alt="StarCraft II Mission Guides"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87363/preview">
initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">
So much for an easy assault on
Char I guess.
Raynor’s boys have their work cut out for them as one of the
only groups who made it to the surface in one piece.
GATES OF
HELL
-
OBJECTIVES:
- Raise a strong army (100
population) - Destroy the Nydus Worms
- Raise a strong army (100
-
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
Gates
of Hell [15] - Complete all
mission objectives. -
The
Big Bang Cannon [10] - Destroy
all
the Spore Cannons on Normal difficulty. This one is fairly easy. On
your way to
each Drop Pod and to the general, one should show up. -
Dominion
Roundup [10] - Rescue 10
Drop-Pods of Dominion Troops on Hard difficulty. This one can be
somewhat difficult your first time through,
but the easy way to do it is explained in the walkthrough below. -
Meta:
Final Mastery [20] - Complete
all the Final Mission achievements.
-
Gates
WALKTHROUGH
Well, this sucks. You have a
modest pile of minerals, one gas
geyser, and the Zerg are swarming your position.
Immediately get your economy going and decide what units
you’re
going to go for to clear this mission. There are a lot of
Mutalisks throughout this mission, and a handful of Brood Lords, so
having an anti-air presence is important. I would recommend
going Marines and Medics if you have the respective tech for them, and
if not, Goliaths are fantastic with the ground & air attack
research.
You’ll get a message
that some Drop Pods are landing intact,
and the troops are stranded. The Zerg will position a force
large enough to kill them in between you and them, and it’s
up to you to get to them before that attack force decides to wipe them
out. Marines will land to the northeast, just grab your
starting forces and crush the Zerglings in your path. Now is
a good time to get your defenses in order, because the Zerg will come
at you semi-hard when a Drop Pod isn’t down. Two
bunkers, one tank and a Siege Breaker at each entrance should hold
fairly well.
The next group is a pack of
Marauders to the southeast, guarded by more
Zerglings. Just mess them up. Near each drop pod
are resource crates to be claimed typically, so gather those to make up
for the lack of gas at your main base. Make sure
you’re mass producing whatever you’ve decided to go
with, as the drop pods and attacks will keep coming. The
first semi-difficult pod will arrive due west, and is guarded by a pack
of Hydralisks and Spine Crawlers. Get the
Hydralisks’ attention, and then pull them away from the Spine
Crawlers to make your life a whole lot easier. You can then
use Siege Tanks or just barrel over them if you’re using
infantry and medics.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87773">
alt="StarCraft II Gates of Hell"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87773/preview"
width="620">
Is
Warfield really worth saving after taking terrible, terrible damage?
Mercenaries are exceptionally
powerful on this map since there are
relatively small engagements. Make sure you’re
calling them in at every point they’re available, even the
Firebats! Once you claim the 6th drop pod, the attacks will
intensify and you’ll need to brace yourself for a new
strategy. Head out with your main force to the southeast, and
when the 7th and 8th pod drop (yes, at the same time!)
you’ll be in position to
immediately attack one of
them. Claim the forces there with a Hellion or Vulture while
your force turns and marches to the north to the other one.
You should be able to make it in time before they attack the isolated
forces.
Now
from the position of the northern drop pod, only
march a little southwest. The 9th and 10th will drop, and
you’ll be in position to take on the enemies guarding a
lovely group of Thors. Turn and march towards the west to
claim the Battlecruiser group before they get annihilated by the
Corruptors, and your army should be looking pretty sweet at this point.
By now, Grayfield has taken
terrible, terrible damage and crashed into
that poor Hydralisk. You should be packing an army anywhere
from 170-200 supply by now, with a handful of upgrades and a well
diversified force. Just crush everything in your
path. You don’t even have to strain or micro a
whole lot. There isn’t much of a force between you
and him, and with the exception of a few Brood Lords, nothing you have
to watch out for.
Make your way to the Nydus
Worms with your rag-tag band of mercenaries
and assimilated troops, and you’ll rescue the old
man. And I thought Raynor only rescued damsels in distress.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87774">
alt="StarCraft II Neutralize Ground or Air Units"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87774/preview"
width="620">
You'll
need to decide whether you want to
neutralize ground or air units before heading into the final mission,
All In.
After completion of Gates
of
Hell you'll hit another point in the mission chain where you'll need to
make a decision between two paths to advance. If you choose to wipe out
the Zerg ground units, your next mission will be Belly of the Beast. If
you opt to take Warfield's suggesion instead you'll be taking out the
Zerg air support in Shatter the
Sky.
Next
Mission:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87778/page/2">BELLY
OF THE BEAST or
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87778/page/3">SHATTER
THE SKY
alt="StarCraft II Mission Guides"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87363/preview">
initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">
If you’re not
claustrophobic,
you’ll probably prefer the route that has you tearing into
those pesky Nydus Worms. You’ll lead a squad of a
few good men, well, let’s just say a few men into the belly
of the beast.
BELLY OF
THE BEAST
-
OBJECTIVES:
- Set all three charges to
blow the cavern. - Escape!
- Set all three charges to
-
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
Belly
of the Beast [15] - Complete all
mission objectives. -
Unbreakable
[10] - Complete the mission
without letting a hero fall Incapacitated on Normal difficulty. This
one should be pretty
simple, considering how strong your medic is. -
One
Shot, Fifty Kills! [10] Kill 50
units with a single Penetrator Round in the mission on Hard difficulty.
Frustrating, but I had the best luck shooting in the second
charge’s area, when Swann says something about changing
position and the infested charge you. Line it up! -
Meta:
Final Mastery [20] - Complete
all the Final mission achievements.
-
Belly
WALKTHROUGH
This whole mission revolves
around your
control of four hero units. Each one has a specific skill
that will need to be used often, and used well to succeed in this
mission. The first cavern is quite simple to navigate, and
introduces all of the skills you’ll be using in the
mission. Aside from a short side trek to rescue the
four Marines and Medic, you should blow through this area in no time.
Let’s take a look at
what you’re using in this
mission before we go on:
-
Raynor’s
Penetrating Shot
– Does a whopping 300 damage in a long line.
Positioning is everything when firing this. Makes for an
excellent Nydus Worm killer. -
Tychus’s
Shredder Grenade
– Less range, but a much wider blast and does 200
damage. Tychus should be on the front lines more than anyone,
so the range won’t be an issue. This is your best
horde response weapon. -
Swann’s
Flaming Betty
– Swann’s BFF (look at its rank after you deploy
it!) is great at holding armies off, and softening them
up. Enemies love to surround and swarm it, making them easy
pickings for Tychus’s great area hitting attack and
ability. Has a long cooldown, so make it count when you put
it down. -
The
Tab Button – With
every
hero selected, you can use the Tab button to go to the next one, or
Shift-Tab to go back one. This is critical to firing off
abilities in rapid succession.
Once you reach the first
charge, you have to defend it until
it’s armed. There are three paths to the bomb, and
you’ll need to defend each. The game will suggest
using Flaming Betty to block one of them off, but if you put it where
the two north paths meet, it’ll attract enemies from both
sides. You want this! Other than that,
just use your Penetrating Shot and Shredder Grenades on the Nydus Worms
the moment they spawn and make sure you don’t let that charge
get attacked too much!
The second cavern is filled
with Infested. You can safely
snipe Infestors from afar with Raynor, so don’t get bogged
down behind the wall of meat they throw at you. Use your
abilities liberally to cut through the masses and make your way
south. When you get the radio signal about the nearby squad,
there will be an ambush squad coming from behind, so watch your
flanks. Banelings are painful to your rescued Marines and
Medics, so take them out with focused fire or abilities before they
reach you. Drop a few Nydus Worms and you’ll get 2
Firebats and a Medic.
Get them in front and charge
forward. This next area is a
gauntlet of continually spawning Zerg, so move
quick! Thin out the pack and gain ground, repeating
as necessary until you spot a Nydus Worm in the distance.
Immediately snipe it with Raynor to both gain more ground, and take
some of the pressure off of you. When you’re
approaching the last worm, an Ultralisk will jump out and attempt to
dice you. Either distract it with a Flaming Betty,
or smash it instantly with well aimed specials from Raynor and Tychus.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87772">
alt="StarCraft II Belly of the Beast"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87772/preview"
width="620">
More
missions need nuclear explosions, wouldn't you say?
Move forward and set
up shop at the second nuke beacon. The
big thing to watch out for here are the two worms that spawn to the
west around the same time. Drop them as fast as possible so
you don’t get overwhelmed while dealing with the other stuff
coming at you. Attacks from the east are rare, but Infestors
love to set up shop there and hurl eggs at you. When the
earthquake hits, 2 Ultralisks will pop out of the ground and
that’s when you have to throw down a Flaming Betty in their
path and immediately line up two good hits with Raynor and
Tychus. You simply don’t have the firepower to take
on two at once without your special abilities, so make them count!
Cavern number three is
incredibly straight forward. There are
three chambers of eggs along your path. When you reach one,
throw Betty into the middle and take out as much as you can with your
special abilities before dealing with the ones that hatch.
The exception to this is the second room. There will be a
line of banelings coming from about one o’clock, and you need
to time a Penetrator Round to take them all out at once or you risk
some severe damage. The third room has a nasty Ultralisk
pounding away at some destructible rocks between it and a pack of
Marines. Give it everything you’ve got once
you’ve cleared the eggs out, and you should be able to save
the Marines without too much trouble.
The next chamber is full of
Eggs, and a very pissed off
queen. She starts in the top right, and will hatch eggs until
you fill her full of holes enough to make her burrow.
Typically it’s about every 750 health, so unload on it quick
and you’ll have very few little guys to begin with. Make
sure to clear out the initial wave of forces before you go after the
Queen or you’ll get eaten alive.
Once
she’s made a trip to the north, west, and south chambers, the
next place she’ll come up will be just north of the southern
chamber entrance. Set up a Betty next to her the moment she
emerges, because now she’s even more pissed and will scream
from time to time, stunning everyone for two seconds. This
can cause the eggs to hatch as well, and will overwhelm you quickly,
especially if she’s attacking a hero at the
moment! The Betty will make or break this fight, so
quickly bring her down with another double whammy from Raynor and
Tychus once it’s in place and the Queen is distracted.
Time to get the hell out. The
path is quite simple, and you
just have to use an ability every now and then to clear the path to
higher terrain. Escape to the surface, and you just buried
the Nydus Network in rubble for the final battle!
Previous
Mission:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides/final-missions">GATES
OF HELL | Next
Mission:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87778/page/3">SHATTER
THE SKY
alt="StarCraft II Mission Guides"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87363/preview">
initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">
If you fear the Zerg air
power, you’re not going to let this opportunity to crush it
pass you by. It’s time to…
SHATTER
THE SKY
-
OBJECTIVES:
- Blow all four Orbital
Platforms. - Kill the Leviathan!
- Blow all four Orbital
-
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
Shatter
the Sky [15] - Complete all
mission objectives. -
Demolition
Man [10] - Complete the mission
without losing a unit to a platform explosion on Normal difficulty.
Simple. Just get in
and get out. Really should be
done without even knowing the
achievement exists. -
Speed
Too! [10] - Complete the mission
on Hard difficutly in less than 25 minutes. Easier than it sounds once
you know what
you’re up against and the respective weaknesses of each
platform. -
Meta:
Final Mastery [20] - Complete
all the Final mission achievements.
-
Shatter
WALKTHROUGH
You start off in the top right
with a medium-size force and a fairly
high tech base for once. Get your economy up as fast as you
can, speed is what matters here. While the SCVs are training,
you can take your Battlecruiser and send it towards the
first platform
and start clearing things out. Make liberal use of the Yamato
Gun on Spore Crawlers, and once the first Zerg ground attack hits, you
can send in the rest of your forces for support.
When the first Reactor Core
located just outside of your base falls, you have 45 seconds to clear
the
hell out. Do a full retreat to your base, and leave no unit
behind. Only stop to kill the occasional Zerg nipping at your
heels. Once you’re all clear, resume your economy
building and start on some basic defenses and two armies.
Also note that a detonation leaves a plethora of resources on the
platform for pickup, so make sure and send an SCV over.
Defenses are pretty basic here.
Attacks from the southeast
are very rare, but you should have one bunker there just in
case. Slide a second bunker a little to the northwest of it,
fill them with Marines to handle the incoming air and then drop in two
Siege Breakers when they are available to pull attackers to your
bunkers. That should be plenty of defenses when combined with
your forces in production.
Your first army is going to be
more of a strike team. You
start with a pair of Banshees and a Battlecruiser. The only
things you need to add are mercenaries. Add a pack of Banshee
and Viking Mercenaries, and you’re good to go for this
team. It’s going to hammer the northwest Reactor
Core, which is sorely lacking in air defense.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87775">
alt="StarCraft II Shatter the Sky"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87775/preview"
width="620">
The
Zerg aren't too bright these days, making nests next to unstable
reactors.
Fly west, and
you’ll come across
an expansion with some basic
defenses. Use your Yamato cannons here to bring down the
Spore Crawlers, and clean up to move on to the platform
itself. Cloak your Banshees and do an attack move
with your Vikings to clear the skies of Overseers and
Overlords. Have your Banshees handle the tiny number of
Hydralisks on the platform, and then blitz the Spore Colony guarding
the reactor. Take it out, and evacuate, laughing at their
massive ground defense detonating with the platform.
The second army will be a
Marine and Medic/Medivac squad, so make sure
you’re picking up the appropriate infantry
upgrades. Go heavy on the Marines, and sally forth towards
the bottom right platform at about 50 infantry
strong. Slay everything in your way, bringing your
Vikings to deal with the Brood Lords that hang around on the middle
section. Once you reach the platform itself, take the south
branch and clear a path through the cloud of Mutalisks to the
Reactor. Blow it, and be careful leaving.
You’ll come under attack a few times on the way out, but you
have to keep moving!
After you detonate the second
platform, whichever it is, you get a
visit from a lovely being known as the Leviathan.
It’s a 2000 HP Behemoth that isn’t
classified as Armored or Light, so no anti-air specialists can really
dominate it aside from upgraded Marines. And
that’s just what we’ve got!
Make sure you’re still cranking Marines, and once you hit
about 70, take your accompanying medics as well and head to the middle
where it patrols about. It has four
sunken colony tentacles on bottom that will target Marines at random,
and you cannot out heal them. You’ll take
casualties quickly, but Stimpack if you’ve got it and hit it
with everything that you’ve got for anti-air.
It’ll go down quickly enough.
Continue to the final platform
with both combat teams, leaving the
Siege Breakers at base just in case. Push forward and when
the path splits, keep your army together. Both paths lead to the
Reactor, but splitting your forces just leads to needless
casualties. With anti-air and anti-ground dominance, the path
will be strewn with Zerg corpses and you’ll take out the
final reactor with ease. This time you don’t have
to run thankfully. The only one that needs to run now is
Kerrigan!
Previous
Mission:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87778/page/2">BELLY
OF THE BEAST | Next
Mission:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87778/page/4">ALL
IN
alt="StarCraft II Mission Guides"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87363/preview">
initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">
This is it. The final battle
rides on your ability to be
everywhere at once. I hope you’re ready for a
defense that is even
harder than In Utter Darkness.
Please note: The following
walkthrough assumes you’ve
done the Belly of the Beast mission before this one and destroyed their
Nyduses. It’s a whole new ball game if the air is
gone and the Nydus are there.
We'll update this guide with the walkthrough for if you elected to take
Shatter the Sky soon!
ALL IN -
VERSION ONE: NYDUS NETWORK FLOODED
-
OBJECTIVES:
Hold out until the Artifact is charged! -
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
All
In [15] - Complete all mission
objectives. -
Burn
and Turn [10] - Kill 150 Zerg
units with the Artifact on Normal difficulty. The best way
to go about this is probably to allow the Overlord drop to happen in
full, wait about 15-20 seconds or until you’re going to lose
too many vital units or buildings, and then hit it. -
Aces
High [10] - Use the Artifact
only once in the mission on Hard difficulty. Honestly, I
could’ve done it without using it at all my second time
through. The Zerg can randomly swarm hard and Matt will call
when it’s looking like a good energy pulse. -
Meta:
Final Mastery [20] - Complete
all the Final mission achievements.
-
All
WALKTHROUGH
Let’s face it.
Kerrigan is
pissed and has you
completely surrounded, so there’s no time to waste.
Throw your massive pile of SCVs to work and immediately train 5 more.
Even if you have automated refineries, train 5 more. You will
be pulling SCVs off to repair and rebuild very often, and you
don’t want to miss out on valuable income when the s**t
really hits the fan.
There are 6 routes to your
base. Here’s how to
defend each one:
-
The
2 Sides: The sides will receive
the brunt of the ground
attack. Ultralisks will come, but so will a lot of air power
once things get heavy. Go with three bunkers full of Marines
and a Maruader or two if you have the Concussive Shot
research. Add three tanks behind those. Add a
turret or two, and the most important part, add your Zerg Research
counter tower there. That means a Hive Mind Emulator, or a
Psi Disruptor. The Psi Disruptor is absolutely amazing in
combination with Siege Tanks, as they’ll never get close
enough to threaten you even with friendly fire on your
bunkers.
Once you hit the halfway point, add a patrol of at
least 4 Vikings to each side to pick off any Brood Lords that you might
be too busy to deal with. -
The
2 Front Lanes: A combination of
ground, air, and a certain Queen of
Blades will come up these. The Artifact is on high ground between the
two lanes,
and you can place Bunkers and Tanks up there to handle these.
Two filled bunkers and two tanks are enough for this. If the
ground forces get too far in, the Siege Tanks from the side lanes will
be able to fire on them for support, given they’re not
busy. Disregard the air, as we’ll handle it with
the next lane or with the Marines. -
The
Artifact by Air: A ton of air
will be streaming in throughout
the mission, coming from various angles and heading right for your
precious Artifact. I’m going to hope you have
taken both Viking research options, as that will give you a whopping 11
range
and splash damage on your air to air missiles. This is what
you need to win - a Starport with a Reactor on it pumping out
Vikings for pretty much the entire
mission.
Send a squadron to the top right
of the artifact ledge by the lane, and set a patrol point to the other
lane’s edge. If you have the Zerg research that
enables regeneration over time, you will barely have to replace
these. It totally neuters Mutalisk bounce damage! -
From
behind!?: Yes, those lovable
Zerg will sometimes take
time from their hard day of raiding you to come around back.
They’ll come right over your SCVs, and they will make your
life hell if you don’t handle them. The attacks
from the back are few and far between, and fairly weak to be honest,
but you will lose if they’re not neutralized in a
hurry. Five Vikings are enough to secure this. Put
them on patrol a little ways over the lava by your Minerals in a long
line to catch any wandering Mutalisks or Overlords.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87771">
alt="StarCraft II All In"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/87771/preview"
width="620">
Raynor,
your girl just came out of... whatever the hell that is. You sure about
saving her?
So that’s the basis
of the defense strategy. Now
let’s talk about what ELSE is going to be hitting you:
Kerrigan:
I hate people that don’t follow the
rules. She shows up a total of four times on Hard, at about
every 20% the artifact charges. Kerrigan’s packing
1250 HP, a long range attack that does a good 150+ to structures or 75+
to units, and has two abilities.
-
Psi
Swarm: It’s a psi
storm
that has a wider range and does damage a little slower. If
you come at her with too many units too close together,
she’ll immediately hit them with this.
It’s not a problem if you react quickly. -
Telekinetic
Slam: Basically, if she
doesn’t like something that’s shooting at her and
it’s a costly unit, she’ll just Psi Suplex them for
an instant kill. This can hit air, and will sink a
battlecruiser instantly. Sucks to be that guy. -
It
Doesn’t Hurt: Kerrigan
takes reduced damage from high damage blasts. You cannot
Yamato her or expect her to fall to a line of Siege Tanks in two
seconds.
There are a few ways to deal
with her. Banshees absolutely
rip her apart, hitting twice for solid damage that isn’t
reduced by much. You can run distraction screens with Marine
mobs while your Tanks and bunkers whittle her down.
She’s a good target to throw Mercenary Firebats and Medics
at, since they have no use otherwise and are tough as hell.
Anyway, when she gets in range,
she needs to die. Quickly.
The
Overlord Drop: This is an
interesting one. When
it activates, Overlords will charge you from every single
angle. They’ll start dumping Creep and spawning
random Zerg units if they reach a spot in your
base. You should have a wide screen of Viking
Patrols at this point, and with a couple weapon upgrades and a little
luck you’ll gun down virtually all of them before they
drop. Have any extra infantry laying around put
down the rest of the threat.
The
Leviathan: Matt says it best.
You have a flying
juggernaut cruising at your base, and it stops right
outside the artifact range and outside any ground to air defenses at
that range. You might ask, why bother? It
spawns Mutalisks and Brood Lords, and it spawns them faster and faster
the longer it lives. The moment you hear about a Class 10
Zerg Flyer coming in, immediately grab EVERY Viking you have and get
ready to blitz it when it is away from any defenses.
Charge at it and then spread
out. It has an area of effect
corruption that will take the affected units out of the fight for a
solid 10 seconds, and a rather pathetic air to air attack for something
so big. It has 2500 HP, solid armor, and the main thing to
note is that it is NOT considered an Armored target (though it is
massive) so your Vikings do not get their badass damage
bonus. Stay focused and bring it down as fast as you can, and
only take a break to shoot at Mutalisks if the numbers are getting
ugly. Once it’s dead, the main threat of the
mission is over.
The
Creep Bombing: Like any good
survival mission on Hard or higher in
StarCraft II,
the moment you think victory is in sight in the last 20%,
random crap starts falling out of the sky. These pods can
contain broodlings, Zerglings, and even Hydralisks. Keep
training units at your base and have newly trained units contain any
drops in your production or SCV area.
Also, I hope you bought
the Siege Tank friendly fire -75% upgrade. I didn’t
, and when this started happening I started blowing up my own bunkers
and tanks left and right. Stay focused and contain
any fires or threats, and reinforce any weak sides before they get
overwhelmed.
The key things to keep in mind
throughout this mission are:
- Keep
producing units. - Keep
reinforcing weak areas with additional Bunkers and repairs. - Keep
filling that wench Kerrigan full of holes. - Have
Vikings patrol every inch outside of your front lines to handle
Broodlords.
Do all of that, and maybe, just
maybe, Kerrigan will respond to the
artifact when it’s fully charged…
Previous
Mission:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87778/page/3">SHATTER
THE SKY
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Game Page.
