Starcraft 2 Infested Brutal & Achievements Guide

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

Infested is the first of the Skygeirr missions in the Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm campaign. This particular mission tasks players with destroying the lab entrance using the aid of Infestors and Infested Terrans. There are a number of Garrisons around the map (marked with beacons) that you can bring Infestors to in order to form a Virophage. These Virophages will then spawn a steady stream of Infested Terrans that will attack the enemy base.

The mission alternates between periods of gas and no-gas. When the gas is active,  Infested Terrans will spawn and the computer will attack your Virophages even your base. When the gas runs out, Infested Terrans will spawn and the computer will be on the defensive. If you are not playing for the timed achievement, you can easily beat this mission by defending when the gas is up, then going on the offense when the gas is down.

Infested - Kerrigan Levels

Completing the Infested mission itself does not give Kerrigan any levels. However, there are three bonus levels available to players. These are earned by spreading creep within close range to the 3 Terran Science Facilities. Here are their locations marked below (yellow circles with the white crosshairs):

Starcraft 2 Infested Achievement List

There are 4 achievements available for players to unlock during the Infested mission:

Just Getting Inside: Unlocked by completing all mission objectives in the Infested mission (any difficulty).

Master of Puppets: Unlocked by killing 60 enemy units with Parasitic Dominated Terran units during the "Infested" mission (any difficulty). In order to unlock this achievement, mass-produce Infestors and infest any Terran unit you see. If you have 10+ Infestors, you can get a large Terran army going very quickly.

Spreading the Disease: Unlocked by infesting all Garrisons without losing a Virophage in the "Infested" mission (Normal difficulty or higher). The key to this is to use a handful of units to protect your 3 starting Virophages (at all times) and then to clear almost the entire map before you actually work on grabbing any additional Virophages. Then, wait till the gas stops, and then grab all the remaining Virophages at once and finish off the mission before the gas starts again.

Once, Twice, Three Times Malady: Unlocked by beating the Infested mission before the Dominion gas the platform for a third time (Hard difficulty or higher). This is a fairly tight timer. A guide below will help explain how to unlock this achievement.

Master of Puppets and Spreading the Disease Video Guide

Once, Twice, Three Times Malady Achievement Guide

The timer on this achievement is fairly tight, and there are a lot of units that you will have to clear before time is up. You only have about 16:00 total (on the game clock) to clear this achievement, so you need to be fast.

Strategy

The strategy for this achievement is actually not too complicated. First, you should ignore all the Virophages in this mission. You only lose if you lose your base. It is too hard to try to defend your base, stay on offense, and at the same time try to defend all the Virophages. Instead, just focus on clearing towards the Terran player's base.

On offense, all you need is Kerrigan plus as many Infestors as you can afford. Infestors cost a lot of gas, so be sure to

The Infestors have 3 jobs:

• Using Parasitic Domination on Thors, Siege Tanks, Diamondbacks, Banshees, Science Vessels, and Battlecruisers, and to use Fungal Growth on any clustered groups of Infantry. You do not have to grab every smaller unit, but you want to grab every Thor and Battlecruiser you see. Even if they get killed off by the Terran player, it is a free kill on a powerful enemy unit.

• Using Fungal Growth on any clumps of Infantry. Fungal Growth is much stronger in the campaign than it is in multiplayer, so take advantage of this.

• Using Consume on other Infestors to keep their energy up. Kerrigan can Mend all the Infestors back to full HP right after consume is used.

As a result, the strategy for this mission is actually not too difficult. Start off maxing out your gas production and building Drones to support a healthy economy. Use most of your gas on additional Infestors. You can go on the offensive with Kerrigan and your starting Infestors right away. By the time you have 10+ Infestors, you can quickly use Parasitic Domination on almost any Terran unit you run across, allowing you to quickly push across the map. Just make sure you stop to consume and heal with Mend before each attack. 

Spend your extra minerals and send some of the smaller dominated units back to your base for defense. Build Zerglings as well for additional no-gas defense.

For the final push, make sure you grab the Battlecruisers right away. It is extremely helpful if you can take a few Thors and Battlecruisers for the final push. Do not worry too much about mind-controlling the Siege Tanks at the final base.

Once, Twice, Three Times Malady Video Walkthrough

Starcraft 2 Infested Brutal Mode Guide

If you take your time, beating this mission on Brutal mode is easier than unlocking the Once, Twice, Three Times Malady achievement. Since there is no time limit, you are free to slowly clear the map as well as expand to the northeastern expansion. Below, you will find a step-by-step guide as well as a video guide for beating this mission on brutal mode:

Step by Step Guide

• When the mission starts, follow the prompts and clear out the initial Terran base. You should not lose any Infestors during this part, and hopefully you at least mind-controlled the two Diamondbacks as well as the Banshee.

• As soon as you get to your base, start macroing up - add Drones and start getting ground upgrades. I also recommend getting out a Hydralisk Den as well as researching the upgrade for Stalkers or Lurkers.

• Send your starting Infested Terran units to defend the western-most Virophage. It is not that this Virophage is important, but rather this is where the Terran player unloads Medivacs, and it is easier to kill these units the second they drop out of the Medivac, rather than letting the computer get a foothold.

• As you work on macroing up, you will want to defend your starting Virophages. Build 3 Spore Crawlers at each one, and send 3 Impalers or Lurkers there burrowed. The computer does not start using detection until a bit later in the mission, so this makes an excellent defense.

• While you are saving up resources, use Kerrigan and an Infestor to clear up to the northern expansion. Grab both Garrisons here with an Infestor. Do not worry about defending them, when the gas stops, these will help you clear the northern base.

• Clear out most of the Northern base before the first gas-free period ends. After it ends, leave Kerrigan up here to clear the base. While she is doing that, focus on the defending your home base and Virophages with your units.

• Expand to the northern base while the gas is settling. Macro up here right away.

• Once both expansions are fully saturated, max out on units. Keep a large number of units on defense and use Kerrigan and a few Infestors on offense. They can clear out all the spots on the map except for the main base.

• During the second gas-free period, clear out to the top center Virophage as well as down to the bridge into your main (right next to the central Science Facility). The computer will attack here shortly so you will want to plant Kerrigan here during the next gas-free period.

• The units you are macroing up will protect the northern expansion. Massing Abominations with a sprinkling of Hydralisks and Zerglings works well. Just make sure you get upgrades.

• Replant any Virophages that get destroyed.

• Max out, and go in to destroy the Terran base in front of the lab entrance. Do not try to push up to the lab entrance until you have destroyed all the production facilities on the low ground. You do not need to clear the southwestern quadrant of the map. You will probably only destroy about 1/3 of the Terran base before your units get wiped. This is okay, just re-macro up to 200/200 over the next few minutes then go in to finish the job.

• This mission is much easier if you can use a few Infestors to use Parasitic Domination on the Battlecruisers and Thors guarding the main Terran base.

Infested Brutal Mode Video Walkthrough