The first mission is something of a tutorial – you’re guiding a few marines against a Dominion base. Select your team and start heading down the road. You can give your enemies move commands with by Right-Clicking, or by pushing the M key and clicking where you want your units to go.
Follow the road to the bend, where you’ll come across two Dominion marines. Attack them by Right-Clicking or pressing the A key and selecting the enemy units. Focus all your troops’ fire on a single unit to kill it quickly and minimize your damage.
ACHIEVEMENT: Use Raynor – he’s the marine wearing gray, accessible if you hit F2 – to kill five units himself on at least Normal difficulty, and you’ll unlock the “Raynor’s Back” Achievement. Just send Raynor to kill each of these early straggler marines himself and you’ll get the achievement easily.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you’re on Hard difficulty, you can get the “Down with Mengsk” Achievement for taking out every enemy unit – which you’ll probably do anyway.
A little further, you’ll see a holoboard of a Mengsk propaganda recording. Destroy it – there are six in the level and knocking out all of them is a bonus objective.
Just up the road is another marine. Kill him and move into the town square, where marines are amassing behind barricades to take you on.
Reinforcements fall right behind the enemy troops. Send Raynor’s group in to flank them and concentrate the reinforcements’ fire on single units to knock them out fast. When the fight’s over, select all the remaining units and move west.
Knock out the holoboard there, then go south and get another one. Watch out for the two marines near the southern board.
Go southeast from that board and you’ll find a fourth holoboard around a corner. Destroy it as well, then move to the north.
As you move up, you’ll see marines harassing a group of locals. Take out the first two troopers, then reassign your attack group as two more troops run up to reinforce them. Then move north and attack the building they were protecting.
Hit the holoboard to the north of the civvies after you’ve cleared the area.
Move up the road just a few more steps to find the last holoboard. Blast it to complete the bonus objective.
The headquarters is just ahead. Lead the locals through the archway and focus fire on each marine individually to kill it quickly. You shouldn’t have much trouble.
While you’re here, take a second to destroy the two Mengsk statues on either side of the court yard.
Now move toward the HQ. Kill the two flying Viking units that land near you as you approach – focusing fire on each one is teh best way – then turn your attention to the HQ. Destroy it to finish the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: Killing the HQ will unlock the “Liberation Day” Achievement.
Following the mission, you’ll take a breather in a local bar. You can click various elements all around the room to get more bits of story. When you’re ready, click the brief case to Raynor’s left to start the next mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: Between missions, you can usually watch a news broadcast by clicking the television screen wherever you are. Sit through 1o of these to unlock the “Couch Surfer” Achievement.
The Outlaws
You’ve got some base-building to do. Start by selecting all your SCV units – the ones to the left of the Command Center – and Right-Clicking or hitting G and clicking the crystals to have the units gather. You’ll use those crystals to pay for the units you’re going to build.
Click the Command Center and, on the menu to the right, assign it to train more SCV units. Three should do the trick.
When the SCVs are built, click the Building menu button (or hit B) and choose the Refinery. Set it on the green gas mine to the right of your base.
TIP: You can give a second order to units for them to complete in sequence. When you send an SCV to construct a building and you want to send him back to gathering afterward, hold Shift while he’s selected and tell him where to gather, and he’ll execute the gathering order when he’s done building.
When the Refinery is built, the SCVs assigned to it will automatically start harvesting gas, which you need to train more marines. Assign another SCV to build a Supply Depot to the right of your base near the other one. This will allow you to build more units.
Click your Barracks and start training more marines. You can also build the Tech Lab add-on to train medic units as well. They’ll support your troops and keep them alive longer.
Build a second Barracks if you feel the need to create marines even faster. It’s not a bad idea. Keep amassing marines until you’ve got a decent team of 12 or so units. Around that time, you’ll catch a message that rebels to the west are under attack.
Send your attack group to the rebel base and knock out the Dominion forces. Use the Attack command on your units so they’ll shoot stuff, rather than just run by it with the Move command.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Cash Reward” Achievement can be unlocked by gathering up all mineral pallets you pass along the way in this mission. Two are on the road as you leave your base. Just send your units to touch them. There are nine total.
Clear the Dominion troops and take over the rebel base. Use its barracks to create more units as necessary.
Pallets: Pick up the pallets scattered around the rebel base to add them to your supplies.
Back at your base, assign an SCV to build a couple more supply depots to help with your expansion. Build some more marines and when you have a big force, start heading north.
Pallets: Grab an SCV and send him north of your base. At the road, look for a path through the rocks that heads north even further. As he goes through that pass, he’ll find three more crystal pallets. Snag all three and you should unlock the “Cash Reward” Achievement.
Back at the rebel base, the north path has a blown out bridge, but west of that you can access the Dominion base. Keep building marines and medics to reinforce your troops as you press the attack. You’ll face two flame-throwing Dominion Hellion units as you approach.
Move north and look for a Dominion bunker. Focus all your fire on it and keep your medics back so they can heal your troops. After a few seconds, you should put enough hurt on the bunker to destroy it. Kill the marines inside afterward.
Keep pushing north. Take out any straggling enemy units and move to the west, where you’ll see a Dominion Barracks working hard to turn out more fighters. Attack the Barracks to destroy it. Make sure to kill any marines that come out.
Watch out for additional Hellions while you’re fighting. Take any of them out and move to the east, past the Command Center, to find a Dominion Factory. Attack that building next to destroy it.
That shuts down the Dominion’s base’s offensive capabilities. Wipe out the SCVs and destroy the Command Center to finish the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: You’re reward is “The Outlaws” Achievement for finishing the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: On Hard mode, smash through the Dominion base within 10 minutes to get the “Be Quick or Be Dead” Achievement.
Zero Hour
Your job is to hold your position until you can be extracted. You’ll want to build defenses and extra manpower as fast as possible.
Quickly send your SCVs to gather and start building more. Send one to build a refinery.
Roll down to the bridges and start loading them with marines. Group the remaining marines into an attack team.
TIP: Select a group of units and hold Shift and press a number key to hotkey those units into a group. Now, whenever you press that number key, you’ll select that group and can quickly give them orders.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you’re playing on Hard mode, you can earn “The Best Defense…” Achievement by going on the offensive and destroying the Zerg hatcheries. Do that by building marines by the truckload and (mostly) ignoring your own defenses. Keep sending additional reinforcements to back up your men as they go storming through the Zerg bases. It’s tough, but a constant flood of attackers will do the trick.
When you’ve got resources coming in – you’ll want two SCVs on your gas refinery – start building more marines and strengthening your defenses. Add a bunker to each bridge so they can create a cross-fire. Load them up as soon as you can.
ACHIEVEMENT: Pump up your defenses if you’re on Normal or higher and protect them with repair SCVs. Keep the Zerg from destroying any and you’ll get the “Hold the Line” Achievement.
Before long, you’ll get a message about units trapped across the eastern bridge. Send your attack group there to save them and grab the resource pallet there.
Return with your troops to base. Load up any additional bunkers and keep them repaired. Dedicate an SCV to the area and make him use the “Patrol” command to keep moving in the area.
Flying Zerg units will attack your base before long. Use turrets and marines to take them out. You can have SCVs build additional turrets if you feel the need.
You’ll see more rebel units pinned down to the north (as well as more resource pallets nearby). Send the attack group to get them, then return to base.
Keep fortifying your defenses. Use your base’s Engineering Bay to upgrade your marines. build additional bunkers and turrets when you can, and keep SCVs pumping up your supply count. You should always have something going on.
At the 10-minute mark, you’ll see a third group of rebels way to the west. Send your attack group to retrieve them and their resource pallets to complete the bonus objective.
Return to base and keep building bunkers and turrets. You’ll want a bunker in the center along the northern edge of your base to help deal with mutalisks, and at least three (maybe four) bunkers covering each bridge.
As you run toward the end of the mission, keep building support marines and divide your attack group among the two bridges and the northern edge of the base. Dedicate two or three SCVs to repair patrols and hunker down.
The last two minutes get a little hairy, with Zerg forces throwing themselves at your defenses pretty much constantly. Keep the units coming and the buildings repaired and you should get through without much problem. When the timer runs down, the mission ends.
ACHIEVEMENT: You’ll grab the “Zero Hour” Achievement for completing this mission, as well as the “Mar Sara Missions” Achievement for competing this section of the campaign.
When you get to the Hyperion bridge, click everything you can, then head down to the Armory and upgrade your forces with the money you’ve earned.
ACHIEVEMENT: Talk to Tychus on the bridge to earn the “Nice Suit” Achievement.
Colonist Missions
The Evacuation
You’re battling Zerg again in this mission, but you get access to Firebats, who carry flamethrowers. Firebats are great against Zerg ground units, but have no ability to attack air units.
Fight your way through zerglings along the road to the west. When you get there, you’ll join up with the stranded colonists and take control of their base.
Get to work fortifying and growing your forces. Build extra SCVs and get them mining gas – you’ll need it for Firebats.
Build a couple of additional Supply Depots and another Barracks when you have the resources. Primarily, though, you’re going to need an attack group: outfit it with mostly marines and a few Firebats.
Before long, a troop transport will start loading up with colonists. You need to protect it along the road that goes north to the starport. Send your attack group along with it, and in the meantime, get more marines and Firebats ready.
TIP: As you follow the transport, watch for resource pallets scattered along the road. Grab them to boost your fighting strength.
Along the road, you’ll notice a few abandoned Terran Bunkers standing at choke points. These are good defensive positions: train more troops to man them.
ACHIEVEMENT: On Hard mode, if you can get through the entire mission without losing a building, you’ll get the “Sacrifice Nothing” Achievement. Nab it by keeping SCVs stationed near your defensive positions to repair them.
Another positive strategy: send an SCV to build a second bunker at each choke point, and get those manned too. Now you’ll severely decrease the Zerg’s ability to attack the convoys.
TIP: Near the starport, you’ll get a message notifying you of a Zerg Chrysalis nearby. Send troops to capture it and you’ll gain Research Points good for upgrading your troops in the Hyperion’s armory. Finding three of these chrysalises nets you the mission’s Bonus Objective.
When the convoy’s safe, return your troops to base and keep building your forces. Get a strong attack force together while you have time, and load the Bunkers near the choke points. Station one SCV at each pair of Bunkers to repair them.
TIP: If you have the resources and a few spare seconds, build an Engineering Bay so you can upgrade your troops’ firepower and armor.
The next convoy will be ready shortly. When it is, escort it to the starport like you did the first time. You’ll have Zerg to contend with the whole way, so keep close. If the transport gets damaged, use one of your SCVs out near the Bunkers to repair it.
Chrysalis: After the transport gets to the starport, look for a path along the road just south of it, on the eastern side. You should be able to cut through into some fields, where there are a ton of pallets. Fight through to the south to find the second Chrysalis. You can also build a Bunker or two to wall off this path against Zerg forces.
Return to base and await the next convoy. Build up troops and repair and heal anything that’s been damaged.
Repeat the process with the next convoy. Make sure you keep plenty of marines around to take out aerial enemies.
Chrysalis: In between convoys, head down to the first chokepoint, just north of your base, on the west side. Fight down the ramp and you’ll find the last Chrysalis (and some resources) there.
Reinforce as you await the next convoy. You’ll want a big protection force, as Zerg reinforcements will literally be raining from the sky. Cover it all the way to the starport.
The last attack group will have tunneling Zerg Nydus Worms landing near the road. Keep your attack group close by and just keep thrashing the Zerg.
It’s not hard to fight your way to the starport. Keep your buildings repaired and the transport surrounded by troops and it’ll get there safely, ending the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: Completing the mission is good for “The Evacuation” Achievement. If you did it without losing a transport, you’ll also receive the “Handle with Care” Achievement.
ACHIEVEMENT: In the Cantina after the mission, you can play the Lost Viking arcade machine to the left of the room. Earn 125,000 points to get the “Lost Viking: Bronze” Achievement. Fight through and defeat the Terra-tron boss to get the “Terra-tron Terrorized!” Achievement. You can upgrade your troops and hire mercenaries as well.
ACHIEVEMENT: Between missions, go through all available areas and click on all the main characters to speak with them. That gets you the “Stay Awhile and Listen” Achievement.
Outbreak
This mission is divided into two halves: By day, you’re running around razing buildings. At night, you need to hunker down and fend off attacks from infested colonists, who are vulnerable to fire.
First, set up your defenses. Build extra SCVs and Bunkers at the choke points entering your base to the north and northeast. Get two Bunkers on each side.
TIP: If you’ve upgraded your Bunkers to fit more troops, it’ll pay off here.
Train some troops: fill one bunker with Firebats, the other with marines. The marines will take care of enemies at range, while the Firebats roast anything that gets in close. It’s also good to station an SCV at each choke point to repair your buildings.
Meanwhile during this first night, use the time to build your attack force. Before long, a Factory will arrive in your base. Use it to build more Hellions for your daytime attack group.
Build some Supply Depots, backup troops for base defense, and an Engineering Bay to upgrade your forces. When you’re satisfied, get together an attack group and wait for daylight.
During the day, send your attack team (Hellions work best because they move fast and can retreat home quickly when the sun sets) out and start ravaging buildings. There’s not much to it – concentrate fire to destroy a structure quickly. Watch out for zergling larva that will come out of the destroyed buildings and attack you.
Raze as many buildings as you can, then return home before the timer runs out to protect your forces. Heal and repair your troops when they get back.
During Night 2, you should have lots of resources. Use them – build two big squads of Hellions so you can go in multiple directions at once.
ACHIEVEMENT: Speed is key for grabbing the “28 Minutes Later” Achievement, which you can unlock if you can complete the entire mission by Night 5. Hellions are key to doing that.
During your defense, you’ll hear about two Zerg infester units that only appear at night. Make note of their locations during the night so you can clear the area around them during the day.
Build up your forces and prepare for the next attack. When day breaks, divide up your troops and wipe out all the buildings on the upper half of the map if you can.
Also, go to the areas near the infesters and clear the buildings around them. That’ll get rid of all the infested colonists in the area, leaving the infesters defenseless. When night is about to fall, leave a team of Hellions in position to attack the infester as soon as it comes up, then return to base before they’re destroyed.
On Night 3, toward the end, enemies will break through your southern defenses. Move your attack troops down to deal with them and cover the flank. During the day, build Bunkers and fill them with troops while you have protection.
Daytime. Clear out the second infester location, to ease your efforts later. As you sweep the southern areas, be careful of Zerg defenses. You’ll need to concentrate fire on the Sunken Colonies to take them down with minimal casualties.
Repeat the process. Split your forces up and keep having them concentrate their fire on a single building to knock them out fast. You should be able to do it before the end of Day 4.
ACHIEVEMENT: When you finish all the Zerg structures, you’ll net the “Outbreak” Achievement for your effort.
You’ll unlock the Laboratory area on the Hyperion after the mission as well.
Safe Haven
When you’re prompted to go to Haven, you’ll get this mission if you choose to fight the Protoss and protect the colonists. If you choose the Protoss’ solution, you’ll play “Fall of Haven” instead.
Either way, you can choose the other mission from the Archive console on the Hyperion’s Bridge. Though, this won’t affect your story progression once you’ve made your choice.
The mission is divided into three fronts: attacking the Nexuses, defending the settlements, and attacking the Purifier mothership. You’ll need two separate groups of units for the battle.
Build SCVs and get them to your Refinery. Meanwhile, upgrade your Starport with a reactor so you can double your Viking production. You’ll need lots of those.
Speed is key here. Build a team of Marauders to go with your Vikings and send them to the first Nexus, just to the east of your base. Use the Vikings in jet form to take out the Protoss air support, and the Marauders to kill the ground units and destroy the Nexus.
The Purifier goes from settlement to settlement, eradicating it. You have until it reaches your base to destroy it, but you have to nuke all three Nexuses to be able to damage it. Ignore it for now.
ACHIEVEMENT: There are four settlements the Purifier could potentially destroy before the end of the mission. If you can destroy the mothership with three settlements remaining, the “You Shall Not Pass” Achievement is yours.
ACHIEVEMENT: On Hard mode, the “My Precious!” Achievement is your reward if you can save two of the human settlements from the Purifier.
After killing the first Nexus, sprint to the next one with your Viking and ground teams. Reinforce them as much as possible along the way and go down to the southwestern base to destroy it.
Keep your Vikings on a short leash – after the Purifier destroys the first base, it’ll dispatch an air unit squadron to attack one of the other human settlements. Send the Vikings and have them concentrate fire to destroy the Protoss Carriers quickly.
Replenish your forces if you’re diverted by the Protoss attack, and return to the second Nexus. When it’s destroyed, head east to the last base, and take out the last Nexus
Destroying all three Nexuses knocks out the Purifier’s shields. When that’s done, send everything you’ve got against the Purifier, while building more Vikings back at your base as reinforcements.
Include your ground units in the assault against the Purifier – the extra targets might divert its attention from the real threat presented by your Vikings.
Punish the Purifier quickly and with a ton of force, and you should be able to destroy it quickly. Blast it and you’ll finish the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: Saving the human colony ships from Protoss aerial assaults and destroying the Purifier nets you the “Safe Haven” Achievement.
Fall of Haven
If you opt for the Protoss’ final solution, you’ll get this mission and have to face the Zerg on Haven.
Haven is covered in four Zerg colonies that you have to destroy, but in addition, groups of Zerg will attack random human colonies scattered around the map and infest them.
Start the normal progression of mining gas and getting getting an attack force together. You’ll want a team of a few Firebats, a few medics, and marines as your primary ground force.
Upgrade your Starport with a Reactor and start pumping out Vikings. You’ll want a standing force of six to eight Vikings at any point – these will be your aerial force and help you stop further infestations.
ACHIEVEMENT: You’ll get notifications of Zerg infesting a settlement. When that happens, send your Vikings to clear out all the flyers in the base, then land them and send in your ground force to destroy the remaining Zerg forces. If you can save five settlements on Normal mode, you’ll get the “House Call” Achievement. On Hard mode, your reward is the “Outpatient” Achievement for three saved settlements.
Set up some defenses at the entrances to your base to take out occasional Zerg attacks, then start attacking the northernmost Zerg base. Bring your ground troops and your Vikings, and use the Vikings to keep mutalisks and other aerial units clear of your troops.
You’ll want to sweep through the Zerg bases starting at the top and moving clockwise. Any time you’re told about an infestation, disengage your attack and address it. Fly your Vikings there first to kill all the air units, then land them and finish stopping the infestation.
You’re going to suffer heavy Viking casualties, so back at your base, keep them coming as much as possible. Try to back up your Vikings whenever you can with your ground troops, but don’t send them running through enemy territory to stop an infestation just to save a few Vikings.
There’s not much strategy to this mission other than putting out fires, then pressing the attack. Keep knocking out the Zerg bases until the whole map is clear, and the mission will end.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Haven’s Fall” Achievement is unlocked by wiping tout the Zerg.
Artifact Missions
Smash and Grab
Your small base comes equipped with a few units for attack, but you need to build up a defense so you can get more units made. Get SCVs to set up bunkers, and fill them with marines near the ramp to your base.
Use the Marauders you just got to fight off the Protoss forces to the east. You can take a small attack group to the north of your base to clear the way.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you can get to the Artifact in under 15 minutes while playing on Hard mode, the “Hit and Run” Achievement is your reward.
You’ll run across a Protoss Relic as you move up to the north. There are four on the map, all of which count toward the Bonus Objective.
Take your attack group to the east toward a bridge. You’ll see Protoss Photon Cannons there – take out the Pylon powering them to render them inert.
Keep building forces. You’ll need a strong attack force to push to the Artifact.
Instead of going to the east, take the path west and fight through the small Zerg stronghold. Keep reinforcements coming and then head south, into another Protoss area. You’ll need to kill the Photon Cannon or the Pylon in the area to clear the way.
Circle back east along the small walkway to find a second Protoss Relic.
Return to the bridge that heads east toward the Artifact. Standing on the bridge, use Marauders to destroy the Pylons on either side of the bridge at the far end to knock out the Photon Cannons. Clear the enemies and push forward.
Move south and fight through the Protoss position to find the third Protoss Relic, on the edge of the platform there.
Now head up north. You’re going into the actual Protoss base just south of the Artifact. There are a few defenses in place, but you can shut the place down really quickly and effectively by attacking Pylons.
Watch out for random Protoss units as you push through. Hit the Photon Cannons (or their powering Pylons) first, then kill any defensive units. Finally, blow the Pylons powering the buildings that are constructing units to the east and you’ll be in the clear.
Look northeast for a path, before the way to the Artifact, to find the final Protoss Relic and complete the Bonus Objective.
Reinforce your troops before you head up to the Artifact. When you’re ready, send one unit north and touch the marker, then pull it back. Doing so triggers three huge statues — Protoss Stone Guardians — that you’ll need to destroy to end the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Rock Solid” Achievement is yours if you can kill the three Stone Guardians without losing a single unit. Use the ramp south of the Artifact as a choke point and kill the statues one at a time.
ACHIEVEMENT: Completing the mission nets you the “Smash and Grab” Achievement as well.
The Dig
Move your troops south, where you’ll come across some zealots and a stalker. Try to protect your units so you don’t lose any.
At the bend in the path to the south, you’ll receive a couple of siege tanks. Use them to blast the Photon Cannons up ahead.
Switch your tanks back and set them on the high ground to the east, overlooking the path. The tanks will squash another stalker, clearing your path north.
Go up the path to the base and the laser drill there. Set the tanks in the corners of the base on either side of the laser drill and set them to siege mode. You want them to cover as much ground approaching the base as possible.
Take a few seconds to fortify your base. Build two bunkers on the high ground above each of the ramps leading to your base. Again, you want them covering the ground approaching the base.
Use the Barracks to build two marauders and four marines to go in each Bunker. You’ll also want an additional siege tank at either ramp.
That should be enough defenses to handle most anything coming toward your base. Over the next few minutes, add a few turrets to the front end of the base, near the drill, to protect against air forces.
You can now use the laser drill to eradicate the more powerful Protoss units appearing around the map. Select the drill and issue attack commands against big units like Archons and Colossi.
TIP: You can stack lots of targeting commands with the drill by setting an attack order on a unit, then holding shift while you target other units. The drill will fire against the enemies in the order you select them for attack.
ACHIEVEMENT: Unlock the “Drill Hard” Achievement by destroying 20 Protoss units with the drill. It’s easy.
TIP: Keep in mind, whenever you use the drill to attack an enemy, you’re diverting it from cutting through the door to the Xel’Naga temple. When the counter on the door’s health hits zero, the mission ends. Budget your use of the laser against only the most fearsome Protoss opponents.
After awhile, you’ll get a transmission identifying Protoss Relics in structures to the north and south. Build a group of marauders and marines and send them out on an expedition.
As you approach either structure, you’ll encounter a photon cannon. You can target it with the laser, but only if you’ve got a unit in sight distance of it, which is hard to get. Instead, just use your attack force to destroy the cannon.
With the defenses destroyed, get a unit close to the structure and use the laser to destroy it. Then send your soldier in to grab the Protoss Relic.
Repeat the process for all three Relics – the southern two are protected by a single cannon – to complete the Bonus Objective.
Keep an eye out for Protoss air units: specifically, troop carriers. Knock those down with the laser. Anything you miss should get walloped by your multiple turrets and bunkers.
Maintain your defenses until the laser can cut through the temple doors.
ACHIEVEMENT: “The Dig” Achievement is unlocked by finishing the mission.
The Moebius Factor
Your primary goal is to destroy three specific buildings before Kerrigan gets to them. Start building your base, along with some defenses against Zerg incursion. You’ll mostly need marines, but bigger items like siege tanks and Vikings are very helpful as well.
Soon you’ll get a pair of Medivacs with marines inside. Load them and go to the first Data Core building. There you’ll find survivors who will join your forces.
ACHIEVEMENT: There are survivors scattered all over the map. Locate and them all and you’ll get the “Alive Inside!” Achievement. They’re generally set up near positions you’re headed to, so just grab them with your Medivacs. Be careful though, as there are lots of enemy anti-air positions. Use a viking or a small group of flying units to scout the rest of the map.
Land your troops on the rooftop near the Data Core and destroy it with their help, then airlift them back to your base and safety.
ACHIEVEMENT: Meanwhile, Kerrigan is destroying random buildings looking for the Data Cores. If you can finish this mission before she destroys 10 buildings on Hard mode (which means speed), the “Hard Core” Achievement is unlocked. Do this by buildings lots of marines and lots of Medivacs — and just about nothing else.
You’ll find a second set of two survivors to the west and northwest of your base, near the second Data Core. Get the closer group first, and use their position on the rooftop to destroy the anti-aircraft structures in the area. Then fly over and snag the second group.
The second Data Core is a bit hairier than the first. Land your squad where you picked up the second group of Moebius soldiers, then push forward into the Zerg base surrounding the Data Core with your ground troops. Keep Vikings on-hand to protect you from the occasional Mutalisk while you raze the building.
Evac your guys and fly back to base the way you came. Pump up your forces while you have a few minutes’ downtime. This is also a good chance to scour for more survivors.
After a bit, Horner will identify a Brutalisk for you to go kill. A great way to do this is with a siege tank or two from the west of the Brutalisk — it’s cut off on a small island. Just on the other side of a broken bridge is a great place to set up with a tank and hammer away. You’ll need vikings to protect your medivacs from mutalisks, though.
The last Data Core is heavily protected by anti-air turrets. You can’t fly units in from the west, and there’s no good place to stand where you can destroy it in safety. You have to land troops and push through from the east.
Use the Brutalisk’s former island as a staging ground. From that spot, use siege tanks and ranged troops to clear the way of anti-air weaponry on the coast. When that’s done, send in your Medivacs to drop troops on the mainland.
Move up slowly, guarding your siege tanks and taking out enemy defensive structures. You should be able to get to the Data Core building without much trouble.
When you’re close, put all you have into killing the Core building and you’ll wrap up the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: Yours for completing the mission is “The Moebius Factor” Achievement.
Supernova
You start with a squad of Banshees. Fly toward the marked spot on your map – when you encounter a Protoss striker, cloak your units and kill it.
Decloak: staying cloaked when you don’t need it wastes energy. You’ll want to have cloaking energy readily available at many points during this mission, so try to conserve it.
Fly to the LZ and concentrate fire on one of the nearest Photon Cannons. When it’s dead, kill the pylon to prevent being attacked by the second cannon. Clear them out and your base will land.
Speed is the name of the game here. You want to build as many units as you can, as fast as you can, before the flame wall shows up and roasts your base. Build Banshees and marines: Banshees for base-busting, marines to take out any air units that attack you.
ACHIEVEMENT: An easy one is yours if you keep the fire wall from destroying any of your units. You’ll get the “Cool Runnings” Achievement.
You’ll have to use your attack force to protect your base, so make sure you keep track of what’s going on at home.
Start sending out attack groups. Leave your base heading north, go around the bend, and head back south. You’ll be just east of your base. Use cloaked banshees to roast any Protoss there.
On the stone altar, you’ll find a Protoss Relic. There are four total on the map, and grabbing them fulfills your Bonus Objective.
Keep pounding out marines (with a couple medics to help out) and Banshees as fast as you can manage. With a decent force, go past the Protoss Relic position and head south, where you’ll find a small Protoss base. Squash it.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Shock and Awe” Achievement will be your reward if you’re playing on Hard mode — destroy 75 Protoss buildings before the end of the mission to unlock it.
Immediately to the east, in the corner of this base, is another altar. Grab your second Relic.
After you’ve wiped out this base, head directly north to another altar. Carefully annihilate the two Photon Cannons; bring your marine team as well so the cannons have to split up their targeting.
Clear that northern spot and you’ll get your third relic.
Back to the south. Reinforce your team so that you have plenty of troops and go just east of the the southern Protoss Relic altar. You’ll find a ramp leading into a Protoss base.
Cloak your Banshees and use marines to protect them from aircraft. As you do that, destroy the Photon Cannons as fast as you can. After they’re knocked out, your Banshees will become invisible to the Protoss and you can ravage them.
Wipe out the Protoss base once you’re through the defenses. As soon as you’ve cleared it out, pick up your base buildings and take over the Protoss’ real estate.
TIP: Leave behind your starport for the time being. It has a free tech lab attached to it, so keep building more banshees. When the flame wall closes in, pick up the starport and bring it to your new base.
More Banshees. More marines. And three or four vikings. When you have a strong attack squad, head north out of your base to the next level upward, into the Protoss’ main base.
Repeat the attack process – killing the Photon Cannons, using cloak to protect your Banshees as they rampage through the Protoss stronghold.
While your other units keep the Protoss busy, destroy the Xel’Naga building to snag your artifact and end the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Supernova” Achievement is yours for your efforts.
Maw of the Void
With your starting Battlecruisers, clear the landing zone and destroy the Rip-Field generator there.
As soon as you get your base, start getting ready to mass-produce Cruisers. You don’t really need anything else. Build two starports and get them outfitted with tech labs.
Fly around your island with your Cruisers and clear it of enemies. Send a ground trooper like an SCV to pick up all the random resources scattered about.
With your standing Cruiser force, head to the next island. Clear out the Photon Cannons on the coast, then go for the generator.
TIP: Remember to use that Yamato cannon on your Cruisers, especially when you have lots of them. It takes a second to fire, but it’s obscenely powerful.
With the first generator down, you’ll get a transmission about freeing Dark Templars from the enemy Protoss. There are four prisons you have to bust open, but when you do, you’ll gain cloaked allies you can send in to wreak havoc. Open all four to complete a Bonus Objective.
ACHIEVEMENT: On Hard mode, be careful not to let the Rip-Field kill any of your units, and you’ll get the “Master of the Universe” Achievement.
Make sure you keep building cruisers as often as possible. You may also want a Medivac so you can fly a couple of SCVs over to the main island, where they can wait to repair your Cruisers in between Rip-Field generator assaults.
Also, be aware that the Protoss will occasionally launch counter attacks, sending ground troops toward your island and, more importantly, troop carrier ships as well. Keep your cruisers in the middle of the map vertically so they can stop Protoss as they go by.
Use the Dark Templars and launch an attack with your Cruisers on the next generator. The Templars can covertly take out ground troops like Archons while everyone is distracted with your Cruisers. Use the Cruisers to destroy any detector units.
Knock out the generator and clear the base of stragglers, then free the second group of Dark Templars to the west, in the center of the map.
When you’re ready and your attack group is strong and repaired, send your Cruisers to the southern edge of the map. Fly along it until you reach the edge of the Rip-Field. You’ll find a Carrier there waiting for you – kill it.
Go into the field and destroy the generator down here. That knocks another one out of your way. Fly back and repair and reinforce yourself.
Make sure your base isn’t under attack and your ships are ready for a fight, then fly up to the northern edge of the map. Enter the generator field and fight your way to the third Protoss prison. Blast it open, fall back and repair.
You should now have nine Dark Templars and a whole mess of Cruisers, with more on the way. The next generator is along the northern edge of the Protoss base ahead. When you’re ready, send in your Cruisers, having them kill anything that’s a threat, including photon cannons.
While the enemy is distracted with a huge attack force of Battlecruisers, send in your Templar units to wreak chaos. Use the cruisers to knock out detector units and let the Templar just rip everyone apart on the ground. Use Yamato blasts to kill the generator, then mop up the buildings.
You’ll probably be low on resources at your base at this point. Pick up your buildings and fly them to the northern resource field on the east side of the main island. Keep gathering and building Cruisers.
Go south to the edge of the map again with your Cruisers, and bust open the last prison. Use the Templar to start killing ground troops just north of the prison while your Cruisers kill everyone. Blast the southern generator when you can.
Retreat, resupply, repair, and head north. Repeat the process, keeping your exposure low, and destroy the Rip-Field generator.
ACHIEVEMENT: There’s only one more generator left, at the far west of the map. You can leave it, but if you go destroy it, you’ll unlock the “I Have the Power” Achievement.
Direct your ships to attack the Xel’Naga stronghold — when it’s opened, the mission ends.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Maw of the Void” Achievement is unlocked when you get the last artifact.
ACHIEVEMENT: For retrieving the last Artifact piece, you’ll get an achievement called – wait for it – “The Artifact.”
Covert Missions
The Devil’s Playground
Your only job here, at least at first, is mining. Because of the rising and falling lava, you won’t have much to deal with in the way of enemy opposition. Build yourself a decent group of units, including the jetpack-wearing Reapers, to deal with any attacks.
In the meantime, set up your base. Get some extra SCV’s so you can mine Vespene gas, then send everyone to get all the minerals they can from the field near your base.
TIP: You want to try to keep spending down to a minimum in this mission. You need to mine 8,000 units of crystals, but every time you spend money on troops and equipment, you take from your crystal store. Therefore, the more economical you can be, the better.
Before too long, you’ll receive a transmission about a location where another mining crew went missing. Send a couple of units over to that spot, and you’ll find some more miners and another Command Center. That completes one Bonus Objective as well.
ACHIEVEMENT: You can snag the “Reaper Man” Achievement on Hard mode by finding all of Tosh’s stranded Reaper soldiers. To do so, send your attack team to the north of the map and the surrounding areas — basically, anyplace that’s elevated above the lava fields could contain them. Run around the map finding them (and supply pallets) and you’ll get the achievement. Make sure to build extra reinforcements to replace your lost soldiers.
Land your second Command Center at the edge of the high ground just south of where you find it. There are crystals on the low ground just south of that spot – send your new SCV’s to start mining from there.
When the alarm goes off, you’ll need to move your SCV’s and any low buildings up away from the lava. You can do that by highlighting all of your units and giving them new instructions. For your buildings, use the Liftoff command to get them clear of danger.
Around this time, you should get another transmission about a nearby Zerg unit, a Brutalisk, which you need to kill to fulfill another Bonus Objective. The Brutalisk is pretty powerful, so you’ll want to create a strong attack force to go get it. Marauders are exceptionally useful for this.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Red Lobster” Achievement is yours if you can trick the Brutalisk into getting melted by lava. Do this by sending a single unit to bother the Brutalisk as the timer is running out, then get it to chase the unit to the low ground. When the lava floods up, you’ll get your achievement.
Keep a standing attack force on-hand to deal with any Zerg attacks — there will be a few — and keep mining away. If you need to, pull your forces back to your main base to deal with any problems, where you can better protect them.
Continue dodging lava and mining. When you expend the first two crystal fields, lift off your Command Centers and take them south of your main base. Just west of the bottom of your base is a round crystal field where you can park one Command Center; to the east of that, there’s another field to drop the other in.
Be aware that now your Command Centers are in danger of being melted. Keep an eye on the timer, because if you lose them, you lose the mission.
Mine away and keep your team running around to ward off attackers. Before long, Tosh will identify some new mineral fields for you. When you need to move, load up your Command Centers and drop them in the new spots.
If you get into trouble with one of your Command Centers, load it and lift it off and it’ll be protected against the Zerg. Then you can send your attack team over to clear the area before settling down to mine again.
Before long, you’ll have hit the requisite mining amount and the mission will end.
ACHIEVEMENT: “The Devil’s Playground” Achievement is yours for finishing the mission.
Welcome to the Jungle
Build some basic defenses at the mouth of your base to start, primarily guarding the northeastern entrance ramp. A couple of barracks with marines and Marauders and a turret or two should suffice.
Next, gather up your attack force. You’ll want several Marauders to destroy Protoss Stalkers, along with marines and medics.
You’ll also want a standing force of at least six Goliaths, but more is always better. These anti-air troops are going to be key to protecting your SCV’s.
The goal here is cover an SCV as it gathers gas from one of several altars. You need to tap seven, all told. Start with the one closest to the base, to the west. It’s undefended.
After tapping the first gas vent, the Protoss will start attacking you when you approach vents. Group your Goliaths into an attack squad to knock down aerial units; use the rest of your troops to deal with ground forces, and to backup the Goliaths.
ACHIEVEMENT: Keep the enemy from destroying any SCV’s throughout the mission to unlock the “Appetite for Destruction” Achievement. It’s pretty easy, so long as you keep your attack group as close as possible to the SCV while it’s gathering gas or on the move. Don’t take it for granted that an SCV will make it back to base.
Just north of the eastern entrance ramp of your base, you’ll find Protoss Relic. Gather two more to complete the Bonus Objective.
After you’ve gathered gas from a couple of altars, the Protoss will start attempting to seal them off. It takes some time for that to happen, however, and if you can get there quickly and destroy the Protoss Probe working to close the vent, you’ll prevent it.
ACHIEVEMENT: On Hard mode, stopping the Protoss from sealing any of the vents unlocks the “It’s So Easy” Achievement.
The first sealed vent is just north of the first one you gathered from. The next one occurs to the east, but you have to punch past a Protoss base to reach it.
Keep fighting through the Protoss and gathering from the vents. The Protoss ramp up their attempts to stop you once you’ve gotten four or so.
Before long, you’ll be pushing toward the north end of the map. Stop by the northwestern corner, between the western and northern vents, to find the second Protoss Relic.
Keep reinforcing your troops and head east. The last Protoss Relic rests in the northeast corner.
Gather from the last few gas vents to complete the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: Your “Welcome to the Jungle” Achievement unlocks when you’re finished.
Breakout
When you start this mission, you’ll get a choice to help out Tosh or to take the side of Dominion Ghost Nova. This mission is the one you get for choosing Tosh; if you picked Nova, see “Ghost of a Chance.”
You only have control of Tosh on this mission, and he’s always cloaked. Your job is to support Raynor’s troops and infiltrate the prison.
ACHIEVEMENT: Run this mission in under 25 minutes on Hard mode for the “Jailhouse Rock” Achievement.
At the outset, kill the first few troops — they won’t fight back because you’re cloaked — and learn to use Tosh’s Mind Blast power.
Move forward and knock out the guys surrounding the turret in the room ahead. Don’t let it detect you, though. When you’re ready, use the Psi Shield and rush up to either the tank or the turret.
TIP: Siege tanks can’t hit you with their siege cannons when you’re close — they have to transform to regular tanks.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you can keep Tosh’s health from ever falling below 100 hit points, you’ll unlock the “Cool Hand Tosh” Achievement. Use the Psi Shield and stay hidden and you won’t have a problem.
With the tank destroyed, or the turret, mop up the rest of the units in the area. Follow the path until you reach a pair of bunkers. The left one you can get close to and destroy while staying hidden.
Fire up the Psi Shield again and take out the turret, again rendering you invisible. Now you can kill indiscriminately to help Raynor’s troops forward.
Go north around the bend. You’ll see another defended position, with tanks. There’s a thin hallway south of the main corridor you can sneak through. Wait until the troops are distracted by Raynor’s soldiers, then get past the position.
From behind the enemies, knock out the siege tanks. Do what you can to help Raynor’s guys clear the way, while protecting Tosh.
Just north of this hallway is another hallway that leads into a room with prisoners. Kill the soldiers in the room from a distance, then use your Psi Shield to finish the turret and the tank.
That releases the prisoners in this cell block. There’s another one further on, and both count as Bonus Objectives.
Move along the high ground west of the cell block and take the corner down toward the next set of Dominion defenses. Carefully kill everything you can while remaining hidden — there’s a Raven flying around above you that can spot you.
Once that Raven’s down, you’re free to destroy all kinds of enemy troops here. Get the Bunkers, tanks and hellions, and Raynor’s guys can get in and set up a forward position.
Around the southern bend, past where Raynor’s forward position is being built, is another cell block. This one has a roving Raven.
First, kill the soldiers in the center of the room. Run in, attack them, and run back while the Raven is up to the north of the room. That way you won’t get smashed by the tanks.
After killing the infantry troops, slip down to the southern corner below the door when you’re clear of the Raven. This corner is a blind spot and will allow you to destroy the southern siege tank.
With that done, don a Psi Shield and destroy the last tank. Then shoot down the Raven to clear the cell and complete the bonus objectives.
As you move north to the gates to the inner section of the prison, you’ll gain the ability to launch nukes. Stand clear of the detectors at the gateway door and nuke the whole area. That’ll clear everything in your path.
Go inside. You’ll see a huge mass of troops standing right in the center of the next room. Nuke ‘em.
With the enemies defenses severely crippled, you should be able to move invisibly northwest to the front door of the prison. Here there are more bunkers and other defenses. Use Nuke no. 3 if you want, or just carefully take out the troops.
If you have more nukes, you can use them to destroy the rest of the base — there are buildings and detectors in the east and west corners of the room. If not, use the Psi Shield to take out the turrets and keep yourself invisible.
Mop up everything in the room to end the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Breakout” Achievement is yours for helping Tosh.
Ghost of a Chance
The Stockpile
If you chose to help Nova rather than Tosh, this is the mission you get. See “Breakout” if you chose Tosh’s side.
This mission is divided into three sections, each with its own objective. You have control of the always-cloaked Nova as well as a team of Raynor’s troops. In the first section, it’s marines.
Learn to use Nova’s Snipe ability, then push along the wall to the right. Kill all the guys you see ahead of you until you approach a bunker and a turret that can turn you visible, near the gate.
ACHIEVEMENT: Worth noting: the “Total Protonic Reversal” Achievement is unlocked if you kill every single enemy unit in this mission while playing on Hard mode.
When you get to the gate, sit tight and switch to the marine group. Send them east to fight the bunker and destroy it, then to destroy the turret on the high ground nearby.
Use Nova to blow the gate open. Move north, using Nova to snipe the Marauders and other troublesome units.
TIP: Nova makes a good scout. Carefully send her forward to find out where the detector units and heavy artillery are located, before committing your main force.
A little further up, you’ll hear about Nova’s Dominate ability and see a siege tank with a turret nearby. Dominate the tank and it’ll attack its allies, including the turret.
ACHIEVEMENT: When you hit the button to cancel Nova’s Dominate ability, the unit she’s controlling will die. Or you can send them barreling to their deaths as they fight their comrades. Either way, kill 15 enemies with Dominate and you’ll unlock the “Dominate Tricks” Achievement.
Continue forward. You’ll see an enemy Spectre, but as you get close, he’ll call a nuke. Move everyone clear until after it falls.
Now you can send Nova forward to kill the Spectre. Snipe is brutally efficient for this. There are 10 total Spectres in this mission, and killing them all fulfills a Bonus Objective.
Now push forward to the tank you have to destroy.
Have Nova climb the ramp, staying clear of enemy detectors, and move left of it when she gets to the top. That should keep you out of the sight of the Spectre stationed on the west side of the platform. Drop him.
You can now bring in your other forces or just use Nova to destroy the Stockpile.
The Tank
In the next section, you’re alone as Nova. Move west carefully, then pull back — a squad accompanied by a Raven is coming at you.
Quickly snipe the Marauder, then kill the other troops. The Raven will fall back. Follow it and snipe the soldiers standing near the gate in the center from a safe distance.
Now kill Raven. With it gone, the Vikings will lose you and you can kill them. Finally, go north and destroy the turret to clear a landing zone.
You get Reapers, a Raven, and a pair of tanks to use. Have the Reapers jump the gate to the other side. From high ground, they can pick off the siege tank below.
Send the Reapers down to kill the turret and the gate control to open it. Then you can move your siege tanks through and to the north, where they can safely eradicate that bunker. Use the Raven to give them a line of sight on it and a turret.
Continue north and you’ll approach a Spectre ahead. There’s a siege tank nearby — dominate it and it’ll do your work for you.
Now move up your siege tanks and Raven. Use the Raven to ID turrets to the east and west on the high ground, and put them down with the siege tanks. There are defenses all over the east and west walls that you can eliminate this way.
Be careful as you move up — the Spectre will call a nuke on you. Pull back behind where it will fall, then send Nova and the raven up to pin down his position and snipe him.
Sweep the immediate area of detectors, then send Nova, the Raven and the siege tanks to the high ground to the north. Have the tanks destroy the turret north of the ramp, then finish off the ground troops.
Move Nova to the green circle and she’ll capture the nuclear silo. You’ll need that nuke in just a minute.
There’s another Spectre to the west, but you can’t get to it from here. Move the Raven to where you can ID units and use a siege tank on the high ground, west of the silo, to destroy the turret there.
Take another siege tank to the high ground where you dominated that tank a second ago. Use the observer to site another turret, this one south of the Spectre’s location, and destroy it as well.
Now get your Reaper group and send them to attack the Spectre. They’ll use their jetpacks to reach him without a problem.
With all that done, take Nova to the ramp leading to the tank and call a nuke down on it and the turret and defenses in front of it. That’ll kill the last Spectre and destroy the tank in the process.
The Psi Indoctrinator
When you start the third section, you’ll have two flying squads and Nova. Group the squads by unit type so you can use them quickly.
Send Nova to the east along the high ground, where there’s a tank and two soldiers. Dominate the tank to kill the troops, then have it go siege to finish a turret to the east.
Now get your air units and head south, to the high ground bordering this area on its west side. Use the Banshees first to destroy the ground troops — they can only attack things on the ground.
The Vikings will defend the Banshees from aerial attackers. When there’s nothing in the way, land the Vikings and have them take out the turret from the ground.
Take the Banshees a little bit east, just north of the ramp to gain access to the high ground, where a siege tank covers the area. Have them crush it.
Now you can bring your tank and Nova up the ramp. Use the siege tank to kill the turret up to the north, where a Spectre is waiting. When the turret’s gone, Nova can kill him.
Take Vikings and Nova and push north along the wall. Destroy turrets and observers with the Vikings, and use Nova against the bunker at the north end and hack the nuclear silo.
Go down the ramp to the east there. You’ll trigger a nuclear strike — fall back and wait for it to fall.
Send the Vikings south into this lower, center area and have them knock out the flying Raven. When that’s done, creep south with a Viking, keeping it clear of anti-air enemies, until you can get eyes on the next Spectre so Nova can kill him.
Keep moving south with Nova. There’s another Spectre at the top of a ramp there. Use the same tactic with the Viking to sight him, then snipe him.
You’re almost clear. Bring in the Banshees from where you left them and have them kill the siege tank and turret that cover the entrance to the area with the Psi Indoctrinator.
If you’re looking to get your achievement, now’s a good chance to sweep back along the southern wall and kill any random enemies, like turrets, you might have missed.
If you’re looking for a quick end, use Nova to drop the nuke on the Psi Indoctrinator from the southern entrance and safety. That’ll end the mission and kill the last two Spectres.
To kill all the remaining enemies, however, you can nuke the defenses but not the Indoctrinator. Then sweep up with your vehicles to finish anything that’s still standing. Destroy the Indoctrinator last.
ACHIEVEMENT: You’ll snag the “Ghost of a Chance” Achievement when you’re finished here.
ACHIEVEMENT: Once you’ve done both possible Tosh missions (get the one you missed from the Archive console on the Hyperion bridge), the “Gabriel Tosh Missions” Achievement is yours.
Rebellion Missions
The Great Train Robbery
Build some SCVs and get to gathering minerals. In the meantime, send your squad of marines to pick up the three abandoned Diamondbacks near your position. There are six total, for a Bonus Objective.
TIP: Be careful to use the “Move” command rather than the “Attack” command near these abandoned vehicles. They’re still technically enemy units, so your troops can destroy them by accident.
Check near the northwestern-most Diamondback for a pile of orange-marked bones. There are three sets of these Defiler Bones on the map, and they constitute a Bonus Objective.
Build a couple more Diamondback units at your factory so you can attack the trains when they come. You’ll also need an attack force to destroy any train escorts. If you have siege tanks, they’ll also make life much easier.
Get a decent squad together and wait for the first notification about the train to the north. When it’s leaving, send your Diamondbacks to intercept it. They’ll destroy it, leaving you with a bunch of resource pallets. Snag ‘em.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you can destroy eight trains without missing any on Hard mode, you’ll get the “Silver Streak” Achievement. Keep your squads fully loaded and watch the timer and you should be okay.
Check the southeastern corner of your base – you should see Defiler Bones just south of it, on a lower elevation. Send a single unit to retrieve them, as it should be left un-hassled.
The second train appears on the middle track that goes right past your base, but includes an escort. Use your attack team to waste them. You can also station siege tanks near the track for some extra help.
The third train appears on the southern track, with a bigger escort that includes Hellions. Waste them the same way, and check around the area south of the first big bend for the last set of Defiler Bones.
Go north of these bones to find a ramp. Go up it and turn right to find the fourth Diamondback.
Next, the Dominion will start building Bunkers along the tracks. If you can, start using siege tanks to take them out along the southern and northern tracks, and basically wherever you see them. Watch the train timer.
Keep building spare Diamondbacks. After you’ve hit a couple and dealt with the Bunkers, the trains will increase speed, making Diamondbacks your only option on the move.
ACHIEVEMENT: After Bunkers, the Dominion dispatches a roving group of Marauders to patrol the tracks. These guys can be really difficult to deal with, but if you kill them, you get the “Bully the Bullies” Achievement. The best way to do this is to watch their movements on your minimap and stage an ambush with siege tanks — they absolutely slaughter Marauders – and high-grounded soldiers. This way, you can hit the Marauders hard without taking much damage in return.
Check the area between the southern and middle tracks to the east of your base for a high ground section, right against the edge of the map. You’ll find another free Diamondback there, your fifth.
The last Diamondback is almost directly south of the westernmost tip of the high ground your base is located on. Go down the southern ramp out of your base, head west to the point that juts out, then head south to more high ground. Find a ramp up to grab the last Diamondback.
You should have only one or two more trains left. The last train loses its speed but gains the advantage of siege tanks, Goliaths and air support. You’ll need a couple of Goliaths and some extra units to take it on.
It shouldn’t be that hard with siege tanks. The ambush strategy you’ve been using up to now will be effective again — just make sure to have Goliaths target air units and siege tanks target other siege tanks and other big units. Use your infantry to match up against smaller units.
Meantime, you can position your Diamondbacks a little further down the track so they can focus on the train unmolested. While the rest of your units fight the escort, the Diamondbacks can destroy this last train and end the mission, regardless of whether you’re getting clobbered or not.
ACHIEVEMENT: “The Great Train Robbery” Achievement unlocks for completing the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: Back on the bridge of the Hyperion, speak with Matt Horner to receive the “Dead Man’s Hand” Achievement once you’ve completed this mission.
Cutthroat
This mission is about speed and economy, so keep the building and defenses to a minimum. Maybe put a bunker or two down just to keep out the rabble, but that’s it.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you’re on Hard mode, you can earn the “Solitaire” Achievement by running this whole mission with only the SCVs you have at the outset. It’s tougher, but don’t build any SCVs.
Instead, build lots of marines and start gathering salvage. It’s marked all over the place on your map in white. Pick all of it up as fast as you can by sending units to it.
Shortly you’ll receive Vulture bikes. Use them to lay down spider mines to guard your base, then put them all over.
ACHIEVEMENT: You want to litter the place with spider mines, because if you rack up 25 unit kills with them, you’ll be granted the “Minesweeper” Achievement. Do this by planting mines near enemy SCVs and in their bases, then leaving.
Gather a big force and truck north to the first of enemy bases. Wipe out everything that moves and gather all the salvage you can.
TIP: Horner mentions a spot where more salvage is produced just north of your base. Keep it in mind.
In the northwest corner of the enemy base, you’ll see a wrecked ship with a little blue orb spinning over it. That’s Protoss Contraband, and gathering three of those will complete the Bonus Objective for you. Destroy the ship to get the item.
The second Protoss Contraband orb is on a ship just west of your base. Go through the lower choke point and you’ll find it just north of the entrance.
Hit the southern base next, in the exact same way you did the one above it. Reinforce when you get through the forces, then push west to the last base.
At the bottom of the western ramp out of this second enemy base, you’ll find the last Protoss Contraband orb. Blast the ship to snag it.
Crush your way through the last base to cut off the enemy’s gathering potential. After a little more salvaging, you should get the mercenary contract.
Now you have a ton more forces. Your old base is a bit of a mess, and it may come under attack right about now. If it does, you may want to consider abandoning it and flying all the buildings to the forefront section of the new base. This way, you can gather more materials without having to control two halves of the map.
Your last objective is to fight into Orlan’s base and destroy his Command Center. This is a losing proposition because, while you can build up a strong attack force, Orlan is using several siege tanks and they’re going to put some serious hurt on you.
Instead, build a Starport if you have medivacs (you get them in The Moebius Factor). Take your attack force — it should be equipped with Diamondbacks, Marauders, marines, Goliaths and anything else you might want — and sweep the southern area below the enemy base. When you get to the high ground nearby, stop.
About this time, Orlan will order a nuclear strike on your position south of his base. Pull your attack troops back. You should have swept through, crippled some of his forces, and — most important — knocked down most of the anti-air forces and structures in the area.
Using your Starport, build medivacs and just fly your troops in next to the Command Center.
Conversely, you could just build a huge force and start pounding your way through the enemy troops. Use large groups of Diamondbacks to kill siege tanks quickly and you should be okay.
After that, just get through and do some damage to the Command Center to end the mission.
Engine of Destruction
Your job here is to support Tychus as much as possible. Grab your team and follow him into the base.
Focus fire on the strongest units in the area as you push forward. Kill the troops and follow Tychus north when he turns.
You’ll see a glass tube in the northwestern corner of the hallway. Touch it — it’s the first of three Zerg research items you need to pick up.
Fight through the base with Tychus until he finds the Odin. After that, you’ll get your base.
Primarily, you want to build lots and lots of Wraiths. Their cloak ability means they can support the Odin without taking damage. Much later in the mission, you’ll have battle cruisers to fight and you’ll need the Wraith’s anti-air abilities to fight them.
TIP: You should also keep some SCVs handy and out of the battle to support the Odin. Tychus rushes into battle with no regard to being killed, so it’s up to you to keep him repaired.
ACHIEVEMENT: Unlock the “Ragnarok and Roll” Achievement by preventing the Odin’s health from falling below 30 percent.
For now, Tychus is waiting before going on a rampage. He’ll fight through four Dominion bases total. Build some defenses on the eastern edge of your base — two bunkers, fully loaded — because that’s where enemy forces will hit you.
Pump out Wraiths and accompany Tychus when he goes. Use cloak (there are virtually no detectors) to protect your Wraiths and kill the biggest threats to the Odin – air first, then things like bunkers and tanks.
You should get through the first base without incident. Tychus will take a break when he’s done, giving you a chance to repair him and rebuild. Do both, shoring up your Wraith force as much as possible.
TIP: Make sure to decloak your Wraiths when you’re not using them, to recharge their energy.
When Tychus goes to the second base, repeat the process. Cover him from the worst enemies and clear the northern portion as much as possible.
Send in a ground unit to grab the Zerg research item from the northeastern corner of the second base.
Heal Tychus, repair your troops, and get ready for the push into the southern half of the base. Repeat the attack/cloak/defense regimen as you fight into the third base. Make sure you knock out all the aerial forces first.
In the third base, check the northern wall for your third glass Zerg sample. That’ll complete your Bonus Objective.
ACHIEVEMENT: After you’re done here and if you have a really, really strong Wraith force, head to the eastern side of the base. You’ll come across the Loki, a souped-up battle cruiser. You can’t hide from it with cloak and it takes a lot to kill, but if you drop it, you get the “Kicking Asgard” Achievement and complete a second Bonus Objective.
If your wraith force is weak or if you’re on Hard mode, you might want to forgo fighting the Loki. Tychus is about to attack the base to the west, which has a lot more air units than the others. Bring SCVs.
Use the wraiths to protect the Odin and throw a ton of SCVs (you won’t need them after Tychus fights through this base) into keeping the big robot repaired. Concentrate fire on the battle cruisers to knock them out and Tychus will do the rest.
ACHIEVEMENT: Finish the mission to unlock the “Engine of Destruction” Achievement.
Media Blitz
You start as the Odin and get to launch a surprise attack. Use the Barrage ability to ravage most or all of the enemy troops around you quickly, maintaining the Odin’s health.
Now you can march into whatever base you want to and start annihilating it. Ignore things like turrets and supply depots — destroy Control Centers, defenses and unit-production facilities.
ACHIEVEMENT: Ravage an enemy base’s Barracks, Factory and Starport during the sneak attack and you’ll grab the “Seek & Destroy” Achievement.
Knock out one whole base (leaving minor stuff alone) and try to do damage in two bases if you can. When the timer runs out, your element of surprise goes with it.
When you get control of your base, immediately repair the Odin. It’s quite an asset, but you have to protect it. You’ll also get access to a Thor unit.
Build some defenses on the northwestern side of your base and man them. Then build some Goliaths to go with the Odin, and another Thor or two.
When you’re ready, head northeast and march toward the enemy base. Support the Odin with your other units, but let it do the heavy lifting. Rely on Barrage to take out lots of units and buildings while you go.
TIP: Just like in the last mission, keep an SCV team handy to support the Odin and Thor units. You want to make these last.
SECRET MISSION: You’ll move toward a fence that borders a road, where there’s a bunker to the left for you to crush. East of there is a small Dominion base with crystals. Smash up the base and go southeast, past the minerals, down the road all the way to the edge of the map. There you’ll find a red Science Facility building. Destroy it and pick up the spinning Secret Documents that fall out to access another mission after this one.
Keep fighting through to Broadcast Tower 3. Just maintain your slow-going strategy of overwhelming force. When you get there, set your Goliaths in the green ring to start the upload and protect them with your other units. This is also a good time to repair.
ACHIEVEMENT: Finish this mission in 20 minutes or less on Hard mode and you get the “Blitzkrieg” Achievement.
Hopefully during the upload you ordered reinforcements and got the Odin back into working order. March to the middle base from here and take the next Broadcast Tower.
This should be really easy, especially if you ravaged one of these bases — preferably if you knocked out the defenses for two. With the Odin, Thor units, and Goliaths to put down any enemies in the sky, you should be able to march straight up to the Broadcast Towers.
Fight through the second base, using the Odin and Thor to defend the Goliaths as they do the upload. Keep an SCV handy to heal your units during the battle.
While you upload, Mengsk will throw lots of troops at you, but you shouldn’t be unable to handle it. Keep repairing your units.
Watch your base — with just a few close bunkers you should be able to protect yourself from minor attacks, but watch that you don’t get too distracted with the attack.
Repeat the process and get to the third Broadcast Tower. Do what you’ve been doing — this attack squad is stronger than the others and expect more air support this time. Still, with the right units and a quick click for repairs, the upload should go easy and end the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Media Blitz” Achievement is yours for finishing.
ACHIEVEMENT: You also get the “Matt Horner Missions” Achievement after this mission. Unless you have the Secret Mission, “Piercing the Shroud,” still ahead.
Piercing the Shroud
Infiltration
This mission is only available if you get the Secret Documents during “Media Blitz.” You can replay the mission to get the documents, but not before you start “The Final Missions” on Char.
Start by sending Raynor to the door and setting a demolition charge, then move your troops clear of the explosion.
Through the door, kill the three soldiers and head to the green ring. Stand in it and click the box on the top right of the screen to access the security feed.
You can now choose to have either the left or the right guns attack the troops in the next room. Regardless of what you pick, capitalize on the situation by attacking during the confusion. You’ll have better luck.
Run through the door and finish the guys off. Then continue forward into the lab beyond.
Zerg flood the room after a short cutscene. They’re coming from the black holding pen, which you can blow with a demo charge to stop their attack.
Blow through the door to the east. Kill the guys on the and follow the hallway southeast. You’ll see a floating orange grenade there — snag it.
ACHIEVEMENT: On Hard mode, pick up all 13 of the weapons pickups in this mission and you’ll receive the “Lock and Load” Achievement.
Raynor can now throw those grenades at people — this is extremely effective. Just ahead is tightly packed group of guys — hit them with a grenade to kill all three.
Move forward and activate the security camera. You can choose Zerglings, Zealots or Ultralisks. Regardless, all the units in that room are your enemies — you should attack them while they’re fighting each other to clear the way.
While you’re in that next room, blow the black holding pen. Inside is a Protoss Relic. Pick it up, as collecting them is one of your Bonus Objectives.
Go through to the next room. Blow the door to the north and find a Plasma Gun inside. It’s basically a bazooka that Raynor can fire — save it for later when you need it.
Turn around and go south. You’ll enter a long hallway that goes back northwest — watch for transformed Vikings along the way. Remember to use your grenades when you can to liquefy enemy units.
Push down the hall to the end. Grab the plasma gun in the left corner of the wall. Then step on the green circle nearby to activate a robot to help you out.
The room beyond is full of artillery, as well as regular soldiers. It doesn’t really matter what kind of ammunition you choose for the robot if you use it correctly.
Send the robot in and destroy the enemy in the cargo hold. Back it up with your squad, including with grenades and the plasma gun as you need to. In the northeast corner of the room are more grenades. The barrels in this room are explosive, as well, so use that to your advantage.
Push west and blow your way through the Vikings there. Past them is another green circle – from here you can call more reinforcements. Order them, then go to the next door ahead and blow it open.
Beyond is a big lab room with a contained Brutalisk in it. Right inside the door are a pair of turrets and a couple of enemy soldiers. Grenade them, first off.
A good strategy is to leave your squad at the end of the hall here, and send Raynor into the lab himself. First, go to the east and kill the Ghost guarding another load of grenades.
Head back to the southwestern corner of the room, near the door, and kill another Ghost. After that, go north to the green circle, where some troops are standing guard. Grenade them to finish the last of the bad guys.
The control panel releases the Brutalisk. You don’t have to do that, but if you kill it, you’ll complete a Bonus Objective. First, get the grenades and the plasma cannon to the east and north, respectively.
There’s another Protoss Relic just on the east side of the Brutalisk pen, around back of it. Snag it.
ACHIEVEMENT: Kill the Brutalisk without suffering any casualties to your squad and you get the “Not So Brutalisk” Achievement. Do that by using Raynor’s plasma gun to put serious hurt on the Brutalisk before it kills your guys.
After the Brutalisk incident, go to the northern door and blow it — kill the Ghost guarding it. On the other side, a grenade will kill the Firebats. Clear the area and gather any items you come across. Then destroy the reactor on the eastern side.
Escape
When the lights go out, head up to the northeast. Watch out for Dominion troops and loose Zerglings. Blast the Marauders on the other side of the wall and keep moving.
In the next room, you’ll find Zealots fighting Dominion soldiers. Mop them up when they’re finished and head west, where you’ll find another weapon – the Chrono Rift Device. It creates a field that slows things that are caught in it.
Go south and blow through the debris to continue. Suddenly, the hybrid attacks! Grab the grenades on your way out and haul ass out of there.
Run southwest, fighting and blowing your way through. When you get to the Warbot controls, activate it and try to make as much time from it as you can. Blast through the debris to the south and you’ll find ammo for the Chrono Rift weapon.
Cut to the west. You’ll enter a room full of debris — set one bomb and avoid the hybrid until it explodes. Then dash away to the south. Keep moving south and west until you enter another room full of Zerg eggs. You’ve lost the hybrid, so take your time and kill these to protect yourself.
Keep moving south out of the room. You’ll enter a hallway and the hybrid shows up again. At this point, ignore all enemies — just keep running south and west until you get to the exit.
There’s a green ring toward the bottom of the map you should be able to get to without being killed. Hit it and Raynor commandeers a transport ship, narrowly escaping the lab as it explodes.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Piercing the Shroud” Achievement is your reward for your narrow escape after the mission.
Prophecy Missions
These missions are available once you receive the Ihan Crystal.
Whispers of Doom
Guide Zeratul toward the Zerg up ahead and kill them. Go forward until you come to the chasm and get an explanation of the Blink power.
Fight forward and Blink over another chasm. Ahead from there, you’ll find destructible rocks in your way. You can hit them or Blink by them.
Keep moving. When you see a Spore Crawler, you’ll get a lesson on the Void Prison ability. Use it on the Crawler, then destroy it to stay invisible.
Go north up the ramp. You’ll see an Ultralisk with a Spore Crawler behind it. Void Prison the Crawler, destroy it, then mop up the other Zerg units before pressing forward.
At the chasm ahead, same deal: Void Prison on the Crawler across the gap, then Blink over and destroy it fast.
Past that, you’ll come to an Overseer. You can’t kill it, but you can blind it so you can run by. Use Void Prison and the “Move” command to get through.
Get to the green circle to complete your first objective. Follow the path and Blink across a chasm and you’ll find yourself stranded on an island. Four Stalkers will warp in to assist you — concentrate their fire on the Mutalisks, one at a time.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you can keep at least three of stalkers until the end of the mission, the “Stalker Delight” Achievement will be unlocked.
Up ahead are an Overseer and three Hydralisks on patrol on low ground. Use Void Prison on the Overseer to knock out its vision, then let the Stalkers kill the Hydralisks while they’re blind.
Next is a team of Mutalisks flying a patrol overhead, with a Spore Crawler in the center of the path, detecting in all directions. First, send Zeratul to kill the colony at the north end of the path south, staying clear of being detected
Next, bring the stalkers forward and have them destroy the mutalisks. When they’re all dead, kill the spore crawler and move on.
To deal with the Broodlords running patrol over the path, get close to the one that’s nearest your group and use Void Prison on it, then have the Stalkers attack it while it’s incapacitated.
When it’s down, move with the Stalkers up the ramp alongside the big hole, and repeat the process on the second Broodlord. You should get through unscathed.
Blink over the chasm ahead and send Zeratul to scout ahead. You’ll be attacked by aerial creatures; keep the Stalkers back and let them pick off air units while Zeratul, staying out of the Overseer’s sight, kills random ground units. Shouldn’t be a problem.
Use Blink to get up to the higher ledge and pick up another Stalker. Follow the path and you’ll find a Zerg hatchery. Use Void Prison to freeze the Overseers and take them out.
Now you can mow down the Zerg from the comfort of invisibility. When both Overseers are gone, Blink Zeratul down to the Zerg base and let him rip it up. Have the Stalkers shoot down at the Zerg structures as well.
Destroying the Zerg hatcheries counts toward a Bonus Objective. There are two more.
You’re free to go to the Xel’Naga Shrine. Send Zeratul, then bring your forces down to the newly opened door.
Through the door, you’ll find patrolling Mutalisks and an Overseer. Wait till the Overseer comes close and Void Prison it. When the Mutalisks fly back south, kill the Overseer quickly with your Stalkers.
You’re free now to send Zeratul south to kill the ground defenses. When that’s done, use Void Prison to take one of the Mutalisks out of the fight while the Stalkers eradicate the other two. Then finish the last one.
Go up the ramp, and you’ll see several tiny Zerg Banelings. Use your Stalkers to kill them from a distance, and use Blink to keep the Banelings from getting close and toasting you.
Go around the chasm and destroy the Spore Crawler in the ground with Void Prison. Then head south, along the western wall, and Blink across the chasm. At the top of a ramp there is the second hatchery.
Use Void Prison on the Overseer and shoot it down. Keep your strikers back and send Zeratul in to destroy the Spike Crawler. When the Stalkers do come in, an Ultralisk appears from underground. Void Prison it and kill it quickly.
Now head back north when you’re done here. You’ll see an Overseer over a small valley. It has burrowed Zerg in it, and the Overseer is waiting for you. Hit him with Void Prison and try to shoot him down while Zeratul kills the ground units.
Run just up ahead and you’ll see Spike Crawlers on the move. Use Void Prison to slow them down and try to kill them before they take root. Either way, you need to deal with that Overseer so you can move on, so repeat the Void Prison-Stalker combo.
Keep the Stalkers on the high ground north of the infested area to keep them safe. Have Zeratul destroy the Spike Colonies while staying clear of the Overseer, until you can destroy it. Clear the way forward and you’ll find more Zerg forces.
Protoss Allies
Join the other Protoss as they go forward. They can’t see Zeratul, so let him attack with the Stalkers supporting. As you move forward, get the Stalkers to kill airborne Mutalisks.
Send the stalkers to high ground to the right and have them hold position. Kill the Overseer with their help, then send Zeratul forward to destroy the Spike Crawlers. With the defenses down, focus on the Nydus worms.
Get to the green ring and you’ll trigger a timer — you’ve got two minutes to escape the area. Highlight all your troops and run for it. When you come to rock obstacles, use Blink to get past them.
Keep moving until you get to the ship and make your escape by touching the green ring.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Whispers of Doom” Achievement is yours for your effort.
A Sinister Turn
Start by warping in two pylons to power the base buildings, and setting your probes to start gathering. As soon as the buildings are powered, start building ground troops — Zealots and Stalkers.
Fight off the single attacker who shows up, and you’ll see your Bonus Objective appear — buildings that need power. They’re nearby, so gather an attack force and a probe and set off.
Go to the western building and power it first. Also build a hoton cannon here.
A second later, a Zerg/Protoss hybrid appears and comes to attack you. It’ll come to the west entrance to your base: ambush it and kill it.
Run over to the east side and power the second building — this gives you a couple of Dark Templars. Build up your attack force so you have a decent set of units and push south from that position, into a small enemy base. Clear it to get to the Templar archives beyond and power it, completing the Bonus Objective.
Bring a High Templar and lots of melee units — specifically, Dark Templars and Zealots. Nothing else really is necessary.
ACHIEVEMENT: Snag the “Out for Justice” Achievement by destroying all the enemy Protoss on the map. There are a few units scattered around the map, plus the base you encountered in the east, and the big one in the south.
Fight southeast to the bridge the hybrid keeps crossing. Keep more units coming to back up your team as you head down there and make a stand at the base of the bridge.
A solid strategy here is to have a probe build you a pylon and a few photon cannons. This way you have a fallback point that can buy you some time if you need it.
TIP: High Templars have an ability that draws energy from enemy units. Use it on the hybrid to take a lot of wind out of his sails.
Fight off the hybrid, reinforce yourself, and charge down into the Protoss base on the other side of the bridge. Knock out the defenses and destroy pylons quickly — you should be able to prevent more enemy units from being made.
A second later, you’ll have to fight the hybrid again. Repeat the process of hitting him with the energy attack and crushing him.
Run down and destroy those Preserver crystals surrounding the hybrid. When all three are smashed, that ends the mission. You can ignore the hybrid altogether as long as your forces don’t get wiped out.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “A Sinister Turn” Achievement unlocks after this mission ends.
Echoes of the Future
Take Zeratul forward into Zerg territory. You’ll find an Observer to bring with you. Keep moving until you find a Protoss base and activate it with the green ring.
Start by building lots of Zealots and a few Stalkers, as well as additional photon cannons. Leave the Colossi on high ground to the north — they’re useful for defense.
The Zerg continually attack your base as time goes on. Set up good defenses, and watch the timer: every time it falls under a minute, return home with your attack force to ward off an attack.
Between attacks, use an observer and Zeratul to start exploring the area around your base. You should be able to covertly destroy most of the enemies to the east, all the way to the corner of the map.
When you’ve cleared the way to the ramp leading to the first tendril, mount an attack. Use Void Prison to capture and kill Overseers, then let Zeratul wreak havoc in enemy bases while your attack team keeps enemy units busy.
ACHIEVEMENT: Get Zeratul at least 50 Zerg kills and you’ll receive the “Army of One” Achievement.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you can pound through the enemy bases in under 20 minutes on Hard mode, you get the “Overmind Dead Body” Achievement.
Wipe out that first Zerg base and you’ll find abandoned Protoss buildings. Power them and you’ll get more units from the Warp Gate. Near that is a small obelisk — powering it and another one to the north earns you the Bonus Objective.
After you fight off an attack, send Zeratul and his attack group north. Do the same thing you did going east, using Zeratul to wipe out everything to another Zerg base north of your own, in the corner. Kill everything there and start powering the buildings — your second obelisk is here.
North of that is another Zerg base, this time with an Ultralisk. Use Void Prison to capture the Ultra and kill it, then use Zeratul to take out the area’s defenses while your other forces destroy the base. That clears your way to the second Overmind Tendril.
Return to base and repel another attack. You can go north again and push to the northeast corner of the map, or go straight east and fight through an infested Terran base. Either way, same tactics: knock out detectors, use Zeratul to throw enemies into chaos.
Fight through the infested Terrans and you’ll destroy their base. Up ahead is another Zerg base, to the north, where an Ultralisk will require Void Prison to stop. Destroy the remains of the base and you can get to the third Overmind Tendril here.
That just leaves the north one. Outfit yourself with a decent attack force and just charge through. You don’t have to be elegant about it — once Zeratul hits that circle, the mission ends.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Echoes of the Future” Achievement is yours for completing the mission.
In Utter Darkness
You have to hold the line here until you’ve racked up 1,500 kills. It’s a lot of Zerg, and if you’re overrun too early, you’ll fail and have to start over.
The key here is maintenance of forces. You’ll want to get set up to build Colossi early (you’ll need a Cybernetics Bay), as these are awesome defenders. You should also free up a probe to build spare photon cannons, which will help stall enemies so you can deal with them.
Throughout the mission, allies warp in to the Protoss base to help you. You need to use them effectively: Void Rays, for example, are good against hybrids; Phoenixes make short work of Mutalisks and similar enemies.
If you can, upgrade your forces — specifically your shields and aerial units’ armor and weapons. The last units you have in this mission will be aerial, so you want them to be strong if you need an extra push.
After that, keep your forces strong and try to eliminate threats as they arise. Templars’ Psionic Storm ability, for example, is good for when Zerg are rushing toward your position, because they’ll run right through it.
Keep ranged units like Colossi and Stalkers on high ground over the entrances to your base and they’ll be highly effective. Keep moving backup units and focusing fire to deal with heavy hitter enemies like hybrids, so they don’t damage your defenses too greatly.
All in all, though, you’re just trying to stop the bleeding long enough to finish the mission. Hold out for better than 20 minutes to complete the Bonus Objective.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you can hold out long enough to rack up 1,750 kills, you’ll get the “Semi-Glorious” Achievement. Make it for 2,250 and get the “Blaze of Glory” Achievement.
Once you’ve lasted 20 minutes and the requisite number of kills, you’ll eventually be overrun and destroyed. The mission will end there.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “In Utter Darkness” Achievement is yours for completing this mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: You’ll also snag the “Zeratul Missions” Achievement when you’re finished here.
The Final Missions
The Gates of Hell
Act fast. Get your base running and start building infantry troops. You’re going to need heavy forces to battle the Zerg.
Almost immediately after you start the mission, a battle pod falls just north of your position. Send whatever troops you have (if you’ve loaded your bunkers, it might just be medics) to pick up the marines and fight back to base.
Pods are coming down all around you before long. Strengthen your defenses — two loaded bunkers will probably do — and keep running off with your marine/Firebat team to pick up more troops. You’ll eventually get buildings, including a factory and a starport.
Make use of all this stuff. Goliaths are good against air units and Banshees are good for throttling unsuspecting ground forces. Get to building those to augment your infantry forces.
None of the pods lands very far away, and each time you mount an expedition, you only have one group of Zerg to fight through. Remember to concentrate fire to make your marines much more effective than they otherwise would be.
ACHIEVEMENT: Snag 10 of those pods while playing Hard mode to be awarded the “Dominion Roundup” Achievement.
ACHIEVEMENT: When you go out, you’ll see large green Zerg towers shooting goo into the air. These are Spore Towers. Take out all of them — they’re scattered around the map — for “The Big Bang Cannon” Achievement.
Keep gathering troops and bringing them back to base. Before too long, the last few pods will fall — two at once. Pick the one that’s outfitted to best suit you — one has Banshees, which are always awesome.
Move fast and you can get both pods. However, the southernmost pod has Vikings, if they’re more your taste.
After you capture all the pods, Warfield’s ship will crash, leaving you to go save it. You need to destroy three Nydus worms along the way.
Banshees and Goliaths are great for this, along with your infantry guys. Don’t rush off to Warfield yet — to the west, two pods fall right before you depart. The one furthest west has a pair of Battle Cruisers. The one to the north has a pair of Thors.
You probably can’t get to both groups, but if you’re fast with your Banshees, you might be able to protect one group while you claim the other. Either way, get the one that suits you best, mass all your troops up, and make for the Nydus worms to the east.
Go forward carefully. Use your air support to clear ground defenses, but keep your ground troops close by to keep enemies off your Banshees. There’s not much more to it than that. Try to keep yourself reinforced if possible.
Keep pushing forward until you get to the Nydus worms, then just throw everything you have into destroying them. It shouldn’t take long and when you’re done, the mission ends.
ACHIEVEMENT: “The Gates of Hell” Achievement is yours for finishing the mission.
ACHIEVEMENT: After the mission, speak with Warfield at the mission chest to add him to the other characters you’ve talked to. If you’ve hit them all (you should have — you can talk after almost every mission), you’ll unlock the “Stay Awhile and Listen” Achievement.
Shatter the Sky
This mission is available if you choose to attack the orbital platform. If you go after the Nydus worms, see “Belly of the Beast.” This mission eliminates aerial enemies in the last mission; if you do the other, Nydus worms are knocked out of the enemy army.
If you want a powerful combination, try Wraiths and Banshees. Build a spare starport after you outfit your base with some defenses. Crank out Banshees and Wraiths to fight all manner of air and ground units.
TIP: Conversely, you could just sit back and gather up a bunch of Battle Cruisers. Build a Fusion Core and you can do it. Cruisers take a while, but they’ll make the whole mission easier.
When you have some Banshees together, send them with your Battle Cruiser to the first tower, straight to the southwest. Cut through the anti-air defenses, then start destroying the enemy base.
TIP: South of the Zerg hatchery is a vertical pipe that Mutalisks will come out of. Stay away from it to avoid triggering enemy reinforcements.
Push forward to the first coolant tower and destroy it, then pull back to your base. The reactor beneath the surface is going critical and will destroy your units if they get caught in it.
ACHIEVEMENT: Unlock the “Demolition Man” Achievement by not losing a single unit to a platform’s reactor explosion. It’s easy — just get the hell out of there (or kill your men if you can’t evacuate them).
Horner will shortly notify you that the platform in the southeastern corner is heavy on the air defense, while the northwestern corner is heavy on the ground defense. Adjust your strategy accordingly. If you have lots of air units, send them north to deal with that platform first.
The north platform isn’t devoid of air defense, but it’s pretty lacking. Bring Banshees and a few Wraiths to take on straggling mutalisks and you should be okay. Just cut a path to the coolant tower and blow it — you don’t have to do anything fancy.
After destroying the second tower, a huge Zerg Leviathan will appear, marauding around the center of the map. This thing shoots Mutalisks — it’s not easy to deal with. It has 2,500 hit points and will snack on your air units if you go after it. It’s also a Bonus Objective.
Best bet: Battle Cruisers. Again, they’re slow and expensive, but cruisers pack the Yamato cannon, which deals 300 points of damage in a single shot. Line up a few of those and you can take the Leviathan out without losing your entire squad.
TIP: You may want to leave the Leviathan for right before you take on the last enemy base, the one in the southwest corner. This way it won’t set you back if you lose units in the fight. If you take Cruisers, though, you’ll decimate the Leviathan with their Yamato cannons.
To take the southern base, you have two options: hit-and-run aerial assault, which will be costly and risks failure, or a drop-in ground assault. You can risk running across the center of the map with your troops, but you have to deal with the Leviathan and other marauding air units.
If you’re building Battle Cruisers, send them in with Vikings to back them up, Yamato the coolant tower, and use the Vikings to cover the cruisers’ retreat. It’s that simple, and while a little costly, it goes quickly and with minimal entrenched fighting.
Dropping ground forces is trickier. For one, you’re going to need the resources and units to mount the drop, which can be tough. If you go this route, use Banshees to clear a patch toward the north end of the base and drop your troops there.
A good plan is to bring tanks and Goliaths to complement your infantry. Use your flyers for support and just steamroll forward, using the siege tanks to decimate buildings from a distance.
This way you can minimize damage from enemy defenses by just ravaging them. Infantry and aerial units will protect you from Zerg attackers in the meantime. Just keep trudging forward, destroying the Zerg means of fighting back.
TIP: If you want the “Demolition Man” Achievement, make sure you have ample drop ships waiting to evac your team. Otherwise, you’ll have to kill them yourself, or suicide them into Zerg before the timer runs out.
Fight down to the reactor and blow it, then get out of there. With that done, you can take on the Leviathan if you so choose.
The last base, in the southwest, is worth some recon before you head in. You should go for broke here — destroying the last coolant tower ends the mission, so you don’t need to think about exit strategy.
If you look at the map, there’s a section on a diagonal going from southwest to northeast where there are no Zerg structures. It goes right through the base. If you can position your troops unmolested, you’ll probably have the easiest time trying to run this trench.
The last base is heavily guarded with air units, however, especially along the blank line. Vikings are handy support to your units. If you’re bringing Cruisers, just build lots, set them to Yamato, and end them on a kamikaze mission to the tower.
If you’re using ground troops, you’ll need lots. Again, with proper air support, you can work your way forward with tanks. Get in sight distance of the tower and you can destroy it. Once you’ve done that, the mission ends.
ACHIEVEMENT: Winning here nets you the “Shatter the Sky” Achievement.
ACHIEVEMENT: If you’re playing on Hard mode, finish the mission inside of 25 minutes to get the “Speed Too!” Achievement.
Belly of the Beast
The First Charge
Take this mission if you want to eliminate Nydus worms from the final battle. If you’d rather knock out the aerial units, see “Shatter the Sky.”
Grab your troops and move along the tunnel. Your first step is to learn to use Raynor’s Penetrator, which can kill multiple Zerg in a line. Use it to kill Spike Crawlers.
Keep moving through the first few Zerg units and down the ramp. You’ll get a lesson in Tychus’ Shredder Grenades. Along with the Penetrator Rounds, this is your go-to weapon in a pinch.
ACHIEVEMENT: Work hard to protect your four Hero units. If you can keep them from being knocked out (incapacitated) with zero health, the “Unbreakable” Achievement will unlock.
Move south and you’ll find another Zerg position. Start with a Shredder Grenade, then fire a Penetrator, and everyone will be dead. Make sure to hit the Spike Colonies, as they’re the biggest threat.
Next you’ll find a big room filled with Zerglings and get a lesson in Swann’s turret. Place it where it’s suggested and use your units to mop up enemies that escape the fire.
You’ll swing north through a few more Zerg units, then back down another hallway. When you get here, you’ll ID some of Warfield’s units. Clear the way north to them. And let them lead — they’re expendable.
Now head south. You’ll hit a ramp, and as you traverse it, you’ll be ambushed. Keep your cool and focus fire and you’ll do fine.
In the larger room, heading northwest, you’ll see a few red marker indicating hidden units. As you approach them, a whole mess will appear — set a turret and mop up with Raynor and Tychus’ special weapons.
Your way is clear down to the hallway leading to the fault. Just short of the fault, however, a bunch of Nydus worms will appear right in front of you. Set a turret fast.
Shredder Grenades and Penetrator rounds can kill the Nydus. Use them. Stay behind the turret to use it for protection. When the worms are dead, head down to the fault.
Now you’ll need to protect the spot as the charge gets set. The game suggests putting a turret so that it only guards one choke point, but if you put one in between two paths, it’ll blast away at enemies coming down both.
Get set up so you can switch back and forth between Penetrator rounds and shredder grenades. Alternate between them, and maintain turrets when they go down. You shouldn’t have much trouble setting the charge.
Infested
Head down the tunnel. You’ll run across some Infested marines. Blast them with the Penetrator. The further in you go, the larger numbers of Infested you’ll face.
Cut down to the south. You’ll come to an area where you’ll see lots of markers indicating enemies in a lower area to the south of you. Drop a turret and trigger an attack with grenades and Raynor’s guns.
The turret, coupled with your weapons, should make easy and short work of the enemies here.
Move down and head east. You’ll see another huge number of enemies. Right before the room filled with Zerg are some red crystals that actually create a choke point. Stand close to them, drop a turret and toss a grenade.
Keep up the fire and let the turret do its job. You’ll have no problem eliminating all the enemies as they bottleneck right there at the red crystal walls.
When it’s safe, head south. Watch out for an abomination to show up and attack you; kill it fast.
You’ll see Banelings coming on the path ahead. Quickly drop a turret and stand back — let the turret do most of the fighting here so you can avoid being splashed by acid.
Move up. You’ll hear that there are Firebats ahead, but there are Nydus worms between you and there. Attack the worms, but drop a turret behind you — there are enemies on your flank.
Knock out the worms and get up to the Firebats. They’ll be extremely helpful — try to keep them in front of your Hero units. When you’re grouped up, head north.
You’ll enter a twisting hallway that makes an S-shape. Fight into the hall and throw down a turret to clear a little space. Use Raynor to destroy the worm to the east, at the end of the hall, with his Penetration round.
Enemies are still coming. Use the Firebats to cut a swath to the next corner. When you arrive, throw down another turret and use Raynor or Tychus’ grenades to kill the worm just around the bend.
Repeat until you hit the next corner. Put down your turret, but stand back — there’s an Ultralisk directly to the left of the opening. Concentrate on him, then drop the two worms beyond with your special abilities.
Beyond the Ultralisk and Nydus worms, you’re clear to the next fault line. Get to it and set your charge. Enemies come at you from three sides here, so watch your minimap for big forces you can drop with a grenade, and more importantly, nearby Nydus worms. Get to them fast and kill them.
Hold out here for three minutes and you’ll move to then last section of the mission.
Eggs
Start by heading down the long corridor. At the end, you’ll encounter a big room filled with eggs that will hatch, sending all kinds of things at you. Hang back and don’t trigger them yet — there’s a better way.
First, leave your team behind. Take Tychus or someone fast and go to the opening to trigger the eggs, then haul ass back to the team.
The enemies will bottleneck into the tight passage in a single-file line. You can toss down a turret to absolutely murder these guys.
ACHIEVEMENT: Use this single-file channel to try to rack up a 50-kill snipe with Raynor’s Penetration Rounds. You’ll receive the “One Shot, 50 Kills!” Achievement.
Repeat this process with the majority of this area. There are three or so areas with eggs in them that you can drag back to this one hallway, where the Zerg numbers don’t count for anything.
When you get to the long hallway that goes north, head up there. Get to the mouth of the hallway (it empties into a room with eggs) and throw down a turret to protect yourself from enemy units.
Across from you is a group of marines about to get mauled by an Omegalisk. With the turret’s help, fire on the Omega from a safe distance. If you can kill it before it gets through those rocks, you get the marines’ help. If you don’t kill it, the Omegalisk attacks you anyway. Use a turret to distract it and keep it from murdering your team.
Clear the way and head to the ring. You’re in for a boss battle, so get ready.
The Queen
The Queen’s tactic is to pop up on one side of you, rip open a bunch of eggs, then disappear. You need to do massive damage to her before she vanishes.
Do this by learning her pattern. Her first appearance is always to the right of the bomb — the east side — and she goes to tear eggs open in the northeast corner. Set a turret between you and those eggs, but closer to the eggs. Meantime, lay into the Queen.
When she dives, take a second to shoot at or throw grenades at the to the northwest of the bomb. That’s where she’s coming up next. When she does, place a turret right at her back.
She’ll fry a little more under your punishment and disappear. Her next location is behind you, due south, around a corner. Set the turret right behind her, around the corner.
The Queen will dive again – she’ll now be down to about a quarter of her original health – and she’ll be gone slightly longer than usual. Quickly move east of the bomb. Get away from it.
When she reappears, the Queen will be directly west of the bomb. She’ll use a shockwave attack that stuns all your units. You can’t do anything about it, but you can be clear of her attacks when it happens.
As soon as possible, toss the turret near the bomb so it keeps the enemy off of the objective and throw a grenade to mince up her minions. In fact, hit the Queen with all you’ve got, but try to stay back so as to not get knocked out. Hammer away until she dies.
Now you have to escape. Group your units together and keep moving forward. Anytime anything gets in your way, hit it with a Penetration Round or a grenade to clear the path.
The path twists some. When you find yourself going east at the second bend, most of the enemies will be ahead of you. Throw down a turret to give them something shiny to look at while you run by.
You’ll come around another curve heading northwest, where an Abomination will greet you. Hit it hard to destroy it before it can seriously injure you, then haul ass for the exit just ahead.
ACHIEVEMENT: You get the “Belly of the Beast” Achievement for getting out alive.
All In
Like the final Prophecy mission, “All In” is a massive defensive maneuver. You have to protect the big Artifact while it charges up — which takes 20 or so minutes — under a nearly constant Zerg onslaught.
Here’s what you need to know: If you destroyed the flying Zerg, you’ll be dealing with Nydus worms, but you’ll have total air superiority. The trade-off is, you need to use those air units to hunt down those Nydus worms and destroy them, or they’ll keep pouring troops at your base and you’ll never be able to hold out long enough.
If you took out the worms, the Zerg ground attack will be much thinned, but you’ll constantly be dealing with onslaughts by enemy air units. This is going to mean a lot of shooting down Mutalisks, so you’ll have to adjust your defenses accordingly.
Either way, when the mission starts, put everyone to work. You’ll want to fortify your defenses. There are three entrances to your base: two on the west, one of which is forward and one of which is a flank; and one on the east side, which creates a choke point.
Depending on your situation, you either want to build extra bunkers to seal those entrances and stave off incoming ground troops, or increase your air protection all the way around the front of your base.
Build extra facilities. Barracks are good to fill bunkers and marines can knock out air units. You’ll also want to figure out what kind of units you’re making and get extra facilities for that.
If you’re dealing with Nydus worms, you want lots and lots of banshees. A big squad of Banshees is what you’re going to use to fly around the map, ridding it of Nydus worms. You can’t let any live, or the Zerg will increase in strength until they rip through your defenses.
Against air units, Goliaths, marines and Vikings are extremely solid. You can concentrate more on defense, rather than attack, on that route, but you have to be careful not to be overwhelmed by flyers.
If you get into trouble, once the Artifact charges, you can release a veritable supernova of anti-Zerg energy. It sweeps the map and kills everything, but you need to wait better than three whole minutes for it to be available again
ACHIEVEMENT: Use the Artifact to zap 150 Zerg (which is about two uses, maybe three) and you get the “Turn and Burn” Achievement.
ACHIEVEMENT: On Hard mode, if you can manage to only use the Artifact one time throughout the whole mission, you’ll earn the “Aces High” Achievement.
TIP: If you do use the Artifact, use it before you get into dire straits. Knock out all the Zerg so that your defenses survive, rather than so that you can rebuild.
TIP: The Artifact’s wave does not destroy Nydus worms. So if you’re not eliminating those guys with prejudice, they will continue to spew Zerg ground troops at you. You won’t get any relief from the Artifact whatsoever.
Every once in a while, the Queen of Blades herself will make an attack run on your base. When that happens, hit her with everything you’ve got — she’s a menace and she’ll destroy cruisers, bunkers, and all kinds of other stuff with Psionic Storms.
TIP: In fact, if you can meet the Queen of Blades in the field, away from your base, you can trick her into using her more special powers on expendable units. Then pull them back and let the main base’s firepower empty into her, while she poses a diminished threat.
You’ll fight the Queen five or six times, all told. She can really hurt you, so you need to be ready for it.
Similarly, if you’re fighting Nydus worms, be ready for them to show up in your base. Fly around knocking them out as fast as you can. If you’re dealing with flyers instead, watch that they don’t circumvent your defenses and come in from the flank, attacking the back of your base rather than the front.
There’s not a lot else in the way of tactics. Go with what you feel comfortable with, but make sure you address what kind of threat the Zerg is sending — air or ground, fast or slow, etc.
If you can set up a strong defense early, you can spend the rest of the mission micro-managing anti-air troops, Nydus hunting parties, and other small fires that require your attention. If you can’t trust your defenses to hold, you’ll spread yourself too thin attention-wise and find yourself overrun.
Last until the Artifact is fully charged to finish the mission and the campaign mode.
ACHIEVEMENT: You get the “All In” Achievement for finishing the mission and the “Wings of Liberty” Achievement for finishing the campaign.
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