|
Hi everyone! I have a pretty interesting strategy that finally enabled me to beat this stupid level. This strategy I revisited after a failed attempt... because I had a feeling I wasn't building enough.
In order for this strategy to apply to you, you only need one requirement:
Mind Control Research upgrade.
In the very beginning, build as many MC towers as you can above the artifact. I had 8 at first, then I expanded to 10++. Occasionally they will die, and if so, just rebuild them. Everytime the AI sends flyers at you, Mind control ALL of them and stock pile the mutalisks and brood lords.
Also, build 4-5 MC towers BEHIND your mineral line, because you will have the constant harass behind your base. Leave about 5-6 Mutalisks behind your base. Thats plenty to last you the entire game.
As far as your defense on the left and the right, what you can do is just keep pumping MnM and a few tanks for the beginning stages. Its not really that important. The main thing is that you keep stock piling mutalisks and broodlords.
Everytime Kerrigan comes out, you should have enough broodlords to the point where Kerrigan can't move at all. At that point, take all your mutalisks and just spam attack her. You will destroy her EVERY time at the cost of a few mutalisks. The best part is, she can't wail on your defensive structures/tanks.
What I did is I had 2-3 Control groups of mutalisks because occasionally you'll have the air attacks on the left and right side. What you can do is send broodlords to left and right sides as well, because all of the broodlings pretty much save your entire army from destruction.
By the time the leviathan comes around, you will have MORE than enough mutalisks to kill it. Just make sure you spread your army. The best part is that if you DONT have an army, he keeps sending free units your way, so hurry up and grab enough. You have to make sure you kill him before kerrigan comes out so you can focus.
By the time the end assault came, all of my buildings were intact, my comp was going slow as hell from all the units, and I raped the final kerrigan with ease.
This is the super-duper lazy approach to beat this level. I did use the artifact more than once, because everytime kerrigan came out i liked to focus on her only. However, I am sure you can do this without even using the artifact one time.
Haha shit that was longer than I expected. But don't worry its very simple. Just make sure you ALWAYS have MC towers in the middle. If they get destroyed, BUILD more. I had scvs + medics up there to repair when I was being lazy. Oh and when the AI sends OL with infested terrans, I MC'd all of them, and spread them across my base so those meteor-egg things didn't bother me too much. One less thing to worry about.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This strategy makes this level fun =D
|
lol... I forgot I had mind control towers... too used to multiplayer.
|
i posted this in the first thread discussing how to beat it.
you never even have to use the artifact, because the broodlords stop kerrigan in her tracks, and mutas eat her alive in about 3seconds.
i think i finished with 5 full control groups of mutas, and about 15broodlords
|
Haha, awesome way to beat the level. Only done it with mass tanks + marines on brutal, gonna remember this if I'm going to replay some day, sounds like fun in more than that level.
Btw the supply you mindcontrol, does it add to your current supply or how is it calculated?
|
I can vouch for this strategy, it works beautifully. Especially losing 0 units to Kerrigan. My first million attempts had me wishing I had chosen the ground path, until I tried this. It's both effective and fun!
|
Haha that sounds like a hilarious way to win :D
|
Man, what if we are already using psy emitters?
|
wah, surprising, maybe im to addicted to mass ghosts but i didn't think to beat this level with mc's, gonna try this my first walkthrough was with perdition turret and mc tower and i wasn't able to beat more than 93% of this level because i didn't use mc
|
I did this for the ultras...those things just tore through the ground forces.
|
I lol'd through it while MC'ing all of the mutas, had about 160 of them and 40 broods. Next time I do it on brutal I wont even mess with the back too much hassle sometimes.
|
btw are upgrades transferred after mc?
|
I think so (at least the Ultra I MC'd on Gates had 1/1).
|
I have tried 10+ times to beat this level and no success so far. I have reached 70% T_T at best. I have Viking upgrades, PF upgrade and Turret upgrades... Vikings are useless against Kerrigan, so I thinking about giving those up for something else. Battle cruisers get one-hitted all the time, which sucks. I don't have MCs and slow doesn't help much against air. I have no bunker upgrades either. This level is the only one I have had any real trouble with.
Any ideas?
|
I heard from SC2Phoenix that he just build 5 bunkers in each choke, 8 tanks, ran around with banshees (he picked air to kill), and used Thors to perma-stun Kerrigan.
|
On August 02 2010 19:14 NETRAT wrote: btw are upgrades transferred after mc?
I think the unit retains whatever upgrades it has, I've MCed speed ovies in the other version of All In and it didn't carry over to the other ovies that just fly around everywhere doing nothing.
|
checked this out yesterday, upgrades are transferred, tower cost is 200/100 (afair), it accumulates energy like OC starting from 50 with max 200 energy, every mind control costs 50 energy. MC range feels the same as missile turret range, so I don't get how can u MC broodlord if he outranges MC tower? and u still need decent ground defences to repell ground zerg waves
my best % of this level was 93% with mass ghosts (40-50), but in the end I just can't snipe all the overseers and broodlords, just too many of them and I got a bug in this level when kerrigan wasn't able to reach my defences, I guess she was blocked by her spine crawlers or something, she just keeps patrolling her base since 30% so it was even easier for me
This level is the only one I have had any real trouble with. same here gonna try pf+slow towers+mass tanks and few thors on nydus this evening
|
i saw this vid which he beat it with mas ghost
+ Show Spoiler +http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6EMXGsOnlA
he clump his base and just mass ghost mass bunker at the artifact ftw.The Snipe on kerrigan was LOL
|
On August 02 2010 22:51 Tef wrote: I have tried 10+ times to beat this level and no success so far. I have reached 70% T_T at best. I have Viking upgrades, PF upgrade and Turret upgrades... Vikings are useless against Kerrigan, so I thinking about giving those up for something else. Battle cruisers get one-hitted all the time, which sucks. I don't have MCs and slow doesn't help much against air. I have no bunker upgrades either. This level is the only one I have had any real trouble with.
Any ideas?
20+ Marines medics and a few marauders, might want to use the artifact to single her out and remove 200hp as well if you are struggling. Micro against her storm obviously. Anything that shoots fast basically. Thors can stun her too I think.
There are lots of videos and guides out (search). This thread I think was just because of the unique and fun strategy that I obviously have to try Thank you OP!
|
Bah I beat this without using psi emmiters, mind contorl or any of those fancy shennaingans.
I just ignored the chokes, massed tanks in the center behind the artifact platform, and pumped out 12 tanks, spammed turrents and vikings. Marines to kill kerrigan.
Wasn't easy, I'll say that much, but it was fully doable.
|
i saw this vid which he beat it with mas ghost why kerrigan didnt storm that marine ball? and yeah she stuck in my game too, she attacked 1 or 2 times and then stopped... u have to constantly micro ghosts in order to snipe overseers broodlords and ultralisks, otherwise u loose ghosts, banelings are also a problem i used perdition turrets instead of bunkers with marines and it failed
ok so he uses 5 bunkers to draw ground zerg units and ghosts to snipe broodlords and mutas, that could work, ty for the video leviathan can be sniped pretty easy btw, just need all these ghosts and bunch of medics and u don't even have to loose units
|
OP a video of this would be nice
|
On August 03 2010 23:15 NETRAT wrote:why kerrigan didnt storm that marine ball? and yeah she stuck in my game too, she attacked 1 or 2 times and then stopped... u have to constantly micro ghosts in order to snipe overseers broodlords and ultralisks, otherwise u loose ghosts, banelings are also a problem i used perdition turrets instead of bunkers with marines and it failed ok so he uses 5 bunkers to draw ground zerg units and ghosts to snipe broodlords and mutas, that could work, ty for the video leviathan can be sniped pretty easy btw, just need all these ghosts and bunch of medics and u don't even have to loose units
do you gain anything from killing the big leviathan thing?? I dont even dare to touch it and was thinking whether nuking it has anything good.
|
I've just finished All In on brutal using this tactic, it works wonders. Once your mutalisk number goes beyond 100 nothing can get close to your base. At the very end I had around 160 mutas and 26 broodlords. The wall of broodlings stopped any ground-based assault and mutas finished off anything else. The final Kerrigan managed to kill all my mutas due to my laziness (didn't feel like moving them out of the storm) but you can avoid that easily.
Remember to start out with a few tanks and bunkers, you don't get many opportunities to mind control early on. I had around 4 bunkers and 5 tanks at each entrance but they died later on and I didn't feel like rebuilding them.
It's a good idea to spam a lot of mind control towers at the artifact (I had 21 iirc). Place some (4-5 is enough) at your mineral line and at the chokes where you place your bunkers (3-4). DO NOT place the mind control towers at precipice near your artifact, broodlords can take them down while being out of range of your mind control.
Utilizing the noob-friendly () MBS and putting all of your mind control towers in one control group helps a bunch, the AI will choose the closest tower to the target you're trying to dominate.
Hope these tips help.
|
do you gain anything from killing the big leviathan thing?? I dont even dare to touch it and was thinking whether nuking it has anything good nothing except he stops spawning mutas and broodlords, he spawns them rapidly and their team color is orange (as opposed to kerrigan's purple broods), nuke won't do anything because it has loads of hp, detection and attack range of 10 or so, so u won't be able to nuke it because ur ghost might die before launch
I had around 160 mutas and 26 broodlords i still don't get how can u mc broodlords if they outrange mc towers, can u explain please? do u pull broodlords to ur towers somehow?
|
On August 04 2010 18:18 NETRAT wrote:i still don't get how can u mc broodlords if they outrange mc towers, can u explain please? do u pull broodlords to ur towers somehow? My guess is that MC towers have very low priority, like the slow towers, which means broodlords would target for example a bunker or missile turret behind the MC tower first.
I beat it vs nydus worms with BC/banshees to take out the worms, and siege tanks/bunkers/slow towers to own the ground forces. Wasn't too hard. Only used the artifact once.
Protip: To get both the 150kill achievement and the only use it once achievement, play it through normally, using the artifact once at some point, then save, use the artifact for the second time (which will get 150 kills unless you used them at awful times) getting the achievement, then load and complete as normal. You'll keep the achievement.
|
This was by far the easiest way to beat this level! After dying over and over again with different methods, I won easily on my first try with this. I did nothing but mine minerals and build mc towers to fill up the artifact area, except for some marines out of 1 barracks to help with the first kerrigan appearance. The rest of my base was dead by 50%, but by then I had over 20 towers and 100 mutalisks and easily coasted into victory, with 12 towers left standing at the end- kerrigan got 5 of them in 1 storm. Most broodlords get in range to be mind-controlled, but the ones that can't can be taken care of by the mutalisk army.
|
This strategy was fun and effective. I loved the spam clicking and the feeling of having an invincible fleet of Zerg air shredding everything. Thanks OP for the guide.
Some notes for others who might want to try it: Most of the air in the beginning will be mutas from the two main base entrances. Put your first towers there to nab them.
Don't neglect your ground meat shields in the beginning-middle phase, since they'll send tons of units that can't target air, and will eat up your towers if you don't have anything else in the way. I used a PF for each and constant tech reactored bio reinforcements with dual ebay upgrades. Once you have several Brood Lords at each entrance, this becomes less important.
Brood Lords don't start appearing immediately, but when they do (after a few large muta waves to the artifact), they'll constantly be looming in and bombarding your main entrances. Always be on the look out for them; you want to grab a good number of them as soon as possible to generate free meat shields.
Unless you're extremely confident that your machine is high performance, consider toning down your settings for this. There is much rapid clicking involved in this, and untimely lag in a delicate phase such as before you've reached a critical defensive mass of Brood Lords could spell doom.
|
I've managed brutal up untill this but i'm really stuck on it. I have looked up guides but this one really got along with my uppgrades and air choice. But i still can't seem to do it, which is a bit embarassing since it seems others did it their first try using this guide. I think i just have to be lacking micro becuse i can't seem to do it with this tactic eighter. Or perhaps there is some key point i'm missing. I've got theories that it might somewhat be up to that i dont have -75% siege tank damage to friendly targets. And how key is it to catch all the mutas? Becuse a few die before i can mind control since i'm tending to macro. I've tried both tending to my ground meat shield more and focusing on on getting towers up fast but i can't seem to get a good balance, which is more important?
Any feedback is really appriciated and thanks to the OP for making the guide.
|
And anyone knows if this is possible without mind control tower ?
|
On August 15 2010 19:02 Ivysaur wrote: I've managed brutal up untill this but i'm really stuck on it. I have looked up guides but this one really got along with my uppgrades and air choice. But i still can't seem to do it, which is a bit embarassing since it seems others did it their first try using this guide. I think i just have to be lacking micro becuse i can't seem to do it with this tactic eighter. Or perhaps there is some key point i'm missing. I've got theories that it might somewhat be up to that i dont have -75% siege tank damage to friendly targets. And how key is it to catch all the mutas? Becuse a few die before i can mind control since i'm tending to macro. I've tried both tending to my ground meat shield more and focusing on on getting towers up fast but i can't seem to get a good balance, which is more important?
Any feedback is really appriciated and thanks to the OP for making the guide.
Mind control is your number one priority here. Macro is secondary; any Terran units you make only serve the purpose of tanking for your MC towers. Don't worry overmuch about building more Terran defense either. After the 2 initial PFs I didn't build a single bunker or missile turret.
Keep all your towers on a hotkey as was suggested, and smartcast should make grabbing air units cake.
In the beginning mutas come in 2s or 3s, trickling in towards your initial defenses... make sure to grab at least 1-2 each time they come. If they're damaged, fly them back to your mineral line so they can heal, but make sure they're hotkeyed so they'll return as part of your main muta ball. In the big waves (the ones where Matt announces that there will be incoming Zerg air), try to grab all but a 1 or 2 units.
Don't be afraid to use your muta fleet. They excel in defending any composition thrown at you in the mission. The only threat to a high number cloud of mutas here is Kerrigan's pseudo-storm.
|
omg this is so much fun, 5/5
use medics or medievacs to heal, and then you have an invincible zerg army that doesn't take up supply
|
If you mind control enough Zerg you'll eventually become the new UED.
|
mh failed the first 3 attempts, but after you reach critical mass its somewhat easy to do...
|
On August 17 2010 09:42 holde wrote: mh failed the first 3 attempts, but after you reach critical mass its somewhat easy to do...
really this strat is all about critical mass. If you put your tanks in front of your barracks, then units are much less likely to attack your supply depots. Kill the mercenary depot(center port pub rax?) and build a few bunkers there, like the ghost guy did. then surround the artifact with towers.
If you build peridition turrets or planetary fortresses on the high ground, then you should be all set.
|
I loved this strat. Was hilarious.
I personally didn't mind control that many Mutas, only when I had extra energy and there were no broodlords. I had at least 40 Broodlords by the end.
My only real Terran forces were a marine ball for Kerrigan and 20-25 Vikings for Leviathan.
Very fun compared to the chore of my previous strats. I highly recommend spamming MC towers.
Make sure you hotkey them all to one group, SC2 chooses who will cast very intelligently.
|
On August 03 2010 19:01 justiceknight wrote:i saw this vid which he beat it with mas ghost + Show Spoiler +http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6EMXGsOnlA
he clump his base and just mass ghost mass bunker at the artifact ftw.The Snipe on kerrigan was LOL
that's the method i used after finally getting frustrated enough to visit youtube for answers. turned the mission into a cakewalk especially if you snipe overseers with vikings.
|
I just did this for the first time today. Was kinda funny and very fun to do.
It seems to have its own challenge in the beginning of the map when you don't really have any mutalisks yet, you seem to be on the brink of dying right there.
Then as you go along, the Zerg waves get more and more intense, and you have more and more MC towers so you get this exponentially growing amount of mutalisks, along with whatever else they throw at you.
I never made any terran units other than Medivacs, and never put any units in a control group, I would leave everything right where I caught it, and when kerrigan came, I would ctrl-click everything and just send the whole batch at her.
As it got close to the end, I ended up with these retarded amounts of mutalisks, but I had been neglecting my base so there was nothing left except for my 20 MC towers all around the Artifact. However, nothing could ever get past the massive wall of broodlings at each ramp.
All-in-all, very fun and I would recommend everybody play it this way at least once!
|
thats an interesting way to beat the level.
|
I can't seem to do this,I can only get 1 broodlord for the first kerrigan and then she destroys half my defense,in the end I always reach around 85% until my base gets destroyed and my turrets slowly die.
What's the best defense you can do here? I haven't had any problems with brutal until this :/
Edit: Loaded an autosave and disabled air...beat it on first try >.<
|
thanks, it almost crsuhed my comp. At the end i had my full terran army in addition to 100+ mutas and corruptors, and like 40 BLs. And it was on brutal so hundreds of zerg units were streaming in.
It's a wonder it actualyl dindt crush
|
lol, i beated in brutal, and never used the mind control towers, haha.
|
How do you handle the very first kerrigan? I only have 1 brood lord at that point, and he can't keep kerrigan stopped for very long.
|
Those towers are quite effective. I preffer to use mass BCs in conjunction with them vs air and vs nydus I like the banshee army cleaning up worms and MC towers vs ultras.
|
On August 21 2010 03:50 monad wrote: How do you handle the very first kerrigan? I only have 1 brood lord at that point, and he can't keep kerrigan stopped for very long. Use mutalisks. Some will die, but if you've mind controlled over half of the mutalisks sent at you, your muta fleet should put out more than enough damage to deflect Kerrigan.
|
On August 02 2010 22:51 Tef wrote: I have tried 10+ times to beat this level and no success so far. I have reached 70% T_T at best. I have Viking upgrades, PF upgrade and Turret upgrades... Vikings are useless against Kerrigan, so I thinking about giving those up for something else. Battle cruisers get one-hitted all the time, which sucks. I don't have MCs and slow doesn't help much against air. I have no bunker upgrades either. This level is the only one I have had any real trouble with.
Any ideas?
I choose to get rid of the air defence but the units I used to kill kerrigan is a control group of about 20 ravens/ghosts/spectres
Ravens- Select ravens push and hold shift rrrrrrrrr...... shift click for them all to retreat back to the base. (even kerrigan cant take this many seeker missles.) Ghosts- Select ghosts push and hold shift rrrrrrrrr...... shift click for them all to retreat back to the base. (even kerrigan cant take this many snipes.) Spectres- Select spectres push and hold shift iiiiiiiiii...... shift click for them all to retreat back to the base. Using the spectres is harder because she has that one ability that does massive aoe damage. (upgraded psistorm?) So sometimes your spectres die before they can launch their 200 damage attack. Although the stun move from the spectre can be useful vs the air units.
|
just mass tanks and vikings like said earlier...should be pretty easy..although i had to use the psi emmiter once or twice the first time i did it
|
l10f
United States3241 Posts
I just did this. All you have to do is get 2 planetary fortress at left + right and just spam hive mind emulators. I made like 30.
|
yep works wonders you don't even need tanks or fortresses or anything because the broodlings block the choke up to the artifact beautifully, and if still something gets up the ramp, it fights the broodlings first.
another big hint: Save the artifact for when kerrigan comes. While the artifact doesn't do much damage to her directly, it sets her on fire like any other zerg units coming in shortly after firing the artifact. And that burning does a shitload of damage.
and for the air attack waves: the front wave can just be mind controlled using the towers. The back wave however kills all your economy and base very early if not dealt with. My tip: build a bunch of turrets (with upgrads) that eat up the mutalisks. Then there are usually 2 or 3 broodlords remaining which tack away at these towers for quite some time before starting to hurt your economy. So this gives you pleeeenty of time to grab your mind-controlled mutalisks and fly by to kill them off. This way i kept my economy running until around 80% and could rebuild quite a lot of those mind-control towers. As you can see in the first screen shot, i had around 23 still standing at the end of the map.
The most most most important thing however is that you have to move your air units out of kerrigans aoe. I always used only my mutalisks to kill her which takes a while. she fired her aoe around 4 times each fight and you just have to move out of it instantly to not lose all mutas, because then you'd be screwed.
I started of with adding two bunkers and two siege tanks at each base entrance, i didn't even have any planetary fortesses. i also put about 8 tanks up on the artifact platform after i had the entrances covered. This helps you fight of all those zerglings and roaches that attack until you have enough broodlords to let the broodlings block everything off. Once you have enough broodlords, don't build any units anymore. Just make sure to mind control most incoming air units as good as you can while protecting your economy against the flyers coming in from behind. any minerals and gas you get, just put into mind control towers, don't build anything else (except new scvs maybe).
|
Just did this with this strategy, REALLY sloppily, my base a shambles by the time 95% last big wave, luckily had a charge. I don't think I would've won without having the charge. Last Kerrigan herself (and pretty much all Kerrigans) are no problem with the Broodlords. Mutalisks save your ass so much with this strategy so don't skimp on MC'ing them. I also got a good 12 or so vikings to deal with Leviathan.
|
Thanks a lot! Both Hard and Brutal All In was missing for me, but with MC I made it in a few tries Perfect.
|
This strat is really effective, if you include patrolling vikings for the first 75% they absolutely wont touch you.
|
Thanks OP, I was getting a bit frustrated playing this mission.
|
I just cant keep the apm to do this >.< Is there a video of someone doing this? Much appreciated.
Edit: Nvm did it on 4th try using this, Major hint spread your towers and constantly dance between all chokes to catch as much as possible. Always add new towers to your hotkey, I forgot >< And keep some viking behind your base, make medivacs and vikings from a reactored starport.
Also, keep your econ alive for as long a possible, then when you are high on money just spam mercs for that little extra insurance. Dont be afraid of MC'ing some ultra's for a little insurance too
I had 1 PF and tanks at each side and tried to constantly produce MM for each side, constantly either making vikings and medivacs and towers. When Kerrigan comes just use the artifact, send the BL's and she'll either storm them or the broodlings. Dual healing medivacs actually out heal her storm on BL's as I think the storm does alot of little damage which really brings in the armour.
|
51141 Posts
anyone tried doing this level while killing the zerg off with your surplus units? ;o
i tried to once, but my computer just lagged to hell.
|
there may be mapping errors on some of the maps that simly crash your game when you get vision. i had that in the mission where you have to kill the moebius cores: I moved a couple of tanks down my choke and cleared the small plateau in front of the base (its a lot easier then as you can just build 10 or so missile turrets in the north east corner that kill off all overlords coming in to drop units on you. you don't get attacked anymore then). And i *think* it was that subway entrance there, but as soon as i had permanent vision of that low ground plateau, my framerate just dropped to 3fps or something. Changing graphics settings didn't help at all, restarting the game didn't either, there was indeed some bug. The last map might just have a couple of those, too, which could cause such lag even if there is not an overwhelming amount of units on your screen.
maybe if one of you worked with half life mapping for instance already you might know that kind of bugs. Its basically where you leave a very small whole in your polygons, which causes the space partitioning data structures, which are generated during map compilation and later used to discard polygons from rendering before even starting, to simply be wrong. This leads to a ton of useless polygons rendered additionally when rendering such a bug location on a map, that the frame rate just drops very low without any apparent reason. not funny to debug that kind of stuff :D
|
This indeed works beautifully. Once you mc-ed a bunch of broodlords the zerg basically ignore your base and army and just go for the broodlings, allowing you to mc even more of them easily.
|
This strategy works great, you just have to remember to build enough control towers at the start (24+ works nice), since you'll lose single ones to attacks / zergling drops and you need all of them to keep mindcontrolling new mutalisks once they appear.
The only problem is the strain this strat puts on your CPU/GPU :>
Anyways, I tried doing the nydus version before and my conclusions are as follows: if you chose the Psi Emitter, do the nydus version, if you chose the Hive Emulator, do the air version.
|
|
|
|