Warning - long read ahead
Hey there. I’ve been playing SC2 on my EU account pretty much since the game was released (I’ve also been playing SC1 since 2000, but that’s another topic 
). Even though I gave up on competitive multiplayer shortly after LotV came out, I’ve been replaying the campaigns once or twice a year. WoL is definitely my favourite out of the three for a solid bunch of reasons.
However, the one thing that has been bothering me about the campaign is that depending on your mission order choice the story can get extremely illogical and messy. For instance you can have Matt and the crew congratulating Raynor about his leadership and vision after one mission and on the very next one you see him as a drunken mess of a person and everyone blames him that he can’t get his priorities straight. Similarly, Jimmy and Tosh could chat like they are best buddies and just a mission later they would be mistrusting and throwing aggresive remarks towards each other. I could go on with a load of examples, but I’m pretty sure that everyone on this forum knows what I’m talking about.
Thus, for my last couple of replays I’ve been trying to come up with something as close as possible to a canon mission order - one that would make the story flow gradually, one in which the decisions Jimmy and co take would make the most sense, one in which there is at least something similar to character development. I am aware that something like this has been tried on the old forums and that there’s even a thread on the new forums (Wings of Liberty in Chronological Order - #2 by BartFitz-2928) concerning the matter. The author of this thread has done a pretty good job at putting the UNN broadcast info in order. However, this approach doesn’t always make sense when you look at the missions themselves (for instance, Whispers of Doom doesn’t immediately follow The Dig, which is easily the most natural choice to make; Smash and Grab and The Moebius Factor both come pretty late in the campaign and so on).
Admittedly, my approach on putting the campaign in order probably wouldn’t make the most sense if one considers the broadcast info. But I believe that it makes sense in terms of coherent story and character development. Before I write down my personal canon mission order (and the arguments why I did it precisely like this) I want to list the few basic points that it is based upon:
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Trying to make the story coherent and non-contradictory (for instance you cant do Media Blitz after Supernova, cause on Korhal you are fighting against Warfield, who you would simultaneously would be allied with if you’ve already met Valerian; similarly, it would be dumb to do The Moebius Factor after the Rebellion Arc, cause right after The Moebius Factor Matt critisises Jimmy’s drunkenness and lack of effort in the fight against the Dominion).
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Trying to give characters at least some development (e.g. Jimmy starts out suspicious and mistrusting towards Tosh, but gradually warms up to him)
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Trying to get side characters aboard the Hyperion as early as possible, respectively to keep them onboard for as long as possible in order to get as much lore-related dialogue with them as you can (this applies mostly to Tosh and Hanson and it basically means that one should aim to do both their introductory missions ASAP)
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Trying to pick up missions depending on how urgent each one of them is presented to be (e.g. there are missions like The Evacuation and The Moebius Factor, which are literally presented as emergency distress calls, so from Jimmy’s perspective it wouldn’t make any sense to go robbing trains, or picking up artifacts instead of helping these folks ASAP)
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Trying to put a space of at least 2 or 3 missions between the cinematics. I remember how SC1 had a few cinematics in each campaign, but they were never after two consecutive missions. I feel like it would make sense lorewise to have the cinematics evenly spread throughout the campaign and not clustered right after one another.
So, having said all this, here goes:
- Liberation Day
- The Outlaws
- Zero Hour
The order on these three is predetermined, so duh.
- The Evacuation.
Pretty much a no-brainer, first of all you get Hanson onboard ASAP, which gives you the most story-related dialogue (see point #3 above) and second, this is a freaking distress-call and Jimmy sure as hell wouldn’t keep these folks waiting to go and cash-in an artifact instead.
- The Devil’s Playground
- Smash and Grab
Again, I pick my missions in accordance with point #3 - getting Tosh on the ship ASAP. Also, choosing this order gives me a nice three-mission gap between the Escape from Mar Sara cinematic, which comes after Zero Hour, and the Queen of Blades cinematic, which comes after Smash and Grab. Besides, the Hyperion crew talks about how the money from Redstone (The Devil’s Playground) helped The Raiders get back on their feet, so, considering that from lore perspective Jimmy is literally struggling, it’s logical to have this immediate reward mission done before Smash and Grab, where you only pick up an artifact piece (in the game Smash and Grab also gives you cash, but I believe that story-wise Jimmy picks up the artifacts on order to sell them to Moebius and cash-in on them later on, so he doesn’t get an immediate reward; there’s even an in-game dialogue in which he asks Tychus something in the lines of “When are the Moebius boys going to show up and pay us for the artifacts?”).
- Outbreak
- Welcome to the Jungle
- The Dig
Pretty much the same here, helping folks is our #1 priority, then we get some cash from helping Tosh, then we pick up an artifact. Also, I feel that it’s absolutely vital for the development of the relationship between Jim and Tosh to do The Dig immediately after Welcome to the Jungle, but I’ll elaborate on this in the next two paragraphs. Again, we have a three-mission gap between cinematics, so point #5 is also taken into consideration.
- Whispers of Doom
The only natural follow-up to the Zeratul cinematic is to immediately use the crystal and do this mission. Plus, it’s once again a major point of the Raynor-Tosh dynamic - first we have Jimmy learn for the first time that Tosh migh be pursuing some secret agenda of his with the Jorium and the Terrazine (this happens immediately after Welcome to the Jungle), then we have their chit-chat after The Dig, during which Jimmy literally shouts at Tosh to get his nose outta other people’s business (showing his growing mistrust towards him after the revelation in the previous mission) and now we have them once again being rather rude and mistrusting towards one another. From here on their relationship can either start getting better or deteriorate completely (which sort of naturally leads us to the next mission, where Jim has to make precisely this choice). Also, on a side note I think that it makes more sense to have Jimmy take breaks between the visions from the crystal. First of all, he needs these breaks to make up his mind about what he sees. Second, using the crystal seems to be very exhausting (mentally) and takes up a lot of time (in the dialogue Matt says that Jim has been in the lab for hours), so once again it’s illogical to have Jimmy go through all four visions in one sit-down.
- Breakout
Let’s sum it up again: Jim starts suspecting Tosh of foul play after Mission 8 (Welcome to the Jungle), snaps at him after Mission 9 (The Dig) and is once again rather resentful after Mission 10 (Whispers of Doom). Then comes Nova - a woman, who is known to be one of the best assassins under the command of your most hated enemy - and you are given a choice whether to trust her or not. But why on earth would you ever side with her, eh? Unless… she claims that a guy from your entourage, whom you’re already suspisious of, is going to stab you in the back and build his own army of psychotic killers. The fact that you’re given a choice here (i.e. Jimmy is hesitating) makes a lot more sense if it comes right after this small arc of three mission, where you don’t seem to get along with Tosh. Of course, as much as you suspect him, you’d never side with a FREAKING DOMINION ASSASSIN, so you turn Nova down and go liberate yourself some prisoners. Now your previous mistrust is behind your backs, so you and Tosh are gradually becoming BFF’s. Matt is lowkey proud of you, but hints that there’s still a long way to go with the whole revolution thing (we’ll get there in a few missions, Matt, don’t worry). Also, in accordance with point #5 we have gap of two mission between cinematics.
- A Sinister Turn
Nothing special here. Jim has taken a little break and is ready for another vision. Also, putting this mission here is good for two reasons: 1) it gives us another two-mission gap between cinematics, since the next one is going to be The Moebius Factor, which has a cinematic after it; 2) because of the specifics of the Rebellion Arc (see below) this is the only chance for Jim to see the Hybrid before Piercing the Shroud.
- The Moebius Factor
- The Great Train Robbery
- Cutthroat
- Engine of Destruction
- Media Blitz
- Piercing the Shroud
First we have a distress-call mission, so we do it ASAP. While on it, we meet Kerrigan and then Jimmy falls into a drunken stupor and dreams about how she got left behind. Matt is disappointed with him and tries to talks some sense, insisting that he has to figure himself out and finally start leading their revolution against the Dominion properly. I feel that this is Jimmy’s big wake-up call. After this he sets his priorities, gets motivated and finally starts leading the fight for justice. I firmly believe that in this scenario all the Rebellion mission MUST be done right after one another. This includes Piercing the Shroud - even though it’s not directly aimed at confronting Mengsk (at least not initially), it’s quite logical to go to the lab immediately after finding those top-secret documents. Also, there’s one more important moment concerning the mission order here: the option to go to Tarsonis and rob some trains has been there for a while now, but Jim hasn’t taken it. Why? Cause the last time he was on Tarsonis was also the time when Mengsk abandoned Kerrigan - something that Jim is still traumatised about 4 years later. So I feel that dreaming about Kerrigan being abandoned, then getting pep-talked by Matt and THEN heading straight to Tarsonis and coming to terms with his past and his guilty conscience not only makes the most sense, but is also a great character development for Jimbo.
On a side note, I admit that having Donny go bonkers after Media Blitz and the return as an anchorman for the final few missions makes zero sense. But in order to avoid that, you literally have to do Media Blitz and Piercing the Shroud last RIGHT before Char, which makes even less sense. So I’m going with the lesser evil here.
- Echoes of the Future
Jim has had some great success against the Dominion, but seeing the Hybrid in the lab has unsettled him. A lot. So he decides to take some time and goes back to the crystal, where he has seen the Hybrid for the first time in order to try and find some more answers.
- Safe Haven/Haven’s Fall
- Supernova
- In Utter Darkness
- Maw of the Void
I must admit that Safe Haven/Haven’s Fall was probably the toughest mission in terms of choosing where exactly to put it on my list. On one hand, I wanted to keep Hanson onboard for as long as possible in order to get the extra dialogue (see point #3). On the other hand, this mission seems to have at least a certain level of emergency to it and besides leaving it for the very end makes zero sense in terms of story flow. After quite a bit of deliberation, I decided to leave this mission hang for a while (I believe that its emergency level is low enough - you don’t get a distress call per se, but rather some cryptic info that “the colony has gone dark and doesn’t answer”, so it’s not completely unrealistic to just let it hang, while you’re flying high kicking Dominion butt), but still do it before Supernova and Maw of the Void. I feel that the final arc, which these two missions lead directly towards, shouldn’t be interrupted (at least not by “real-life missions”, crystal visions is a whole different story).
Also, I prefer to do Haven’s Fall, even though I know that Safe Haven is the canon version. First of all, Safe Haven is devoid of all logic and this has been discussed numerous times on these forums. Second, I like to have a darker and grittier mission like Haven’s Fall at this point, because it’s a good counterpoint to Raynor’s triumph against the Dominion a couple of missions past. It’s something that really brings him right back to earth, reminding him that his succes against Mengsk means nothing while there’s still the much bigger threat of the Zerg. Hell, one could even consider that he’s blaming himself, because he was too busy fighting the Dominion and postponed Haven for so long (hence it comes so late in the campaign) that when he arrived the colony was already lost (in the post-mission dialogue he even laments not having conatined the situation earlier). Thus, here I prefer to diverge a little bit from the original canon.
Afterwards it’s pretty straightforward. Supernova is the only thing on your starmap, so you go and do it. Then you side with Valerian and everyone onboard the Hyperion is pissed. This is why I think that In Utter Darkness should come after Supernova - after the latter Raynor snaps at his crew members for critisising him and you can clearly see that he is doing this out of pure emotion, not out of reason. With everyone angry at him, he isolates himself in the lab and decides to clear his head from his real-life issues by seeing the last vision from the crystal. Afterwards he knows that there is a reason to save Kerrigan and that this reason is much bigger than his personal feelings. With renewed confidence and purpose, he builds-up on his alliance with Valerian (Maw of The Void), gives his crew a pep talk, which is much more than simply “boo-hoo, I want my GF back” (Bar Fight) and heads of to Char for his biggest battle yet.
- Gates of Hell
- Belly of the Beast/Shatter the Sky
- All In
Once again, pre-set order here, nothing to comment on.
So, once again, sorry for the long post. Here’s a sum up of my headcanon mission order:
- Liberation Day
Old Times (cinematic) - The Outlaws
- Zero Hour
Escape from Mar Sara (cinematic) - The Evacuation
- The Devil’s Playground
- Smash and Grab
Queen of Blades (cinematic) - Outbreak
- Welcome to the Jungle
- The Dig
Zeratul’s Warning (cinematic)
The Prophecy (cinematic) - Whispers of Doom
- Breakout
A Better Tomorrow (cinematic) - A Sinister Turn
- The Moebius Factor
The Betrayal (cinematic)
…Who We Choose to Be (cinematic) - The Great Train Robbery
- Cutthroat
- Engine of Destruction
- Media Blitz
Hearts and Minds (cinematic) - Piercing the Shroud
- Echoes of the Future
- Haven’s Fall
Infested (cinematic) - Supernova
Heir Apparent (cinematic) - In Utter Darkness
- Maw of the Void
Bar Fight (cinematic)
Dangerous Game (cinematic) - The Gates of Hell
Card to Play (cinematic) - Belly of the Beast
Fire and Fury (cinematic) - All In
Showdown (cinematic)
Please tell me what do you think, y’all. I’d love to hear some feedback and have discussion on this mission order, especially from people with more experince on this forum!
