_________ __ / _____/_/ |_ _____ _______ \_____ \ \ __\\__ \ \_ __ \ / \ | | / __ \_ | | \/ /_______ / |__| (____ / |__| \/ \/ _________ _____ __ \_ ___ \ _______ _____ _/ ____\_/ |_ / \ \/ \_ __ \\__ \ \ __\ \ __\ \ \____ | | \/ / __ \_ | | | | \______ / |__| (____ / |__| |__| \/ \/ *walkthrough v1.5* /----------\ |=========| FAQ Info | | \----------/ | | guide version: 1.9 | created on: November 1999 | last update: 12/17/99 | creator: BestGuy9 (BestGuy9@aol.com) | http://members.aol.com/BestGuy9/index.htm | |_____________________ /------------------\ |=========| Copyright Notice | | \------------------/ | | All contents of this FAQ | are copyright 1999 by BestGuy9. | You must get written permission | before duplicating any part of | this FAQ. Only people who have | also gotten permission for | previous versions may automatically | repost this FAQ. | |_____________________ Note: This is NOT a FAQ to help you with races, units, etc. This is a walkthrough intended to help you in completing the single player campaigns shipped with the game. Non-Blizzard authorized campaigns are not supported in this FAQ. WARNING: This walkthru includes storyline details as well as tips on completing single player campaigns. If you do not wish to ruin the storyline for yourself, please do not read those sections. Table of Contents ----------------- i. Revision History ii. Introduction & Notes iii. Credits iv. Game Info *Chapter One: Terran Missions* Tutorial: Boot Camp I: Wastelands II: Backwater Station III: Desperate Alliance IV: The Jacobs Installation V: Revolution VI: Norad II VII: The Trump Card VIII: The Big Push IX: New Gettysburg X: The Hammer Falls *Chapter Two: Zerg Missions* I: Among the Ruins II: Egression III: The New Dominion IV: Agent of the Swarm V: The Amerigo VI: The Dark Templar VII: The Culling VIII: Eye for an Eye IX: Invasion of Aiur *Coming Soon!* X: Full Circle *Chapter Three: Protoss Missions* *Coming Soon!* I: First Strike II: Into the Flames III: Higher Ground IV: The Hunt for Tassadar V: Choosing Sides VI: Into the Darkness VII: Homeland VIII: The Trial of Tassadar IX: Shadow Hunters X: Eye of the Storm ----------------- i. Revision History v1.0 - November 1999 first publishing v1.5 - 12/6/99 second publishing updated formatting and redid layout added half of Zerg missions fixed some typos fixed formatting problem on website added story section to cinematics added missing cinematics other minor changes v1.9 - 12/17/99 third publishing added all Zerg mission except Zerg X corrected Terran Mission III formatting corrected minor sentence structure errors added Terran Mission VI addtl. strat other minor changes ii. Introduction and Notes Welcome to the StarCraft walkthru. There are an incredible amount of strategy guides for units, building orders, races, and things like that. There seems to be a lacking for a proper walkthru of the actual single player campaign levels. In fact, the only copy I have found is from the friendly folks over at Starcraft.org (see credits). So, here is one for you to use if you are stuck and don't want to cheat. Note that Brood War missions are not included in this walkthrough - I am writing those now and they will be put into publication on this site (hopefully) soon. So, enjoy and use this well. Please note the copyright notice on the bottom. Other than that, I hope it is useful, and please send me comments that I can use on future walkthroughs. Thanks! notes for v1.5 - Sorry, I haven't finished the Zerg X mission yet. It's a piece of cake compared to Zerg IX, though, so follow your instincts and you'll be fine. I didn't add Zerg X yet because I wanted to rush this "to the presses" so to speak. That will come in the next update as well as some if not all of the Protoss missions. See 'ya soon! iii. Credits I would like to thank Starcraft.org (www.starcraft.org) for giving me the idea, as well as giving me a guideline for my strats. I have combined personal experience with their FAQs to create this one. I recognize and thank them. I also used SigZag to create the cool StarCraft "logo" at the top. http://www.geocities.com/southbeach/marina/4942/sigzag.htm Finally, as listed below, Novabird contributed the second Terran Mission VI strategy. iv. Other Walkthrus IN PRODUCTION: Roller Coaster Tycoon (PC) Harvest Moon 64 (Nintendo 64) Look for these FAQs soon on my guide website and GameFAQs! http://www.gamefaqs.com http://members.aol.com/BestGuy9/index.htm v. Game Info Name: StarCraft Genre: Strategy\War (Real Time Stategy) Platform: PC Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment Quick Info: Developed by the famous folks at Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft is the semi-sequel to WarCraft II. In the game, you can take control of one of three races, who battle for galactic dominance. StarCraft has won many awards, including Best Game of 1999 from many websites, and it certainly is one the best games currently out there. In my opinion, anyway. Expansion Pack: Brood War. There are no sequels at this time, with WarCraft III being the next game in line (sequel? I don't know..) StarCraft II might follow WarCraft III, who knows what Blizzard plans to do!? /------------------------------\ | Chapter One: Terran Missions | \------------------------------/ Tutorial: Boot Camp ------------------- STORY: The first mission isn't actually an official mission, it's actually an "equipment demonstration" that your advisor organized. HELP: This mission is really straightforward, since you don't even get attacked! All you have to do is build 3 Supply Depots, build a Refinery, and mine 100 gas. Your advisor will tell you what to do. Mission I: Wastelands --------------------- STORY: Since the Protoss have destroyed the colony of Chau Sara, Mar Sara traffic has increased substantially. The Confederacy, being the government, has locked down all outlying planets and will proceed with the Mar Sara lockdown in 40 hours. You have been instructed to move your base to the Mar Sara wastelands, so that's what you are doing. The local Marshal, James Raynor, is to meet you en route. HELP: There's really only one route to follow, since you will see where your base is. Raynor will meet you halway, he'll be in his Vulture. Kill the Zergs to the south of Raynor, then start your SCVs mining. When you have 150 minerals, you can build a Barracks. Since you already should have 5 Marines, you only need to build 5 more. Once the 10th Marine comes out, you're done. Mission II: Backwater Station ----------------------------- STORY: Your new base is coming along fine. A distress signal comes in from the Confederate Backwater Station. General Duke signals you to sit tight at your base - but Raynor convinces you to help save the station. Defying orders can't be good for your rank... HELP: This is a longer mission, compared to the other two. You'll start off with a base, too. Start off by building some SCVs, and move the marines and Raynor to the north of your base (Zerg can attack coming down the two ramps). Get your economy going, and maybe lay some of Raynor's spider mines down for protection. You don't have many minerals to start off with in your fields, so you'll need to make some decisions, and fast. Once you have about 4 or 5 SCVs mining, you should build Marines. Don't worry about gas yet, we'll get that later. Get about 7 or 8 Marines, then head up the left ramp and destroy the Zerg and the Creep Colony that reside there. North is the Backwater Station, head directly to the purple Command Center to rescue the whole base. You'll get Firebats, as well as an Academy. You can start mining gas, build some more Marines & Firebats, then you're ready to destroy the rest of the Zerg. Head around the corner and destroy the zerg there, then head down the ramp and right back up the one across from that. Destroy the zerglings, hydralisks, and Colonies here. If you die, don't worry, just build more troops and go back again. At this base you'll find an Infested Command Center, destroy it to win. **Cinematic: Wasteland Patrol** STORY: This cinema scene shows a patrol being killed by the Zerg. Your advisor will talk about that in your briefing. Mission III: Desperate Alliance ------------------------------- STORY: After the previous mission, you're favored with a movie. After that, General Duke fires off a message to you, upset about your actions. Since the Confederates continue to avoid action with the Zerg, and you're unhappy with Confederate regulations, you are introduced to Arcturus Mengsk, the leader of the "extremist faction" Sons of Korhal. He promises to send down a number of dropships to rescue your colony. Unfortunetly, his nearest forces are 30 minutes away. So, you have to survive that long. Since you are now allying yourself with him, your last ties to the Confederates have been broken. You are now an outlaw. HELP: This is the first mission that I had trouble on. Don't underestimate the Zerg - there's a massive attack at the end of the mission. You really need to spend the enitre mission gearing up your defense. You may think thirty minutes is a lot. It is, but you can ALWAYS build more defenses. You have plenty of minerals to work with, so don't worry about running out of money. There are two entrance points to your base. Thr Zerg can attack on either side, so build up defenses on both sides. You'll have to survive numerous attacks, but the hardest is the last one. You'll need three or four bunkers on both sides. Really that's all to say - just build up defense and hope you get lucky. One last tip - remember that Marines on the high ground will have the advantage against low ground troops. You can't build bunkers on top of the elevated building, but you can put lone soldiers up there. Mission IV: The Jacobs Installation ----------------------------------- STORY: The Confederates are evacuating the planet, and the Sons of Korhal are too. However, Mengsk wants a critical piece of information left in one of the Confederate's installations. With the confusion of evacuation, Mengsk hopes the installation will be relatively unguarded. He's right, to some degree. HELP: You'll have Raynor as a Marine in this mission. He MUST survive. When you first start, head up through the door. I won't explain where EVERY marine is - there's some spread out everywhere. Just watch your back. There will be a door on your left, there's nothing in there but civilians and SCVs. You can kill them if you want. Farther up the main hall will be a Missile Trap in the wall, you attack it like any other unit. Or just hit S to stop your units, and they'll attack it automatically. At the end of the hall are two doors which lead into the same room. The passageway to the left and the big room is actually a big loop. Back there is your objective, though. Go into the big room, up the stairs, and hang a right at the intersection. Head straight, follow the passageway to the yellow beacon. From there, it's straightforward. You don't even have to get back out again. Mission V: Revolution --------------------- STORY: So, the Sons of Korhal make their escape to the colony of Antiga Prime, who are ready to start revolution against the Confederacy. Thirteen hours after you evacuate Mar Sara, Protoss warships arrive and extinguish all life on the planet. Arriving at the Antiga Prime colony, you find out that the Confederates have blockaded the colony. You have to rescue the Antigans. HELP: You start off with only one path to take - south. From the start point, you'll meet Kerrigan, she'll reveal a portion of the map. From here, it's pretty clear cut as to where to go. Kill all enemies in between you and the base, when you get to the Confederate blockade, cloak Kerrigan. There are a couple ways to do this, but I think the easiest is to send Kerrigan and Raynor straight up into the purple base. As soon as you rescue the Antigans, they will start firing back on the Confederates. Raynor might get damaged, but he can always be repaired. Unfortunetly, Kerrigan can't. After the Antigans have finished off the Confederate bunkers, you'll be notified that a "Confederate strike force is advancing on your position." You now have to finish them off. There's actually a main base and an expansion - it'll be easier to take the expansion first. It's directly south of your southern barracks. Use 8-12 cloaked Wraiths, they won't have detectors, so you can take it out with ease. After you finish off the expansion, bring over some Marines to help guard it, and this can also be the main staging point for your final attack. You can start mining if you want. At this point, since there's an expansion already in your base, you probably won't need it. Just gather up lots of Marines, Wraiths, and attack. Unfortunetly there ARE detectors here, but if you have enough troops, you should win by force of numbers. **Cinematic: The Downing of Norad II** STORY: At this point, we leave Antiga when the storyline takes a twist to Norad II, the Confederacy command ship which contains General Duke. You see that it is downed by Zerg (Scrouge to be specific). Mission VI: Norad II -------------------- STORY: After the movie, Arcturus Mengsk comes on and decides to save the ship in a not-so-futile effort to convert General Duke. Mengsk Raynor and Kerrigan argue, but agree. So, off you go. HELP: There's only one way to go. The Zerg will ambush you, so destroy them. As always, head straight to the Command Center so you don't have to rescue individual buildings. Repair your Engineering Bay, and in a few minutes, the location of the downed Norad II will be revealed. Now, in this, you use common sense. If you want to make something survive... you REPAIR it. So, get gas ASAP, as soon as you do, start repairing the ship. Put your Marines in the bunkers. That should also be a given. The Zerg will attack you a couple times, but you shouldn't have to worry about the ship if you put your Marines in your bunkers and repair as much as you can. One tip: don't go out of the little circle area. If you try to go up the ramp, Zerg will come down and attack you. So, don't. One other tip: SAVE minerals. When I did this the first time and ran out and almost failed because I didn't have enough guys. Now, to actually save the ship, you need to get Raynor over there. If you use ComSat, you'll see that it's encircled with Spore Colonies, so Dropships are out. There are two ways you can do this, I've succeeded both ways. You can use waves of Goliaths, going north and around. Or, use Wraiths it knock out the nearest Spore Colony, then drop troops on the plateau. Either way should work, but save as many minerals as possible and don't forget about defense. ADDITIONAL METHOD: This additional method was contributed by Novabird. Please note that I haven't personally tried this to see if it works, so I can't guarantee the results. Someday if I have time I will get around to trying the strat ;) All you have to do to get easy victory is to destroy the bunker near the ramp and build a barracks in its place. Then, start mass producing marines and destroy the nearest sunken colony. You can build a factory but it takes too long to make an effective force with it. Next get 12 full health marines and build a missle tower a little bit away from the Norad 2. Then send all the full health marines on a rampage that does not end until all the colonies and scrouges on the bottom area are destroyed so you can get the ships through (though I preferred to destroy about the bottom quarter of it to be safe because you never know where scourges and mutalisks will pop up and those spore colonies can destroy even a large force of Terran fighters). Finally, just send Raynor and the transports through no problem. Mission VII: The Trump Card --------------------------- STORY: The Confederates have decided to, well, punish you. So, it's back to Antiga we go. They have, apparently, built a camp on Antiga Prime, so now you have to decide what to do. Mengsk reveals that the data discs you stole a while back has an awful secret. Apparently the Confederates have been using the Zerg as weapons! So, Mengsk decides to turn their own weapon against them: he's going to plant Psi Emitters (Zerg callers) inside the invading Confederate base. When the Zerg come and attack the Confederates, you'll escape. HELP: You'll start off with a long speech from Kerrigan - long enough so that you might not notice your base is under attack. They'll attack the north side. Since your base is spread out and you don't really start with that many troops, it's a lost cause. Move Kerrigan and the Marines to the main base, and you can liftoff your buildings to try and save them. As soon as that crisis is over, people will start attacking the south end. Jeez! Again, just abandon the Supply Depots since you have enough supply anyway. Take a minute to notice the orange beacon situated directly northeast of your Depots. It's not that hard to get there. Start mining, and establish a good, strong defense at each entrance. Orange will attack you with tanks, Wraiths, and Marines. Build Bunkers and Missile Turrets, plus a tank or two. Also have a few spare guys that can run around so that the people in Bunkers don't have to get out in a attack. I call this your task force. Once you feel confortable with your defenses, you can move into the space where the Supply Depots used to be. Make a defense, and you can start mining if you want. To attack, use lots of Marines and Goliaths. Wraiths won't do very well because there are lots of Missile Turrets. Once the area is secured, bring your SCV in with the Psi Emitter. If you are feeling dangerous and want to finish faster, then have your fighting units engage in the enemy and bring your SCV in while everyone else is fighting. If it works well, the enemy units will be fighting your units, so your SCV should be able to sneak through. Otherwise, do a full frontal attack, destroy their base, secure it, and bring your SCV in. Mission VIII: The Big Push -------------------------- STORY: In the epilogue to the previous battle, you'll learn that the Zerg come and destroy the Confederates. Soon after, the Protoss fleet arrives to destroy the planet. Much like Mar Sara, if you ask me. In the briefing, Mengsk declares that it's time to strike the Confederacy in it's heart. General Duke says that you should assault the main Confederate orbital platform. So, that's exactly what you are going to do. HELP: This is one of the more interesting starts - you start with your buildings in the air and dropships to carry your units over the gap. Fly your buildings northeast. You'll see (and Duke will inform you) that many addons were left behind. So, you can connect your buildings to their appropriate addons. Now, this is one of the tougher missions. There are two heavily defended bases. Brown lives right outside your base, and Orange is north. You can, of course, do a full frontal assault on Brown and then on Orange. I do things the sneaky way: use Duke to wipe out Orange. Duke packs quite a punch. Just send him over to Orange and engage their forces. Every time he drops below 400 or 500 health, send him back. Repair him, and attack again. If you keep doing this eventually Orange will be gone. At the same time, build up nukes and you should be able to destroy the majority of the Brown defense tanks and Bunkers in two or three. As soon as Duke is done, build a base where Orange used to be. Then, build up troops, and send them in Brown's front door. Brown troops will engage, then send Duke in the back way to destroy everything. Sneaky, huh? As soon as you're done, Duke will place the Psi Emitters. Note that there are a few buildings north of Brown's base, which you have to destroy. **Cinematic: Open Rebellion** STORY: This is a movie with a rather cool ending. The Wraiths are attacking a Confederate space platform. While the single event is not extraordinary, the movie is showing that the Sons of Korhal are not openly rebelling against the Confederates. Mission IX: New Gettysburg -------------------------- STORY: Well, tensions are beginning to grow. Raynor is really upset about the Psi Emitters wiping out the planet. In the mission epilogue, you find out that billions of Zerg are lured to Tarsonis, which destroy the Confederates. In the briefing, you find out that the Protoss are, once again, coming to destroy everything. Mengsk is now afraid that they will allow the Confederates to escape, though it's beyond me how the Confederates can be destroyed and then escape. Anyway, Mengsk orders Kerrigan to engage the Protoss. This makes Raynor even more unhappy - which confounds the problem. HELP: You'll start off with a ong speech from both Raynor and Kerrigan. The game is paused this time, so you won't get attacked. Now, this is one of the more interesting missions in the game. What's interesting is that you are protecting the Zerg, but the Zerg will attack you. No Zerg buildings may die, which makes this mission hard. Build bunkers both in front of your base and behind. The Zerg will attack you with Ultralisks and Mutalisks, which are the worst threats because of strength and stealth (you can't see over the ridge). Build two or three bunkers. Put in 3 Marines (For hydralisks and general-purpose) and 1 Firebat (for Zerglings and Ultralisks). Build Missile Turrets for Mutalisk defense. Your Marines can also help there. Finally, add a Seige Tank or two, as this will be your best general purpose ground unit. The Protoss won't really attack that much; just put a couple bunkers and a tank or two by the front of your base and you'll be fine. The major point to realize here is that there's a entrance to the zerg base by following the path from the southwest side of your base. You'll want to secure that entrance ASAP or Protoss WILL enter the base and destroy Zerg buildings. If that happens, your mission ends, no matter how good your main base defense is. To actually defeat the Protoss, you'll need 8-12 battlecruisers. Now, of course, this is the easy way. If you want to do it the hard way, you can do a full frontal attack with seige tanks as your powerhouse, Marines and Firebats backing them up, and battlecruisers for air support. With luck and skill, you'll be able to pull it off. Mission X: The Hammer Falls --------------------------- STORY: At the end of the previous mission, Kerrigan will be overrun by Zerg forces, and Mengsk pulls his fleet out. Raynor was already upset with Mengsk - and the destruction of Kerrigan was enough to push him over the top. He is leaving, and since you don't have any say in the storyline, you follow him. Your fleet is ready to leave Mengsk behind, however, there is a problem. General Duke has activated the Ion Cannon (which looks strangely like the one in Star Wars) which is preventing your fleet from leaving. Your relationship with Mengsk is gone; there's no salvaging that. All you can do is kill the Cannon and punch your out. HELP: This mission, no arguement, will be the toughest so far. There are two full bases both defending and attacking. Red (Sons of Korhal) and White (Duke's Alpha Squadron) will attack you with the entire Terran armada. Science vessels will kill your SCVs with Irradiate, Battlecruises will cause chaos with Yamato Gun, and, worst of all, Seige Tanks will attack in siege mode!!! You can defend against that with air units, providing you take out the Goliaths first. Also, cloaked Ghosts will attack with nukes, so keep your detection sharp as well as defenses. ComSat and Sci Vessels will help you there. Let's start at the beginning, though. Start your SCVs mining. You have quite a few mineral fields, though not very close to your Command Center. You won't get attackers right away, so that'll give you some time to get organized. You start off with quite a few units compared to eariler missions, and they are already divided up into neat little defense groups. How handy. Since there are two entrances to your base (ramps), put one defense group at the TOP of each ramp. You can move your single Vulture to defend if you want to, but I recommend leaving Raynor in your base. The attacking Seige Tanks will more than likely kill him if you aren't careful. Save often, that way you don't have to start over if you are about to win and he dies. Now, after you get your economy going, start planning what you want to do. You'll find that your base is blocked in: red's base is to the south and red defenses are blocking you in on the north. One thing I recommend is that you save your minerals. You have quite a few, but you WILL run out if you overestimate. Then when you finally realize you're running out, it'll be too late to do anything. There are expansions to the north of your base, if you follow the path and explore a bit. None of them can be classified as safe. Just make a good, hard defense and have spare troops that can react quickly to isolated threats. There aren't any minerals and gas placed conveniently next to each other, so you might need to improvise. When you finally decide to attack, you need to decide on an attack plan. White is easily the most heavily defended. Since you don't need to destroy enemy bases, only the Cannon, you can just kill Red and not even bother with White. There's even a large space to go between the two bases, but be careful with that one. Dropships caught in attack can mean possible money losses. To attack the Cannon, don't even bother building Wraiths. They have a horrible ground attack and cloaking won't help you. Instead, go with Dropships and Defensive Matrix. Dropships with DM cast on them should be able to withstand one or two Missile Turrets while you land troops. To attack the Ion Cannon, use large forces of Marines and Firebats. Finally, a few warnings before your attack. They do have air support, so don't go with Firebats only. They also have ghosts, so be sure you have Sci Vessels or LOTS of ComSat power. As everyone knows, mass Battlecruisers also works, but that's the easy way out ;) One last thing: good luck! **Cinematic: The Inauguration** **Terran Ending Movie** STORY: The Terran campaign ends with a speech by Arcturus Mengsk to the entire Terran world. Not particularly satisifying, since you just rebelled and broke away. The neat thing about this movie is the way the voice has different effects on it in the different areas. /----------------------------\ | Chapter Two: Zerg Missions | \----------------------------/ Mission I: Among the Ruins -------------------------- STORY: This first mission will be a big break from the "toughness" of the last mission. This mission basically gives you a feel for Zerg forces and the different way of building their units and structures. The mission briefing is mostly this speech from the Overmind. It's pretty boring, and there's not really anything you need to know, so you don't have to listen to it if you don't want to. HELP: This mission is really straightforward, too. You start off with the Chrysalis on a beacon, and your troops protecting your base. Build a Drone, then you'll need to build an Overload, which provides your "food." Daggoth will be talking to you about Zerg while you play. If you haven't played Zerg before, you should listen to him as he tells you how to build things. After you've been collecting minerals and building for a while, you will be informed that a Terran base is in the area. Naturally, you have to destroy it. It's not that hard, but use hydralisks. They have a bigger punch and can attack air. Also, don't underestimate their power. They look pretty weak, but are actually pretty strong and will defend well. Don't worry TOO much about defense, just station a few hydralisks at the entrances and you'll be fine. Mission II: Egression --------------------- STORY: Now you get to sit through another of the Overmind's speeches. He tells you that you will be warping to the ash world of Char, and that you must bring the Chrysalis to the jump beacon. HELP: This mission is harder than the last, and it certainly makes a huge jump in diffuculty as compared to the jump between missions one and two of the Terrans. You'll start off with a few troops, with some Hydralisk heroes (Hunter Killers). These HKs aren't actually yours yet, you need to send a Drone up there to "rescue" them. They are strong, but not invincible. Remember that. Now, make a tight defense at your base, because the Protoss will attack. Right outside your front door is a defense checkpoint, consisting of a Zealot and Photon Cannon. You can use your Hunter Killers to kill that off, then leave them at your base. Southeast of that is a second defense checkpoint, and it has two Scouts, a Photon Cannon, two Zealots, and two Dragoons. Still, though, you can laugh, becaus twelve Hydralisks will be plenty. If you pull it off correctly, you should have six or more still alive. Build more from your two Hatcheries/Lairs, until you have twelve to attack again. Now, you have a choice to make. South is your goal, but north is a defense outpost that's close to your base. Go there. There's three Zealots, two Dragoons and two Photon Cannons, plus the Protoss will send reinforcements. Your twelve Hydralisks will be plenty, though. Take it out, rebuild your army, and head south. South is yet another defense post. This one you should be destroy, though your losses might be larger than others. Now, southeast of that is a photon cannon, and your goal. Southwest is the Protoss main base. Don't worry about the main base, just take out the Cannon and go up the ramp. Head along the path, but don't go down the stairs, knock out the three Dragoons instead. Continue, and you'll find your beacon! Now you need to get your Drone over there. Station your Hydralisks at the entrance to the Protoss base, and use your Hunter Killers to escort your Drone. If attacked, you can do one of two things. Either distract with your HKs and escape, or burrow your Drone. Easy enough, huh? Mission III: The New Dominion ----------------------------- STORY: The Zerg story certainly doesn't seem as in-depth as the Terrans. The Chrysalis has drawn the Terrans to you, and you must defend it. HELP: In the last missions, I don't know if you noticed or not, but you didn't actually own the Chrysalis. It was a neutral unit. However, it has grown, and it's yours, so your enemies WILL attack it. In this mission, you need to watch your minerals. White (Alpha Squadron) is stationed all along the top of the map, and there is an expansion directly north of your site. However, the Terrans WILL reinforce this site, so you need to try and secure it BEFORE you run out of minerals, and not after. Now, as for the mission. You need to destroy the Terran base. There are two ways, which are Mutalisk attack against the southern portion, or a full blown frontal attack through the front door. Neither of these are very feasible. The Muta attack will probably destroy a few Missile Turrets, but many Marines will come pouring out of nowhere and kill you. The frontal attack is almost blown, because their base is made so that Seige Tanks will fire from above before you actually reach the front door, which makes losses almost too great. Remember that you don't have infinite minerals; you can't just spend them left and right. You might not even have enough for two attacks. In this case, you'll need to BUILD up for an attack and make it work. Unfortunetly, you also can't kill two Turrets then land Hydralisks there, because the Seige Tanks will murder them. So, what to do? Well, my suggestion is a combined mutalisk and hydralisk attack. First, knock out the two southern most Missile Turrets. Build up AT LEAST 24 hydralisks, and load them into Overlords. Build at least 12 mutalisks, and send them up to attack Unload your hydralisks while your mutalisks go after the Seige Tanks. It shouldn't be that hard, but there's one very important key: mutalisks should attack Seige Tanks ONLY. That's what they are for. They will be murdered by the Marines, and Hydralisks will have serious problems with the Tanks otherwise. Only after all the Tanks are gone should you use Mutalisks for other stuff. One last tip: take out the Factory ASAP. **Cinematic: The Dream** STORY: Interesting. That's all I can say about this movie. It shows several different scenes of Zerg forces, ending with a vision of... the Chrysalis... Interpretations can vary. I think that the Zerg forces are preparing for the hatching of the Chrysalis, but that's just me. This is a pretty boring movie. That's okay, because the next movie is truly awesome, so you have something to look forward to. Mission IV: Agent of the Swarm ------------------------------ STORY: The storyline still fails to pick up... at least at the beginning of the mission. The Chrysalis is about to hatch! One of the best things about StarCraft is the storyline, and how it is so involved. This is proven in this mission: the Zerg story is now paralleled with the Terran storyline: we meet up with the rebellious Raynor! I have to say yay, since he's my favorite character ;) HELP: You'll start on an island, and a few seconds after you start, Raynor will be revealed. You have ten minutes until the Chrysalis hatches. There are more minerals north of your base, and most of the Terran attackers will be landed on the eastern "foot" of your island. Really all you have to do is build Hydralisks and Creep Colonies. Unlike the Terran defense mission, not many strong attackers will come. Once the Chrysalis has hatched, you'll find out who you've been protecting. And it is... no, I'll hold that until later. You should play and find out! Then, you have to destroy or infest Raynor's Command Center. You should expand to the middle island, it's fairly safe. Just keep a few hydralisks there, and you'll be fine. Build up your hydralisks, load a bunch into Overlords. You can either go south, destroy that base, and expand, or go east to your target. Either way is fine, just don't run out of minerals. One tip: you should build Queens and parasite the dropships that run around. Not only is it fun, but you can gather intelligence on the Terran forces. Plus, it doesn't even cost money; you just have to wait for the energy to recharge. Mission V: The Amerigo ---------------------- STORY: All right. Well, the being? The being you ask? Kerrigan........ Yes, Kerrigan has been reborn into the Zerg Swarm [shudder]. Anyway, now that the whole Chrysalis deal is over, the Zerg storyline finally is beginning to pick up. Kerrigan decides to get on the Terran research vessel: the Amerigo. She wants to learn more about her psychic side to aid her in the upcoming battles. HELP: Now you come to the Zerg installation mission. You start off with Kerrigan, two Hunter Killers. Also, south of you are six zerglings. They are yours to use, so don't ignore them. The majority of units in this map are SCVs and civilians. You may kill them if you wish. You are trying to find your way to the supercomputer on the southwest corner of the map. This map really is pretty straightforward. One key to remember is that given time, your units WILL recharge. Head down the corridor. In the first room are two wall traps and a Ghost; kill them. Go up the stairs and into the next room. Kill the Marines, and you'll find two doors on the southwest side of the room. Go in the north most door and kill the civilians if you want. Head down the stairs and kill the Vulture. Head along this long corridor, and along the ledges will be units firing on you. Just run down the corridor and weather it; you'll lose more by trying to fight. Kill the six Goliaths in the next room and the SCV if you want. GO into the next room, and you'll e faced with a choice. Southwest is an empty room, northeast is a room full of civilians. Go southeast down the next corridor. Proceed along around the corner, up the stairs, and down the next corridor. Down this corridor is an ambush, but you should be able to handle it. You'll see prison tanks here, go around them and hit the white beacon to get some reinforcements. Around the next corner, however, is yet another ambush. Kill all the Marines. You should be fine, but you can cloak Kerrigan if you really want to be safe. The next door you come to is your goal, but it's locked. Doh! So, you have to proceed up the corridor. Kill all the Firebats. A good way to prevent damage is to have Kerrigan ensnare the Firebats, then have your Hunter Killers kill them from afar. At the end, go northeast into... a trap! Unfortunetly, you have to walk into it because that's where you unlock the doors. You might want to cloak Kerrigan here, because there are lots of guys. Kill the missle traps ASAP, because they will detect Kerrigan. There are two beacons here, one will reveal a transporter and the other will unlock all doors in the facility. Head back to the locked door, and go in the transporter. From here, it's easy. Kill the guys, go down the stairs and through the corridor. Step onto the white beacon and you're done! **Cinematic: Battle on the Amerigo** STORY: This is argueably the best movie in StarCraft. It's actually the first that features true blue fighting. The Zerg ambush a team of saboteurs, they have a gun fight, then blow up the ship. You'll have to watch it a few times to get the story and the disguised humor. I'm not even sure if I get it yet. Still, though, it's a very entertaining movie, and perhaps the best in SC. Mission VI: The Dark Templar ---------------------------- STORY: Yes, the Zerg storyline has picked up a bit, but it still rather boring compared to the "intensity" of the Terran plot ;) Anyway, Kerrigan discovers that Tassadar and his crew have been hiding on Char, and she wants to flush them out. HELP: Well, there is not one really good strategy for this mission, and any attack you make will either require a major investment or you will fail. That doesn't make it a hard mission, though. I suggest using a combo of Guardians, Mutalisks, and Scrouge to attack. Use the Mutalisks to defend against renegade Scouts, and Guardians to decimate the base. Whatever you do, stay away from Hydralisks or any other ground unit. Reavers will murder your entire crew. If you go that way, losses will be far too great to compensate the victories. You should win fairly easily that way. If you happen to run out of minerals, there is a nice expansion on the middle left edge of the map. It is guarded by only a few guys, and it is well away from the Protoss base. Now as for defense, keep it tight. You will be attacked by Reavers, which will be a problem. Keep some air guys handy to take them out. If an emergency arises, SAVE, cloak Kerrigan, and take them out one by one. After you've destroyed almost every Protoss unit, Tassadar will challenge Kerrigan. You don't need to control the battle or anything like that, so just relax. Bring Kerrigan to the remote island, move your Overlord out, and the computer will take over. The battle is really uneventful. Oh well. Mission VII: The Culling ------------------------ STORY: Time for the Zerg Twist. That's right, here comes the twist in the Zerg plot. Zasz has been killed by Dark Templar, and of course Kerrigan is still steaming from her "battle" with Tassadar. Zasz's Brood, the Garm Brood, has now gone rampaging and so you have to destroy them. HELP: This is actually an easier mission compared to the last one. You have destroy every last building of the Garm Brood. Guardians will do the trick, though you might be well fought off by Scrouges. My suggestion, this time, is to use Hydralisks. There aren't any Zerg ground units that will kill off mass Hydras, so go with those. Let's start from the beginning, though. You don't start off with a base, instead, you have to capture your base. Directly north of your starting point is your target. It's an easy kill; if you do it right your 12 attackers shouldn't even come close to getting killed. Once the base is yours, startintg building. Build a Hatchery first, and start a couple guys mining. One thing to remember: with Zerg, NEVER use your last Drone to build. Instead, build new ones. Get your economy going, then build up your troops. Your first target should be to the west, which is an orange expansion. Bring a lot of guys. Orange WILL send reinforcements, everything up to and including Ultralisks. So, bring at least two dozen Hydralisks. You might not need this many to destroy the base but you need at least that many to destroy the base AND hold the area. Once the base is fairly well secured, send a Drone up and start building. If you need Gas, there's some north of you, but it will be rather hard to secure. Fill up a couple Overlords of Hydralisks, and fly them to the northern most tip of the island. Land them, and destroy. West of that, on the opposite side of the map, is another expansion, which you can destroy next if you wish. You have to destroy all of them eventually, so it doesn't really matter. After that, you have no choice but ot invade their main base. Take a moment to notice the setup. The main defense line it set up on a piece of land seperated to their main island by a river of magma. It's connected by bridges. You can either storm the front door, or it's possible to land on the main island itself. On the very west end of the island, there's a gap that you can sneak through. Land there, and if you want a guaranteed win, use mutalisks and guardian support as well as mass Hydralisks. Bingo. Mission VIII: Eye for an Eye ---------------------------- STORY: According to the briefing, the Overmind has stolen from Zeratul the location of Aiur. Hence the title "Eye for an Eye:" the Zerg will now avenge Zasz's death. For now, you are going to kill the cursed Dark Templar. HELP: This mission is a bit tougher. You need to keep the Dark Templar from escaping the map, and there are three locations on the map from which they can do so. You are guarding all of them. First thing: keep the Overlords where they are! They are used to detect the Templars, so you need them. Daggoth will "kindly" remind you of this if you move them. Second, keep your defense tight at all bases! I can't stress this enough! The Nydus Canals are used for quick travel, so use them! Let one base's defense line fall, and that slight slip could cost you the mission. The Dark Templar are very strong, so you need lots of defenders (Hydralisks are defenders of choice here) at every base! Remember that! Also, save often. Now, on to the fun part. You of course have to destroy the Protoss. There are several bases neatly coded in two colors. Destroy Teal first, they shouldn't be that hard. Use your skills that you've learned to do that. The main blue base will be the toughy here, and that's what I'm going to concentrate on. There's absolutely no good solution to defeating them. Mass Guardians will be slaughtered by the Templar's (not Dark Templar) Psi Storm. Mass Hydralisks will be murdered by the Reavers they've got. Luckily, there's always a loophole to these things. Use Guardians, attacking one at a time. Keep making them, and have three or four ready. Attack with one or two, and you should be able to do at least some damage before you are driven off. Retreat if a guy comes, and while your Guardian is recharging, attack with a different one. Easy, huh? Oncy you've destroyed all the Templars and the Templar Archives, then you can mass your Guardians. Same for the Hydralisks, Reavers, and Robotics Facility. **Cinematic: The Warp** STORY: This is a pretty cool movie showing the Zerg Swarm warping through space to reach the Protoss world of Aiur. Mission IX: The Invasion of Aiur -------------------------------- STORY: We arrive on Aiur and learn that the Overmind must obtain the Khaydarin Crystals to implant himself on their world. HELP: This mission is the hardest so far, I think. Enjoy it, too, because, in my opinion, it's the hardest Zerg mission. Unfortunetly, the last Zerg mission is rather easy and has a poor diffuculty rating considering it's the very last Zerg mission. Oh well. In this mission, you need to bring a Drone down to the Khaydarin Crystals, which is heavily defended by the Protoss. Now, in this mission, keep your defense TIGHT and build guardians AND hydralisks. The Protoss will attack with air units and Reavers, which as you probably already know, will tear through your hydra line. Use Guardians to eliminate the Reavers and Hydralisks to get rid of air guys. Conserve minerals as much as possible, becuase that's all you get until you destroy green, which is no easy task. Now, for the attacking phase. Guardians won't help you here - due to Templars. You can't use tactics from the last mission either, because of the sheer number of troops they have available. Anyway you do it will result in massive casualties, but I think the best way to do it is with Hydralisks and Guardian combo. Ultralisks will help too, but that's at your discretion. GO in the Protoss front door directly east of your base. Take about 20-30 hydralisks and a few Guardians. Like your defense line, use the Guardians to take out Reavers and Hydralisks for pretty much anything else. It might take you a couple of shots to get it, but destroy all of green. Station your remaining troops to defend, and you can build a base at Green's minerals, and the minerals found by going along the path right north of the ledge dividing Yellow and Green. With two new bases, you'll be bringing in lots of resources, which you should contribute to your troop fund. Build up again, and use the same tricks as before to destroy ALL of Yellow. Note that Yellow is divided into two areas, and you should probably destroy everything. It's time to take the Crystals - move a large force (Hydralisks, Ultralisks, Guardians, pretty much anything in your arsenal) to guard. Bring a Drone down, and he has to harvest the Crystal for a full ten minutes. You will be attacked many times. Keep building troops at ALL of your bases - and keep building more. You can NEVER have enough defense. A tip: you should never have leftover money in the bank. If you have more than 1000 minerals, spend it on more guys. When 10 minutes is up, escort your Drone back to your base. Bet you were wondering what that get-in-the-way beacon was for, huh? Well, now you know!