Co-Op Mutation #410: Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

The enemy guards the resources heavily, with mines set up all around to protect them. Can you outmaneuver them enough to take the locks?

Mag-Nificent - Mag Mines are deployed throughout the map at the start of the mission.
Minesweeper - Groups of Widow Mines and Spider Mines are buried throughout the battlefield.
Slim Pickings - Player worker units gather resources at a reduced rate, but resource pickups spawn throughout the map.

Rating:

Video Replays on Brutal difficulty:

[Reddit Post Link]

Notes:

  • Large groups of Widow Mines and Spidermines are spawned on the map. Players can destroy these to clear them out.
  • Widow Mines have 180HP, deal 250 damage each with 5 range, and replenish their charges.
  • Spidermines have 25HP, deal 250 damage each, and do not respawn upon detonation.
  • Mag Mines, Widow Mines, and Spidermines do not respawn upon detonation.
  • Workers gather 1 resource per trip on Brutal difficulty.
  • Each pickup give 50 resources to both players [mineral or gas].
  • Air units do not pick up the resources.
  • Running/flying a few units first to trigger the Mag Mines in an enemy base will make it safer for the rest of your units. Zerglings, Phoenixes are effective for this. Han and Horner’s precision strikes are spectacular for this job.
  • Supercloaked units like Infiltration Specialist Nova will still trigger mag mines.
  • The Hyperion’s Point Defense Drones block mag mines.

Commander of the Week: https://www.strawpoll.me/20778876
Mutation difficulty: https://www.strawpoll.me/20778877
Do you like this mutation? https://www.strawpoll.me/20778878

Vote which 3 commanders you think are the best for this mutation below.

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

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Mutation overlap 226 this week 2nd

1st clear Tychus P2+Zeratul P3

Mutation (Beggars can’t be Choosers) play list

Slim Pickings is always tedious. But Stukov P3 somewhat works here. Just as long as you don’t forget to invest collected money into Infested Compound upgrades, Bunker construction and Overlord/Overseer production.

[Brutal] Nova (P3) Solo: https://youtu.be/Iu21gtJok7w

Run started by sending more than 20 SCVs to patrol the main base in order to gather some free resources. Since I played with full mastery cooldown reduction in Nuke and Holo Decay, I took advantage on that; by using Nukes right in time (or at least whenever I could). My whole army consisted of 4 Elite Siege Tanks and 1 Raven. Spider mines helped a lot against enemy Protoss. I almost missed a Nuke in the last part of my run, but fixed it asap. Skipped the bonus because I felt I would fail otherwise.

[Brutal] Karax (P3) + Ally Zagara: https://youtu.be/CdROt5h0yd8

I didn’t like this because it took sooooo long to take control of all the locks. Ally didn’t wait for observers to be placed in key locations and started suiciding all banelings and scourges without getting enough Overseers. I wasn’t sure to make an army, and better decided to build up some static D in every lock we took. We skipped the bonus because we didn’t have enough time.

[For Fun, Brutal] Nexus Co-Op Raynor Solo: https://youtu.be/gGSb1TW0hp0

Raynor’s perk are expensive, so I had to spend wisely all the resources picked up throughout the map!

I agree. It can be a huge pain. However its at least manageable if someone is making a point to collect resources efficiently throughout the game. I like this mutation overall though. I think it is a nice mix of challenging, but also fun.

For this one, you’ll need to cover the following areas…
—Clearing/minesweeping
They tend to go hand-in-hand as clearing out defenses (units and towers) is helpful, but you can be hard countered by mines.

—resource collection
Anybody can do this with workers by Shift+ left clicking. And it’s worth taking them off min/gas lines since the payout is far better

—defense
In lieu of setting up towers, have somebody who can teleport, or take care of things remotely

Stetmann P2 covered those nicely. Super Gary can outrange WM with his regular attack, but a cleansing E-Gorb does wonders as always. He can tank WM and MM hits with his 2K hp pool. Have him in a green zone for awhile (which you shouldn’t be leaving anyways, esp. on P2), and you’ll be fully healed, good to go! :slight_smile:

First 2 games where my allies were Vorazun… lost. We were close to getting the final lock (top left)! Skipped bonus
3rd game got paired with Tychus P2. We got the bonus and finished with the locks overloaded at 58.5% (so far cry from the previous games. Not even close to losing!)

This mutation requires expendable units, as they used as cannon fodder to seek out mines, escorting more expensive units to secure the locks. Recommended commanders:

  • Tychus P2
  • Raynor P3
  • Zagara P1
  • Stukov P3
  • Mengsk P3
  • Zeratul P3
  • HH P1-P3
  • Stetmann P1/P2
  • Karax P3

#226 Beggars Can’t Be Choosers – SOLO ALL CLEAR

Mutators: Slim Pickings, Minesweeper, Mag-nificent

https:// youtube.com/shorts/2oWay7olnRI?feature=share

Not difficult for most commanders with hero units; just annoying.

Look for widow mine imprints on the ground. This will be a bit more difficult with a zerg enemy.

Spread out buildings so that you have vision of the entire main area. Hotkey workers and shift click resources. After clearing the closer locks, you can patrol workers to collect resources from those areas as well. If your commander really needs gas, mine from the gas geysers, too. Mining minerals from the natural is usually not worth it.

For solo queue: Stetmann, Zeratul, Dehaka, Kerrigan, Nova

For duos: two of the commanders above

Successes [and key points]

Abathur (p2) https://youtu.be/mZSna0ZRSSs

Abathur (p3) https://youtu.be/GBu710XTV4k

Alarak (p3) https://youtu.be/9wJ3duvBxbo

Artanis (p3) https://youtu.be/7Lhi16dc_0M

Dehaka (p2) https://youtu.be/lbFKYQVTrPU

Fenix (p2) https://youtu.be/I_sVxvBqu5Q

HH (p2) https://youtu.be/oDbjh50VZLs

Karax (p3) https://youtu.be/MhukDG9w4FU

Kerrigan (p2) https://youtu.be/8BDd2SYcKn0

Mengsk (p1) https://youtu.be/ixh3QPwgxI4

Nova (p3) https://youtu.be/JNH0zmANp7I

Raynor (p3) https://youtu.be/SIO48YcquiI

Stetmann (p2) https://youtu.be/rMUSrik2phE

Stukov (p3) https://youtu.be/aoLjFYUqMaE

Swann (p1) https://youtu.be/1XEO9Dp6M2I

Tychus (p2) https://youtu.be/jzqWK-OkWgA

Vorazun (p3) https://youtu.be/FJYoVklR3O0

Zagara (p3) https://youtu.be/g2i5HZCf7k0

Zeratul (p2) https://youtu.be/95aIeLeAuUY

No Mining

Kerrigan (p1) https://youtu.be/kxcuoV1l4ZA

Zeratul (p3) https://youtu.be/tnt1JDddvlc

Stetmann (p2) https://youtu.be/oTkAnLAdbjk

Nova (p3) https://youtu.be/LC2bDPEZwMc

Questions about any of these runs are welcome. Some runs will be uploaded tomorrow.

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On the contrary, I thought it was usually worth it to mine from the natural if the expansion is uncontested. Never tested it myself though.

I usually do it because some minerals is still better then none. It can add up if you have two bases. However I haven’t crunched the numbers either.

invest in power / utility early, minimum workers to get the job done,it will take 50 trips to recover your cash, you will overflow on it if you are playing great and will only lack gas, map is fast to boot

Stetman is the better hero here, rush Super gary and carry while the ally just walks around the safe zones and collects resources. If you are a detector hero, clean throroughly, check all corners, if you are not detecting collect resources, build an army, and clear waves from within the safe areas.

Ditto. I fully saturate my main b/c the residuals from mins and gas has helped in some cases. Can’t reach that gas that’s behind a line of mines? I waited a bit to get to 300 gas to get Super Gary.

Given L&L is supposed to be a quick map, I wouldn’t bother with exp. Town hall costs 300 to 400 apiece. With somebody like Raynor, Mengsk, or Zerg players (except Dehaka), you’ll want more of them for production (Com Scan for Raynor), but then you’d need to factor in the cost of defending your exp. A chorus line of Immortals will make short work out of that. After a certain point, you’re sinking more mins into rebuidling.

As the other post mentioned, each worker has to make up 50 minerals apiece (40- for Mengsk), AND split the cost of the town hall. DEF. go after mineral drops instead. Much better value.

Stukov P3 is an excellent minesweeper, spam more Infested units to sacrifice themselves to seek out enemy mines. My co-op buddy play as Zeratul P3 and only 25% to spare. This is a walk in the park. Here is the clip:

Infested Minesweeping with Stukov and Zeratul.

Seems like Stukov P3 would be perfect here.
Not just because infested are expendable, but also because the moving legion would collect the resources on their way.
Past a certain point, you may even have a better economy than without slim pickings, and the resources pick up give resources to both players.
On paper it seems great. Not sure how much skill it actually requires.

Nah, it doesn’t work like that. I say it certainly, because I did it with Stukov P3 already.
Too many resource pickups spawn deep in your base or somewhere aside of the main course of the offensive. Not to mention the fact your army will always advance only in a single direction, as you can’t “split” your Psi-Emitter in two.
In theory, you could build Bunkers in all the various places, to ensure that your Infested Marines spawn and walk by all the possible trajectories. But it’s 1) hard to afford; 2) dangerous (enemies walk all around); 3) will force Infested to walk long distances and risk them dying mid way.

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