Odyssey Exploration Guide Part 6/8

(Draiv Solregard's Exploration guide is subject to change, based on updated information, new information, expansions, and the apocalypse.  If you notice any errors in this guide, wait for your booster side effects to subside.  If the error is still there let me know and I'll look into it.)

Introduction

Skills

Ships

Modules

Scanning

Looting

Safety

Hacking

Your goal is to bash your way through the mini-game and loot spew to get goodies.

The hacking isn't complicated to understand, you start off at a node and can only activate highlighted nodes which are near nodes you have already activated.  Your objective is to find the system core and destroy it to win.  As you click on nodes random things will appear whether helpful or detrimental, you won't know until you click. 

You are given two chances to hack a container.  While there is no penalty if you fail your first hacking attempt, failure of the second hack attempt will cause the container to blow up and destroy all the goodies inside.  Containers inside a wormhole will allow you to hack as many times as you want, but the sites contain Sleeper NPC's which will try and kill you.

Your Virus:

·         Coherence - This is your virus' health and if this drops to zero you lose.  It is represented on the left with an orange color and the actual value is located at the top.

·         Strength - This is how much damage your virus will deal to defensive subsystems and the system core.  It is represented on the right with a red color and the actual value is located at the bottom.

(Note a few images are missing, I thought I had them but as it turns out I don't.  I will update when I come across them.)

Good Subsystems:

Utility Subsystem:  Polymorphic Shield - Makes you immune to damage for two turns.  Best used against high damage defensive nodes.

Utility Subsystem:  Self Repair - Will heal you a random amount for three turns.  Best used right away since there is no cap to virus coherence.

Utility Subsystem:  Kernel Rot - Cuts the coherence of the system core or defensive node in half.  Best used against high defensive nodes.

Utility Subsystem:  Secondary Vector - Deals 20 damage per turn for three turns against a defensive node or system core.  Best used against high coherence defensive nodes.

Bad Subsystems:

Defense Subsystem:  Firewall - The most common opposition you'll run into.  Deals a bit of damage and may have a high coherence.

Defense Subsystem:  Anti-Virus - A pain in the butt, normally lower coherence but hits like a dreadnought.  Try not to attack these unless you can guarantee it'll die before it hits you.

Defense Subsystem:  Restoration Node - KILL IT...KILL IT WITH FIRE...KILLT IT NOW!!!!!!!  Every turn it's active it will raise the coherence of other defensive nodes.

Defense Subsystem:  Suppressor - This is annoying because it'll half your virus' strength which can really gimp your main advantage.  Kill it as soon as possible.

Other:

Data Cache - Can contain good things but frequently contains a defensive node.  Do not touch these unless you have run out of options.

System Core - This is what you are trying to find and kill to be able to perform a successful hack.

Hacking Mechanics:

When you attack a defensive subsystem your damage will always be applied first.  This is why having more strength is so beneficial.  I'll give two examples showing why it is so beneficial to get your hacking skills to V.

1.  Your virus has 120/40 (coherence/strength) and you need to get through a firewall 80/20 and an anti-virus 70/40 and the system core 70/10.

2.  Your virus has 90/30 (coherence/strength) and you need to get through the same as above.

Click	Virus	Firewall		Click	Virus	Firewall
	120/40	80/20			90/30	80/20
First	100/40	40/20		First	70/30	50/20
Second	100/40	0/20 (dead)		Second	50/30	20/20
				Third	50/30	0/20 (dead)
		Anti-virus				Anti-virus
	100/40	70/40			50/30	70/40
Third	60/40	30/40		Fourth	10/30	40/40
Fourth	60/40	0/40 (dead)		Fifth	0/30 (dead)	10/30
				Sixth	0/30 (dead)	0/30 (dead)
		System Core				System Core
	60/40	70/10			0/30 (dead)	70/10
Fifth	50/40	30/10		Seventh	0/30 (dead)	40/10
Sixth	50/40	0/10 (dead)		Eighth	0/30 (dead)	10/10
				Ninth	0/30 (dead)	0/10 (dead)
		VICTORY				FAILURE

As you can clearly see there is a great benefit to training to V on your hacking skills.  The above breakdown also shows how damage is applied, notice whenever you kill a defensive subsystem his damage is not applied.

Hacking Walkthrough:

The majority of the time the system core will be located on the outside nodes, periodically it can show up one node deeper in but that doesn't happen often.

I start off picking a direction from my starting point and clicking only the outside nodes until an obstacle presents itself.

Even though I could destroy that firewall, for the sake of demonstrating my method for hacking I'm going to ignore it and go a different direction.  Notice I still only hit outside nodes until I can't go any further.

I picked up a repair subsystem which I will use and since I'm blocked from all outside edges I'm going to make my way to the nearest edge until I can't go any further.  I'll become blocked which is why there is a second arrow going up.

Because there are more nodes available up top, I'm going to ignore that node outlined in yellow.  This is smart because to gain access to multiple nodes I need to kill one firewall instead of having to kill two firewalls to gain access to one node.

Now even though the system core isn't on the outside edge, the majority of the time it will be.  I also uncovered two data caches but you always want to ignore those until you run out of options because they often contain defensive subsystems which will ruin your day if you still have options.