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[Lockon]

I’ve been wanting to make this guide since I finished my Coop vs AI marathon recently. I’m one of those “achievement” people and for a while I’ve been grinding out the coop vs AI achievements in SC2. I thought I’d share this guide in-case anyone wants to pursue the achievements and this also help preserve the strategies and method I’ve acquired grinding out the achievements. I’m only in Platinum so you don’t need to even be in diamond league to use my guide.

Coop vs AI Achievements (Insane)


I started out doing the slow and steady but surely way in doing this achievement branch that is pursuing the race AI doing random in medium, Zerg in hard, Terran in very hard and Protoss in insane then worked on the 250 stomp of the insane difficulty. Reason? Cheesing insane AI as random is like a gamble to me. Of course, the most efficient way is to random vs insane AI to cover every ground there is but it’s hard when you spawn as Terran or Zerg. This guide will be focussing on going against insane AI in rushing them. 2v2 is the quickest way to achieve the Coop stomp 250 btw.

Note: Please keep in mind that every player have their own strategy and approach but this is the method and approach i have taken. You don’t have to follow the long and tedious approach I did but the build and map tips will still help you in your approaches.

The basic strategy with some of the tactics is Guerrilla warfare and depends on race because you want to hit & run and avoid confronting the army of an insane AI. This applies mostly when you screw up your build and need to go to Plan B. Sure it’s a long game but that’s what happens when you screw up. Treat it as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and strife to perfect your builds.

Credit goes to KiWiKaKi for the builds I use: http://www.teamliqui...topic_id=178496

Content
- Why do you need to cheese against insane AI?
- 2v2
---- Protoss
-------- Protoss/Protoss vs insane AI
-------- Protoss/Terran vs insane AI
-------- Protoss/Zerg vs insane AI
-------- Pylon pulling
-------- Double 10 gate(10/10 gate)
-------- Cannon rush
-------- Plan B
---- Terran
-------- Terran /Protoss vs insane AI
-------- Terran /Terran vs insane AI
-------- Terran /Zerg vs insane AI
-------- Reapers
-------- Plan B
---- Zerg
-------- Zerg/Protoss vs insane AI
-------- Zerg /Terran vs insane AI
-------- Zerg /Zerg vs insane AI
-------- 7 pool (straight out of KiWiKaKi’s thread/method)
-------- Plan B
- 3v3
---- 15 Coop streak
---- Stomp coverage
- Maps
---- 2v2 maps
---- 3v3 maps

Why do you need to cheese against insane AI?

Spoiler

Fact: Insane AI mine 7 minerals as oppose to your standard 5 minerals so they get stuff out faster than you and they will come at you as if they’re doing the 4 gate…no 5 gate or equivalent (x2).

This is a snapshot of the first AI worker that return minerals.

2v2

Spoiler

Protoss

Spoiler

Cheesing as Protoss is the easiest but when I get matched up with another race as a partner who isn’t Protoss, my game strategy changes. I mainly use the double 10 gate build but change to cannon rush when my partner is not Protoss. So far, the double 10 gate is the best way to go. Sure cannon rush is the easiest method but when you get a Terran or Zerg partner, your partner’s window to hit their side is slower meaning that you’ll be facing 2v1 insane AI until your partner is ready to hit their own AI or comes to your aid(bad idea btw). Plan B as Protoss is go straight to Void Rays to kill them slowly in the condition that you or your partner screws up.

Protoss/Protoss vs insane AI
Fastest run if both you and your partner go double 10 gate. It still works if your partner does cannon rush but just let your partner do what they’re comfortable with so they don’t make mistakes.

Protoss/Terran vs insane AI
Your partner needs to go reapers while you do the cannon rush because if you do the double 10 gate, it’ll be 2v1 at the time your Terran partner have about 2 reapers out which is not enough to pull their own AI.

Protoss/Zerg vs insane AI
Your partner can go 6/7 pool while you do the cannon rush(safer) or the double 10 gate. Your partner can either take their AI on or stick around your cannons. If you do the double 10 gate, they can wait until you kill your AI’s Nexus/CC/Hatch and then rush to your partner’s AI base to take care of their Nexus/CC/Hatch. Once its down, you can go back to finish your AI’s base. If you do the cannon rush, your partner’s Zerglings will need to pull them into your cannon until you have enough zealots to gang up on your partner’s AI.

Pylon pulling

Pylon pulling is when you warp in a pylon inside the AI’s base to pull the workers off the mineral line evening the playing field with the AI and then cancel it before it has the chance to finish or get destroyed. Be sure to move away to avoid aggroing the workers that will be coming to attack your pylon. On maps with separate bases, it’s easy as you don’t have to worry about your partner.
Worry about your partner? Well on maps with shared bases, your pulling will need to be extra careful and wary of your partner. When you pull inside of a shared base, only 1 of you will do the pulling. You need to be able to pull both AI with a sweet spot and you need to watch the workers because sometimes you or your partner will aggro them and they will chase you to no end as long as the pylon is still warping in their base. In this situation, if you or your partner gets aggroed, don’t be afraid to cancel the pylon once they make the first hit on you or your partner. Just be wary to not to let your pylon finish its warp inside the base, as well as not to let the workers kill your probe or your partner’s worker. I usually place the pylon, click back to my gateways, select the pulling pylon and have my fingers ready to hit the ESC key.

Double 10 gate(10/10 gate)

This is by far the best build to go about as Protoss because it works with all race and when you get match up with a Zerg, you’re cannon rush is limited to the cannon placements(off creep) while you have zealots with this build. Chrono boost is saved entirely to get the first 3 zealots out quickly and continue on.

- send the first probe that returns a mineral toward the enemy’s ramp
- 10 pylon (outside of AI base like at the bottom of the ramp or natural)
- 10 pylon pull
- 10 gate - after cancel pylon pull
- 10 pylon pull - after putting down the first gate
- 10 gate – after cancel pylon pull
- 10 pylon with your gates – to support upcoming zealots
- 10 pylon pull – this is the last pull and I call this the money pull because you pull their workers for the longest as you can. You cancel before it finishes its warp or before they kill your pylon or just when your first gate finishes.
- Once the first gate finishes, cancel your 3rd pylon pull and chrono boost the zealots out. You will be making and chrono boosting only zealots from here on. Put down pylon as need to make more zealots.
- You can still squeeze in a 4th quick pylon pull if you want

Charge in once you get 3 zealots out and set your gateway to rally to your zealots because you want streamed reinforcements rather than waves of reinforcements. If you do this correctly, just kill their first fighting unit and go straight to their Nexus/CC/Hatch. Their workers AI will go crazy and try to return minerals but cannot because of your zealot threat.
This depends on maps because if the AI calculates that they have enough force to gang up on your 3 zealots, they will attack you. Don’t engage them just retreat and go back to attack their Nexus/CC/Hatch. Rinse and repeat this dance until enough of your reinforcements comes out and if you retained your units until you have enough, the AI will eventually chicken out because you have more units to take care of the rest of the workers if they dare to engage. Basically, your ultimate goal is to not let your AI return the mineral to get their fighting units out. Focus fire on the buildings once their Nexus/CC/Hatch goes down and their fighting units until they have none left.

Note that if you need to take care of their fighting unit, leave at least 1 zealot on their Nexus/CC/Hatch so their workers remain chickens unable to return minerals shortening their minerals to make more fighting units. The beauty of this build is that, in the event of your partner screwing up slightly as in slow engagement with their AI, you can leave your first 3-5 zealots working on your AI while you make and chrono boost out the rest of your zealots to help your partner or you can finish your AI’s Nexus/CC/Hatch and run straight to help your partner. As long as the Nexus/CC/Hatch is destroyed, they won’t build another one and you’ve got the game at that point. Note: Zerg will have 2 hatch to take care of.

Cannon Rush

Easiest but slower when you get Zerg because you have to place enough cannon to defend while you make gateways to make zealots (the 10/10 gate method would have finished the AI by the time you start making your 2nd zealots).

- send the first probe that returns a mineral toward the enemy’s ramp
- 10 pylon (outside of AI base like at the bottom of the ramp or natural)
- 10 pylon pull
- 10 Forge – after pylon pull cancel
- 10 pylon pull – or until your forge is finished. At this point, you can squeeze in 2 more probe production chrono boosted but only do so if your apm allows it. Otherwise, you risk your pylon finishing or destroyed.
- 2 cannon at bottom and stroll into the AI base ready to place your 3rd cannon - Place it only when your cannons at the bottom has 3 life-boxes left to finish otherwise it’ll be like the pylon pull and the workers will all gang up on you. If you placed it at the right time, you just need to evade long enough (1-2 seconds) for your 2 cannons to finish and start killing their workers as free food.

3 life-boxes left to finish

The rest is straight up easy cannon rush till you kill them.

Plan B
Go straight to Void Rays. At this point, your tactics are guerrilla warfare as in hit & run tactics. When you have a critical mass (enough numbers to handle even its counter unit), it should be able to kill the opponent’s anti-air units charged up.

Terran

Spoiler

Terran is a difficult race to cheese with. You can bunker rush but I’ve had no success with it and the only way I’ve found that works for me is simply go reapers, plain and simple. Vision is important with this method because you want to know where the AI’s army is whether they’re marching toward your partner’s side or your bases. This is where the sensor tower becomes very useful, just don’t build them along the path where they will encounter it otherwise that’s a waste of 125 minerals and 100 gas which you could have 2 more reapers. This method is purely a hit & run strategy so the most important thing to save and retain are your reapers. In this situation, the reapers are “glass cannons” because once you’ve got enough, they take down buildings faster than a blink of an eye but at the same time, they’re also very fragile and die easy if you’re not careful to “bump” into an army.

Terran/Protoss vs insane AI
Same strategy as Protoss/Terran vs insane AI. Protoss partner needs to go cannon rush because by the time you have 2 reapers out, your AI will start to marching to destroy your partner’s cannons so once you have 2 reapers out, you need to give your AI a soft poke while macroing to get more reapers out. Eventually, you’ll have enough to influence your AI to pull back to take care of you if you poke into their base.

Terran/Terran vs insane AI
The strategy does not change with duo Terran because both players will go reapers meaning, both you and your partner are the ultimate guerrilla force. Like the void ray, you will eventually have a critical mass and be able to take care of individual or small group like reinforcements of your AI but never their main army. Just remember that reapers are glass cannons.

Terran/Zerg vs insane AI
This match-up is kinda “meh” for me because you partner’s Zerglings have nothing to pull back to for support because your reapers are just as fragile. Your Zerg partner would need to be able to handle his AI on his own or at least delay/distract their AI long enough for your reapers to finish your own AI. Pulling is the same like Protoss, but you’ll have to cancel earlier than usual but since you’re going reapers, it’s not really necessary since your reapers won’t care if they have units or not, you’re just going to hit & run evading damage.

Reapers

No specific build but you’re basically going reapers asap and I would just limit to about 4-5 barracks is all you need. I main Terran in SC2 (that’s why I use Terran against very hard) so I don’t really have a specific order of the build to go about and I just go about the feel of it. Don’t forget to get the nitro packs upgrade to make your hit & run easier.

Open standard:
10 depot
12 barrack
13 gas
15 orbital

Only difference is that you’re going to proxy your barracks and therefore will need to send your first scv that returns a mineral to your proxy location. By the time, your scv reaches your proxy locations, most of the time it should be the right time to build your barrack. Again, I don’t have a specific build order for this so you can use your own reaper build but just don’t let your AI finish off your partner.

Plan B
No plan B, if you get all your reapers killed, it’s game over. A safer practice with this build be to just rally your reapers to one safe location while you use your main force and reinforcement when you get the chance. Never set your barracks to rally to your reapers because they could get caught off guard or even pull your AI’s army to your proxy barracks.

Zerg

Spoiler

As Zerg, I just straight up followed and use KiWiKaKi’s build and it works. Sometimes, it depends on map as by the time you rush your lings to your AI’s base, they have enough force to engage you with their workers as well. Pulling is important as Zerg using the extractor pull but when you have shared ground, just let your partner pull if they are Protoss or extractor pull your AI if your partner isn’t Protoss.

Zerg/Protoss vs insane AI
If your partner goes cannon rush, you have the ability to pull back to their cannons if you happen to screw up your cheese. If your partner goes 10/10 gate, you can just focus on your own AI until your partner’s zealots finished their AI and come to your AId. When that happens, send your lings to take the first hit because zealots are expensive and they take longer to build and they are stronger. Your lings are pretty much distraction if you and your partner join forces.

Zerg/Terran vs insane AI
Just do your best to handle your own AI on your own. Don’t expect your partner to help you because their reapers are like your lings, agile and fragile. If things fail on your end, just go to plan B.

Zerg/Zerg vs insane AI
Same strategy as Zerg/Terran vs insane AI.

7 pool (straight out of KiWiKaKi’s thread/method)

“Zerg does the same build against every single race. The first drone that returns cargo goes to your opponents base to gas steal, make a spawning pool at 7. Keep stealing the gas, and cancelling it over and over, however be very careful if you have a Terran opponent on a map where the two bases are together, as workers will attack his SCV building, so cancel earlier than you usually do, or you'll make someone not-so-happy! When the spawning pool is making, create an overlord, and when your spawning pool finishes you should have just about 150 minerals for the Zerglings.

Keep constant Zergling production and start killing your opponents base. I don't like engaging your opponents workers directly, rather target their pylon/depot, which will make them pull their scvs, pull back when they arrive, or pick some off if they come in small numbers. Engage their workers when they have no army, and you have 10 (12 if your harass sucked) Zerglings. Zerg is really easy to do, so the end was mostly trying to maximize the best time.

Quick tips againsts specific races. Againsts Zerg, snipe their spawning pool right away, before engaging anything. Also remember you have a drone in their base to make a spine crawler. Againsts Terran keep a few lings near their barracks to kill the marines right away.”

Plan B
Mutalisk. Why? Guerrilla warfare. Plain and simple.

3v3

Spoiler

15 Coop Streak

I’m going to recommend that all 3 players use Protoss because with this achievement, you want 15 consecutive wins. Picking a different race is generally not recommended by me because of the difficulty and problems I have using other races. I’d also recommend that all 3 players use the 10/10 gate build because believe it or not, it is stronger than it looks on paper. Besides, it’s very fast as well if everything went perfectly. I had to teach my pug partners the 10/10 gate but you’ll have it easier because that’s why I’m writing this guide and I can help you with it if you need it.

On 3v3 maps with shared main grounds, your strategy and priority is to focus on taking down the closest AI’s fighting units first and then their Nexus/CC/Hatch. When these are destroyed, don’t linger and try to kill workers and other buildings but move on to the next closest AI’s Nexus/CC/Hatch and again for the last. Team work is important in pursuing this achievement because you want to stick together and fight together as 1, otherwise you’ll get outnumbered easily.

Stomp Coverage

Same deal with the 15 Coop Streak but because you need to use different race combinations to cover every ground, this achievement relies on the player’s ability to use the race. Basically just use whichever method that works for everyone. This achievement was based on luck for me since I got partners who were good at some race that I can’t use well(Zerg). The idea is still the same to cheese and outright kill them fast. Or you can have 2 players cheesing while the 3rd player tech up but basically work with something until it works and you get the coverage. Don’t ask me to go Zerg if I’m helping you because I’m gonna rage at you or even rage quit on you lol.

Maps

Spoiler

Credit of the maps go to the Liquidpedia of Teamliquid.net

I will be talking about any specific details for the maps because some maps have factors that changes your play style such as long travel distance therefore, changing your build a bit (i.e. Tempest). I will also show you the sweet spot to pylon/depot pull both AI on map with shared ground as well as the general area to place your proxy buildings in. This section assumes that you have a duo Protoss team going into 2v2 and all 3 Protoss in 3v3.

2v2 Maps

Spoiler

Arid Waste

Pull method: individual
Standard. No comment. Do your own thing.

Discord IV

Pull method: shared

There is an area that allows you to pull both AI. Just make sure that only 1 of you does the pull otherwise you’ll screw each other up.

High Orbit

Pull method: shared

The sweet spot to pull both AI is illustrated in the picture but this most of the time aggros the closest base AI workers so don’t be afraid to release the pylon warp early.

Monlyth Ridge

Pull method: individual
Standard. No comment. Do your own thing.

[/b]Scorched Haven[/b]

Pull method: individual
Standard. For Terran however, you can build your sensor tower in the illustrated picture.

Tarsonis Assault

Pull method: individual
Standard. No comment. Do your own thing.

Twilight Fortress

Pull method: shared

The sweet spot is in the middle area but you can place them as illustrated in order to make the AI workers travel longer a bit.

War Zone

Pull method: individual/shared (if you can find that sweet spot to pull both. I’ve only done it once)

Whoever gets the left base should be the lesser in experience on this map. The right base has the longest travelling time and so will require a lot more work. Just queue your probe to keep it moving all the time and it is a good idea to hotkey your pulling pylon so you can don’t have to scroll too much. Never build your proxy buildings up the ramp unless you’re absolutely confident that they won’t pull to attack you. Either way, their first fighting unit will be rallied to the ramp so just keep the proxies at the bottom of the ramp. Once you have 3 zealots, the partner taking the left base needs to take care of any fighting units waiting at the ramp. Sometimes, the Zerg AI will ling rush so just join force to take it out before heading to your respective AI.

Tempest

Pull method: individual
This map is a tricky one to go about. There are 3 possible bases the enemy could spawn and finding them could delay your build by a lot. Each player send their probes to their side to check and just ping your partner to tell them where.
In the case that the enemy spawns cross position which forced you unable to go 10/10 gate, switch your build to cannon rush and start your pylon and forge at 10 food in your base. Don’t waste time going all the way to the ramp and warp in your forge there when you can do it in your base as your probe travels there. An extra 100 mineral spent to warp in your pylon at the ramp is worth the time you lose in executing your rush; you can always make it up by chrono boosting 2 probes after you start warping in your forge but don’t forget to pylon pull as always. If you hit the jackpot however to find the enemy on your side of the map, you can go ahead with the 10/10 gate while your partner changes to cannon rush.

3v3 Maps

Spoiler

This section will assume you follow my recommended way to achieve 3v3 coop streak with all 3 players going Protoss using 10/10 gate.

Arakan Citadel

Pull method: shared
Just proxy outside the whole area and charge in like usual. Because the middle base is not pylon pulled, all 3 players need to take down their AI’s Nexus/CC/Hatch and move on to the next base. Team work is most important on this map. Either that or the middle base player could tech up to void rays asap.

Colony 426

Pull method: individual
Standard. No comment

Dig Site

Pull method: individual
Standard. No comment. Do your own thing.

Monsoon

Pull method: individual
Standard. No comment. Do your own thing.

Quicksand

Pull method: individual
Standard. Proxy your buildings closer to the Xelnaga watchtower than the natural expansion. The pulling point is actually right outside of the narrow pathways.

The Bio Lab

Pull method: individual
One of the harder maps to cheese with because of the middle base. The most experience player should take on middle base going 10/10 gate. Nevertheless, it should be the same deal as on Quicksand proxy your buildings closer to middle/tower than expansion. The side bases are easily cannon rush viable if the player wish. Void Ray when something goes wrong.

Typhon

Pull method: shared
One of the harder maps to cheese with. Same strategy as in Arakan Citadel. All 3 players fight as one and take down Nexus/CC/Hatch as the utmost priority first. It is possible to pull all 3 AI but it is tricky. I haven’t had much success pulling all 3. Most of the time, we resort to Plan B because again, I had to do this with a pug.

Ulaan Deeps

Pull method: individual
Standard. No comment. Do your own thing.

[Monokeros]

Extremely extensive and amusing, considering as how my plan for beating the AI is always to 7pool haha, has worked so well and got me that 5mn achievement the first day I got my hands on the game after beta.