The ultimate Hacktag Guide

Game modes, Achievements, tips... oh my!

Introduction

Welcome to my guide! It is now complete!
As always, if you find mistakes/have suggestions what to add, leave me a comment and have a nice day!

Game modes

The colours tell you the difficulty: green for Easy, yellow for Medium and red for Hard.
You can choose between:

Boss takedown


Your objective here is to hack computers to determine which of the passwords is the right one. Make your way through the building and hack as many computers as you can to uncover the right numbers.













When you have the right password, hack the boss computer at the end of the level



Data scavenger


Hack computers to fill the bar. Each computer gives you 23gb of data, the last one gives you more.









Mainframe Hack


Find the computers with the displayed symbol and hack them. They are scattered around, so you might have to search for the right symbol for a bit. I would recommend to only hack the computer that has the right symbol, since otherwise this mission tends to bug and you can not finish it!














When you have all symbols, go to the mainframe and enter them. There are three mainframe computers in each level.



























Story missions


Story missions are marked with a star next to it. P1 means the mission counts towards Player One's story progression, and P2 counts for Player Two. They do not count for both players even if they are at the same mission in the story, so you might have to do some of them twice.

Note: According to a forum post of the Devs each character gets assigned a storyline at creation. So if you and your partner have the same one when you start, you might want to recreate one of your characters until you have a different storyline. There's nine different storylines with eight quests each, but you only need to complete one storyline at each location to get the achievement.

Basic mechanics

Help your partner

The antivirus can be really annoying for your Hacker. But there's help! You can see where it is when a computer flashes red/orange. Press x to disable the antivirus for a few seconds and give your hacker some room to breathe








In some levels you come across Antivirus Recall Servers. When activated, they attract the antivirus from a certain radius and stop it from searching for you










And don't forget: as Hacker you can slam doors to distract guards and stop them from following your Agent










Puzzles

The puzzle you will find most is a simple arrow-pressing one. You will use this when you hack something alone.















Together with your partner you either need to cut the wire...















...or find the same number






























This might look simple, but it can get very hectic! Depending on your difficulty you get more or less options to choose from/arrows to press but the basic principle stays the same.


Traps

There are laser traps for the Agent



and the Hacker


avoid the marked area until it is over.

You can see when your partner is trapped beside their name.





Some rooms have an alarm in them that goes off when you enter. Quickly disable it before the timer runs out!


Skills

You earn new skills by playing missions and leveling up!

Green skills are basic passive skills and can be used by both classes. They stay actice during the entire game and you can equip up to three of them.


Purple skills are active and need to be activated when you need them. Both classes have the same. You can only take one and only use it once per game.



Blue skills can only be used by the Hacker, but they are passive and work during the entire game.





Orange skills can only be used by the Agent, but they are passive and work during the entire game.




Coins

You can get coins from lootboxes, and buy new outfits with them.


Player Portraits

You can get Player Portraits from your lootboxes, and equip them in the title screen.

General Achievements

These are achievements you can get regardless of the character and role you play, or you both get them at the same time


Leveling

As sly as a fox
Level-up for the first time

Training montage is over
Reach level 10





Skills

A very particular set of skills
Start a mission with three skills selected


->You get skills for completing missions. As soon as you have three to equip you get this


Trained monkey
Use every skills once in a completed mission


-> To quote the Devs: "...you must use every skills in the game at least once in a successful mission.
Including the passive skills and the special skills of the agent and the hacker.
Good luck"


Highscore

Like cats and dogs
Complete a mission with a better score than you partner

You are the one Neo
Complete 10 missions with a better score than you partner


-> This is a lot easier when you play as Hacker


I am special
Earn 10 S ranks


-> To get an S-Rank neither you nor your partner can make any mistakes during the run




Game mode based achievements

I know Kung-fu
Finish the tutorial


-> For me it didn't register when playing the tutorial the first time. But you can start and play it again on the main screen, it should pop up then


Well done Partner
Play online with a partner


-> Simply start an online game


Are we still friends
Play the local mode with partner


->You can also get this alone, by just starting a mission in local coop mode



Time based achievements

The fast and the furious
Set your partner free less than 1 second before the end


-> When your partner gets caught and you free him, only fill the bar by pressing the x till you nearly the end, then wait until the timer runs below 1 second














Nearly a cat-astrophy huh
Deactivate an alarm less than one second before the end


-> I find the best way to do this is to wait till you get an alarm with the "bomb defusing" minigame. Find the right positions and let one of you cut the wire, then the other partner waits until the countdown goes down to >1 second to cut it












You hack people. I hack time
Complete a mission in less than 5 minutes


-> You will need practice and coordination for this one, but it should be doable



Mission type based achievements

Right down in the rabbit hole
Steal 1 Tb of confidential datas

1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d 4 l1f3
Steal 20 Tb of confidential datas


-> You steal data in the Data Scavenger mode in any difficulty


You're not the boss of me now
Hack 1 boss computer in the boss takedown missions

Who's the boss?
Hack 20 boss computer in the boss takedown missions


-> You get this for completing boss takedown missions in any difficulty



Misc

Free like the river
Set your partner free for the first time


-> You get this once you freed your partner for the first time


Worst dynamic duo ever
In one mission, set your partner free 3 and get liberated 3 times


-> You will probably get this automatically, otherwise let you and your partner take turns and free each other till you have it


Sorry bro!
Complete a mission with your partner in jail


-> I would recommend doing this in the Data Scavenger mode. First go to the end of the level and hack the final computer, then work your way back and hack the computers on the way. Each hacked computer gives you 23gb of data, so stop when you only have one computer left. Let your partner get caught, and wait till he got escorted to jail, then hack the last computer to finish the mission.


Mission: possible
Complete a mission without getting caught


-> If you manage to do a run without fail, you also get one of the "S-Rank" achievements, depending on your role


Catch me if you can
Complete a mission with an alarm on


-> When you get to the final room of a mission and an alarm sounds just ignore it and finish the
mission



it's Groundhog Day Again
Play the same mission again and do a better score


-> After finishing a mission, pick "Retry" in the score screen and earn more points than in the previous try

Achievements for the Agent

Your mission, should you choose to accept it...
Successfully complete your first mission online as the Stealth-agent

The Red pill
Complete 10 missions as the stealth-agent


-> Possibly buggy. My partner got it, but I didn't


Snaaaaake!
Get your first S rank as a Stealth-agent


->To get an S-Rank neither you nor your partner can make any mistakes during the run


Two moves one cup!
Enjoy 10 nice and platonic cups of coffee


-> The Hacker can make coffee at coffee machines. Go there and drink it. The Hacker can refill it instantly, so this should be fast

Achievements for the Hacker

Hack 127.0.0.1.
Successfully complete your first mission online as a Hacker

The blue pill
Complete 10 missions as the Hacker




I am Hackerman!
Get your first S rank as a Hacker


-> To get an S-Rank neither you nor your partner can make any mistakes during the run


Bam
Save your partner by slaming a door 20 times


-> When your partner gets caught and escorted to jail, and he passes a door, quickly press "Slam door!" when the guard is near it. It will throw the guard to the ground and give your partner time to escape and hide



















Look! A Distraction
Create 50 diversions as the hacker


-> Ring telephones or make coffee to distract guards

Story Missions

This is a revolution
Finish a story at Lexyk


A bitter pill to swallow
Finish a story at Genthics


It's fake news
Finish a story at C.L.A.W. Media


-> According to a forum post of the Devs each character gets assigned a storyline at creation. So if you and your partner have the same one when you start, you might want to recreate one of your characters until you have a different storyline. There's nine different storylines with eight quests each, but you only need to complete one storyline at each location to get the achievement.

Binge gaming and chill
Finish or witness the end of a story from each 3 corporations



Black Hat
Leave a corporation unpunished

Grey Hat
Remain neutral

White Hat
Reveal all the secrets of a corporation


-> You get one of these when you reach the end of a story campaign depending on what choice you make.


Piece of cake!
Earn all the Hacktag Trophies


-> This is the one you get for completing all other achievements

Achievements that currently seem to be broken

The great escape
Deactivate 20 times an antivirus while it was putting your hacker in quarantine


-> We were unable to get this one even after freeing each other many, many times.

The Fantastic fur
Fully customize your character


-> I did get this eventually after messing around with my character enough, but it took a while.

[NarTeKK]

Achievements "That currently seem to be broken"
Are working (again?) as I write this

[Blobcat]

@[BoC] Oshroth Thanks for the remaining descriptions! I know it's been a while, but I totally forgot about this until now...

[[BoC] Oshroth]

These are the achievements you are missing descriptions for:
Piece of cake!
Earn all the Hacktag Trophies

Binge gaming and chill
Finish or witness the end of a story from each 3 corporations

This is a revolution
Finish or witness a Lexyk Story


A bitter pill to swallow
Finish or witness a Genethics Story


It's fake news
Finish or witness a C.L.A.W Media Story


Black Hat
Leave a corporation unpunished

Grey Hat
Remain neutral

White Hat
Reveal all the secrets of a corporation

It looks like they are for completing each of the corporation stories as well as possibly making a certain choice at some point?

[Darktemplar]

Just tried it. When the Hacker is caught, you can disable the Antivirus on anything they would be passing through as normal.

[Blobcat]

I think when they come through a computer (you see the red-ish glow) you can press x to stop the Antivirus and set the hacker free, like you'd do normally to disable it.
Will need to confirm and then add

[Darktemplar]

Was wondering if there was anything you could do as the Agent to help the Hacker after they've been caught?

Also, thanks for this guide!

[Blobcat]

Yeah it's one of those things that can be kinda hard to see at first, but once you did you'll never miss it again ;)

[Antiz]

Nevermind, I figured it out ;) I thought the laser shows up directly but you first need to dodge the lined floor ! :)

[Blobcat]

Hey, thanks a lot!
It is normal, that you can only see your own traps, but it sounds like you might have encountered a bug.
I am indeed not a dev though and can only speculate, however they do have a discord at www.hacktag-thegame.com/discord where they answer pretty quickly.

[Antiz]

Hey, nice guide ! I have a problem tho... It seems like I cannot see lasers when a room is trapped (as the secret agent, but the hacker cannot see it aswell). I know you're probably not a hacktag dev or anything but that's strange. The room looks totally normal but when i'm inside, it says "watch out for lasers" and i'm f*cked x) Any idea ?