The Reckoning is the final mission in the Starcraft 2 Wings
of Liberty campaign. Players must destroy Mengsk's palace gate (which is heavily fortified) while
simultaneously protecting Jim Raynor's Hyperion. On casual and normal modes, the Hyperion does not actually
need to be protected, but on Hard and Brutal, you will definitely need to send over reinforcements each time
an attack is announced by Mengsk.
There are a lot of resources available in this mission, so expand around the map, take your time, and push out
once you are maxed out. In the mean time, you can use Kerrigan to start clearing the less-fortified parts of the
map.
The Reckoning - 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 The Reckoning Achievement List
There are 4 achievements available for players to unlock during The Reckoning mission:
The Reckoning: Unlocked by completing "The Reckoning" mission in the Heart of the Swarm
campaign (any difficulty).
Swarm Guardian: Unlocked by preventing the Hyperion from taking any damage in "The Reckoning"
mission. This can be done easily on casual mode, as the Hyperion will never take any damage here anyway.
Zerg Rush: Unlocked by beating "The Reckoning" mission in less than 25 minutes (Normal
difficulty or higher). This will happen automatically as you go for the "Speed Bump" achievement.
Speed Bump: Unlocked by defeating The Odin during "The Reckoning" before it is sent on the
offense against Raynor's forces (Hard difficulty or higher). This happens around the 22:00 mark or so on the game
clock.
Speed Bump Achievement Guide
This achievement may seem tough at first, because there are a lot of units and buildings to clear on the way to
Kerrigan, not to mention the fact that you are under constant assault.
The idea here is that Kerrigan, the Leviathan, and a handful of units are all you can allot to most of the
offense during this mission. The rest of your resources for most of the mission will be spent on units and defense
at home. Once you have cleared to the second entrenched position, you get a huge surge of Primal Units that can be
used to help clear a large portion of the remaining map.
When your base, your expansion, and the Hyperion are secure, you can start to add units to Kerrigan and the
Leviathan. Hard to kill, high HP units are preferred, such as Broodlords or Ultralisks, as these are easier to keep
alive with Kerrigan's mend ability.
Clear along the eastern path on the way to the Odin itself. The Odin sits by the palace gates, so you have to
clear that way. Ignore the northwest gate and all the structures on the side of the western side of the map. You do
not have time to clear those if you are going for the achievement.
In order to make sure Kerrigan is able to clear the map efficiently, you will want to choose the Leviathan,
Fury, Twin Drones, Mend, Automated Extractors, Chain Reaction (or Crushing Grip), and Kinetic Blast for this
mission.
Speed Bump Achievement Video Guide
Speed Bump Achievement Guide with No Brood Lords
If you do not have Brood Lords, the strategy in the video will not work. Due to user request, I have created a
second video without Brood Lords so those who went with the Viper have a tech route that works for them. Whether or
not you have the Torrasque Ultralisk or the Noxious strain, both of these types will work for this achievement:
The Reckoning Brutal Mode Guide
The Reckoning is the final mission in Starcraft 2 and might feel like the most difficult one as well when
performed on brutal mode. Since this mission is tough, I have included a fool-proof method for beating this
mission, even if it is not the most efficient method. You will find a more efficient method in the video guide at
the bottom of the page.
Step by Step Guide
Before you start the mission, select the Leviathan, Fury, Malignant Creep, Mend, Automated Extractors,
Chain Reaction, and Kinetic Blast for Kerrigan's abilities.
Malignant Creep may seem like an unusual choice over Twin Drones, but in this mission, you fight a large
number of forces on your own turf, so your defensive units and structures will benefit immensely from this
upgrade, especially if you are good about spreading the creep. You can even spread the creep along with
Kerrigan on the offense, spreading it into the Terran player's base and actually attack the computer's
structures while you are benefiting from the 30% increased attack speed and increased life regeneration. It
actually works out very well for beating this mission in an untimed manner.
As soon as the mission starts, start building Drones and spreading the creep to the southeast expansion.
Use Kerrigan to clear this area out.
Re-arrange your crawlers so that they are guarding the northeastern entrance to your base. They are all
spread out now and could benefit from a re-arrangement.
Clear out the eastern base with Kerrigan. Expand here. The Creep should already be spread here.
Spread the creep up towards Raynor's base. Drop additional Creep Tumors near where Kerrigan is positioned.
You always want to be spreading your Creep Tumors to wherever Kerrigan is located, so she can fight on the
creep while simultaneously being on offense.
For now, use Kerrigan to just defend the main and the expansion once these immediate areas are cleared out.
Send your other starting offensive units up to Raynor's base to help defend that area.
Start working on melee ground and carapace upgrades and get up to Hive tech. Build a spire and start
working on air upgrades.
Meanwhile, clear to the east with Kerrigan and keep spreading the creep. You want creep everywhere, as this
will allow Kerrigan to return as needed for defense.
Throw up 10 crawlers at the main and your expansion. These are not really meant to stop the powerful
computer attacks, but rather just to buy time for Kerrigan to return to help clear out any major offensive
attacks.
The Creep should have been spread to the first entrenched position by now (9:30 or so on the game clock).
Use Kerrigan and the Leviathan to bust down the bunkers, then take out the base on the back of the large Zerg
reinforcement.
Start making Queens, Ultralisks, and Mutalisks at your home base. These will act as additional defense at
first but ultimately be used on offense. if you have Broodlords, those work even better for offense, but I will
not include them in this strategy in case you picked Vipers.
At 10:30, you get an alert that the Hyperion is about to be attacked. You should have a lot of extra gas,
so make 12 Mutalisks and hide them in the back near the Hyperion. Once all the Vikings land, there will be no
immediate anti-air, so you can run in with the Mutalisks and get a lot of free hits off. Move the Mutalisks
back to a safe position after this attack is cleared out.
Continue to spread the creep with Kerrigan, crossing the bridge in the mid-bottom right portion of the map,
clearing out towards the second entrenched position.
At home, you can send 3 Ultralisks and 3 Queens to reinforce Raynor's base. You should have about 4
Ultralisks and 4 Queens at home to guard your two bases as well (in addition to your Crawlers, which you should
replace as they die).
After this, build about 6 Queens and the rest Ultralisks while you continue to clear the map with Kerrigan
and the Leviathan.
When the Battlecruiser and Siege Tank fleet spawn at 16:00, use Kerrigan to help take it down. The
Leviathan may die in the process, wait for it to regenerate before continuing.
Continue to get upgrades back at your main. You should be maxed out by around 17:00.
At this point, leave the 7 Ultralisks on defense (3 at Raynor's base, 4 total at your bases), grab the
rest, and use them to meet up with Kerrigan.
Once the Leviathan is off cooldown, go in with all your forces and clear out the second Entrenched
Position.
Taking this out will result in a huge wave of reinforcements, which you can follow behind with Kerrigan,
the Leviathan, and your Ultralisks to take out a large portion of the Terran forces.
The units from the second entrenched position will actually head towards the Terran base at the center of
the map. Clear out this expansion with them, and spread the creep everywhere. Take this expansion.
At 22:30, the Odin will be sent out to attack Raynor. Engage this pack of units with Kerrigan and your
Ultralisks. Your Ultralisks will die. Do not let Kerrigan die. Retreat with her to the creep. Here, you can
kite this huge pack of units, slowly using Kinetic Blast to pick off the Goliaths one at a time until only the
Odin remains. Summon the Leviathan and grab the 12 Mutalisks you kept at Raynor's base to take down the Odin.
The Odin dominates Kerrigan and your Ultralisks, so you want to use air units to take it down.
Expand to the cleared out base, and re-max out. You will want to get 200/200 before you progress much
further.
Once you are maxed out and at full upgrades and have creep all over the map, attack the final Terran
position. You may want to add a few Hatcheries as you should have a huge amount of resources banked up.
Go in and attack the Terran base. You may lose your army in the process, but you will also destroy the
Terran base doing so.
