Mission 19 - Salvation | Campaign - Legacy of the Void SC II: Legacy of the Void Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Location: Aiur

Main objectives:

• Defend the keystone until it is fully loaded.

Side objectives:

• None.

Reward for completing main objectives:

• Unlocking the epilogue.

Reward for completing side objectives:

• None.

A defensive mission. You must protect the keystone [1] until it reaches 100% combat ready. In practice it means that you must defend it for 30 minutes and few seconds. Until then you can lose most of your base, all units and all allies. If the keystone survives, you will win no matter the situation on the map. Especially since the enemies will almost surely ignore your main base and focus their efforts on destroying the artifact.

Your main base [2] is located next to the keystone. On the left from it you can build another one [3]. In addition to that, you will find few of your pylons and photon cannons around the artifact. There will be three bases of your allies as well. Each of them will protect one of the three roads leading to the keystone (base [A1] will protect the point [A2] from the enemies from [A3] and so on). The allies will be creating units and placing defense buildings, but their bases will not be upgraded, even when the enemy will start increasing the size of forces sent at them. Without your help, allied bases will be destroyed sooner or later, so your main task is to support them in the defense. Be prepared for the fact that allied heroes will die during first few attacks. The AI doesn't know how to control them and it will not notice that a hero is at the verge of dying. Vorazun from [A2] will survive the longest, but only because she will be invisible for enemies.

You can complete this mission in two ways. The first one is repeating the tactic from the Last Stand mission - building turrets in points [A2][B2][C2]. In difference to the other mission, each road to the base will have at least light defense and you will not have to worry about an aerial strikes near the keystone. Blocking the paths to the artifact should be enough. However, this tactic has two serious disadvantages. First of all, very quickly the enemy will start sending large groups of enemies at you, including siege units. So, you will either have to build khaydarin monolith or send against them few of your own units. Secondly, from time to time from [4] and [5] some protoss units will fly, including carriers and tempests. They will be flying straight towards the keystone, so there is a chance that they will be moving outside the range of your turrets. In theory you can build plenty of turrets and surround the keystone from all sides, but sooner or later you will discover that the enemy is attacking from too many places for the buildings alone to be able to stop him. Enemy fleets will also attack from points [A3][B3][C3], but in that case your allies will be able to take care of them.

Because of that, it is better to use a mixed tactic. Place few photon cannons, khaydarin monoliths and shield batteries in points [A2][B2][C2]. Build a wall of them, but leave a small passage for units. Pylons of your allies cannot be used by you, so you will have to build everything from scratch. Enforce the defense with more than a dozen of land units. It would be good if at least some of them will be able to attack land and aerial targets. Gather all newly created units in [1], this will allow you to quickly send them to most endangered positions. The game will inform you about the most dangerous attacks, so you will always know beforehand where to send the army. If you are using the warp gates and other buildings that use the warp technology, immediately teleport the military to the weakly protected positions. Additionally, gather your fleet in point [B1]. This fleet will be tasked with eliminating enemy ships flying from points [4] and [5]. You will be informed before they will appear. The fleet should consist only of ships used for destroying other ships. But if you don't want to constantly move it, you can immediately split it and send to most endangered positions. If you want to build ships used for attacking land targets - void rays, carriers and so on - send them with the rest of your forces to point [1] or teleport them to the fortification line, let them help in defending the paths to the keystone.

Keep rebuilding the destroyed turrets and add new ones. Upgrade weapon and armor of your units as well. You have access only to two resource sources, so saving is not an option. Don't worry when you or your ally will be losing buildings and units, instead replenish the losses immediately. It will be important later in the mission, when the enemy will attack from two or even three directions at once.

Due to the battle taking place on the orbit, you will be regularly losing access to active abilities. Both passive ones will be constantly available. You will lose the first ability around tenth minute of the game, second about 15 minute, another about 20 minute and finally the last after the 26 minute. You will not be able to regain them, which will become especially painful at the end of the mission.

Don't counterattack. The enemy has production buildings in [A3][B3][C3], but even without them he will be constantly attacking you with large groups of units. Additionally, these buildings are protected by turrets, and in [C3] there is a brutalisk which has great probability of destroying all units that are attacking him. Later in the game the enemy will be attacking so frequently and with so large forces that you will not have neither time nor possibility to response with an attack.

Enemy attacks will become stronger as the mission progress. Zealots and zergling will be quickly joined by better units, including ultralisk and reavers. From the sky not only phoenixes will attack, but carriers, tempests, and at the end motherships as well. You must prepare not only for strong, but also for very large attacks, consisting of 50 and more units. Your allies will definitely not be able to repel them on their own. They will be creating new units, but definitely too slow and too little.

All positions of allies will have their weaknesses. Alarak base from [B1] is the most advanced one of them all. If the defense in point [B2] gets destroyed, then Alarak's base will probably not survive too long. On the other side, the enemy will first focus on it and only then he will move at the keystone, giving you some time to prepare the defenses. Two other bases [A1][C1] are positioned remotely, which means that after breaking the line of defense in [A2] and [C2] the enemy will immediately attack the keystone. So if you have to choose, most of all defend the defense lines of Vorazun and Karax.