>_ HackerWars Virus Guide

// reverse-engineered · data-verified · round-tested
Three guides covering everything that matters about virus income and DDoS in HackerWars.io. Rates, formulas, and tactics derived from collection data, legacy source code, and live R70 experiments.
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Mushi's Guide — the player wiki
A from-scratch wiki covering the whole game: getting started, hacking, the economy, viruses, DDoS, and more. Start here if you're new to HackerWars.
Open
Latest: May 2026 — spam uses RAM, not CPU (dev-confirmed 2019 fork change). Clan-points multiplier table located in legacy source. Noob Penalty now PvP-only. All three guides updated.
Part 1 of 3
Basics
Start here. What viruses do, how each type earns, and the mechanics that determine your take.
  • The 4 virus types (warez, spam, miner, ddos)
  • Software requirements per type
  • Same-type stacking penalty
  • Collector and version multipliers
  • BONUS chance, snapshots, DDoS wipes
Open Part 1
Part 2 of 3
Strategy
Which virus to use, when, and why. Per-target decisions backed by base rates and crossover thresholds.
  • Confirmed base rates for all three earner types
  • Dynamic BTC scaling for miners
  • Warez vs Spam vs Miner crossovers
  • Quick-reference table by server type
  • Clan-cluster strategy (corrected model)
Open Part 2
Part 3 of 3
DDoS
How attack power is calculated, mission timing, damage caps, and what changes when targeting players.
  • Power formula (attacker + slaves)
  • Mission timing & recurrence rule
  • Hardware damage tiers and caps
  • Clan-points multiplier table (1×–10×)
  • Attacking VPCs and pre-fight tactics
Open Part 3
Round Data
Virus Switching Reference
Per-NPC tier breakdown — solo and contested yields for warez, spam, and miner across every R70 NPC, plus an A–Z name index. Regenerated each round.
Open
Tool
Clan Server Planner
Interactive planner — pick your sub-PC count, NET tier, and virus version; see live $/hr, ROI for the next sub-PC, and research-bump payback. Side-by-side A/B comparison.
Open
Headline Findings
Warez — $3.00/Mbit/hr
Uses NET bandwidth. Wins on 500+ Mbit servers.
Spam — $0.0501/MB/hr (~$50.10/GB/hr)
Uses RAM (fork change since 2019). 8.2 GB tier wins; low-RAM NPCs are a trap.
Miner — $0.10/MHz/hr (~$100/GHz/hr)
Uses CPU. Wins on 8 GHz NPCs and high-CPU VPCs and clan servers.
>_ guide by MushiModal // rates reverse engineered & verified from in-game data
>_ special thanks to r_0_b_3_3 // NPC maps
>_ R70 update // May 2026 // spam=RAM, clan-points multiplier table, VPC tactics