Starcraft 2 Smash and Grab Achievements

Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide --> Starcraft 2 Campaign Guide --> Starcraft 2 Smash and Grab Achievements

Unlocking the Starcraft 2 Smash and Grab achievements is not too difficult. I think that these are quite a bit easier than the Zero Hour achievements that we were tasked with unlocking in the previous mission.

As usual, there are three achievements: Smash and Grab, Rock Solid, and Hit & Run. Below, you will find strategies for unlocking each one of these achievements. If you need help with the Brutal mode version, see the Smash and Grab Brutal Guide.

I will also be including the Smash and Grab Research locations at the bottom of this article as well.

Smash and Grab Achievement

Unlocked by completing the mission. This one does not require much explanation as you will automatically unlock this when working on the Rock Solid or Hit & Run achievement.

Rock Solid Achievement

This achievement is unlocked by killing the final 3 Colossi without losing any units. This is actually quite easy and can even be done in Brutal mode. However, I recommend doing it in Normal mode (you can pick up the Protoss Relics at the same time).

All that you have to do is have enough units so that you can quickly kill the Colossi. I found that 24 Marauders was enough so that you did not even need to have Medics around. Just stand around in the Protoss players base and build more units.

The other thing you want to do is not use any Marines. They die easily since they have such low HP totals. It is better to just use Marauders and Medics.

An alternative method is to build Bunkers by the Colossi and load your units into them before triggering the event (stepping into the green circle triggers the event). You can then trigger the event once your units are inside the Bunker. This is really overkill as the Colossi are quite weak as it is.

Hit & Run Achievement

You can unlock this achievement by completing this mission in 15 minutes on hard mode. This is definitely by far the hardest achievement, as 15 minutes is not a lot of time to complete this mission.

The key thing is to focus solely on building up your SCVs and buildings early in the game, not attacking, and simply focusing on building structures. You are not under much pressure in this match, so you want to focus solely on building enough buildings and units so you can win the match faster.

Here are some specific tips:

• At the start of the match, train 1 SCV and 1 Medic. The extra Medic will help you ward off the first few attacks with no unit losses.

• Continuously train SCVs until you have 3 on gas, 16 on minerals, and 2-3 left for building and repairs. Do not let your Command Center stop producing at any given time.

• Continuously build Supply Depots so that you are never blocked by not enough supplies.

• Train Medics early. Your 4 Marauders and handful of Marines will easily ward off any attacks.

• Once you hit the SCV cap, build an Engineering Bay and a second Barracks.

• Attach a Tech Lab to your second Barracks and start researching +1 Weapons and Armor as soon as you can.

• Continuously train units from your first Barracks, alternating between Medics and Marauders.

• Your second Barracks should produce exclusively Marauders.

• As soon as your second Barracks is done, a third barracks and 2 bunkers at the entrance to your base.

• Put a Reactor on the third Barracks and train Marines out of it.

• Keep creating units; load 8 Marines into the 2 Barracks and create about 6-12 more to use in your army.

• Once you are at a Supply Count of around 75, you should be ready go in. You will have about 22 supplies spent on SCVs, 8 on Marines (on defense), and the other 45 should be units (about 8 Marauders and Medics and a dozen Marines).

• As you go in and attack, be sure to continuously train more Marines and Marauders and keep bringing them up to your army.

• The Protoss army is actually quite small on Hard mode (much larger on Brutal), so you should not need many units to take them out.

• Ignore the Protoss base (no time to kill it) and any relics (no time to get them) - just take out any aggressive units and then go right for the relic.

• Make sure to bring in all your newly created troops to help with the Colossi.

That is all there is to it. Do not wait too long to go in - just remember the Protoss army is not very big.

Hit and Run Video Walkthrough

Here is a video walkthrough for unlocking the Hit and Run achievement. As you can see from the video you have plenty of time in order to beat this mission in a short amount of time:

Starcraft 2 Smash and Grab Relic Locations

There are 4 Protoss relics at this level. You can collect them by simply walking units to them. Here are the locations:

• Relic 1: Directly at the entrance to your base. You cannot miss this one.

• Relic 2: Head directly west out of your base, into Zerg territory. Kill the spine crawler and head south. You will have to kill a few Photon Cannons and other Protoss units. Follow that path south and east and you will pick up Relic #2.

• Relic 3: Right before the entrance to the main Protoss base, you will spot a ramp that heads off to the south west. There is a Photon Cannon guarding another Protoss relic there.

• Relic 4: Once you are in the Protoss main base, there is a small bridge on the east side of the Protoss base, right by where you fight the Colossi for the Artifact. Follow the bridge to find the last relic.

Smash and Grab Conclusion

With these tips, you should be able to take down the Hit & Run and Rock Solid achievements with no problem.