Playing every mission on at least Hard difficulty is generally an easy way to enable a savvy player to complete all achievements on a single play of the mission. In most cases, there is one challenge for completing all of the side objectives, which can be obtained on any difficulty, one challenge that can only be finished on at least Normal difficulty, and one challenge that can only be finished on at least Hard difficulty. All missions also feature achievement challenges. Most missions reward the player with Credits, as well as the potential to acquire Research points by completing side objectives (see below for more details on both). These drop pods gradually begin to descend closer and closer to the player's base, and since Zerg units move more rapidly on Creep, this can ramp up the challenge quickly. For example, in the Zero Hour mission on Normal difficulty, the player has to deal with only the assaults of the Zerg, whereas in Hard and Brutal, there are Zerg "drop pods" that crash into the ground delivering Creep Tumors and Zerglings. In most cases, playing on Hard or Brutal adds more depth to a mission.
New players who have never played any video games in their entire life or are just new to RTS (Real time strategy) type games should probably begin on Normal - the Casual difficulty is very, very casual, to the point that enemies only very rarely attack and usually sit about waiting for the player to come and slaughter them - and their units have only half of their normal HP. Many of the missions force the player to take a defensive position (in contrast to multiplayer), which makes Siege Tanks a particularly beneficial unit to unlock as early as possible.Įach mission can be completed using Casual, Normal, Hard, or Brutal difficulty. In some cases, the capability to produce a particular type of unit can dramatically alter the challenge of a given mission.
New units are acquired during each mission, which may then be used in any future missions (except the Prophecy missions, in which the player does not use Terran units). The first three missions must be completed in order, after which a series of events occurs that enables the player to begin directing the order in which missions are played. Specifically, the player is assumed to have the role of Raynor from a third-person perspective. The Wings of Liberty Campaign follows the exploits of the Terran outlaws Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay.