Starcraft 2 Outbreak Brutal Guide

Starcraft 2 Campaign Walkthrough --> Starcraft 2 Outbreak Brutal (you are here)

I have found Outbreak mission is one of the easiest missions to beat in the entire game on Brutal mode. In fact, you can easily beat the mission on Brutal mode and unlock every single achievement plus grab all the research in 1 try with the strategy I am about to show you.

I am going to break this down by nights and days as it seems easier this way.

Day 1

You do not have much time on day 1. Pull 2 SCVs off the line. Have each SCV build two Bunkers; one at the northwest entrance to your base and one at the east entrance to your base. Place them side-by-side, covering the entrance to your base.

Start training SCVs continuously at this point. Train 4 Marines total (2 at each Barracks). Place 1 Firebat in each bunker (you start with 4) and 2 Marines in each Bunker (you will have to train 4 total to fit in all the Bunkers).

You should be able to finish this by the end of Day 1.

Night 1

Night 1 is very uneventful; focus entirely on defense. You will want to station 3 SCVs at each of the two entrances to your base. I recommend placing 1 SCV up against each bunker and placing another in the exact space in between the two bunkers. Press the "H" key on each SCV. This will leave 1 SCV to dedicatedly repair each Bunker plus leave 1 in the middle to float between the ones getting hit the hardest.

If you do not set your SCVs to hold, they will run out in front of the Bunkers and potentially die, so do not overlook this step. Additionally, you will want to keep the medics in place behind each Bunker so they can heal your SCVs.

This defense alone will hold up for most of the nights. Once your defense is set up, you should be able to ignore it completely for the rest of night 1 (which should be several minutes). During this time, you want to just be building up your base.

Things will get a little tight at the eastern entrance to your base after the first night. When this starts happening, you will get Hellion back-up. Send the 3 Hellions to the east entrance to help keep that area clear.

During the night, try to build a Supply Depot or two so you do not supply capped.

Day 2

Build an Engineering bay and build 3 more Barracks as soon as you have the money for it and attach Tech Labs to all three. Make sure you keep training SCVs, placing 3 SCVs at each refinery and about 20 on mineral duty. Keep building Supply Depots ahead of schedule as well so you do not get supply capped.

Now here is the key part: train nothing but Reapers, as many as you can possibly get.

Reapers, not Hellions, are actually the best unit for this battle. Nearly every unit is light and has a slow attack speed. Reapers deal bonus damage to light units, blow up buildings extremely quickly, and attack really quickly. They barely take damage when clearing the map.

By nightfall, you should be finished up producing SCVs, should be able to start making Reapers, and should be researching +1 Weapons.

Night 2

During the second night, train Reapers non-stop. Park your Hellions (use the "H" key for hold) behind the Bunkers so they do not run out in front of them and get killed.

Make sure you get +1 Weapons and Armor on your Reapers (at the Engineering Bay). Have all 5 Barracks constantly pumping out Reapers. By the end of the 2nd night, you should be up to at least 16 (preferably more) Reapers.

During Night 2, build 2 Bunkers at the southwest entrance to your base. No units come through here until night 3, but it is beneficial to have them ready when they do. Train Mercenaries (Marines and Firebats) to fill the bunkers with.

By the end of Night 2, things start to get dicey. Use your Reapers to clean up the east entrance which is very likely to get overrun within the last 45 seconds of the night.

To give you an idea on progress, On my second time through as I am writing this, I am at around 32 Reapers at the end of night 2. My first time through I only had about 12, but either way you should be on track.

Day 3

During Day 3, I recommend throwing all of your Reapers at the Northern part of the map. This will significantly reduce the pressure the Northern base receives during Nights 3 and 4 (the Northern entrance to your base takes a lot of pressure during those days).

If you have enough, split your army up into two parts (16 or more Reapers). Send half to the northwest side base and the other half to the northeast base. I was able to take out the entire north side during day 3 by splitting my army. This makes the waves during Night 3 very small.

Continuously build Reapers during Day 3. Queue up as many as you can. If you have gas, build more Reapers.

Night 3

Bring all your Reapers home during Night 3. Keep focusing on building up your Reaper ball. You can easily have 30 or more Reapers by the end of night 3. If one of your entrances ever gets overwhelmed, use your Reapers to clear it out.

Pro tip: Every so often, swing by your base with a group of Reapers to pick up heals from your medics.

Day 4

During Day 4 we will do most of our work. At this point, you should have a very large army. Split it up into 2 groups - send 1 group to clear out the Northern areas and 1 group to clear out the Southern Areas.

Start closing the two groups close together by Nightfall. You should be able to take out most of the infested forces by this point in the mission.

Be sure to save at least 15 structures to take out at night for Night 4 if you are doing well.

Night 4

This is the part where we complete the Army of Darkness achievement. Bring your Reapers home for some healing from your medics, then send them for one of the Zerg areas you left alive (all the Reapers together). You should be able to easily clear out 15 buildings during this time.

Army of Darkness Tip #1: Hitting the main bases at night is very hard, however, there are a few easy to attack points: the small supply depot camps around the entrances to your base. You can easily kill these at night with a pack of Reapers.

Army of Darkness Tip #2: Bring your medics with you for this one. Since covering the map in a short amount of time is not necessary, it can be very beneficial to have a few medics along for the trip.

Army of Darkness Tip #3: You can leave up easy to kill structures like Missile Turrets and Spore Crawlers, and then kill these at night with no risk involved. Leave up all the easy to kill buildings when you are out during the day and then clean them up at night!

Although you can clear out some buildings at night, you will lose a decent amount of Reapers, especially if you do not bring medics. I recommend coming back to your base at this point to heal up and hide out for day 5. If you lose too many units during Night 4, it might be difficult to make the timer.

Attacking either of the two main bases (southeast and northwest) corners at night is suicide, so avoid those two areas.

Remember to check the spots marked on your mini-map during Night 4 to kill the Infestors and get your +2 Zerg research points.

Day 5

You have to finish up during Day 5 to complete the 28 Minutes Later achievement. Be sure to do so; send in all your units to the remaining structures and you should have no problem completing this mission.

Outbreak Brutal & Achievements Video Walkthrough

Here is a video guide walking through this exact strategy:

Part 1

Part 2

Conclusion

By following this simple mass Reaper strategy, you should have no problem taking down the Starcraft 2 Outbreak Brutal mode mission and achievements without a problem.

If you are still having trouble, focus on Brutal mode first, and then try to repeat this same strategy on hard mode to unlock all the achievements.