How does hacking work?

[inkihh]

I use Remote Hacking (15%), then it counts down from 60 seconds, then nothing. How does it work??

[Drakeema]

How do you use it? I've never seen it being used yet

[Flybye]

I’ve read results are very random, and it doesn’t always work. Sometimes hack is successful and sometimes not. Sometimes the bots just stand like trees looking confused and sometimes they attack their friends. The bigger the target the less chance of hacking it

[Elucidus]

Yeah, i wish you could respec, because I wasted points on hack. It is very unreliable, I mean your lucky to get a hunter for what is it 30 seconds? Not really worth it, because usually when you fail they know exactly where you are.

It works with the binos, zoom in and click the key for it, I think it is "X" I don't recall.

[❌️▶️👱]

1. You must buy all the skills (left side of the Tech Tree). 2. Make the Haker tree active.
3. Use your binocular to highlight a runner or hunter and press the "Q* key (on PC) until your target's color changed to reddish. One caviat you can only do this while in combat. Runners and Hunters are easiest to hack. I had never hacked a tank.

Recommend using it on locations you have good cover, say, church safehouse. Despite it's 70% only success rates, you don't spend a single ammo using it.

[buster_dee]

I got a Harvester to play once. The Tank he was spamming didn't seem even slightly perturbed. I routinely hack prior to combat (maybe my difficulty setting makes it act differently). Before the latest patches, the hacked machine seemed to know who had done it and would immediately turn on you when the hack expired. Now, runners don't seem to respond correctly: you can only tell they are hacked because they fire very infrequently at nothing in particular--like they'd forgotten all their training.

[Sparzy]

I've noticed when hacking and its successful the glow turns blue around the body.

Make sure when this happens you get out of its sight, otherwise it'll keep attacking you.

Then just patience.

Ticks are always 100%

Runners/dogs are usually 70-85%

Hunters 40-50%

and big guys 15-25%

But i have lvl 2 hacking and hacker as my big skill

[buster_dee]

I've never understood the game's point that only one specialty can be active at a time. Isn't it just based on the 'tree' we've worked up? How could that tree not be active?

[Xathras]

Hacking works perfectly fine for me. I take cover and the first enemy i hack are always these pesky scanners. Getting gangbanged by their own "friends". After that i target Runners or Hunters. Depending on what is the first machine that walks in my sight.

Sometimes i try tanks or harvesters and sometimes i manage to hack them and watch the party.

It is fun though.

[gavtheman]

Mmm, I read a guide recently that suggested the hacker skill was one of the best to get, didn't know it only worked in combat - is this right? As a single player I try not to get into too much combat so it might not be that useful, I thought you'd be able to hack the things without trying to fight them off or dodge their fire?

[❌️▶️👱]

Originally posted by gavtheman:

Mmm, I read a guide recently that suggested the hacker skill was one of the best to get, didn't know it only worked in combat - is this right? As a single player I try not to get into too much combat so it might not be that useful, I thought you'd be able to hack the things without trying to fight them off or dodge their fire?

Honestly, I credit it for winning me a single-guerilla play before the early April update. I can't remember how many machines got killed by their own kind. I was at Alby Church safehouse fighting off one level 4 hunter, one level 4 tank and one unlevelled harvester along with their bodyguard hunters, runner, etc.

It was relatively easy for me to do it because church safehouses have excellent cover while you are in combat. You can use your binocular through windows to hack machines, you can angle your binocular to see runners or hunters from a location inside the church that are difficult for them to shoot at.

Ex: In front of the altar (within the curve wood divider where you have a view of the area outside the main church door, to your right are two glass windows to shoot or hack whichever machine is visible outside (I think these are the only windows that you can shoot out), above the altar where you have over the head view of the left and right sides areas outside the church. The bell tower is a 50-50 location for hacking.

I started the combat (you can only use it when you are in combat but some say they can use it even outside combat -- which is even better) by throwing firecrackers outside the main door, where I destroyed a runner. I use my guns once in a while to take out exposed targets.

I did not shoot any machine from the bell tower because I used that place exclusively to hack machines.

Use this tactics only if you want to have fun hacking machines and if you have enough patience. It was a slow fight, but I never died and I won the battle with just a few shots of M49, AG4 and PVG 90. I had fun then.

[Sparzy]

Originally posted by gavtheman:

Mmm, I read a guide recently that suggested the hacker skill was one of the best to get, didn't know it only worked in combat - is this right? As a single player I try not to get into too much combat so it might not be that useful, I thought you'd be able to hack the things without trying to fight them off or dodge their fire?

It doesnt only work in combat, sometimes hacking works sometimes not. When i see a large group of mobs in a place i want to go, i try hacking the runners first since they're easier, then duck out of sight.

If you are still in sight of them when hacking they'll still attack you