Co-Op Mutation #381: Blind Tribute

Co-op Missions Discussion
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As if Ji’Nara didn’t have enough problems, she is now under attack from vicious kill bots who are bent on destroying her allies’ armies. The terrazine mists also cloud the vision of your forces, so keep focused on her to prevail.

Kill Bots - Invincible Kill Bots attack your forces until they hit their predetermined kill limit and shut down.
Shortsighted - Player units and structures have reduced vision range.

Rating:

Video Replays on Brutal difficulty:

Player 1                                   Player 2
[CtG Toxic Tyrant] Sticksbener Folly of Man
[CtG Scourge Queen] Dehakaburger Lord of the Horde
[CtG Shadow of Death] [Twotuuu Chief Engineer]
[CtG Best Buddy] MIN Lord of the Horde

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

Notes:

  • The [Kill Bots] spawn from any enemy building. Clearing the whole map will stop the Bot spawns.
  • The Kill Bots originally appeared in “Violent Night” as Amon’s gift.
  • The more expensive each of your units are, the worse deal you get. If you are Nova or Tychus, for example, it might be worthwhile to produce spare SCVs to feed the bots, if your ally is unable to help.
  • Free units, such as Stukov’s Infested, Zerglings in general, and Stetmann’s Roaches Away are the most cost-effective solution to feed the Kill Bots.
  • Units have a shorter range than usual. This does not affect Melee units.
  • Raynor’s scan works perfectly to give vision for the mutation.
  • The Aleksander will steal the vision of units it mind controls.

Commander of the Week: Commander of the week [Blind Tribute] - Online Poll - StrawPoll.com
Mutation difficulty: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxUA3Mw8kOW1FkDI7YYCAij6ONogVIisSU
Do you like this mutation? https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxUmR6PJmvCkZ4llbaZ1NG4SFyloHB86gP

Commander of the Week winner of last week:

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

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This mutation requires sacrifice in order to eliminate the kill bots. Not to mention, short-sightedness would render base defenses useless, unless if you have to from enemy attack waves approaching your base. Recommended commanders:

  • Zagara P1
  • Karax P2
  • Alarak P3
  • HH P1
  • Stetmann P2
  • Raynor P3
  • Stukov P3
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#195 Blind Tribute – 8/18 SOLO CLEAR (so annoying to play)

Mutators: Kill Bots, Shortsighted

Two of the most annoying mutators together. Expect many Stukovs and Zagaras in the pub queue this week. If your ally is not one of these, they’re probably expecting you to be one of them so they can get a free carry. The difference between Stukov/Zagara and everyone else is staggering. Even other Zerg commanders like Abathur and Stetmann are much more difficult than those two. To save yourself from this annoying mutation, use one of the two easy commanders. You’ll most likely run into the other in solo queue.

Note that the kill bots don’t push Jinara (unlike infested units). To get kill bots to stop following you, sacrifice one unit from your army so that the bot hits that guy, allowing the rest of your army to flee.

This map can be full-cleared, so aim to do that as quickly as possible. Alternatively, you can just finish the mission quickly. Whether you full clear or not, you should clear the area in the third hybrid spawn area and the buildings near the fourth hybrid spawn area so that all the bots are at the top. That way, you can easily move your army away from the kill bots.

Failures [and why I failed]

HH (p2) [Shortsighted is too annoying]

Karax (p3) [could kinda hold the kill bots at the ramps like Swann, but had no real way to kill the hybrids]

Kerrigan (p2) [Got past second set of hybrids, but pushing was too slow]

Mengsk (p1) [Shortsighted is too annoying]

Tychus (p2) [Shortsighted is too annoying]

The rest: didn’t try

Successes [and key points]

Stukov (p3) https://youtu.be/MvnNiyYhxXY [Breeze]

Zagara (p1) https://youtu.be/2HhIGfPfLFY [Breeze]

Abathur (p0) https://youtu.be/zWiXYTYHvKA [Annoying, but manageable]

Stetmann (p2) https://youtu.be/UCublps6aNE [Annoying, but manageable]

Zeratul (p3) https://youtu.be/48sMexw36TA [Speedrun or die]

Dehaka (p2) https://youtu.be/RNBTjjUrxa4 [Speedrun or die; almost died]

Nova (p3) https://youtu.be/IPaVF_4DfIY [Cheese]

Swann (p0) https://youtu.be/Olvw1nVdHRU [Cheese; not a single bot was fed]

Questions about any of these runs are welcome.

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Sounds like another mutation for Stukov

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Mutation overlap 195 this week 2nd
1st clear Zagara P1+Vorazun P3
Mutation (Blind Tribute) play list

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Done it second try with artanis p0, random ally was mengsk. Failed first try antanis p0 with stetman getting overwhelmed by 10+ bots as we took too much focus to feed bots and not pushing the objective, dragging the mission for too long.

The key is really push the objective as fast as you can as there will be overwhelming number of bots spawning if the mission stalls. Produce workers non-stop to feed the bots.

Some may think artanis is bad for this mission, but ally can push with small units and feed the bots after their shield is activated. Ally with marines/zerglings can push in smaller numbers much faster while ignoring casualties. I killed nearly every wave of hybrids with solar bombardment including the last by flying an observer over there.

I’d rate this mutation extremely difficult unless with zagara/stukov. Even with most other commanders, speed the main objective suicide style and use calldown to kill hybrid is the way to go.

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On the other side of the spectrum. Won it as P3 Stukov. Both mutators are but a minor inconvenience against a never ending river of infested. My P3 Mengsk ally weirdly lets the attack waves reach them though so I have to reroute to save his base and we finished a bit longer than expected.

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Shucks… I was thinking Abathur P2, but I think the locusts from SH time out on life too quickly for kill bots to actually be able to kill them?

Any chance Fenix P2 can be suitable? His units are half price, and half health (which is a pro here), so I was thinking of “putting them into a Zergling costume” to deal with kill bots.

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Zagara P1 + Stukov P0 vs. Terran air (Libs, Banshees, BC) — LOSS
Took too long. It was 27:30 minutes in when we got overwhelmed. Did do first bonus. Also annoying was Banshees do cloak, so it was harder to have detection on hand. Did AoE self-detonate some scourge to take some of them out in that fashion.

Zagara P1 + Stukov P0 vs. Terran ground mech — WIN
Finished in 25 minutes, but with both bonuses! Ally’s exp. got nuked twice. I ended up making some Spine + Spore Crawlers as a buffer, but that would likely get taken out by Kill Bots first.

In both games, allies did use Infest Structure to not only save buildings, but also feed Kill Bots Broodlings so they can die. However, unless they put mastery into that, they’ll become unreliable. Free Infested from ICC seems to be the better way to go. If not, from Bunkers, or pay a few Infested Marines from Rax.

Me… Zergling Evasion sort of hurt vs. Kill Bots, but with Zag’s P1, the other mastery in the Power Set is useless. I did delay the +10 hp" upgrade for Zergling. Was really better to use Banalings. I also made Spine Crawlers as an early warning system vs. Kill Bots.

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Using shells to feed bots is still less efficient than using Probes, and even Probes aren’t that good. You’re better off quickly finishing the map or killing all buildings with the pumped-up angry Zealot.

But i have an idea for a funny strat: P3 Fenix and feeding with Kaldalis. It’s probably terrible and you’re most likely get better results playing normally, but you’ll lose 0 minerals while doing it since P3 Kaldalis gives a full refund. :smiley:

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I was finally able to beat this mutation as Zagara P1 with a Stukov P0, we started the mission normally, my ally would take care of some kill bots, as would I, then when the 2nd Hybrid spawned we split up to take care of the buildings on the top and bottom of the map, so the kill bots wouldn’t spawn anymore. then we took out the defenses on the base next to the pit, got our armies where the last Hybrid would spawn, then blow the Hybrid up, at least the connected attack wave.

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I just select like 20 zerglings and burrow them next to the bot and then continue to happily a-move rest of the army wherever. I don’t care how many hits does the bot need to kill them, they are not going anywhere :slight_smile:

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