? A: No, you must be online and connected to Battle.net to earn achievements. Q: What are achievement points used for? A: Achievement points are just to show your overall progress in the game. Other players viewing your profile can see what kinds of games you like to play based on the categories you have the most achievement points in. You can't trade in achievement points for anything. They are basically the same as Xbox Live gamer points, if you have played or heard about that. Q: Do achievements work with cheat codes? A: No, achievements will be disabled as long as cheat codes are active. Keep track if you save a game while cheat codes are active. That save file will be tainted from that point on, with no achievements possible. Reload an earlier save to continue getting achievements. Q: If I play on a harder difficulty, can I get the lower difficulty achievements? A: Yes, if you play on Hard difficulty you can get both Normal and Hard achievements. The same goes for the Cooperative Co-Op Stomp and Custom Games AI Romp achievements. Playing against a Hard AI will give you credit for Hard and Medium AI. If you are really good, you can play Brutal in the campaign and Insane AI in the other modes to get a lot of the lower difficulty achievements for free. Q: How many achievements/achievement points are in the game? A: At my last count, there were 307 achievements in the game totaling 4970 points possible. The average achievement is worth 10 points. Many achievements also have multiple parts with 10 points awarded per part completed. Q: How come I met all the requirements for an achievement in the Custom Games category, but Battle.net didn't give it to me? A: Custom Games achievements are worded in a way that makes it seem you can do them with the Single Player vs AI game mode. This game mode does not work for these achievements. They must be done in the Multiplayer side in the bottom right Custom Games area. Click the Create Game button and it will function exactly the same as the Single Player vs AI mode. Q: Do mission replays in the Mission Archives count towards the Wings of Liberty: Hard/Brutal achievements? A: The mission counter doesn't seem to work properly when doing missions in the archives. For these two achievements, try to do them in a single campaign playthrough. If the counter is working at first but then stops, sometimes loading a save game will reset the counter to the right value. Q: How come it says I have 99% campaign achievements even though I have done every single one? A: Currently, there is a bug in the Liberty Campaign category where it lists there being 1600 points total, but there are only 1590 points to get with the available achievements. Some people have speculated Blizzard removed an achievement just before release and intended to add an achievement later, or there was a hidden achievement. So far none of those have turned out to be true. The best guess is that it is a bug Blizzard just never got around to fixing. Q: What are Feats of Strength? A: Feats of Strength are a special kind of achievement. They don't give you any points, but they sometimes have special rewards. They are usually rewarded for doing something out of the ordinary. Wiping out all enemies on some campaign missions awards a Feat of Strength, being #1 on the ladder at the end of the season, and participating in a limited time event are Feat of Strength examples. Feats of Strength kind of form a history other players can see on your profile. -----Wings of Liberty Campaign----- Q: I accidentally skipped the intro cinematic. How do I view it again? A: You can replay all the cinematics from the Mission Archives, which is available after you complete the third mission in the campaign. Q: How many missions are in the campaign? A: There are a total of 29 missions in the campaign, but only 26 are available in a single playthrough. There are three planets where you get an A or B choice. After you finish the mission, you can go to the Mission Archives and play the other mission to see what it would have been like. Q: I finished the campaign and did all the missions, but it says I only completed 25/26, 22/26, or 21/26. Where are the other missions? A: There are 5 commonly missed missions. Early on Raynor will meet Zeratul on his ship. After which there will be a crystal in the Laboratory Raynor can examine to do 4 Protoss missions. Some people have forgotten about the crystal in the Lab and missed these ones. The other mission is the secret mission, which you probably wouldn't know about if you didn't read about it on a website. Read the next question to see how to unlock that mission. Q: How do I unlock the secret mission? A: On the Media Blitz mission, destroy the Science Facility in the bottom right corner of the map. Then pick up the Secret Documents with a ground unit. You will get a message that the mission is unlocked. It will appear on the Bridge Mission Console after the mission. I was not able to unlock it through the Mission Archives, but submitter Bobma says he was able to. Blizzard may have updated this in one of the patches since release. Q: Will my Wings of Liberty choices carry over to the next expansion? A: No one knows for sure what Blizzard will do, but most people believe they will not have separate story paths based on your early choices. These choices were to make the campaign more fun to play, not to give the player control over the story. The "canon" story is believed to be that Raynor sided with Dr. Hanson and Gabriel Tosh, meaning they are still alive and may appear in the later expansions. Q: What gameplay is available after beating the campaign? A: After you beat the campaign, the game will create a final save. If you load this save, you will be at the Mission Archives. The Mission Archives allows you to replay any mission. Missions you skipped will not appear. The secret mission will also not appear if you did not unlock it in the campaign beforehand. This save file does not give you access to the Hyperion. Make sure you have done everything you want to do in the Hyperion before starting the Final Missions. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |----- XI. LINKS ------------------------------------------------------[LNKS]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Of course, my FAQ/Walkthrough can't cover everything on the game. I don't have enough time or the experience even to cover everything. As always, there is a wealth of information online. In this section I have gathered a small library of Starcraft 2 resources which cover certain topics in more detail. -----Official Websites----- http://www.blizzard.com The official Blizzard website features announcements and major news about new Blizzard games. http://www.battle.net The official Battle.net website features community sites for all Blizzard games including Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, and soon Diablo 3. It also has some content for Blizzard's legacy games (Warcraft 3, Diablo 2, Starcraft 1). http://us.battle.net/sc2/en The official Starcraft 2 Community site features announcements and news related to Starcraft 2 as well as forums, a beginner's guide, and top 200 1v1 rankings. http://us.starcraft.com The official Starcraft 2 site. This is the site that started it all. Blizzard didn't update the site much and it is outdated compared to the community site, but it's still nice to go through those old articles and see how the game was made. -----Fan sites----- http://www.sc2armory.com One of the better fan sites out there. They cover Starcraft 2 news and have forums with a pretty friendly community. They also have a good visual overview of the races, units, and buildings. The administrator is very active, constantly adding new features to the site. http://sc2pod.com This is a fan site with Blizzard post trackers. When Blizzard makes an official post, it shows up in blue text on the forums. Blizzard forums don't have very good search functionality, so the tracker ensures you never miss their posts. http://sclegacy.com/ One of the oldest Starcraft fan sites that's still alive. It was formed sometime around 2000 and has grown ever since. They frequently have very good Starcraft 2 articles, rivaling the quality of research papers. http://starcraft.wikia.com The most up to date wiki for all things Starcraft. While not having much in the way of gameplay information, it can answer pretty much any Starcraft lore- related question. http://starfeeder.gameriot.com/ This is a Starcraft 2 pro gaming site with blogs and news. It also covers some custom maps. http://starcraft2forum.org/ These are some unofficial Starcraft 2 forums. http://www.sc2blog.com/ A popular blog devoted to Starcraft 2. http://www.starcraftwire.net/ This site used to be StarcraftWire but is now the Starcraft 2 portal in the IncGamers network. -----Maps & Modding----- http://www.sc2mapster.com This is the most popular place for custom map development. This is the development side of Curse's Starcraft 2 portal. http://sc2.curse.com/downloads/sc2-maps/default.aspx This is the download side of Curse's Starcraft 2 portal. http://sc2.nibbits.com/maps/ This is another site with custom maps, although I haven't used it much. I don't know if it has a lot of maps that Curse doesn't have. -----Multiplayer----- http://www.teamliquid.net This is the place to go if you want to follow the pro scene or even try your hand at becoming pro. TeamLiquid is a clan of Starcraft 1 & 2 players. In addition, the forums are filled with pros and experienced players from all around the world, so you can bet you will be getting good information. It's the best English language website for competitive enthusiasts. http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Main_Page The Liquipedia is a wiki for Starcraft 2 competitive multiplayer, featuring build orders, pro gamer biographies, and map strategies. It also has a little bit of information about the campaign. It is run and supported by TeamLiquid. http://www.youtube.com/huskystarcraft http://www.youtube.com/hdstarcraft http://www.youtube.com/day9tv Husky and HD in the last year have become extremely popular commentators of pro Starcraft 2 games. Both of them average over 100,000 viewers per day on their YouTube channels. Day[9], the 2007 WCG Pan-American Starcraft champion, is a popular analyst of pro game replays. His channel features highly in-depth analysis of all things Starcraft. He brings all of his pro gaming experience to the viewer. He also does commentating at several community tournaments. http://www.scforall.com/ http://www.youtube.com/ArtosisTV Artosis is a three time WCG US Champion. He works full time for IEG, one of the major players in Korean e-Sports (pro gaming), on the SCforAll website. He goes around meeting the top pro players and posts videos and news about them on the website. He also posts some of his videos on YouTube. He does commentating as well for many major events each year such as the WCG Grand Finals. http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/ http://www.sc2rc.com/ http://sc2rep.net/ http://www.sc2win.com/ These are some websites with Starcraft 2 replays. If you have a favorite pro player, you can search for their games and see how good they are. You can also use replays if you have trouble in a certain matchup (such as ZvT). Most replay sites let you search by matchup. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |----- XII. CLOSING ---------------------------------------------------[CLSN]-| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| =====A. Thanks=========================================================[TNKS]== * Blizzard - They invited me into the Starcraft 2 closed beta test and made a fun game. * Starcraft 2 Armory - They are very helpful especially the "Simple Question, Simple Answer" thread, which I used to answer the majority of the questions I had about subtle game mechanics. * The general Starcraft 2 community - When you see a lot of community involvement in various things it feels like your work will pay off such as this walkthrough. * You, the reader - Thanks for taking an interest in my FAQ. I hope this walkthrough was useful to your Starcraft 2 playing. * Andrew - Shatter the Sky strategy. * K S - Feedback to deal with Hybrids. * JP - Fixes to my directions in The Devil's Playground. * Chris W. - Corrections to Marauder, Missile Turret, and SCV Armory Upgrades data. * Michael T. - Protoss mini-campaign info and Nydus Canal unit limit. * Bobma - Unlocking secret mission through Mission Archives. * Jim P. - "You'ze So Crazy" typo. * Aaron K. - Map Editor Shortcut in Start Menu. * Denis B. - Typo in Supernova mission. * Esto - The Great Train Robbery strategy. * Montegoraon - In Utter Darkness strategy. * RV - Outbreak, Gates of Hell, and Shatter the Sky strategies. * Your Name Here - submit something today! =====B. Submissions====================================================[SBMS]== There are three kinds of submissions I'm looking for specifically. The first are corrections. I know I probably made a lot of mistakes when writing this. They could be as small as spelling mistakes or as big as bad directions. I always hated when I read a FAQ and their directions were backwards. I know how annoying that can be, so please let me know about big mistakes like that. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The Second Kind of Submission Submitted by: Your Name Here | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The second kind of submission I am looking for is your own strategies for beating a mission or a challenge. Maybe my strategy is the hard way of doing it. Maybe there is a more creative way to win. Maybe there are secrets in the mission I missed. Or maybe you just think your strategy is more fun. Regardless, your strategy will be featured in a box like this. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The third submission I am looking for is more questions for the FAQ section. Maybe some information was hard to find in my walkthrough or something in the game is tricky or whatever you can think of. I will add a new question or update an existing one with the new content. Please send submissions to my email address ( perfdark@gmail.com ). The subject line should have something like "Starcraft 2 Walkthrough". Please include a nickname in your email so you will receive credit. Everyone who sends quality submissions will be thanked in the section above. =====C. To-Do List=====================================================[TDLS]== -----Possible Additions----- These are ideas I am interested in doing for the FAQ/Walkthrough if I have time. Reader requests will also go here if I think they are a good idea. * All finished - Submit a request if there is something you would like added. -----Things I Will Never Do----- * Maps of the levels - This would take way too long to do well. ASCII art is really hard to do well for a game that isn't grid-based. * Multiplayer strategies - I don't have enough experience with multiplayer to be any kind authoritative source on the subject. The Multiplayer section will always be an overview of the gameplay modes possible and the basics of playing the game in multiplayer. I do provide links to the multiplayer experts, though. On the same line, I won't accept submissions for Build Orders or anything of that sort. * Complete unit and building stats - There are plenty of websites with tables and charts of all the units/buildings and their stats, which are more suited for that than a plain text document. I provide what they don't have: brief descriptions describing their most common uses and any special qualities I think they have. * Unit grades or ratings - There isn't much use for this, because every unit have some unique quality. For instance, Goliaths would seem to be a complete upgrade over Marines. Both can be healed/repaired in the field and both attack air and ground. However, Marines have the Stimpack ability which will boost their damage, Goliaths have longer air range, and Marines take up less space in Medivacs. These subtle differences make one of them better compared to the other in certain situations and strategies. In general some units are more well-rounded than others, but each one is useful in at least one strategy. * Make this guide into a Formatted FAQ (html) - Some readers have said they prefer a simple text file that they can download, so I won't be doing this for any of my Starcraft 2 FAQs.