Part 2: Strategy
WAREZ
$3.00
per Mbit/s per hour
Uses: NET bandwidth • Fotoshop CS6 (v3.0)
SPAM ✓ dev-confirmed
$50.10
per GB per hour
Uses: RAM • fork change since 2019
MINER ✓ R70 (v1.3 & v10.0, 2 BTC prices)
$100.40
per GHz per hour (in $; BTC count varies)
Uses: CPU speed • paid in BTC
Your miner's BTC count goes up and down with BTC price. From a Discord chat with a dev, the game scales the mining rate inversely to BTC: high BTC means fewer coins, low BTC means more. Looks like your dollar yield ends up roughly flat. Our own readings line up with this so far.
Practical: if BTC moves $70k → $80k, your miner pulls in ~12.5% fewer coins. Dollar value is about the same. No need to reinstall.
Heads up, thin evidence ⚠: we've only watched this across two days and a small ~2% BTC swing. Larger moves haven't been tested. If scaling deviates at the extremes, K shifts.
What we saw ✓ R70: at $77,824 (Apr 29) and $76,181 (Apr 30), miner K landed around $100.35 both days. BTC dropped ~2%, mining rate rose ~2%. Close to inverse-proportional, which is what the dev described. Two days isn't much, but it lines up.
| Server RAM | Warez wins when NET exceeds |
|---|
| 500 MB | 8 Mbit/s |
| 1.5 GB | 25 Mbit/s |
| 8.2 GB (most NPCs) | 137 Mbit/s |
| 36 GB (clan-scale) | 601 Mbit/s |
| Server Example | RAM / NET | Winner |
|---|
| Standard NPC | 8.2 GB / 100 Mbit | SPAM |
| Numataka Corp | 8.2 GB / 250 Mbit | WAREZ |
| Bitcoin Mkt / ISP | 8.2 GB / 1 Gbps | WAREZ |
| Mission L1/L2 | 1.5 GB / 100 Mbit | WAREZ |
| HACKER INSIDE | 500 MB / 100 Mbit | WAREZ |
Most NPCs sit at 8.2 GB RAM, so the practical line is around 137 Mbit/s — below it, spam wins; above it, warez wins. Low-RAM mission NPCs (1.5 GB, 500 MB) tip toward warez very early. Default-to-warez-everywhere is still wrong.
The crossover assumes Fotoshop CS6 (v3.0) ✓ verified. On F.L.I.E.N.D.S (v1.0), warez earns 3x less, so spam wins almost everywhere.
Miner pays $100.40 × CPUGHz × virusPercent per hour ✓ verified. Spam pays $50.10 × RAMGB × virusPercent per hour ✓ dev-confirmed 2026-05-02. Different hardware variables, so the comparison is per-target.
| Target |
CPU / RAM |
Miner $/hr |
Spam $/hr |
Winner |
| Standard NPC | 4 GHz / 8.2 GB | $442 | $452 | SPAM (~tie) |
| Mission L1/L2 | 4 GHz / 1.5 GB | $442 | $83 | MINER (~5×) |
| HACKER INSIDE | 4 GHz / 500 MB | $442 | $28 | MINER (~16×) |
| Riddle / Numataka / Bitcoin Mkt | 8 GHz / 8.2 GB | $884 | $452 | MINER (~2×) |
| Beefy VPC (RAM-upgraded) | 20 GHz / 36 GB | $2,209 | $1,984 | MINER (~10%) |
| Clan cluster | 54 GHz / 36 GB | $5,964 | $1,984 | MINER (~3×) |
It's per-target, not global. On 4 GHz / 8.2 GB NPCs (the bulk of standard NPCs), spam edges miner by ~2%. Anywhere CPU outpaces RAM — 8 GHz NPCs, low-RAM mission NPCs, the clan cluster — miner wins outright. The old "$68k BTC crossover" only described the 4 GHz / 8.2 GB case; it does not generalize.
High-NET servers (500+ Mbit) still favor Warez over both Spam and Miner on 8.2 GB targets. See Section B.
| Server Type | CPU | RAM | NET | Warez $/hr | Spam $/hr | Miner $/hr |
|---|
| Standard NPC | 4 GHz | 8.2 GB | 100 Mbit |
$330 |
$452 |
$442 |
| Mission L1/L2 (low-RAM) | 4 GHz | 1.5 GB | 100 Mbit |
$330 |
$83 |
$442 |
| HACKER INSIDE-like | 4 GHz | 500 MB | 100 Mbit |
$330 |
$28 |
$442 |
| Riddle Trail (500M) | 8 GHz | 8.2 GB | 500 Mbit |
$1,650 |
$452 |
$884 |
| Numataka Corp | 8 GHz | 8.2 GB | 250 Mbit |
$825 |
$452 |
$884 |
| Bitcoin Mkt / ISP | 8 GHz | 8.2 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$452 |
$884 |
| Typical VPC | ~5 GHz | 8.2 GB | 50 Mbit |
$165 |
$452 |
$552 |
| Beefy VPC | ~20 GHz | 8.2 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$452 |
$2,209 |
| Beefy VPC (RAM-upgraded) | ~20 GHz | 36 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$1,984 |
$2,209 |
| Clan cluster | 54 GHz | 36 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$1,984 |
$5,964 |
8.2 GB RAM (most NPCs)
Riddle, mission, regular, financial, whois NPCs. $452/hr spam at v5.0 solo.
1.5 GB RAM
PINEAPPLE, HELL, FIASCO SYSTEMS, TITANIC, LIFE'S TOUGH (mission L1/L2). $83/hr spam at v5.0 solo.
500 MB RAM
HACKER INSIDE (mission L2). $28/hr spam at v5.0 solo — avoid for spam.
Clan-cluster spam runs at the same $50.10/GB/hr base as NPC spam. There is no clan-side divisor — the earlier "5.21× less" finding was an artifact of measuring rates against CPU when spam actually uses RAM.
On the clan, miner usually still wins because clan servers tend to have a high CPU-to-RAM ratio (e.g., 54 GHz / 36 GB → miner ~3× spam in $-yield). Same RAM/CPU rule from Section C applies.
• Clan cluster → usually MINER (CPU-heavy)
• NPC slaves → per-target call — SPAM on 8.2 GB / 4 GHz, MINER on 8 GHz, WAREZ on high-NET
1
Avoid stacking
Always check existing viruses first. Being solo on a "wrong type" server beats sharing with 2 others on the "right type" server.
2
Mix virus types
Different types don't compete. A server with 5 warez and 0 spam is a great spam target. You get the full 100% earnings.
3
Upgrade your Collector
It's a flat % bonus on every dollar you earn, across every virus and every server. No other upgrade hits everything you've got at once.
4
Spread wide
Many solo viruses across many servers earns far more than a few optimized targets. Volume beats perfection, and it cushions you when DDoS wipes hit individual servers.
5
Reinstall after upgrades
Viruses snapshot hardware at install time. If the server gets upgraded (or rebuilt after DDoS), you must reinstall to capture the new stats.
6
Expect churn
DDoS missions wipe viruses from NPC servers regularly. Check your Hacked Database often and reinstall what's missing. It's normal upkeep.
7
Clan = miner, default
Clan typically has a high CPU/RAM ratio (54 GHz vs 36 GB) so miner beats spam by ~3×. NOT because clan-spam is throttled — that earlier finding was an artifact of computing rates against CPU before we knew spam uses RAM.
8
Always stack DDoS too
DDoS viruses (.vddos) can coexist with your earner on the same target since the 2026-04-30 dual-virus update. Free clan points on every earner you place.