Night Terrors is the fifth mission of the Nova Covert Ops campaign, and the second mission of the second mission pack.
History[]
The Highlord's Bargain[]
Following her return to the Griffin from Tyrador IX, Nova found Highlord Alarak of the Tal'darim aboard her ship. She raised her gun against him, but was stopped by Reigel. Alarak told her that the Defenders of Man had attacked a Tal'darim outpost and then retreated, and that the Tal'darim sought vengeance against them. Alarak noticed that Nova was once one of the Defenders of Man, and thus decided to try to help her restore her memories using terrazine. Alarak made her a bargain; he would help her get terrazine, and in return she would lead him to the Defenders of Man.[1]
Mission[]
"I think she's still mad about her mothership. This isn't going to be easy..."
Alarak lead Nova to the planet of Jarban Minor, a former Umojan Protectorate colony that went dark. Nova and First Ascendant Ji'nara set up bases, with Ji'nara saying that this would be a competition to see if she could gather the terrazine before the Tal'darim destroyed the extraction devices. She found the terrazine was being extracted from the native Jarban gliders of Jarban Minor, and enough could be gathered using the Umojan devices already set up.
Upon reaching an extraction device, she found the fate of the expedition; they had become infested. Nova was swarmed by infested Umojans and zerg, but her forces were able to beat them back. During her operations, Nova ran into stranded remains of the Umojan expedition sent to the planet, who aided her in return for a way off of the planet. In addition, Reigel noted a mine nearby, which contained a blightbringer with Umojan technology embedded in it. In addition, Reigel made light of a nearby Umojan science facility with deserted technology inside, but the facility was guarded by sentry bots and two heavily armed eradicators.
Nova was able to obtain the canisters of terrazine before Ji'nara destroyed the extraction devices. Alarak warped in to meet her, saying that she would gain knowledge of the Defenders of Man, provided the terrazine didn't destroy her mind. Nova asked how should she contact him when she found the Defenders of Man, and Alarak stated that when the time came, he would know.[2]
Walkthrough[]
This mission is similar to other holdout missions such as "Welcome to the Jungle," but has the added obstacle of endless waves of infested terrans swarming the player like in "Outbreak." Nova's Hellfire shotgun and grenades are useful during this mission, as is siege tanks no longer requiring tech labs. Liberators with either cloak or the ability to quickly transform is also very helpful.
When defending from the zerg waves, have the liberator rings hug tight to the extraction device to ensure maximum overlap. In later stages, be sure to have a few in fighter mode, as infested banshees, infested siege tanks, and mutalisks will begin to attack as well. Suicidal volatile infested also make a return, and can break clumped groups of marines. A tight bunch of liberators, marines, siege tanks and goliaths should hold any point, so long as Nova supports them. Be sure to reposition liberators if needed, as attacks can come from all angles.
Before starting the exaction process, static defenses may be built around the extraction device for walling, command centers can also be used as they are significantly more bulkier than bunkers, and can be lifted and reuse elsewhere. Ravens with spider mines and auto turrets will provide great value for every extraction attempt without spending additional resource.
Both bonus objectives are boss fights, and are Nova against a boss enemy. These can be done at any time during the mission without worry, as the battle outside pauses while Nova is in the cave or science facility. During the battle against the blightbringer, stay out of the blight it spawns, and focus down the large eggs it creates. Use area of effect on the other eggs, and focus him down. The blightbringer loses its detector ability while burrowed, giving a good opportunity to clean up infested units in the arena. The second fight against two eradicators is purely based around avoiding the red dots and lines, as they advertise their attacks. Focusing down one eradicator will relieve the pressure immensely during the rest of the fight.
When the Tal'darim attempt to destroy an extraction device, send a group of liberators to take them out. Focus down their warp prism in order to prevent ground reinforcements. If they are moving toward a path that has not been cleared, wait for them to attack the zerg fortifications first, as it will make them easier to take out and will weaken the zerg defenses around the extraction points. Tal'darim force's trajectory is clearly marked on the minimap, allowing easy intercept with nuke if the player cannot mobilize their main force at the moment.
The Umojan outpost in the centre of the map consists of resource clusters, an extraction device, a HERC compound, a missile turret and a bunker with four War pigs garrisoned inside. In addition, a War pig and HERCs are present outside. It is advisable to build a new base there to get additional resources and the extraction device. The HERCs can be trained from the compound and are immune to the volatile infested acid. The compound cannot be rebuilt if destroyed.
The player's starting base will be occasionally attacked by both Tal'darim force and infested units. Tal'darim force go for an extraction device may also cross path with the Umojan outpost, so defenders should be prepared. Infested unit will also come attack the player's bases during the exaction process, but does not contains dangerous units such as infested tanks or banshees.
While it is possible to destroy the Zerg's main hive cluster and the Tal'darim nexus point with nukes and a massive army, this does not end the mission and the protoss will continue to warp in above the site of the Nexus point to destroy the extraction devices.
Brutal Strategy[]
Send Nova to claim the middle base and setup an expansion right away. Secure the land between your bases by killing the infested units and buildings. Focus on setting up defenses at each base first. 3 marine bunkers, 1 siege tank per base. Place your bunkers + siege tanks next to your command centers so it can protect from any direction. Use Nova and liberators to clear out infested buildings, if you time your nuke right you can hit infested base and Taldarim airforce at same time. If you keep your liberators in the chasms they will be safer. As for defending extraction points you should build up a signifigant army of 150+ supply first as the zerg/infested/taldarim can attack you at same time. So delay harvesting. Let the Taldarim destroy 2 terrazine extractors to buy you time, especially if your nuke is on cooldown. The best army to defend extractors is 2 marine bunkers, 2 commands centers (wall) and ravens and Nova. As buildings get fire suppression so they are tanky and Ravens don't have to engage enemy directly. Using bunkers, command centers and Ravens will save you loses over time. All the units are viable except Reapers and Banshee. But try to focus more on anti-air units. Save often as its easy to make a mistake such as accidentally starting an terrazine extraction, missing a nuke, etc.
Achievements[]
Friendly Competition achievement is a race between two sides, as the player will no longer be able to effectively defense extracting devices from the Tal'darim fleets. The Tal'darim will start destroying extraction devices from the right side of the player's intial base, and go counter clockwise from there, ignoring any device that is already been extracted or successfully defended. It is recommended that the player start their process at the extraction device at the right, and focus to the top and left side of the map to avoid direct conflict with Tal'darim fleets. When the Tal'darim attack the player's initial base, command centers and other bulky buildings can be used to wall it off, this may hold for a very long time with enough repairing SCVs.
For Up Close and Personal achievement, many combinations can be used, but the player may simply go with marines and supporting ravens. Fully upgraded marines with super stimpack will shred enemy forces, while ravens with their turrets and spider mines will deal with the dangerous volatile infesteds.
Achievements[]
Night Terrors | |
Points | |
Criteria |
Complete the “Night Terrors” mission in Nova: Covert Ops. |
Edit |
Liberty Rains from Above | |
Points | |
Criteria |
Destroy 500 units with liberators in the "Night Terrors" mission. |
Notes | |
The achievement name is likely a reference to a quote by Pharah from the Blizzard Entertainment game Overwatch. | |
Edit |
Save the Whales | |
Points | |
Criteria |
Complete the "Night Terrors" mission without any extraction devices being destroyed on Normal difficulty or higher. |
Edit |
Friendly Competition | |
Points | |
Criteria |
Complete the "Night Terrors" mission without killing any Tal'darim units on Hard difficulty or higher. |
Edit |
Up Close and Personal | |
Points | |
Criteria |
Complete the "Night Terrors" mission without building Siege Tanks or Liberators on Normal difficulty. |
Edit |
Trivia[]
- If Nova dies during one of the bonus objective boss battles and returns them after she is revived, a batch of vespene gas will appear where she died. If picked up, it will give the notification "+800 souls retrieved," (the number is 100 times Nova's kills), but has no tangible gameplay effect. This is possibly a reference to the Dark Souls franchise.
References[]
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: The Highlord's Bargain. (in English). 2016.
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Nova Covert Ops, Night Terrors (in English). 2016-08-02.