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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 · 8 steps
    1. Mex ×3
    2. Wind ×6
    3. Energy storage
    4. Hovercraft PlatformHovercraft Platformdone 1:58 · typical 1:52
    5. GuardGuard
    6. Construction HovercraftCon hovercraft ×3
    7. Mex
    8. GoonGoonnot finished by 15:00
  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 · 24 steps
    1. Construction HovercraftCon hovercraft
    2. GoonGoon
    3. Con turret
    4. GoonGoon
    5. Converter
    6. GoonGoon
    7. Mex
    8. Converter
    9. GoonGoon ×2
    10. Converter
    11. GoonGoon
    12. Converter
    13. Wind
    14. GoonGoon ×2
    15. Wind
    16. Mex ×2
    17. GoonGoon
    18. Wind
    19. GoonGoon
    20. Wind
    21. GoonGoon
    22. Wind
    23. GoonGoon
    24. ShipyardShipyarddone 4:32 · 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 · 139 steps
    1. Wind
    2. Mex
    3. GoonGoon
    4. Wind
    5. Mex
    6. Wind
    7. Construction ShipCon ship
    8. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    9. HerringMissile corvette
    10. Mex
    11. Wind
    12. Mex
    13. HerringMissile corvette
    14. GuardGuard
    15. Wind ×3
    16. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    17. Mex
    18. Wind ×2
    19. Radar TowerRadar Tower
    20. UrchinUrchin
    21. Wind
    22. Mex
    23. Wind
    24. OppressorDestroyerdone 6:32 · typical 6:40
    25. Converter
    26. Bot LabBot Labdone 6:21
    27. GuardGuard
    28. Converter ×3
    29. ThugThug
    30. Con turret
    31. OppressorDestroyer
    32. ThugThug ×2
    33. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    34. Radar TowerRadar Tower
    35. ThugThug
    36. Wind
    37. ThugThug
    38. Wind
    39. GuardGuard
    40. ThugThug ×2
    41. Wind
    42. ThugThug ×2
    43. GuardGuard
    44. Wind
    45. ThugThug
    46. Wind
    47. ThugThug
    48. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    49. ThugThug
    50. Wind
    51. ThugThug
    52. Wind
    53. ThugThug
    54. Wind
    55. ThugThug
    56. Naval Construction Turret
    57. Wind ×7
    58. ThugThug ×3
    59. Wind
    60. ThugThug ×3
    61. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    62. ThugThug
    63. Wind
    64. ThugThug ×2
    65. Wind
    66. Tidal
    67. ThugThug
    68. Wind
    69. ThugThug ×2
    70. Wind
    71. Tidal
    72. ThugThug
    73. Wind
    74. ThugThug
    75. Tidal
    76. ThugThug
    77. Wind
    78. ThugThug
    79. Tidal
    80. ThugThug
    81. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    82. Wind
    83. ThugThug
    84. Tidal
    85. ThugThug
    86. Wind
    87. ThugThug
    88. Tidal
    89. Wind
    90. ThugThug
    91. Naval Radar / Sonar TowerNaval Radar / Sonar Tower
    92. ThugThug
    93. Tidal
    94. Wind
    95. ThugThug ×2
    96. Wind
    97. ThugThug
    98. Tidal
    99. ThugThug
    100. Wind
    101. Mex
    102. Tidal
    103. ThugThug ×2
    104. Advanced Vehicle PlantAdvanced Vehicle Plantdone 11:47
    105. Tidal
    106. ThugThug
    107. Wind
    108. Tidal
    109. ThugThug
    110. Mex
    111. Tidal
    112. Wind
    113. ThugThug
    114. Tidal
    115. ThugThug
    116. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mexdone 12:22 · typical 9:58
    117. Tidal
    118. Wind
    119. Tidal ×2
    120. ThugThug
    121. Tidal
    122. ThugThug
    123. Tidal ×2
    124. ThugThug ×2
    125. OmenRadar vehicle
    126. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    127. Advanced ShipyardAdvanced Shipyarddone 14:46
    128. ThugThug
    129. ObscurerJammer
    130. Con turret
    131. TigerTigerdone 13:03
    132. Con turret
    133. TigerTiger
    134. Con turret
    135. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    136. Con turret
    137. TigerTiger ×4
    138. Advanced Construction SubAdvanced Construction Sub
    139. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex

Counts are medians over the build's games: half of them build more, half fewer. The example game is TekilaPaf's (36 OS, 14/08/2026); 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

TekilaPaf

36.0 OS · 14/08/2026

Open source match ↗

14 received units · includes a constructor
3011 metal received · 77308 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