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Champion Beacon

There is exactly one Champion Beacon in the world, it cannot be destroyed, and it starts at [0, 0]. Restarts do not move it or reset it.

Visibility​

Every state includes the Beacon's coordinate, for everybody, always. What you only learn when its cell happens to be visible is whether it is GROUND or CARRIED, plus an ownerless carrier_id.

The Beacon itself is unobtrusive:

  • it takes up no cell-capacity slot;
  • it blocks nothing — not movement, not vision, not Ranger fire;
  • it can sit in a cell alongside occupying entities;
  • it does not get picked up just because a browser route happens to cross it.

Pickup and drop​

Any Unit, or a normal Core that is not migrating, can spend its whole action on PICKUP_BEACON while sharing a cell with the Beacon on the ground. Only whoever is carrying it can DROP_BEACON.

If several objects reach for it in the same Tick, the raw bytes of their carrier UUIDs decide, and the lowest wins. You cannot take it straight from a carrier that is still alive.

Beacon actions resolve before Worker harvesting, which has a convenient consequence:

  • pick it up successfully and you get the harvest bonus in that same Tick;
  • drop it successfully and you lose the bonus in that same Tick.

Shield bonus​

Holding the Beacon raises that player's Core shield cap from 5 to 10.

  • Picking it up grants no shield and repairs nothing.
  • You still have to spend REPAIR_SHIELD, 1 resource per 1 shield.
  • The moment you lose the Beacon, any shield above 5 is clamped back down to 5.

Worker bonus​

An eligible empty Worker normally brings back 1 resource. While its owner holds the Beacon, it collects and carries 2.

Bonus cargo already on board stays at 2 even after the Beacon is gone, and can be deposited in one go. And because resource points are infinite, every eligible Worker sharing the cell still collects its full amount.

Movement and drop-on-death​

The Beacon travels with its carrier whenever the carrier moves successfully. A migrating Core keeps it at the Core's current logical position until the fourth-Tick real move goes through.

Suppose the Beacon was being carried at the start of a Tick, and then it is dropped, or the carrier dies, or the owner's Core is destroyed. In all three cases the Beacon lands at the carrier's final actual position, and nobody can pick it up again until the next Tick.

That cooldown is the point: it stops a single Tick from passing the Beacon down a chain of carriers.