Starcraft 2 Planetfall Brutal Mode & Achievements Guide

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

Planetfall is the first of the missions in the "Final" category in the Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm campaign. This mission tasks players with defending 5 Bile Launchers which fall one at a time from the sky to different locations on the map. If you lose 3 launchers, you fail the mission. From here, you have to destroy the main Terran base.

As this is one of the final missions, there are a lot of Terran forces in this battle, so you will want to build up quite a large army in order to aptly defend all the Bile Launchers on the map.

Planetfall - Kerrigan Levels

There are no Kerrigan levels available during any of the 3 Final missions. Kerrigan hits max level from the missions and bonus levels of the previous missions.

Starcraft 2 Planetfall Achievement List

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

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

Fully Operational: Unlocked by not losing a Bile Launcher during the "Planetfall" mission (any difficulty). This can be done with ease on casual mode, where a handful of units can defend each Bile Launcher.

Death Start: Unlocked by destroying the 3 Augustgrad Gates before the 5th Bile Launcher lands in the "Planetfall" mission (Normal difficulty or higher). This will automatically unlock if you complete the "Crash the Party" achievement.

Crash the Party: Unlocked by destroying all Terran structures before the 5th Bile Launcher lands in the "Planetfall" mission (Hard difficulty or higher). Guide below.

Crash the Party Achievement Guide

For the Crash the Party achievement, understand that you do not need to save all the Bile Launchers. Even if you lose two launchers, if you destroy all the Terran buildings before the 5th Bile Launcher lands, you will unlock the achievement. This however does refer to the 5th total Bile Launcher, not the fifth one to complete the mission.

By not worrying too much about defending the Bile Launchers, you can be more aggressive with Kerrigan and worry less about defending the launchers. You do not want to lose them on purpose, but you really cannot afford to pull Kerrigan off of offense.

I like to use Kerrigan with the Mend, Ability Efficiency, and Leviathan. Ability Efficiency lets you Mend more often and helps you get the Leviathan out sooner. Kerrigan plus the Leviathan can clear any point on the Terran base. After that, I recommend adding a few Broodlords (if you have the tech). It is hard for the computer to kill Broodlords when they are backed up by Kerrigan's Mend ability. The Leviathan also soaks up a lot of the anti-air attacks.

You will need to expand and ultimately get out Zerglings when you have a lot of resources banked up. Dump your extra minerals in Zerglings and defensive structures. All of your gas should be used for Broodlords for offense. If you do not have Broodlord technology, mass Abominations works surprisingly well.

Crash the Party Video Walkthrough

Planetfall Brutal Mode Guide

If you are trying to beat Planetfall on Brutal mode, you will want to split your army and resources into two parts. The first part is the offensive force that you use to clear out the Terran forces and structures on the way to the landing area. This can be primarily handled by Kerrigan and the Leviathan if you use Mend and Ability Efficiency. You can add a handful of Broodlords or Abominations on offense, but the rest of your resources should be going towards macroing and defending the Bile Launchers.

A good defense for each Bile Launcher is 4 Queens, 12 Crawlers (8 Spine and 4 Spore), 3 Lurkers or Impalers, and a few Hydralisks. This is about 25 supplies invested in defense. Across the first 4 Bile Launchers and your main base, this is about 125 supplies invested in defense. With the Twin Drones ability for Kerrigan and since Kerrigan and the Leviathan are the bulk of your offense, this leaves plenty of supply cap to clear to and defend all 5 Bile Launchers (along with your main base).

Below, you will find a step-by-step guide and a video walkthrough for beating Planetfall on Brutal mode.

Step by Step Guide

• Build an extra Extractor and start Droning up in the main base.

• Get a Queen out as soon as you can so you can drop Creep Tumors and start spreading the Creep.

• Use Kerrigan to clear to the west, destroying the Bunker and then defending the first Bile Launcher landing area. Spread the creep from the main to this area as well.

• Start getting ground upgrades.

• Start building an extra Hatchery at the main. This will help with production.

• Build a Hydralisk Den so you can start getting out Lurkers or Impalers (depending on what you have).

• These first steps should all happen by 2:00 on the game clock.

• Build Drones for Crawlers, Lurkers (or Impalers), and Queens to defend the newly dropped Bile Launcher. As recommended in the previous section, you will want 8 Spine Crawlers, 4 Spore Crawlers, 3 Lurkers (or Impalers) and 4 Queens at each Bile Launcher. Use the units that spawn around each Bile Launcher to roll with Kerrigan on offense.

• Using Twin Drones makes getting the Drones for all these crawlers much cheaper and faster.

• As the first Bile Launcher's defenses are getting shored up, you will need to move Kerrigan over to defend the second landing area. Get Drones and Queens over there to start its defense, but leave Kerrigan there until there is about 1:30 on the timer for the next landing.

• Take Kerrigan and the Leviathan to clear out around where the third Bile Launcher will land while you shore up the defenses around the second Bile Launcher. Spread the creep up towards this Bile Launcher as well.

• Defend the third Bile Launcher with Kerrigan and the Leviathan. Get Drones, Queens, and Impalers/Lurkers to the area to defend before moving on.

• You have almost 4 full minutes before the next Bile Launcher lands, however the amount of Terran forces you need to fight through will increase. You will likely want to add a few Abominations, Queens, or Broodlords to your offensive forces here.

• With about 2:00 remaining until the fourth Bile Launcher falls, you will get an alert from Mengsk saying to eliminate the Queen of Blades. He will hit Kerrigan with a major attack, so you want to be tucked within the defenses of your third Bile Launcher before this happens.

• In order to clear out the area where the fourth Bile Launcher lands, you will want to grab your starting Mutalisks, Roaches, and build a few Abominations for back-up. Kerrigan, the Leviathan, and a few extra units can clear out this platform.

• You may have to kite the Thor attack wave back to your defenses that you have at the third Bile Launcher.

• Shore up the defenses at the fourth Bile Launcher. Expand to this location.

• From here, you can actually just let the fifth Bile Launcher land and die. This will give you more time to prep a larger army and get an economy at your new expansion. It is hard to make it to the fifth Bile Launcher's location if you are using the fool-proof defense for this strategy.

• Use Kerrigan and the Leviathan to destroy the Terran base in the middle of the map. Use the Leviathan to help reinforce against the Battlecruiser attack.

• Once the fifth Bile Launcher lands for the second time, you should be there right when it lands with Kerrigan. Train whatever units you want to help them defend it landing. Kerrigan and the Leviathan can do most of the work, but it is helpful to have a few Abominations or Hydralisks (since you should have extra gas) as well as some Queens for healing and anti-air.

• Expand to the central Terran base that you just cleared. You should have a lot of leftover Drones at your main base.

• Use the leftover Drones to build defensive structures at the fifth Bile Launcher.

• Sit back, get upgrades and resources, and build about 10 Abominations (or Broodlords) to use with Kerrigan and the Leviathan on offense. Rebuild your defenses as you get attacked, but otherwise take your time to clear the final two Terran bases. The final Terran bases actually do not have that much defense, so this is all the offense you need.

Planetfall Brutal Mode Video Guide