Image galleries from solo grind:
http://ringuh.imgur.com/sc2/
Worker rush FAQ:
http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/656096111#2
*/
Intro:
I decided to complete every achievement in Starcraft 2. Writing this I presumably have the highest number of achievement points in the world. It's a bit hard to determine that as the only site I know tracking achievement points is this french?-site http://sc2ranking.com/ that only tracks EU players. ( stable as hell. oh wait )
I tend to get plenty of whispers asking how I did some of the achievements. Most common question is "How did you do all those co-ops so fast?". I've written some guides for wow-encounters too.. so I figured why not for Co-op too as it's pretty much the same deal.. fighting against computer with a tactic. I'm only writing about co-op this time as I don't really think other achievements really are worth writing about.
Note:
These are finnish sc2 community forums. This is not the ideal place to publish this post but I doubt Google will care and it seemed the site owners wanted more posts and viewers on the site so this is my cup of tea. If you have any feedback / comments / questions about any achievement you can try contacting me in IRC (ringuh @ qnet) via PM or ingame (rinku.smth) message. If you decide to do this go straight to the point - whispering me with "Hi" and the waiting for me to reply before continueing.. well I wouldn't hold my breath there.
and here we go:
Co-op achievements:
I'm pretty sure people in general consider Co-op part of the achievements to be one of the most painful part of achievement hunt as you need to play freaking ridiculous amounts of games against A.I.. I did atleast, that's why I decided to push through this part with brute stamina as fast as possible and doing that I pretty soon figured out how to win the games as fast and painless as possible. Hopefully this post manages to fasten Your learning process by a lot and overall make gaining this achievement easier for general player pool.
just to make sure you've realized some basics -
- Co-ops count as league games - do combat achievements in these not in RT!
You need to win 250 games with each race. Your wins as Random also count towards the race you get each game, so in total you need to win 750 Co-op games. This means you can PICK each race around 165 times before you have to "save it" for Random Command: 250 and it shouldn't overlap too bad..
- Doing achievement against Insane A.I. also gives you the the same achievements lesser difficulty versions. So basicly after 250 wins against Insane A.I. you have completed everything else except Race A.I. achievements.
- Key to fast victory is Cheese. Computers don't improvise - abuse that.
Winning Insane A.I. in reasonable time requires you to cheese.
- Terran = Proxy Rax and Bunker Rush.
Protoss = Cannon Rush.
Zerg = 7 Pool or similar. If possible Sunken Rush. (1on1 always choose ZvZ and sunken rush)
And now to the key part..
How to win games as fast as possible?
This tactic I used requires you to have friends or make friends that have the same goal. This mainly for grinding wins, how you decide to do all the possible race combination wins is something for yourself to solve.
- Try to have one
![Protoss :protoss:](./images/smilies/Protoss.png)
![Terran :terran:](./images/smilies/Terran.png)
![Zerg :zerg:](./images/smilies/Zerg.png)
Having 2 players remain in the game is stupid. Other player should ALWAYS quit so the Protoss (or Terran) gets double resources and can cannon rush both A.I.'s as fast as possible.
A.I.'s will learn to Surrender again if only One (1) Human Player remains in the game. Thus one player has to quit so you don't have to destroy all buildings. Both players will gain the credit for victory.
How to Cannon Rush:
It's actually not as easy as you might think. Every map has its own "threat areas" that you can't build upon without doing some tricks to soothe the A.I. otherwise they will attack your worker and buildings. In this part I will teach you map by map where to build so that your win percent is 100. You don't have to take my word for it - go experiment for yourself. After failing enough I'm sure you are more eager to continue with reading this.
Generally about A.I.
- Threat level depends on how many buildings you have in proximity and on which area. I'm going to call the areas "safe" "hostile" and "far away". On MOST maps hostile area means enemy base. Building directly there makes the opponents workers attack. There are two ways to prevent this: one is by building something on the safe area ( safe area = outside base or building on different altitude than the base. e.g. pylon under cliff ) or rapidly building 3 buildings in the hostile zone so the enemy workers will count it as too many buildings nearby and won't even try to attack. If the enemy workers backed out after becoming hostile you can cancel those extra buildings. They won't seem to attack again. Having a single building in the safe zone has the same calming effect as several done straight to hostile zone.
"Far Away" means your building has absolutely no impact to enemy behavior and is wasted.
Usually 2 cannons hitting enemy base is enough for them to surrender. Also scouting whole enemy base and killing their army encourage them to Surrender. Especially vs
![Zerg :zerg:](./images/smilies/Zerg.png)
With
![Terran :terran:](./images/smilies/Terran.png)
Map By Map:
Arid Wastes: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=277
- You need safe zone pylon behind the cliff on both sides to be able to build freely.
Discord IV: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=278
- Build straight in enemy base. Pop pylon behind both mineral lines fast and be ready to pop third in the middle in case workers aggro. They do sometimes.
Monlyth Ridge: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=280
- You need safe zone pylon behind the cliff on both sides to be able to build freely.
Scorched Haven: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=281
- You need safe zone pylon behind the cliff on both sides to be able to build freely.
Twilight Fortress: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=283
- Best map to rush. Just build between the bases and be ready to do panic move.. they aggro sometimes.
Tempest: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=282
- You really wanna start by sending out 3 workers instead of usual 2 so you are building in right place before units come out. One pylon and forge between bases is enough for safe zone.
Tarsonis Assault: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=285
- You need safe zone pylon behind the cliff on both sides to be able to build freely.
High Orbit: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=279
- Safe zone exactly between bases.
War Zone: http://www.starcraft2.fi/replay/lataa.php?id=284
- Toughest map to rush. You need to drop safe zone pylons just outside both bases. An inch too close and they will attack.
I can't be arsed to take screenshots about safe zones or hostile areas so watch a replay.. first pylons are always build in safe zone. They are put in those places for reason.
How I did this shit?
After experimenting with each race both vs Insane and Medium we figured out the best way to do these games. After Ouga had got his 250 Insane wins I ended up giving friends offers that I'll play Insane wins for them if they just pick protoss and quit from the game and I grinded my games playing with their units. I played around 20 games / hour several ( average game length is 3.15 or so ) days in row drinking beer and watching series to be able to stand the boredom. In total I played around 550 wins against Insane and rest vs Medium. I also experimented like 15 minutes with "joining and quitting and hoping random ally will win for me". 25% of them did, but I decided to not go that way as I considered it too lame, random and ineffective. Afterall - most people playing Co-op are clueless players who don't have courage to play vs humans yet.
Questions? - read "note" (2. column)
TL:DR
For fast Co-op wins:
Cannon Rush.
Other player should quit.
Zerg sucks.
Enemies can surrender even in Co-op.
Hostile workers? Panic? Throw down 3 pylons asap.
If your game lasts more than 3.5minutes you are doing something wrong.
I wouldn't grind these achievements sober.