Starcraft 2 Domination Brutal & Achievements Guide

Starcraft 2 Campaign Guide --> Heart of the Swarm Campaign Guide --> Domination (you are here)

Domination is the first Char mission available in Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. The difficulty of this mission depends greatly upon whether or not you decided to go to Char first or not. If you went to Char first, this mission, and particularly the Shutout achievement, are very difficult.

In fact, I believe that if you go to Char first, the Shutout achievement is the most difficult achievement to unlock in Heart of the Swarm. On the other hand, if you visited at least 1 other planet before Char, the extra Kerrigan levels make this achievement much easier to unlock.

With that said, here are the levels and achievements available in this mission.

Domination - Kerrigan Levels

For completing Domination, you will receive 5 Kerrigan levels. There are also 2 bonus levels up for grabs, which are unlocked by destroying the two Infested Command Centers, marked on the mini-map picture below (in blue):

Starcraft 2 Domination Achievements List

There are 4 achievements that you can unlock during the Domination mission in Heart of the Swarm:

Domination: Unlocked by completing all mission objectives in the Domination mission (any difficulty).

Poached Eggs: Unlocked by hatching all 6 Baneling nests (any difficulty). Here are the locations (note that the dot is slightly yellow rather than white):

No Egg For You: Unlocked by preventing Zagara from capping an egg in the "Domination" mission (Normal difficulty or higher). This can be accomplished easily by camping with Kerrigan by the exit to Zagara's base. Each time she spawns, just sit there with Kerrigan and a few Queens and kill her each time she tries to leave her base. You then have a few minutes to use Kerrigan to gather eggs and explore the map.

Shutout: Unlocked by destroying the enemy Zerg base in under 14 minutes without collecting 100 eggs (Hard mode or higher). This is very difficult and there is a video guide below demonstrating how to unlock it.

Shutout Achievement Guide

As mentioned above, unlocking Shutout is hard. Below, you will find a step-by-step strategy and a video guide that should help you unlock this achievement. Your Kerrigan level will determine the difficulty of this mission. If you are having a lot of trouble with it, consider starting a new campaign and going to Char as late as possible. With a high level Kerrigan, it is much easier to complete the mission. You can even go to Zerus before you head to Char in order to pick up Mend and Twin Drones.

Here are the steps to completing this achievement:

• As soon as the mission starts, begin making Drones and send Kerrigan to clear out the expansion to the east. Then, finish off Zagara for the first time.

• Drop a Hatchery at the expansion. Continue to make Drones.

• Just to the left of where Zagara was you will find 2 mineral pellets and 1 vespene gas pellet. This makes macroing up much faster, so you want to grab these early.

• Continue to make Drones.

• Build 2 Evolution Chambers and start getting Melee Carapace and Missile Attacks.

• Once you are saturated at both bases with Drones (including gas), start making Queens. If you have access to Roaches or Hydralisks, make those once you have 10 Queens. If you do not, just keep making Queens.

• Build 2 more Hatcheries. This will speed up Queen production.

• While you are building units at home, use Kerrigan to start clearing the map. Avoid the eastern side of the map, as the Infested areas are strong versus Kerrigan. Instead, head up the western side.

• There are a few resource pellets guarded by a few Spine Crawlers in the northwest corner. You should grab these.

• Kill Zagara at around the 5:00 mark. From here, clear up the center of the map so the path to Zagara's base is clear. Take out the Infested Command Centers as well for extra Kerrigan levels.

• If you have Roaches or Hydralisks, start making them at around the 7:00 mark. If not, just keep making Queens. Don't worry about adding Zerglings or Banelings.

• If you have access to Lair, get one so you can upgrade Missile Attacks and Carapace to level 2.

• Once Zagara spawns again, avoid her and let her get by Kerrigan and your units. Zagara will not teleport back to defend her base, so it is best to just let her grab eggs while you destroy her base in the final attack.

• At around the 11:00 mark, you need to be ready to go in with Kerrigan and a large number of Queens (at least 25). Also, pull any Zerglings you have in your base as well as Banelings that you have rescued. Don't send them in just yet.

• Use Kerrigan's Kinetic Blast to kill one of the Spine Crawlers near the ramp, then run down the ramp and drag whatever enemy units will follow you down the ramp into your waiting Queens. Do this 2-3x to significantly reduce the number of Spine Crawlers you have to fight as well as weaken the enemy's forces.

• Once you do this, you can move into the base. I recommend moving off to the right, so you do not have to fight all the enemy's automated defenses at once. If you move to the right as soon as you go up the ramp, there are only a few Spine Crawlers to contend with which you can kill with Kerrigan. Once you kill the enemy units you can then focus on the Hatcheries. You want to kill these as soon as you can because the computer will constantly train reinforcements.

• You should continue to make Queens and Zerglings and rally them to the enemy's base. You have from 11:00 to 13:59 to destroy Zagara's base. You can train a lot of extra units in 3 minutes' time.

• If you have Roaches, you should try to hit around 170 supplies before going in - 50 Drones, 50 Roaches, and 10 Queens.

• You can pull your Drones on offense as well. They will soak up damage and help your offensive units survive longer.

Shutout Video Guide

This Shutout video guide demonstrates how to complete this mission with a weak Kerrigan and no Roaches (or other tech units). It is a challenging achievement when done this way, but it can be done.

Domination Brutal Mode Guide

Beating Domination mode on Brutal mode is a walk in the park compared to the Shutout achievement. All you have to do is kill Zagara each time she spawns. This can be done with Kerrigan and a handful of Queens. Make sure you use Kinetic Blast on Zagara to burst her down. If you kill Zagara each time she spawns, she never gets any eggs, which means you get to take as long as you want to complete the mission.

With all your free time, build Drones until both your main base and expansion are saturated. Get upgrades and throw down a few extra Hatcheries. Train Queens until you have about 20 of them. This should not take long if you have a big economy. Once your production is set, collect all 100 eggs in order to trigger the Zergling and Baneling reinforcements.

Send in your Zerglings and Banelings with your Queens and Kerrigan and you should be able to take out the enemy's base with no problem. Use Kerrigan's Kinetic Blast ability to take down Spine Crawlers in 1 shot.

Domination Brutal Mode Video Guide

This video guide covers this mission on Brutal mode. As you can see, when you take your time, it is a very simple mission to beat.