Revision as of 16:20, 3 November 2018 by Umbra of Emberspike(talk | contribs)(→Protoss Commanders: might as well draw the lines where other commanders can trigger the enflamed effect from Blaze's oil spill.)
"In this ultimate "what if" scenario, Tychus is a commander who can customize his weapons, and recruit his own outlaw crew of heroic units instead of traditional ones. In a callback to his early years, Tychus has reformed his gang, Heaven's Devils, with aid of his closest pals."
Tychus Findlay is a commander for the Co-op Missions mode. In a "what if" scenario, Tychus returns to the sector to reform the Heaven's Devils into a new band of outlaws. Having patched things up with Jim Raynor, he now sends his outlaws in a war against Amon. He was released with patch 4.6.0 on September 4th, 2018.
Tychus does not operate like a traditional commander, instead fielding four outlaw units (from a total selection of eight) as well as Tychus himself. These Outlaws are split between "The Guns," higher damage outlaws, "The Muscle," tankier outlaws, and the "Fixers," outlaws with support abilities. Each outlaw has one ability, and selecting multiple outlaws will show all of their abilities on a single command bar. Each can be upgraded from a structure that provides upgrades to their role. Outlaws are recruited from Joeyray's Bar, and when they fall in combat, they escape back to the bar and respawn after a short time.
In addition to his outlaws, Tychus can call down the Odin against his enemies, and build medivac platforms to get his outlaws in and out of rough situations. With these at his disposal, the reborn Heaven's Devils can take on any threat.
Tychus serves as the first outlaw players get, and will always be on the field. For the first stage of the battle Tychus serves as a solid source of damage, but due to his fragility having a second outlaw out when he spawns to back him up will help immensely in gaining an expansion or clearing the first objective. Tychus's Shredder Grenades are a great source of area damage, and with their KD9a Implosion Core upgrade pair fantastically with area of effect spells like the Ultrasonic Pulse of Nux.
When Tychus has fallen, calling down the Odin will revive him for free and without the 25 second wait time.
Abilities
Shredder Grenade
Deals 75 damage to enemy units in the target area. Has a radius of 4 by default.
Technical Recruiter: Reduces the Shredder Grenade cooldown by 35%.
Usage
Hotkey
Q
Range
7
Cooldown
20 (13 with Technical Recruiter) Mastery: -0.2 per Tychus Shredder Grenade Cooldown mastery point. Down to a minimum 14 (7 with Technical Recruiter)
Transports Tychus friendly combat units in the target area to a targeted location, healing and cloaking them on drop-off over 10 seconds. The number of charges depends on the number of Medivac Platforms built.
Usage
Hotkey
Z
Duration
10
Cooldown
120 Mastery: -1.5 per Medivac Pickup Cooldown mastery point. Down to a minimum 75
Notes
Restore 5% hp per second for the Outlaws that got dropped. If the unit takes damage during this period, both the cloaking and healing effect of Medivac Pickup will be removed.
Calls down the Odin at the target location, dealing 150 damage on impact. The Odin takes Tychus as the pilot and revives him if he is inactive. It is controllable and will fight for 60 seconds.
Dutiful Dogwalker: The Odin no longer requires Tychus as its pilot, its duration is increased by 100%, and its cooldown is reduced by 40%.
Usage
Hotkey
Z
Duration
60 120 (with Dutiful Dogwalker)
Cooldown
Basic: 360 (Initial cooldown=600) Mastery: -4 per Odin Cooldown mastery point. Down to a minimum 240 (Initial cooldown=600) With Dutiful Dogwalker: 216 (Initial cooldown=600) Mastery: -2.4 per Odin Cooldown mastery point. Down to a minimum 144 (Initial cooldown=600)
Tychus does not field traditional units, rather fielding a number of elite Outlaws to fight for him. Up to four outlaws can be deployed (five at level 2), so picking the right Outlaws for the situation is key. Tychus is always selected at the start of the map.
One of the Guns. Adept at deploying turrets and imbuing both himself and his turrets with special abilities. Can use Deploy Warhound Turret. (Unlocks at level 6)
Detector: Automated defensive structure. Can attack air and ground units.
150
Talent Progression
Tychus acquires the following talents as he levels up.
Just Like Old Times
Tychus has a maximum of 100 supply and can recruit legendary Outlaws from Joeyray's Bar. When Outlaws are killed, they escape death and can be recruited once again from the Bar.
Unlocks the ability to call down the Odin at a target location, picking up Tychus and taking him as its pilot and dealing 150 damage on impact. The Odin is controllable and will fight for 60 seconds.
This article or section is a stub. Please expand it.
Tychus is different from most other commanders in that he uses very little macromanagement; he does not need to worry about supply count or building his army. His focus is instead on micromanaging the small crew of Outlaws in the field. As such, Tychus is relatively straightforward to play. His Outlaw upgrades have no research time, letting him power up his crew as soon as he gets the resources to do so. However, their substantial cost mean that he will have to prioritize.
Tychus is always available at the start of the mission, and spawns at the 3 minute mark. He has enough firepower to take on early attack waves by himself while his partner constructs their base; however, he will require backup to take on enemy-held expansions. At level 7, the reduced cost on the first Outlaw lets him deploy a second unit immediately after Tychus spawns, without having to hoard minerals; this speeds up his early game considerably. Subsequent Outlaws should be recruited as soon as they become available, so aim to have enough resources when the time comes. Once they get going, Tychus's crew has enough firepower to take on most enemies with ease, as long as you use their abilities appropriately.
With a limit of five Outlaws in the field, including Tychus, picking the right team for each mission is essential. Once an Outlaw is deployed, your choice cannot be undone. Knowing the map objectives and enemy composition is important for getting the most out of your limited head-count.
Recommended masteries
Power Set 1: Tychus Shredder Grenade Cooldown
☀:
Tychus is heavily centered around Outlaw abilities, and his own Shredder Grenades are not to be underestimated. When upgraded, they become a wonderful crowd control tool that can be used to clump up attack waves, making them vulnerable to AoE attacks such as Nux's Ultrasonic Pulse. Tychus is lacking in splash damage, with only certain outlaws helping alleviate this weakness; therefore, specializing in the Shredder Grenade gives you a guaranteed tool to deal with the masses.
Power Set 2: Tri-Outlaw Research Improvement
☀
Note: this bonus is multiplicative. e.g. the 25% attack speed boost becomes 28.75% with this mastery.
Outlaw Availability is similar to Swann's Laser Drill Build Time mastery; namely, it's a trap meant to ensare the impatient. Meanwhile, Tri-Outlaw Research makes your outlaws much stronger when they do finally come out, which is the clear winner here.
Early attack waves are rarely a concern, and if they do end up becoming somewhat irritating then you can simply rush out an Engineering Bay to enable turrets first; and early Engineering Bays means early upgrades, which are stronger with this mastery.
Power Set 3: Medivac Pickup Cooldown
☀
Medivacs are one of Tychus's most useful assets. Aside from simply relocating your squad when needed, it also heals them for 50% and gives temporary cloaking, making it useful for both tactical retreats and reinforcement. By maxing out this mastery, Tychus is able to get away with a lot more than he normally would, and can be more aggressive.
Never Send An Angel For a Devil's Job
Knowing what each Outlaw can do is essential for deciding which to pick for your mission. They are split into three groups: the Guns, the main damage dealers; the Muscle, your frontline tanks; and the Fixers, who provide tactical support with their abilities.
The Guns
Tychus is available for free at the start of the mission. He serves as your all-round damage dealer, and has unparalleled sustained damage output with his minigun and Shredder Grenades. His health is average and is easily worn down in combat, making support from other Outlaws mandatory past the first attack wave or two.
Crooked Sam specializes in single-target damage. His pistols have respectably high damage output, and his Demolition Charges are great at knocking out tough objective targets, making him a must-have for missions like Oblivion Express, Scythe of Amon, and Rifts to Korhal. They're not terribly effective against regular enemies as Tychus's squad has enough firepower to gun them down before the charge goes off; however, they can be upgraded to stun targets until they explode, making him great at bringing down hybrid dominators and hybrid behemoths. Also, his LarsCorp G7 Charges upgrade allows him to one-shot a hybrid nemesis.
Remember that, as a reaper, Sam can jump across cliffs; therefore, he may get separated from the rest of your squad. Make sure to regroup him if he ends up somewhere you don't want him to be.
Sirius is a strong defensive option for missions like Dead of Night and Void Launch. He has relatively low damage, but can deploy Warhound Turrets to multiply his damage output. With a very short cooldown and multiple charges, Sirius should aim to deploy as many of them as possible in each engagement. The turrets also benefit from all of Sirius's gear upgrades, making them much more effective as you upgrade Sirius. While he lacks area damage, his Moebius M34 Terror Rounds upgrade lets him disable multiple enemies simultaneously. The SA-55 Thunderbolt Missiles upgrade makes Sirius exceptional at destroying air units, making him a powerful option against air-heavy compositions.
The Muscle
As expected of a Firebat, Blaze specializes in destroying clumps of light units, making him a powerful option on Miner Evacuation and Dead of Night, as well as any mission with enemy zerg. His melee attack range and relatively fast movement speed mean that he'll usually be at the frontline of any engagement, allowing him to soak up damage for his more fragile allies as they blast away the opposition. Oil spill allows Blaze to cause wildfires on enemies. On infested and versus light units, Blaze is very potent. While the Enflamed effect does spread among enemies, vision is necessary; enemies not within vision radius will not be affected by Enflamed spread. His final upgrade literally turns him to a terran immortal that reduces all damage to 30.
Blaze's final upgrade has an in-game effect identical to that of Immortal's hardened shield.
Rattlesnake is a highly versatile Outlaw. While lacking the raw health of his fellow Muscle, he makes up for it with his Revitalizers, making him deceptively bulky while helping keep his allies in the fight. As such, he makes a good partner for Tychus in the early game. His weapon does bonus damage to armored enemies, making him stronger against terran and protoss enemies; this also makes him good at taking down hybrid, which can be useful on hybrid-heavy maps like Chain of Ascension and Void Launch. Revitalizers also affect allies, and heal by percentage of a unit's health, meaning it's even more effective on units with large health pools such as brutalisks.
Among the Muscles, Rattlesnake has the lowest health and the highest range.
Cannonball excels at soaking up large amounts of damage. When fully upgraded, he is nearly unkillable and can quickly ramp up attack damage while dishing out powerful area stuns. The impact stun acts as an alternative to Tychus's shredder grenade stun and also pairs greatly with Nux's Ultrasonic Pulse. Cannonball is most useful against enemy compositions with larger units and missions with high-health objectives. He is also recommended for maps that require pushing deep into enemy territory.
Purchasing the Critical Response System will make his light-bar work.
The Fixers
In addition to providing useful support abilities, Fixers serve as Tychus's primary source of detection; as such, having at least one Fixer on every mission is heavily recommended, particularly on higher difficulties.
Lt. Nikara is the team medic, and a highly useful option for any mission. She can keep the rest of the squad in the fight for much longer and patch them up after each battle, while also providing valuable healing for partners that otherwise lack it. Note however that Nikara has no offensive capabilities, and choosing her means weakening your squad's firepower; however, in most cases, this isn't too significant. Her final upgrade allows her to cast temporary shield on friendly units including ally's. Additionally, Nikara should always be controlled separately from the other Outlaws, as attack-moving all of them at once into an area will result in Nikara moving to the targeted location, which can easily get her killed. It is also recommended not to deploy both Nikara and Rattlesnake since both are healers.
Nux provides heavy area damage with his Ultrasonic Pulse. When combined with Tychus's upgraded Shredder Grenade, it can easily devastate enemy attack waves. However, it has a rather long charge cooldown and Nux's attack damage is mediocre, meaning that it will need to be used judiciously. Compared to Blaze, Nux offers higher damage, but is less consistent due to being cooldown-dependent and also cannot serve as a tank. The cooldowns of all outlaws are mitigated when Nux is fully upgraded though.
Nux's Ultrasonic Pulse has the in-game effect of psi-storm.
Vega can Dominate enemy units and put them under your control, making her much more useful in the later game when the enemy starts fielding higher tech units. Good use of Dominate is important for getting value out of Vega, as her damage output is lackluster (except vs Light units). With proper upgrades, units controlled by Vega will have their health, energy and shields restored upon being controlled. Additionally, these stolen units will have their attack speed and damage increased by 30. Also, when properly upgraded, whenever Vega controls an enemy unit, other enemy unit around her Dominate target will attack each other for 10 seconds. Proper use of this ability allows players to prematurely detonate group of banelings and scourges. She can also be used to support allies with poor anti-air using her Psi Projector, bringing enemy air units down and leaving them vulnerable to attack. However, it clashes with Sirius's Thunderbolt Missiles in the role of anti-air.
Vega can also control neutral units such as cleaner bots, lyotes and other critters. Whether this effect is intentional is unknown.
A number of enemy units will have their abilities missing. For example, Dominated high templar cannot cast psi storms. Dominated stalkers cannot blink. Some units such as ghosts and battlecruisers still retain their abilities, though.
Dominated units will lose their armor and weapon upgrades; these are reset to level zero.
Synergies
This article or section is a stub. Please expand it.
Tychus's synergy with other commanders depends largely on the outlaws the player chooses in a game. Of note is that Lt. Nikara and Rattlesnake can use their healing abilities to repair any allied units to full life, which is very helpful with protoss commanders.
Guardian Shell gives Tychus's Outlaws a safety net, which can potentially save Tychus a handful of resources, and Tychus can provide healing to complement Artanis's lack thereof. Artanis's army can be used to screen attacks for Tychus's crew and his Shield Overcharge can make them much tougher in battle. Artanis's other calldowns pale in comparison to Tychus's firepower, but can still be useful for helping break tougher enemy fortifications and for defense in a pinch.
Karax's synergy with Tychus comes mainly in the form of static defense. While Tychus lacks any meaningful options to defend, Karax more than makes up for that. Aside from structures, energizers may also help buff the Outlaws' attack speed, and Vega's Dominate can be paired with the energizer's Reclamation to steal as many units as possible. Blaze's oil spill enflamed effect also works when triggered by colossi and solar lance.
Vorazun and Tychus have good synergy. Dark pylons can be paired with Rattlesnake's Revitalizer to allow the commanders' armies to regenerate health in the middle of enemy territory without fear of attack. In addition, since Tychus has very little structures in his base, one well-placed dark pylon can cloak his entire setup. Time Stop can be used to give Crooked Sam a window of opportunity to plant demolition charges without fear of retaliation. Black Hole can be used with Tychus's Shredder Grenade attack, Nux's Ultrasonic Pulse, or Blaze's Oil Spill to perform a "toilet" attack and destroy an entire army.
On one hand, Tychus cannot provide much supply for Empower Me, but on the other, Alarak's minimal anti-air capabilities are easily compensated for by Sirius's SA-55 Thunderbolt Missiles and Vega's Psi Projector.
Fenix and Tychus play very similarly, as both focus on a group of powerful hero units. However, Fenix can also work with a simple standing army which can help screen attacks for the Heaven's Devils. Meanwhile, Fenix can have all of his heroes out on the field at a time, whereas Tychus has to pick and choose five out of nine. Fenix's colossi should also trigger the enflamed effect from Blaze's oil spill.
Like old times, Raynor plays well with Tychus. Vega can be used to ensnare flying units to pull them to the ground, allowing more of Raynor's army to finish them off. Raynor can use a scanner sweep to reveal an unseen area and allow Tychus to drop down the Odin or a medivac to transport over to the revealed area. Rattlesnake's Revitalizer can repair an entire area at once which is especially useful with Raynor, and if the Moebius Aggression Blend upgrade is paired with marine stimpacks, their attack speed is greatly increased. With the extra range of Raynor's standard firebats, enflamed should be easier to achieve from Blaze's oil spill.
Swann has respectable synergy with Tychus. Tychus's early-game firepower can help cover for Swann while he builds up his army; in return, Swann's turrets and Laser Drill can offset Tychus's lack of defensive options. Swann's Hercules can Tactical Jump into the fog of war and provide vision for Tychus to follow up with a medivac or Odin drop. Rattlesnake's Revitalizers are great at keeping Swann's massed goliaths healthy and greatly increasing their damage output, while Swann's science vessels can provide the Outlaws with some extra survivability with Defensive Matrix. Note, however, that Tychus has limited use for Swann's extra vespene. Paired with hellbats, Blaze's oil spill is even more viable.
Tychus benefits a lot from Han and Horner. Han and Horner are able to field a large number of buffer units; protecting Tychus' from taking fatal damage. In addition, the on-death buffs of Han and Horner significantly helps Tychus. Using Vega's Dominate ability allows Tychus players to convert enemy units into resources when these units expire. hellbats make Blaze's oil spill more useful
Kerrigan is able to provide a great level of mobility to Tychus players in the form of Omega Worms thereby allowing for Tychus to free up mastery points in Odin cooldowns over medivacs. Vega can also utilize psi projector to pull down heavy air units to allow Kerrigan to use leaping strike on them. A timely use of Assimilation Aura can generate a healthy amount of minerals for Tychus to collect.
Tychus and Abathur have some overlap in terms of army style, as both rely on a relatively small core of strong units, and both suffer from a relative lack of mobility; however, they still have some synergy. Tychus can provide early-game firepower while Abathur collects biomass; in return, Abathur's toxic nests provide defense. Brutalisks can Deep Tunnel into the fog of war to provide vision for medivacs and the Odin, and serve as great damage sponges for Tychus's men.
Tychus was designed by imagining how the commander would fit had he been in his own campaign, and as such his design borrowed heavily from Wings of Liberty missions featuring Tychus, especially the dungeon crawler “Belly of the Beast.” In this mission, the players control four hero units that you meet throughout the campaign—Tychus, Raynor, Swann, and Stetmann.
The team that designed Tychus was inspired by Tychus's story before StarCraft, where he lead a platoon in the Guild Wars named the Heaven's Devils. With this inspiration in mind, Tychus was designed around controlling a small, elite squad. So in this ultimate “what if” scenario, imagining that he non-canonically survives the events of Wings of Liberty, Tychus reforms the Heaven's Devils into a new group to take the fight to Amon.[1]
Tychus's gameplay style was inspired by heist movies such as Ocean's 11, and around selecting the right team of elite specialists to accomplish a task.[2]
Tychus went through a number of iterations before settling on the small group. Initially, Tychus had a larger army, and his units had a resource named "coldheart," which would increase as he dealt and took damage, based off of the rage mechanic from World of Warcraft. Remnants of this mechanic can be found in Cannonball.
A number of Outlaws were added to fill holes in Tychus's arsenal, as it was found that the small number of units caused Tychus to struggle in the later game. Tychus's Outlaws were initially based off of the classes from World of Warcraft, each covering a similar role. In early builds, Blaze was replaced with a hellbat/hellion based around the druid class. Other caut ideas include a siege tank and widow mine outlaw. At some point Tychus had the ability to call down War Pig mercenaries.
Initially the Outlaws each had three abilities, in order to encourage more micromanagement oriented players to thrive which Tychus, while allowing less skilled players to pick options with more passive abilities. However, developers found tabbing through the different commanders to be frustrating, and scaled down the abilities to one per hero, then creating the mechanic where if multiple heroes were selected all of their abilities would appear on the single command card.[3]
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Leader of the Heaven's Devils
Tychus: Level 5
Tychus: Level 10
Tychus: Level 15
