Core Warships

"Destroy the core!"

- Gradius's announcer

The Core Warships are a series of recurring bosses from the Gradius series. These warships were created by the Bacterians to serve as their last line of defense. They are all identified by the initals B.E.S., meaning Bacterion Empire Ship.

These warships are all comprised of one or more cores, which posesses some level of AI, protected by a series of barriers. The only way of destroying them is by crushing the barriers, thus exposing the core which becomes vulnerable.

Big Core


The Big Core is the most basic core warship, and also the one over which all others are modeled after. It has four side guns which it uses for shooting lasers and a single core in the middle.

Big Core revisions


The Big Core MK-II is the first revision of the original Big Core. It has two cores instead of one and a external shielding. By opening it's two shields, it can cover a much wider area, though his cores becomes exposed as well.



The second revison of Big Core, Big Core MK-III has three cores, with one of them protected by the other two. It's shield can fire two large beams to trap the player, then fire two small lasers that ricochet on the beams.



The last revision of the Big Core, Big Core MK-IV has four cores. It can detach the two side cores to attack on angles, by launching the tips which create a magnetic beam of electricity.