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SKYGEIRR MISSION 2: HAND OF DARKNESS
ACHIEVEMENTS
Hand of Darkness: Complete the “Hand of Darkness” mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Shattered Command: Destroy 2 Command Centers in the “Hand of Darkness” mission.
Power Underwhelming: Destroy 3 Hybrid Holding Cells before the Hybrid are released in “Hand of Darkness” on Normal Difficulty.
Start working on your economy immediately. You should be able to take out the first Hybrid with just a few additional egg’s worth of zerglings. Hybrids have some potent abilities which include a push back, a single target stasis, psi-storm, and the ability to create copies of itself. Use your cooldowns often, especially Mend. It will help you keep your units alive through the high damage output of the Hybrids.
The double drone ability is probably one of the best that you can choose. It essentially doubles the rate in which you can saturate your bases for no extra cost. Saturate asap and build two macro hatcheries. Time is a huge issue in this mission, especially with the strong compositions and sheer numbers that you have to face along the way.
Don’t bother exploring the map. You will be notified of the bonus objectives later on and you will come across them on your way to completing the main objective. At 4:30, a Hybrid will start draining Kerrigan. There isn’t much in terms of defense aside from two full bunkers and a handful of units.
You will be attacked by units coming from the west. There is a terran base there at an expansion site. Deal with the attacking units as they come, but don’t waste the units nor the time in clearing that area. It will put you to far behind to complete the main objective within the given time limit. You will come across another expansion later on that you will be able to take without wasting any time.
Once you’ve had a chance to tech a bit and add more to your army, start clearing the way to the next Hybrid. You will only have 5 minutes to kill 2 Hybrids on opposite sides of the map, so don’t wait for the timer to start. Killing them before they’re released will award you with the Power Underwhelming achievement.
You will most likely lose all of your zerglings to the psi-storms. Use mend to heal your roaches and hydralisks through it.
After you finish off the Hybrid, you’ll find the first Brutalisk directly to the west. Rally your units to your location and free the first Brutalisk. As soon as you’re finished, start heading north to the other hybrid. You’ll be pressed for time, so try not to get distracted.
Ignore these bunkers. You don’t need to engage them because you can sneak past these units by hugging the wall to the last.
This Hybrid will be the first to use its illusion ability. If you guess correctly both of the copies will die with the original.
The second brutalisk can be found directly across from where you just fought the Hybrid. Once cleared, head back down to the terran units you skipped on the way to the last hybrid.
There isn’t much here and it’s on the way so it won’t take too much time to clear. Once you take care of these units here, head directly for the next hybrid. As you make your way to the next hybrid start on your expansion. You’ll need the economy to be able to re-max your army through the remaining fights. Saturate your new expansion as soon as you can.
Clearing out this area now will help you later on because you will need to pass through it later. Don’t focus on clearing absolutely everything, as you don’t want to risk the timer running out and failing the mission.
The terran forces guarding the next hybrid are taken care of easily, especially with 2 Brutalisks. Don’t forget to continually reinforce lost supply and rally to your location.
As you’re fighting this Hybrid, you will be alerted of another that has begun attacking you. Once you destroy this Hybrid, start making your way to the next hybrid.
If you find your Brutalisks getting low, try and stay close and cast Mend on every available cooldown.
After you destroy the Hybrid, hug the bottom wall and head back to your base. If you stray too far north on your way back to your base, you will be intercepted by a large terran force capable of destroying what’s left of your army. Shortly after you will be notified of two additional Hybrids that you will have to fight simultaneously.
At about 21:00 the hybrid will awaken and the timer will start counting down. Rebuild your army asap. Luckily there isn’t too much to deal with on the way to the two hybrid. Don’t forget to rally your units to your location.
Depending on whether you destroyed or skipped the large terran force that arrives after you cleared the previous hybrid, the remainder of this mission can turn into a base-race scenario.
Combined with both Brutalisks, you should have enough of an army to easily deal with the last two hybrids. Cast Mend on every cooldown to keep them alive.
