Difficulty: Very Difficult

Intro: Alan Schezar spills the beans that Ulrezaj threatened him to obey his orders, otherwise he would detonate a bomb inside Alan Schezar’s goliath. But last mission, a lucky shot disabled the explosive mechanism. Alan Schezar informs Zeratul that Ulrezaj plans to amass a horde of zerg empowered with the khaydarin crystals to be able to resist annihilation from the Xel Naga Temple. Zeratul aghast, orders you to destroy the warp gate and to also destroy khaydarin crystals to weaken the zerg forces.

Strategy – when you begin the mission, Alan Schezar is immediately terminated by Ulrezaj, press ‘F’ for respect. Back to the mission, you are up against 2 active protoss bases and 5 zerg encampments that spawn powerful zerg units ever 5 minutes or so. The zerg waves get more powerful the longer you wait and can only be stopped by destroying each corresponding khaydarin crystal so waste no time!

This is the only mission that allows you to build Dark Archons which I would argue is the most fun unit in the game. I would recommend start off immidately teching to Dark Archons to save yourself on some resources because you can mind control units and steal the upgrades as well. Start off with building up your defenses, you are given the ability to build tier 1 terran units so make use of siege tanks. Medics are also useful to heal enemy mind controlled zerg. After the 15 minute mark, its time to move out. Establish a base in the expansion in the west, near the first khaydarin encampment. If you have a robotics bay, build a shuttle and use siege tanks to make waste to the sunken colonies and spore colonies in the first zerg encampment. Then get a drone to capture the first khaydarin crystal and watch out for enemy dark Templars.

*Tip* The zerg encampment are lighly defended but they do have sunken colonies, spore colonies, and photon enemy cannons. 1 well placed siege tank can clear it quite easily although just be ware of spawning zerg forces that will pop up without warning.

If you’re having trouble, you can play the mission a little bit slower and focus on taking out all 5 khaydarin crystals before moving in to destroy the warp gate which is directly in the center of the map. If you’re feeling confident, you can try to destroy the warp gate with 3 khaydarin crystals still active. Dark Templers are incredibly useful at mind controlling enemy air units, they can easily be worth 10,000 resources with the amount of units you can take.

Unit Composition: Dark Archons to counter their enemy forces. Siege tanks for ground support. Archons are also powerful in this map since there is no EMP.