Hey TL! I've recently decided to try and complete as many of the campaign achievements as I can since I had pretty much abandoned it a while back. I'm having trouble with getting Hard Core one here. I'm doing what the guide says, I even have 4 Medivacs full of Marines and Marauders but I still can't get to it. Once I start attacking the data core (brood lord dead) 2 nydus worms pop up one after the other and 1-2 drop pods of zerg units as well which is way too much to kill and dispose of the core after. Could anyone give it a try with this save file and tell me what I'm doing wrong? Any other strategies are also appreciated!

aeoliant

Canada361 Posts

February 29 2012 17:38 GMT

I just mass vikings and buy the hero vikings and fly them over (avoiding spores as best as possible) and then you just land and target the core, ignoring all other units. you'll only need like 16 vikings, try getting a reactor on your starport.

RCMDVA

United States708 Posts

February 29 2012 18:29 GMT

If you have Hercules drop ships, I did it with those.

Strat was something like this....

Defend with 2 elite tanks, two bunkers, couple turrets. Pump out marines as well.

Get a starport and fusion core.

Build 2 more medivacs (for picking up the units aroudn the map), then build two Hercs.

At the end I'm pretty sure you can totally abandon your base, load everything into your Medivacs & Hercs and the go drop on the brutalisk, then the final data core.

If you have Hercs, you can pretty much ignore everything once you kill the Brutalisk, load back up and go straight to the Core & stim.

40+ stimmed marines will just vaporize the 3rd core.

Cookieking

United States4 Posts

February 29 2012 18:32 GMT

Personally I just went with a decent sized bioball with medivacs. Kill the first core with the units and medivacs provided then just power through once you have a decent ball (with 1/1 and 2/2 on the way) and a few extra medivacs and stim your way to victory!

MerdaPura

Brazil148 Posts

February 29 2012 18:37 GMT

Alternatively, you can use permacloacked spectres/ghosts with (i did without) the drop pod upgrade.
Just nuke the shit outta the last core. The second one can be killed with the units you can find laying around the roofs. (be sure to have enough medivacs!)

LuisFrost

Mexico130 Posts

February 29 2012 19:08 GMT

Build and upgrade only bio units and medivacs - but don't use gas to upgrade these - and you'll get a huge army very fast. Then just work your way down from the first data core you have to protect, you'll kill everything easily and quickly. You'll also rescue the mercenaries along the way, which help a lot.
Defend with bunkers, tanks take a lot of gas and slow you down a lot.

Darkened

Bulgaria105 Posts

February 29 2012 20:06 GMT

Big thanks for all the advice! I started from the first reply and managed to do it on my second attempt with Vikings. : )

slytown

Korea (South)1411 Posts

February 29 2012 21:05 GMT

You can finish just about every mission with achievements only using marine/medivac. For this mission throw in some marauders too and just drop snipe. And yes, don't worry about your main. It will die.

Feb

98 Posts

March 01 2012 02:42 GMT

or you can just do this:

note the seige tank placement for the second data core, the computer never attacks the tank if you place it there (though you have to take a roundabout route to safely reach the spot and your medivac will likely attract a corrupter which will kill it if you don't do anything about it).

this strat gives you a lot of leeway if you want the research.

Whatson

United States5356 Posts

March 01 2012 03:17 GMT

#10

You can mass viking, and then fly directly to the core and land. Or, you defend with two tanks + perdition turrets, then get two Hercules transports and all-in with everything you have (mass upgraded marines for me personally). My friend also used the 'drop-pod' research and dropped ghosts on nearby buildings and just nuked the shit out of them, worked really well too.

Fencar

United States2694 Posts

March 01 2012 08:08 GMT

#11

If you have good macro and the research, I recommend marine/medic with Hercules doom drops directly.

Two or three bunkers at the front should be enough to repel any attacks, if you repair them in-between

Teoman

Norway382 Posts

March 01 2012 10:35 GMT

#12

My strategy didnt involve any strange placement or anything. The only thing i did was mass marines and medivacs, and sent all the survivors back to base for defence.

If you keep up macrowise you should get enough marines to simply overrun the core sites, as long as you navigate carefullly between spore crawlers and hydras.

Regarding the time, its just a matter of massing troops for a little time, and then take out all of them fast and reinforce with your production of medivac/marines
(Did not look at the save file but if you do not have marine uppgrades then ignore my answer)
Good luck :D

Faranth

933 Posts

March 01 2012 10:52 GMT

#13

--- Nuked ---

JustPassingBy

10776 Posts

March 01 2012 15:05 GMT

#14

I didn't even bother attacking the very last base. Just drop somewhere next to the building and rightclick on it.
Should you have the upgrade that lets you drop units off very quickly, then that is a good tactic.

Nineite

2 Posts

April 14 2012 07:10 GMT

#15

My method, as usual, was slightly different from everyone elses.

1. One Bunker (6 slot, extra HP) full of marines + 2 SCV for main right on top of the ramp. By the time the zerg break through, you should already be done. One less thing to keep track of.

2. I make 1 tank to snipe the 2nd Data Core. (fully upgraded). This part was tricky as I had several play throughs where the tank wouldn't see the building. In this case I just restarted, as the tank *should* have no trouble once you drop it (down by the ultralisk cave, but on the other side of the rocks). If this works, you can set it and forget it again. Notice a theme here?

3. I make 1 extra Medivac, and a Hercules. I specifically went for the Herc for this mission, and it was the very last thing I built. I didn't have any other air units, or any mercs (aside from War Pigs, of course).

3a. Fill the Herc with War Pigs and Marines (fully upgraded). This is going to be the attack force for the 3rd core. If you loose any units in flight, restart. There are flight paths that won't kill anything (some dmg is ok).

3b. I couldn't win until I took SCVs along in one of the Medivacs. I tried 4 and it worked.

4. Skip the research. You can come back later if you want, or are uber enough now. I wasn't.

The SCVs were the chincher for me. Even with the extra Medivac (3 total), I couldn't heal through the dmg and my attack force would die. The SCVs keep the Medivacs going, and the Medivacs keep the attack force up long enough. When I was done, only the Herc was left of the attack force, but that doesn't matter.

Good luck!

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