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Making this thread for others to learn from my mistakes. It will be as spoiler-free as possible.
Credentials: Kerrigan icon and the majority of Hard achievements earned on Brutal, including Aces High after about 80 loads and 4 restarts of the final mission.
Protoss Research
In general, stay away from gimmicks such as instant supply depots, and pick the upgrades that best suit your playstyle (although I highly recommend attack speed over more health). Reactored SCVs are amazing for cranking out an economy for timed missions / achievements and replacing your repairers. Automated refineries are the alternative; they are a strong choice as well if you want to spend less time on macro; they are also more efficient by about 100 minerals / gas, see 4th page for math. The science vessel is amazing in a few missions, I would pick it over the raven without a second thought. As far as the final tier, I would go tech reactors all the way as it gives the most flexibility; yeah you can always build more unit-producing structures, but gas can come at a premium in some missions, and there is no real advantage of the drop pods outside of possibly for a Normal speedrun.
One note about all research - the missions launched from the Laboratory reward a huge amount of both protoss and zerg research. Unlike myself, you will want to do this chain immediately after you unlock it, particularly since you do not need any upgrades or unit unlocks to complete it.
Zerg Research
Do NOT make the mistake I made picking the automated turret. You will not be building bunkers for the (puny) turret, you will be building them to hold a location. Definitely go with PF for the same logic. I picked the Predator but never found a use for him, picked the Hercules on my speedrun and got some good mileage out of him on the Moebius mission (be warned, requires Fusion Core). Mech regen and specialist energy are both good choices, although l would say specialist energy wins out if you opt for nydus worms in All-In. Hive mind emulator is eclipsed by psi disruptor if you want to play the last mission legit (if you prefer MC broodlord cheese, link here)
Armory Upgrades
I will be ranking these on a 1 to 10 scale. My advice is to have enough saved at any one point to be able to pick up at least one extra upgrade for any specific mission / achievement. Read along with the list, found here: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Campaign/Armory - don't really have time to make this all nicely organized.
Base
Bunker: I would upgrade the range ASAP, then pick up the extra capacity midway through the campaign (or skip altogether, see further). Defensive missions and achievements are not very common, but tend to be the most difficult challenges on Brutal. Rating: 9 and 9, less if you choose to fight air on All-In.
Missile Turret: Skip unless you are fighting air on All-In, in which case both upgrades are mandatory. You should not need to build any until then.
SCV: I would forgo the faster build time upgrade for the first half of the game, and leave yourself enough cash to be able to pick it up if you need it later. 2x repair is EXTREMELY important for certain missions, and is nice in general if you plan to be running around with mech units. As you don't actually have too many mech units until the mid to late game, you can hold off spending the 80k on this until you need it. Rating: 3 and 9.
Command Center For auto-repair, follow the same logic as stated above for the first SCV upgrade; it can possibly help but not as much as other upgrades, particularly when credits are tight. Orbital command, you would be nuts not to buy immediately; MULEs are still as amazing as always, particularly for timed missions. Rating: 5 and 10.
Infantry
Marine: Stimpacks you will want immediately, they are too good to pass up, especially with medics being in the game. Combat shields should follow soon after; you will use these buggers all game. Rating: 10 and 8.
Medic: The first upgrade is only for dedicated mm massers, which isn't really a great or very fun strategy on brutal, plus it is extraneous with tech reactors. I wound up picking it for my speedrun; it does make macro easier as you can reactor 2-3 rax and have a tech-labbed one for specialists. The increased heal ability is an amazing upgrade and should be purchased first on any difficulty level. Rating: 5 and 9.
Firebat: I am undecided about these guys. Being a multiplayer vet, I was immediately drawn to hellions to fill the purpose of area splash vs light units. That said, firebats backed by upgraded medics absolutely dominate everything that is not a roach or ultralisk. Pick and upgrade the one you like, and forget about the other. If you pick firebats, you will want them up-front, consequently upgrade armor first. Rating: special.
Marauder: These guys are your ticket to taking down anything that your firebats can't deal with if you are running a bio army. Without stimpacks, though, they are nowhere near as dominating of a force as in multiplayer. I would only take their upgrades if you are absolutely dedicated to your bio army, otherwise I am pretty sure that the mercs come with the slow upgrade, and you can bring them with your bioball if this is your primary concern. Upgrading their health is an expensive waste as they will never become as durable as upgraded firebats. Rating: 4 and 1
Reaper: Just like multiplayer, these guys have a small niche role to play, then they get benched for the remainder of the game. I have toyed with the idea of using them to supplement bunker defenses, but marines, firebats and the odd marauder already do an outstanding job at this. The upgrades themselves are interesting and I may play around with them a bit more on a Hurry Up! It's Raid Night playthrough, but there's just enough for them to do in Brutal.
A few people have pointed out that, as the final boss' armor type is light, reapers do extremely good damage to it. This may be something to pursue if you are playing on normal, but I would still pass on this option for brutal. Rating: 0 and 0.
Vehicles
Hellion: See Firebat above. I will add that I opted for hellions and just kept them behind my bunkers, although I suspect that I would have better off with firebats and neosteel bunkers to begin with. Rating: special
Vulture: They're good in their feature mission, for the simple reason that the mission is not that micro-intensive. You will in all likelihood never use them after the mission. Rating: 0 and 0.
Goliath: Same as above, unfortunately. Upgraded vikings honestly tear these guys a new one for AtA, and I strongly encourage that your factory production to steer towards siege tanks for GtG action. That said, you may find them useful for the air version of All-In. Rating: you will want both if you find a use for them
Diamondback: Are you kiddin' me? This unit is ridiculous, in PRICE. More expensive than a siege tank with a fraction of the versatility. Think of this unit as a very mobile marauder without the slow. Really needs an air attack, special ability, or some use vs zerg to be worth producing, let alone upgrading. Rating: 0 and 0.
Siege Tank: This unit is everything the Diamondback isn't, and everything that you would have been craving to fill a gaping hole in your arsenal. I do not exaggerate that this unit is just about as critical as an SCV for your well-being in the campaign, particularly on Brutal. Grab the damage booster immediately, and absolutely get the shaped rounds before the final chapter if you plan on doing the ground version of All-In; this alone could probably have saved me 40 reloads. Rating: 10 and 9
Starships
Medivac: Great unit for bioball comps, although a bit late as far as availability and expensive in terms of gas. The simple fact is that you will not be bio-ballin much after this mission. You can grab the 2x healing upgrade if you want, however I recommend leaving enough credits in the bank to be able to buy it if you decide that you absolutely need it for a mission / achievement. Rating: 0 and 5.
Wraith: Is it just me or are these things made of paper? Even vikings feel more durable, but they both have the same armor and hit points! I think it's because they are a "specialist" and as such, get insta-gibbed by AI priority targeting. Anyway, I really can't for the life of me figure out why I would ever want to use them instead of vikings, particularly with the excellent upgrades available for the latter. There is just not enough for them to do, and your opponents certainly don't lack for detection on Brutal.
Addendum - I am genuinely surprised at the number of posts praising the wraith. Did you play casual? Do you not understand 150 gas vs 75 gas, medium vs long range, single target vs splash damage? And NO, you will NOT be building them on the ground version of Brutal All-In to escort your banshees, don't be retarded. Rating: 0 and 0, a unit so bad that it actually sucks on its feature mission!
Viking: The prime definition of AtA; their missiles own everything at a huge range. Even so, there are not a lot of huge air fights in the campaign, and you will usually be fine with just the mercenaries + your marines. Definitely take the range upgrade immediately, but hold off on the AoE one until you decide that you absolutely need it (same deal as missile turrets and goliaths). Rating: 5 and 10.
Banshee: This unit is a veritable demigod in the campaign once you get both its upgrades. It is particularly useful for the ground version of All-In. I would grab the shockwave battery immediately, and pick up the cloaking upgrade for the last mission. Rating: 6 and 8.
Cattlebruiser: Like (I'm sure...) most people, I had a nerdgasm once I unlocked this unit and immediately bought both upgrades (going broke in the process). That was before I came to the realization that I was in fact not going to be rolling over everything with mass BCs for the rest of the campaign. Simply put, they are too slow, too expensive, and do not do damage quickly enough without extensive air upgrades. Also, they are a huge waste in the last mission as
+ Show Spoiler +the final boss one-shots them every few seconds 
That said, they do have some uses, and the defensive matrix can keep a focused one alive in time for your science vessels / scvs to repair. The missile pods are a waste, though, as the unit itself already does exceptionally well vs small targets; Yamato is a much better energy dump. Rating: 2 and 6.
Dominion
Thor: I do not recommend researching either of its upgrades, although you will definitely be using this unit in the last mission. Spoilers below:
+ Show Spoiler +Thors can stun the final boss, but the splash upgrade changes the ability from single-target to ground-target, so it will actually make it more difficult to get the initial stun off before you start to get owned. Considering that you have 15 things you need to do immediately when the boss approaches, lining up a small circle with its location is not the best use of APM.
The immortality upgrade can be useful as a dead Thor leaves an attackable object behind which can further distract fire, however as pertaining to the final mission:
+ Show Spoiler +the final boss' one-shot move does not trigger this upgrade, making it useless. Rating: -1 and 2.
Ghost: Once you unlock this unit, you may be tempted to upgrade it. I did, then I wound up never building it for anything; it's just not the same ghost without EMP, and snipe is way too micro-intensive to be useful for the situations where you could argue making ghosts. One exception - possibly stick one in an upgraded bunker; huge range and good damage if you have excess credits to spend on the sight upgrade. Rating: 3 and 0.
Spectre: This is actually an interesting unit that I "overlooked" in my play-through. Psionic Lash is roughly 6 times stronger than snipe on a per-click basis; a few spectres with perma-cloak and the specialist energy research could be an interesting micro diversion for those that feel that they have too much APM for their own good. Rating: special.
Mercenaries
Adding a quick paragraph on this as there have been many questions. On all difficulties, I would avoid the marauder, goliath and battlecruiser; the first 2 units don't have a large role to play, and the BC is just too expensive, both as a merc and ingame. The firebats are discretionary; I am liking them on my 2nd run through as they have strong bonuses (much more so than the marauders) and complement my bio ball nicely. The siege tanks are the single best anti-ground unit in the game, period. The vikings - same for anti-air. The banshees are just cool, but only get them if you are planning on doing All-In with Nydus (same argument could be made for goliaths for the air version).
I'll flesh this out a bit more as I review comments, etc. Please share your own thoughts and opinions. I would like to politely request that everyone remembers that this is a Brutal strategy thread; please don't post about your casual/normal/hard experiences, as they will not be applicable. Believe it or not, it's a whole different game at Brutal; I am replaying right now for my speed run achievement and just marveling at how dumbed down everything is at normal / hard.
Yes, I realize that Brutal was "cake" for all of us who played beta. Personally, I found it challenging, and wound up restarting a few missions, but I was also going for the various Normal and Hard achievements on my first playthrough (the Normal ones were, in general, much more frustrating on Brutal difficulty). Yes, I am aware that you can MM 1at your way through most Brutal missions, however this requires good macro, and I guarantee that most new players are not going to be pulling out an 11-minute Opening Gambit challenge victory.
EDIT: Updated on 8/16.
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Very good write up was hoping some one would do something like this, am i right thinking i have to replay the campaign to change my upgrades? and can I run though the campaign on easiest setting to get upgrades I need then replay each mission on brutal afterwards would that give me brutal achievement portrait still?
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I would disagree with some of those. I found the missile turret attack pretty useful in some of the defend missions, and the first medic upgrade also quite useful at the beginning of the game. It becomes totally useless once you get techreactor, but in some of the earlier missions i liked going with mostly marines and medics. Obviously, you can also just get another barracks with a techlab, so it might have been mostly lazyness on my part.
The Tank upgrades i find to be absolutely crucial, siege tanks are insanely powerful, and one of those increases this power, while the other takes away their main weakness. Definitely get those.
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I disagree with what seems to be the conventional knowledge on the PF here on TL. I've found the orbital commands to be so much more useful on the second run through on brutal compared to the PF. The boost in economy from the MULE has been pretty invaluble invaluable especially early in missions. The only time I think the PF might have been useful was in All-In, but it's rather clunky and 2 factory siege tanks had no problem holding the line.
Also, I picked automated refineries over double SCV production and I'm happy with that choice - it's kind of a wash either way for me. I went with faster vespene production as well (I believe the exclusion is immediate supply depots and this is kind of useless imo).
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On August 04 2010 00:56 Shaithis wrote:
I would pick mech regen over specialist energy, wraiths are crap and ghosts are too expensive and micro-intensive to be useful.
Bio-steel upgrade is really slow to be honest. Getting the Science Vessel over the Raven is a must, in which its heal is much better than Bio-steel anyway.
You mentioned Wraiths and Ghosts for the specialist energy, which is interesting, because those are exactly the two units I was not thinking about for this upgrade. The Science Vessel with +100 starting and +100 maximum is an easy ticket to finishing the rest of the game.
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I also picked the automated refineries. It was especially useful during Supernova where you would fly away while you kept mining gas. Science vessel is a must as well. Healing mechs was great.
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Hive mind emulator is a joke, go psi disruptor all the way.
Definitely have to disagree with this one. I first went with the psi disruptor, but never used due to ridiculously bad range. After reading frozenfyre's great guide for the last mission and trying it myself, the hive mind controller is a must pick for an easy last mission.
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On August 04 2010 01:20 CatfooD wrote:Show nested quote +On August 04 2010 00:56 Shaithis wrote:
I would pick mech regen over specialist energy, wraiths are crap and ghosts are too expensive and micro-intensive to be useful. Bio-steel upgrade is really slow to be honest. Getting the Science Vessel over the Raven is a must, in which its heal is much better than Bio-steel anyway. You mentioned Wraiths and Ghosts for the specialist energy, which is interesting, because those are exactly the two units I was not thinking about for this upgrade. The Science Vessel with +100 starting and +100 maximum is an easy ticket to finishing the rest of the game.
I was actually not aware that the upgrade affected these units (although it makes sense). Yes, I agree that science vessels are amazing for a few missions, but I would argue that the regen upgrade is more useful in the final mission given that you really don't have the 200 gas to spend on a non-combat unit.
On August 04 2010 01:19 Kwidowmaker wrote:
I disagree with what seems to be the conventional knowledge on the PF here on TL. I've found the orbital commands to be so much more useful on the second run through on brutal compared to the PF. The boost in economy from the MULE has been pretty invaluble invaluable especially early in missions. The only time I think the PF might have been useful was in All-In, but it's rather clunky and 2 factory siege tanks had no problem holding the line.
Also, I picked automated refineries over double SCV production and I'm happy with that choice - it's kind of a wash either way for me. I went with faster vespene production as well (I believe the exclusion is immediate supply depots and this is kind of useless imo).
Obviously, you will always want your main to be an OC. Think of the PF as a big freakin' turret that makes some very hard parts of the game significantly easier.
Keep in mind that this thread is tailored towards brutal, on which 2 siege tanks get overrun in the first 3 minutes of all-in.
On August 04 2010 01:18 Simberto wrote:
I would disagree with some of those. I found the missile turret attack pretty useful in some of the defend missions, and the first medic upgrade also quite useful at the beginning of the game. It becomes totally useless once you get techreactor, but in some of the earlier missions i liked going with mostly marines and medics. Obviously, you can also just get another barracks with a techlab, so it might have been mostly lazyness on my part.
The Tank upgrades i find to be absolutely crucial, siege tanks are insanely powerful, and one of those increases this power, while the other takes away their main weakness. Definitely get those.
Eh, it's 60k that can be spent on an actual combat or defense ability instead of on something that can be remedied by an extra 150 minerals. I played without it on Brutal and never felt like I needed it; you really don't need a lot of medics anyway, especially with the +healing upgrade.
On August 04 2010 01:34 SkiZou wrote:Definitely have to disagree with this one. I first went with the psi disruptor, but never used due to ridiculously bad range. After reading frozenfyre's great guide for the last mission and trying it myself, the hive mind controller is a must pick for an easy last mission.
That is definitely a creative use of the structure, but doesn't it make the final mission a bit anticlimactic? Anyway, I will link that thread in the OP, but I still encourage people to try to beat the mission in a conventional way.
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Agree with all the protoss research, however for the zerg research I actually did find a few uses for the Hercules. The Psi Disrupter is only good on the final mission and that's it, and only if you do the ground-based version.
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On normal I got both reaper upgrades, and on many missions I was just able to roflstomp, but on brutal, you're probably right.
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i played the entire campaign on brutal and i did things different than OP on a few things
Research:
- Hercules made the Moebius Factor and Gates of Hell really easy.
- Energy bonus helped me with the BC mission because I could double Yamato carriers and mothership.
Upgrades
- Turret upgrades are awesome, especially if you got the SCV double repair upgrade.
- The Medic upgrade to remove techlab requirement is quite useful on earlier missions. I did many of them with M&M out of 1 rax.
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I can't see the logic in wanting command centre reactor over automated refinery. Spend minerals to build 6 SCVs faster versus not having to build those SCVs in the first place (and on some missions, not having to build a command centre next to the refinery but still having full gas harvesting from it)?
The rest of the OP I agree with completely, but I did find myself making a lot of goliaths (far prefer them to thors and they're cheaper than vikings).
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Are diamondbacks really all that bad? They're pretty fast, beefy, and do good damage. I've only gotten a little past point where they become available, though.
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Firebats > hellions IMO, you're sacrificing some speed for a lot more survivability, especially with juggernaut plating (potentially 6 armor makes them as tanky as ultras if they have a medic behind them). Plus, if you get the flamer upgrade, anything that isn't a roach or ultra just melts instantly.
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Here's my choices/upgrade focus and why:
attack speed
as terran you deal more damage then you take due to range
Increased gas
you always need more gas
Auto-gas
saves 150 minerals per geyser, and allows remote gas mining
Science vessals
your god and savior, these will allow your mech army to roll over anything, and be full hp afterwards...
Tech reactor
Being able to double-pump banshee/sci vessal/BC/tank/thor is the real reason these things are an absolute godsend.
bunker HP
Bunkers are there to hold ground
Planetary fortress
don't ever morph your base CC into one, leave that as an OC, instead build these to hold chokes in the hard defend missions. On All-in air version, I had 2 PFs per side backed by tanks, which took care of all of the massive ground waves.
Herculese dropship
never actually built any, but it's better then a melee unit in the mech tree...
Increased energy
This is for your Science vessals most of all, but it also allows thors + BCs to double-cast their abilities, as well as being ready to do so out of the gate.
Psi disruptor
Apart from cheese, you don't come across many zerg swarms where picking off 1 of them will save you the day. The psi disruptor allows for longer time for siege tanks to pick off swarms, and it essentially lowers the zerg's damage by 50% due to the attack speed reduction.
Armoury:
I upgraded all of the infantry except reapers, and later regretted it, as mech/air totally outshines infantry once science vessals are out.
I would advise only getting the research you need to survive until you get science vessale/vikings/banshees/tanks as those are the 4 units you will be using for ALL missions once you get them.
Upgrading bunkers+turrets both helped me immensly, but that's because I chose air for all-in, so the aoe turrets got a lot of kills.
Needed upgrades:
get all the upgrades for:
viking, banshee, siege tank
don't get upgrades for:
medivac, reaper, helion, vulture, wraith
The rest are up to your playstyle.
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Mech regen upgrade >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> +100 energy to specialists
Why? Because I actually tried both.
Even with +100 energy SV, they sit around on empty mana 75% of the time. When you have a group of 24 vikings and 20 banshees, all of their natural healing combined exceeds any number of healing SV can dish out.
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I find the goliath one of the best units in the single player. with the ability to attack both air and ground at the same time they were my choice for AA. essential for missions of engine of destruction, and at the gates of hell. the latter a lot because of all the scourge flying around. with their ability to attack ground and still shoot air i see them like a direct counter to brood lords.
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On August 04 2010 02:09 Weasel- wrote:
I can't see the logic in wanting command centre reactor over automated refinery. Spend minerals to build 6 SCVs faster versus not having to build those SCVs in the first place (and on some missions, not having to build a command centre next to the refinery but still having full gas harvesting from it)?
The rest of the OP I agree with completely, but I did find myself making a lot of goliaths (far prefer them to thors and they're cheaper than vikings).
The thing with CC reactor is that you can supersaturate your base twice as fast, and can have a saturated expansion almost instantly via transfer. It's extremely nice for the timed achievements, which are in my opinion some of the harder ones to get. There's also quite a few missions where you are going to be burning through a lot of SCVs trying to keep your base and other things repaired, it's nice to be able to replace them twice (or 4 times) as fast.
I tried to use goliaths, but bio + vikings + tanks + occasional BC is really all you need; goliaths don't really fill any particular gap, unless you really got a thing against overlords.
On August 04 2010 02:28 B1nary wrote:
Are diamondbacks really all that bad? They're pretty fast, beefy, and do good damage. I've only gotten a little past point where they become available, though.
Well, yes. 150 gas is the cost of a freakin' specialist unit, and it gets raped by anything that is not a roach, baneling or ultralisk. In hindsight, I would possibly keep one behind a bunker line to hang out with my tanks on All-In once I get a critical mass, but it's hardly worth upgrading.
On August 04 2010 02:49 BrownBear wrote:
Firebats > hellions IMO, you're sacrificing some speed for a lot more survivability, especially with juggernaut plating (potentially 6 armor makes them as tanky as ultras if they have a medic behind them). Plus, if you get the flamer upgrade, anything that isn't a roach or ultra just melts instantly.
Yeah I agree; you want multiple rax anyway, but don't necessarily need multiple factories once you get the tech reactor. Hellions excel because of their high micro skillcap, but this is quite often impractical in the campaign.
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Diamond backs are good objectively but there's only 2-3 missions where you can ever really get them going.
I'd say the most essential armory upgrades are:
-Medic Healing
-Both siege tank upgrades
-Both marine upgrades
-Faster SCV repair
Essential tech upgrades:
-Vehicle Repair
-Combined reactor/tech lab
-Science Vessels
On most missions I just salvaged bunkers immediately for extra cash. Even when defending the bunkers tend to just fall incredibly fast. Still they're not bad upgrades and probably work picking up.
Goliath upgrades make them really really good, but I agree vikings are better AtA overall. Though I do find the goliaths a bit more mobile.
Predator turrets are godly vs light units, but there's not much use for them and walling off with PF is probably more useful.
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Going to add my own 2 cents:
Tech Reactor > Drop Pods:
I took Drop Pods because it seemed unique, where Tech Reactors are of course just a nice-to-have. Unfortunately I never got to use the unique aspect of Drop Pods. Gates of Hell was the only mission where it was even reasonable, and even then it didn't work out too great. Probably awesome if you love bio and want to reinforce in the field. I preferred BC's, Merc Vikings, and Science Vessels myself, so it was worthless to me. Might be better on lower difficulties if you can snipe objectives, but on Brutal they are too heavily defended.
Whereas, Tech Reactors seem extremely useful on All In.
Science Vessel > Raven:
If you go mech or air, SV is completely OP. Go Raven if you just focus Bio.
Automated Refinery > Reactor:
Don't really need reactor. Automated Refineries are AWESOME. I just built refineries everywhere, regardless of whether I wanted to plop a oc/pf down and defend it. Just took out an enemy base? Throw a refinery there immediately.
I found zerg slow quite useful on All In. Don't see how MC would be more useful than slowing down all the zerg on your doorstep.
Energy > Regen. Regen is really slow. Sure ghosts and wraiths don't have much use, but science vessels, banshees, and BC's do! Double yamato anyone?
PF turned the tide for me on The Dig, and PF's are AWESOME on All In. It's not that you need them for the swarm, it's that they can actually tank Kerrigan unlike anything else. Any time Kerrigan showed up I just put 10 SCV's on my PF and queued up a bunch more. Just draw her storms with banshees or move your SCV's out of them and she won't break your PF.
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EPT
