All In

All In is the final StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty mission.

Background

 * Main article: Campaign quotations

The combined Raynor's Raiders and Terran Dominion battle group sustained heavy casualties gaining a foothold on Char. It was urgent to push on the main hive before the invaders were overwhelmed. Jim Raynor led a secondary attack to weaken the defenses and clear the way for the main assault.

Fire and Fury
8r-or22fXBY Upon Raynor's return, Dominion General Horace Warfield delivered the completed xel'naga device. Fighting together on Char allowed the two to strike a comradely rapport, despite being from opposing factions. Even at this late date it was uncertain whether the device would work as planned. Many soldiers were also tired and worn out from holding the line. However, Raynor, picking up the dog tag of a deceased soldier declared that it would be the bravery and common cause of terran soldiers who would be the true source of victory, which rallied up their spirits and prepared them for battle.

Digging In
Engineers moved the device to the base of the primary hive and the terrans rallied their remaining troops around it. With their backs to the lava, the terrans had to hold until the device was fully charged. The task was assisted by the device's tactical applications; a less powerful version of the fully charged effect, an energy nova, could be released intermittently to destroy all zerg in close proximity to the device. This energy nova was used to repel the initial zerg attack before the defenses were prepared.

The Queen of Blades was impressed by the energy nova, but refused to be deterred from sallying forth personally to destroy the dwindling invaders. She had launched the Second Great War to secure the device and now the terrans had delivered it to her.

However, even with Kerrigan's personal participation the zerg were unable to break through the terrans. When the device reached its full charge it unleashed a massive energy shockwave that scoured the zerg from the immediate area and deinfested Kerrigan.

The Showdown
thumb|300px|right|Raynor saves a deinfested Kerrigan from Findlay. With zerg resistance broken, Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay led a squad into the hive. They found a helpless Kerrigan inside. As Raynor moved to secure Kerrigan, Findlay was forced to reveal his deal with Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. To fully regain his freedom, Findlay had to kill Kerrigan.

Raynor could not allow this. He interposed his armor between Kerrigan and the executioner's bullet, before shooting and killing Findlay with his sidearm. The rebel bore Kerrigan outside where the aerial battle continued to rage.

Aftermath

 * Main article: Epilogue

The restoration of Sarah Kerrigan to human-form marked a terran victory as the zerg invasion of the Sector was stopped. Arcturus Mengsk was weakened, but remained on the throne of the Dominion.

Gameplay & Video Walkthrough
Use the starting resources to begin researching weapon and armor upgrades, and perhaps build more armories and another engineering bay to upgrade weapons and armor simultaneously. The number of starting SCVs are initially adequate, but more should be queued up to increase production. Two or three bunkers at both choke points with siege tank support will suffice against the basic waves of zerg. Firebats in the bunkers or perdition turrets in front of them will greatly help with swarms of zerglings. Medivac dropships or medics can support infantry as the bunkers are destroyed. Have one or two SCVs at each choke to repair units and structures, and consider playing the siege tanks with the bunkers instead of on the high ground to reduce friendly fire damage. The plateau with the artifact should not need to be defended at first, but later sacs or nydus worms will appear here so eventually move some defenders to the artifact later in the mission.

Hire mercenary units as often as possible to replace your frontline defenders. A wall of supply depots can be useful, but only if the orbital supply depot drop was taken in the research lab, otherwise it will require too many SCVs or take too long to set up. The fire-suppression system is invaluable for prolonging the durability of bunkers and turrets, especially since the zerg will often focus on killing repairing SCVs. At one point Matt will warn about a swarm of overlords advancing on the base. The overlords will drop infested terrans all over the base including in the mineral fields, so move defenders back quickly to minimize losses of SCVs. Hive mind emulators or psi disrupters are invaluable for this mission. Either hive mind emulators or psi disrupters should be placed with the bunkers and targets for the emulators should be heavier units like roaches and ultralisks, but banelings are particularly useful. Though the player will likely not realize this in the mission, Kerrigan can only use Implosion on mechanical units, and thus mind-controlled zerg units like ultralisks are quite effective at holding her off and distracting her from other forces.

Kerrigan has the ability to destroy mechanical units instantly with an Implosion ability, and also possesses a Razor Swarm ability that damages all units and buildings in the area of effect. Kerrigan can also see and target units on the high ground even without a unit to spot for her. She can quickly crush the player's defenses on her own so use all means to "kill" her as soon as possible - yamato fire from battlecruisers, snipe from ghosts, psionic lash from spectres, and irradiate from science vessels will all help. Ghosts can also use EMP to drain Kerrigan's energy and stop her from using Implosion. Also remember to stim infantry in bunkers when she arrives.

Use the xel'naga device to relieve pressure. However, if going for "Aces High", use it only at the never-ending onslaught towards the end for the ground game, or when the Leviethen and it's numerous reinforcements come for the air battle. The device will not kill Kerrigan or the Leviathan, but they will take significant damage.

Air Version
If "Belly of the Beast" was completed prior to "All In", there are no nydus worm attacks, but there are numerous attacks by flyers attacks and zerg sacs drop into the base to spawn zerg and creep tumors. Attacks by mutalisks and brood lord swarms are frequent, and the player should maintain a patrol of vikings over their base to deal with the brood lords as they outrange missile turrets and bunkers. Goliaths can also help. If the player has researched missile pods for the battlecruiser, a single usage can quickly reduce mutalisk swarms to critical health, and even two or three vikings supporting the battlecruiser can destroy them afterward. Later in the mission flier attacks also come from over the mineral line, so station more vikings there to ward them off.

When the artifact reaches 70% power, a leviathan will appear and head for the artifact. The leviathan is very powerful, and will only complicate the player's defense efforts if Kerrigan arrives while it is still alive and they attack together. Use a fleet of vikings and battlecruisers with yamato cannon to destroy it quickly. While the zerg air force is their main strength in this mission, their ground forces are still potent, so do not neglect standard defenses and rebuild and repair bunkers after every attack. Brood lords not only do significant damage to bunkers but will spawn broodlings that result in friendly fire from siege tanks, so keep an eye on the minimap and take them out quickly.

Ground Version
If "Shatter the Sky" was completed prior to "All In", no mutalisks or brood lords attack but there are nydus worm attacks. There are numerous announced nydus worm eruptions, and while some of the worms emerge in range of the artifact's energy nova, others do not. Worms may also surface in the middle of the player's base. To protect themselves from this sneak attack the player should consider stationing units around their production facilities, or at least move some defenders back when news of a worm attack arrives. The worms disgorge increasingly more powerful units, up to several ultralisks, the longer they survive.

Banshees and yamato cannons can quickly deal with nydus worms outside the base, while diamondbacks can deal with those inside or close to the perimeter. Retain some anti-air defenses to ward off the overlords. As the worms erupt, spore crawlers and spine crawlers move in and nest on the creep they excrete, and later overlords will excrete creep to support this. The player may wish to eliminate the overlords after clearing out the worms so as to cause the creep to recede back so the zerg do not gain their movement speed bonuses when attacking.



Trivia

 * The name of the mission and the names of the achievements are poker terms


 * All In is also a term frequently used to describe early pushes that are very committed to ending the game early such as bringing workers with your attack force to assist in fighting or cancelling your expansion in favour of an unexpected amount fighting units, but it will put the player at an economic disadvantage should the push be held off without doing enough damage.