Punishment in social dilemmas can be costly, but it may also have benefits for cooperation. Different punishment mechanisms were studied in a simulation with agents who could share resources and punish others. Legitimate punishment improved performance when resources were scarce, while no-punishment with indirect reciprocity worked better when resources were abundant. The hired gun mechanism was effective only in high-resource conditions. Legitimate punishment outperformed unrestricted punishment. Overall, the study shows that choosing the right punishment mechanism can help promote cooperation in a system already based on reciprocity.