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Campaign/Shatter the Sky
From Liquipedia StarCraft 2 Wiki
< Campaign
Wings of Liberty
Shatter the Sky
Mission Information
Mission Objective
Credits Earned:
None
Research Points:
None
Available Heroes:
None
Shatter the Sky can be played in place of Belly of the Beast. Raynor has chosen to take out the air support for the Zerg army, which will eliminate Broodlords and Mutalisks from the final assault on the Zerg Primary Hive Cluster.
Primary Objectives[edit]
- Destroy the 4 Cooling Towers.
Guide[edit]
You will start off at the top right corner of the map, with a decent starting army and economy. You'll want to build a large army of Marine/Marauder/Medic and then supplement it with either an air force of Viking/Banshee/Science Vessel or Goliaths depending on which you upgraded and are most comfortable with.
When you start the mission, start building up your Infantry force, as that will be your force used to take out the first Cooling Tower. Build up your forces until the first Zerg attack wave comes. Destroy that, then move to the South with all your forces. First you'll want to take out the expansion point there, so you can take it. Be careful as there's an Ultralisk there, so be sure to Yamato it and focus fire it down before it can get too many hits on your Infantry (on Brutal there is a Brood Lord that you can snipe with a Yamato by sneaking the Battlecruiser around the right side). Once that base is destroyed, start moving into the first Zerg base. You should be able to get to the Cooling Tower rather easily, as long as you continue reinforcing your units. Once you reach it, take it out, and retreat off the platform using the 45 seconds given to you.
Once the platform explodes, collect the gas and minerals left behind, and take the expansion to the South that you destroyed earlier. Be sure to build Missile Turrets there though, as Mutalisks will fly over that expansion on their way to attack your main base. You should now move to take out the Zerg Hatchery and defenses at the other expansion point revealed to you earlier in the game. Take it out, and build your own expansion there once the Creep clears. If you've focused more on building up your Infantry force during the first attack, move towards the southeast base. If you focused more on building up your air force, head to the northwest base. You should be able to take down the southeast base rather easily with your combined Infantry/Air force, as there should be only a little resistance. Be sure to build up your air force even more during this time to prepare to assault the Northwest base. You also want to build some anti-air during this time, as after the 2nd Cooling Tower is taken down, the Leviathan will appear. The Leviathan will continuously spawn air units, so you should make killing it a top priority. It has a Fungal Growth so if you're using Vikings make sure to space them out.
Once you take down the Leviathan, send your air force on a path to kill the Cooling Tower in the Northwest area of the map. If you don't have Science Vessels, be sure to send home any damaged units for repair. There isn't too much anti-air in the area, so you should have little trouble taking down the Cooling Tower. Once the Northwest base is down, you probably have a 200/200 army by now. If not, just hire Mercenaries until you do, and head towards the Southwest Cooling Tower. Even though the guard there is a bit more powerful than those at the Towers at the other Zerg bases, it still shouldn't be a problem to just completely destroy it. Once that Cooling Tower goes down, the mission ends.
Sidequests[edit]
- Destroy the Leviathan.
- You actually really want to do this, and even though it's a bonus objective, the Leviathan will give you a lot of headaches if you don't deal with it. It's a giant 3000 HP flier that spawns Mutalisks and Scourge. It appears after you destroy the second platform, and patrols the central part of the map. It has range 12 on its ground and air attacks, but fortunately it is Armored. This means Vikings work extremely well, and a decently-sized wing of Vikings with some Battlecruisers for Yamato Cannon shots will make short work of it.
Speed run[edit]
Quickly take the southern expansion and just work off of two bases. Don't get distracted when taking on the Zerg base, just kill enough of the enemy forces so your force won't die taking out the Cooling Towers. You will still have time when doing this achievement to kill the Leviathan and doing so makes the mission simpler. When retreating from a Cooling Tower, killing some units as you retreat may be a smart idea so you don't lose units as you retreat. For the last cooling tower remember that killing it ends the mission so just kill any units blocking your way and destroy the Cooling Tower disregarding your units' safety.
Banshees[edit]
Note: this is fairly hard on Brutal; the spec ops strategy below is easier. This strategy is much easier on Hard difficulty, especially since you can use your starting force to secure the southern expansion without any losses before the first zerg attack.
An Alternative way to finish this mission quickly is to build 15-20 banshees, quickly blitz each of the cooling towers, and then retreat. Most of the bases can be taken out quickly this way, but be careful taking down the southeast base.
The northwest tower is easy. Bring 2 Science Vessels (if you have) and the initial Battlecruiser in addition to Banshees. Kill all hydralisks you see and then destroy the tower. Your Battlecruiser and radiation from Science Vessels can kill the Mutalisks effectively. You should not lose more than 3 Banshees here.
For the southeast tower, attack it from northeast. By doing so, you will only encounter very few enemies and Spore Crawlers. Escort your banshees with some Vikings and Hel's Angel (I got 9 of them with both upgrades purchased). Use them to kill Corruptors and Mutalisks on the way to the tower. This can minimize the losses of banshees.
The southwest tower should be the last to deal with. Just throw all your air units on it. Attack it from the east, the resistance is smaller.
Expansion is not required if your losses on Banshees are small. However, you should clear the base under yours. Remember to pick up resources with drop MULEs after each explosion.
Reference picture for the route [1]
Spec Ops[edit]
You need either Ghosts or Spectres with at least the cloaking upgrade researched. Spectres have higher DPS than Ghosts, but Snipe is much easier to use than Psionic Lash, in a battle with normal units.
Start by getting around 8 Ghosts/Spectres then taking over the base just south of yours. Then, work your way across the map, taking down zerg bases and cooling towers as you go. Have a Medivac or two follow your units to heal them.
You can take out the first tower easily without nukes, but for the other towers it's probably best to use them (4 per tower). To take out the Leviathan comfortably, you'll need around 4 rows (32) of Ghosts, or 3 rows (24) of Spectres. Be sure to use Snipe / Psionic Lash.
Video of the strategy being played on Brutal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st8vAw5VtRE
Hercules[edit]
One fully loaded Hercules with 2/3 Marines and 1/3 Medic can take out the cooling tower really quick. To pull this off easily, escort your Hercules with a few Banshees, Vikings and Science Vessels. These flyers are there to take hits for the transport. When you drop your troops, use Stim Pack and pick them up approximately 2 seconds later. To play it safe, you may want to keep another Hercules near by to in case your first one gets destroyed.
This also applies for Leviathan, though you will probably lose at least half your troops killing it.
Mind Control Towers[edit]
A pair of mind control towers at each end of your base along with a few units will be able to take care of your defense on Brutal. The battlegroups sent by the zerg tend to be either several Ultralisks with zerglings and hydras or mutalisks and broodlords with hydras. Either way, the mind control towers should be able to build up a sizable force for you. You can use medivacs to heal flying zerg units. With a growing defense, you can finish the mission on another strategy without needing to worry about the hordes of ultralisks coming at you; you will be smirking at owning 10 ultralisks at once.
Achievements[edit]
Demolition Man
- There are four Cooling Towers to be destroyed, one on each platform, but only the evacuation of the first three platforms count towards this achievement. Since you're given 45 seconds to escape each platform after you destroy each Cooling Tower, this shouldn't be a problem at all. Once the fourth and last Cooling Tower is destroyed (no matter which one is left for last), the cinematic of its platform being imploded is triggered immediately, and the mission is over.
The Harder They Fall
- Brutal Guide
-
- See speed run.