Co-Op Mutation #297: Fear and Lava

Co-op Missions Discussion
1

Your armies have been surrounded, and their hearts are full of fear. The heat of the rising lava drives them into a panic as they break formation, placing their lives at greater risk as they run headlong into the molten sea. Work through the horror and gather the crystals when the lava subsides.

Fear - Player units will occasionally stop attacking and run around in fear upon taking damage.
Void Rifts - Void Rifts periodically appear in random locations and spawn enemy units until destroyed.

Rating:

Video Replays on Brutal difficulty:

Player 1                                   Player 2
[CtG Grease Monkey] Piky Devouring One
[CtG Evolution Master] [Nostrebor Chaotic Power Couple]
[CtG Solarite Celestial] Ancalagon Signal Savant
[CtG Infested Admiral] 브라움 Galactic Gunrunners

Void Rift Timings on Brutal

Time Rifts Lava?
2:20 2 Rifts No
3:50 2 Rifts Yes
5:20 2 Rifts No
6:40 2 Rifts Yes
8:20 4 Rifts No
9:50 4 Rifts No
11:20 4 Rifts No
12:50 4 Rifts No
14:20, and after every 90 seconds 4 Rifts

[ [Reddit Post Link]](Will add later)

Notes:

  • Each Void Rift has 500HP, and their spawnings are signalled by a minimap ping on each Rift.
  • The first Void Rifts spawn very close to your base, however the Rifts start to spawn further, often behind enemy lines.
  • Time stop delays by 20 seconds the spawn time of Void Rifts.
  • Units inflicted with Fear cannot be controlled in any way for ten Blizzard seconds.
  • Damage from AOE spells, and Mutalisk bouncing glaves also has a chance to put Fear on your units.
  • Static defenses do not get affected by fear.

Commander of the Week: Commander of the week [Fear and Lava] - Online Poll - StrawPoll.com
Mutation difficulty: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxqG6BPSFHrXxExvLlADqnpEDqDdvQZdal
Do you like this mutation? https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxhBOWdiGh4WH6aChO_ER5xDeMAWRIE8Ab

Commander of the Week winner of last week:

Links:
Weekly Mutation Database
Maguro’s Mutation List
starcraft2coop.com

4 Likes
2

62 n this week 2nd.

1st clear. Tychus P2+Nova P3

Mutation (Fear and Lava) play list

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1st clear. Abathur P0 and Stetmann.

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Just prioritize the void rifts. Fear didn’t really play a role in any of the games I played.

You have a ton of time. Crystals don’t matter that much so don’t panic over those.

5

Every time there is void rift, I choose H & H to fastest void rift sniping.

6

#62 Fear and Lava – 5/18 SOLO CLEAR

Mutators: Void Rifts, Fear

What a nightmare. Fear is bs. Void rifts are overwhelming. But I learned something important: void rifts are weak against invis, so use invis units to clear rifts. Have small groups of units at each island to get to the rifts on the low ground. F2A players like me will have to either use control groups or control small groups manually.

Fear… use structures, I guess.

I used similar strategies for the five solo clears. Clear the islands, then place defenses there to clear rifts. Have a dedicated force for clearing enemies near crystals.

Failures [and why I failed]

Raynor, Stukov, Kerrigan, Artanis, Alarak, Fenix, Mengsk [did not attempt]

Swann (p1) [laser can’t keep up with all the rifts; wraiths run out of energy (if I can even get them in time]

Zagara (p3) [can expo easily, but can’t maintain it; Zag herself can only handle 1-2 rifts]

Nova (p1) [not enough gas to get enough units]

HH (p2) [fear is bs; HH’s early game is already super weak]

Stetmann (p2) [too hectic once far rifts spawn; I tried Ancalagon’s infestor strategy, but I’ve never used infestors ever, so maybe this isn’t the mutation to try them]

Will continue trying this week

Dehaka (p3) [can’t get to far rifts without clearing some fog of war; fear is bs]

Successes [and key points]

Karax (p3) [Commentary] Starcraft 2 Co-op Mutation #62: Fear and Lava - Karax Solo (p3) [=Brutal+4] - YouTube [see the detailed plan in the video]

Abathur (p2) [Commentary] Starcraft 2 Co-op Mutation #62: Fear and Lava - Abathur Solo (p2) [=Brutal+4] - YouTube [see the detailed plan in the video]

Tychus (p2) Starcraft 2 Co-op Mutation #62: Fear and Lava - Tychus Solo (p2) [=Brutal+4] - YouTube [see the detailed plan in the video]

Zeratul (p3) [Commentary] Starcraft 2 Co-op Mutation #62: Fear and Lava - Zeratul Solo (p3) [=Brutal+4] - YouTube [see the detailed plan in the video]

Vorazun (p3) Starcraft 2 Co-op Mutation #62: Fear and Lava - Vorazun Solo (p3) [=Brutal+4] - YouTube [see the detailed plan in the video]

Questions about any of these runs are welcome.

5 Likes
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Jesus Christ, people bunkering against void rifts until the map is full of them and we get overrun. Had several failed attempts with at least 3:1 kill ratio. In one case my partner never left the main base :man_facepalming:.

The best way is to destroy the rifts as soon as they appear which requires above average agressiveness from BOTH players.

Zagara P0 is pretty good here. Her units are fast and fear will have little effect when there are so many. Frenzy speeds things up significantly and roach drop can be done within the fog of war.

8

Well that’s not true. With Karax P1 you can create an impenetrable defense so your ally can concentrate on taking out rifts and both of you can concentrate on collecting crystals. :muscle:

Finished it twice as :heart:Karax P1 :heart: with a Tychus Lone Puppy and a Mengsk Toxic Tyrant

Pro tips are as follows:
1. First void rifts pop out fast so go forge first. Defend both your exit and your partner’s.
2. Learn how to canon rush the middle (expo). Send at least 5 probes so that even if most of them get feared the rest still can build canons.
3. Always build probes, you gonna lose a lot of them, defend your mineral lines with canons against flyers and drops.
4. Try to always pick up low ground crystals, after clearing defenders using solar lance or beam.
5. Rush the spear upgrades to maximize your energy income (as always).
6. Put all the points into chronoboost and use it to boost your monoliths - extra 52% attack speed is insane.

It wasn’t hard it just took me a couple of attempts to figure out the exact algorithm of what to do in order to win. :kiss: :kiss: :kiss:

1 Like
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Karax P3 as usual makes this one easy.

Secure the ramps with cannons, no need for P1, they are plenty good enough.

Once secure, get a phoenix and max out energy upgrades. Then you simply fly around the map and nuke rifts from orbit and clear out islands with solar beams.

1 Like
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Never seen you do a commentary video before! Wanna group up and do some videos some time so I can cross promote your stuff?

11

I feel like you got carried, just defending doesnt work.

1 Like
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sure, we can group sometime! i usually play on NA.

i only do commentary on mutations that have very detailed plans/timings. many mutations, especially easier ones, are really straightforward and don’t need supplementary explanations.

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That’s awesome. I normally play on NA as well. Do you have Discord? If yes, join my group here so I can find you: [LINK]

If not, you can just join the teamtrees chat group on NA.

I normally just sit there when I’m in-game. Ideally, I’d do commentary on all videos in an effort to keep it engaging. It would be even better if we could voice chat while in-game, but it’s fine if you prefer not to.

14

I think word is spreading that Karax defending only is getting around. Trouble with that is, it doesn’t work, at least not the 3 times I got a Karax who only defended. No matter what I did, it wasn’t possible for me to both clear crystal defenders/bases and kill rifts at the same time.

The last Karax I paired with went crazy with defense, which was nice, but 15 mins in we had 20 rifts all over the map. Finally they made their first three carriers… but that didn’t put a dent in things. Granted we were never in danger of losing our bases, but time did eventually run out.

2 Likes
15

Beat it as Nova P3, paired with Vorazun P0. Partner built cannons and used DTs to help clear and rift kill, I had Nova run around sabotaging rifts and nuking while the army covered the workers.

Bit hectic, but went well enough. Good difficulty, this one.

P3 turtle Karax I could see working, but P1/0 seems too slow.

16

Did it as P2 Swann with P1 Zeratul. As Swann, I pretty much played as a P3 Karax. Only I built teleporting Hercs to get immediate vision on rifts, then targeted them down with the drill. Herc has so much HP that it takes a decent amount to cause fear in then. After that, built small patches of turrets to keep cleared islands secured, protected the main and expansion with turrets, and used my call downs to either wipe out attack waves, or help my ally push into an enemy base.

1 Like
17

After tries with lots of different commanders managed with P3 Vorazun with a P2 Swann ally.

1 base turtle with DTs sweeping rifts from the map. Put Dark Pylon Range Mastery to improve defense. Getting a ground composition helped (terran mech).

18

Han and Horner p0, p1, and p2 make this mutation stupid easy even with sub level 15 pub allies. It’s actually pretty disappointing.

19

In that case, how about soloing it?

20

I don’t like Vermillion Trouble, so I just cheesed with OP Tychus P2 Casual.
If at least lava could damage enemy units and structures…after all lava don’t belong to Amon, he should not benefit from friendly fire protection, and there’s even a trigger to make attack waves retreat on lava time, so it would make sense.