Waking the Ancient is the first Zerus mission in Heart of the Swarm.[1]
Background[]
Sarah Kerrigan was determined to awaken Zurvan by providing it with biomass. This action was opposed by Brakk, who despised the visiting zerg as "broken". Abathur delivered the mutalisks to help Kerrigan fight off the primal guardians that Brakk sent.
Kerrigan's force awoke Zurvan and killed Brakk. Zurvan then told Kerrigan about the history of Amon and the primal zerg. He said she would need to become a "pure" primal zerg to gain power.
Walkthrough[]
The player begins with a secure base on high ground with narrow choke points. The mission objective is to feed Zurvan seven stores of biomass, which is obtained by killing the quillgor alphas around the map and having a drone harvest their corpse for biomass. During the mission, Brakk's primal zerg will also kill quillgor and destroy their biomass. The player must not let them destroy seven quillgor biomasses or the mission is lost. As the mission goes on longer, Brakk will begin to attack multiple biomasses at once.
In these Zerus missions the player will fight unfamiliar enemies, primal zerg. The primal zerg breeds are mostly recognizable as bestial variants of the normal zerg, and have innately higher stats. The two units Brakk commands that the player doesn't are guardians and swarm hosts. Unlike guardians in the original StarCraft, the primal zerg guardians can attack both air and ground units. The primal zerg are spawned by primal hives, which unlike the swarm's hives are sentient creatures able to move and attack. The largest concentration of primal zerg is in the south-east.
The new unit for the mission is the mutalisk. Brakk's forces move against the quillgors around the map with little warning and the terrain is rough, making the swift airborne mutalisk a potent unit for this mission. An expansion south of the player's starting base is close enough to defend easily and will provide additional resources to aid in the rapid mutation of a mutalisk swarm. If the player has Kerrigan's wild mutation, it can be very effective due to the ability to stack mutalisks, letting the player give them all a massive power boost before sending them to attack.
Once the player has gathered seven biomasses, Brakk will spawn in the south-east corner of the map with a force of primal zerg and march on the player's base. Brakk is very powerful and will need a large army to bring down. Once he is dead, the mission is complete.
As optional objectives, the player can bring Kerrigan to essence pools to absorb ancient essences stored there. These pools are located in the south-west, north-east, and approximate middle of the map, and reward one Kerrigan level each when collected.
Videos[]
Achievements[]
 Waking the Ancient
| |
| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Complete the “Waking the Ancient” mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign. |
| Edit | |
 A Game of Drones
| |
| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Don’t lose more than 3 Drones in the “Waking the Ancient” mission. |
| Notes | |
|
The achievement name is a reference to the HBO show Game of Thrones. | |
| Edit | |
 Rude Awakening
| |
| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Kill 4 Primal Hives in the “Waking the Ancient” mission on Normal difficulty. |
| Edit | |
 Whack-A-Brakk
| |
| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Don’t let Brakk destroy any Biomass in the “Waking the Ancient” mission on Hard difficulty. |
| Edit | |
 Don't Look Up
| |
| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Control 70 Mutalisks at the same time within 20 minutes in the "Waking the Ancient" mission on Normal difficulty. |
| Edit | |
Notes[]
In early builds of the mission, Brakk would have competed with Kerrigan to awaken Zurvan first. This was changed to destroying the biomass. Brakk would have also been killed by Zurvan upon awakening. There also would have been an enemy named a "primalisk," which after it was destroyed, Abathur would have commented on how the primal zerg are stealing traits from the Swarm. Kerrigan also would have had to channel biomass from the primal pools, which would have left her vulnerable for a time.[2]
References[]
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Heart of the Swarm, Waking the Ancient (in English). 2013-03-12
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Map Editor. (Activision Blizzard) (in English). March 12, 2013