StarCraft 2 Speedrun
This is a collection of notes on the Starcraft 2 speedrun I recently posted on Youtube:
Starcraft 2 Speedrun - YouTube
This is a run of the full campaign on Normal difficulty. The total mission time is 2:35:21. Of that time, around 1:14 is on timed missions of fixed length (3 of the 19 missions end on a timer, but they're all quite long). I sped up the videos for these missions quite a bit so that the total amount of video for the run much shorter. The run was played at normal game speed (which is the default for Normal difficulty, and I didn't actually know you could change it until I was a little ways in). If I ever do a revised run, it probably be at Faster game speed. For now though, I'm going to take little break from this project and see what ideas for further optimization come from people watching the video.
Many of the strategies I used here initially came from the forums at speeddemosarchive.com. In particular, Fragmaster01's run was a starting point for me on many of the missions.
You have to do at least 19 missions to complete the SC2 campaign. Once you've done 14 missions including The Moebius Factor, you can do the final series of 5 missions (Supernova, Maw of the Void, and the 3 Char missions). I choose Shatter The Sky for the second-last mission, since it's much faster than Belly of the Beast. The main intermediate goal of the campaign will be to be reach The Dig (to unlock the Protoss missions, which are short and give a lot of Protoss research), and to obtain Ghosts (which I choose over Spectres only because Ghost of a Chance is a shorter mission than Breakout).
Ghost of a Chance and The Dig can both be done as your ninth mission at the earliest. Since Ghosts are very useful for finishing The Dig quickly, we'll do Ghost of a Chance ninth and The Dig tenth. That puts the first 3 Protoss missions as 11-13 (obviously skipping In Utter Darkness), leaving Moebius Factor for the fourteenth. All that's left is to figure out mission 4-8. Ghost of a Chance unlocks 2 missions after to finish Welcome to the Jungle, so I have to do Welcome to the Jungle sixth (which is earliest it can be done), which in turn requires the Devil's Playground fifth. For the remaining missions (4, 7, and 8) one has to be Smash and Grab, which is required for The Dig.
The remaining two missions can either be the first two Ariel Hanson missions (Evacuation and Outbreak) or the first two Matt Horner missions (The Great Train Robbery and Cutthroat). Evacuation and Train Robbery are both very long mission based on timed elements that can't be shortened (unfortunately, we have to do one of them). But Cutthroat is much shorter than Outbreak, so I go with the Horner missions. Also Cutthroat gives Protoss research, and if you add up all the Protoss research points available in the missions listed so far, Cutthroat will give me exactly 25 before Maw of the Void, which we'll see below is important. So Raynor is going to have to leave Dr. Hanson alone this time around.
Final mission order:
1. Liberation Day, 2:12
2. The Outlaws, 2:53
3. Zero Hour, 20:08 (fixed time mission)
4. Smash and Grab, 5:32
5. The Devil's Playground, 4:10
6. Welcome to the Jungle, 3:57
7. The Great Train Robbery, 23:48 (fixed time mission)
8. Cutthroat, 5:43
9. Ghost of a Chance, 5:37
10. The Dig, 16:48
11. Whispers of Doom, 7:18
12. A Sinister Turn, 5:11
13. Echoes of the Future, 2:51
14. The Moebius Factor, 3:34
15. Supernova, 4:31
16. Maw of the Void, 2:36
17. The Gates of Hell, 5:34.
18. Shatter the Sky, 2:53.
19. All In, 30:05 (fixed time mission).
Total 2:35:21
As noted above, the mission can give 25 Protoss research as early as Maw of the Void. Since the Orbital Strike research is very helpful all the missions after that point, I make sure to pick all 25 of the Protoss research on all missions through Supernova. There's no mission where getting the Protoss research takes too much extra time. This also gives the +25% gas research pretty early, and Auto-Refinery. Auto-Refinery is chosen over CC Reactor because of the extremely fast times it enables on Maw of the Void and Shatter the Sky. CC Reactor would have shortened The Gates of Hell, but only by 60-90 seconds or so. The tier 1 weapon upgrade never winds up being used for much aside from a few seconds on Supernova, and tier 4 (Raven/Science Vessel) is never used at all.
Zerg research is never important. In the run I get the optional 3 Zerg research from killing the Brutalisk in the The Devil's Playground, because that let me unlock the Hercules for The Moebius Factor, which I thought would speed it up. I wound up going with a strategy that doesn't use it though. I went back and tried to redo Playground without bothering to kill the Brutalisk, but it didn't save any appreciable amount of time. I use Shrike Turret on a few levels but it's never important, and Zerg tiers 2-3 are never used for anything.
As far as cash upgrades, I have a lot of spare credits at the end of the run (380,000). I picked up pretty much every upgrade on the way that I could come up with a way to use to shorten any mission. So any suggestions for further upgrades that could help on any mission would be welcome. The ones I wind up getting are:
--Marine Stim and Combat Shield. I use Marines pretty often and making them more effective helps. Shield isn't strictly necessary for anything, but since we had money to spare, it's a convenience.
--Medic Heal. Same as above. I don't think I make a Medic at any point in the run, but your starting units often include a Medic or two and this is pretty nice upgrade.
--Concussive Shell. Again, not strictly necessary, but makes it easier to defend with minimal forces at The Dig.
--Ghost Vision and Cloak. Finally an upgrade that really matters. We're going to nuke spam our way through The Dig and need permanently cloaked Ghosts. The vision upgrade lets a Ghost see Photon Cannons from outside detection range. Cloaking also makes the Maw of the Void and Shatter the Sky routes smoother.
--SCV Repair and Multi-build. Multi-build speeds up Maw of the Void. Repair saves a tiny amount of time on Supernova.
--Orbital Command. The mineral speedup makes the Shatter the Sky strategies work, and makes bunch of other levels a bit more convenient. It also lets us grab the 4th research at Supernova.
--Medivac Fast Unload. Saves a small amount of time on Supernova.
--Goliath Range and Dual-fire. In the end I didn't use Goliaths on any of the levels I thought I would, so these were unnecessary (the dual-fire causes Goliaths to shoot at some irrelevant things on Cutthroat and Moebius Factor). So I guess I really have 510,000 credits to spare in this run.
1. Liberation Day 2:12. SC2 Speedrun, Part 1/8: Liberation Day, The Outlaws, Zero Hour - YouTube
Nothing special here. I try to run Raynor straight ahead to trigger the cutscenes while using the Marines to fight.
2. The Outlaws 2:53. SC2 Speedrun, Part 1/8: Liberation Day, The Outlaws, Zero Hour - YouTube
There's no point mining minerals because there's not enough time to do anything with them. The SCV's help soak damage from the Hellions and Bunker so you don't lose Marines. Time can be improved with better micro.
3. Zero Hour 20:08. SC2 Speedrun, Part 1/8: Liberation Day, The Outlaws, Zero Hour - YouTube
Fixed time mission. Unlike some others, even killing all the Zerg doesn't end this one early. I kill all the Zerg anyway since I need something to do while waiting. Note the outhouse easter egg in the north with the Tauren Marine in it. Also, amusingly, if you wipe out the Zerg you can take out the Nydus Worms that spawn during the final attack script and prevent that final assault on your base from even happening.
4. Smash and Grab 5:32. SC2 Speedrun, Part 2/8: Smash and Grab, The Devil's Playground, Welcome to the Jungle - YouTube
The key to this one is two Stalkers that hang out near the goal area. They're scripted to destroy anything that enter the goal area prematurely. You have to fly the Barracks into the north part of the goal, causing the Stalkers to path all the way around the map in an attempt to reach it. As soon as you aggro the Stalkers with your ground army along the way, you can land the Barracks and proceed. This is why I clear a bit to the east with my ground army while flying the Barracks over. So the time-limiting steps on the mission are:
--Get the Barracks into the goal area to aggro the Stalkers as quickly as possible.
--Intercept the Stalkers with ground army.
--Land Barracks and start making units.
--Start final event just before 3rd Marauder pops (if you start it any earlier, the Stone Guardians being tanked by the Barracks will kill that Marauder when it comes out).
5. The Devil's Playground 4:10. SC2 Speedrun, Part 2/8: Smash and Grab, The Devil's Playground, Welcome to the Jungle - YouTube
The Reaper path around the map picks up basically all the easily accessible mineral pickups. There are some more in the northeast base, but that one's pretty well defended. The timing works out pretty well, where right as I finish getting all the mineral pickups, the bases have mined enough to reach 8000. This is part of why leaving the Brutalisk alive wouldn't save much time--I need to get his 4 mineral pickups anyway, which requires spending time to kite him a bit in the first place. And even if I execute the Reaper path faster, I would just get into that northeast base with minimal rewards at the end. All in all, a little time could be saved that way though.
6. Welcome to the Jungle 3:57. SC2 Speedrun, Part 2/8: Smash and Grab, The Devil's Playground, Welcome to the Jungle - YouTube
This one is quite an intricate puzzle to speedrun. I have a very small army (2 Marines and 3 Goliaths, +1 Goliath I make at the beginning), that I have to use for a bunch of encounters. I could make more units, but note that resources are very tight all the way through, and I also have to fly both my production buildings around to accomplish various things. Also, if I make a second Goliath, I'd have 0 gas and wouldn't be able to repair my Goliaths unless I made a Refinery.
In the first skirmish, defending against 3 total Stalkers and 4 Scouts while collecting the first 4 Terrazene, the Bunker tanks (note how great Salvage is here--the Bunker is just a free HP soak). While clearing up the right side, I can repair my Goliaths while setting up more buildings (Factory and Turrets) to tank in the final skirmish. Note that I don't have to actually win in the final battle, just survive long enough to sneak that SCV away before everything else nearby gets blown up. Taking down Void Rays helps stall for time. Also, 2 full-HP Goliaths have to be sacrificed to grab the nearby research.
7. The Great Train Robbery 23:48. SC2 Speedrun, Part 3/8: The Great Train Robbery, Cutthroat - YouTube
Not much to be said here. The 8th train comes out of the center gate at 23:40. The only thing I can do end the mission more quickly is to blow up that base and cram a whole bunch of units up against the door to blow up the train the instant it spawns.
8. Cutthroat 5:43. SC2 Speedrun, Part 3/8: The Great Train Robbery, Cutthroat - YouTube
Once you buy Mira's aid, her starting forces can immediately walk over and win the mission. The only goal of the first half of the mission is to get to 6000. I start making SCV's immediately until the Vultures arrive and I get supply capped (at that point it wouldn't be worth it to make more). The only unit I add to my starting forces of 5 Marines is a Diamondback. The starting Marines can take out some enemy Marines near the beginning, but they can't deal with the Firebat/Medic easily, and would take a long time to kill the CC anyway. One Diamondback can tank for the low-HP Marines while they finish off that base (some micro required here). On the Vulture side, a few mines deal with a scripted Marine attack without taking damage.
9. Ghost of a Chance 5:37. SC2 Speedrun Part 4.mov - YouTube
General note, I killed Spectres because at this point I didn't realize money would be so unnecessary later on, and they all take virtually no extra time (just the 1s or so Nova takes to Snipe them). There's that one in part 2 that has to be killed with a Raven, but even takes no extra time if you have good multitasking, since the Raven isn't too useful for anything at that point.
Part 1: Once you reach the part with the Tank, Nova can solo the rest easily. The Marines are pretty much just there to aggro things so Nova can run by without getting snared by a Marauder.
Part 2: The big open area where you Dominate a Siege Tank is tricky. There are too many units there for Nova to run by until the Tank takes out that Turret. I have to keep my Tanks alive as well, since they have to cover Nova while she steals the nuke. As soon as possible, Nova runs up on the left ledge to the nuke silo to sight for the Tanks. In this run, the nearly Spectre didn't nuke--that sometimes happens but I didn't quite figure out why. It saves a few seconds when it happens.
Part 3: At the end, the Thor takes out the Turret ASAP, and Nova runs in a little peninsula of detection-free space while the Thor tanks for the Banshees. I didn't wind up needing to take out the Raven.
10. The Dig 16:48. SC2 Speedrun Part 4.mov - YouTube
Ah, The Dig. One of the must fun and most annoying levels in the whole run. Fun because, when else are you going to make use of constant nuke production from 6 silos? Annoying because it's the only mission in the game with a "destroy all enemy buildings" win condition, and so it becomes a 17-minute long spamfest with nukes and the Laser Drill. Also it's surprisingly easy to lose either a Ghost in the west or the Barracks in the east unless you're constantly vigilant. For reference, completing The Dig the normal way (drilling through the door) takes almost 28 minutes.
Start: at the beginning I just accumulate resources. I'm never going to spend gas on anything except nukes/silos/Ghosts (exception for one Marauder so that I have two total--the Marauder and Tank on each ramp mean I can basically ignore Protoss attacks). The goal is to have enough minerals for 4 Ghosts and 4 nukes, then I move into the west base. 4 Ghosts is a good number since you often want to nuke in pairs to blow up groups of buildings (the center of a nuke blast does 500 damage to a building).
West base: with 4 nukes ready, I use one to take out the Observer that hovers above the rally point (if you ever see me briefly zoom my camera in and out, it's a trick to help spot Observers--also useful in multiplayer). I then wait ~35 seconds, and use 3 more nukes to take all the Cannon guarding the ramp. You can see the Ghosts take just a few shots as they run into the center of the base--that's the replacement Observer passing overhead (which is why I delayed a little bit), but after that they're home free. I use the Laser Drill on a bunch of buildings at the beginning, but once that's occupied with the east base, it's just nukes. The safest way to deal with Cannons is to spot them, back up, and then nuke slightly in front of them. If you remain in vision range of them to sight for the Laser Drill or nuke right on top of them, it's easy to accidentally be detected.
East base: one Barracks can take care of the whole base if you keep an eye on it. The biggest threat is Scouts, which is why I take out the Starports quickly. Once they're down, you just have to watch for the occasional Archon. Once you get into the middle of the base, you don't have to worry about Cannons, since you can usually unpower them before reaching them.
All in all, I keep pretty decent uptime on the Laser Drill (if not for a slight error at the ver end, would have finished before the temple door reached 70,000 HP), and do use my gas pretty effectively in the form of nukes, but a faster player would be able to do all of it at once more quickly. I'm sure a good amount of time could be saved here just through faster play.
11. Whispers of Doom 7:18. SC2 Speedrun, Part 6/8: Whispers of Doom, A Sinister Turn‬‏ - YouTube
Mostly pretty straightforward. I skip the Zerg research because it's not needed for anything (also, 3 more would get me from 16 to 19 total during the run, which is worthless). You can basically run by a lot of encounters. The main issue for planning is the cooldown on Zeratul's spells--sometimes you have to save them for important moments. I don't even think losing a Stalker or two near the end would slow anything down much, so you might able to charge though even faster and just let them soak hits.
12. A Sinister Turn 5:11. SC2 Speedrun, Part 6/8: Whispers of Doom, A Sinister Turn - YouTube
This one's kind of interesting. The goal is to sneak DT's into the goal area as soon as Maar leaves it for the first time. Important fact: Maar's script triggers when you have mined a certain number of total minerals. So I make extra Probes at the beginning, and never mine gas. I get two DT's and an Immortal for free, and can make one more DT with my starting gas. That's not quite enough to charge through the final base with all 3 DT's alive (at least not easily) so I throw in a Zealot with the Immortal as further cannon fodder, which gets the DT's through easily. While waiting for Maar, there's ample time to clear a path and grab the 3rd research point.
13. Echoes of the Future 2:51. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
This basic strategy for doing this level has been known for a while. The only complication is getting the research points, but the two starting Colossi can clear the way for Probes to get to those easily. The only issue is doing it all smoothly. I did miss a Blink near the end because the Observer was out of position, but on retrying the level I couldn't get a better time. Something to do with the dialogue triggers, I think, meant I had to wait anyway. Maybe if I made sure to get the Pylons up more quickly the level would end sooner though.
14. The Moebius Factor 3:34. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
Everything is basically evident in the video. Better micro could probably save time once again.
15. Supernova 4:31. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
This took a lot of tries. There are a number of danger points where if I lose either a Banshee or the Medivac I have to restart.
--Passing south of the first Protoss base: there's often another Stalker that aggros here from the south. Also, the one I'm shooting from the high ground often paths around and shows up while I'm dealing with the Archons, but this time it never reappeared.
--Dealing with the Archons: I'm not sure why they sometimes aggro on the Medivac instead of the nearer SCV's, like you see here, but it helps get free damage in. I might have been to fly over even more aggressively, but finishing this portion with full HP on all the ships probably made the end a bit faster anyway.
--Flying between the two final bases: I uncloak here since I'm going to be detection range for a while anyway, and I need the energy for the end. Getting to that final clearing is a bit tricky--if a ship flies around the east side of that big obelisk, it often dies to the Cannon on that side. But if you go too far west of it, you aggro the Scout visible at the edge of the screen, which is fatal. Have to manage to keep the ships reasonably clumped right at that moment.
--Taking out the Cannons: the first one is easy, just get it down fast while repairing. For the second one, if the Banshees are any further south the come in range of the next Cannon as well. This is sort of sweet spot where I can get a little more repairing in. For the third, I move as far away as possible so the Phoenix has extra travel time. One more shot from that Phoenix and I have to restart. I cloak as the Cannon is going down, which aggros the Phoenix onto the Medivac, who can lead it away while the Banshees take out the Pylon and unpower the final Cannon (they're visible while doing this).
--Way back at the beginning of the level I had resources that I wasn't using for anything so I threw down an Armory and researched +1 for the Banshees. It finishes 22 seconds before the mission ends, so it probably saved around 2 seconds. This is the only time in the entire campaign (outside of fixed-time levels) that I got an upgrade.
16. Maw of the Void 2:36. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
Boy, things get a lot more fun now that we have Orbital Strike. Note that killing the objective with 2 Ghosts and 2 nukes is tricky--it has 1200 HP and 2 nukes only do 1000. The key is to get its shield down so it started taking Rip-field damage, and to keep the first Ghost plinking at it long enough that the shields don't regenerate while the second nuke is casting. There winds up being just enough ancillary damage to bring it down right after the second nuke lands. Really, once you get the Tech Lab and the silos building, the level is mostly self-working. The only tricky part is getting the first Ghost cloaked as soon as he lands, since it triggers two cutscenes. In this run he takes no damage from anything besides Rip-fields, so he probably did as much damage as is possible to the Vault before dying.
17. The Gates of Hell 5:34. SC2 Speedrun Part 8.mov - YouTube
Have to get to 100 supply ASAP (note that supply of units under construction doesn't help here). The cheapest supply is Vultures--2 supply for 75 minerals and no gas. As an added bonus, they build in only 25s and can be Reactored, so I only need one Factory. So I basically pump minerals into SCV's/Vultures, while getting 4 nukes ready and making 4 Ghosts. There's an instant bump of 10 supply at the 5 minute mark, 6 from the rescuing the NPC Vultures, and 4 from summoning Marine mercenaries. In my runs, this is always what got me over 100 supply. I may have been able to do it slightly earlier with a perfect build order, but probably not by much since minerals are limited (the Command Center Reactor research would save a lot of time here, but it's not best for the run overall). In this run my only unit loss is when I accidentally shot my own Vulture, but it doesn't wind up mattering since I jump from 94 to 100 supply instantly anyway.
At the end, there is a way to launch nukes before the Warfield cutscene so that they land the moment after the cutscene ends (has to be timed perfectly or it doesn't work). The problem is, if you destroy all 3 Nydus Worms that way, it breaks the objective and you can't win the mission. So you'd have to leave one Worm at partial HP and kill it some other way. A Spectre could immediately use Lash to finish it off, but Ghosts don't have anything like that. You might be able to drop some Marauders/Reapers in as well and come up with a solution that's a bit faster than nuking after the cutscene like I do here.
18. Shatter the Sky 2:53. SC2 Speedrun Part 8.mov - YouTube
This one's fun. We have 4 objectives to take out simultaneously with different groups of units. Ultimately they're all pretty easy. The center one is trivial to reach with your starting units. The west objective can be sniped with your starting Battlecruiser/Banshees by flying in from the right angle. The east one can be taken out by two Marines since there's a spot where they can land without aggroing anything. The only tricky one is south. There's no completely detection-free spot in range of the objective. In fact, when they nuke the objective here, they're in detection range of the Spore Crawler just under the ledge. Rather than using a whole extra nuke to take out that Spore though, I just drive all the nearby Mutalisks away before starting to nuke (putting the first Ghost on Hold Position when it lands works well for this). One Mutalisk does drift back, but not in time to do anything. Other issues:
The Leviathan spawns when two platforms have blown up. It spawns in the south and is a detector, so that can't be allowed to happen. This means that I have to blow all 4 objectives at roughly the same time. Also, if an explosion cutscene occurs while nukes are flying, the nukes will vanish. This is why I make Marine-Techlab-Marine out of the Barracks at the beginning--it delays the destruction of east platform slightly to make sure the cutscene doesn't occur before the level ends.
In general this one probably can't be done much faster with this route. The Barracks makes 2 Marines, a Tech Lab, and 2 Ghosts, which all takes 149 seconds. The second Ghost takes 2 seconds to land in his drop pod, and then it takes about 1 second to select him, cloak him, walk both Ghosts forward, and nuke. 20 seconds for the nuke to land means I can't see the level ending before 172 seconds (I get 173 in this run).
19. All In 30:05. SC2 Speedrun, Part 8/8: The Gates of Hell, Shatter the Sky, All In - YouTube
It's really anticlimactic for a speedrun to end on a fixed-time mission. At least Shatter the Sky was neat. Since All In on Normal difficulty is really easy I try to come up with something at least slightly entertaining. Here I buy no additional upgrades beyond what I already had, make no units besides Marines and Medics, and never use the Artifact. I don't wind up playing it that well--you can see me lose a bunch of units to Kerrigan when I'm not paying attention. But I was pretty worn out after recording all this, so I let it go.
Starcraft 2 Speedrun - YouTube
Contents |
[top]Description
This is a run of the full campaign on Normal difficulty. The total mission time is 2:35:21. Of that time, around 1:14 is on timed missions of fixed length (3 of the 19 missions end on a timer, but they're all quite long). I sped up the videos for these missions quite a bit so that the total amount of video for the run much shorter. The run was played at normal game speed (which is the default for Normal difficulty, and I didn't actually know you could change it until I was a little ways in). If I ever do a revised run, it probably be at Faster game speed. For now though, I'm going to take little break from this project and see what ideas for further optimization come from people watching the video.
Many of the strategies I used here initially came from the forums at speeddemosarchive.com. In particular, Fragmaster01's run was a starting point for me on many of the missions.
[top]Mission Order
You have to do at least 19 missions to complete the SC2 campaign. Once you've done 14 missions including The Moebius Factor, you can do the final series of 5 missions (Supernova, Maw of the Void, and the 3 Char missions). I choose Shatter The Sky for the second-last mission, since it's much faster than Belly of the Beast. The main intermediate goal of the campaign will be to be reach The Dig (to unlock the Protoss missions, which are short and give a lot of Protoss research), and to obtain Ghosts (which I choose over Spectres only because Ghost of a Chance is a shorter mission than Breakout).
Ghost of a Chance and The Dig can both be done as your ninth mission at the earliest. Since Ghosts are very useful for finishing The Dig quickly, we'll do Ghost of a Chance ninth and The Dig tenth. That puts the first 3 Protoss missions as 11-13 (obviously skipping In Utter Darkness), leaving Moebius Factor for the fourteenth. All that's left is to figure out mission 4-8. Ghost of a Chance unlocks 2 missions after to finish Welcome to the Jungle, so I have to do Welcome to the Jungle sixth (which is earliest it can be done), which in turn requires the Devil's Playground fifth. For the remaining missions (4, 7, and 8) one has to be Smash and Grab, which is required for The Dig.
The remaining two missions can either be the first two Ariel Hanson missions (Evacuation and Outbreak) or the first two Matt Horner missions (The Great Train Robbery and Cutthroat). Evacuation and Train Robbery are both very long mission based on timed elements that can't be shortened (unfortunately, we have to do one of them). But Cutthroat is much shorter than Outbreak, so I go with the Horner missions. Also Cutthroat gives Protoss research, and if you add up all the Protoss research points available in the missions listed so far, Cutthroat will give me exactly 25 before Maw of the Void, which we'll see below is important. So Raynor is going to have to leave Dr. Hanson alone this time around.
Final mission order:
1. Liberation Day, 2:12
2. The Outlaws, 2:53
3. Zero Hour, 20:08 (fixed time mission)
4. Smash and Grab, 5:32
5. The Devil's Playground, 4:10
6. Welcome to the Jungle, 3:57
7. The Great Train Robbery, 23:48 (fixed time mission)
8. Cutthroat, 5:43
9. Ghost of a Chance, 5:37
10. The Dig, 16:48
11. Whispers of Doom, 7:18
12. A Sinister Turn, 5:11
13. Echoes of the Future, 2:51
14. The Moebius Factor, 3:34
15. Supernova, 4:31
16. Maw of the Void, 2:36
17. The Gates of Hell, 5:34.
18. Shatter the Sky, 2:53.
19. All In, 30:05 (fixed time mission).
Total 2:35:21
[top]Upgrades and Research
As noted above, the mission can give 25 Protoss research as early as Maw of the Void. Since the Orbital Strike research is very helpful all the missions after that point, I make sure to pick all 25 of the Protoss research on all missions through Supernova. There's no mission where getting the Protoss research takes too much extra time. This also gives the +25% gas research pretty early, and Auto-Refinery. Auto-Refinery is chosen over CC Reactor because of the extremely fast times it enables on Maw of the Void and Shatter the Sky. CC Reactor would have shortened The Gates of Hell, but only by 60-90 seconds or so. The tier 1 weapon upgrade never winds up being used for much aside from a few seconds on Supernova, and tier 4 (Raven/Science Vessel) is never used at all.
Zerg research is never important. In the run I get the optional 3 Zerg research from killing the Brutalisk in the The Devil's Playground, because that let me unlock the Hercules for The Moebius Factor, which I thought would speed it up. I wound up going with a strategy that doesn't use it though. I went back and tried to redo Playground without bothering to kill the Brutalisk, but it didn't save any appreciable amount of time. I use Shrike Turret on a few levels but it's never important, and Zerg tiers 2-3 are never used for anything.
As far as cash upgrades, I have a lot of spare credits at the end of the run (380,000). I picked up pretty much every upgrade on the way that I could come up with a way to use to shorten any mission. So any suggestions for further upgrades that could help on any mission would be welcome. The ones I wind up getting are:
--Marine Stim and Combat Shield. I use Marines pretty often and making them more effective helps. Shield isn't strictly necessary for anything, but since we had money to spare, it's a convenience.
--Medic Heal. Same as above. I don't think I make a Medic at any point in the run, but your starting units often include a Medic or two and this is pretty nice upgrade.
--Concussive Shell. Again, not strictly necessary, but makes it easier to defend with minimal forces at The Dig.
--Ghost Vision and Cloak. Finally an upgrade that really matters. We're going to nuke spam our way through The Dig and need permanently cloaked Ghosts. The vision upgrade lets a Ghost see Photon Cannons from outside detection range. Cloaking also makes the Maw of the Void and Shatter the Sky routes smoother.
--SCV Repair and Multi-build. Multi-build speeds up Maw of the Void. Repair saves a tiny amount of time on Supernova.
--Orbital Command. The mineral speedup makes the Shatter the Sky strategies work, and makes bunch of other levels a bit more convenient. It also lets us grab the 4th research at Supernova.
--Medivac Fast Unload. Saves a small amount of time on Supernova.
--Goliath Range and Dual-fire. In the end I didn't use Goliaths on any of the levels I thought I would, so these were unnecessary (the dual-fire causes Goliaths to shoot at some irrelevant things on Cutthroat and Moebius Factor). So I guess I really have 510,000 credits to spare in this run.
[top]Individual Mission Notes
1. Liberation Day 2:12. SC2 Speedrun, Part 1/8: Liberation Day, The Outlaws, Zero Hour - YouTube
Nothing special here. I try to run Raynor straight ahead to trigger the cutscenes while using the Marines to fight.
2. The Outlaws 2:53. SC2 Speedrun, Part 1/8: Liberation Day, The Outlaws, Zero Hour - YouTube
There's no point mining minerals because there's not enough time to do anything with them. The SCV's help soak damage from the Hellions and Bunker so you don't lose Marines. Time can be improved with better micro.
3. Zero Hour 20:08. SC2 Speedrun, Part 1/8: Liberation Day, The Outlaws, Zero Hour - YouTube
Fixed time mission. Unlike some others, even killing all the Zerg doesn't end this one early. I kill all the Zerg anyway since I need something to do while waiting. Note the outhouse easter egg in the north with the Tauren Marine in it. Also, amusingly, if you wipe out the Zerg you can take out the Nydus Worms that spawn during the final attack script and prevent that final assault on your base from even happening.
4. Smash and Grab 5:32. SC2 Speedrun, Part 2/8: Smash and Grab, The Devil's Playground, Welcome to the Jungle - YouTube
The key to this one is two Stalkers that hang out near the goal area. They're scripted to destroy anything that enter the goal area prematurely. You have to fly the Barracks into the north part of the goal, causing the Stalkers to path all the way around the map in an attempt to reach it. As soon as you aggro the Stalkers with your ground army along the way, you can land the Barracks and proceed. This is why I clear a bit to the east with my ground army while flying the Barracks over. So the time-limiting steps on the mission are:
--Get the Barracks into the goal area to aggro the Stalkers as quickly as possible.
--Intercept the Stalkers with ground army.
--Land Barracks and start making units.
--Start final event just before 3rd Marauder pops (if you start it any earlier, the Stone Guardians being tanked by the Barracks will kill that Marauder when it comes out).
5. The Devil's Playground 4:10. SC2 Speedrun, Part 2/8: Smash and Grab, The Devil's Playground, Welcome to the Jungle - YouTube
The Reaper path around the map picks up basically all the easily accessible mineral pickups. There are some more in the northeast base, but that one's pretty well defended. The timing works out pretty well, where right as I finish getting all the mineral pickups, the bases have mined enough to reach 8000. This is part of why leaving the Brutalisk alive wouldn't save much time--I need to get his 4 mineral pickups anyway, which requires spending time to kite him a bit in the first place. And even if I execute the Reaper path faster, I would just get into that northeast base with minimal rewards at the end. All in all, a little time could be saved that way though.
6. Welcome to the Jungle 3:57. SC2 Speedrun, Part 2/8: Smash and Grab, The Devil's Playground, Welcome to the Jungle - YouTube
This one is quite an intricate puzzle to speedrun. I have a very small army (2 Marines and 3 Goliaths, +1 Goliath I make at the beginning), that I have to use for a bunch of encounters. I could make more units, but note that resources are very tight all the way through, and I also have to fly both my production buildings around to accomplish various things. Also, if I make a second Goliath, I'd have 0 gas and wouldn't be able to repair my Goliaths unless I made a Refinery.
In the first skirmish, defending against 3 total Stalkers and 4 Scouts while collecting the first 4 Terrazene, the Bunker tanks (note how great Salvage is here--the Bunker is just a free HP soak). While clearing up the right side, I can repair my Goliaths while setting up more buildings (Factory and Turrets) to tank in the final skirmish. Note that I don't have to actually win in the final battle, just survive long enough to sneak that SCV away before everything else nearby gets blown up. Taking down Void Rays helps stall for time. Also, 2 full-HP Goliaths have to be sacrificed to grab the nearby research.
7. The Great Train Robbery 23:48. SC2 Speedrun, Part 3/8: The Great Train Robbery, Cutthroat - YouTube
Not much to be said here. The 8th train comes out of the center gate at 23:40. The only thing I can do end the mission more quickly is to blow up that base and cram a whole bunch of units up against the door to blow up the train the instant it spawns.
8. Cutthroat 5:43. SC2 Speedrun, Part 3/8: The Great Train Robbery, Cutthroat - YouTube
Once you buy Mira's aid, her starting forces can immediately walk over and win the mission. The only goal of the first half of the mission is to get to 6000. I start making SCV's immediately until the Vultures arrive and I get supply capped (at that point it wouldn't be worth it to make more). The only unit I add to my starting forces of 5 Marines is a Diamondback. The starting Marines can take out some enemy Marines near the beginning, but they can't deal with the Firebat/Medic easily, and would take a long time to kill the CC anyway. One Diamondback can tank for the low-HP Marines while they finish off that base (some micro required here). On the Vulture side, a few mines deal with a scripted Marine attack without taking damage.
9. Ghost of a Chance 5:37. SC2 Speedrun Part 4.mov - YouTube
General note, I killed Spectres because at this point I didn't realize money would be so unnecessary later on, and they all take virtually no extra time (just the 1s or so Nova takes to Snipe them). There's that one in part 2 that has to be killed with a Raven, but even takes no extra time if you have good multitasking, since the Raven isn't too useful for anything at that point.
Part 1: Once you reach the part with the Tank, Nova can solo the rest easily. The Marines are pretty much just there to aggro things so Nova can run by without getting snared by a Marauder.
Part 2: The big open area where you Dominate a Siege Tank is tricky. There are too many units there for Nova to run by until the Tank takes out that Turret. I have to keep my Tanks alive as well, since they have to cover Nova while she steals the nuke. As soon as possible, Nova runs up on the left ledge to the nuke silo to sight for the Tanks. In this run, the nearly Spectre didn't nuke--that sometimes happens but I didn't quite figure out why. It saves a few seconds when it happens.
Part 3: At the end, the Thor takes out the Turret ASAP, and Nova runs in a little peninsula of detection-free space while the Thor tanks for the Banshees. I didn't wind up needing to take out the Raven.
10. The Dig 16:48. SC2 Speedrun Part 4.mov - YouTube
Ah, The Dig. One of the must fun and most annoying levels in the whole run. Fun because, when else are you going to make use of constant nuke production from 6 silos? Annoying because it's the only mission in the game with a "destroy all enemy buildings" win condition, and so it becomes a 17-minute long spamfest with nukes and the Laser Drill. Also it's surprisingly easy to lose either a Ghost in the west or the Barracks in the east unless you're constantly vigilant. For reference, completing The Dig the normal way (drilling through the door) takes almost 28 minutes.
Start: at the beginning I just accumulate resources. I'm never going to spend gas on anything except nukes/silos/Ghosts (exception for one Marauder so that I have two total--the Marauder and Tank on each ramp mean I can basically ignore Protoss attacks). The goal is to have enough minerals for 4 Ghosts and 4 nukes, then I move into the west base. 4 Ghosts is a good number since you often want to nuke in pairs to blow up groups of buildings (the center of a nuke blast does 500 damage to a building).
West base: with 4 nukes ready, I use one to take out the Observer that hovers above the rally point (if you ever see me briefly zoom my camera in and out, it's a trick to help spot Observers--also useful in multiplayer). I then wait ~35 seconds, and use 3 more nukes to take all the Cannon guarding the ramp. You can see the Ghosts take just a few shots as they run into the center of the base--that's the replacement Observer passing overhead (which is why I delayed a little bit), but after that they're home free. I use the Laser Drill on a bunch of buildings at the beginning, but once that's occupied with the east base, it's just nukes. The safest way to deal with Cannons is to spot them, back up, and then nuke slightly in front of them. If you remain in vision range of them to sight for the Laser Drill or nuke right on top of them, it's easy to accidentally be detected.
East base: one Barracks can take care of the whole base if you keep an eye on it. The biggest threat is Scouts, which is why I take out the Starports quickly. Once they're down, you just have to watch for the occasional Archon. Once you get into the middle of the base, you don't have to worry about Cannons, since you can usually unpower them before reaching them.
All in all, I keep pretty decent uptime on the Laser Drill (if not for a slight error at the ver end, would have finished before the temple door reached 70,000 HP), and do use my gas pretty effectively in the form of nukes, but a faster player would be able to do all of it at once more quickly. I'm sure a good amount of time could be saved here just through faster play.
11. Whispers of Doom 7:18. SC2 Speedrun, Part 6/8: Whispers of Doom, A Sinister Turn‬‏ - YouTube
Mostly pretty straightforward. I skip the Zerg research because it's not needed for anything (also, 3 more would get me from 16 to 19 total during the run, which is worthless). You can basically run by a lot of encounters. The main issue for planning is the cooldown on Zeratul's spells--sometimes you have to save them for important moments. I don't even think losing a Stalker or two near the end would slow anything down much, so you might able to charge though even faster and just let them soak hits.
12. A Sinister Turn 5:11. SC2 Speedrun, Part 6/8: Whispers of Doom, A Sinister Turn - YouTube
This one's kind of interesting. The goal is to sneak DT's into the goal area as soon as Maar leaves it for the first time. Important fact: Maar's script triggers when you have mined a certain number of total minerals. So I make extra Probes at the beginning, and never mine gas. I get two DT's and an Immortal for free, and can make one more DT with my starting gas. That's not quite enough to charge through the final base with all 3 DT's alive (at least not easily) so I throw in a Zealot with the Immortal as further cannon fodder, which gets the DT's through easily. While waiting for Maar, there's ample time to clear a path and grab the 3rd research point.
13. Echoes of the Future 2:51. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
This basic strategy for doing this level has been known for a while. The only complication is getting the research points, but the two starting Colossi can clear the way for Probes to get to those easily. The only issue is doing it all smoothly. I did miss a Blink near the end because the Observer was out of position, but on retrying the level I couldn't get a better time. Something to do with the dialogue triggers, I think, meant I had to wait anyway. Maybe if I made sure to get the Pylons up more quickly the level would end sooner though.
14. The Moebius Factor 3:34. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
Everything is basically evident in the video. Better micro could probably save time once again.
15. Supernova 4:31. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
This took a lot of tries. There are a number of danger points where if I lose either a Banshee or the Medivac I have to restart.
--Passing south of the first Protoss base: there's often another Stalker that aggros here from the south. Also, the one I'm shooting from the high ground often paths around and shows up while I'm dealing with the Archons, but this time it never reappeared.
--Dealing with the Archons: I'm not sure why they sometimes aggro on the Medivac instead of the nearer SCV's, like you see here, but it helps get free damage in. I might have been to fly over even more aggressively, but finishing this portion with full HP on all the ships probably made the end a bit faster anyway.
--Flying between the two final bases: I uncloak here since I'm going to be detection range for a while anyway, and I need the energy for the end. Getting to that final clearing is a bit tricky--if a ship flies around the east side of that big obelisk, it often dies to the Cannon on that side. But if you go too far west of it, you aggro the Scout visible at the edge of the screen, which is fatal. Have to manage to keep the ships reasonably clumped right at that moment.
--Taking out the Cannons: the first one is easy, just get it down fast while repairing. For the second one, if the Banshees are any further south the come in range of the next Cannon as well. This is sort of sweet spot where I can get a little more repairing in. For the third, I move as far away as possible so the Phoenix has extra travel time. One more shot from that Phoenix and I have to restart. I cloak as the Cannon is going down, which aggros the Phoenix onto the Medivac, who can lead it away while the Banshees take out the Pylon and unpower the final Cannon (they're visible while doing this).
--Way back at the beginning of the level I had resources that I wasn't using for anything so I threw down an Armory and researched +1 for the Banshees. It finishes 22 seconds before the mission ends, so it probably saved around 2 seconds. This is the only time in the entire campaign (outside of fixed-time levels) that I got an upgrade.
16. Maw of the Void 2:36. SC2 Speedrun Part 7.mov - YouTube
Boy, things get a lot more fun now that we have Orbital Strike. Note that killing the objective with 2 Ghosts and 2 nukes is tricky--it has 1200 HP and 2 nukes only do 1000. The key is to get its shield down so it started taking Rip-field damage, and to keep the first Ghost plinking at it long enough that the shields don't regenerate while the second nuke is casting. There winds up being just enough ancillary damage to bring it down right after the second nuke lands. Really, once you get the Tech Lab and the silos building, the level is mostly self-working. The only tricky part is getting the first Ghost cloaked as soon as he lands, since it triggers two cutscenes. In this run he takes no damage from anything besides Rip-fields, so he probably did as much damage as is possible to the Vault before dying.
17. The Gates of Hell 5:34. SC2 Speedrun Part 8.mov - YouTube
Have to get to 100 supply ASAP (note that supply of units under construction doesn't help here). The cheapest supply is Vultures--2 supply for 75 minerals and no gas. As an added bonus, they build in only 25s and can be Reactored, so I only need one Factory. So I basically pump minerals into SCV's/Vultures, while getting 4 nukes ready and making 4 Ghosts. There's an instant bump of 10 supply at the 5 minute mark, 6 from the rescuing the NPC Vultures, and 4 from summoning Marine mercenaries. In my runs, this is always what got me over 100 supply. I may have been able to do it slightly earlier with a perfect build order, but probably not by much since minerals are limited (the Command Center Reactor research would save a lot of time here, but it's not best for the run overall). In this run my only unit loss is when I accidentally shot my own Vulture, but it doesn't wind up mattering since I jump from 94 to 100 supply instantly anyway.
At the end, there is a way to launch nukes before the Warfield cutscene so that they land the moment after the cutscene ends (has to be timed perfectly or it doesn't work). The problem is, if you destroy all 3 Nydus Worms that way, it breaks the objective and you can't win the mission. So you'd have to leave one Worm at partial HP and kill it some other way. A Spectre could immediately use Lash to finish it off, but Ghosts don't have anything like that. You might be able to drop some Marauders/Reapers in as well and come up with a solution that's a bit faster than nuking after the cutscene like I do here.
18. Shatter the Sky 2:53. SC2 Speedrun Part 8.mov - YouTube
This one's fun. We have 4 objectives to take out simultaneously with different groups of units. Ultimately they're all pretty easy. The center one is trivial to reach with your starting units. The west objective can be sniped with your starting Battlecruiser/Banshees by flying in from the right angle. The east one can be taken out by two Marines since there's a spot where they can land without aggroing anything. The only tricky one is south. There's no completely detection-free spot in range of the objective. In fact, when they nuke the objective here, they're in detection range of the Spore Crawler just under the ledge. Rather than using a whole extra nuke to take out that Spore though, I just drive all the nearby Mutalisks away before starting to nuke (putting the first Ghost on Hold Position when it lands works well for this). One Mutalisk does drift back, but not in time to do anything. Other issues:
The Leviathan spawns when two platforms have blown up. It spawns in the south and is a detector, so that can't be allowed to happen. This means that I have to blow all 4 objectives at roughly the same time. Also, if an explosion cutscene occurs while nukes are flying, the nukes will vanish. This is why I make Marine-Techlab-Marine out of the Barracks at the beginning--it delays the destruction of east platform slightly to make sure the cutscene doesn't occur before the level ends.
In general this one probably can't be done much faster with this route. The Barracks makes 2 Marines, a Tech Lab, and 2 Ghosts, which all takes 149 seconds. The second Ghost takes 2 seconds to land in his drop pod, and then it takes about 1 second to select him, cloak him, walk both Ghosts forward, and nuke. 20 seconds for the nuke to land means I can't see the level ending before 172 seconds (I get 173 in this run).
19. All In 30:05. SC2 Speedrun, Part 8/8: The Gates of Hell, Shatter the Sky, All In - YouTube
It's really anticlimactic for a speedrun to end on a fixed-time mission. At least Shatter the Sky was neat. Since All In on Normal difficulty is really easy I try to come up with something at least slightly entertaining. Here I buy no additional upgrades beyond what I already had, make no units besides Marines and Medics, and never use the Artifact. I don't wind up playing it that well--you can see me lose a bunch of units to Kerrigan when I'm not paying attention. But I was pretty worn out after recording all this, so I let it go.
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