StarCraft 2 Campaign Walkthrough

The Dig

Recover the Xel'Naga artifact

Achievements

Objectives

Main Objective  |  Recover the laser drill

Drag your units southward and be ready to engage a few protoss stalkers. As you near a corner ahead, you'll get a freebie drop with a couple of siege tanks. Wait for the siege tanks to clear the path, then put them into drive mode and take all units westward. You'll get a chance to test out siege mode again before heading up a hill to a friendly base, where the real action begins.

Main Objective  |  Destroy the Xel'Naga temple door

Main Objective  |  The laser drill must survive

This is essentially a defense mission. While the laser drill slowly whittles away at the temple door, you'll be attacked from the north and southeast. You merely need to keep the laser drill alive through the mission to complete the main objective. Immediately put the SCVs to work (and train more), build bunkers near either entrance to your base and man the bunkers with marines. More important in your defense, however, will be your placement of siege tanks. Place your first tanks near the entrances to your base and set them in siege mode so that their attack ranges go well beyond the boundaries of the base.

In fact, most of your early efforts should be put to creating more siege tanks, though you shouldn't forsake ground troops (read: marauders and medics). The siege tanks are a bit helpless one an enemy unit gets close up, but if you have enough siege tanks guarding an entrance, virtually no enemies will make it through the barrage alive. Naturally, you won't have that level of siege tank defense for a while, so make sure your marauders are up to snuff and keep a constant eye on your surroundings. You can spot enemies well before they get near your base, allowing you to move your troops to plan for them accordingly.

Pretty early on, you'll gain the ability to control the laser drill and use it to wipe out enemies from anywhere on the screen. First, a few of notes on the laser drill: 1) While you're attacking enemies with the drill, you're not making progress on the temple door; 2) The laser drill kills any enemy in a single shot; 3) The laser drill moves very slowly. Take these points into consideration and it should be clear that the laser drill is most helpful against the bigger, badder protoss enemies in the stage—don't waste its power on the lesser folk. You'll especially want to use the laser drill against protoss colossi and templars. Set the laser drill to a hotkey and make frequent camera sweeps of the landscape and use the laser drill to queue up attacks on the colossi and templars that pop up.

Occasionally protoss air raids will descend upon your base. The units we've told you to focus on, marauders and siege tanks, are incapable of attacking air targets so you'll need to rely on the laser drill and/or manned bunkers and turrets. Be sure to clear out any warp prisms that set up outside your base as they'll warp in ground troops.

Bonus Objective  |  Find protoss relics (3)

The laser drill will also help you collect three protoss relics for more research. Directly southeast and northwest of your base are three protoss shrines that the laser drill can destroy. The only problem is that the laser drill doesn't have a clear view of the shrines. When the landscape seems otherwise clear, send a group of marauders and medics toward the shrines. There are weak pylon and photon cannon defenses, but not much else to worry about. Get near the shrines so that the laser drill can take 'em out and collect the three protoss relics that the destroyed shrines leave behind.

And that's really all there is to the mission. The main points are setting up plenty of siege tanks to bat away any attackers and using the laser drill to effectively eliminate the heavier protoss enemies before they even start marching toward your base. Make frequent camera passes over the landscape to see what enemies are gathering and take 'em out early.