Video Game / StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

"My life for Aiur."

— Zeratul

The third entry (and second standalone expansion pack) in the Starcraft II trilogy, focusing on Artanis and the Protoss.

Following the events of Starcraft II Heart Of The Swarm, Kerrigan disappears to prepare for the battle against Amon, and the Zerg depart the Koprulu Sector. With the Dominion in the benevolent hands of Valerian Mengsk and the Queen of Blades vanished, the Protoss decide now is the time to retake their homeworld of Aiur from the rogue Zerg. With the Golden Armada, the greatest fleet in their history, the Protoss launch their assault on their infested home to begin their campaign. However, Amon is stirring and his Hybrids are awakened — the universe is coming to its end, and it may be that only the Protoss can turn back the tide of darkness before it consumes all life.

Legacy of the Void explores the racial identity of the Protoss and their fractured people — the Nerazim, aka the Dark Templar; the rogue fanatics, the Tal'darim; the Khalai, the original caste system used by the Empire on Aiur; and the Purifiers, robotic AI recreations of deceased Protoss who had to face the challenges of What Measure Is a Non-Human? Artanis attempts to understand these facets of his people and what shaped them, reconcile the ideals of past, present, and future, and unite his people as one force to strike back at Amon.

Predating the release of the game itself, Blizzard released "Whispers of Oblivion," a three-mission prologue to the story of Legacy of the Void. Its focus is on Zeratul as he attempts to determine the role that his people are meant to play within the prophecy that foretells of Amon's return.

The game's mission hub is the Spear of Adun, an ancient and massive Protoss warship. As Artanis negotiates with other Protoss factions and retrieves some of their technologies and warriors, they are integrated into the tech tree, players having the option to select three variant units in each tier of base unit, such as the Zealot having the Aiur Zealot, Centurion, and Sentinel varieties. As Artanis's tech specialist Karax learns more about the Spear of Adun and acquires resources to improve its core's energy output, he is able to bring more of the ship's dormant systems on-line and devote energy to them for improved functionality.

With this game's release, the trilogy was made modular, able to be purchased and played alone without needing Wings of Liberty as the base game. However, the recommended play sequence is by release date due to the story progression, and to be able to fully comprehend and enjoy the story. The game also saw multiplayer overhauled considerably, and the addition of two new play modes — Archon Mode, where two players command one force in melee play; and Co-op Mode, where two players command campaign-themed armies based on a story character and their preferred style of warfare, as they play a campaign-style map with special objectives to complete for victory.

Warning: The page might refer to events from StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm without spoiler tags.

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Tropes appearing in Legacy of the Void include:

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: The player is restricted to using one unit each from tiers of units selected within the War Council, even though there's no reason in-story why Artanis can't fill the ranks of his armies with any unit he likes. However, if this was permitted in gameplay, it would be confusing and overwhelming for players to have access to a tech tree of over two dozen units, it would be very difficult to code how these different units would be handled in cutscenes and interfaces, and being able to use all of them would probably invite numerous cheese tactics, game breakers, etc.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: An indirect one in the Harbinger of Oblivion mission where you must destroy the four void shards before the advancing wall of void energy crushes Kerrigan's swarm completely and a direct one in part 3 of the Templar's return mission, where you must get to the Psi matrix crystal and destroy it before the wall of Psi energy reaches you.
• The Aesthetics of Technology: The Templar who were put in stasis onboard the Spear of Adun have a more archaic appearance given that they're from another era in the history of the Protoss. While the Purifiers exhibit a sleek, elegant design as opposed to the more Used Future aesthetics of Terran machinery.
• Alpha Strike: Amon in his host body finds out the hard way what it's like to be on the receiving end of an entire Protoss fleet's worth of Orbital Bombardment.
• Androids Are People, Too: Purifiers are Protoss androids that have the memory imprints of Protoss Templar. They rebelled because they were no longer considered a part of the Templar caste — from their perspective they are still their old selves.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause:
  • The Xel'naga were firm believers of this, allowing life to achieve ascension at their own pace and by their own means after being seeded throughout the universe. Artanis realizes that this revelation implies that the uplifting of the Protoss was illegal, which meant that it had to have been a renegade Xel'naga who the Protoss worshipped.
  • Rohana reminds Artanis that this is Protoss law as well, chiding him to not interfere with a human war since the law forbids interfering with "lesser beings" unless there is a threat to the Empire. His response is that humans were not lesser beings at all.
• All Your Powers Combined: Thematically done in the Epilogue. At last, all three races finally put their differences aside and unite together to enter the Void and fight Amon.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Purifiers are a robotic race engineered by the Protoss in the past. After a failed rebellion however, they were deemed too dangerous and sealed away. At least until Artanis reactivates them.
• Anti-Frustration Features: If you happen to come across the enemy's main base and destroying it is not necessary to complete one of the mission objectives, you will be warned before you suffer too many casualties.
• Apocalypse How:
  • Planetary-scale Physical Annihilation: Done to Shakuras, with the energies of the Xel'Naga Temple. Your mission is to hold until enough Zerg are on the planet for their deaths to be worth it.
  • Planetary-scale Total Extinction: Done by the Purifiers. Seems like even after millennia of stasis, they realize quickly that Zerg are bad news.
  • If Amon gets his way, a Universal-scale bordering on Multiversal-scale Physical Annihilation would take place as he intends to disrupt the circle of universal rebirth, seeing it as flawed.
• Appeal to Familial Wisdom: At one point during the Korhal missions, Hierarch Artanis and Commander Raynor are discussing the invasion of Amon's forces to Dominion territories. At one point, Raynor says, "My mother used to say 'when it rains, it floods.'"
• Arc Words: There's nary a main character who doesn't use the phrase "As One" at some point or another throughout the game. It's practically Artanis' Catchphrase. Lampshaded by the Dark Archon, which causes affected units to globally chant "We are as one" each time it uses its Mind Control ability, which gives the player permanent control of an opposing team's unit.
• Arrange Mode:
  • The Archon Mode gives 2 players in control of one base at the same time.
• The Artifact: In the epilogue missions, Raynor's forces all use the mercenary skins and names for Terran units from Wings of Liberty. The problem is that this includes Jackson's Revenge, which according to its flavor text is a unique Battlecruiser, but here Raynor will end up having several of them in play at once.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Kerrigan, and possibly Raynor as well depending on how you interpret the ending.
• Ascended Meme:
  • A common Protoss strategy in multiplayer is the "proxy Pylon" rush, where a player will send a probe to build a pylon outside the opponent's base, build units there, and attack. The Spear of Adun has not only one ability, but two — the player can choose between dropping a pylon anywhere (within sight of a unit), or dropping a pylon and two stalkers and two zealots.
  • The "deathball" is another common strategy, which involves massing gateway and robotics facility units and going all-in. The first mission does just that, only you start the game with the deathball and get reinforcements along the way with no buildings needed.
  • Mishearings of the "My life for Aiur!" catchphrase have been floating around in the fanbase for years. One of the campaign achievements is called "My Life for Hire".
• Awful Truth: The protoss were uplifted by the Xel'Naga, yes. The problem is that said Xel'Naga was Amon himself, the uplifting was not the usual MO of the xel'naga, and the Khala (the original link, not the philosophy) was meant as a tool to enslave the protoss.
• Back for the Finale:
  • In a meta example, the soundtrack of Brood War, which has been included in the game. On a related note, the Protoss "Briefing" music from the original game is used in the cutscene that kicks off the Epilogue.
  • The Xel'naga temple in Brood War is brought back and used to destroy Shakuras.
  • In the epilogue, the heroes of all three races fight together to defeat Amon once and for all, with their full power-ups and upgrades from their respective campaigns.
• Badass Boast: Artanis makes a good one while facing down Amon on Ulnar:
  Artanis: My will is not so easily broken, Amon! The First Born shall fear you no longer!
• Bag of Spilling: Most of the units the Protoss have access to in the opening mission are quickly lost when Amon corrupts the Khala and takes control of most of the army. Artanis rebuilds his forces over time; presumably, the delay in getting your immortals and phoenixes back is due to the Spear of Adun requiring time to get powered to a point where it can reliably mass-produce them, and/or training the ancient warriors in stasis on the ship to use the new technology. The High Templar explicitly needed serious therapy before going into battle again.
• The Battlestar: The Spear of Adun. It carries manufacturing plants and enough Templar held in stasis to build entire armies, powered by an artificial star, possessing advanced weaponry that can wipe out entire areas of the map, and by the end of the game is launching entire fleets of Carriers (which are Battlestars in their own right) and other capital ships.
• Big Bad: Amon, as well as being the Greater-Scope Villain of the series.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Averted. Unlike previous instalments where there were many bad guys with their own agendas, there's only one Big Bad, and every enemy faction left work for him.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The first mission has you in the middle of one, the skies overhead filled with Protoss craft and Zerg duking it out.
• Big "NO!": Amon at the end of "The Host" mission as the protoss armada destroys his host body.
• Bittersweet Ending: For the base campaign. The Protoss have retaken Aiur, the Hybrid are destroyed, and Amon has been banished to the Void. But all three races have been dealt incalculable losses, the Khalai Protoss have had to cast away the Khala and millennium of history and tradition, their differences with the Tal'darim were irreconcilable and Alarak took his forces and left soon after the war ended, and the Nerazim lost Shakuras. The Protoss have won the battle for life, but not without great hardship.
• Black-and-White Morality: This time around, the game follows this set of morality. The only enemies fought are Amon's forces, so without question, they're evil, while the three major races in the sector, (yes including the zerg) are good and heroic.
• Book Ends: Several times.
  • The first and final missions both take place on Aiur.
  • The first mission of the game involves the Protoss reactivating Aiur's warp conduits to warp in their fleet. The first mission of the last mission chain involves them destroying the psi matrix to stop Amon from warping in the fleet. Additionally, the third mission of the game concerned the Protoss getting the Spear of Adun on-line; in the final mission, Amon's attacks slowly shut down the Spear of Adun's systems.
  • The final mission has the Protoss guarding the Xel'Naga artifact as it charges energy, identical to the end of Wings of Liberty, where the terrans did the same thing.
  • The ending of the epilogue is the same as the beginning of Starcraft II Wings Of Liberty and even in the same place as the original Starcraft - Jim, as a simple marshal, is sitting alone, depressed, drinking and thinking of Sarah. Suddenly, a door opens and someone comes to get him out, toward new adventures. His last words are the same as Tychus's first words said in the series: "Hell! It's about time!"
• Boring, but Practical:
  • The passive ability for robotic/mechanical units to self-heal. It's a late tech for the Spear of Adun, and costs 100 solarite. But, use it and even your mechanical zealots can start self-healing the moment their shields drop.
  • The automated Assimilators for harvesting vespene. Not as overtly awesome as being able to remotely warp in Robotics & Armada, or making Nexi able to contribute to static defense, but you need fewer Probes for gas and can mine without a Nexus in remote spots if you desire.
  • The auxilary systems on the Spear of Adun are basic passives but the power to boost your starting supply, decrease building warp-in times, and/or boost shield recharge rates by 20% can prove very handy, depending on the mission. The construction time decrease can be highly valuable on missions with limited time to spare, for instance.
  • Sentinel Zealots aren't the flashiest Zealot variant, lacking the Aiur Zealot's Whirlwind attack that deals Splash Damage, and the Centurion's phasing-charge that lets them charged through your solid troops to attack and stun enemies. However, their ability to reconstruct themselves upon death and have another full health bar makes them very effective as meat shields, and if two game minutes are allowed to pass without them dying, they can rebuild yet again. Their mechanical attribute also allows them to regenerate hitpoints from the Reconstruction Beam and Carrier repair drones.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Whispers of Oblivion and the short story "Sector Six" imply that what's left of the Moebius team is under Amon's thrall.
  • Also happens to the Protoss when Amon corrupts the Khala. This includes Artanis.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: Over the course of the campaign, the Protoss not only bring the Spear of Adun into commission, but also redeploy mothballed arsenals against their enemies, including familiar units like Dragoons. It's also justified in that the Spear of Adun makes it possible to manufacture and equip weapons hailing from Aiur at its zenith.
  • Add to that the Zerg bringing back aerial queens and sunken/impaler colonies. These units, however, were entirely part of the brood that Amon controlled, not a part of Kerrigan's Swarm
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the third mission, Karax directly addresses the player, telling them which icons to click on.
• Brick Joke: Back in Heart of the Swarm there was a civilian car you could (usually accidentally) destroy during the Ultralisk evolution mission, prompting a lone terran marine to burst from a nearby building, screaming "Oh man, my car! I just paid that off!". In the LotV mission "Brothers in Arms" you can find and (purposely this time) destroy the same car, and sure enough the same marine pops out to complain "Oh man, my car! Why does this keep happening?"
• The Bus Came Back: Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm had stories focusing mostly on the conflict between Terrans and Zerg; the Protoss did show up, but they had a minor role, and those who showed up were either Zeratul (who only came to provide vague foreshadowing about the prophecy and Amon's return), colonists and the Tal'darim, while the Protoss society on Shakuras barely gets more than a few mentions. Legacy of the Void focuses on them and their struggle against Amon. This was quite justified because Artanis spent years planning the reclamation of Aiur, and could not do that as long as the Zerg Swarm and Terran Dominion were still a threat.
• Call-Back:
  • The new UI changes in patch 3.0 brought back the iconic campaign selection of the original and its expansion: each campaign being represented by a character on a podium.
  • The first mission of the campaign harkens back to the first mission of Brood War. In Brood War, a small band of Protoss were fighting their way through the Zerg on Aiur to reach the Warp Gate and escape the planet. Here, a large army of Protoss are fighting their way through the Zerg on Aiur to reach the Warp Gate and reinforce their numbers.
  • A lot of Amon's dialogue harkens back to his lines from "In Utter Darkness" in Wings of Liberty. Artanis also gives a speech late in the game that paraphrases his speech in the same mission, and several of his quotes as a hero unit on-foot are paraphrases of his unit quotes as a Mothership in that mission.
  • The missions on Aiur feature many locations from the original game, including the Citadel of the Executor, the Heart of the Conclave (their base in Protoss Mission 7), the Xel'Naga Caverns from the Dark Templar Saga novels, and the Xel'Naga Temple Grounds. The Overmind's corpse is also revisited again.
  • The Xel'Naga Temple on Shakuras is revisited, and it still has two mineral fields and a chasm surrounding it. The mission concerning it is also very similar to the end of the Brood War Protoss campaign.
  • In the game's penultimate mission, Kerrigan bequeathes control of the Swarm to Zagara, reminding her to remember her "lessons", referencing a recurring gag in Heart of the Swarm.
  • A more subtle one, but the epilogue have you control successively the Protoss, Terrans and Zerg, in that order. That is exactly the order in which the campaigns took place in Brood War. The campaign orders of StarCraft II as a whole follow StarCraft's: terran, zerg then protoss.
  • Introducing the Colossus to the player, Fenix says "Ah, I have heard tales of the mighty colossi..." which references the similar quote Zeratul used in the Echos of the Future Protoss mini-campaign of Wings of Liberty
  • A very subtle one occurs between Narud and Stukov. In the first epilogue mission, the latter says "I've come to say goodnight, you son of a bitch.", which is exactly what the former tells him to do in the 7th Terran mission of Brood War ("Say goodnight, Stukov!") before attempting to kill him. It gives Stukov wonderful closure.
  • The mission "Templar's Charge" strongly resembles the mission "Maw of the Void" in Wings of Liberty. Both are lategame missions giving the player capital ships, that are designed around moving a base around, collecting small amounts of resources, and bulding a big fleet of capital ships to destroy several structures. Maw of the Void has the player's terrans fight protoss, Templar's charge has the player's protoss fight terrans.
  • The final mission in Wings of Liberty involves holding out endless zerg forces until the Xel'Naga artifact is fully charged. The final mission in Legacy of the Void's main campaign involves holding out endless zerg forces until the Xel'Naga artifact AKA the Keystone is fully charged. Also counts as a call back to "In Utter Darkness", just with a different ending, and Protoss forces taking the hybrids' place.
  • The epilogue missions use the briefing, battle and battle results interfaces of each game in the trilogy — the first mission uses the Legacy of the Void style, the second uses the one used in Wings of Liberty, and the third one uses the one used in Heart of the Swarm. You also get to used a setup that can be obtained in each game's campaign mode, albeit your setups will not carry over, and are actually fixed.
  • The Nerazim Annihilator's quotes and his mention that he fought against the zerg in Shakuras long ago imply that it is the standard Dark Templar unit from Brood War.
• Canon Immigrant: In Heroes of the Storm, one of Raynor's heroic abilities was summoning back-up in the form of a pair of banshees, the upgrade converting them into Dusk Wings, and one of Zeratul's basic moves was a strike with his blade.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Xel'Naga artifact appears again and is critical to the plot of the game.
• Colony Drop: One of the missions shown is about preventing an orbital platform from crashing into a city.
• Color-Coded Armies: The Nerazim are green and silver, the Tal'darim are red and black, and the Purifiers are silver and orange/yellow. The Khalai, as usual, are still gold and blue.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the final epilogue mission, your allies can upgrade their weapons and armor up to level 4. Behold Jackson's Revenges with an armor stat of 7 or Wrathwalkers that can deal over 240 damage to buildings in a single hit.
  • Many, many missions can be this at higher difficulty levels. Imagine having access to only phoenixes when the computer has access to carriers and even battlecruisers. And they apparently have build times many magnitudes faster than your base's.
• Contrived Coincidence: The Daelaam constantly stumble across caches of solarite to use for the Spear of Adun, despite Artanis implying in an early cutscene that it's an antiquated material that isn't used much anymore.
• Cool Starship: The Spear of Adun, Artanis' flagship.
• Curbstomp Battle:
  • The first level is a tutorial based on giving the player a massive number of free units to reclaim Aiur with. The zerg infesting that area on Aiur all die accordingly, but Amon may have something to say about that...
  • The battle between Zeratul and Artanis is one. Zeratul realizes that Artanis outmatches him both physically and psionically, and instead goes for a Heroic Sacrifice in order to sever Artanis's nerve cords.
  • The fight between the second Reaver and Kerrigan. The first one was apparently powerful enough to severely weaken her, and when the second shows up, it proceeds to dole out a merciless beating until Artanis comes to her rescue.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: Subverted. Artanis' seeming use of a Limit Break in the "Alone" cinematic seems like this, and then you later learn he actually has an ability that does exactly what's depicted on screen. See Gameplay and Story Integration below.
• Custom-Built Host: Amon created the Hybrid to serve him, with one particularly huge body being his to use personally. Fortunately, you are able to destroy it just after he is unleashed by bombing the general area back to the stone age.
• Dawn of an Era:
  • By the end of the main campaign, an new era has dawned for the Protoss, whereby robots (Purifiers) would be counted as Protoss and as equals and the Khala, a tool of enslavement devised by their uplifter, Amon, was abandoned. There's still a ways to go, but relations with the Tal'darim have improved. Alarak allows any of his people, one opportunity to join the Templar ranks on Aiur, Alarak having been impressed with their brave deeds.
  • The Terrans have this as well. Valerian taking the throne at the end of Heart was the crucial first step, but stopping Amon for good allowed the reconstruction and healing process to gain speed, as Amon was attacking the Dominion with both Moebius Corps and the Golden Armada before he was banished back to the Void.
  • Lampshaded — you get the "End of an Era" achievement for completing the campaign (assuming you also completed Wings and Heart beforehand).
• Death from Above: Your Arkship comes with an Orbital Bombardment option (Orbital Strike) that Karax will eventually bring online and is already crazy-powerful, and you gain the second (Purifier Beam) deeper into the game. You can take it up to eleven and purchase more powerful ones (Solar Lance and Solar Bombardment respectively) as you progress in the game.
• Decoy Protagonist: Zeratul is almost the only Protoss character until Legacy of the Void, even having his own mini-campaigns in Both Wings of Liberty and the prologue Whispers Of Oblivion, but Artanis ends up being the protagonist of Legacy of the Void.
• Demoted to Extra: Ironically, despite being a Protoss expansion, several pre-existing Protoss figures were taken out of the spotlight.
  • Zeratul, who is around for only two missions. Not to mention that he dies at the end of the second one.
  • Selendis was trapped and corrupted by Amon when he seized control of the Templar, and spends most of the game Out of Focus.
  • None of the Protoss first introduced in "In Utter Darkness" appear in-game. Their fates were revealed in extra material: Mohandar was mentioned in a short story leading up to Legacy. His death is why Vorazun is in the Twilight Council. Urun appeared in the Shadow Wars comics as the leader of an expedition team, only to get killed by Broodmother Niadra from Heart of the Swarm.
  • Among units, the Warp Prism is never available to the player, although it seldom appears as a non-controllable unit in the campaign. Given the Spear of Adun can warp in Pylons for free every once in a while, and the Energizer can create power fields, it can be justified by the fact it would be redundant.
  • Encounters with the Terrans are somewhat reduced compared to their encounters in Wings of Liberty and especially Heart of the Swarm. They are fought against less times than the Zerg and Protoss, and they are quickly dealt with. You visit Korhal to repel a large-scale Mobius Corps attack meant to steal the Keystone from the Capitol (two missions), encounter them at the Temple of Unification where destroying their bases is not mandatory and finally at Revanscar after the Nerazim discover their hideout where the Mobius staff are breeding Hybrids. Justified as the Terran Dominion is now focusing their efforts against Amon's forces and has generally accepted the Daelaam as allies, and Moebius Corps is fighting against you because they've become Brainwashed and Crazy by the Hybrids they've created.
• Deus Exit Machina: The campaign begins by mentioning that Kerrigan and her broods haven't been seen in two years since Heart of the Swarm (we later learn she's been seeking Amon and is on the outer edges of the sector), and the Terran Dominion has been heavily weakened by its wars in the first two parts of the sequel and are further hurt by the attacks of Moebius Corps. This is to establish that the Protoss are the only army in a position to be able to fight Amon.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • The Dark Archon returns in the Campaign Mode. You can use his Mind Control ability, which almost works like his Mind Control ability in Brood War. However, like the Heart of the Swarm campaign, the build function of Drones and SCVs will be disabled and Infestors will not allow you their "Neural Parasite" ability, though SCVs are useful in repairing your mechanical units.
  • Even before the player can use flying units, enemy terran and zerg bases contain missile turrets and spore crawlers, preventing the player from trivializing the missions by just using permanently cloaked dark templars.
  • When Fenix takes the new name Talandar, all references switch at that point: summon ability, script subtitles, and even tooltips change the instant you talk to him before that last mission.
  • When Karax is the Mission Advisor at the start of a mission from the Spear of Adun, his tribe caste is listed as "Khalai". The exception is the last mission - which takes place after the mission he commanded and Artanis did away with the caste system - where his tribe caste is listed as "Templar".
  • Rohana's dialogue when the Spear of Adun's support powers are gradually going offline in the last mission of the main campaign will change depending on which of the Spear of Adun's abilities you have selected. She even mentions Fenix by name if you had the ability that summons him selected at the time.
  • Fenix has unique lines if he is dropped into combat in the mission "Unsealing the Past", where he also serves as Mission Control.
  • In the Epilogue, Artanis wields dual-psi blades in both cutscenes and as a hero unit, since at the end of the main campaign he left Zeratul's warp blade on his grave.
  • Look closely at your Zealots during the mission "The Spear of Adun" and you'll notice that they use a unique model with their nerve cords severed. This mission is the only time this particular Zealot model is used, as the basic Zealot is replaced by the campaign-exclusive variants afterwards.
  • The animated backgrounds aboard the Spear of Adun gradually change the more unit types you unlock. At first there's only Zealots running around, but later you can see Stalkers stalking the halls, High Templars running by, various ship types floating in the void outside, and even a giant Colossus stopping at the War Council for a curious peek inside before it moves on.
• Diabolus ex Machina: For the Protoss. The campaign starts with them reclaiming Aiur... then Amon comes and corrupts their racial psionic link, forcing Artanis and his forces to leave the planet again with most of their surviving population in the Spear of Adun.
• Did Not See That Coming: Artanis and Zeratul are completely caught off guard when Amon corrupts the Khala. Neither thought that Amon would be able to so completely derail the invasion of Aiur.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The final boss; he even looks like a Cthulhu! Turns out all Xel'Naga look like that.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: Ulnar. It's a massive Xel'Naga construct world floating in a rift between universes, where nothing is supposed to be able to go without being destroyed. It is supposedly the origin point for both the Xel'Naga and all life in the universe, and Artanis is directed to go there and awaken the Xel'Naga so they can crush Amon. And when you reach it, you can clearly see that you have not yet unlocked fully half of the game's units.
• The Dog Bites Back: Stukov gets revenge on Duran/Narud for causing his death and infestation by the Zerg. Dealing the killing blow to him in the void and killing him for good.
• Downloadable Content: Blizzard also announced a post-release content with the game's engine as a throw back to Starcraft: Ghost, titled 'Nova Covert Ops', obviously featuring the Dominion Ghost Nova and it's confirmed as an extra epilogue after the main story ended. It made the most sense as Nova isn't that heavily linked with the Protoss overall, and the main storyline of Legacy is about the Protoss race.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The Big Bad, Amon is killed by ascended Kerrigan, Valerian overthrows his father, Emperor Mengsk, and became the Dominion's emperor (since the end of Heart), leading humans into a new age of peace and prosperity, the Zerg survived and are under the control of Zagara, the protoss reclaimed Aiur and start rebuilding their civilization. Although Alarak refused to join the reunited protoss race and left with his people for a new home, he allowed his men to choose between leaving or staying. Lastly, though Kerrigan ascended to Xel'Naga, she reunites with Jim at the end.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Protoss destroy Shakuras to prevent Amon's forces from capturing it.
• Easy Level Trick: The second level of the epilogue campaign is considered a very difficult level, even more than the level after it that ends the trilogy. However, there is one small design oversight that makes the level much easier — Amon's attack waves don't include detectors. And the mission gives you Spectres, who are pretty much tailor-made for this mission; they can cloak indefinitely without losing energy, have an area-of-effect stun, can deal massive damage to single targets, and they get a damage bonus against armored enemies (a majority of enemy units in this mission are armored). A squadron of Spectres at each chokepoint can chainstun enemies while quickly taking out targets of opportunity and then mop up what's left, and they'll never get hit back.
• Enemy Civil War: The Tal'darim are caught up in one between Alarak's followers and Ma'lash's loyalists. Alarak found out that Amon intends to cast the Tal'darim out, and Alarak had to request Artanis' assistance in overthrowing Ma'lash.
• Evil Knockoff: The Shadows of the Void are Red and Black and Evil All Over versions of the units of the three playable races. They come from the Void, and they become weak if there is not a Void energy source nearby, such as in Slayn. When they are found on Aiur and in the Void itself, they are as powerful as the real units, thanks to them being spawned from Void objects.
• Exact Words:
  • Repeated mention is made of a prophecy stating that "The Xel'naga will stand against Amon in the End War". "The Xel'naga" in this instance means the only Xel'naga that isn't Amon, an ascended Kerrigan.
  • The first mission in the Tal'darim storyline has Alarak explaining to Artanis beforehand that challenging a superior to Rak'Shir requires certain ritual preparations, and then at the start of the mission, telling Artanis that Ma'lash's guardians need to be killed. He never says that killing the guardians is part of the ritual, leaving Artanis to draw his own conclusions, and afterward Artanis is not amused that Alarak played him like a fiddle.
• Expansion Pack: Was intended to be a traditional one at first, but due to Blizzard switching the engine to a modular design with version 3.0, the game is now episodic and one can buy and play this without buying Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm.
• Faction Calculus: While the game still does and has always used the classic three-faction example of this trope, the four Protoss factions from which you select your units during the storyline campaign were designed with this in mind:
  • The Aiur faction is the Powerhouse, focusing on sheer staying power and charging firmly into combat, such as with Zealots thriving while surrounded, Dragoons being more durable than Stalkers or Adepts, High Templar being able to regenerate ally shielding, and Carriers healing nearby mechanical allies.
  • The Purifier faction is the Balanced, bringing a variety of strengths, with some units being able to survive deadly situations (Sentinels, Mirages) while others provide powerful destructive support if kept safe (Colossi, Tempests) and others offering up beneficial or harmful abilities to others in combat (Adept, Energizer).
  • The Tal'Darim faction is the Cannon. Their most notably durable unit is their mighty Mothership, but the rest of the faction favors sheer destructive offense at the expense of survivability if the enemy manages to endure their onslaught.
  • The Nerazim faction is the Subversive. Their only unit that comes close to being meant to fight head on is the basic Centurion, but the rest of their selections makes use of stealth (Dark Templar), long-range offense (Void Ray, Annihilator), or subversive abilities (Corsair, Dark Archon) to bring down the enemy.
• Fantastic Caste System: The Protoss have three castes: Judicators (priests and rulers), Templar (warriors) and Khalai (workers, mostly unheard from in the game). In this game we meet a distinguished Khalai, Phasesmith (Engineer) Karax, who is in charge of restoring the Spear of Adun. After he is required to lead an assault against the Moebius Corp's base while the Templar are defending the Spear from an attack Artanis makes him an honorary Templar. And considers dismantling the caste system entirely.
• Fantastic Drug: Terrazine makes its return, and is apparently a potent hallucinogen to Protoss, and it has connections to the Void as well. Alarak gets high on it during a conversation, and Artanis comments that he hopes none of the Daelaam get addicted while they're on Slayn. It's such a hard habit to break.
• Fantastic Nuke: Remember Kerrigan's Apocalypse power? Well, after her transformation into a Xel'Naga, it is upgraded to a form that cleans up the entire damn map.
• Five-Man Band: The five main characters each fill a specific role in their group. Artanis leads the counter-offensive against Amon and is the main protagonist, Vorazun acts as Artanis' lieutenant and right-hand woman, and is second to him in terms of ranking, Fenix/Talandar is a Purifier dragoon with colossal brute strength for prolonged frontline combat, Karax is a Khalai Phase-smith (engineer) overseeing the operations of the Spear of Adun and upgrading and activating its support systems, and Rohana, a Grand Preserver awoken from stasis on the Spear of Adun who holds the memories of all previous Protoss and offers Artanis advice based on how his actions compare to Protoss traditions and history.
• Flaunting Your Fleets:
  • In the background of the War Council, more and more units walk and fly by as you advance through the campaign.
  • Whenever a fleet is in orbit around a planet, it will be shown.
  • The Golden Armada actually becomes a plot point in the last set of missions of the main campaign. One mission requires you to stop Amon from warping them back to Aiur to aid him, while the armada itself attacks the Spear of Adun in the last mission, disabling its capabilities slowly, but surely.
• Foreshadowing: At the start of the second mission in the main campaign, Zeratul discovered that his trusty Void Seeker had been destroyed. After the end of the mission, he would be dead as well.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • Sometimes, Alarak and Ma'lash can get stuck in one point during the Rak'shir campaign mission[1]. When this happens, the only way out is to reload your last save before they got stuck and hope for the best. At worst, the entire mission must be restarted. This bug is both annoying and frustrating when it crops up, especially when you have successfully slayed the beasts for the bonus objective when it happens.
  • Another less frequent but much more severe one occurred when you replay games in the Master Archive after completing the campaign and you lose internet connection halfway through, which can result in you losing all your acquired solarites in the campaign. Yes, they can be re-earned, but it takes time and laboriously playing the missions again. Apparently this was fixed in a recent server-side update.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • The opening cinematic depicts a small group of Protoss fending off the Zerg until they can get a power field up to summon The Cavalry. Although the Zealots are a lot more acrobatic than in the game and the group collectively do a lot better against the numbers they're facing than would be feasible, the basic strategy they employ: using a probe to warp in a Pylon, thereby to bring in reinforcements, is one that can be done in-game.
  • An early cutscene has Artanis fighting off Zerg that eventually overwhelm and swarm him as he lays on the ground, when suddenly he reignites his blades and blasts them away to stand up again. When you take control of him as a hero unit later in the game, you'll recognize that as his Resurgence ability; when his HP hits zero, he rejuvenates to full HP and shields and releases an energy blast that knocks enemies back.
  • After the events of the second mission where Amon corrupted the Khala, all of your Aiur units for the rest of the game use different unit models that have their nerve cords cut off. This plot development is also used to justify why you don't get High Templar until much later in the campaign, even though they were part of your forces in the first mission — it took time and training to re-master their abilities once they were cut off from the Khala, and they're only just now prepared to return to service.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The mid-point of the campaign comes when Karax makes a critical discovery from studying the Keystone. However, this will happen whenever the player completes the first three mission chains, which can be done in any order; yet Karax will always make his discovery right on schedule, even though logically if you did the Korhal missions first or save them for last, he would have spent at least days studying the Keystone or just got his hands on it.
• Godzilla Threshold: Repeatedly invoked by Artanis. A fallen Xel'naga has rallied a vast army led by powerful Hybrids that are marching across the sector with the goal of exterminating all sentient life, while the Terrans have been decimated by the events of the first two campaigns and Kerrigan and her broods haven't been seen in two years. The Protoss are the only force with any chance of stopping Amon and saving the sector, and they need to play every card they have if they want to make it happen.
  • The Spear of Adun, as well as the other two existing arkships, are meant to preserve the Protoss from complete extinction. Thus, to ensure they would not be meaninglessly squandered, they were buried and staffed with entire armies in stasis so that they couldn't be used until the very hour they were needed. The Daelaam survivors unearthing the Spear of Adun in the wake of Amon and The End of the World as We Know It is the sign that the Protoss have crossed this threshold.
  • One of the greatest sacrifices a Protoss can make is severing their nerve cords to cut them off from the Khala, but they resort to it because it's the only way to save them from Amon's corruption of the Khala.
  • The Purifiers were sealed in stasis, considered too dangerous to use after their rebellion. Artanis unseals them because he believes they can be convinced to ally with them, and they need the allies against Amon.
  • The Tal'darim, since their arrival on the scene years ago, have been mortal enemies of the Daelaam. But Alarak is offering a deal that will take them out of the war, so Artanis decides to bury the hatchet and make a bargain with him in the name of having one less enemy to deal with.
  • Dark Archons, the entities so dangerous they were outlawed for centuries until Aldaris' rebellion and then swiftly re-outlawed after the Brood Wars, have been authorized again. Several other old units cut from the sequel are back with the Hand Wave that the protoss have upgraded them to re-enter service, because even if they're outdated or outlawed, what have they got to lose? The lone exception is the Scout still not being available to the player, but it's included in AI forces.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The protoss severing their nerve cords to escape Amon's grip on them were mostly done off screen. Case in point is Rohana. Averted in the final mission - you see Selendis and the zealots actually cutting them. (No gore involved, as the wounds are instantly cauterized by their psi blades.)
• Grand Finale: This game is the last in the Starcraft II trilogy and caps off the story begun years ago in the original Starcraft.
• Great Offscreen War: Basically what the Terrans are up to during this campaign: they are fighting off the bulk of the Golden Armada, so that Amon can't overwhelm the Spear of Adun through sheer numbers. Notably, in the final mission, the Armada deals enough damage that you eventually lose all Spear of Adun abilities.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: More than ever with Amon and anyone allied with his hybrid. It's even lampshaded in a conversation between Alarak and Artanis, the former stating that the hybrid leave nothing to save.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management:
  • Averted in the epilogue. When Kerrigan stated that while Amon may not venture beyond the Void again within their lifetimes, but will eventually return, Jim agrees that they "shouldn't kick the can down the road". Artanis concurs, and all three races enter the Void to confront Amon.
  • Justified in the beginning; although Artanis trusts Zeratul implicitly, he still commences the reclamation of Aiur in spite of Zeratul advising him not to, citing that too many protoss have given their lives to make the invasion possible.
• Heel–Face Turn: The Tal'darim, who are allied with Amon at the beginning of the campaign, turn to Artanis' side when Alarak defeats Ma'lash in ritual combat for leadership with Artanis's support. After Amon is defeated, Alarak declines to join the unified Protoss (He had no intention to). He does give his tribal members a chance to stay with the unified Protoss though, and as promised, he will leave them alone.
• Hell Is That Noise: Several in melee mode:
  • The infamous "Nuclear Launch Detected", leaving you scrambling to look for the (often cloaked) Ghost and the red laser sight that indicates where a nuclear missile will shortly make impact.
  • For zerg, there's the distinctive scream of a Nydus Worm as it erupts out of the ground, especially scary if you don't know where it is and could potentially face a flood of zerg units from behind your defences.
  • Hard to notice initially, but Battlecruisers make a distinctive high-pitched jingle when they use Tactical Jump, giving you only a few seconds warning to find them before they fully materialise, potentially right in the middle of your base!
• Heroic Sacrifice: Zeratul gives his life to break Amon's grasp on Artanis.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The Protoss are unified by the Khala, which grants them a psychic link to each other. This also makes them easily corrupted by Amon when he hijacks the Khala, allowing him to mind control the Protoss en masse, unless they cut off their nerve cords like the Nerazim.
  • Amon used the Keystone to resurrect himself, but the Keystone played an important part to banish him back to the Void.
  • The second Korhal mission also features this: Amon's forces periodically release psionic disruptions that leave Terrans completely helpless, forcing the Protoss troops to defend Raynor and Valerian's armies from hybrid attacks until it ends. The catch is that the bulk of Amon's forces in this mission are also Terrans, meaning that the hybrid are the only enemies capable of attacking during this time. A sufficiently large army tends to kill them in about five seconds, leaving plenty of time to tear through the enemy defenses unimpeded. Karax points this out when a disruption goes off, and there's even an achievement for destroying a certain amount of Terrans during these phases.
• Human Popsicle: The Spear of Adun has entire armies of Protoss Popsicles.
• Hybridization Plot: It's revealed Amon plans to ravage the galaxy with his Protoss/Zerg hybrids, massively powerful creatures combining the Zerg's physical adaptations with the Psychic Powers of the Protoss. The Tal'darim are a Renegade Splinter Faction of Protoss willingly working for Amon in the hopes of being similarly uplifted... until they learn the hybrids are lab-grown so they can't become hybrids, at which point they defect and work with the heroes as the Token Evil Teammate.
• Hyper-Awareness: Implied by Dark Templar during the botched invasion of Aiur. They were shown defending Phase-smith Karax - who was not capable of defending himself and severed his nerve cords as Amon corrupted the Khala prior to Artanis reaching him. This is implied because we see this off-screen and the Dark Templar may have received instruction from Zeratul when he confronted Artanis (at the time possessed by Amon)
• Idiot Ball: Justified, at the beginning of the main campaign, Artanis ignores Zeratul's warnings against assaulting Auir due to Daeelam's morale needing the boost from retaking their home world. Also, Zeratul's reputation has become trashed due to him inadvertently revealing the location of Aiur to the Overmind, slaying Raszagal to free her from Kerrigan's control then fleeing, and perhaps from aiding a deinfested Kerrigan in becoming Primal Kerrigan. It makes sense that Artanis wouldn't risk outrage over following Zeratul's advice right away.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: An unspoken example. When Alarak shows up to warn Vorazun about Artanis being in danger, Vorazun suspects that he'll turn on her as soon as she deactivates the force field she imprisoned him in. Alarak's response is to break out of the force field with seemingly no effort. Given that he had previously teleported onto the Spear of Adun's bridge like he owned the place and thrashed Vorazun in a one-on-one fight, the clear message is that if he did come with ill intent, then Vorazun wouldn't be alive to question him about it.
• Interface Screw:
  • At one point, Amon shuts down the Spear of Adun's power to taunt Artanis...while in the middle of a mission briefing.
  • Interface Spoiler: Unlike the past two entries in the trilogy, achievements are displayed on the mission briefing screen. Unfortunately this tends to paint a picture of what happens during the mission, and even if one doesn't read the tooltip for the achievements, the images themselves may spoil something. One such example is "The Infinite Cycle" where Artanis prepares to enter the temple of Ulnar; the achievement images show Kerrigan, spoiling the cutscene that begins the mission.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The homeworld of the Tal'darim is called Slayn, which filled with Terrazine gas geysers which caused the planet to become a Death World.
• Ironic Echo: The Khala is the racial link that the Protoss have always identified themselves by, and the statement "We are one in the Khala" have become Arc Words. When Amon possesses them, this phrase takes a darker meaning when he repeats it back to Artanis and all the Protoss who have rid themselves of it.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Alarak is never punished for his actions prior to joining Artanis and ends up becoming leader of his people.
  • Kerrigan yet again. She kills millions as the Queen of Blades and getting revenge on Mengsk, and ends up becoming a god and living happily ever after with Jim Raynor for her troubles. On the other hand, being depowered, lied to that her lover has died, and then being given the hardship to go reclaim her power, not to mention her lover turning her down when she learns the truth and rescue him is probably punishment enough- her Karma Houdini Warranty actually did run out in Heart of the Swarm. Also, it was implied that her action as the old!Queen of Blades was due to Amon's control on her. She even Lampshades that she might not be worthy of redemption during the intro to Amon's Fall.
  • Could be justified that the heroes are aware that their remaining enemies aren't really responsible for their actions, but are instead being manipulated by the Big Bad Amon.
• Klingon Promotion: This is how the Tal'darim command structure works, but the challenge has to be declared or it will be considered murder punishable by public and slow execution. Alarak challenges the Tal'darim leader to ritual combat, and with Artanis's help, he is now the new leader of the Tal'darim.
• Last Stand: The cinematic plays this, with a pair of Zealots and Templars and a lone Probe (which warps a pylon to summon reinforcements) battling against endless waves of Zerg. In the end, the only survivor is a veteran zealot... Until the Pylon finally appears.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Legacy of the Void starts off right after Heart of the Swarm, complete with Walking Spoiler characters and the Foregone Conclusion of the series.
  • The publicity Alarak has received makes no attempt to hide the fact that he becomes Highlord of the Tal'darim and joins Artanis's side.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of Kerrigan's Stop Poking Me! statements is that the past seven years feel more like seventeen, referring to how the first StarCraft came out in 1998 and Legacy of the Void came out in 2015, while the internal timeline is seven years long.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Averted; the Protoss spend the entire game fighting exclusively opponents who serve Amon or are connected to Amon in some form, do not waste time fighting the other factions who also are trying to stop him, and whenever the Dominion and the Swarm show up in the campaign, it's as allies. Kerrigan actually defies this trope when meeting Artanis on Ulnar, immediately insisting she isn't his enemy anymore.
• Loophole Abuse: During the Rak'Shir between Alarak and Ma'lash, the two must confront one another in one-on-one combat and cannot be directly helped by outsiders. However, they can be psionically bolstered by allies, which is where you and the enemy's army comes in.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Slayn is covered in Terrazine mist from time to time (the same gas that Tosh was trying to steal from the Tal'Darim back in Wings of Liberty). It's known to enhance psionics, but for the Tal'Darim it "brings them closer to the void." When the mists fill the planet, you're swarmed by mirages of Amon's units that seem half-hallucination, half-real.
• Meaningful Name: Ouros. The Ouroboros is depicted as a snake who's eating it's own tail, which symbolizes the perpetual death and rebirth in several cultures, and Ouros happens to be a shorthand form of the name.
  • There's also Fenix, which sounds a lot like the name of a mythological bird with which he shares a by now regular tendency to return from the dead.
• Mercy Kill: Amon takes this trope to a nigh-ludicrous extreme. He plans to end the "suffering" of the entire universe.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Kerrigan is at the receiving end of this from a hybrid on Ulnar.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: While classed as an expansion pack, and sold for $40 when it was new instead of the standard $60 of a full release, the game does not require base StarCraft 2 to play and adds a lot of new content (including a campaign as long as the original game's) despite using the same engine and graphics.
• More Dakka: Tal'Darim technology policy is to steal Khalai technology, then jailbreak and modify it to dangerous instability until the DPS reaches "army buster" levels.
• Motile Vehicular Components: The Terran Liberator Gunship can retract its air-to-air missile batteries, open up its hull, rotate its engines over and down, and bring its manually targeted Liberator Cannon to bear.
• Multinational Team: Artanis's council is basically the Protoss equivalent, whose members represent all of the different Protoss factions across the series. Including the Tal'darim and the ancient Protoss from the time of Adun.
• Mushroom Samba: After your initial battle on Slayn, Alarak gets really high on Terrazine and declares jubilantly that he knows you're all going to defeat Amon easily, and he's already done so in his mind's eye a thousand times.
• New Weapon Target Range Legacy of the Void is less blatant than Wings of Liberty, but still have some examples: Colossi are able to walk up and down cliffs, but elevation play is only really used in the mission they are introduced. Immortals are great anti-heavy walkers capable of absorbind massive amounts of damage, and the mission they are introduced in pit you against a lot of Hybrid. The Khaydarin Monoliths are static defense structures with enormous range, introduced in a Hold the Line mission, and the Carrier spaceship is introduced in a mission where it is nigh-impossible to launch an assault from the ground.
• No Body Left Behind: Zeratul, after his Heroic Sacrifice dissolves into dust, leaving behind nothing but his blade.
• Oh, Crap!: The phasesmith Karax, who is not a fighter, demonstrates this at least twice:
  • When the last of the Dark Templar defending him is blindsided and eviscerated by a zergling, he exhibits this as the zerg advance on him - until Artanis rescues him. Bonus points for somehow managing this trope without any facial features sans eyes.
  • After Artanis tasks him with leading a battle against the Moebius Corps, his response in acknowledgement was filled with this.
• Orbital Bombardment:
  • The "Orbital Strike", "Purifier Beam", "Solar Lance" and "Solar Bombardment" attacks, the former two will unlock as you complete missions and the latter two are upgrades to the former that you can buy using Solarite.
  • The Purifiers' ship has a laser cannon capable of scourging the entire surface of a moon in one shot.
  • The Protoss destroy Amon's physical form by having their entire fleet fire on one spot. The resulting explosion and crater puts all Terran nukes to shame.
• Outrun the Fireball: Artanis has to outrun a psionic firestorm while battling zerg during the destruction of the Aiur psi-matrix to prevent a warp-in of the Golden Armada.
• Power Up Letdown: Ascended Kerrigan is supposedly a Physical God with the power of the Xel'Naga. However, it's a huge case of Gameplay and Story Segregation: she's basically just got stronger versions of the same abilities she already had in Heart of the Swarm and still has a rather piddling 1000 HP, so she can still find herself overwhelmed by a relatively small handful of enemies, and will struggle to destroy Amon's constructs even if spamming her healing ability. Her biggest improvement is an ability that wipes out all enemies on the map, but it has a huge cooldown and only destroys enemies, not structures like the constructs, and the chasms on the map will quickly respawn enemies anyway.
• Previously on…: Due to the game being made episodic in nature as of Legacy, each episode now comes with a cinematic called "The Story So Far", which gives a summary of the story of the game to date.
• Put on a Bus: The Observer is the only Protoss unit in the game to never show up.
• Putting the Band Back Together: The Devs stated that the focus of this campaign will be in diplomacy and bringing together all of the Protoss tribes and forces for the final fight against Amon and his minions. Indeed, that was the case as Artanis not only brought the Nerazim back into the fold; he also integrated the Purifiers and allied with the Tal'darim, some of whom decide to stay with the Daelaam in the end.
• Properly Paranoid: Both Artanis and Zeratul are seriously worried when the remaining Zerg on Aiur fight with tactical coordination, despite being feral, with this worry going further when they discover there are hybrid on Aiur. Turns out that they were right to be worried, because Amon reveals himself to the Protoss a short time later, with disastrous results.
• Recurring Location: Subverted. This is the first campaign since "Rebel Yell" not to feature the planet Char in any capacity, other than a brief mention in the epilogue.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Tal'darim and Moebius Corps appear this way. In fact, most of your foes are red and black, including the void clones of units from all three factions spawned by Amon and Narud.
• The Remnant: What's left of the Moebius Foundation have since gone rogue and fallen under Amon's direct control.
• Sacrificial Lion: Zeratul. Despite showing up throughout the previous campaigns and the first game, he dies freeing Artanis from Amon to show that number two has really hit the fan.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Invoked in one of the Stop Poking Me! quotes for Artanis- it's Sinatra.
• Sequel Hook: Through the game presents itself as the wrapping up of the storyline started in Starcraft I and Brood War, there are still potential future plotlines to be explored in the Starcraft Universe.
  • The Zerg under Zagara forcibly lay claim to the systems surrounding Char.
  • Highlord Alarak declines an alliance with the unified Protoss, and his people leave Aiur to establish their own homeworld.
  • There's a resurgence of life on barren worlds in the Koprulu Sector.
  • The UED has yet to return.
  • Niadra is still out there somewhere, with still-standing orders to exterminate the Protoss.
  • Already, Blizzard has stated that they will have 3 post-game DLC campaigns. The first focuses on Nova.
• Scenery Gorn: At some point, the Dominion capital of Augustgrad is attacked by Moebius. This is the result.
• Screw Destiny: The Terrans, who clearly become a wildcard that the Xel'naga prophecies never really put into account. Which is lampshaded by Raynor, pointing out how he doesn't really believe in fate. This includes Kerrigan - who didn't believe in Zeratul's prophecy but did ascend to Xel'naga because "there is blood on [her] hands" and she fought for freedom.
• Sealed Army in a Can: The Protoss in stasis on the Spear of Adun, much needed after most of the Templar are controlled by Amon. The Purifiers as well, who require a bit of negotiation before they're willing to fight for you.
• Seize Them!: In the beginning, Selendis orders Zeratul arrested when he shows up:
  Selendis: Templar! Arrest this traitor!
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Another one just right after Heart of the Swarm. Remember how you spent much of Brood War protecting Shakuras? Well, said planet gets destroyed about four missions into the main part of the expansion pack. It may have been a calculated, tactical move by the Protoss, and took a big chunk of Amon's forces for the ride, but it was still a painful decision both in universe and among long-time fans.
• Shout-Out: See the page.
• Solid Gold Poop: One of the bonus objectives in the Rak'shir campaign mission is that there are creatures on the planet Slayn that are somehow imbued with solarite. On completion of the objective, it is explained that the solarite are the result of the digestive systems of said creatures in the planet. From the tone of his reply, Artanis is disgusted by the revelation. Yes that's right, Protoss ARE aware of toilet humor and euphemisms.
  Artanis: Wait, nevermind, I do not wish to know.
• Stealth Pun: To Purifier dragoon Fenix's inquiry of Karax about if were he be taken control of by Amon, could Karax be able to Reclaim him (an ability Karax has in one mission where they are both playable).
  Karax: "Yes, I believe I could "Purify" you."
• Taking You with Me: Artanis invokes this. Even if the Protoss were doomed before Amon, he'd make sure to take him down with them.
• A Taste of Power: The first mission has you commanding a large army that includes colossi and immortals, which you won't be able to use in the next few chapters.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Invoked when Artanis tries to explain his feelings upon seeing Purifier!Fenix to Vorazun. Being disconnected from the Khala makes it difficult for a Protoss to convey their emotions to one another, especially due to their lack of facial features.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Daelaam destroy Amon's host body by blasting it from orbit with their entire fleet. Including the Cybros space station, which previously eradicated an entire planet's worth of Zerg with one shot. When the dust settles, there's literally nothing left other than a giant smoldering crater.
  • The Tal'darim Destroyer's pilot has a bit of fun with this in one of his Stop Poking Me! quotes:
    Destroyer pilot: Show me your enemies, and I shall destroy them! Burn them to ash! And then, I'LL DESTROY THE ASH!
• Timed Mission:
  • The campaign is lousy with them, but the dev team got creative with their implementation. You'll be racing a giant beam of death to a goal, or escaping some sort of creeping threat, but very rarely is it ever an old-fashioned arbitrary countdown.
• Tired of Running: Artanis, having spent the entire first half of the game on the run from Amon, reaches Ulnar, where he finds every Xel'Naga there slain by Amon. After a psionic vision where Amon taunts him about his plans being close to completion, Artanis decides that enough is enough, and it's time to take a stand against their uplifter.
  Artanis: "My will is not so easily broken, Amon. The Firstborn shall fear you NO LONGER!"
• Took a Level in Kindness: Kerrigan is much nicer in this game than in any of the previous games. Even in the first mission she's only blowing up Amon's forces.
• Tragic Keepsake: Artanis holds on to Zeratul's warp blade after the latter's death. It even shows up in the main menu while the campaign is active for the first time, switching back to his blue blade after the campaign ends
• Trauma Conga Line: Surprisingly, it's the terrans who get hit by this, rather than the protoss. After the ruinous civil war between Arcturus and Valerian at the beginning of Heart and damage caused by the Swarm's attacks throughout Heart, Valerian and his team hardly have time to catch their breaths and rebuild before Amon throws Moebius Corps and the freaking Golden Armada at them.
• Unexpected Character: Sort of. On one hand, the character himself is not Fenix, and he even chooses a new name near the end of the game; Talandar. On the other hand, you probably didn't expect they would find a way to bring Fenix back, do you?
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • Campaign missions in Legacy of the Void continue and expand upon the previous chapter's trend of strategically worthless bonus objectives that'll cost the player tons of units and time for little to no benefit other than unlocking an equally useless achievement. Some actually impede your progress, piss of allies, or make your life harder in some other way. If you happen to be a completionist, prepare to do lots and lots of idiotic things over the course of the campaign.
  • Several of the achievements introduced in the game's 10th Anniversary fall upon this category. Highlights include destroying Kerrigan's bases when she's not your enemy, completing the mission that introduces Immortals by never building one, two missions where you cannot build any kind of unit with an anti-air attack when there are air units present^note There is, however, a case of Exact Words here: you can use the Warp Reinforcements ability and get some anti-air without preventing the achievement from being obtained, not using the Spear of Adun at all in the final mission, or not morphing a Spire (when Mutalisks are, by far, the best unit to use) in the final epilogue mission.
• Vocal Evolution: Patrick Seitz's Artanis is much improved from Wings of Liberty.
• We ARE Struggling Together: This is one of the main problems in the game; the protoss have trouble getting along with one another and with the zerg, and must do so in time to face Amon.
  • In a twist of irony considering the rest of the series, all such conflicts are between protoss factions. Raynor's forces and Kerrigan's swarm are only too happy to work alongside Artanis. Selendis (her sane self being absent throughout the conflict) is still suspicious of Kerrigan. The only time this trope is ever played straight with the Zerg is during the Prologue, where Zeratul needs to rescue captured Protoss from a Moebius facility, but Kerrigan cannot wait, and felt the facility had to go because it was engineering hybrids. Said mission even gives an achievement for killing a certain number of Zerg units, before Zeratul advises you against doing so again.
• Weapon Tombstone: When Raynor buried marines that were killed by Moebius Corps, he used their gauss rifles and dog tags as tombstones.
• We Have Reserves: The Zerg may be infamous for being numberless but that doesn't mean they can always recover quickly; Kerrigan runs out of hers in this game. She states outright that her Swarm suffered catastrophic casualties covering the Protoss on Ulnar, and needs time to rebuild. Consequently, she's not seen for the rest of the campaign, until the epilogue.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: That's how Amon portrays himself as. Rohana quickly notices it's not the truth.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The opening cinematic / Reclamation trailer shows a part of five protoss making landfall on Aiur: two Zealots (one with a scar over one eye), two High Templar, and a Probe. The Probe plants a proxy Pylon... and is never seen again (they however are added as a hero in Heroes of the Storm and an easter egg for the Fenix co-op commander).
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The final cutscene after Amon's death plays out like this.
  • Valerian, now the Emperor, and Horner, now promoted to Admiral, lead the Dominion into a new era of peace... At least until Nova Covert Ops begins.
  • Zagara becomes the new leader of the Zerg and forcibly retakes control of Char and its surrounding systems.
  • Alarak refuses to join the Daelaam on Aiur, and sets out to find a new homeworld for the Tal'darim, but allows any of his warriors who do wish to stay on Aiur one chance to leave the Tal'darim.
  • As for Raynor, he disappears with Kerrigan and nobody ever sees him again. The only thing left of him is his Marshall badge, which is recovered from Joeyray's bar on Mar Sara.
• The Worf Effect: The trailer shows Kerrigan being flung around by a Hybrid. The actual campaign somewhat subverts it; seems she was fighting its kind for days by then, so she's probably not exactly at her peak, and the battle even opens with her killing one hybrid, and she also deals the killing blow to the current one when Artanis buys her a few moments to recover.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Trailers prominently show Artanis wielding a psi blade on one wrist and a warp blade on the other. A keen eye will notice that the warp blade is Zeratul's.
• You Can't Fight Fate: An alternative interpretation of the Xel'naga prophecy, if you look into certain Story Breadcrumbs. According to in-universe sources, the Terrans were a couple of generations away from being 100% psionic, and powerful ones at that - Kerrigan already required the scale to be re-calibrated with her as a 10 even before she was infested. This suggests that had Amon not artificially ascended the Protoss, it would have been Humans who naturally achieved purity of Form. So by visiting Zerus and becoming a Primal Zerg, Kerrigan achieved purity in both Form and Essence, priming herself to become Xel'Naga the "natural" way.