Shatter the Sky (no Broodlords, Mutalisks, or Leviathan) (154)
84%
Belly of the Beast (no Nydus Worms) (30)
16%
184 total votes
Your vote: Which version of All-In is easier?
(Vote): Belly of the Beast (no Nydus Worms) (Vote): Shatter the Sky (no Broodlords, Mutalisks, or Leviathan)
Just starting my first Brutal playthrough, for the simple reason that the Brutal Achievements are the only Campaign ones I have left.
I strongly suspect the answer is post-Shatter the Sky, simply because there's no Leviathan... but it's certainly up for discussion. Indeed, that's why I made this topic.
But if you have the Hive Mind Emulator and don't mind being kind of abusive, Belly of the Beast. You just keep building Hive Mind Emulators and mind control every single muta. Eventually you amass an unstoppable flock.
Do you need tanks/fortresses at all? I have tried the mass emulator thing and while I get mutas, they can't handle the ultras and roaches that spawn very well.
Idk I don't like shatter the sky, as I need banshees and tanks so much that I end up with no gas. If you just use hive mind emulators to get broodlords, then seige tank/bunkers can easily hold the ramps, and a wall of turrets everywhere w/ a few vikings can hold the mutas. Goliaths are useful vs the overlord drop (and help vs air still). Broodlords work WONDERS vs kerrigan. she really is stupid to focus all those broodlings lol. medivac + broodlord = OP ^^ Just don't forget to get lots of turrets and vikings up by where the leviathan comes to kill him quickly.
I've tried both repeatedly with and without the Hive Mind Emulator, and as someone who completed it while in Bronze, I'd say that no air units version is massively easier to do, simply on a mechanical level. Setting up your base, parking a load of siege tanks up and perdition turret or PF walls with barracks is stuff you can all set up and be ok with and then all you have to do is queue up nydus worms with banshee's. I found it a lot easier to do that than any air version tactics.
I did mine on Brutal by doing "Shatter the Sky (no Broodlords, Mutalisks, or Leviathan)" and I'd actually recommend anyone who wants to do it (Brutal or in any difficulty) to do the same.
Just turtle up with siege tanks/bunkers on the chokes and mass banshees to fly around killing the Nydus Worms. ezpz
I have a lot of trouble with the Shatter the Sky version.. I don't know why, but it's sooo much easier for me to own the leviathan than having units scattered about my base. Between my muta flock from the Hive Mind Emulators, and the yamato cannons of a dozen or so Battcruisers, the only issue is keeping the BCs back far enough so that Kerrigan doesn't telekenitically crash them into the ground.
NO! you should get the hive mind emulator and mind control the air units. broodlords help so much against kerrigan. nydus worms are a pain in the ass to get rid of and require constant work. with the hive mind emulator snatching all the broodlords and ultras it is incredibly easy to hold off brutul.
The no nydus worm one is much easier imo, if you have hive mind emulator the leviathan spawns extra mutalisk for you to mind control, plus by mind controlling zerg units you can go above the 200 supply limit.
They are both pretty easy on brutal, but massing a huge blob of 100 damage tanks would probably be the easier option, you don't even need to kill the nydus worms at all, just have a bunch of marines to handle kerrigan.
get 30 tanks with lvl 3 attack ups ( you'll be doing 60+40+upgrades ) + get the attack speed research and get splash damage banshees and it'll be easy mode ( and that 50% slow ms tower ) and some marines ( send 5 to engage kerrigan and then use 20 on her after she casts storm first on the 5 )
Shatter the sky is easier imo. Pretty much no micro required, just make a lot of siege tanks. I used multiple planetary fortresses to tank with scv repair too.
On April 21 2011 23:30 Thunderflesh wrote: If you play it standard, then Shatter the Sky.
But if you have the Hive Mind Emulator and don't mind being kind of abusive, Belly of the Beast. You just keep building Hive Mind Emulators and mind control every single muta. Eventually you amass an unstoppable flock.
100% this. I only played on Hard and it took a while to win that one, but, I went mass marines for kerrigan and just made a ton of mind emulators and just kept on mind controlling mutas. I was even able to take out the leviathon(sp?) as well
For Belly of the Beast route - Going mass hive mind emulators + vikings (vikings are cheap on gas and with both upgrades are good against air + they're important for the last 10% or so of the game where lots of air spawn) and finally marines for Kerrigan makes it really easy (though ti can get laggy but not sure if it's laggier than Shatter the Sky). This worked for Brutal.
Also unless you have a lot of vikings, it's best to ignore the Leviathan and just mind control all the units that spawn (also due to a "bug"(?), the leviathan's ground attack will always be inflicted even when the unit dies if the leviathan died while attacking ground units. This is due to the leviathan lacking periodic validator checking to see if it's alive or not).
enough vikings and goliaths eat the flyers alive. However, a mind emulator will serve the purpose well, letting you amass a defense that doesn't actually take up supply.
Hm dunno, only played Nydus (No Air) version on brutal. I think that was quite okay with a small hit team of battlecruisers and banshees to snipe nydus worms. Eventually I played Air (no Nydus) version on normal as part of the <8h runthrough. Leviathan appeared very sick to me, so I just kept away from it as much as possible and at one point killed it using the artifact.
Actually I totally forgot about the anti zerg towers in brutal playthrough, but it's not like I was missing them too badly. Tanks+Bunkers did fine.
I've beat both and Shatter the Sky is harder, still you can beat it the non cheesy way if you got the Viking and Turrent Upgrades and are on top of your game Hunting broodlords.
The Nydus version is easier if you have the upgraded tanks,marines, and the research that slows down Zergs.If you have those 3 the only micro you will be doing is targeting Kerrigan with your Marines.
tl;dr: Depends on the upgrades you got, but generally the Nydus version is easier
Belly is more fun than Shattered, it is like those Brood War missions where you guide Raynor and Duran through the maze-labs. I did Shattered since I did not want Brood Lords in the final mission. Overall Shattered is easier, just do not lose your units stupidly to the reactor explosions.
Mass marines/ upgrades is really easy to complete the missions, both ways, and if u send everything u got from the beggining in the mission to the bottom left and kill everything there, monsters wont come from there
I did shatter the sky for brutal and All in was very easy with mass PFs and siege tanks. Just a few banchees to take out the nydus worms and you are set.
I did Belly of the Beast and took the snare instead of Hive Mind Emulator specifically so it'd be harder and uh, yeah, it was. Basically just went marine/medic/tank/viking. You have to be on point with your viking squads and SCVs because of tanks + broodling splash (even if you have the upgrades), Leviathon and because the mutas and broodlords come from many directions.
I completed both on insane and I found Belly of the Beast to be harder. but then again I did it without the psi disrupter which a lot of ppl seem to find helpful
i played all-in 4 times on brutal (A. vs air with mc tower, B. vs air with psi disruptor, C. vs ground with mc tower, D. vs ground with psi disruptor). For me, from easiest to toughest: A, D, C, B
mc tower vs air is a joke. you just make so many towers and take everything. still have tanks/bunker/turrets just for the ground. plus, you have to kill kerrigan
psi disruptor vs ground is easy, too. have several of them in from of your bunkers, double layer your bunkers (hopefully with shrike turret, so they can be empty), make perdition turrets and lots of tanks
mc tower vs ground is a bit harder. ultras get really beat up by the tanks before you can get control. and even then, they get ganged on. but not having to fight the ultras makes things a little easier.
psi disruptor vs air is hard. psi disruptor doesnt do a whole lot to the air. plus, broodlords outrange the turrets. its hard to mass turrets with so many distractions around. i dont think i used vikings. maybe that was probably why it was tough.
It depends on the Zerg Tech you bought from your points. If you have gone for that slow tower, the version with no Air is easier.
If you have chosen the Mind Control Tower the version with air is a cakewalk even on brutal. Just MASS MASS MASS Mindcontrol Tower (i am talking like 30-40 of those things built around the artifact) and take over every muta and broodlords that comes near that thing. By the end you will have around 100 Mutas and 30 Broodlords.
I found Belly of the Beast to be easier just because with a critical number of vikings on patrol you pretty much have no problems.
On Shatter the Sky it took my forever to figure out a good way to do it. Eventually i realized your starting position is terrible and pulled waaaay back and massed a bunch of tanks. And the fact that a single unchecked nydus worm in your base kills you is frankly annoying.
As far as easier, I'd say post Shatter the Sky. Realistically, as long as you're good with your pumping of tanks and Banshees (Banshees to snipe Nydus Worms), it was pretty straight forward, just produce Planetary Fortresses as extra damage soakers.
On May 18 2011 09:00 divito wrote: I wish I knew what the hell you guys were talking about. What's this about versions?
If you do Belly of the Beast, All-in consists of enemy air units. If you do Shatter the Sky, All-in consists of tons of nydus worms all over the place that produce stronger and stronger units over time.
EPT
