SC2 HOTS Brutal Campaign: Mission 20 The Reckoning – All Achievements and Secondary Objectives

It’s the final mission of the game!  This mission is unique because every single unit that Mengsk creates are specialized named groups of mercenaries.

Among the worst to deal with are the medivac/reapers who can take out an entire army by themselves if Kerrigan is around to carry weight.

Luckily for this mission you have Kerrigan and she kills everything very easily, even these hero units.

This mission is more about numbers and less about composition.  You will need to have something to soak tank blasts (zerglings, ultralisks, abberations, or roaches) and you will need to diversify between range and melee range units.  Flying units have largely been useless in this mission, despite there being two giant hero waves of air units.

In this map there are three Zerg entry points you can unlock.  They are unlocked by destroying the bunkers in front of them.  Two of them have planetary fortresses guarding them.  A great and easy solution to this is to roll banelings into them.  Combined with the splitter upgrade these banelings will get rid of all these static defenses cost effectively.

The mission has two achievements.

Achievement: Swarm Guardian

This achievement merely asks that Raynor’s Hyperion does not take any damage.  This is a relatively easy thing to accomplish and on Brutal it is very important to protect Jim anyway.

Unlike in other difficulties, on Brutal none of your allies really carry their weight.  After releasing any of the three Zerg leaders they wil launch a massive force that will all die to one round of tank fire.  James Raynor is equally useless as each of his attacks is immediately quashed.

The attacks by the enemy have a timing.  After James Raynor sends his forces forward and loses all of his forces he will immediately get counter attacked by Mengsk.  The first wave is a group of banshees and vikings, the second wave is battlecruisers and siege tanks, the third wave is an Odin with Goliaths.

To deal with the first wave your unit of choice will be the LURKER!  Yes it’s finally useful.  Create 4-5 lurkers and place them at the entrance of Raynor’s base.  Once Mengsk sends his first group to kill the Hyperion, slightly move them a little north of the bunker.  All of the vikings will land here and immediately die to lurker damage.  Raynor’s  thors can deal with the banshees very effectively, as can marines.

The second wave you will need to either bring Kerrigan or hydralisks.  It is also possible to intercept this if you have made enough progress with destroying Mengsk’s base.  The frenzy ability is particularly useful in adding extra damage.

The third wave is the Odin.  This waves is the easiest and can be destroyed simply by dropping a spawn baneling on top of Odin which will kill all of the goliaths.  After that you merely attack him head on with your army and he dies very easily.

If you defeat these three waves Mengsk will not do anymore attacks that can destroy the Hyperion.

Achievement: Speed Bump

Speed Bump is not accomplishable with Swarm Guardian.  Unfortunately the timings work out so that if you are attacking aggressively into the enemy, you can’t save Jim.

Speed Bump benefits very heavily from a fast max tactic.  Fast maxing generally involves high amounts of roaches mixed in with some zerglings.  As you push forward you can start mixing in hydralisks as more of your army dies out.

You should have Spawn Banelings for the fast burst damage (with splitting banelings), the single target nuke ability, having the ability to Crushing Grip will be great or area of effect single target is amazing as well.  The Pod ability is useful but the area of effect damage spell can also be useful.

You should make sure to have your abilities on CD almost at all times.  You can use Kerrigan to do some damage by herself a lot of the times without risking too much of your army.

Head northeast with your army, this is the path of least resistance.

Upon getting this achievement you will also get the Mastery which involves killing Odin before he gets to Raynor.

SC2 HOTS Brutal Campaign: Mission 15 Phantoms of the Void – With All Achievements and Secondary Objectives

This is one of the few missions where you will not have Kerrigan kicking around.  So make sure to load up as many economy boosting abilities as possible (Twin Drones and Automated Vespene is great).

Instead you will get Stukov.  Stukov is a liberated independent infested terran with the power to deal a very powerful blast that reduces armor and summon a group of infested terrans.

There are two achievements to unlock in this bad boy.  The first is not have Stukov die, that’s relatively easy…. you just can’t let him die by always surrounding him with a lot of units.

The second The Phantoms Menaced is a little harder.

This achievement requires you to destroy two hybrids in close proximity of each other.

Before getting this it is important to note that you should have a very large army.  Initially you will want to build it full of zerglings and a lot of ultralisks.  However after getting to around 6-8 ultralisks you will want to start filling in as many hydralisks as possible… until the majority of the army was hydralisks.

Hydralisks will help you deal with air and most importantly allow you to nuke down hybrids quickly.

On your second temple it will start spawning two hybrids.  On your third or fourth temple you need to get the hybrid down to around 10% health and then kill the second one.  Once the second one dies  the first will die automatically very quickly.

Since only the second achievement is hard and can be accomplished very early on completing the mastery is relatively easy.  This involves cleaning up the two protoss bases.  The AI will inform you not to do this but do it… push in.  You will need to replace your 4-6 ultralisk numbers after every single push.  Ultralisks are very good for pushing and absorbing damage.

With a large army of hydralisks the remainder of the temples will be a synch.

SC2 HOTS Brutal Campaign: Mission 13 Infested – With All Achievements and Secondary Objectives

This is a pacing based mission in which as you get more and more infested terrans the speed at which you complete tasks hastily speeds up.  However in order to get the achievements for this mission it is in your interest to slow things down as humanly possible.

So let’s start with the achievement Spreading the Disease.

This achievement relies on you not losing a single of your Virophages.  Virophages are created by infestors and are insanely easy to kill.

It is almost impossible to reinforce these places in time, it’s almost as if your army has to be there in advance.

This looks like a job for, IMPALER!

In the evolution mission for hydralisks you could choose between Impalers who burrow and deal very high damage or lurkers who burrow and deal splash damage.  Impalers are your unit of choice here.  Three impalers at every single point will one shot firebats as they enter their respective medivacs and will 2-shot vikings as they land.

The supply cost for this is about 12 supply per virophage, meaning that you will be sacrificing about 84 supply from your final attack.  No worries though because with all of the infestors taking over units you will have tones of extra units.

The impalers were chosen over reinforcing known attack places simply because the enemy seems to attack at random.  In four different playthroughs the attack wave consistently would hit one of two places in an inconsistent manner.  Sticking impales everywhere means you can focus on spreading that creep and using Kerrigan’s abilities to make some minor pushes.

The second achievement is called Master of Puppets and it revolves around killing stuff with units you take over with infestors.  Units that kill a lot of stuff include:

1. Siege tanks
2. Thors
3. Battlecruisers
4. Firebats
5. Hellions/Hellbats
6. Vultures (via spider mines)
7. Science Vessels (via radiate)
8. Cheetah things (there’s five of these area of effect splash kitties located west and north of the second base, they are also an easter egg)

Simply by taking over these units you will get more than enough kills to knock out that achievement.  However there is no time limit on this mission so if you feel like you are doing underwhelming with taking over splash damage units you can just sit around and take over firebats ad infinitum.

The secondary objectives have three easily findable locations.  The first two are along the attack path.  The final one is all the way to the west in the central area and just north of the most western most virophage.  It happens to be protected by a thor or two which means more great units to steal.

SC2 HOTS Brutal Campaign: Mission 12 Supreme – With All Achievements and Secondary Objectives

Getting these achievements on Brutal difficulty means completing the mission.  Falling under 100 health isn’t a real concern because you can just heal yourself.  This page will explain how each boss is done.

Before I get into that.  The hard to find secondary objectives are located northwest in the first area and northeast in the third area.  You have to jump some platforms to get to these.  The first one is full of guys who can die to the dash.  The fourth one has various spitters on platforms you will have to kill off.

On to the bosses!

Boss #1: Yagdra

This worm (I guess nydus worm) has two main abilities.  Yagdra will target a few areas around you and spew fireballs at them.  You simply move out of the red circles.

The second ability is to spew fire in a circle.  This can be side stepped.

The key to beating this boss is using Kerrigan’s jump ability on the boss as much as humanly possible.

The boss will also spawn eggs. The little ones can be dashed through.  The big one can either be targeted down or jumped on.  It’s important to prioritize getting rid of these eggs over killing the boss.

Boss #2: Kraith

I have no idea what this guy is supposed to be.

However this boss has two abilities.  The first ability is to spin in a circle and fire thorns at you.  You simply spin around him to dodge these.  You can move fast enough to actually get extra damage in on him as well.

His other ability is a charge, it is marked with a line where he will charge.  Move out of the way of this and after he does it you can get a Jump attack on him and get some extra damage in.

He will spawn a lot of ads.  To deal with these make sure to heal p your own minions and run away from them all.  They will follow you in a line, a perfect opportunity for a Dash attack to kill them all at once.

Much like the first fight this one is about avoiding damage and killing minions.

Boss #3: Sleven The Eternal Mother

This boss is unique in that it has absolutely no abilities.  This boss is simply perpetually spawning banelings around her, which makes her hard to hit.

As well she will call on Acid Spewer minions.  These acid spewer minions have to die pronto (as in as soon as possible).  You can jump attack them and finish them off with another hit easily.

Make sure to keep healing up Kerrigan whenever she takes damage.

The TRICK to this boss is that the banelings do not work like normal banelings.  First and foremost they deal friendly fire damage.  This means that the banelings if activated on Sleven, will hurt her (and the acid spewers).  The second is that upon moving near them they do not immediately explode, they wait about 5 seconds then explode.

This boss is about walking around the boss and exploding as many of these banelings as possible without getting hit by them.  If you get trapped you can dash out of the banelings.  The baneling blasts will kill Sleven alone.

The mother will walk around and not always be escorted by so many banelings, it is here you can deal some awesome Jump attack damage to make this go faster.

Boss #4: The Ancient

We always knew we’d be killing this wind bag.

The ancient evolves new abilities over time.  His first ability is to slap down his arms to hit you. They are large and pretty easily dodgeable.  You do not need your minions to beat this boss, but keeping them alive longer will make this fight go on shorter.

Every 30 seconds he will spawn a few minions.  These are hydralisks and one ultralisk.  Most of these can be killed with the dash, ultralisk will need a Jump.

If you can continue to dodge damage and kill the minions eventually you will reach a second phase in the fight.  In this phase The Ancient will start to spew electricity from his mouth at you.  Simultaneously there will be sparks on the ground you will have to dodge, all of these cause high damage.

You can heal up through this but remember the more heals you use is the less energy you have and the less energy you have the less opportunity you will have to use Jump attack to squash him down faster.

Overall he’s only the third hardest of them.

Upon killing him you will have completed your achievements!

Note if you don’t have 500 kills for Kerrigan you can get them all on Sleven the Brood Mother by dashing through the banelings.  Each dash will kill about 50-60 banelings.

SC2 HOTS Brutal Campaign: Mission 11 The Crucible – With All Achievements and Secondary Objectives

If you played the original Starcraft’s zerg campaign you will remember the entire campaign was surrounding the creation of a super creature.  That mission culminated on one major event in which Kerrigan Queen of Blades hatched from a pod and became an independent minion of The Overmind.

This mission draws from this event.  You will also find parallels between this mission and the All In mission from the Wings of Liberty campaign mechanically.

You will start the mission off introduced to the Swarm Host.  The Swarm Host deploys small short ranged attackers.  The primary use of these is to act as soakers so that your army can run in and deal damage, and then retreat once the swarm dies.

There are two major achievements in this mission.  Epic Meal Time is accomplished by simply using a Spawn Locusts ability almost every single time it is up.  By doing this you make the mission easier and the achievement is simply to accumulate kills, not all at once.

This ability will become unlocked after the second wave of units.

The second achievement, Don’t Touch This Chrysalis is much harder as it requires absolutely no damage to the chrysalis, even from flyer bounces.

Upon getting to the base you will have access to two spine crawlers, five swarm hosts, three mutalisks, and one queen.

Make sure to use the queen to extend your creep.  You will need this extended creep around the eastern flank, the western flank, and a southern flank that doesn’t get realized until later.

The first attack will come from the west.  Deploy your spine crawlers in front of your swarm hosts.  When the attack comes you can pre-emptively spawn some swarms to soak some damage and get some extra kills.  This wave has NO anti-air units so you can deploy your mutalisks after it immediately.

The second wave will require some creative thinking.  I choose to make banelings and burrow them.  I get the baneling upgrade in which a baneling destruction spawns two mini-banelings.  This messes with the computer AI and can deal some crazy damage.  With them burrowed you can do crazy high amounts of damage to their numbers through AOE splash damage and you can also slow them down so you can deploy more swarms.

The cost of six banelings is not that much considering during this time you will have an extra hatchery working on a second base and will be making nothing but drones until you are near maxed.

For the next wave you will have the new ability show up which you can use on this wave.  You can also have some spine crawlers move over there to support.

At this point you will want to work on some spore crawlers covering the middle plateau on the eastern flank and some directly west of the chrysalis.  This will defend your queen from flyers.  You will also want to make a lot of spine crawlers.  These are just solutions that will allow you to survive.  Remember to keep some banelings around as well.  They are great for emergency problems and will buy you more than enough time.

Your main unit will be the hydralisk.  Make sure to get the frenzy ability (50% damage for 15 seconds).  This ability seriously owns.  Hydralisks are anti-air units and have high single target damage, making them perfect defenders.  You can deploy more swarm hosts to both flanks and just keep them there permanently.  As well as your money (minerals) get really high make sure to expand your gas production and make even more spore crawlers and spine crawlers.

It is important to get the ranged attack and armor upgrades over time.  They will be critical in winning those big battles.

To get the secondary objective wait until you are near max army.  Wait for one more attack and after that attack is over rush through the enemy lines.  You can burrow to get some of the enemy’s forces off of you.  Frenzy up and kill the Tyranascour within seconds.  You can run back to your base, expect to lose about 30 hydralisks in this run.  With your economy you can easily replenish this and you will also have the Spawn Locusts ability to cover you for the next enemy attack.

On Spawn Locusts.  The ability only works within the radius of your base.  This means you have to wait for the enemy to begin to attack in order to use it.  This also means your front line will take some damage.

Near the end the enemy will start breaking down the bottom rocks.  You can actually just run some lings at them and stop them from breaking down these rocks.  But regardless make sure to have tones of spine crawlers and spore crawlers planted around this area.

At the end of the mission spawn locusts as often as you can and make sure to keep hydralisks roughly in the middle splitting them off to deal with flanks that need more or less help.

This is considered to be one of the harder brutal modes to accomplish but with some practice with macro management you will find it easy.