# Viral (race 5)

**Identity:** four native hulls and a licence to steal. Viral is the only race
that can reverse-engineer, and that mechanic *is* the race — its native roster is
a quarter the size of everyone else's and cannot support a fleet on its own.

**Verdict: strong at a fixed bracket, weakest per turn.** With Special hulls in
the pool Viral reads **106.2 at equal PR and 85.1 at equal turns** (average
95.7), reaching only 77.2M PR from 2,500 turns. Field data supports the
fixed-bracket reading: **Viral holds the highest median PR in the game at 38.2M,
against Guardian's 3.6M.** Viral players dominate the top of the ladder.

> **Corrected.** An earlier draft put Viral first at equal PR on 117.7. That
> number came from a pool that excluded the six Special/Strafez hulls — which
> every race can field. With them included Viral drops to 106.2 and **Miner
> leads at equal PR on 109.4**. Viral's fixed-bracket dominance was partly an
> artefact of measuring a pool without the fez line.

Viral also carries `capture = 75` on both `V.*` hulls — it takes three quarters
of the eligible Terran / Marauder / Miner ships it kills, second only to
Collective's `H.*` at 100. None of the win-rate figures on this page price that
in. See [Combat-Mechanics.md](Combat-Mechanics.md) §4.

| | Median | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| ppt | 53,892 | 2 / 7 |
| dpt | 22,018 | 6 / 7 |
| dmg/1kPR | 618 | 2 / 7 |
| EHP/1kPR | 1,224 | 6 / 7 |
| bank90 | 4.85M PR | 2 / 7 |

Treat the medians with care — they are computed over **four ships**.

## Native roster

| Ship | Archetype | Unit PR | BR | ppt | dpt | dmg/1kPR | EHP/1kPR | E/K/M/C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V.Borrelly | Glass cannon | 452 | 60 | 27,120 | 22,218 | 819 | 807 | 0/100/0/300 |
| B.Chiron | Growth engine | 18,482 | 3 | 55,446 | 22,018 | 397 | 1,550 | 0/3000/0/5000 |
| V.Triton | Line | 8,982 | 6 | 53,892 | 21,837 | 405 | 1,224 | 0/1500/2750/0 |
| B.Cronus | Line | 2,016 | 15 | 30,240 | 18,676 | 618 | 1,130 | 450/0/0/850 |

Three combat hulls and a starbase. Everything else a Viral fields is neutral or
reversed.

## The reverse mechanic is the race

From `app/f_com_ship_r.cfm`:

| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Who | Race 5 only |
| Cost | 9 turns + 5 of the donor ships (consumed) |
| Cap | **3 per donor race** → 9 slots total |
| Donors | Terran (1), Marauder (2), Aspha Miners (6) |
| Blocked donors | Own race, Guardian, Collective, NPC 7/8/9 |
| Blocked by name | Any name **containing** `P.`, `D.` or `G.` |
| Blocked as special | `upkeep = 0` |

Measured effect on the race, at equal PR:

| Configuration | Attack @1.0 | Defence @1.0 | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native + neutral only | 36.6% | 36.2% | 72.8 |
| **With 9 reversed slots** | **62.4%** | **62.1%** | **124.5** |

**A +51.7 swing — larger than the entire spread between all other races.**
Judged on its four hulls Viral looks like the worst race in the game; judged
with the mechanic it is the best. Any analysis that models Viral as
"native + neutral" is measuring a race that does not exist.

### Eligible donor pools

| Donor | Eligible | Blocked |
|---|---|---|
| Terran (9) | T.Ryu-jin, T.Maru, T.Sentouki, T.Garuda, T.Kalieum, T.Fenrir, T.Empereur, Nirvana, Tyr | P.Apollo, P.Odin, P.Thor, P.Zeus, P.Hercules, Chimaera, Scorpion |
| Marauder (10) | Eel, Manta, Piranha, Barracuda, Bullhead, Tiger, Shark, Thresher, Pyth, Angel | D.Ray, D.Hammerhead, D.Pike, D.Sting |
| Miner (10) | M.Hal, M.Alium, M.Illite, M.Epidote, M.Chlorite, M.Chlor, M.Calcite, M.Flysch, M.Lyth, A.Aragonite | G.Livid, G.Livid (r), G.Sapphire, G.Rhyolite, M.Lakko, A.Kryo, A.Hoko, G.Lictor |

Best three per donor by solo strength: **Nirvana, T.Fenrir, T.Maru** /
**Tiger, Manta, Pyth** / **M.Illite, M.Epidote, M.Chlor**.

Effective roster: 4 native + 13 neutral + 9 reversed = **26 hulls**, the largest
in the game. Every other race is capped at its own list plus neutrals.

## The name block is load-bearing and fragile

The `P.`/`D.`/`G.` substring rule removes:

- Terran's entire aggressive `P.` line — the race's three highest damage-per-PR
  hulls
- Marauder's entire `D.` line — including D.Ray (1,250 dmg/1kPR) and
  D.Hammerhead (949), the race's two best on that axis
- Miner's entire `G.` line — G.Sapphire, G.Rhyolite, G.Lictor, both Livids

This single string match is doing an enormous amount of balance work. A new
Marauder hull named "Reaper" would be Viral-eligible; the same hull named
"D.Reaper" would not. **It should be an explicit eligibility flag on
`ship_type`** regardless of any balance decision.

Related, from `f_com_ship_r.cfm`: the class check
`",9,21," contains "#classname#"` compares a *display name* against numeric ids
and can never match, so starbases and scouts are **not** actually blocked
despite the on-page help saying they are. They survive only incidentally —
G.Lictor and P.Hercules are caught by the name test, M.Lakko / A.Kryo / A.Hoko /
Chimaera / Scorpion are not blocked at all. Compare against the class id to fix.

## Notable

- **Viral has no Elite-archetype hull of its own.** Its best native damage per
  PR is V.Borrelly at 819, which would rank 8th in Marauder's roster.
- The cap is a high-leverage balance dial. Dropping it 3 → 2 moves Viral from
  117.7 to 107.7 combined and cuts the whole-game equal-PR spread from 31.3 to
  20.4. Cap 1 is *worse* than cap 2 (109.5) — over-correcting forces Viral into
  a narrower, more optimised list rather than a weaker one. **These figures come
  from the no-Special pool and have not been re-run**; since including Special
  hulls already drops Viral to 106.2 at equal PR, the case for touching the cap
  is weaker than these numbers imply. It was proposed and then withdrawn — see
  [../Ship-Balance-Changes.md](../Ship-Balance-Changes.md).
- Nerfing V.Borrelly, B.Cronus or V.Triton would punish new Viral players
  without touching the source of the race's strength.