A choke point is a defence mechanic that uses low firewall nodes to their maximum potential.
A choke point is giving a weak firewall node to the attacker to put his viruses on and linking that weak node to defence nodes. This allows the defence nodes to quickly take back the weak node and delete all the viruses on that node and making the attacker waste more viruses to take it back and move on.
Why do I need choke points?
It may take a bit of math and careful planning, but in the end, it does annoy the attacker if he/she is not careful and can help defend your resources and rep. Choke points take back weak infected nodes quickly and deletes all the viruses on that node.
Let's say someone tries to hack you with beam cannons and ICE walls. They get to a choke point with 3 attacking slots. They place down 2 beam cannons and a ICE wall. Your choke point quickly takes down that ICE wall and then if the hacker doesn't notice, that choke point can be taken back in less than a second - deleting those two remaining beam cannons. That's two beam cannons that need to be replaced!
Thus reducing the attack capability of the hacker and improving your chances of a successful defence.
How do I do make a choke point?
So I talked a lot about weak nodes and how they can easily be recaptured by defence nodes/antivirus nodes.
Some examples of weak nodes are:
(All firewall stats are at Level 1)
- Evolver - 100 firewall
- Compiler - 150 firewall
- B-coin Mine/Server Farm - 150 firewall
- Scanner - 180 firewall
- Guardian - 250 firewall (This has 5 connection points which allow for more defence nodes)
Bad choke point nodes are:
- Black ICE - It has 5 program slots with only 4 connection points with a reasonably high firewall (350)
- Core - This may seem funny but people think that you can "take back" the core because it has 5 connection points and you can attach defence nodes onto it. This doesn't work because the core has such a high firewall(300 but increases a lot as levels go by. At core 6, it already has a firewall of 1000!) and also has 5 program slots
Example of an early game choke point with two turrets on an evolver
Example of an early game choke point with a turret and a black ICE. Uses a compiler as a choke point
Example of using a scanner as a choke point
Example of using high firewall nodes as "defence" nodes. Note: I forgot to attach a sentry to the 3 storage's. You need an antivirus on the storage's for this to work
Example of using a guardian as a choke point. See how the attacker has to get past the heavily guarded guardian to get to the mixer?
Now there's a lot of controversy with using a guardian as a choke point. From what I've seen, here are the pros and cons of using a guardian as a choke point. Whether it's good or not, is up for you to decide
Pros
- Has 5 node connections meaning that it can link up to 4 defence nodes (other node is the entry node)
- Has relatively low firewall, which means it can be taken back quickly
- It can provide shields to the defence nodes making it hard to take them out while being recaptured
- Has 4 program slots. This allows for a stable combo of 2-3 beam cannons and 1-2 ICE walls or protectors. This would keep the guardian safe and difficult to recapture
- Once secured with a protector, it can attack up to 4 other targets at it's own leisure
A bad example of a choke point. Don't use black ICE as choke points
Example of a base using these examples
Choke point 1 in the base using a guardian
Choke point 2 in the base using a scanner
Choke point 3 (and 4) in the base using high firewalls. Note: Again I forgot to attach a sentry to the databases and mixes. Sorry
EDIT: Silly photobucket went down and so did most of my pictures. Moved on to Imgur. Added pros and cons to guardian choke point
I hope this helps! Feel free to comment on any of my examples or explain the concept better. Thanks!
Sorry if I've hacked you 
