A benchmark is a collection of warriors which a Core War program under development can be optimised against. A good benchmark normally has a similar balance to the hill, with the results pinpointing any weaknesses in the warrior being tested.

WilFiz or the White Army benchmarks are recommended when optimizing for the 94 hills and David Moore's 88 benchmark when optimizing for the 88 hill.

WilFiz

Christian Schmidt created the 12 warrior WilFiz benchmark in 2002 to represent the actual strength of the hills:

The White Army

The White Army is a 20 warrior 94 benchmark which was created by John Metcalf in 2002 to match the balance of strategies on the hill. The White Army was used in the final round of the SS2002 Corewar Tournament:

Moore 88

David Moore assembled a preliminary 88 benchmark of 20 warriors in 1998, noting a couple of weaknesses (a few warriors are not q^2 aware and certain strategies are absent, e.g. paper-launched imps):

WilMoo

David Moore and John Wilkinson put together the 12 warrior WilMoo benchmark in 1998 to represent a diverse a set of strategies:

WilBez

The WilBez advanced benchmark is a group of 13 warriors put together for more experienced players by John Wilkinson and Beppe Bezzi in 1996:

Wilkies

John Wilkinson created the Wilkies benchmark in 1996 as a small group of 12 warriors for beginners to test their warriors against:

Metcalf's Tiny Benchmark

Franz's Tiny Benchmark

Metcalf's Nano Benchmark

A 50 warrior benchmark for the nano hill was created in 2007, with a balance similar to the hill: