Breakout best time (Tosh mission)

To me this is the most fun mission in the campaign, the only one that I kept coming back even after I had all the achievements. So now I'm trying to finish it as fast as I can, but it has to be:

- On brutal difficulty
- Rescuing prisoners from both cells

So far my best is: 18:23

Key points of my strategy:

- Attack / move / attack to gain time at the begining
- Psi Shield while I snipe detectors
- Mind Blast groups of units so they all get red, and then let the troops finish them
- Kill medics and tanks first, specially when they are still moving and not yet engaging anything
- Use all alternate paths to snipe enemy tanks/detectors (except the two with reapers near the final base, a waste of time)
- Nuke the first choke point (the one with two bunkers and a few ghosts)
- Second nuke goes to the Thors
- Third nuke to the Battlecruiser
- Fourth nuke to the main base, wherever more units are gathered

After that it's a matter of finishing any units while Raynor troops get down the buildings.

Not sure if my time is good enough, but if it is I will fraps and post it here. If you guys have done it in less time, let me know so we can share ideas!

boak Australia. November 18 2010 13:00. Posts 24

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http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=150867

Submit your times there, they dont have any fast times for that mission yet above normal.

The normal time is 10:24 so 18:23 sound reasonable for brutal. good job

Oh hey Sean, how was your game?

Qeh Sweden. November 24 2010 01:41. Posts 23

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Do you free the prisoners when you do it?
edit: nvm missed the part where you said you did.
I can't seem to get a time under 19.30

Last edit: 2010-11-24 01:42:58

Humga Australia. November 24 2010 11:44. Posts 43

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youch that's fast.

Alventenie United States. November 24 2010 12:30. Posts 1164

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I just went and tried it a few days ago after not playing it for a few months and got 18:26. I could see where i can get faster, so its possible to get under 18 if i hadn't messed up a few spots.

Conrose November 25 2010 02:10. Posts 437

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Don't engage the first ball of marines, the raiders can clean that up handily. Kill the guards at the first turret, but not the turret itself, let the raiders handle it. Use shield and mind blast to snipe the turret at the first base, destroy reactor on factory. By the time the raider's first wave arrives, the second wave should be about to stack on them, proceed to the first bunker group. Hug the walls to trigger the emp from the ghost without actually being hit by it and gain consume, run back to the raiders who should just about be finished with the first base now and restore energy and hp. Run back to the bunker cluster, take the roundabout route and snipe the siege tanks with the normal attack. Then mind blast bunkers + turret all at once.

I don't even think the first set of prisoners is worth freeing, the diamondbacks get owned hard by the siege tanks throughout the stage before they even get in a shot most of the time.

Phael United States. November 25 2010 04:34. Posts 250

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I managed to cut a bit off of your record (15:53):
+ Show Spoiler +

Contrary to the above poster, I found that early level shenanigans didn't really help your time at all (you do want to kill the tank group before the dialog finally gives you psi shield though). You *want* to kill the enemy units for Raynor's units to build up a critical mass to help you storm turrets, and there are quite a few lulls in the fight anyway while you're waiting for the next wave of allies.

The biggest timesink and key to success is how you clear out the last base, it's all about using your incoming waves to the best effect. Keep consumption on cooldown as much as you can while using all your energy spamming mindblast on everything you can see. I usually get my nukes somewhere in the 9 minute range, but my final time varied widely depending on how effective my nukes were and how many grouped up mindblasts I pulled off.

To get a good speed, you need to kill every turret with the first wave of units you get, no exceptions. Spam mindblast like no tomorrow (it even works on turrets, and conveniently, it will stun the siege tanks that are usually camping near one so they don't take your shields down too quickly and stop scvs from repairing).

Frontal assaults on the prison areas. With 4 mindblasts and a shield, you can clear out the first prison area in about 15 seconds and the second area in 20 as long as you enter the raven patrol path at the right time.

Good luck to any other record attempts!

Edit - better time.

Last edit: 2010-11-25 06:59:14

Ahielia Norway. November 27 2010 08:33. Posts 53

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And I thought my 24:55 time was fast...

I did do the achievements, and as such I was careful not losing any health.
At the end, I chose to go up on the (west) side to eliminate the Starport, to reduce the number of Ravens coming, if I hadn't, I'd gotten a lot better time.

Garifeld Germany. August 16 2012 03:43. Posts 8

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14:56.

+ Show Spoiler +

I guess I don't have much to say. just use a low of mindblast. It is much better than the shield. It even prevents more damage. And use some hit and run. a usual and got some lucky nukes at the end. At the beginning there is always one wave with 3 marauders and 2 tanks. Sometimes they come between two waves and you can kill it easily and sometimes they come with another wave. I never figured out how to influence that.

sapht Sweden. August 16 2012 23:51. Posts 141

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I think my record is around 16 minutes. I hoped to break 15 but never managed to. My strategy is just to bulldog my way forward, rushing for consumption and then mindblasting everything all the time. The last part is annoyingly slow, I just nuked my way in quickly and spent most of the time making sure tanks would siege up and focusing high-dps units like banshees.

You can use control groups to train units without even looking at your base.

Unibrow88 Germany. August 17 2012 04:45. Posts 39

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People really do this speedruns? WoW you must be bored really hard.
I remember this mission, because I failed the 25min achievement about 3-5seconds. But never cared about it.

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