Belly of the Beast is a StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty mission.[1] Completing it in place of the mission "Shatter the Sky" prevents the zerg from using nydus worms in the mission "All In".[2]

Blizzard has made this mission A canon.[3]



The terrans suffered heavy casualties gaining a foothold on Char,[4] and needed to attack the primary hive before being overwhelmed by the zerg. There was enough time for one secondary attack to weaken the zerg's defenses. General Horace Warfield suggested crippling zerg air support, but it was Tychus Findlay's proposal to cripple the nydus network near the primary hive that Commander Jim Raynor acted upon.

Raynor had previous experience in the tunnels. He opted to bring a close-knit team consisting of himself, Tychus Findlay, Chief Engineer Rory Swann, and Egon Stetmann, to deploy the seismic charges and flood the tunnels with lava. Warfield's offer of elite Dominion troops was declined as too unwieldy. However, the general suggested linking up with troops trapped underground during the initial landing; he would relay their positions to the strike team.

Neither Swann or Stetmann were enthusiastic about field work. Swann carried the charges.[1]

The MissionEdit

The team went underground to plant a charge at each of three targeted fissures. The planted charge took some time to arm. The zerg converged from nydus worms, and the terrans defended the charge and escaped just before the detonation.

Further in, the tunnels were being used as an infested terran nesting area. Clearing the narrow tunnels of the numerous infested was the only way to advance. The infested were joined by ultralisks in attacking the second charge, but the Raiders once again ensured a successful detonation and escaped.

The final fissure was in the middle of a nest overseen by a very large queen. The Raiders first suspected its presence by the way eggs in their path began hatching when they approached. The queen revealed itself only when the final charge was placed, and began manually hatching surrounding eggs. The Raiders managed to kill the giant queen and escaped as the final charge detonated.

The Raiders fled back to the surface as the tunnels flooded with lava.[1]


The nydus network was crippled around the primary hive, and the terrans prepared to attack. Assembly of the Keystone was completed and it was delivered to the front for deployment.[5]

The next article in this series is All In.


Four units, all heroes, are controllable at the start:

Rescuable troops may be controlled later in the mission.

Heroes that "die" automatically revive after twenty seconds of being close to an allied unit. The number of hero incapacitations are counted in the score screen.

The objective of the mission is to go through zerg-filled tunnels, plant and protect an explosive at the final location. The mission is split into four maps, three with a fissure each to detonate with the charge and the fourth to evacuate the lava-flooding tunnels. During their journey, the Raiders may meet obstacles such as banelings, nydus worms unleashing units such as swarmlings, spine crawlers, massive swarms of infested terrans, infestors, aberrations, an omegalisk, ultralisks, and a powerful queen with 3000 hit points, more powerful attacks, pop eggs and shockwave abilities.

Utilize Swann's turret to hold choke points, while Raynor's Penetrator Round and Tychus's Shredder Grenade can clear out clumped units. Prioritize nydus worms as they spawn to reduce the number of zerg that spawn: a single grenade or penetrator round is sufficient to kill them. Attempt to keep as many of the forces picked up through the level alive as possible, as they extra damage is very helpful against the final Queen boss. Keeping them behind the heroes keeps them safe; not only do the heroes have much more health, they can also be revived while the regular units cannot.

The Queen boss fight is divided into two phases: first, she burrows and unburrows around the three groups of eggs (north first, then west, then south-east), popping them and generally ignoring the player's units. The second phase starts after she is sufficiently damaged, she attacks the player's units. In this second phase she has a powerful attack, as well as an area-of-effect shockwave that stuns all friendly units. During the Queen fight itself, clear out as many eggs as possible before they hatch in the first phase, then damage her down in the second phase. Using Flaming Betty and cycling units to tank the damage is useful for keeping as many units alive as possible.

In the second area there is a corridor where swarms of infested terrans attack. This is an optimal place to use Raynor's Penetrator Round to earn the "One Shot, Fifty Kills" achievement.



BellyOfTheBeast SC2 Icon1 Belly of the Beast

15 (Final Mission) Achievement SC2 Game1


Complete the mission

Unbreakable SC2 Icon1 Unbreakable

10 (Final Mission) Achievement SC2 Game1


Complete the mission without letting a hero fall Incapacitated on Normal difficulty

OneShotFifthyKills SC2 Icon1 One Shot, Fifty Kills!

10 (Final Mission) Achievement SC2 Game1


Kill 50 units with a single Penetrator Round in the "Belly of the Beast" mission on Hard difficulty.

10tAnniversary SC2Portrait Bam-Ba-Lan

10 Achievement SC2 Game1


Kill 100 enemy units with Flaming Bettys in the "Belly of the Beast" mission on Normal difficulty.


A reference to the song Black Betty.



  • This mission is considered A canon by Blizzard, and thus is the canonical mission path.[3]
  • If the marines under attack by the omegalisk are killed, one will say "no way man! Game over man! Game over!" This is a line from Aliens and also a cheat code in the original StarCraft.


  3. 3.0 3.1 SoMuchMass. 2011-10-22. BlizzCon 2011 - Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm - Campaign and Lore Panel (Full). YouTube. Accessed 2011-10-22.