I got the mastery achievement using a slightly different method than I've seen here. Rather than walling off with just gateways or cyber cores, I walled off with empowered Nexus' (one each at NW and SE, two at SW), filling in any corners or gaps with cores. While Nexus' do take up an enormous footprint, I found that there were several advantages:
1) Nexus with Overcharge counts as a defensive structure so is automatically shielded by the batteries (doesn't occur automatically if you use a core or gateway) 2) Nexus has the health and shields to survive baneling busts that are especially prevalent later on. 3) One Nexus at each entrance can defend themselves for the first several minutes while you focus on building your walls
You can compensate for the huge footprint by building out on to the ledges that extend past the staircase. I was able to get 2.2 relatively easily using this strat. I think I could have lasted longer if I'd better thought out my structures (specifically more shield batteries around the nexus', and maybe a photon cannon or two more to deal with zerglings).
Also as an aside, this should be obvious but if you're going for the mastery achievement there's no need to actually kill the crystals outside your base. You get the achievement regardless of if you complete the mission or not.
Edit: Also, the 20% reduced build time helps a ton.
On November 15 2015 11:05 Jaximus wrote: Got it this morning - been going sequentially through the achievements (with this being the first planet after Aiur), and this was the hardest achieve yet.
What ended up proving the difference for me was trying to snipe Overseers at the ramps asap, in order to give my DTs free range. Early on it means far less lost resources; later it gets a lot tougher - but that's what the res is for.
The biggest difficulty is actually hardware for me - when you get so many units towards the end of the mission, my computer doesn't like trying to do quick warp ins, buildings, all that crap.
I'm dropping below 40fps with pretty much the best hardware available for sc2
Also as an aside, this should be obvious but if you're going for the mastery achievement there's no need to actually kill the crystals outside your base. You get the achievement regardless of if you complete the mission or not.
It wasn't obvious at all to me, thought you had to pass the mission. Just saw that on some screenshots/videos recently
Edit: Also, the 20% reduced build time helps a ton.
On November 17 2015 05:25 Elysian wrote: I walled off with empowered Nexus' (one each at NW and SE, two at SW)
Good strat. Got 2.471 on hard. I filled in gaps with cannons and batteries though. Only had 8 warpgates max I think.
I forgot to save just before the walls came down, but I took some screenshots before things got really bad. I actually tried to have 3-4 Nexus (Nexi?) at each corner. It got to the point where I could only build stuff in the mineral lines b/c I had no more room. Another perk about Nexus at the front is that when you start losing a few buildings here or there, you can just build probes from the forward Nexus and replace stuff. Enemy units don't seem to target the probe over cannons, if it's just building and not attacking. So you can actually replace cannons right on top of newly-dead Ultralisks
It really gets unfair once the long-range guardians start showing up in the other corners besides top right. Those were the hardest units for me to deal with.
On November 29 2015 11:07 frajen86 wrote: It really gets unfair once the long-range guardians start showing up in the other corners besides top right. Those were the hardest units for me to deal with.
The solar lance deals with them pretty effectively, it one-shots them for one thing. You can pretty much clean up all guardians with three shots every time. Other than that, solar lance is pretty good at cleaning up some of those banelings as well.
I tried to get every possible spear of adun power for this one. Just did all the missions that could possibly be done before the mission. However, when I start it up in the archives I have a lot more spear of adun powers, which could not possibly be attained at this level. Why is that?
it was a really hard achievement for me, not a single moment to breath, the nexus strat seems awesome but i did it the regular way, u really have to go fast ^^
On November 29 2015 11:07 frajen86 wrote: It really gets unfair once the long-range guardians start showing up in the other corners besides top right. Those were the hardest units for me to deal with.
The solar lance deals with them pretty effectively, it one-shots them for one thing. You can pretty much clean up all guardians with three shots every time. Other than that, solar lance is pretty good at cleaning up some of those banelings as well.
I tried to get every possible spear of adun power for this one. Just did all the missions that could possibly be done before the mission. However, when I start it up in the archives I have a lot more spear of adun powers, which could not possibly be attained at this level. Why is that?
I believe the game sets the mission to its latest possible setting. You can do some missions before others, allowing those others missions to be done later, giving you have more powers and tech. I think the archives give you every possible piece of tech and adun powers that you would have had, if you did that mission last.
On November 29 2015 11:07 frajen86 wrote: It really gets unfair once the long-range guardians start showing up in the other corners besides top right. Those were the hardest units for me to deal with.
The solar lance deals with them pretty effectively, it one-shots them for one thing. You can pretty much clean up all guardians with three shots every time. Other than that, solar lance is pretty good at cleaning up some of those banelings as well.
I tried to get every possible spear of adun power for this one. Just did all the missions that could possibly be done before the mission. However, when I start it up in the archives I have a lot more spear of adun powers, which could not possibly be attained at this level. Why is that?
I believe the game sets the mission to its latest possible setting. You can do some missions before others, allowing those others missions to be done later, giving you have more powers and tech. I think the archives give you every possible piece of tech and adun powers that you would have had, if you did that mission last.
That's what I did though. I restarted the campaign, played every possible mission before this one, making sure to get all the solarite in the process. But I had way less powers than in the archives.
Some tips re: the mastery achievement (2.2 billion on Hard). I didn't use Planetary Nexus or Gateway/Cyber walls.
Also, FWIW, I play SC2 on a 5 year old laptop w/ an i5 2430M and integrated graphics so my ability to do stuff beyond 1.8-1.9billion is limited, to say the least. I reached the 2.2 billion mark pretty comfortably. Ended up quitting at ~2.3 billion with defense at 3 of my 4 entrances intact.
Abilities & Units: -Spear of Adun abilities: Deploy pylon (tier 1 ability; didn't use much), Solar lance (tier 3), Orbital assimilators (tier 2) and +20% Construction Speed -War Council: Stalker and Avenger (i.e., the Aiur Dark Templar, i.e., the resurrecting Dark Templar). Whenever I say "DTs", I'm referring to Avengers. I didn't use zealots/sentries/immortals (or their equivalents) in this mission.
Nothern Entrance (i.e., where we see flying hybrids and guardians) -I relied primarily on Stalkers with 1/1/1 upgrades -The only static D on the northern entrance were 4 Khaydarin Monoliths and 4 shield batteries (two near each mineral line, in the areas that flank the ramp). The space between my two Nexii was mostly empty so that my stalkers and DTs could quickly get around to where they needed to be. -It's important to make sure that any Monoliths on this side are powered by 2+ pylons bc of the air hybrids' spell that effectively disables a pylon and its powerfield. -The post-blink shield regeneration is fantastic and since the AI prioritizes stalkers over static D, it's just a matter of baiting the air hybrids/guardians toward your base so that they're within range
Remaining entrances: -DTs were my first line of defense, ~15 or so per entrance. They would ALWAYS be positioned in front of the static D. -The outermost layer of static defense was shield batteries/pylons, behind which I put cannons. I put a few Monoliths behind the cannons as well as in the areas that flank the ramps. -I arranged buildings so that there was a path which DTs could walk around the central temple, and connecting paths to each of the entrances; this allows the resurrected DTs to go back out on the front lines without taking a convoluted path around (or, worse, having the resurrected DTs behind the static D) -Somewhat counterintuitive: once you're maxed (200/200), which should be at around ~1.0 - 1.2 billion, the priority target for Solar Lance is NOT overseers; beginning at ~1.4-1.5 billion, you'll start to see ~10-12 banelings come down each line at roughly the same time. This HAS to be the priority because these banelings will shred your DTs and go through all your static D. The baneling waves are somewhat randomized, but, in multiple instances, I remember having to solar lance (once in each lane) IMMEDIATELY upon cooldown. (This means that you don't have Solar Lance for the air units at the Northern Entrance, which is why I used Stalkers.)
Other: -In order to have some open area in my base (so my units can walk), I placed my gateways (~10 in total) so that they're hugging the temple. -The only units I had in a control group were stalkers. I found it easier just to periodically check the east/west/south entrances as well as my Dark Shrine and manually allocate DTs as necessary. Because I kept my DTs ahead of my static D, I did need to occasionally pull back rogue DTs that tried to go ham on the AI's spine crawlers xD
I managed to get to the 1 billion just barely with the empowered Nexi. I probably could have done several things better, but I was just glad to finally have it done. :D LotV Campaign Mission 7: Last Stand (Shakuras) - Brutal
Playing last stand hard from archives. Got to 1 billion but no button to end battle. Have gotten to 1.8 billion still no button to end battle. Please help.
On December 08 2015 07:53 Majjiks wrote: Playing last stand hard from archives. Got to 1 billion but no button to end battle. Have gotten to 1.8 billion still no button to end battle. Please help.
First it didn't seem too hard to get the Mastery achievement, since I easily help up till 1,5 on Hard, but on my first run I didn't hold even to 1,8. @Elysian, huge thanks, never thought that using overcharged Nexuses would change the difficulty so much - easily held up to 2,2 on Brutal, no ramps got overrun, but I didn't wait to see how much I can get. For me the key point for victory were these: 1) Early expand and early gas on all 4 geysers - gas is VERY important; 2) 2 Nexuses at each ramp except the North - these are the only structures that can survive baneling waves later on, plus they provide supply so that you don't have to waste space for pylons, gradually backed up by big cannons (and lots of shield batteries, of course); 3) 10 or so Immortals, guarding the North ramp - those that can shoot air - these guys simply own the flying hybrids and guardians, though guardians are better be destroyed with solar lance; 4) I destroyed only 2 Zenit stones with my units, the muta one was killed by Solar lances. I doubt that I managed to do it within 10 minutes, but I got that achievement earlier on Hard; 5) Lots of DT's with multiple attack at 3 ramps (I found no use in ressurecting DTs - they die a second time rather quickly, besides, it's hard to get them back to action from where they respawn), a little bit of micro with cannons to kill of overseers quickly; 6) At later stages it is no longer possible to get enough gas to reinforce DTs, so I replaced them with Purifier zealots - they are great not only because they survive longer, but also because their reconstructing corpses form an invincible wall, giving the cannons more free shots; 7) As someone said, -20% construction time is great.
Of course, that is all possible only after both Korhal and first purifier missions (though I think zealots with ressurection are not so crucial, and probable having DT in the purifier mission would be better).
EPT
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