Thousands of operators are flooding the network right now - building rigs, crashing markets,
climbing leaderboards, and forging syndicates. Every hack reshapes the grid. Where you land is up to you.
01
HACK THE GRID
Breach hostile networks. Chain win streaks for multiplied loot. Push into harder zones where the real drops live.
02
PLAYER MARKETPLACE
A fully player-driven economy. Trade resources on live order books. Flip rare gear with perfect affixes for massive profit.
03
COMPETE ON 15+ BOARDS
Leaderboards for hacking, coding, mining, sniffing, crafting, contracts, streaks, events, and more. Every playstyle has a throne.
SYSTEMS ONLINE
>_
Deep Crafting System
Roll affixes, burn essences, stabilize outcomes. The strongest gear in the game isn't dropped - it's forged.
>_
Syndicates
Form a crew. Pool resources into a shared treasury. Unlock permanent group-wide boosts and dominate together.
>_
Server-Wide Events
Global raids where every operator contributes. Breach the Bank Firewall or fight the Rogue Worm for shared rewards.
>_
Daily Contracts
Fresh objectives every cycle. Clear the full board for bonus Hackcoin. Skip a day and fall behind.
>_
Hardware Upgrades
Invest in your rig. Better hardware means faster income, stronger combat, and compounding returns on everything.
>_
Achievements & Milestones
Hundreds of tiered achievements tracking every system. Chase milestones, unlock Steam achievements, and prove your mastery.
LAUNCH WEEK
The leaderboards are empty. The economy is fresh. Every early move compounds.
Top the rankings. Corner the market. Build the strongest syndicate on the grid.
Whatever your play - the window is now.
SELECT ACTIVITIES TO BEGIN EXECUTION
DAILY CONTRACTS
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@ MENTION RECEIVED
WHISPER RECEIVED
CONTRACT COMPLETED
CONTRACT BOARD RESET
HACKING STREAK ENDED
ACHIEVEMENT EARNED
SIGNATURE EPIC FOUND
MARKETPLACE ITEM SOLD
MARKETPLACE STACKABLES ORDER FILLED
EVENT STARTING SOON
EVENT STARTED
HOMELAB BUILD COMPLETED
HOMELAB BUILD QUEUE EMPTY
NETWORK BREACH COMPLETED
PREMIUM ACCESS REQUIRED
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When enabled, you will automatically join community events as the selected role.
When enabled, your role switches to the opposite role once for that event.
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SETTINGS APPLY IMMEDIATELY.
SUPPORT IDLE HACKING
PREMIUM ACCESS KEYS
Upgrade your account on your schedule. Buy keys, bank them for later, and consume when you are ready.
Consumes one of your stored Premium Access Keys and grants 30 days of Premium time to the target player.
SAVE 13%
SAVE 25%
Completed purchases add 10 minutes of Supporter Recognition per key: x1.25 Experience, x1.25 Drop Boost, and x1.25 Homelab Build Speed for everyone online. Active event windows increase that to up to 20 minutes per key.
SAVE 13%
SAVE 25%
Completed purchases add 10 minutes of Supporter Recognition per key: x1.25 Experience, x1.25 Drop Boost, and x1.25 Homelab Build Speed for everyone online. Active event windows increase that to up to 20 minutes per key.
Secure checkout
HOLIDAY EVENT
FIREWORKS FESTIVAL
Complete event contracts, earn Sparklers, and trade Premium Access Keys or Sparklers for server-wide buffs.
Redeeming any Premium Key buff awards the Fireworks Benefactor accolade.
PREMIUM KEYS
0
AVAILABLE
SPARKLERS
0
EVENT CURRENCY
Unused fireworks will be used as part of a grand finale fireworks show starting at the finale time (July 5 @ 02:00 UTC).
EQUIPPED SOFTWARE
PAYLOAD
EMPTY
FIREWALL
EMPTY
ANALYZER
EMPTY
SHELL
EMPTY
DRIVER
EMPTY
ROUTER
EMPTY
DAEMON
EMPTY
KERNEL
EMPTY
ENHANCING
PREMIUM LOOT FILTER
Rules
Selected RuleInventory updates live
GEAR AUTOMATION
Selected RuleSaved when you leave this panel
BONUSES
RESOURCES
GEAR SETS (0/2)
INVENTORY (0/150)
Search terms
T:6Affix tier 6
socketHas an Extension Slot (also: extension)
A:3At least 3 affixes
ilvl:>1000Item level greater than 1000
ilvl:<1000Item level less than 1000
Use commas to require multiple terms.
Affixes
Hover to load affix terms...
HIDE:
0 selected
BUY
SELL
Percent quantities use current holdings and always round down.
BIDS
PRICE
QTY
ASKS
PRICE
QTY
MY ORDERS
SIDE
PRICE
REMAINING
ACTION
PLUGIN
TIER
PRICE
SELLER
ACTION
LIST A PLUGIN
Each listing sells one Plugin. Listed Plugins are reserved from your vault. Manage prices and delist in My Listings. Listings expire after 14 days without a price update and return to your vault.
Item
-
-
Affix
Bonus
ITEM
SLOT
LEVEL
RARITY
PRICE
SELLER
ACTION
No listings found.
MY EQUIPMENT LISTINGS
Search terms
T:6Affix tier 6
A:3At least 3 affixes
ilvl:>1000Item level greater than 1000
ilvl:<1000Item level less than 1000
Use commas to require multiple terms.
Affixes
Hover to load affix terms...
Open the My Listings tab to load your active equipment listings.
ITEM
EXPIRES IN
ACTION
No active equipment listings.
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MY PLUGIN LISTINGS
PLUGIN
TIER
PRICE
LISTED
LAST UPDATED
EXPIRES IN
ACTION
MY STACKABLE ORDERS
Open the My Listings tab to load your active stackable orders.
RESOURCE
SIDE
PRICE
OPEN QTY
ACTION
No active stackable orders.
MARKETPLACE ACTIVITY
Open the Activity tab to load recent marketplace events.
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TARGET ZONES
Loading zones...
COMBAT STATUS
> NO ACTIVE HACK
SELECT A ZONE TO BEGIN INTRUSION
COMBAT LOG
> Awaiting combat data...
NETWORK BREACH
Breach is available to all operators.
Network Breach
>_
Uplink
Requesting Network Breach state
Loading achievements...
OPERATOR PROFILE
---
Account Age: ---|Playtime: ---
Premium: Inactive
Expires: --
Lifetime: 0 days
SKILL LEVELS
HACKING1
CODE1
COMPUTE1
MINE1
SNIFF1
TOTAL5
ACHIEVEMENTS
0/0UNLOCKED
0TIERS COMPLETED
1.00xCHIP DROP MULTIPLIER
EQUIPPED SOFTWARE
PAYLOAD
EMPTY
FIREWALL
EMPTY
ANALYZER
EMPTY
SHELL
EMPTY
DRIVER
EMPTY
ROUTER
EMPTY
DAEMON
EMPTY
KERNEL
EMPTY
ACTIVITY LOG
Activity log is only available for your own profile.
Base × [Additive Sources] = Subtotal, Subtotal × [Multiplicative Sources] = Total
ACTIVITY
TOTAL
BASE XP
EQUIPMENT
UPGRADES
SUBTOTAL
MULTIPLICATIVE SOURCES
TOTAL
Loading...
COMBAT STATS BREAKDOWN
STAT
TOTAL
BASE
LEVEL
EQUIPMENT
UPGRADES
SYNDICATE
PLUGINS
TOTAL
Loading...
COMBAT LIFETIME
ENEMIES DEFEATED:0
DEATHS:0
WIN RATE:0%
HIGHEST ZONE:--
ZONE KILLS
No kills recorded yet
ZONE STREAKS
CURRENT STREAK:0
LONGEST STREAK:0
No streaks recorded yet
LOOT BONUS BREAKDOWN
Base x (1 + Equipment Bonus) x [Multiplicative Sources] = Final Total
BONUS
BASE
EQUIPMENT
SUB-TOTAL
MULTIPLICATIVE SOURCES
FINAL TOTAL
Loading...
LIFETIME RESOURCES EARNED
SNIPPETS:0
CYCLES:0
HASHES:0
PACKETS:0
LIFETIME CURRENCIES
CREDITS:0
CHIPS:0
HACKCOIN:0
TOTAL SPENT:0
COMMUNITY EVENT LIFETIME
BANK TICKS:0
ROGUE WORM TICKS:0
SUPPORT OUTPUT:0
ACTIVITY OUTPUT:0
EQUIPMENT FOUND
TOTAL ITEMS:0
HIGHEST ILVL:0
TOTAL SIGNATURE EPICS:0
PITY SIGNATURES:0
BASIC:0
COMMON:0
UNCOMMON:0
RARE:0
EPIC:0
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Event Overview
No active community event.
Boss Health
Current0 / 0
0%
Combat Details
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Previous Event Results
Participants
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ROADMAP
What's coming to Idle Hacking
MARCH 18, 2026
GAME LAUNCH
Idle Hacking goes live. The grid opens, the economy starts fresh, and the first operators begin their climb.
LIVE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2026
FIRST MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE
NETWORK BREACH
Persistent solo and private-party ASCII crawls, four Breach classes, class mastery, temporary run upgrades, and a separate Cyber Relic collection.
LIVE
ONGOING
CONTINUOUS UPDATES
UI polish, quality-of-life improvements, balance, and minor feature updates ship regularly between major content drops.
WINTER/SPRING 2027
SECOND MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE
SYNDICATE WARS
Competitive syndicate endgame content centered on territory control and server-wide dominance, building on the now-live cooperative Network Breach foundation.
2027 AND BEYOND
SEASON LADDERS & EXPANSION CONTENT
Competitive season ladders with fresh leaderboard resets and exclusive rewards. Continued expansion-level content updates that reshape the grid.
Network Breach Help
New to Breach? Start with Your First Breach. Choose a topic below whenever you need more detail.
Explore a hostile network, fight automatically, and bring home rewards to build stronger classes. Play solo or in a party of up to four while your regular Hacking and resource gathering continue.
Available to every operator. Breach is available at any Hack level. Your normal equipment does not power your Breach character; classes, talents, and Cyber Relics do. Access Token crafting can spend main-game essences, so read its cost before crafting.
A simple first run
Create a lobby and choose Scrapnet Warrens. A private lobby lets you learn at your own pace. Fill empty slots with followers starts checked: automatic teammates join when you launch, filling missing classes up to four total combatants. Uncheck it if you want to fight alone. You can also join a public lobby that accepts your class and level.
Pick a class in Your Setup. All four have automatic combat abilities. Gatewarden starts with the most Integrity and Armor if you would like a defensive starting point. Your starter Offense and Defense relics are already equipped; the Utility slot starts empty.
Choose Full Clear and Hold at access. Full Clear explores for every enemy and cache. Hold gives you a chance to review your condition after each floor. Leave repeat runs off while learning.
Mark yourself Ready, then press Begin Breach. In a party, everyone must be ready and meet the lobby requirements. Your controller moves and fights automatically; you do not need to click map tiles or attacks.
Watch System Integrity and the floor counters. Integrity is your health. Enemies provide Class XP and Cache; treasure caches provide Cache and chances to find items. Fog hides their locations until scanned.
Review the run at access. Once all surviving squads rally, surviving operators bank the floor's XP. Spend earned talent points in Mastery & Prestige. Descend to take on the next floor, or Extract to secure your haul. Later floors are harder.
Extract, then prepare again. Extracting from the final floor completes the network. Review Last run or Recent Runs, equip new relics, and adjust your build before another attempt.
Followers start in the leader's squad and handle their own attacks, talents, and relics. They scale with the human party, but affect Cache sharing and cannot keep the run alive if every human is downed. Read Parties & Automation for follower details.
Know what is safe: XP banked at earlier access points stays with you. This floor's XP is lost if you are downed. Cache and found items remain unsecured until extraction; a party wipe loses them except for explicit Cache-retention effects. Abandoning forfeits your unbanked XP and unsecured haul.
Each floor has rooms, corridors, enemies, treasure caches, and an access point. Entering a room reveals its layout, but shaded, unscanned floor can still hide contents. Knowing a room's shape does not mean you have searched it.
Enemies, caches, and access:◆ marks an enemy, ◉ a guardian, ¤ a treasure cache, and ▷ the access point where your squads rally before descending or extracting.
Squad markers: A distinct shape identifies each controller, and ✦ means multiple squads share a tile. The Map Key pairs every marker with its controller's name and names the current floor's guardian.
Terrain and fog: Wall lines and scanned-floor textures vary with the map's visual style. Shaded ░ tiles show mapped but unscanned floor, which can still hide enemies or caches. Use the ? Map Key beside the map to check the current wall, scanned-floor, and fog examples.
Floor counters: Total enemies and caches are known from the start; their positions still need to be discovered.
Choose your Crawl Tactic
Tactic
When your squad heads to access
Full Clear
After all enemies and caches are resolved. In Token runs, ordinary enemies are cleared before deliberately taking on the access guardian.
Cache Priority
After all caches are recovered. It favors treasure and avoids known enemies when another known route exists; it cannot guarantee a fight-free route.
Threat Priority
After all enemies are defeated. It collects incidental treasure and leaves the access guardian until ordinary enemies are cleared.
Depth Rush
As soon as it can reach access. Skipped enemies and caches mean fewer rewards and can leave Token guardians much stronger.
Controllers can change their squad's tactic outside combat. A follower uses their controller's tactic. Tactics decide how to explore a floor; the separate access-routing setting decides whether to stop, descend, or extract afterward.
Understand your stats
Integrity: Health. At zero you are downed. Increasing maximum Integrity during a run does not itself heal you.
Power: Attack strength.
Armor: Reduces incoming damage but does not make ordinary hits harmless.
Accuracy and Evasion: Determine whether attacks connect. Base hit chance is Accuracy minus the target's Evasion, limited to 25%–95%; special effects can modify the outcome.
Scan: Reveals more nearby terrain and contents. Exploration-speed effects help movement; they do not speed up combat.
Binding, Aegis, Trace, or Combo: Your class resource. Class abilities generate and spend it automatically.
Either side can strike first in an encounter. Squads fighting the same enemy share that encounter, but many protective and support effects apply within a squad. Enemy health scales with the party size when the floor is created, so splitting up trades concentrated fighting power for broader exploration.
At the access point
All living squads must rally before the party can move on. Living eligible operators recover 20% of their missing Integrity, rounded up, and bank their floor XP. This recovery does not revive downed operators; Token modifiers can change recovery rules.
Hold at access: Wait for a manual Descend or Extract order.
Extract after floor N: Automatically descend until that floor, then extract.
Complete network: Automatically continue to the final floor and extract.
Automatic routing pauses briefly at access. Manual Descend and Extract can override the plan when allowed. The final floor only offers extraction. Check your route before every run: The browser remembers your previous selection.
Enemies award XP for your active class. It banks when the surviving party rallies at access. Caches do not award Class XP.
Cache → Cipher Shards
Your personal unsecured Cache becomes spendable Cipher Shards on extraction, one for one. Shards already in your balance are safe from later wipes.
Cyber Relics and Access Tokens
Found items are unsecured until extraction. Their final awards appear in the run report.
Clearance
Your highest class level ever reached. It stays unlocked when you change class or Recompile.
Eligible party members share rewards even when exploring in separate squads. Class XP is a full personal award, rather than divided between players. Cache is different: Each extra member adds 20% to the pool before it is divided, so a pair collects 120% of the solo award and keeps 60% each, while a full party of four collects 160% and keeps 40% each. The party earns more Cache in total; each individual earns less per source than a solo player. Personal bonuses can make final totals differ.
Party loot talents improve everyone's Cache rewards and the chance of items that a source can already drop. Multiple operators' bonuses add together. Treasure-only and triggered barrier or execution bonuses apply to their matching rewards. A 10% drop-chance bonus changes a 1% chance to 1.1%, not 11%.
Downed, wiped, or leaving?
Downed: You lose this floor's unbanked XP and earn no more XP on that floor. In co-op, teammates can continue; eligible downed members can still receive Cache and item rewards.
Restore at access: Costs half your personal Cache, rounded up, and returns you with half Integrity. Automatic descent restores eligible downed members; automatic extraction does not charge for an unnecessary restoration. Token modifiers can increase the cost.
Party wipe: Solo defeat, or the whole party going down, ends the run. Banked XP stays safe. Unsecured items are lost, and Cache is lost unless your talents or relic effects explicitly retain some.
Abandon: Permanently leave this run and forfeit your unsecured rewards and current-floor XP. Cache-retention effects do not protect voluntary abandonment. Already banked progression remains.
Disconnect: Is not abandonment. The run can keep progressing within your offline allowance, and reconnecting returns you to its current state.
Finishing a network
Extracting from the final floor counts as network completion. This is different from the Full Clear tactic: Completion does not require choosing that tactic. Early extraction still secures your collected rewards, but misses completion rewards.
If you are missing either relic bound to your active class, completion guarantees one missing class relic after accounting for that run's discoveries. Once both are owned, that class has no further guaranteed class relic. Completing an Access Token run also guarantees a Token outcome for the player who supplied the entry Token.
When enabled, network completion grants the server a random temporary buff: 2x Drop Boost, 2x Item Rarity, or +50% Homelab Build Speed. When equipment extensions are enabled, Token caches can also award Plugins, Stability Catalysts, and Extension Catalysts for the main game; these require extraction too.
Recent Runs keeps your last 20 completed run reports. Use View run in the Last run bar to inspect the rewards and, after a wipe, the final encounter.
Parties hold one to four players. Public lobbies can set a minimum party size, minimum class level, and class requirements for their open slots. Everyone must meet the selected network's Clearance requirement. Invitations still require an eligible class and an open slot; they expire after ten minutes.
In public lobbies, the leader manages the mission and party settings. In private lobbies, every member can use shared party controls, including mission selection, invitations, repeat runs, and access orders. Personal readiness and loadouts remain each player's choice.
Whoever holds those controls can also Make Leader to hand the role to another member, or Kick to remove one. Both are lobby-only; once a run starts, use the in-run controller and recovery options instead. Transferring leadership regroups the party under the new leader, and in a public lobby it is refused when the outgoing leader's class no longer fits an open recruitment slot.
Public recruits may have a ready timer: Off, 1, 3, or 5 minutes. If you remain unready until it expires, you leave the lobby rather than being readied automatically. The leader and private-lobby members are exempt. Changing your preparation can clear Ready, so check it again before launch.
Automatic followers
Fill empty slots with followers is enabled by default in new lobbies. When the run starts, AI teammates fill unused combat slots, up to four humans and followers combined. They use classes absent from the human party, in this order: Gatewarden, Tracewalker, Nullblade, Daemonbinder. The lobby previews their classes; human players can still join those open slots before launch. Followers do not satisfy the lobby's minimum human-player requirement.
Builds adjust automatically: Follower class level matches the human party's average active class level, rounded down. Their Prestige matches the average of each human's total Prestige across all classes, also rounded down. Talents, bonuses, and relic ranks adjust as those averages change after floor XP is banked or a human Recompiles. You do not need to equip them or spend their talent points.
They stay with a human controller: Followers start in the leader's squad and use that squad's Crawl Tactic. At access, players with shared party controls can reassign them with the Follower squad selector. They cannot lead an independent squad or take over from a downed human.
They affect difficulty and Cache: Followers count toward enemy party scaling and Cache sharing. Their Cache shares are discarded rather than given to you. They receive no personal XP, item rolls, or Access Tokens, and do not build persistent progression of their own.
Humans must survive: If every human is downed, the run ends in a party wipe even if followers are alive. Downed followers revive for free when the party reaches access; human revival still has its normal cost.
Each run gets a fresh team: The follower setting carries into the next lobby. Followers are generated again at the next launch; you cannot recruit replacements during a run.
Players: controller or follower?
A human player can also choose to follow another player's squad. This is separate from the automatic followers above: a human follower keeps their own build and rewards and can take over as controller.
A controller leads an independently moving squad. Followers travel and fight with that controller. Staying together makes squad support easier to use; independent squads search different parts of the map but may face enemies with less help. The named leader must be an independent controller to lead the party onward.
You can regroup in the lobby or at access. During exploration, a follower can request another controller: The change happens immediately if both squads meet safely on the same tile, otherwise it waits until access. A downed or unavailable controller can be replaced automatically by a surviving follower.
Use the PARTY chat tab to coordinate. It appears with at least two members and follows the party into its next lobby. If progress is blocked by unavailable leadership or a stranded squad, the offered Transfer Command and Recover Stranded Squad votes provide recovery options.
Run several times
Choose an automatic access route if you want floors to advance without manual orders.
Set Repeat Runs for a standard network, or fill the shared queue for Access Token runs.
Every player must be Ready with Stay ready next run enabled.
Standard networks support up to ten planned launches. The count includes the next launch in a lobby and decreases when a run starts. After a run, an eligible party gets a fresh three-minute check-in before automatic launch. Unready members or missing requirements stop the countdown.
Standard-network wipes do not stop an otherwise eligible repeat plan. Token wipes pause the queue by default. Enable Keep going after party wipe only if you want the next queued Token spent after the usual check-in.
Offline play and notifications
Closing the game does not pause Breach. Actions and rewards normally follow your account's offline-progression allowance; repeat runs still require every member to be eligible and opted into continued readiness. A follower automatically promoted to rescue a squad can keep it progressing for that current run, even beyond their offline window. That exception does not carry into the next lobby.
Enable Network Breach Completed notifications in Settings if you want an alert when a returned party needs attention. Automatic sequences notify when they stop, rather than after every intermediate run.
Builds Binding to summon automatic daemon attacks. Talents develop invocation, damage, and recovery.
Gatewarden
Builds Aegis for barriers and protection, with high starting Integrity and Armor. Draws more enemy attention and can develop repairs and retaliation.
Tracewalker
Builds Trace through exploration and spends it on encounter support. Develops reconnaissance, accuracy, and squad buffs.
Nullblade
Builds Combo through hits and evasion, then spends it on executions and extra attacks. Can specialize in avoidance and protecting part of its Cache on a wipe.
Choose a class for each run. Its XP, talents, and saved relic loadout are separate from the other classes. You can prepare a different class for the next run without changing the class already in action.
Mastery and talents
Each gained class level grants one talent point until you have earned 60. Levels continue afterward, but you cannot buy every talent. Deeper talents require the displayed class level, points invested, and parent ranks. Select a talent to read its current and next-rank effects.
Newly banked points can be spent during a run, with changes applying to later actions. Reset Tree lets you rebuild in a lobby or at access; it is also allowed while your squad is paused outside combat. Resetting the tree clears its recorded build order.
Auto-rebuild is a Premium option per class. Build from an empty tree to record your choices in order; after Recompile, it spends newly earned points in that order as requirements are met. Expired Premium pauses automatic spending without deleting the recorded build.
Clearance and shared growth
Clearance is your highest-ever class level. Recompile never lowers it. An unlock is permission to enter, not a promise your current build can survive.
Network
Clearance
Floors
Scrapnet Warrens
1
5
Cipherkeep
10
10
Black ICE Citadel
25
15
Access Token
40
7–13
Every five class levels in the current cycle contributes +2 Integrity to all your classes, plus a themed bonus: Daemonbinder gives +1 Power, Gatewarden +1 Armor, Tracewalker +1 Accuracy, and Nullblade +1 Evasion. This milestone growth stops at the class's current Recompile requirement. These current-cycle contributions reset when that class Recompiles.
Tracewalker and Nullblade also gain class-only Power every ten levels. Levels beyond 61 add class-only Integrity; these gains likewise stop at the current Recompile requirement. The Class Stats breakdown separates baseline, class, global, and equipped relic bonuses, including relic Resonance. Next Run totals use your queued relic loadout.
Recompile and Prestige stars
Your first Recompile requires class level 61. Each completed Recompile raises that class's next requirement by one level: 62, then 63, and so on.
Resets: That class's banked XP, level, and talents. Surplus banked XP is discarded. Current-cycle milestone bonuses must be earned again.
Keeps: Other classes, Clearance, relic progression, Cipher Shards, and existing permanent Prestige bonuses. Current-floor XP stays unbanked and at risk.
Grants: +5 permanent Integrity and +1 themed stat for that class, plus one spendable global Prestige star. Tracewalker and Nullblade also gain +1 permanent class-only Power.
Improves future XP: Each Recompile adds 2.5% enemy Class XP for that class, up to +100% after 40 Recompiles.
Invest a global star in +15 Integrity, +2 Power, +5 Armor, +5 Accuracy, or +5 Evasion for all your classes. Its source class does not restrict the choice. You can reset star allocations in a lobby, at access, or while your squad is paused outside combat.
Recompile can make you weaker immediately. You gain permanent bonuses but lose the current class level and talent build. It is available during a run, so consider waiting until a lobby while learning.
Black ICE Citadel caches can yield Tier 1 Access Tokens. Every party member needs Clearance 40 to enter an Access Token network. Higher tiers increase both difficulty and rewards; start with a low tier and read its modifiers before committing.
Token networks vary in length, with 7–13 floors. An Access Sentinel guards each access point, and the final floor also has a Core Arbiter. Clearing ordinary enemies weakens guardians, and only its Integrity locks in: The value is fixed at the moment the guardian is first engaged, so rushing it before clearing enemies leaves you with a much larger health pool to chew through. Its Power, Accuracy, and Armor keep tracking the enemies still standing for as long as the fight lasts, so in a party a second squad clearing the floor mid-fight still weakens the guardian your first squad is facing.
Queue and storage
Select Access Token as the lobby mission, then add Tokens in the Access Tokens tab. Every member can contribute to the shared queue of up to ten. Only the first Token is consumed when the run starts; the rest remain queued for later runs.
Every operator can add Access Tokens of any tier to the shared queue. Queued Tokens cannot be crafted, fused, or discarded until removed from the queue. They are hidden from the storage list but still count toward your 50-Token capacity.
Token runs can find more Tokens from caches and enemies. Successful final-floor extraction guarantees the supplier a Token outcome. Expect the tier to drift downward: A found Token matches the entry Token's tier about 70% of the time, lands one tier lower about 20% of the time, and two tiers lower about 10% of the time, never below Tier 1. Deeper progress then improves the chance of promoting that result back up by one tier, so a shallow run tends to return Tokens weaker than the one it consumed. Keep storage space free: Excess Token awards can be forfeited. A wipe does not refund the Token used to enter.
Crafting Operations
A Token can hold up to six modifiers, with only one from each family. Modifiers trade added risks for Cache Yield. The craft panel shows each effect, rank, and exact current cost.
Operation
Result
Augment
Add a random rank-1 modifier from an unused family.
Bias
Spend the selected essence to add a rank-1 modifier from its family. It chooses between that family's outcomes; it does not guarantee a specific modifier.
Intensify
Raise a selected modifier's rank, increasing its effects and risk.
Annul
Remove one random unlocked modifier.
LOCK
Protect one modifier from Annul. Moving your player lock to another modifier leaves the previous one unprotected.
Fusion
Select five same-tier Tokens by clicking their rows or checkboxes, then consume them and Cipher Shards to create one Token one tier higher. All input modifiers are destroyed; new intrinsic modifiers are rolled for the output tier.
Quick Craft: Click Token rows or their checkboxes to select several Tokens of any tiers, or use Select all. Selection clears after crafting. Choose 0–6 for Augment # Times to add random modifiers to each Token, stopping at six slots. Set Intensify modifiers to 1 or 2 to upgrade every modifier—including new rolls—after Augment, stopping at R3. Its default of 0 skips Intensify. Set Augment to 0 for Intensify-only crafting. Review the combined cost, then press Craft. The Essence types needed for new modifiers depend on their rolls. Queued and active Tokens are excluded. If resources run out, the batch stops and keeps completed crafts; remaining work is not charged.
Dropped and fused Tokens gain randomly selected rank-1 intrinsic modifiers from distinct families at higher tiers: One from Tier 10, two from Tier 30, and three from Tier 50. Their locks cannot be moved or removed, but their ranks can be intensified. Fusion outputs below Tier 10 are blank.
Cache Yield applies in full to Cache, and so to the Cipher Shards it becomes. It also feeds a much smaller find bonus: Each point of Yield adds 0.5% to the chance of Tokens, cache relics, and Plugins and Catalysts, capped at +100% no matter how high Yield climbs. It does not multiply Class XP or guarantee promotion. Read the actual drawbacks as well as the reward percentage.
Watch Quarantined Exits. This modifier prevents extraction until 40%, 70%, or 100% of the run's floors are cleared, depending on rank. It affects manual and automatic extraction: The floors it seals appear in the When to extract list marked (Quarantined) and cannot be selected. Holding or abandoning remains possible, but abandoning forfeits your unsecured haul.
Crafting may spend main-game essences as well as Cipher Shards. Crafting costs are spent permanently. Check the displayed costs before every operation.
Cyber Relics are Breach equipment, with Offense, Defense, and Utility slots. Universal relics work across classes; class-bound relics require their class. Each class remembers its own three-slot loadout.
Recover relics from treasure caches and secure them by extracting. Final-floor extraction also guarantees a missing relic for your active class until both class relics are owned. Access Beacon and Escalation Matrix are normally found only in Token networks; Duplicate Catalog can also award them elsewhere if you have them equipped.
Party Utility bonuses: Access Beacon, Escalation Matrix, Shard Compactor, and Cache Index help the whole party. Only the strongest equipped bonus for each effect applies; different Awakenings can combine. Legacy Recycler stays personal and only converts the wearer’s Tokens.
Duplicate Catalog: Whenever any party member finds a normal cache relic, they have a 4% chance at ranks 3–4, or 8% at rank 5, to gain one additional relic chosen equally from their equipped slots at run start. Empty slots are skipped. Cross-Class Archive instead grants a 5%/10% chance for a relic from one of that recipient’s inactive classes. If the party brings both Awakenings, both can trigger from the same normal drop. Bonus drops never trigger more bonus drops.
Calibration: Ranks 1–5
Spend Cipher Shards to raise an owned relic's rank. Upgrades to ranks 2, 3, 4, and 5 cost 250, 1,000, 5,000, and 20,000 Shards, respectively. A duplicate does not automatically increase its rank.
The relic card shows its current effect and next improvement. Not every stat rises every rank: For example, Pathfinder Seed's base Scan is +1 at ranks 1–3 and +2 at ranks 4–5.
Awakening: Choose a specialization
At rank 3, choose one of the relic's two Awakening modes for free. Rank 5 strengthens that chosen mode with its capstone effect. Nothing is selected automatically; review the two options and choose the one that suits your build.
Duplicates and Resonance
A duplicate gives 50 Shards per owned rank and one Imprint for that specific relic. Imprints are saved even before rank 5. At rank 5, they add Resonance bonuses to the relic's base stat without changing its Awakening.
Resonance tiers begin at 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21… total Imprints. Each next tier needs one more additional Imprint than the last. Read the relic's Resonance display for its stat bonus. Pathfinder Seed is a special case: It gains +1 extra Scan at tiers 5 and 10, capped at +2 from Resonance.
Relic changes are for your next run. The current run uses the relics, ranks, Awakenings, and Resonance you started with. Upgrading during a run prepares your next attempt; it does not change the relic already in use.
Check the Mission panel's reason: A network must be selected, everyone must be Ready and meet the lobby and Clearance requirements, and Token runs need a queued Token and policy acknowledgements. Preparing a new loadout can clear your readiness.
Why are we waiting at access?
Hold at access waits for an order. Otherwise check for squads still traveling, a downed leader, an unresolved recovery vote, or a Token extraction restriction. Access routing and Repeat Runs are separate settings: One advances floors, the other starts the next run.
Why didn't I level up, or why did XP disappear?
Accrued XP is still unbanked until the party rallies at access. Being downed forfeits your XP for that floor. Earlier banked XP stays safe. Recompile deliberately resets that class's banked XP and level.
Why didn't my new relic upgrade change this fight?
Relic effects are fixed when a run starts. Your upgraded rank or changed Awakening takes effect next run. Talent and Prestige changes can affect later actions in the current run.
Why did my stats fall after Recompile?
Current-cycle class bonuses and talents reset. Your new permanent class bonuses and global star do not replace the whole old build immediately. Clearance and other classes' progress remain.
Why did automatic runs stop?
Check the remaining launches or Token queue, the pause setting, everyone's Ready and Stay ready next run choices, offline eligibility, and the lobby's requirements. Token queues pause after a wipe unless Keep going after party wipe is enabled.
What should I change after a wipe?
Open Recent Runs and inspect the final encounter. Try an earlier extraction target or easier network, spend unallocated talents, and review Accuracy, defenses, and recovery. In a party, try fighting together before splitting into independent squads.
Welcome to Idle Hacking!
Generate resources, upgrade hardware, and battle through network zones.
Quick Start Guide
Start Gathering: Go to RESOURCES and start coding, computing, mining, or sniffing
Start Hacking: Go to HACKING and pick the first Local Network zone to begin your journey
Equip Software: Hacking drops new software. Check INVENTORY often and upgrade your loadout as better gear appears.
Upgrade Hardware: Visit HARDWARE SHOP and upgrade to boost resource generation and hacking power
TIP
You can run one gathering activity AND hacking simultaneously!
Currencies
Credits: Main currency earned from hacking. Used in hardware shop, item enhancing, and the marketplace.
Chips: Drops from hacking and gathering. Used for hardware shop upgrades.
Hackcoin: Obtained from completing CONTRACTS. Used for creating Syndicates and advanced hardware upgrades.
Stabilizers: Used to protect equipment affixes during crafting.
Essences: Used for Bias Rerolls to target specific affix types.
Tips for New Players
Hardware shops are powerful multipliers and should be prioritized early on
Regeneration is a powerful early game stat to help build longer win streaks
Click items to see detailed stats before equipping
Check CONTRACTS each day for Hackcoin and board clear bonuses
Join COMMUNITY EVENTS when they appear for extra rewards and global buffs
Check Achievements for progression goals
Join a Syndicate for bonuses and community
Hacking (Combat)
Battle through network zones to earn Credits, Hacking XP, and Equipment drops.
How Combat Works
Select a zone to begin automatic combat
Combat runs every 5 seconds against enemies in the zone
Enemy starting levels are based on your level, with higher zones having better stats and higher starting levels.
Win streaks above 10 increase enemy levels for bonus XP, higher credits, and stronger items
Defeating enemies grants Credits, XP, and equipment drops
At the end of combat you will receive a Post-Combat Heal (default 5 HP per level)
You will eventually lose, but the only cost is the 5 seconds of downtime.
You may not always want to advance to the highest available zone until you have stronger equipment or hardware shop bonuses.
Zones Reference
Enemies start near your level, then scale upward in later zones. Harder zones also improve credit rewards and item quality.
Zone
Unlock
Notes
Local Network
Hack Level 1
Starter zone for your first self-found upgrades.
Coffee Shop WiFi
Hack Level 50
First step up in credits and drop quality.
Small Business Server
Hack Level 250
Mid-game bridge with stronger enemies and better loot.
Corporate Network
Hack Level 600
Mid-game zone with enterprise-grade enemies and clearly better drops.
Data Center
Hack Level 1500
Mid-game farming with higher rarity and credit scaling.
Government Mainframe
Hack Level 4000
Mid-game zone with heavy enemy scaling pressure.
Megacorp Nexus
Hack Level 10000
Late-game zone with the strongest mid-tier reward multipliers.
ReBooted Mainframe
Hack Level 30000
Late-game zone home to sentient programs and viruses.
s-Kai.Net
Hack Level 75000
Endgame zone where countermeasures arrive before you do.
Hacking Zone Streaks and Softcaps
Enemy levels will increase as your win streak grows, increasing the rewards and the item level of equipment they drop. Each zone has a "softcap" where, after a certain amount of victories, enemy levels continue to grow at the same rate but rewards grow more slowly. This means a zone is still useful past its softcap, but the reward curve is telling you to prepare for the next harder zone. In general, stay in a zone until your win streak is at least 10% above that zone's softcap before moving on, unless your current gear makes the next zone clearly better. Hacking XP also includes a challenge bonus when rewards are above your level, but that bonus is capped at 10x.
Streak Softcap values are shown directly on each hacking zone card.
TIP
Equip requirement is set at drop time to 90% of your current hacking level (rounded down, minimum 1). That required level can be satisfied by your highest level across Hacking, Coding, Sniffing, Mining, and Computing. This keeps self-found items usable while allowing lower-level resale windows.
Combat Round Order
Both sides determine their attack counts from Attack Speed and spread their attacks evenly across the round.
Player and enemy attacks interleave. Attacks scheduled at the same time both resolve, even if one is lethal. Misses still use their attack slot.
Regular Thorns reflects immediately after each landed hit, including lethal hits, and Corruption stacks apply per hit. Immediate reactions, including Snapshot Rollback, resolve before checking for death. Future attacks stop when combat ends; mutual death counts as defeat.
Spiked Feedback stores Thorns instead of reflecting it immediately. If you and the enemy survive all attacks, the charge releases as one burst that can critically hit. Unused charge is discarded when the round or combat ends.
If both sides survive, Regeneration heals them, then Corruption damage ticks and its remaining duration decreases once (5-round base duration).
Final death check; mutual death counts as defeat.
Advanced Concepts
Some combat stats use diminishing returns or overflow rolls, so their displayed values do not always translate into linear damage changes.
Post-Combat Heal and Exhaustion: Post-Combat Heal restores HP after a victory and is capped by your Max HP. The base value starts at 5 HP per Hack Level, then can be increased by syndicate boosts, Homelab effects, and Combat Reboot. Your first 10 wins in a streak receive full post-combat healing. After that, exhaustion reduces the heal by 0.99 ^ (current win streak - 10), with a floor of 30% healing. Combat Reboot adds your average equipped item level as flat Post-Combat Heal and removes this exhaustion penalty while active.
Defense damage reduction: Defense reduces incoming damage with diminishing returns: reduction = Defense / (Defense + K). K scales from the attacker's level as 100 + 0.04 * attacker level, so the same Defense blocks a smaller percentage against higher-level attackers. Damage is rounded and cannot be reduced below 1 per hit.
Armor Penetration: Armor Penetration lowers the defender's effective Defense before damage reduction is calculated. Its penetration scale is 400 + 0.10 * defender level, and very high Armor Penetration can remove up to 95% of Defense, leaving a 5% soft floor.
Attack Speed multi-hit: Attack Speed is an attack budget per round. 1.0 is one guaranteed hit attempt, 1.5 is one guaranteed attempt plus a 50% chance for a second, and 2.25 is two guaranteed attempts plus a 25% chance for a third. Landed hits after the first add less damage, scaling at 90%, then 81%, then 72.9%, and so on.
Multi-crits: Crit Chance above 100% rolls additional crit layers. Each full 100% guarantees one crit layer, and the remainder is the chance for one more. The first crit adds the full Crit Damage bonus; extra crit layers add that bonus at 90%, then 81%, then 72.9%, and so on.
Multi-hit and multi-crit together: Each landed attack independently rolls its own crit and multi-crit result, for both you and the enemy. Later landed hits still have their usual diminishing damage. A double-crit hit adds 2 to your lifetime crits and 1 to multi-crits; misses add neither.
Drop item-level ratio softcap: New drops use the enemy reward level as their raw item level, but drops above ilvl 50000 are checked against an allowed ratio based on your Hack Level. The default allowance is max(50000, Hack Level * 4.0). Raw item levels at or below that allowance drop unchanged; only the overflow above it is softened. For example, a Hack Level 20000 player can receive drops up to ilvl 80000 without this dampening. The Homelab Reward Profiler raises that ratio by 0.05 per level, up to +2.0, delaying the softcap further.
Inventory & Equipment
Use your inventory to review drops, compare upgrades, manage decompile settings, and prepare items for crafting or the marketplace.
Item Tooltips
Click an item to open its tooltip, compare it to equipped gear, and access item actions.
Simplified tooltips group affix output into easy-to-read bonus lines.
Advanced tooltips show exact prefixes, suffixes, tiers, and rolls.
The Display settings tab can also show your equipped item tooltip beside a candidate upgrade for side-by-side gear checks.
Items cannot be equipped until you meet their Required Level.
Common Item Actions
Equip / Unequip: Move gear in and out of your active loadout.
Link In Chat: Insert the item into your current chat draft without needing desktop shift-click.
Enhance Item: Opens crafting for items that still have stability remaining.
List on Market: Put unequipped items up for sale directly from the tooltip.
Remove Listing: Pull your own listed gear back off the marketplace.
Lock Item: Prevent accidental decompiles until you unlock the item again.
Decompile: Break down an unequipped item into slot-based resources.
Inventory Management
Use search and filters to narrow by text, rarity, slot, level, and affix details. Search also supports examples like T:6, A:3, and ilvl:>1000.
Item cards in Equipped Software and Inventory show stability shorthand as S: current/max in the bottom-right corner.
Mass Decompile lets you bulk-salvage unwanted gear in one action.
Loot Filter lets Premium players auto-decompile or auto-lock drops based on affix, tier, stat, and rarity rules.
Market-listed items stay marked so you can tell at a glance what is currently for sale.
Equipment Slots
Slot
Implicit Stats
Payload
Damage or Crit Damage
Firewall
Defense or Evasion
Analyzer
Accuracy or Crit Chance
Shell
HP or Defense
Driver
Attack Speed or Damage
Router
Evasion or Regeneration
Daemon
Attack Speed or Accuracy
Kernel
HP or Regeneration
Rarity Tiers
Basic: No affixes, just implicit stat
Common: 1-2 affixes
Uncommon: 3-4 affixes
Rare: 5 affixes
Epic: 6 affixes (max), may have Signature
Affixes
Affixes are bonus stats on equipment. Each affix has a tier (T1 best, T9 worst) that determines its value range. Items can have up to 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes.
Signatures
Epic items have a chance to drop with a Signature - a special bonus affix tied to a specific player. Signature affixes cannot be removed or changed.
Combat Stats Reference
Stat
Description
HP
Health points - die at 0
Attack
Base damage per hit
Defense
Reduces incoming damage
Crit Chance
Chance for critical hit (can exceed 100% for multi-crits)
Chance for extra attacks (+50% = 50% for 2 attacks, +150% = Guaranteed 2 attacks, 50% chance for 3 attacks)
Accuracy
Hit chance vs enemy evasion
Evasion
Dodge chance vs enemy accuracy
Regeneration
HP restored each combat round
Damage Barrier
Starts full each combat and absorbs incoming damage before HP; any unused barrier is lost when combat ends
Armor Pen
Ignores enemy defense
Thorns
Reflects damage when hit (bypasses defense)
Corruption
DOT per hit, 5-round duration (bypasses defense)
Equipment Enhancing
Click an item in your inventory to open crafting. Most actions cost resources and stability.
Stability
Items drop with 25-30 stability. Most crafting actions cost 1 stability. At 0 stability, only Unlock remains available.
Crafting Operations
Operation
Effect
Cost
Augment
Add 1 random prefix or suffix
Primary resource, -1 stability
Prune
Remove 1 random unlocked affix
Secondary resource, -1 stability
Refactor
Reroll one affix's values within its tier
Secondary resource, -1 stability
Lock Affix
Protect one affix from removal
Credits + 1 Stabilizer
Unlock
Remove the current affix lock so you can protect a different line or finish crafting freely
Refunds the current lock's Credits + 1 Stabilizer
Compile
Convert ALL stability to bonus affix values (0.5% per unspent stability)
Primary resource
Version Upgrade
Attempt to upgrade affix tier (risky!)
Both resources, -1 stability
Bias Reroll
Reroll affixes with guaranteed essence type
Primary + Credits + Essence
Crafting Notes
You can only lock one affix at a time.
Use Lock Affix tactically to protect a key line before risky actions.
Prune and Bias Reroll consume the current lock on success. The Enhancing panel includes a saved checkbox to automatically re-lock afterward when you have enough Credits and Stabilizers.
Version Upgrade is a gamble: it can improve an affix tier, but it is not guaranteed.
Compile is permanent. It consumes all remaining stability to apply a compiled bonus to non-signature affixes.
The Easter cheaper-crafting blessing halves crafting resource, credit, and essence costs, but it does not reduce Stabilizer costs.
Resource Costs by Slot
Slot
Primary
Secondary
Payload
Snippets
Cycles
Firewall
Hashes
Packets
Analyzer
Packets
Cycles
Shell
Hashes
Snippets
Driver
Cycles
Snippets
Router
Packets
Hashes
Daemon
Cycles
Packets
Kernel
Snippets
Hashes
TIP
Compile is powerful and permanent - use it when you're done crafting! The compiled bonus multiplies all non-signature affixes.
Affixes
Shows every affix that can roll, what bonuses it grants, which Bias Rerolls can guarantee it, and which slots can roll it. Use the live filters to search by affix, bias essence, or slot.
Affix data loads when this section opens.
Signature Affixes
Epic items have a chance to drop with a Signature - a unique bonus effect that cannot be removed, rerolled, or changed through crafting. Each item can have at most one Signature.
All Signature Affixes
Name
Tag
Effect
Refreshing Corruption
Damage
Corruption stacks last 1 round less, and surviving stacks carry into your next fight while your win streak continues.
Cascade Failure
Survival
Corruption stacks last 1 round longer. Enemy attacks deal 1% less damage per active Corruption stack on them, capped at 40% less damage.
Spiteful Thorns
Retribution
Each enemy attack you dodge immediately adds +25% Thorns strength, up to 10x total. Resets after combat. Has no effect while Spiked Feedback is equipped.
Recursive Overload
Retribution
Every enemy hit you take immediately adds 10% to your hit damage multiplier for the rest of combat, up to 4x total. Hits absorbed by Barrier or reduced to zero damage count; dodged attacks do not. Affects subsequent attacks, including later attacks that round.
Spiked Feedback
Retribution
Stores Thorns damage from hits taken and releases it as one burst after all attacks in the round, only if you survive and the enemy is still alive. The burst can critically hit; multi-crits scale at 75% instead of 90%. Disables Spiteful Thorns while equipped.
Combat Reboot
Survival
Add your average equipped item level as flat Post-Combat Heal and remove the exhaustion penalty on post-combat healing.
Reserve Battery
Survival
Remaining Damage Barrier carries over to your next fight, up to 50% of your max Damage Barrier.
Piercing Shred
Precision
Each landed hit immediately reduces enemy Defense by 3% of its current value for the rest of combat. The reduction benefits subsequent hits.
Protocol Hijack
Precision
Each missed attack adds 20 percentage points to your final chance to hit this enemy, up to a guaranteed hit. Consumed on your next landed hit. Resets after combat.
Counter-Forensics
Precision
Each enemy attack you dodge lets your next landed hit ignore 25% of enemy Defense, stacking up to 75%. Consumed on that hit. Resets after combat.
Interrupt Handler
Dexterity
Each enemy attack you dodge immediately restores 5% of your total Damage Barrier, capped at your max Damage Barrier.
Stable Construction
Expertise
This item can roll one additional prefix or suffix.
Optimization Pass
Optimization
This item has a 15% base Compile bonus.
Market Arbitrage
Optimization
Decompiling this item yields 3x essence and stabilizer rewards. Crafting this item costs 80% fewer resources.
Risk Assessment
Prosperity
Chip drop rate is doubled after 10 consecutive wins. All healing is reduced by 20%.
Marketplace
Trade commodities and equipment with other players.
Quick Buy: Instantly buy at the lowest asking price
Quick Sell: Instantly sell at the highest bid price
Limit Order: Place an order at your desired price (may fill later)
Equipment Marketplace
List your equipment for sale or browse items from other players.
Filter by slot, rarity, item level, affixes, and summed bonuses
List items from your inventory
Buy equipment directly with Credits
Cancel your listings anytime
Your Orders
View and cancel your active buy/sell orders in the "My Orders" section.
TIP
Click prices or quantities in the order book to quickly fill in your buy/sell forms.
Syndicates
Syndicates are player-run guilds that provide bonuses and community features.
Joining a Syndicate
Open: Join instantly
Application: Submit an application for review
Invite Only: Must be invited by an officer
Creating a Syndicate
Costs 200 Hackcoin, or 1 Premium Access Key if you want to create it without spending Hackcoin. You become the Leader and can customize settings, tax rates, and more.
Roles
Leader: Full control - settings, upgrades, disbanding
Syndicates collect taxes on Credits, Hack XP, and Resources. The treasury uses Credits and Favor for boosts, while Reputation is used to level the syndicate and earn Prestige Points.
Credit tax: Straightforward direct tax of credits members earned. Each taxed credit is transferred to the treasury.
Experience tax (Reputation): For each 1% of experience tax, the Syndicate receives 1 reputation. The actual amount taxed is not factored, only the percentage that was taken.
Resource tax (Favor): For each 1% of resource tax, the Syndicate receives 1 favor. This is increased by the square root of how many resources were taken by the tax.
Tax Efficiency: The resources received by the Syndicate are increased by Tax Efficiency. If the syndicate would receive 10 reputation, 100 favor, and 1000 credits in tax from a player's actions, and has 150% efficiency, it would instead receive 15, 150, and 1500 respectively.
Favor: Favor is spent to buy and upgrade syndicate boosts.
Reputation: Reputation is the syndicate's experience system. Each time it levels up, the syndicate earns a prestige point.
If the final remaining member leaves a syndicate, the syndicate is permanently deleted. The creation cost and any treasury resources are not refunded.
Boosts
Officers can purchase and activate boosts that benefit all members:
Hacking XP, Gathering XP, Resources
Defense, Accuracy, Evasion, Max HP, Attack, Post-Combat Heal
Active boosts consume Credits from the syndicate treasury every tick, with upkeep scaling by member count, boost level, and simultaneous active boosts.
Prestige Upgrades
Officers and Leaders can spend Prestige Points (earned by leveling up) on permanent upgrades:
Increase member cap
Raise max boost level
Improve tax efficiency
Syndicate Chat
Members have access to a private syndicate chat channel.
Homelab
The Homelab is a long-term progression layer where you build out a personal lab of networking, compute, and infrastructure gear. It runs alongside your regular play - jobs progress in the background while you gather or hack, both online and during your offline action window.
How It Works
Installs: Each Homelab component is first installed by queueing a build job. Installs unlock the component's upgrade branches.
Upgrades: Once a component is installed, you can level up its individual sub-component branches one at a time. Higher levels cost more and take longer to build.
Build Jobs: Installs and upgrades are timed jobs that tick down on the server clock while you are eligible for action progress. You start with one active build slot, and additional slots and a pending queue can be unlocked as you progress.
Multiple Active Jobs: When more than one job is active, build progress is split evenly between them - two jobs each progress at half speed, three at a third, and so on.
Cancellation: Canceling an active or pending job refunds its full cost.
Homelab Level: Completed jobs award progress points that raise your overall Homelab level. Higher Homelab levels unlock access to new installs and upgrade branches.
Costs and Currencies
Homelab jobs are paid for with the currencies and resources you already earn elsewhere in the game - mostly Credits, with Hackcoin contributing to larger infrastructure work.
Gathering and Crafting Utilities
Workload Allocator (level 8): Its single level unlocks custom gathering shares in 5% increments, totaling 100%. Resources and Gathering XP use the same split. Parallel Tasking still determines your activity capacity. Changing active activities resets to equal sharing.
Affix Classifier (level 20): Choose a crafting essence family. Each of its five levels adds a 10% chance for one affix on a standard equipment drop to belong to that family, up to 50%. The affix must be allowed for the item's slot. Items without affixes and Signature drops are unaffected; affix counts and tier rules stay the same.
Essence Distiller (level 19): Convert one crafting essence family into another at 10:1, 8:1, 6:1, or 5:1 across its four levels. Enter the number of destination essences you want to receive; the preview shows the source cost. Max converts all whole batches and leaves any remainder.
What You'll Build
The starter set of components is themed around a real homelab build-out - the kinds of systems a hobbyist would rack up over time. Without spoiling specific upgrades, the broad areas covered are:
Automation & Workflow: Job orchestration that expands what your Homelab itself can do, including additional build slots and faster build speed.
Workstation: Your primary daily-driver rig, focused on hands-on hacking and gathering output.
Storage: Capacity, retention, and recovery - useful when things go wrong and during risky crafting.
Networking: Switches and firewalls covering throughput, traffic shaping, and defensive posture in combat.
Virtualization & Compute: A cluster and a GPU rig providing combat utility, accuracy, and offensive flexibility.
Power & Cooling: Stability, sustain, and recovery effects that help you push longer sessions and harder fights.
Simulation: Late-game profiling tools for preview-only single-fight and full-streak hacking simulations.
Each component has several distinct upgrade branches with their own focuses, so part of the Homelab game is choosing where to spend resources next based on what your build needs most.
Effects
Homelab bonuses are designed to be a slow but steady growth of player power, sitting alongside your Hardware Shop, equipment, and global buff bonuses rather than replacing them. You can see exactly how much Homelab is contributing on your profile breakdowns - it shows up as its own source so you can compare it against Hardware and equipment at a glance.
The advanced ITEM RATIO SOFTCAP effect raises how far above your Hack Level new high-level drops can go before the ilvl 50000+ drop softcap starts dampening overflow. See Hacking - Advanced Concepts for the full item-level ratio explanation.
TIP
Early on, prioritize the Automation Controller's build branches. Extra build slots and faster build speed compound everything else you do in the Homelab afterward.
Goals & Events
Use Contracts, Community Events, Achievements, and Rankings to set goals beyond simple level grinding.
Contracts
Contracts are daily board objectives that reward Credits, Chips, and Hackcoin.
You can activate one contract at a time while leaving the rest of the board for later.
Completed contracts must be claimed to receive rewards.
Carryover contracts remain on the board if they persist across resets.
Clearing the full daily board awards an extra Hackcoin clear bonus.
Community Events
Community Events run periodically; after an event resolves, the next event is scheduled randomly between 2.25 and 3 hours later.
Rogue Worm Containment: Hackers are the direct output role, fighting a boss which gets more powerful with each cleared level. Gatherers provide support by providing damage and defensive buffs to assist the hackers.
Bank Firewall Blitz: Gatherers are the direct output role, collecting as much data from the bank before time runs out. Hackers provide support by breaching the firewall, with each level taken down boosting the amount gatherers collect with each action..
Community Events let you queue during the notice phase and still jump in at any point while the event remains active.
Resolved events show personal results, participant rankings, and can award temporary global buffs.
The main rewards from events are purely for participating. You will receive chips and a participation bonus buff at the end of the event based on how long you were in it.
After the event begins, you can click the 'Events' link in the navigation menu to see round by round updates, rankings for bank firewall, or battle groups for rogue worm events.
Network Breach
Explore networks solo or with a party while Hacking and resource gathering continue. Learn how to start, secure your rewards, and develop your classes in the dedicated Breach guide.
Achievements
Achievements are grouped into categories such as Combat, Gathering, Equipment, Enhancements, Economy, Progression, Exploration, Luck, and Contracts.
Many achievements have multiple tiers, giving you long-term goals as you progress.
Some achievements continue beyond their base tiers with prestige-style scaling.
Tutorial Master progress counts completed new player quest goals, which are tracked in the Help -> Tutorials section.
Rankings
The Rankings page tracks global leaderboards across major progression metrics.
Per-zone streak boards let you compare your best runs in each hacking zone.
If you're not in the Top 10, you will show up at the bottom along with the players 1 rank above and below you.
TIP
If you are unsure what to do next, start with your active contract, check for a live community event, then look at Achievements or Rankings for a longer-term target.
Premium & Loot Filter
Premium supports the continued development of Idle Hacking while also unlocking a few quality-of-life upgrades for active players.
Premium Benefits
Supports development: Premium purchases directly support continued development of the game.
Unlimited offline actions: Active Premium removes the normal offline progression time limit.
Free Hardware Shop reset: Premium accounts get one free Hardware Shop reset on a rolling 7 day cooldown.
Premium Loot Filter: Upgrades the basic Auto-Decompile tool into a full rules-based drop filter with preview controls.
Talent Auto-rebuild: Records a Network Breach build from an empty tree and automatically spends newly earned points in the same order after Recompile.
The Premium Loot Filter lives in Inventory. When Premium is active, the old Auto-Decompile button becomes Premium Loot Filter and opens the full rule editor.
How Premium Loot Filter Works
Custom rules run first, top to bottom. The first enabled custom rule that matches a drop decides what happens.
Auto-Decompile runs after custom rules. Your legacy Basic/Common/Uncommon Auto-Decompile checkboxes are preserved as a protected rule.
Default Action runs last. If no custom rule or Auto-Decompile rule matches, the Default Action is applied.
This means rule order matters. Put your most important or most specific rules near the top so they win before broader cleanup rules underneath them.
Available Actions
Keep: The item drops normally into your inventory.
Decompile: The item is automatically salvaged instead of being kept.
Lock: The item is kept and marked with the item's decompile lock so it cannot be accidentally salvaged until you unlock it manually.
Match Modes
All: Every condition on the rule must match.
Any: At least one condition on the rule must match.
At Least: You set a number, and that many conditions on the rule must match.
Available Conditions
Condition
What It Checks
Rarity is one of...
Matches one or more item rarities such as Basic, Common, Rare, or Epic.
Item slot is one of...
Matches specific equipment slots like Payload, Firewall, or Kernel.
Item level is at least...
Matches items at or above a chosen item level.
Item level is at most...
Matches items at or below a chosen item level.
iLvl:Required Level Ratio is at least...
Matches items whose item level is high compared to their required level. A 50000 item with Required Level 12500 has a ratio of 4.0.
iLvl:Required Level Ratio is less than...
Matches items whose item level is closer to, or below, their required level.
Has a signature
Checks whether the item has a Signature affix.
Has at least this many affixes...
Matches based on total normal affix count.
Has at least this many affixes at tier ... or better
Counts affixes at the chosen tier or better. Remember: T1 is best.
Has at least this many affixes with these stats...
Counts affixes whose stat output matches one of the selected stats.
Has at least this many affixes with these stats at tier ... or better
Combines stat matching with a tier threshold for high-quality targeted lines.
Preview, Rule Limits, and Tips
You can create up to 25 custom rules, with up to 8 conditions on each rule.
The Auto-Decompile rule and Default Action are protected rules. They cannot be deleted and always stay at the end of the rule list.
Disabled rules are skipped entirely.
A rule with no conditions will never match, so make sure every custom rule has at least one real condition.
The preview uses your current inventory and shows live KEEP, DECOMPILE, and LOCK overlays with the rule number that would apply.
Preview updates as you edit, so it is the fastest way to confirm whether your rule order and conditions are doing what you expect.
Apply to Inventory opens a confirmation modal for your current unlocked and unlisted inventory items, showing how many items will be kept, decompiled, or newly locked before anything changes.
Apply to Inventory ignores anything already decompile-locked, anything currently listed on the marketplace, and any Signature item that would be decompiled.
Use Export to create a short share code for your current filter. Share codes point to immutable server-side snapshots, so a code always imports the exact rules that were exported.
Import now opens a read-only copy of the shared filter inside the loot filter screen, with live KEEP, DECOMPILE, and LOCK overlays over your own current inventory. The preview does not change, lock, or decompile any existing items.
If you confirm the preview, the shared snapshot replaces your saved Auto-Decompile and Premium Loot Filter settings. You can import even while Premium is inactive; advanced rules remain saved and reactivate once Premium is active again.
If Premium expires, your custom Premium Loot Filter rules stay saved but stop applying until Premium is active again. Only the legacy Basic/Common/Uncommon Auto-Decompile settings continue to matter while Premium is inactive.
Tutorials
The new player quest chain guides early progression one goal at a time. Tutorial Master achievement progress counts completed quest goals.
Your First Breach
Learn Network Breach during a real run, from lobby setup to your first extraction. This separate guide saves progress to your account and can be paused or replayed.
New Player Quest Chain
The quest chain gives new players one goal at a time in the sidebar. Existing accounts can start it here, or reset it to replay the goals with fresh progress baselines.
Quest status unavailable until login.
Completed quest steps can be replayed here without resetting quest progress.
Chat Commands
Type these commands into the chat input box. All commands start with a forward slash.
Messaging
Command
Description
/w <player> <message>
Send a private whisper to another player. You can link items and actions in whispers.
/me <action> or /emote <action>
Send an emote-style chat message that renders in italics as Name action without a colon.
Channels
Command
Description
/join <channel>
Join a chat channel. Use /join syndicate to join your syndicate's channel.
/leave <channel>
Leave a chat channel. Accounts start in main and trade, but you can leave either one later. whispers and system remain local tabs and cannot be left.
/list
Show all channels you are currently subscribed to.
Players
Command
Description
/profile <player>
View a player's public profile.
/ignore <player>
Add a player to your ignore list. Their messages will be hidden from chat.
/unignore <player>
Remove a player from your ignore list.
/ignored
Show your current ignore list.
Other
Command
Description
/help
Show a quick summary of all available commands in chat.
TIP
You can also click a player's name in chat for quick access to whisper, profile, and ignore options.
