Hardcore

Hardcore is a gamemode in junon.io, intended to give a challenge. It is the hardest gamemode available in the game as there are Empire raids every day with a plethora of attackers.

## **Strategy**

In Hardcore, the first things to do are:

* Find a place with both Oil and Water so that you can easily fill Oxygen Generators with water, and place down refineries for Flamethrower turrets. These turrets are relatively cheap and can attack an infinite amount of enemies in its line of flames.
* Craft a drill using your resources and mine for Iron and Copper Ore to craft your Oil Refineries and Flamethrower Turrets. Do not forget to craft a Lead Pipe to fend off the early raids.
* Utilize Walls to enclose your base, and make sure your base is oxygenated. Create a path with Floors and / or Walls to make an easily predictable path that you know the Raid will follow.
* Craft Solar Panels and Mining Drills to power your turrets and help ease gathering resources. Do not place down more than 5 Mining Drills, unless you have a good enough defense against Spider Infestations (like Tesla Coils).

Eating Human Meat or Lecter's Dinner will change your status with the Empire to Friendly to Neutral / Hostile. This means that the raids will become difficult. However, Feeding Human meat or Lecter's Dinner to a Slave or an Pet won't change your status with the Empire. Still, it is not recommended to eat human meat or Lecter's Dinner, as your Potatoes should be enough if you have a good base setup.

The best weapons you can utilize are the Katana, Energy Swords, Flame Thrower, and the Rocket Launcher. All these weapons are able to attack multiple enemies, which is great against the hordes that compose of the Raids.

After Day 10, Drones will spawn in raids. Drones will spawn in groups in corners of the map, able to fly over your structures and asteroids. They prioritize attacking buildings, and won't attack players or turrets unless the turrets or players attack them first.The Rocket Launcher, though expensive to make ammunition for is the best weapon to counteract Drones, as it explodes in a radius, and only takes 8 rockets to kill a Drone. It is not recommended to use flame weapons against Drones, since they have immunity to fire. Placing lamps in the far corners of each map neutralizes these Drones until attacked or the world is loaded.

Every 15 days, The Squid Lord will spawn at hour 18. Like in Survival mode, it is recommended to have a good single-target weapon like the Plasma Gun, or the Shotgun, as well as the Rage effect from Stimpacks, so that you can kill the Squid Lord.

Because there are no messengers to pay, gold should be used for Slaves to butcher corpse. This is great for defending against Miasma from raid corpses, however this strategy can turn against you, as Slaves can spread miasma. They should also be used to collect Drills for resources for defenses and farm crops.

It is heavily recommended to stock up on resources should your base get damaged, whether it be from Raids or Meteor Showers slowly eroding the base. Additionally, you can save your world and make backups to rollback to, which is an easier task to do.

Once you've secured a strong defense and base, the threat of Hardcore is virtually gone, so you can essentially build what you want, as long as it doesn't interfere with defenses.