Mission 14 - The Barricade | Goo campaign Grey Goo Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Primary objectives:

• Fight your way across the barricade.
• Destroy the enemy stronghold.

Secondary objectives:

• Build a Purger.
• Destroy 2 Hands of Ruk.

Arguably, this is the most difficult mission in the entire game. Your mission is to destroy all of the enemy bases Northwards of the barricade [2]. In practice, this means that you will have to clear the entire Northern half of the map, because all of the resource deposits there, and mountain passes, have been seized by the Beta. The enemy has lots of units, developed bases and fortifications. All of the turrets are manned, all of the factories keep producing units. All in all - it is going to be an ordeal, especially in the other half of the mission.

You start in the South-Western part of the map [1]. Immediately, move your units Eastwards, towards the two deposits [3]. Hide Tempests in thickets, block all of the passes with Dwellers, and gather the rest of the units on the Northern side of the hill. As of now, they will have little to do, because the enemy attacks are weak but still, keep them alerted. Create a second Mother Goo, then more. Seize all six of the deposits on the Southern part of the map. One of them [4] is being mined by the enemy mine. Have the Mother Goo destroy it and exploit it. Dispatch a small backup there, especially AA units, because the enemy may launch a small counterattack.

Take your time and expand your forces. Issue an order to build two Purgers. Meet the upper limit by producing Tempests, Destructors for protection, and several Radiants. Develop stealth technology for the Radiants. Apart from that, research into everything that you deem the most necessary. With both Purgers ready, attack the barricade [2]. Have scouts reveal the area and both elite units launch the attack. Keep the rest of the forces nearby, in case of enemy air raids. If you do not want to use Dwellers or Bastions, dispatch them with the first assault team. In their place, create units the most useful to you.

Another method is to create six additional Mother Goos. Send the remaining Bastion units ahead, to keep turrets occupied, and destroy fortifications with Mother Goos. The cooperation of six of them should bring the Beta defenses down.

After you cut through fortifications, you will have to destroy the first fortified enemy bases [5][6]. Their defenses are not too strong, but you may have some problems with them. The reason is that the enemy will be attacking from all the possible directions. Therefore, expect attacks both from the bases and from the North. You should especially watch out for the Tempests and their guards, which will suffer from regular air raids. Also, leave some of the forces where the destroyed barricade was [2]. The enemy will be sending single units that way and they will be marking targets for bombers.

After you have destroyed both of the bases, regenerate your losses. Also, You need to have six Mother Goos. You can choose from two fortified passes [12][13]. Take the Western one, form a breach and head on. More or less, after you reach the Northern end of the passage, you should receive a message of the activation of the Hand of Ruk. Retreat, scatter Mother Goos, to keep a considerable distance between them and deploy them to the North of the barricade. To the East of them, on the ruins of the enemy base [6], position two Purgers, the rest of the armies and wait. Sooner or later, there will travel a rocket, towards the West-most Mother Goo. This means that the Hand of Ruk is close and heading your way. To make things easier, you can position your Radiants on the hills, which will let you know about the approaching enemy, early enough. And they will be destroyed immediately after that, because the Hand of Ruk can detect stealth units.

Have Mother Goos head towards the breach. They need to be scattered, while moving. In case one of them gets hit with a rocket, the rest will survive. Have the rest of the forces wait. If everything went according to the plan, the Hand of Ruk heads towards Mother Goos and ignores the rest of your units. As soon as it reaches the barricade [2], immediately attack from both sides. It is possible that it notices Purgers before that. Attack also in such a case. Just remember to scatter your forces beforehand. It is important to get o the Hand of Ruk and destroy it, before your army is destroyed with its rockets.

After you notice the Hand of Ruk attack it with all you have. Have Mother Goos take on its fire, while the Purgers attack. Do not approach with your smaller units, or they will be quickly destroyed with the rockets. Keep them close to both Purgers, in case of the enemy air raid. The battle is long, most probably, you lose all of your Mother Goos in the course of it. In spite of that, do not retreat, up until the Hand of Ruk is destroyed. Remember that rockets cannot be launched at short distance. Therefore, if Mother Goos get near the Hand of Ruk, they will be able of destroying it quickly.

Of course, there is a chance that the Hand of Ruk follows the eastern passage [13] and spots your ambush. In such a case, attack it with all your forces, also lightweight units. Two Purgers are capable of destroying a Hand of Ruk, all by themselves, whereas with reinforcements, your victory is a sure thing. Also, just in case, you can put both Purgers with a Mother Goo to the North of the barricade [2] and, as soon as the Hand of Ruk appears, attack it with all you have. It is important that you do not attack this unit while scattered and to prevent it from using rockets too often. First of all, you cannot lose your superunits that are the best weapon against the Hand of Ruk. If this happens, you can, just as well, start the mission over, because your chances of defeating the enemy have just dropped drastically.

After you have destroyed the enemy superunit, prepare for the second one to arrive, immediately. You should have enough resources to produce another six Mother Goos. Do that, replenish your army and prepare another ambush. Do not put both of the Purgers to strain. Rebuilding them will take time, which you have little of, as of now. Have the scattered Mother Goos take on the entire fire again. This also goes for the smaller units arriving with the Hand of Ruk, as well as the regular air raids of the enemy bombers.

As soon as the other Hand of Ruk falls, you can take some breath. The most difficult part of the mission is a thing of the past, now. Replenish your armies and follow the Western path. You will run into another fortified enemy base, and one more, to the North of this one [7][8]. The area is well-defended so, prepare Radiant to mark targets for the Purgers. Destroy the enemy buildings, at a safe distance, and watch out for the enemy aircraft at all times. The closer to the enemy base, the more of them you encounter. If the Purgers got a severe beating, while fighting the Hand of Ruk, you can dispatch them on a suicide mission and do either of the following- replace both of them, which is time-consuming, or produce Destructors and Crescents to replace them.

After you have destroyed both of the enemy bases, you reach the main enemy base. Along your path, you will still have to cut through heavy fortifications that defend both central routes to the enemy base [14][15]. On the left, there are several poorly guarded buildings, on the right, there is the HQ [11]. Finally, you will have to destroy the last two fortified enemy bases [9][10]. They are not as well-protected as the previous two. At this stage, the enemy has no more resources to build armies. There are chances that he has earlier removed six units from turrets. Destroy all of the key buildings to complete this mission.