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Beach sea / Cortex / Economy first / OBSERVED BUILD

Goon raid

A land-side hovercraft raid: instead of the usual shipyard-first opening, the player builds a Hovercraft Platform by around 1:20 and pushes Goons out from 2:00, fighting mostly in the middle and enemy base rather than defensively, before…

Usually hovers first (94%)

#raid #amphibious · 18 distinct matches · 9 players · 2% of Cortex Beach sea games · team won 67% of 18 · Recently observed

THE CATCH, AND WHAT COMES WITH IT
  • GoonHover raid from 2:00 · 4% of role by thenFrom the Hovercraft Platform. Only 4% of Beach sea games have it by then; others who build it get it around 7:34
  • Hovercraft PlatformHovercraft Platform in 89%6% of all Beach sea games by then

Where those units first fight, in 18 games with kill data: in the middle 72%, in the enemy base 28%.

Those units destroy a typical 835 metal of enemy units by 15:00.

Then transitions into frigate (31% of army), destroyer (27% of army).

HOW TO PLAY IT

Key timing: Hovercraft Platform by 1:16, Goon raid from 2:00

  1. Take mex and wind as usual, skip the early bot lab.
  2. Drop hovercraft platform almost immediately.
  3. Push Goons out to raid before enemy sea sets up.
  4. Bring up shipyard, frigate and destroyer behind the raid.
  5. Transition into advanced mex and standard sea composition.

Phase by phase

TYPICAL OF ITS 18 GAMES · AGAINST STANDARD BEACH SEA
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
PLAY THE OPENING

Follow the example game's first 6:00 step by step: what to build now, what comes next, and where it goes. At 1× it keeps pace with your own game.

  1. 1

    Up to the Hover raid

    Economy
    • Metal Extractor3Mex
    • Wind Turbine6Wind+4 vs standard
    • Energy Storage1Energy storage
    Order
    1. Hovercraft PlatformHovercraft Platform after 3 mex, 5 wind, 1 energy storage
    2. GoonHover raid after 3 mex, 6 wind, 1 energy storage

    Some games also: con hovercraft (44%)

    By 2:00 in all: 3 mex · 6 wind (standard 2) · 1 energy storage

    The example game in this phase · 7 steps
    1. Mex ×3
    2. Wind ×5
    3. Energy storage
    4. Wind ×3
    5. Hovercraft PlatformHovercraft Platformdone 1:59 · typical 1:52
    6. Wind
    7. GoonGoondone 2:10
  2. 2

    Hover raid to Shipyard

    Economy
    • Metal Extractor2Mex−2 vs standard
    • Wind Turbine1Wind
    Order
    1. ShipyardShipyard after 5 mex, 8 wind, 1 energy storagedone ~4:26, middle half 4:10–4:53
    Builders
    • Construction Hovercraft2 Con hovercraft +2 vs standard
    Army
    • Goon9 Goon +9 vs standard

    By 4:10 in all: 5 mex (standard 7) · 8 wind (standard 3) · 1 energy storage

    The example game in this phase · 10 steps
    1. Wind
    2. GoonGoon ×9
    3. Construction HovercraftCon hovercraft ×2
    4. Mex
    5. Mex ×2
    6. GuardGuard
    7. Mex
    8. Mex
    9. Con turret
    10. ShipyardShipyarddone 5:21 · typical 4:26
  3. 3

    Shipyard to 10:00

    Economy
    • Metal Extractor5Mex+3 vs standard
    • Wind Turbine3Wind+3 vs standard
    • Tidal Generator2Tidal+2 vs standard
    Builders
    • Construction Turret1 Con turret
    • Construction Ship1 Con ship
    Army
    • Urchin1 Urchin
    • Guard1 Guard
    • Riptide5 Frigate
    • Oppressor2 Destroyer

    Some games also: Naval Construction Turret (44%) · goon (33%) · Death Cavalry (33%) · wind (33%) · con turret (33%)

    The standard build makes here, this one skips: 12 wind

    By 10:00 in all: 10 mex · 12 wind (standard 4) · 3 tidal · 1 energy storage · 1 con turret

    The example game in this phase · 91 steps
    1. UrchinUrchin
    2. HerringMissile corvette ×2
    3. RiptideFrigatedone 5:48 · typical 5:48
    4. Metal storage
    5. RiptideFrigate
    6. OppressorDestroyerfor Geo seadone 6:30 · typical 6:40
    7. Con turret
    8. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    9. OppressorDestroyer
    10. GuardGuard ×2
    11. Mex
    12. OppressorDestroyer
    13. Mex
    14. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mexdone 8:47 · typical 9:58
    15. HerringMissile corvette ×3
    16. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    17. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    18. SentrySentry
    19. Wind
    20. Tidal
    21. NettleNettle
    22. Tidal
    23. Wind
    24. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    25. Tidal
    26. Wind
    27. Tidal
    28. Wind ×2
    29. Construction ShipCon ship
    30. Wind
    31. Construction ShipCon ship
    32. Wind
    33. Tidal
    34. Wind
    35. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    36. Wind ×3
    37. Tidal
    38. Wind
    39. Naval Construction Turret
    40. Wind ×3
    41. Tidal
    42. Naval Construction Turret
    43. Wind ×2
    44. Naval Construction Turret
    45. Wind
    46. Tidal
    47. Wind ×3
    48. GuardGuard
    49. Tidal
    50. GuardGuard
    51. RiptideFrigate
    52. Tidal
    53. RiptideFrigate
    54. UrchinUrchin
    55. RiptideFrigate ×2
    56. Tidal
    57. UrchinUrchin
    58. GuardGuard
    59. RiptideFrigate
    60. Tidal
    61. UrchinUrchin
    62. Converter ×2
    63. Tidal
    64. Converter ×2
    65. Tidal
    66. UrchinUrchin
    67. Tidal
    68. UrchinUrchin
    69. Converter ×2
    70. UrchinUrchin
    71. Converter
    72. UrchinUrchin
    73. Construction ShipCon ship
    74. Converter ×2
    75. UrchinUrchin ×2
    76. Wind ×3
    77. Construction ShipCon ship
    78. Wind ×2
    79. Construction ShipCon ship
    80. Wind ×2
    81. Construction ShipCon ship
    82. Wind
    83. Construction ShipCon ship
    84. Wind
    85. Naval Construction Turret ×2
    86. RiptideFrigate
    87. Naval Construction Turret
    88. Wind ×2
    89. RiptideFrigate
    90. Wind
    91. Naval Construction Turret

Counts are medians over the build's games: half of them build more, half fewer. The example game is EXZoPrimer3's (37 OS, 08/09/2026); pick another.

Team trades

IN AT LEAST 30% OF ITS GAMES

You hand over

Nothing regular.

You get

  • Finch1 Finch from Airfirst at 1:57 · in 56% of games
  • Lazarus1 Lazarus from Geofirst at 2:17 · in 61% of games
  • Construction Bot1 Con bot from Geofirst at 2:26 · in 44% of games
  • Advanced Construction Bot1 T2 con bot from Techfirst at 8:10 · in 94% of games

How it plays out

Typical game of this build against the role’s standard build, running totals by minute

  • This build
  • Standard beach sea

Metal produced

010k20k30k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

Enemy metal destroyed

05k10k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

Own metal lost

02.5k5k7.5k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

18 games.

Show as table
ByMetal produced: This buildMetal produced: Standard beach seaEnemy metal destroyed: This buildEnemy metal destroyed: Standard beach seaOwn metal lost: This buildOwn metal lost: Standard beach sea
1:004034030000
2:009379370000
3:00149115630000
4:0023262522002650
5:0036403699454194251100
6:0047875026723532434250
7:006099647310781100535588
8:00752480801758185711141041
9:00906396832643288514561621
10:0010987116023364402318582345
11:0013216138224214522720693090
12:0015628163524852620027983851
13:0018705191116564725734434621
14:0021557218657616830443425721
15:0024071248768589926544106531
WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY

Won more often than the standard build while losing less metal despite an aggressive early raid.

  • + Own metal lost is noticeably lower at 10:00 and 15:00.
  • + Destroys more enemy metal early at 5:00 than standard.
  • − Metal produced trails standard slightly at every checkpoint.
  • − Enemy metal destroyed falls behind standard by 15:00.
THE EXAMPLE YOU ARE READING

EXZoPrimer3

37.1 OS · 08/09/2026

Open source match ↗

5 received units · includes a constructor
331 metal received · 20997 energy received

Allied construction assistance is unknown. Timings are observations, not a promise of solo reproducibility.

Typical milestones

Hovercraft Platform1:52Middle 50%: 1:40–2:00 · n=16
Shipyard4:26Middle 50%: 4:10–4:53 · n=18
Riptide5:48Middle 50%: 5:23–6:08 · n=16
Oppressor6:40Middle 50%: 6:01–7:39 · n=17
Advanced Metal Extractor9:58Middle 50%: 9:03–10:49 · n=17

Played most by

EXZoPrimer36games of this buildAdeus3games of this buildKbot_my_Ahole3games of this buildEpicTyrannus1game of this buildHarryplotter1game of this build