Heart of the Swarm campaign walkthrough

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm brutal campaign walkthrough

Guide to completing the campaign on brutal difficulty

UMOJA MISSION 1: LAB RAT

Main Objective: Destroy the Eradicator
Bonus Objective: Release Zerglings from Pens [0/3]

ACHIEVEMENTS

Lab Rat: Complete the "Lab Rat" mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Mighty Mouse: Destroy 35 Sentry Bots in the "Lab Rat" mission.
Rat Race: Complete the "Lab Rat" mission in less than 10 minutes on Normal difficulty.

Even though this is brutal difficulty, the prologue is essentially a tutorial level. There's nothing special that you need to do here aside from a-moving to victory. Keep in mind, there are no hidden items in this level, so you can go through it quickly to get the Rat Race achievement.

There are 3 pens which are highlighted on the mini-map. Destroying these will give you even more zerglings. Make sure to have an adequate number of drones mining minerals so you can keep up with zergling production.

Another objective will appear to destroy the 3 gas turrets in this room. If you lose all of your zerglings, it's not a problem. All it will do is make the Prologue even longer. Rally your hatchery right outside of this room to help speed things up.

You can choose to keep sending in zerglings to destroy the factories if you like because they do show up on the score screen. They don't appear to be tied to any achievement, so if you go straight for the Eradicator, you should have nothing to worry about.

UMOJA MISSION 2: BACK IN THE SADDLE

Main Objective: Get to the sublevel door, Kerrigan Must Survive
Bonus Objective: None

ACHIEVEMENTS

Back in the Saddle: Complete the "Back in the Saddle" mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Full Throttle: Prevent the Dominion from destroying a Tram Engine during the Tram Ride in the "Back in the Saddle" mission.
Brutal Legend: Don't take damage from the Archangel in the "Back in the Saddle" mission on Normal difficulty

Medpacks will restore both your health and energy. You don't have to save these for any reason, so use them when you come across them.

Use your abilities on every cooldown. There's a rechargeable medpack here if you get into a bind.

Crushing grip tends to make most of these groups pretty easy to deal with. There's also a medpack if you need it.

This is the first choice that you make in the game. Currently, it appears whatever choice that you make doesn't affect anything later on...

The first group of units spawn at the front of the ship. Make sure you're there at the start of the encounter to minimize downtime in order to get the Full Throttle achievement.

Use your Kinetic Blast on the medivacs so you won't have to deal with the units they drop.

The next wave will spawn from the bottom. There will be two groups, so make quick work of them, because another group will spawn right afterwards back at the front of the ship. There will be another group that spawns back at the rear of the ship to start making your way there as soon as you're done at the front.

You will have a short break between the next wave, so pick up a medpack if you need to recharge. Get ready to Kinetic Blast another medivac that will approach the tram from the left. Shortly after another group will spawn at the rear of the ship.

After that last wave, grab the newly recharged medpack and head back to the rear of the ship. 3 groups will spawn in the next wave. Shortly after, two groups will spawn, one from the left and one from the right, but both will target the front-right engine.

In the next wave, you'll be bombarded by medivacs. 2 will spawn at the front-left of the ship, so Kinetic Blast the first one and finish off the dropped units from the second then head to the rear of the ship. 2 more medivacs are dropping off more units, one of which is a siege tank, which can be one-shot with a Kinetic Blast. This is the last wave of units for the tram portion of this level.

Use your Kinetic Blast on every cooldown. There is a rechargeable medpack so you never have to worry about running out of energy. This fight is pretty similar to most boss fights in World of Warcraft where survival is met by simply not standing in anything that glows. Red reticles will appear below you one by one, so simply keep moving.

It's second mechanic will paint the ground red in a line showing you where he will bomb next.

The last mechanic is a giant volley of missiles that cover either all of the right portion of the platform or the left. Simply alternate moving from left to right while using your Kinetic Blast. From here on out, he will start repeating mechanics until he is down.

UMOJA MISSION 3: RENDEZVOUS

Main Objective: Hold Out for Reinforcements, Destroy the Drakken Pulse Cannon
Bonus Objective: Rescue Trapped Swarm Queens [0/3]

ACHIEVEMENTS

Rendezvous: Complete the "Rendezvous" mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
First Strike: Destroy 15 enemy structures before Naktul's forces arrive in the "Rendezvous" mission.
Zerg Save the Queen: Rescue all trapped Swarm Queens before Naktul's forces arrive in the "rendezvous" mission on Normal difficulty.

The initial position for your spine crawlers gives you a fairly small concave. Pulling them back will give you the room to place more spine crawlers in your defenses while maintaining a larger concave. Also, the units you start with are enough to deal with the first wave, so build drones to about 15.

After you deal with the first wave of units, directly to the right lies some resources to pick up. Build a macro hatchery and a few more spine crawlers to supplement your unit production and defenses. The next wave can be easily dealt with by Kerrigan and a handful of zerglings.

The next wave is rather large. First it will be a handful of marines, marauders, and medics, followed by a group of wraiths. Kerrigans abilities make dealing with these fairly easy, so use them often. Also, be sure to supplement your defense with additional spine crawlers from time to time.

There is a large group of terran units guarding the swarm queen to the east. This may require two waves of zerglings to deal with, as you want you keep your eyes on the minimap as well. You don't want to be caught out of position while another wave of terran units attacks your base.

After dealing with the initial group of units by the fence, there are very few remaining and don't require many zerglings in order to clean up to free the first swarm queen.

Shortly after, you will be alerted of a large terran force bearing down on your position. Reinforce your defenses with some queens to deal with the air units and more spine crawlers to deal with the rest.

The next trapped swarm queen can be found directly to the north from the left exit of your base. The first things you will encounter are some bunkers. Kerrigan can easily with with them herself using her abilities, so don't waste zerglings.

You will be alerted of another large wave of units soon. This should be easily with if you've been maintaining your defenses.

There's quite a bit by the second swarm queen, so kite them back to your spine crawlers to clean them up.

After freeing the second swarm queen, head back to your base and prepare for the frequent incoming waves as the timer ticks down for your reinforcements to arrive. There are two ways to reach the last swarm queen and you'll have ample time to do so afterwards.

You'll be greeted by a hefty amount of resistance if you try and make your way into their base. Killing off additional units out on the map isn't necessarily required at this point. The first initial defensive outpost will be destroyed when your reinforcements arrive.

As you make your way forward another worm will spawn spitting out additional units. At this point, you can easily attack-move to clear out the next area and free the next swarm queen.

Clearing out the area to the left isn't necessary.

The same could be said with the small base to the right of the objective, but there's nothing like being thorough. Unfortunately this will make things more difficult as you should be close to being mined out by now.

Instead of clearing out the unnecessary areas of the map with terran units and wasting units, use your units to head straight for the objective, so you don't have to rely on oddball tactics like this to finish the mission.

KALDIR MISSION 1: HARVEST OF SCREAMS

Main Objective: Collect Ursadon Matriarch Essence, Recover the Lost Brood, Destroy Psi-link Spires [0/3]
Bonus Objective: Kill the Ursadon Matriarchs [0/2]

ACHIEVEMENTS

Harvest of Screams: Complete the "Harvest of Screams" mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Ice Breaker: Destroy 20 unfrozen enemy structures in the "Harvest of Screams" mission.
Storm Chaser: Complete the "Harvest of Screams" mission in less than 15 minutes on Normal difficulty.

The first few packs can be dealt with by a-moving and using your cooldowns until you reach the first in-game cutscene. After your units thaw out, focus the Ursadon Matriarch down and collect her essence.

Don't forget that you can burrow your roaches to heal them.

Once you recover the lost brood start working on your economy. Kite the group of units by the first Psi-link Spire back to your spine crawler. Use Kerrigans Kinetic Blast to one-shot Archons.

The Protoss will attack with a large group of zealots. Luckily, the first flash freeze will occur. Clean up this wave and do as much damage as you can to the remaining units guarding the psi-link spire.

There will be one more wave of units before the next flash freeze. After you finish it off, build some units so they spawn in time to attack when the next flash freeze occurs.

Take the expansion after you clear out the psi-link spire. Watch your main, because there will be another group of protoss units attacking shortly.

Don't let your guard down during flash freezes. Ursadons are immune to them and will attack you, so be sure to keep an eye on the minimap.

A group of Protoss units will attack you next from the northwest. There are minerals and gas by the entrance of the pathway to the first Ursadon Matriach, which will help you replenish your forces.

With enough roaches, the Ursadon Matriarch packs become pretty trivial. As long as you're keeping up with your economy, you should be ok pumping out more roaches and lings pretty frequently.

Even the protoss groups are dispatched fairly easy with huge groups of roaches, remain modest. There's no reason to throw away units, when you can easily go back and wipe out the protoss bases during flash freezes without a scratch.

Take out as much of the next protoss base as you can during the next flash freeze. You'll be attacked by Ursadons there and they will attack your base as well, so be ready to defend.

With enough roaches, you can afford to attack the protoss even though the flash freeze hasn't happened yet.

By the time the next flash freeze is over, you should have enough time to take out the majority of the protoss base guarding the second psi-link spire and the last Ursadon Matriarch.

At this point in the mission, you should have amassed enough roaches where you can easily a-move to victory.

Use the final flash freeze to ensure victory and overrun the last protoss base.

KALDIR MISSION 2: SHOOT THE MESSENGER

Main Objective: Destroy All Protoss Shuttles [8 waves remaining], No Shuttles Can Escape
Bonus Objective: Destroy the Stasis Chambers [0/3]

ACHIEVEMENTS

Shoot the Messenger: Complete the "Shoot the Messenger" mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Warp in Peace: Don't let a Protoss Shuttle being Warping Out in the "Shoot the Messenger" mission.
Extreme Nexism: Destroy 2 Protoss Nexuses in the "Shoot the Messenger" mission on Normal difficulty.

Work on your economy and start harvesting gas. There's not much you have to worry about until the first shuttle arrives. Hydralisks will be your main means of dealing with the Protoss air units in this mission.

Even though the next shuttle has a fighter escort, it is quickly dispatched with a few hydralisks. You should have a macro hatchery by now and started working on ranged upgrades. Adding a few spore crawlers by the warp gates will also be helpful later on. Start making your way to the closest Stasis Chamber.

The closest Stasis Chamber isn't very well guarded and is easily destroyed with what units you should have by now.

With the next shuttles incoming, head towards the warp gate east of your base. It will reveal a frozen protoss nexus which transforms into a free expansion once you clear the zealots.

After you destroy the shuttle, it will give you time to clear a path to the eastern warp gate and stasis chamber. This chamber is guarded by a high templar, so watch out for psionic storms. This is also a good time to build drones and saturate your new expansion.

The shuttle escorts start to increase in strength from here forward with Carriers joining the fray. Don't forget to replenish your army and continually add to it when the income is available. If you find that you're sitting on an excess of minerals, start building spore crawlers by the two eastern warp gates, as those are the final destination of the last wave of shuttles.

Spreading creep by the two warp gates to the east will help increase your mobility and deal with incoming shuttles. The remaining waves consist of multiple shuttles and fighter escorts trying to warp simultaneously, so mobility is key. Start connecting the two warp gates now. The next shuttles will be towards the two warp gates surrounding your base, so if you've been spreading creep from the start, there should be enough covering those areas already.

Now is a good time to start clearing the area towards the final Stasis Chamber as it's very close to the path of one of the incoming shuttles. You should also have enough time to make your way back and deal with the other shuttle

After clearing the shuttles, head towards the final stasis chamber. Clearing out the protoss structures directly southwest of the stasis chamber, will open up another potential expansion. By the time you're finished clearing this area, two more shuttles will launch.

The next wave intersects in the center of the map. This is an easy location to intercept both shuttles without much extra movement. Rally additional hydralisks there from your hatcheries. Also, you will most likely have a bank of excess minerals by this point. Use it to build spore crawlers to help you defend the warp gates. Two more waves remain.

This wave intersects at a much higher point than the last. It will be easier to intercept the shuttle heading towards the southwestern warp gate first, and then head to the one heading towards the southeastern warp gate afterwards.

The final wave will consist of 3 shuttles all heading towards the same gate. There will also be a mothership escorting the shuttles. With a forest of spore crawlers and an army of hydralisks, this wave shouldn't pose too much of a problem.

Once you deal with the first shuttle escort which consists of colossus, the remaining shuttles and air escorts fall easily to your hydralisks and spore crawler forest.

KALDIR MISSION 3: ENEMY WITHIN

Main Objective: Gain Biomass [0/100], Find a Safe Place, Kill the Protoss [128 remaining], Niadra Must Survive, Destroy the Warp Drive, Escape to the Stasis Quadrant
Bonus Objective: Infest the Giant Ursadon

ACHIEVEMENTS

Enemy Within: Complete the "Enemy Within" mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Biomass Effect: Collect 450 biomass in the "Enemy Within" mission.
Failure to Launch: Don't let an Escape Pod reach less than 20 seconds in the "Enemy Within" mission on Normal difficulty.

If this is your first play through, don't bother trying to infest the Zealot. You can only infest animals in this mission.

Once the sentry has passed and come to a stop, it is safe to move to the next area.

Use the Ursadon's leap attack to deal with the attacking Protoss units.

Keep spawning zerglings as soon as they die. They don't cost anything so you can essentially spam it in order to reduce downtime.

Regardless of what's thrown at you, the ability to spawn additional zerglings for free, make this mission extremely easy. If you chose Raptor Zerglings, this gives you even more of an unfair advantage.

The Protoss that awaken in this area will attempt to destroy the biomass. Take care of them, while you absorb the biomass around the room, while continually spawning zerglings as they die.

Rinse and repeat with this room as well. Bear in mind with your current form, you can spawn roaches as well. Once you're done absorbing the biomass in this room, you will go through another transformation.

As soon as you destroy the door to this room, send in your units and go straight for the Giant Ursadon. Wait too long and it will die. Absorbing all of the biomass in this room will award you the Biomass Effect achievement.

Supplement your zerglings with a few hydralisks and roaches. The extra dps will help you with the Failure to Launch achievement. After you destroy the first Escape Pod, destroy the two the left and then head directly to the right, ignoring the protoss on the platform.

Add more hydralisks to your composition for additional dps to deal with the stronger protoss units on the platform guarding the last escape pod.

CHAR MISSION 1: DOMINATION

Main Objective: Collect 100 Eggs [0/100], Zagara Can't Collect 100 Eggs [0/100], Destroy Zagara's Base
Bonus Objective: Destroy Infested Command Centers [0/2]

ACHIEVEMENTS

Domination: Complete the "Domination" mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Poached Eggs: Hatch all 6 Baneling Nests in the "Domination" mission before collecting 100 eggs.
No Egg for You: Don't let Zagara collect an egg in the "Domination" mission on Normal difficulty.

Zagara will attack periodically. She's fairly weak, so just be aware of the timer.

You will have enough time to clear out the entire eastern area by your natural expansion. There aren't many units defending those areas and you will find banelings along the way. Collect the eggs and resources you find and start your expansion once this area is cleared.

There is an area just north of your base which has a few eggs and some resources. The only real threat is the Infestor towards the back, which will Fungal Growth your zerglings, killing them if they're caught. Head in first with Kerrigan to take care of the Infestor before sending in your zerglings.

Make sure you have a few banelings at your base for defense. A few banelings can easily kill a large group of attacking zerglings.

The first Infested Command center is just north of your base. One control group's worth of zerglings will be enough to take care of the defending zerg units.

There are a handful of eggs and resource directly to the east with minimal defenses.

There are enough eggs in the northwestern most area to complete the mission. Don't collect them until after you've hatched all 6 baneling nests for the Poached Eggs achievement. The majority of the defenses here are spine crawlers.

Once you collect enough eggs, it will begin the final phase of the mission which is to destroy Zagara's base. You'll be pleased to find a large group of banelings awaiting your command after the short in-game cutscene.

With this many banelings, you can easily a-move to victory. More will spawn by your base shortly. Keep in mind, the mission will not end until you've destroyed the majority of Zagara's buildings. Simply destroying her Hive and Hatcheries will not be enough.