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SMASH
AND GRAB
-
OBJECTIVE:
Defeat the Protoss forces and secure the artifact before the Zerg does. -
REWARDS:
110,000 Credits -
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
Smash
and Grab [15] - Complete all
mission objectives. -
Rock
Solid [10] - Complete the
mission on Normal difficulty without losing a unit to a Protoss Stone
Guardian. -
Hit
and Run [10] - Complete the
mission on Hard difficulty in less than 15 minutes. -
Meta:
Artifact Mastery [20] - Complete
all the Artifact mission achievements.
-
Smash
WALKTHROUGH
So, you're faced with a race to
the artifact against the Zerg.
This mission will test your ability to balance offense and defense, and
you have a new unit for offense that arrives shortly after the mission
begins:
-
Marauders
- 125 HP, 1 Armor,
10 damage (20 vs. Armored). High range, high damage against
armored targets. On top of that, they’re tough as
nails for infantry. Marauders should be a staple in
your army, and in this mission, make up the majority of your forces. -
Mercenaries
- These are limited super
units you can call in for a price. The main upside to these
is that they’re stronger, while not costing any more
supply. They make for excellent defenders so you can keep
them alive, and have them keep you alive so you can get larger armies
for offense rather than defense.
You'll want to proceed with the
usual start - produce a lot of SCVs, and get your
Engineering Bay upgrades rolling. Three barracks
with Tech Labs is the way to go for this mission. Marauders
and Medics are all you need for this mission, but note your
surroundings. There’s a relic outside of your base,
east of your base, and west. The west one is the one you need
to time right—as soon as the Zerg surge at your base for a
second time, take your forces and march west.
You’ll encounter some Zerg and Spine Crawlers. Focus your
Marauders on the buildings, they’re excellent against
them. March west down the ramp and then south and
you’ll encounter some Protoss defenses. Use the
same tactics with your Marauders to demolish them and collect your
artifact and get back into position at your base. Keep
building SCVs, upgrading, and building Barracks/Marauders with your
money during this.
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A
crossfire between the three statues is a surefire way to lose your
army. Retreat the moment they awaken to take
them down on more fair terms!
The next time the Zerg hit you,
it’s time to move
out. Grab the relic outside of your base first
thing. Take your pack of Marauders and Medics and march east,
dealing with the Pylons before the Photon Cannons to take
them offline. The Protoss will respond with rather meager
forces, only a few units at a time. Maul them and
continue.
During this, I’d put
up two Bunkers at your base and call in
War Pigs which are elite Marines. Have them take cover in
the Bunkers and they’ll provide the majority of the defense
you’ll need for this mission, and your newly produced units
can reinforce them as needed. One turret wouldn’t
hurt either as Mutalisks will be coming.
As you march east,
you’ll see a little path heading south and
west. Take it to find the third Protoss Relic guarded by some
Cannons that are no match for your Marauder pack. Continue
East up the Ramp to find the main Protoss base.
It’s honestly pretty weak, with defense and units sparsely
dotted throughout. Pummel them with your forces and to the
northeast corner of the base is a little path to the final Protoss
Relic.
At this point, you’ll
need at least 10 Mauraders, preferably
15 or more. Go for the relic and it will activate defenses,
bringing the statues to life. Immediately retreat to the
southwest before they activate, and use the superior range of your
Marauders to take on one at a time rather than being caught in the
middle of them all. Manage your units carefully if
you’re going for the achievement; the statues
cannot
score a kill on any of your units to earn it.
Honestly it's not that hard so long as you are a pure Marauder force
with a
few Medics.
If you’re going for
speed for the 15 minute achievement,
ignore the Relics and go straight for a ton of Marauders and a few
Medics. Push early, and push hard. One bunker of
War Pigs should provide enough defense, given you repair it on the
later Zerg waves.
Next
Mission: THE DIG
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THE DIG
-
OBJECTIVES:
- Reclaim the mining
facility. - Blast a hole in the Xel
Naga Facility
with the Laser Drill. - The Laser Drill must
survive. - Reclaim the 3 Protoss
Relics.
- Reclaim the mining
-
REWARD:
120,000 Credits -
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
The
Dig [15] - Complete all mission
objectives. -
Drill
Hard [10] - Kill 20 enemy units
with the Laser Drill on Normal difficulty. -
Yippee-ki-yay...
[10] - Destroy 50 Protoss
structures on Hard difficulty.
-
The
WALKTHROUGH
A handful of infantry venture
forth in a canyon filled with
Protoss? Hardly the best way to start a mission is it
not? Be careful with your infantry as you progress south, as
you can’t really afford any casualties against the initial
forces. Once you reach a line of Cannons, you’ll
get some good old fashioned artillery to take it out in the form
of another new unit for your army.
-
Siege
Tanks - Pound for pound
these are the exact same units from the original StarCraft.
It still wrecks stuff at
insane ranges, still does good splash damage, and is still incredibly
vulnerable to close combat. Tank mode now fires faster, but
does less damage to unarmored targets.
Siege up and drop the turrets.
Unsiege and move to the next
cliff, and siege up again. Once the canyon is clear, move forward
to capture the base.
There are two ramps to your
base, and the Protoss will hit each one
evenly. Start by getting your economy up and running with a
plethora of SCVs. Next, get two bunkers up at each ramp to
provide a defensive wall, and then behind that, park at least 5 Siege
Tanks on each side. Alternatively, on the
bottom ramp, you can position them near the edge to the east to give
them more time to fire. This can backfire, as if
they come at you with air at the same time, your tanks will be highly
vulnerable and they’re not exactly quick at switching back to
tank mode. The decision is yours.
I recommend lining the better
part of the northeast with Missile
Turrets. Air is rare, but is devastating when it
hits. Make sure your turrets are in good clusters
of 3 or 4 to pick off Void Rays before they can charge up and begin
devastating the area in short order.
Once your defenses and economy
are in order, the laser will have taken
off a good 20% of the door’s health, and the Protoss get
serious. Archons will begin showing up in the attack
positions outside the Protoss bases, and that’s
when you’ll get control of the Mining Laser to blast them to
dust if you choose. Oddly enough, you don’t need
the laser’s help if you have 6 or more Siege Tanks in good
position. You don’t need the laser’s help
in the entire mission if you have sufficient tanks and the
Marauder’s Concussive Shells ability researched, which does a
large slow in an area around the attacked unit.
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A
plethora of tanks will demolish everything that comes your way, even
the mighty Archons and Colossi. Let the Laser Drill do its thing once
your defenses are mighty.
They will sometimes send in
waves of Warp Prisms and Void Rays on an
offensive air raid. If the Warp Prisms deploy,
they’ll stream a steady wave of Zealots and Stalkers into
your base and probably, right on top of your tanks. Take them
out immediately!
The only time you’ll
need to move the laser is if
you’re going for the relics and
achievements. There are 3 facilities that can be
taken down by the laser to the west and southeast, and each one is
guarded by a few Photon Cannons. Rather than move your tanks
out of position, what you can do is lift-off your Barracks and fly it
over there to act as a sight for the Mining Laser to take them out, and
then sight for the laser to shoot for the facility as well.
Just send a unit over to claim it and that’s how you get each
relic this mission. Quite simple!
As for the achievements, one is
to blast 20 enemies with the
laser which, in the last 25% health on the main facility, you might be
tempted do anyway to as Colossi join the fray. If you’re not
going for that achievement, don’t bother. They do
not have the extended range upgrade on the Colossi, which gives them
about the same range as your bunker. That’s all
well and good… but they’ll melt to your Siege Tank
fire before they can get off any kind of threatening shots.
The other achievement is to
destroy 50 buildings with the Laser. Simply
float a Barracks around the edges of their bases and fry whatever comes
into sight to complete this one.
Previous
Mission: SMASH AND GRAB | Next
Mission: THE MOEBIUS FACTOR
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So who the hell is buying all
of these artifacts we keep digging
up? You finally get to meet the old man behind the black
market dealings that keep your credits flowing during this mission.
Of course, he’s under siege by the Zerg and needs your help
too. Didn’t see that coming, now did you?
THE
MOEBIUS FACTOR
-
OBJECTIVES:
- Don’t let
Kerrigan access a
data core! - Burn all three data
cores to the ground. - Kill the Brutalisk (3
Zerg Research).
- Don’t let
-
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
The
Moebius Factor [15] - Complete
all mission objectives. -
Alive
Inside! [10] - Locate all the
Moebius survivors on Normal difficuly. Just do a lot of flying with
your Medivacs around
Kerrigan’s path, and you’ll find them. Watch for
Spore Colonies though! -
Hard
Core [10] - Complete the mission
before Kerrigan destroys 6 Abandoned Structures on Hard difficulty.
Completing this one involves a much tighter time
limit! You’ll need to strike fast and hard, and this
one is best suited to a second attempt after you’ve got your
research and
an understanding of the mission. -
Meta:
Artifact Mastery [20] - Complete
all the Artifact mission achievements.
-
The
WALKTHROUGH
You start in a lovely secluded
area in the top right with only one ramp
entrance. Get your economy rolling with plenty of SCVs, and
make use of all of the Gas once your mineral income allows
it. The old man will send in some Medivacs, War Pigs, and
Marines to give you a hint at what you need to build to win this
mission.
Don't forget to establish your
defenses though, as you will come under attack as
you’re on the attack yourself. Two bunkers at the
entrance filled with Marines, a turret or two flanking them to the
west, and a pair of Siege Breakers added later are enough to keep you
safe despite the Nydus Worms spawning outside your base.
Infantry are the way to go on
this mission. Go with the old
M&M: Marines and Marauders. Get a second and possibly
third Barracks, Engineering bay to upgrade them, and plenty of supply
depots since you’ll need to build enough Medivacs to hold
them all and any stragglers you come across. Pump out Marines and
Marauders at about a 3 or 4:1:1 ratio, with the final one being
Medivacs.
Once you have 4 Medivacs
filled, it’s time to strike. Cruise
around southeast, over the impassable terrain to avoid any
defenders. Land on the ledge above the Data Core and bring it
down in no time. Also, say hi to the mercenaries you just
rescued, that’s why we left some room in these
dropships. Once it’s demolished, pack up and head
back to base and repair any damage your dropships might have
taken.
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Crushing
the Zerg here
is as easy as ever, especially now that you have flying healing in the
Medivac.
Finish your infantry upgrades
and keep cranking out the infantry and
Medivacs. Remember to call in Mercenaries as well, even the
Firebats get a good bit of use in this mission. Load up once
more, and this time there’s an annoying Brutalisk on an
island behind the main drag. Call in a pack of
Hel’s Angels if you have access to Vikings, and have them
escort you across to the island. Dump your infantry and fill
the Brutalisk full of holes. It might kill one Firebat, if
that. Load up again and dance northwest, then cut northeast
and east and to an area due south of the northern Data Core.
Some more mercenaries are here
brawling against the Zerg.
Instead of picking them up, drop everything off and commence a full
ground attack against the Data Core. There is no ledge to
pick it off easily this time around, and there is a full base
there. Annihilate it with your legion of infantry, and once
things are looking good, head back to base with just your Medivacs and
pick up any reinforcements you’ve built or hired.
Drop them off back at your main army, and commence a full ground attack
at the final Data Core.
Even though the name of the
game is Medivacs to dance around defenses,
the way to the last Core is peppered with clusters of Spores ready to
shoot you down. You have enough infantry
and healing at this point to just pummel your way through the meager
defense of Roaches, Hydralisks and Ultralisks scattered along the
road. You’ll barely stop until you hit the base,
and then the base will erupt in the blood of the Zerg as you stop for a
split second to kill them all.
Kerrigan is probably twiddling
her fingers in the middle of the map,
oblivious to the carnage you’ve caused. Leave her
in the dust and get off this rock when the third data core is down!
Previous
Mission: THE DIG | Next
Mission: SUPERNOVA
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Out of the frying pan and
into the fire they say. Only this time, it’s literal...
SUPERNOVA
-
OBJECTIVES:
- Destroy the Protoss
Vault. - Don’t burn
alive! - Capture the 4 Protoss
Relics (4 Protoss
Research).
- Destroy the Protoss
-
REWARD:
125,000 Credits -
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
Supernova
[15] - Complete all mission
objectives -
Cool
Running
[10] - Complete the mission on
Normal difficulty without losing a unit to the wall of fire. -
Shock
'n Awe [10] - Kill 75 enemy
units or structures with cloaked Banshees on Hard difficulty.
You’ll get it without trying so long as you’re
using Banshees aggressively from the start.
-
Supernova
WALKTHROUGH
The
detonating star has created a wall of fire that is slowly moving
east. On top of that, you have jack for resources in your
main base. If you’ve taken the Automated Refinery
research from the Protoss Tech Tree, you’ll love it here as
you’ll be going mobile every so often.
You start off with four
Banshees. Fly in and wreak havoc on
the landing zone, striking from the corners that don’t have
Photon Cannons to be safely out of range. Land and begin your
economy operations, but you’re going to be rolling light this
mission. You don’t have to place any supply depots
thankfully.
Plant a tech lab for your
Starport and start cranking Banshees as fast
as you can. Place an armory as far to the east as you can so
it has ample time to finish a few upgrades, and start pumping out air
weapons and armor. In the meantime, grab your Banshees and
start hunting. There is a base to the northwest that you can
go for to take some heat off your base (not the fire,
attacks). It’s highly vulnerable to Banshees with
sparse detection and only a few Warp Prisms to keep the base
running. That, or you can start attacking the outpost due
east of your base.
Either way, there’s a
lone Zealot outside your base guarding
a Relic. Liberate it. Attacks will begin to flow at
you in the form of Zealots and Stalkers. Your starting
infantry can handle the first attack or two, but you’ll need
to reinforce with Medics if you plan on defending with infantry, or
slapping part of your air force there to keep it safe. The
decision is yours.
With one or two bases cleared
out by those Banshees you started out
with and a few others, you should have picked up the Shock and Awe
achievement without even trying. Hopefully level 1 weapons
and armor have finished by now, and the minerals in your base are
probably starting to fade, so it’s time to move.
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Fire
is bad, but you can leave the Protoss structures behind to burn and
move on to better targets!
The base due east that you
cleared out is your next landing
site. Ignore what Raynor says about planting in the middle of
that Protoss encampment for now, and set up shop there. If
you have Automated Refineries, you can gain gas from your old base
still until it’s claimed by the fire. Make sure you
bring everything you can with you. That’s
everything but the add-ons, and if you built bunkers, salvage them.
Fix up your Banshees as needed,
and start getting a more normal SCV
count. Storm the base in the middle that Raynor pointed out
at this point. Watch out for Archons, as their splash damage
will inflict serious pain. Air units may show up as
reinforcements, so before you lose your Mercenary Camp, call in a
squadron of Hel’s Angels to serve as your anti-air for the
mission.
It’ll take some time
to clean that place out once the threats
are gone. Split a few Banshees from the main group and head
northwest to find the next Protoss Relic which is lightly guarded.
Transform a Viking to pick it up. Once this base is cleaned
out, you’ve probably lost your starting position to the
fire. Rebuild your Armory as far east as possible at either
the bottom expansion, or the newly liberated middle one and start on
level 2 weapons.
Begin clearing to the
southeast. You’ll run into
the next relic before the southeast base, use a Viking to pick it up
yet again. The southeast base isn’t sporting anything
different than the base you just cleared out and are living at now, so
take it out quickly with your increasing Banshee count. Head
due east and you’ll see the final Relic guarded by a few
Stalkers and a High Templar. Be *very* careful for Psi
Storm. It will ruin your day and force a lot of repairs and
rebuilding.
The final base outside the
Vault has a surprising number of air
units. If you’ve lost any of your Vikings so far, I
would suggest building another Mercenary Camp and grabbing another set
of Hel’s Angels, as you’ll be running into Void
Rays and Carriers at this base. These are two things that
cannot be allowed to live very long, so you need the
firepower. Cloaked Banshees will rock everything on the
ground though, so just keep a watchful eye out for the air interference
and you’ll claim victory once you’ve destroyed the
vault!
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Mission: THE MOEBIUS FACTOR | Next
Mission: MAW OF THE VOID
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After Raynor negotiates
with the son of Mengsk, you’re off to the deep reaches of
space for a mission in endurance. Are all of these artifacts
really worth this trouble? Seriously, Raynor, I know you love
her man, but we’re getting tired of these odds.
MAW OF
THE VOID
-
OBJECTIVES:
- Clear the landing zone.
- Destroy the
Xel’Naga
Vault (4
Protoss Research). - Release the 4 groups of
Prisoners.
-
REWARD:
125,000 Credits. -
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-
Maw
of the Void [15] - Complete all
mission objectives. -
I
Have the Power [10] - Destroy
all Rip-Field Generators in the mission on Normal difficulty. This one
is pretty simple, just be thorough before you go for the Vault. -
Master
of the Universe [10] - Complete
the mission without losing a unit inside the Rip-Field on Hard
difficulty. Use
only Battlecruisers, and micromanage well for this one. Don’t
let Void Rays
charge up, don’t sit in the
Mothership’s attack radius for too long, etc. -
Meta:
Artifact Mastery [20] - Complete
all the Artifact mission achievements.
-
Maw
WALKTHROUGH
You start off the mission with
nothing but 3 Battlecruisers.
What more can a guy ask for? Rush in and kill everything to
get this mission started. Note that the field will do about 3
HP a second in damage to any Terran unit that is in one.
-
Battlecruisers:
Packing a ton
of HP, high armor, and a rapid fire attack that melts ground targets
and air targets? AND it has the Yamato Cannon?
What’s not to like? It is a little weaker against
Air units than
ground, but you can just Yamato most heavy anti-air
targets. It’s a powerhouse, without a doubt.
The first thing
you’ll notice is your main base sucks.
You have a bunch of basic buildings, a handful of SCVs, and terrible
resources, most notably, only one gas geyser. Nevertheless,
get your economy going and throw down an Armory when you can afford
it. A bunker isn’t necessary, but you have to fill
it and you’re not going to remain on this island for long.
Take your starting
Battlecruisers and do a counter-clockwise loop
around your island. You’ll notice that there are a
lot of resources lying around, with some meager guards. Take
care of them and send an SCV to collect them all. Park your
Battlecruisers just southwest of your ramp. You’ll see why in
a second.
The primary offense coming at
your island will be from Warp Prisms
dropping off units. Your Battlecruisers can intercept them
before they even drop them, eliminating the need to even build any
defenses. Start on basic ship weapons and armor, and call in
a group of Hel’s Angels to assume complete control over the
skies. While you’re at it, it’s time to
make more Battlecruisers. It’s ALWAYS time to make
more Battlecruisers.
Once you have at least 5,
you’re ready to assault the main
area. There are three Photon Cannons begging to feel your
Yamato Cannons, so let them have it. Charge west and unload
on the field generator there to disable it.
There’s a Nexus and a handful of basic troops, let your
Battlecruisers handle the ground, and your Viking mercenaries handle
the air.
Once it’s clear,
you’re ready to move over since
your main base is either completely out or almost out of resources.
Load
some SCVs into the command center and get a Medivac to bring anything
else you left behind. Leave the rest of your buildings
behind, they really don’t matter. Land at where
their base was and you’ll see three gas geysers as opposed to
the one you had before. Now we’re talking!
Establish a basic defense here,
one bunker with War Pigs and a couple
turrets flanking it should be plenty of time to make a real
response. On the ledges above your base are a bunch of
resources. Either bring a Reaper over, or use a Medivac to
deposit a unit on each one to collect it. Now storm south
with half of your fleet and take out the prison there, and three Dark
Templar will join you. These are important because they
don’t take any damage from the fields, and because the
Protoss have terrible detection in the first half of the map.
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The
final firefight is insane. Stay focused and Yamato the Void Rays and
Carriers that come forward, and keep detection on hand to counter the
stealth!
Take your Dark Templar and
clear everything out.
Note that there are resources scattered on the edges of the island
you’re on now, and some bridges have a lot of them.
You’ll need them to fuel your Battlecruiser fleet, which
should be getting repaired and upgraded to level 2 weapons and armor
during this. You should be able to break the second prison
and kill everything up to a ramp that leads to four Gateways.
Now take your 6 Dark Templar, and set them on patrol outside this ramp
a little ways to handle the majority of ground forces that come your
way before they even reach you. Ta-da, your defense is now pretty
much complete.
Offense at this point is going
to be frustrating.
You’re going to take a lot of damage from the fields no
matter what you do. If you took the Zerg research that gives
your vehicles and ships health regeneration you will LOVE it
here. If you took the Protoss research for Science Vessels,
build 4 early so they can accumulate enough energy to heal your ships
to full inbetween attack runs. If you took neither, your
fleets will be awfully small due to the massive amount of repairs you
have to do. It’s still doable though.
Charge ahead with your fleet
once you have at least 10
Battlecruisers. The remaining prisoners are very easy to
reach with a few Battlecruisers, so free them for the objective before
you begin your final offensive. Start leveling weapons and
armor to level 3, and take out the next generator atop the hill with a
hail of Yamato shots. Keep your Hel’s Angels on
hand (call in a second team!) to be your anti-air
response. One volley from them can wreck almost anything in
the skies, leaving your Battlecruisers free to terrorize the ground.
The final push is the worst due
to the Mothership floating
around. The good news is that if you upgraded Viking range,
you can bombard the hell out of it without it ever getting to shoot
back. When it gets damaged, it teleports back to try and
regenerate some shields. It’ll wander back to the
front shortly and then you can do the same thing again, and
it will probably teleport again. Damn it. Keep at
it, and don’t get tunnel vision on the Mothership.
The Void Rays are your highest priority target, and die to one Yamato
shot if you can target them before they get in range.
Vortex and Psi Storm are going
to be aimed at your armada.
It’s your choice whether to shrug it off and suck it up, or
bait them and retreat. Either way, if you’re going
for the achievement you should save before this final
assault. Once you’ve taken care of most of the
defenders, hammer the Yamato key and click the Vault like mad to end
the mission!
Previous
Mission: SUPERNOVA
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