Part 2: Strategy
WAREZ
$3.00
per Mbit/s per hour
Uses: NET bandwidth • Fotoshop CS6 (v3.0)
SPAM ✓ dev-confirmed
$0.0501
per MB per hour (~$50.10/GB/hr)
Uses: RAM • fork change since 2019
MINER ✓ dev-confirmed + R70 cross-version anchor
$0.10
per MHz per hour ($100/GHz/hr) • (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, untested at extremes ⚠: we've watched this across a ~5.7% BTC range ($76.2k–$80.5k). Within that band, K stays put. Much larger moves (say ±20%) still haven't been observed, so we can't promise the inverse-proportional rule survives at the edges.
What we saw ✓ R70 + dev quote: dev confirmed the base rate verbatim: “$0.10/MHz/hour.” Across ~20 collection sessions (Apr 24 → May 12, BTC $76k–$81k) and a triple-version anchor (v1.0, v15.0, v15.1 read in one session) K kept landing $99.7–$100.4, mean $99.89. BTC up → coins down, BTC down → coins up, dollar yield flat. Matches what the dev described.
| 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 × CPUGHz × virusPercent per hour ✓ dev-confirmed. 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 | $440 | $452 | SPAM (~tie) |
| Mission L1/L2 | 4 GHz / 1.5 GB | $440 | $83 | MINER (~5×) |
| HACKER INSIDE | 4 GHz / 500 MB | $440 | $28 | MINER (~16×) |
| Riddle / Numataka / Bitcoin Mkt | 8 GHz / 8.2 GB | $880 | $452 | MINER (~2×) |
| Beefy VPC (RAM-upgraded) | 20 GHz / 36 GB | $2,200 | $1,984 | MINER (~10%) |
| Clan cluster | 54 GHz / 36 GB | $5,940 | $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 |
$440 |
| Mission L1/L2 (low-RAM) | 4 GHz | 1.5 GB | 100 Mbit |
$330 |
$83 |
$440 |
| HACKER INSIDE-like | 4 GHz | 500 MB | 100 Mbit |
$330 |
$28 |
$440 |
| Riddle Trail (500M) | 8 GHz | 8.2 GB | 500 Mbit |
$1,650 |
$452 |
$880 |
| Numataka Corp | 8 GHz | 8.2 GB | 250 Mbit |
$825 |
$452 |
$880 |
| Bitcoin Mkt / ISP | 8 GHz | 8.2 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$452 |
$880 |
| Typical VPC | ~5 GHz | 8.2 GB | 50 Mbit |
$165 |
$452 |
$552 |
| Beefy VPC | ~20 GHz | 8.2 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$452 |
$2,200 |
| Beefy VPC (RAM-upgraded) | ~20 GHz | 36 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$1,984 |
$2,200 |
| Clan cluster | 54 GHz | 36 GB | 1 Gbps |
$3,300 |
$1,984 |
$5,940 |
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.
The highest collector you'll find on NPCs rises with the round — the global software cap climbs ~+1.0/day from a ~v7 round-start floor (so day 5 ~v12, day 15 ~v22, day 30 ~v37). Researching past the current NPC cap raises your bonus further — but each step costs ~8% more than the last while adding the same dollars/hour. Past some version, the next step costs more than it'll earn before round end.
| E_base | Research Target (V*) | Bonus at V* | Total cost (v12→V*) |
|---|
| $10k/hr | ~v22 | +22% | ~$220k |
| $20k/hr | ~v30 | +30% | ~$640k |
| $30k/hr | ~v36 | +36% | ~$1.2M |
| $40k/hr | ~v40 | +40% | ~$1.7M |
STARTER
~30 NPCs · no clan upgrade
$8k/hr
E_base · pre-bonus
Target V*: ~v20
Round take: ~$3.5M
ESTABLISHED
~70 NPCs · basic clan miner
$25k/hr
E_base · pre-bonus
Target V*: ~v32
Round take: ~$11M
TOP-FLEET
~120 NPCs · upgraded clan
$45k/hr
E_base · pre-bonus
Target V*: ~v42
Round take: ~$23M
Where the money comes from
Clan miner
Miner on NPCs
Warez (NET)
Spam (RAM)
Where you scale matters most: as your fleet grows, the clan server's share goes from 0% to ~30%. The marginal NPC adds less and less. Clan upgrades (CPU and miner version) are what punch the top-fleet bracket above the others — not raw NPC count.
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.