| Core | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Structure Information | |
| ID | KingsCore |
| Health | 14,000 (+400 per minute) |
| Shield | 7,000 (+200 per Minute) |
| Attack Damage | 220 |
| Ammunition | Endless |
| Debuff | Splash Damage True Sight |
| Attack Speed | 1 |
| Attack Range | 8 |
| Kill XP | Winning the Match |
At the center of their main base, each team has a Core. The destruction of the enemy Core is the ultimate objective of each game, immediately winning the match. Players should usually do everything possible to protect their Core, unless they are about to destroy the enemy's.
Gameplay
Cores are structures with a large amounts of Health, and are able to defend themselves much like Forts, although they do a fixed 220 DPS splash damage. Cores have True Sight, meaning they will reveal and attack stealthed Heroes.
The Core is protected until at least one lane's Fort and Keep have been destroyed. In addition to their Health each Core also has a 'Shield', an additional measure of Hit Points equal to 50% of the Core's maximum health. These shields will regenerate if damaged at the rate of 100 (+2.86 per minute) each second as long as the core does not take further damage for 8 seconds, meaning the shields will fully regenerate after 70 seconds. While Cores do not regenerate Health over time, this Shield allows them to regain some survivability if the attackers fail to destroy them outright. The Health and Shields for each team's Core are displayed at the top of the screen throughout the match.
Unlike most other buildings, the Core’s HP and Shields scale from minute 1 to minute 20, capping out at 22,000 life and 11,000 shields for a total of 33,000 HP. So any strength heroes gain past that point just makes killing the Core easier. Late-game cores are fragile, and any amount of pressure from minions is an opportunity to end the game. One of the easiest ways to avoid throwing games is to take opportunities to end, so there is no late game to throw.
On some maps the core will have different stats than usual. On Towers of Doom the core has greatly reduced health and is always "protected," but can still take 1 damage at a time from the specific map objectives available. On Alterac Pass the Core is replaced by a General who fights against attacking enemies: Vanndar Stormpike leads the Alliance (left team) and Drek'Thar has rallied the Horde (right team) to aid. Some brawls have no core (e.g. Checkpoint: Hanamura) while others have a superficial core that can only take 3 hits when the round ends (e.g. Punisher Arena).
Core Types
On different maps there are different visually looking Cores. Functionally they are identical, but they often represent the announcer on that specific map. Certain maps with two opposing sides can often have different Cores for each team.
Angelic Core, used for the Silver City and the left side of Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines
Demonic Core, used for the Punisher Arena and the right side of Battlefield of Eternity and the Infernal Shrines.
Dragon Core, used in Dragon Shire, Garden of Terror, and Garden Arena.
Poseidon core, used on Blackheart's Bay.
Gravekeeper's Core, used on the Haunted Mines and the right side of Towers of Doom.
Shimada's Dragon Core, used on Hanamura
Raven Core, used on Cursed Hollow and the left side of Towers of Doom
Serpent Core, used on Sky Temple.
Terran Core, used on Braxis Outpost.
General Core on Alterac Pass.
Trivia
- Two Heroes so far have been designed to be a "Core Replacement": Ragnaros and the Overmind. The Overmind was changed to Abathur and Ragnaros was redesigned as many problems arose with it.
- A Singularity is the reward inside every core in the game. They can be seen at the end of each game during the destruction of the core and the subsequent victory screen.
