Tetratronic vs Netwatch Cyberdeck and spread

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

So I am trying to figure out which one is better, and the thing is the Netwatch Detdriver mk. 5 says "offensive quickhacks can be uploaded to 3 targets in a 6 meter radius" and it improves spread distance by 60%, but the Tetratronic says "ultimate quickhacks can spread once." So what gives? is it just that the legendary tier quickhacks cannot be spread? Or is it only the quickhacks which already spread that do that like Contagion or Reboot Optics? Or is it just that this is bugged?

Because I cannot for the life of me figure out if this is working properly or not and am using all legendary quickhacks which I think means the same thing as ultimate, right? I'm going to test this more because it doesn't seem to make anything spread. I've got skills which make it spread to multiple other targets though.

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

Ok yeah after more testing I am noticing that the Netdriver definitely does NOT spread legendary quickhacks. Any single target quickhack is not spreading. It doesn't even seem to be spreading ones that do any further than it normally would have on any other cyberdeck either, as I am using Reboot Optics and it's only spreading to 4 targets (it spreads to one additional target+the additional targets from Plague quickhack skill). Which is making it in other words NOT appearing to do what it says in the description at all, period.

I think it's bugged. In point of fact I am noticing using the Tetratronic DO exactly what Netdriver supposedly does, makes quickhacks spread more; Tetratronic will actually make a single target quickhack spread to one additional target


EDIT yeah this is such ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fr the cyberdeck just has to be bugged unless it is some obtuse mechanic where you're at a disadvantage and it's more of a sidegrade to getting a legendary quickhack by it no longer spreading, because it definitely appears to me that the Netwatch Netdriver is actyally performing worse than the Tetratronic when it comes to spreading. This isn't just single targets either. After more extensive testing thank God for NCPD sidegig stuff for that and experimentation on the population of Not-LA it appears to be the case that Contagion spreads way better and seemingly almost takes down whole squads of enemies way better than using the Netdriver. This despite the fact the Netdriver's entire shtick is seemingly based around it being better for spreading exactly that quickhack, with bonuses to spread distance being redundant if even true given it does not seem to be doing as it says it does.

This is mainly disappointing to me because I find it hilarious the concept of using pirated FBI hackerwares to jack into a bunch of gangbangers and then pickpocket their frozen bodies for $50. I was really hoping to spend the rest of the game using stolen not-FBI equipment to engage in rampant acts of piracy and mercenary work. It just seems like the kind of thing a NC legends V would be doing, taking something from Netwatch off a seedy alleyway and stealing a mob boss' shoes with it.

[Rabidnid]

The Netwatch Netdriver mk 5 will very rarely spread to 3 targets but usually gets 2. The main thing is the bonus damage with low end hacks like synapse burnout and short circuit

The Tetratronic Rippler mk 4 has the shorted upload which is nice and will spread system reset, suicide, cyberpsychosis and detonate grenade but not the lesser hacks.


Basically the distinction is between hacks that only appear at epic level (ultimate hacks) and the hacks that were available from the start of the game.

And yes contagion can become very op with the right perks.

[NorthernDavid]

THe way the Netdriver works is it simultaneously uploads a hack to as was said most often 2 targets who are very close together. The word spread is used but it's not quite the same as the contagions spread. Contagion will effect one person then move to the next and so on, the deck will upload on multiple at once if they are close enough.

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

Originally posted by NorthernDavid:

THe way the Netdriver works is it simultaneously uploads a hack to as was said most often 2 targets who are very close together. The word spread is used but it's not quite the same as the contagions spread. Contagion will effect one person then move to the next and so on, the deck will upload on multiple at once if they are close enough.

Ohhhhh thank you! So it really also means "chance of" too, and not just straight 3? Because

Originally posted by Rabidnid:

The Netwatch Netdriver mk 5 will very rarely spread to 3 targets but usually gets 2. The main thing is the bonus damage with low end hacks like synapse burnout and short circuit

The Tetratronic Rippler mk 4 has the shorted upload which is nice and will spread system reset, suicide, cyberpsychosis and detonate grenade but not the lesser hacks.


Basically the distinction is between hacks that only appear at epic level (ultimate hacks) and the hacks that were available from the start of the game.

And yes contagion can become very op with the right perks.

This is really sad and stupid for my build given that I don't use Suicide, Synapse, Cyberpsychosis, nor detonate grenade and I DO use Contagion, Overheat, Short Circuit, and to lesser extent System Reboot and also Reboot Optics. So playing around with it even all this time later I can't figure out which to do although it hilariously makes Contagion seem more useful just by resetting the cooldown timer and spreading faster so rather than it taking a minute to hit everybody and slowly spreading while their netrunner tries to trace you it seems to take out whole squads in seconds just jumping back and forth between them. Also it seems like it'd be less useful for my stealth netrunner build given that it's spreading literally the one thing I don't want randomly hitting other guys, like System Reboot, which will then take out a guy near someone else or under a camera thus ruining the whole point of being stealthy. So, so far as I see it's actually thematically stupider and less useful if it's spreading only once, but the same reason it's not useless to me is also why it's stupid and broken, because you can't use Overheat and Short Circuit, because I use those to pick off one guy at a time and hide them before the body is seen.

I dunno, at the same time it just feels so much better using Tetratronic even thoughon Netdriver that 30% damage boost is critical and even though it works more powerfully on spreading everything it just feels really weirdly to me like Tetratronic works better for exactly the things Netdriver is supposed to be doing and good at. I have a build centered entirely around jacking networks and taking down whole rooms full of enemies by using Overheat and Short Circuit one by one while taking down all the security systems and then room clearing by hacking camerasthis Watchdogs like mechanic is so OP btw, it's making an otherwise hard game fairly trivial lol I had not realized when I started that by the end I can take out whole gangs without firing a shot and basically within 1-3 minutes I've cleared the entire area and casually walk around looting people as they're lying there tazed and paralyzed. I guess I played that very similar to Deus Ex come to think, but anyway the problem is that Contagion often was too slow and didn't do enough damage so more often than not if I didn't hit a backtracing netrunner with short circuit he'd out me and I'd turn a whole pacifist room into a firefight. So while it said 60% range this and 3 target spread that, I still ended up using just Short Circuit and Overheat. But now with experimentation it seems just that the speed itself on Tetratronic is making Contagion truly useful by room clearing with Contagion alone, and that's stupid imo because the whole wording of Netwatch Netdriver seems to make it sound like the perfect Contagion rig or that it'll make your spread build more useful, but it seems accomplishing the opposite effect.

Idk, I'd have to play more at this point to fully get the feel of it, I suspect that going against higher level story enemies maybe it'd be less useful and I'd be reminded why I chose that +30% quickhack damage, but the sheer speed at which your quickhacks reset and the added advantage of lowering the RAM cost seems to make the Tetratronic just all around the superior Cyberdeck in every way? It almost just feels like they needed to patch that or something was broken from the way it was originally intended, because a Reboot Optics and Contagion build definitely feels better using Tetratronic. Meanwhile the main advantage of Netdriver seems to be it actually does half work as intended and does a really good job at individually targeted takedowns.

I feel almost like they read the dev notes while half asleep and that each cyberdeck does half of what the other cyberdeck is supposed to do, and that maybe the "ultimate quickhack spread once" thing was meaning to go on the Tetratronic with the "quickhacks that spread to up to 3 additional targets" and "+60% range of quickhacks to spread" whereas the "+30% quickhack damage" and "reset cooldowns 45%" and "upload quickhacks 75% faster" all were supposed to go on the Netwatch Netdriver? Because I mean it'd make sense, seeing as how the actual Netwatch netrunners are going to be hunting down the individual hackers and so they're going to be valuing speed and much more accuracy, while the OP Tetratronic is meant to be a broad system and corpo organizationally disabling weapon. I think that'd make much more sense, not even just thematically so much as how it actually feels playing with both of them, where you can just feel it playing the game that the one that's supposed to be spread based is just really gradual and partly as a result it takes so long I don't even use Contagion with the Netdriver whereas Tetra disables a whole gang in like 9 seconds. Which again is still weird and dumb feeling even if I'd rather it stay this way, that it applies to legendary quickhacks but only spreads to 1 additional target for single target ultimate quickhacks and yet it doesn't even spread the two most overused ones, Short Circuit and Overheat. In terms of spreading it basically just feels like the Tetratronic is only spreading System Reboot and only to one extra target. Without damage buffs, if it didn't have such rapidfire quickhack uploads and cooldowns it'd be basically useless in comparison, so maybe that's why it was all designed that way?
I'm basically just trying to make some sense of the way the mechanics actually play out in reality and how it actually works because the wording feels unclear for what it's doing, especially given that neither one of these two cyberdecks seems to spread quickhacks as description implies

Thanks for the help

[Rabidnid]

Yeah, there is also an arasaka legendary deck that increases the time that hacks operate and also resets ping when an enemy is affected by a hack. I've not used it this playthrough but I think one of the two rippers at the far left of city centre have it.

Edit.

Arasaka Mk 4. The ripper next to the Skyline and Republic fast travel point has it.