**Halo Wars: Repairs — protect the workers, not just the machinery**

**Halo Wars: Repairs — protect the workers, not just the machinery** *Campaign spoilers. Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, mission 12.* Repairs has two very different targets: finish the core quickly, or keep the battle going long enough to shoot down twelve transports. Pick the one you're doing before you throw every Cyclops at the core. **Get repairs started immediately** Select the starting Cyclops units and order them to repair the Power Core. Keep the combat units nearby to protect them. Train additional Cyclops from the infantry airlocks and send them directly to the job, rather than letting them gather at an unrelated rally point. Use Heal & Repair to help restore the core when you're trying to finish quickly. Watch the repairers as well as the core's health. A surviving structure with dead engineers isn't making much progress. Build local turrets and put anti-air support where Banshees are attacking. Hawks are useful for moving between the core and Covenant landing areas; Wolverines help shoot down incoming aircraft. You still need ground fighting power against enemies that have already landed. **Hold the approaches** Don't let the Covenant establish a large force on the upper deck and then walk it down the ramps into the repair position. Use your mobile force to intercept dangerous groups while the local defenses cover the core. Prioritize units threatening the airlocks and repairers. A Locust left shooting a building can do damage while your aircraft chase something less important. Spartans can help against the vehicles, but don't send them away from the actual defense simply because a hijack is available. Keep at least one Deck Gun alive for the optional objective. Repair and defend a viable one rather than spreading a weak force across every part of the ship. The Power Core remains the main objective; if you're losing control, consolidate instead of turning every threatened structure into a separate losing battle. **Handy With Tools: the fast attempt** **Handy With Tools requires repairing the core in less than four minutes.** This is not the mission's ordinary par-time requirement. For that attempt, start repairs immediately, add repairers promptly and use Heal & Repair on the core. Spend enough on defense to keep the work going, but don't divert resources into a large roaming army or a long collectible detour. Easy is a sensible setting for learning the fast opening. This is a planning route, not a guaranteed four-minute build script. If you're repeatedly just over the limit, check where the delay actually happened: idle Cyclops, late production, a repairer attacked without support, or supplies spent on something unrelated. **Boomstick: the longer attempt** For the skull, destroy **12 Spirit transports**. Concentrate anti-air fire while they're delivering their troops; don't wait until their landing is finished and they are leaving. Killing the passengers after they disembark isn't a transport kill. Build enough Hawks, Wolverines and appropriate turrets to take the ships down during their attack opportunities. Keep the core safe without finishing its repair before the counter is complete. Move repairers off the job if necessary, but continue monitoring the core so the collection attempt doesn't become a mission failure. After the twelfth transport, collect **Boomstick** with an aircraft above the upper hull structure near the sloping ramps. Look around the ship's name/Captain Cutter marking area and confirm the spawn indication on the minimap. The black box is also outside the walking area, over the side railings on the ship's flank. Use a Hawk to collect it during a safe moment. It is near the previous mission's outer-hull search area, but don't assume the pickup is at exactly the same spot. **Finish** Once the collectibles are handled, return the Cyclops to work and finish repairing the core. On harder difficulties, maintain a defended repair position throughout the longer attempt; trying to rebuild a wiped-out repair team under sustained attacks is much worse than protecting it properly in the first place. **She's my Fixer Upper** is the Definitive Edition completion achievement. Gold requires **32,000 points**. Keep the under-four-minute achievement and the twelve-transport skull on separate checklist lines. They pull your run in opposite directions, and there's no benefit in pretending otherwise.