In this Smash and Grab Brutal Guide, I will be giving you
some specific strategies to easily beat this mission in Brutal Mode. At first, this mission can appear tough,
but there are a few things you can do to easily win.
Also, as you are going through the Smash and Grab brutal guide below, know that there are
several parts where I will recommend that you save the game.
Saving will help you with the tricky spots in case you mess up - you can always go back in and re-attempt the
mission by loading your saved game.
Quick note: Before attempting this mission I purchased the Stimpacks research in the armory. However, it did not
play a major factor in this mission.
Smash and Grab Brutal Walkthrough
With that said, below you will find the step-by-step guide to beating the Smash and Grab brutal mission:
Macro Phase
During this phase you will not be aggressive at all. You will simply wall up in your base, make SCVs, and build
a ton of units. You have plenty of time to make units so you want to be sure to build up a very large Marine,
Marauder, and Medic army before going in.
Start off by setting all of your SCVs to harvesting minerals and start building more SCVs.
As soon as you train a few SCVs, start training another Medic at your Barracks and construct your first
additional Supply Depot.
With 2 Medics, you should be easily able to take out the first Protoss wave without losing a unit.
At this point, keep training Marauders and Medics (no Marines just yet) at your first Barracks, and keep
building SCVs (all the way up to 16 on minerals and 3 on gas).
Build your second Barracks and attach a Reactor when it finishes.
Build 2 Bunkers at the entrance to your base as well as an Engineering bay.
Once you have about 6 Medics, make exclusively Marauders from your first Barracks and start pumping Marines
from your second Barracks.
Load 8 Marines into the two Bunkers at your entrance and keep 1 SCV and 1 Medic on standby to heal and
repair. This is just about all the defense you will need.
If you have not already, your Weapons and Armor at your Engineering Bay.
Build a third Barracks and attach a Tech Lab. Add more Marauders and a few more Medics.
Once you have a sizeable army (make about 24 Marines, a dozen Marauders, and 6 Medics at least), head out.
Make sure to leave the Marines in the Bunkers as well as keeping an SCV around to repair.
At this point, it is time to head in.
Attacking Phase
When you are attacking, there are 3 major parts to the battle: the bridge, the main base, and the artifact
area.
The Bridge
When you cross the long bridge, note that there is a High Templar. This unit will Psionic Storm your
Marines and Marauders and cause significant amounts of damage to your troops.
Save at this juncture in case you mess up.
In order to avoid this, pull your Marines and Medics out and leave them behind. Only send your Marauders on
the Bridge.
Have the Marauders pick off the Pylons from a distance (this will de-power the Photon Cannons). You should
be able to do this without taking fire from the Photon Cannons.
As soon as you push forward, the Sentry will block your passage and the High Templar will Psionic Storm
your troops. As soon as Psionic Storm goes down, run away; pull all Marauders back. Send them to get healed up
at the Medics, and repeat this process 2x until the High Templar is out of energy.
Once the High Templar is out of energy, you can bring all of your units across the bridge and clean
up.
At this juncture, be sure to queue up a bunch of units at all three of your Barracks, you should have
plenty of unspent resources if you have not continuously produced units.
The Main Base
When you go to attack the main base (just past the bridge), be careful not to fight the Photon Cannons and
the Protoss units at the same time.
To avoid this, move your units up the ramp as if to attack, attack for a few seconds, and then pull them
back down the ramp out of range of the Photon Cannons. Many Protoss units will follow.
Do this several times until you have defeated most of the Protoss army.
At that point, go in and finish off the base; kill all buildings and units so they cannot rebuild (they
will continue to train units and rebuild structures if you do not do this).
The Artifact
When you go to rescue the artifact, 3 Ancient Colossus will spawn which have a lot of hp (1,000) and do a
lot of damage. They are also quite strong versus Infantry.
You do not have to rush to the artifact and you should have plenty of time. It takes the Zerg forces awhile
to kill off the Protoss.
Before attacking the Colossi, you should have at least 24 units, with 12 of them being Marauders. Bring in
all the units from your base at this point and group up in the defeated Protoss base.
Send in all your units to the artifact. When the Colossi spawn, make all of your units attack the same
Colossi in order to get them down quickly.
Save before attempting this in case you do not win. If you lose, load the game back at the save point and
build a few more Marauders and try again.
Smash and Grab Brutal Video Walkthrough
Here is a video that you can use to follow along in order to beat this mission on Brutal mode. Watching the
video will make this whole process very easy:
Smash and Grab Brutal Guide Conclusion
By taking the time to build a large army of Marauders, Marines, and Medics, you can easily win this match-up. Be
sure to save regularly and load at your save points as needed. Do not underestimate the Colossi at the end and
Smash and Grab brutal mode is quite easy.
