Hacking glossary

The language of the network, explained simply. Every term has its own anchor, so you can share a definition directly.

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Attack power #: How strong your breaches are. In ROOTWAR it is 10 points per cracker level, 4 per CPU level, plus a base of 10. Compared with the target’s defense, it sets your success chance.

Backdoor #: A hidden way back into a system. Flavour term in ROOTWAR: no mechanic lets you keep permanent access to another player.
Bank cap #: The most credits your miner can accumulate passively. The vault raises it by 28% per level. Stolen or earned credits can exceed it, but mining pauses while you are above it.
Binary #: Base-2 number system (0 and 1). One of the arena puzzles: convert an 8-bit byte to decimal, e.g. 10110010 = 178.
Black ICE #: In cyberpunk fiction, intrusion countermeasures that fight back. Also the name of a UI theme in the shop.
Botnet #: A network of compromised machines controlled remotely. The fair-play ROOTWAR equivalent is the crew: coordinated players who strike together.
Brute force #: Trying every possible combination. In ROOTWAR it is what your cracker stands for: the stronger it is, the faster and more often your breaches succeed.

Caesar cipher #: An ancient cipher that shifts every letter by a fixed number of positions. Arena puzzle: recover the plain word from the ciphertext and the given shift.
Control points #: A crew’s score in a district, earned by hacking its relay. You need at least 50 points and first place to own the district. Points decay by 5% every 10 minutes.
Corporate server (NPC) #: A game-controlled target: banks, clinics, casinos… Every district has four of increasing tier. They never strike back and cool down in 3 minutes.
CPU #: An all-round module: it speeds up every operation and adds a little attack and defense per level.
Cracker #: A tool that breaks a system’s protections. Your rig’s main attack module: every level adds 10 attack power.
Credits (₵) #: The free in-game currency, used to upgrade your rig, move and found a crew. Earn them by mining, hacking servers and robbing other players.
Crew #: A team of hackers (up to 25 members) with a leader, officers and a private chat. Crews fight over the network’s districts and score season points.
Cryptocurrency #: Digital money such as bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), USDT or litecoin (LTC). The only payment method accepted for Shards, through a secure payment processor.

Darknet #: An overlay network reachable with dedicated tools. In ROOTWAR it is pure atmosphere: the whole game network is fictional.
DDoS #: A distributed denial-of-service attack that floods a service with requests. Illegal in real life; ROOTWAR simulates none and protects its own servers against this kind of abuse.
Defense power #: Your rig’s resistance to breaches: 10 points per firewall level, 3 per CPU level, plus a base of 10, and +15% when your node sits on your crew’s turf.
District #: A zone of the network. There are 16: an outer ring (tiers 1–3), an inner ring (tiers 4–6) and The Mainframe in the centre (tier 8). Higher tiers pay more.

ELO #: A rating system invented for chess: beating a stronger opponent earns a lot, losing to a weaker one costs a lot. Everyone starts at 1,000 in the arena.
Exploit #: A technique that takes advantage of a flaw. In the game, a Zero-Day is a giant exploit the whole server fights together.

Firewall #: A filter that blocks unwanted connections. In your rig it is the main defensive module: +10 defense per level.

Hexadecimal #: Base-16 numbering (0–9 then A–F), everywhere in computing. Arena puzzle: copy a six-character code without mistakes as fast as you can.

Mainframe #: A large central computer. The Mainframe is the network’s central district, tier 8: the most lucrative and most contested.
Memory (RAM) #: Module that sets how many operations you can run at once: one per level, up to five. Often the best early-game upgrade.
Miner #: Module that produces credits continuously, even offline, up to your bank cap. 6 ₵ per minute at level 1, much more later.

Node #: Your position on the network: the district your rig sits in. It sets your neighbours, the targets you see first and your home-turf defense bonus.

Operation #: A breach in progress. Its duration (4 to 90 seconds) and success chance are fixed at launch; the outcome lands when the countdown ends.

Phishing #: A scam that tricks victims into giving away their credentials. ROOTWAR will never ask for your password outside the official login form.
Port #: A number that identifies a network service. Arena puzzle: among twelve ports, select every one matching the rule (for example divisible by 7).

Relay #: A district’s core infrastructure. Only crew members can hack it to earn control points; a relay already held by a crew is 25% tougher.
Reputation #: Prestige earned by hacking players, repelling breaches and fighting Zero-Days. Season reputation drives the main leaderboard.
Reveal #: When the victim learns who attacked them. A failure always reveals you; a success reveals you with a chance that drops with your stealth and rises with their firewall.
Revenge #: For 24 hours you may attack someone who hacked you even if they are far weaker than you, although the level gap normally forbids it.
Rig #: Your hacking machine, made of seven modules: CPU, memory, cracker, firewall, stealth, miner and vault. Each module is capped at your level + 5 (memory goes up to 5).
Root #: The all-powerful administrator account on Unix. In ROOTWAR it is the top arena tier (1,700 ELO and up), rewarded with an exclusive theme and frame.

Script kiddie #: A wannabe hacker using tools they do not understand. It is the first arena tier, below 900 ELO.
Season #: A four-week competitive period. When it ends, rankings are archived, rewards handed out, season reputation reset and ELO pulled halfway back to 1,000.
Shards (◆) #: The premium currency, purchasable with cryptocurrency only. Shards are only for cosmetics: no gameplay advantage can be bought.
Shield #: Temporary protection against other players: 24 hours for new accounts (lost as soon as you attack a player) and 20 minutes after being breached.
Stealth #: Module that lowers the risk of being identified after a successful hack. Without it, the victim almost always sees your name and can strike back.
Success chance #: The probability that a breach succeeds, shown before you launch it. It starts at 50% for equal strength and ranges from 5% to 95% depending on your attack versus the target’s defense.

Terminal #: A command-line interface. ROOTWAR’s terminal accepts commands such as help, scan, hack, upgrade, move or rank, with history and autocompletion.

Vault #: Module that enlarges your bank and shields part of your credits from theft: 10% at level 1, then 1.3 more points per level, up to 75%.

Zero-Day #: A flaw unknown to the vendor, so unpatched. In ROOTWAR, a world event every two hours: a boss spawns in a district and the whole server attacks it for 15 minutes.

Everything you just read clicks even faster with a terminal in hand. It is free and instant.