Viruses
Three viruses earn passive income, and each one runs on a different part of the server it's installed on. Because they lean on different hardware, they never compete with each other for a server's earnings. Only viruses of the same type do.
| Virus | Runs on | Earns | Needs on your machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miner | the host's CPU | Bitcoin | a Bitcoin wallet |
| Warez | the host's bandwidth (NET) | cash | a torrent (better torrents earn more) |
| Spam | the host's RAM | cash | nothing |
Spam needs no extra software, so it's the easiest one to start with. Add warez and miner once you've got a torrent and a Bitcoin wallet sitting on your own machine. There's a fourth virus, the DDoS virus, but it doesn't earn anything. It turns a server into a botnet slave for attacks, and it's covered under DDoS & Botnets, coming soon.
What a single virus pays out comes down to four things:
- Host hardware — the bigger the stat it runs on, the more it earns: a miner on a fast CPU, spam on a big-RAM box, warez on a fat pipe.
- Virus version — a higher version earns a little more, but only a little.
- Same-type count — the server's earnings for that type are split evenly among every same-type virus on it.
- Collector version — when you collect, your collector adds its version number as a flat percentage to the whole haul, so a
v15.0collector means 15% more on everything.
Version is the weakest of those levers. A v1.0 virus sitting alone on a server out-earns a v18.0 virus that's sharing it with even one other of its type. Don't chase virus versions, chase being alone on the server.
You collect everything in one sweep from Hacked Database, Collect Money, and you can do it once every 10 minutes at most. Each virus also has roughly a 1-in-20 chance of paying double on any given collection, which shows up as a BONUS! flag in the log.
This is the single biggest factor in what you earn. A server pays out a fixed amount for each virus type, and that amount is split evenly among every active virus of that type on it. Two miners on a box and each takes half. Three and each takes a third. Different types don't touch each other, so five warez and your lone spam on the same server still means you keep all of the spam earnings.
So before you install anything, look at what's already there and place a type nobody else is running. A solo virus of the "wrong" type beats joining a crowd on the "right" one.
Since each earner uses a different stat, the best type depends on the server's hardware:
- Lots of CPU — run a miner.
- Lots of RAM — run spam.
- Lots of bandwidth — run warez.
It's a per-server call, not a rule you apply everywhere. Spam especially is gated by RAM: a server with very little memory earns almost nothing from spam no matter what, so check its RAM before planting one. But none of this outweighs the split. Being solo wins, so the real strategy is to spread many solo viruses across many servers rather than perfect a handful.
For the actual numbers, which type wins on which server in the current round, see the virus switching reference.
The miner is the only earner paid in Bitcoin instead of cash, and its coin payout isn't fixed. The game scales the mining rate against the live Bitcoin price. When BTC is high you earn fewer coins, and when it's low you earn more. The dollar value of what you mine stays about the same either way.
So don't be alarmed when a miner's coin count drifts up or down between collections. That's the price moving, not your virus breaking, and there's nothing to reinstall or fix.
A virus locks in the host's hardware the moment you install it. If that server later upgrades its CPU, RAM, or bandwidth, your virus keeps earning at the old stats until you reinstall it. After any upgrade to a host, reinstall to capture the new hardware.
Viruses don't last forever either. A server wipes the viruses on it whenever it's DDoSed, cleared by someone's antivirus, or reset by a round timer or IP change. Check your Hacked Database now and then and reinstall whatever's gone missing. It's normal upkeep, not a sign anything's wrong.