The Big Core is a series of large warships in the Gradius series of games which, as one might guess, have big energy cores. Big Cores are typically large warship bosses with one or more energy cores housed within, usually (if not always) guarded by a series of small walls or forcefields the player must break through before they can attack the cores themselves. In a number of games, a voiceover will instruct the player to "Destroy the core!", though this applies to certain other bosses as well.