How do I earn SC2's "Hurry up, it's raid night" achievement?
The "Hurry up, it's raid night" achievement in Starcraft 2 involves "beating Wings of Liberty, on normal, in 8 hours or less."
Is there a recommended mission path to take? Which mission should I take for the branching paths? Does it count time spent on the Hyperion in between missions, or is it exclusively time elapsed on missions. Does replaying a mission affect the time? General tips / hints from those who've unlocked the achievement?
Edit: Just got this achievement tonight, finally! The answer was perfect.
The recommended missions path for finishing the campaign as fast as possible:
From first to last: (19/26)
Liberation Day
The Outlaws
Zero Hour
Smash and Grab
The Devil's Playground
Welcome to the Jungle
The Great Train Robbery
Cutthroat
The Dig
Whispers of Doom
A Sinister Turn
Echoes of the Future
In Utter Darkness
The Moebius Factor
Supernova
Maw of the Void
The Gates of Hell
Belly of the Beast
All In
It should take you about 5 hours.
Source
You only really need to complete the Artifact missions to get through to the endgame. I haven't verified this, but I've read that Supernova (Second to last Artifact mission) opens up after having completed 14 others. This leaves you 8 missions to pick up the units/tech you want to have.
- 3 Mar Sara Missions
- 3 Tychus Missions
- 8 Other Missions, to hit 14 for:
- 2 Tychus Missions
- 3 Final Missions
As to what you want to do with those 8, I'd suggest going for missions with high tech rewards (Zeratul's are good for this, as are Horner's if you pick up the Secret level) or ones that reward units you'll want to use (say, do Horner's missions if you want Thors).
I would add one more mission order (from the same source as posted in another answer by Juan Manuel, probably it will be useful to somebody too):
- Liberation Day - 2:23
- The Outlaws - 3:41
- Zero Hour - 20:09
- Smash and Grab - 6:25
- Devil's Playground - 9:58
- Welcome to the Jungle - 9:45
- Great Train Robbery - 24:19
- Cutthroat - 10:02
- Engine of Destruction - 22:05
- Media Blitz - 14:51.
- The Dig - 28:14
- Moebius Factor - 8:46
- The Evacuation - 24:56
- Outbreak - 20:34
- Supernova - 13:20
- Maw of the Void - 13:47
- Gates of Hell - 12:22
- Shatter the Sky - 14:46
- All-In - 30:08
If you do not care about getting the achievement honestly you can simply download a save. Load it in and just get the achievement that way.
The save can be found here.