FIELD GUIDE / HOW TO PLAY
A clue to a city.
A strike through Earth.
Core Strike is a geography and general-knowledge strategy game. Use intel to identify cities containing fictional enemy installations, then aim the Phase Lance through Earth to reach them.
Your mission
- Identify the city. Read the opening clue and form a hypothesis. Reveal more intel or scan if you need help.
- Aim at the exit. Tap or click the globe where you think the city is. The Phase Lance launches from Sydney and follows the calculated path through Earth to your chosen exit.
- Review and fire. Choose Strike, select power, then check the amber blast footprint, point cost and detection warning. Confirm to commit the shot; cancelling the review is free.
- Work through the network. Only the current installation can be neutralised. A hit banks its reward and reveals the next target’s free hard clue. Clear all 3 targets to win.
Drag to rotate; scroll or pinch to zoom. Arrow keys nudge the aim 50 km; hold Shift for 10 km steps. Space reviews or confirms a strike. Escape cancels a review or skips an animation. Skipping never refunds or repeats an action.
Intel & satellite scans
Every target has one fixed hard → medium → easy clue sequence. The hard clue is free. Medium deducts 100 points from that target’s value; easy deducts another 150. Earlier clues stay visible, and you can fire at any stage.
A satellite scan costs 100 points and reveals terrain and a signal field in a 700 km radius around your selected location. Cyan indicates weak readings; amber indicates stronger ones. Follow the sampled trend toward stronger signals. A quiet patch may contain no useful signal, and the target may be beyond the scanned area. A scan does not give you an exact target coordinate.
Scans are unlimited. Earlier discoveries remain visible; signals from past targets become muted cyan. Missed shots reveal terrain and provide coarse signal information in impact telemetry. Intel and player scans never increase enemy detection. Automatic enemy satellite passes cost no points.
The Phase Lance
Buried beneath your base, the Phase Lance fires a pulse through solid Earth. Its rotating accelerator aligns with your chosen destination, allowing the pulse to pass through the planet before releasing its energy at the target.
Higher power widens the blast, but creates a stronger signature for enemy sensors to trace. Every shot is a choice between precision, power and exposure.
Choose your Phase Lance power
The path determines the standard radius, with a 150 km minimum. Higher power expands the blast without changing the path. The amber footprint is the exact hit radius, capped at 1,000 km.
- Precision 0 points · 1× radius
- A hit adds no detection. A miss adds one detection step.
- Overcharge 150 points · 2× radius
- Adds one detection step when fired, even on a hit. A miss adds one more: two steps total.
- Core Strike 350 points · 4× radius
- Available once per run, and only before your base is located. This shot resolves safely even if it misses, then sets detection to the last safe step. Your next miss is lethal.
Weapon point costs apply to every committed shot, whether it hits or misses. Every miss also deducts 200 points from that target’s value.
Enemy detection & retaliation
Detection persists across targets and refreshes. It never increases with time, and successful hits never lower it. The default sequence is Undetected → Signal intercepted → Position narrowed → Base located → Counterstrike. In this configuration, 4 detection steps trigger lethal retaliation if any enemy installation survives.
Base located means your next miss ends the run. Overcharge can end it even on a hit because firing adds detection. Core Strike is unavailable at this stage. You can still reveal intel and scan without increasing detection.
A hit earns its target’s reward before retaliation is checked. If another installation survives, lethal detection ends the run in defeat. Destroying the final target wins at any power, even at the detection limit: no enemy installation remains to retaliate.
Earn points. Make each action count.
Every target starts at 1,000 potential points. Actions deduct from that target’s value. Your Score is the total already earned; Target value is what the active target is currently worth.
| Action | Deduction |
|---|---|
| Opening hard intel | Free |
| Reveal medium intel | 100 |
| Reveal easy intel | 150 |
| Satellite scan | 100 |
| Fire Precision | Free |
| Fire Overcharge | 150 |
| Fire Core Strike | 350 |
| Miss with any weapon (additional) | 200 |
On neutralisation, earn max(100, 1,000 − accumulated penalties). A neutralised target always earns at least 100 points; an undestroyed target earns zero. Banked points never decrease during a run. The next target starts fresh.
Example: reveal medium and easy, then hit with Overcharge: 1,000 − 100 − 150 − 150 = 600 points.
The minimum is an intentional recovery mechanic. More actions cannot reduce the reward below 100, but weapon detection consequences still apply. The maximum for this 3-target run is 3,000 points.
Compare matching challenges and rules by targets neutralised first, then score, both higher first. Equal results remain tied. Custom runs are separate from Daily Hunts. There is no global leaderboard currently. At the end, Copy result gives you a spoiler-free report to share yourself.
The Daily Hunt
Each UTC date selects the same cities, clue sequences and signal fields for everyone playing that daily configuration. A new daily challenge becomes available at 00:00 UTC. An unfinished saved hunt continues across midnight; finish it before moving on to today’s round.
Progress saves in this browser when storage is available. Refreshing a saved shot in flight resolves it once. If the game says “Session only”, keep the game tab open; the in-game guide keeps the live session in memory. Saves do not sync between devices or site addresses.
Each daily operation has one saved attempt in this browser. There is no restart or practice mode at launch. A completed result stays available until you choose to begin a later day’s operation. Browser-local saves cannot enforce one attempt across cleared storage, browsers or devices; results are not server-verified.
About Core Strike
A solo game about recognising places, weighing information against risk, and choosing where to aim. The enemy installations and conflict are fictional. The Phase Lance is imagined technology: its straight path through the planet is a game mechanic, not a claim about real weapons or physics.
No account, matchmaking or other player is required. City clues draw on general knowledge; geography is simplified for play.
Planet imagery: NASA Earth Observatory, Blue Marble. Geography: Natural Earth. Country facts: mledoze/countries, ODbL-1.0. Asset sources · Country facts licence.
Your data & analytics
Your progress and preferences stay in this browser. No account is needed. Clearing browser data removes your saves; they do not sync across devices.
What optional analytics collects
If you allow it, PostHog US Cloud receives game events: starts, intel difficulty, scans, shot power and outcomes, detection, final score, action counts, active play duration, successful result copying, feedback openings and tutorial progress. Events include random browser and run IDs, challenge/date and rules/app versions. These help improve the game.
No clue text, answers, aim coordinates or feedback messages go into analytics. There is no automatic click capture, session recording or advertising tracking. Consent and the browser ID are saved locally. Turning analytics off stops future events and removes that ID locally; previously received events remain with PostHog. Skipped events are never backfilled. Network services receive connection information; the game disables IP-based location enrichment. PostHog privacy information.
Feedback is sent privately to the creator through Cloudflare Email Service, with the challenge/rules and an opaque clue reference when relevant. An email address is optional if you want a reply. Message text is not sent to analytics. Cloudflare processes submission requests, including network information used to limit spam. Use Send feedback for data questions too.