ROOTWAR beginner guide: your first hours as a hacker

Read the interface in thirty seconds

The top bar sums up your situation: your credits (₵) ticking up live thanks to mining, your income per minute, your Shards (◆), your level and XP bar, your arena tier and, during your first 24 hours, the icon of your newcomer shield.

In the middle, the Network view shows the map of the 16 districts. The blue arrow marks your node, the district where your rig lives. Click a district to see who controls it, then hit Scan to reveal its targets. At the bottom, the terminal narrates everything and takes commands; on the right, the chat connects you with other hackers.

Understand your rig

Your rig has seven modules, all at level 1 when you start:

• Cracker: +10 attack per level. This is what pushes your success chances up.
• CPU: speeds up every operation and adds a bit of attack and defense.
• Memory: one simultaneous operation per level, up to five.
• Firewall: +10 defense per level against other players.
• Miner: 6 ₵ per minute at level 1, even while you are offline.
• Vault: grows your bank (1,500 ₵ to begin with) and shields part of your credits.
• Stealth: lowers the risk of being identified after a successful hack.

A module can never exceed your player level + 5, so earning XP matters just as much as spending credits.

Your first hacks: corporate servers

Start with corporate servers, the targets run by the game. Every district hosts four of them with rising tiers. In your starting district the first two are tier 1: their defense equals your starting attack, so the displayed success chance is around 50%.

1. Open the Network view and click Scan.
2. Check the success chance (green above 60%, red below 35%) and the estimated loot.
3. Click Hack: a breach animation starts and the result lands after about fifteen seconds.

A tier-1 server pays around 90 credits and 25 XP. Win or lose, it then cools down for 3 minutes, so rotate between several servers and keep your memory slots busy.

The right upgrades in the right order

Your 500 starting credits should get to work right away. Here is an order that works:

1. Cracker level 2 (100 ₵): your chance against a tier-1 server goes from about 50% to 64%.
2. Memory level 2 (400 ₵): two operations in parallel, nearly doubling your loot per hour.
3. Miner (80 ₵, then a little more per level): income that keeps flowing overnight.
4. Vault as soon as your bank is full, otherwise mining stops.

After that, alternate cracker and CPU to take on tier-2 and tier-3 servers, which pay far more. The Rig view shows, for every module, its current effect, its effect at the next level and how long until you can afford it.

Protect your credits

During your first 24 hours, a shield stops other players from hacking you. Careful: it vanishes the moment you attack a player. Use that window to build up your firewall and your vault.

When a player breaches you, they steal 8% to 25% of your unprotected credits. The vault keeps part of them safe (10% at level 1, more with every level). The best habit is still to spend before you log off: a credit invested in your rig can never be stolen. After being breached you automatically get a 20-minute shield.

The terminal is your best friend

Anything you do with the mouse can be done with the keyboard. Press ` to open the terminal, then type help. A few handy commands:

• scan: scans your district (or scan kernel-heights for another one).
• hack npc 12: hacks the server with id 12.
• upgrade cracker: upgrades a module.
• ops and logs: your running operations and your history.

Tab completes commands and the arrow keys recall your history.

Claim your account

You start as a guest. Once you are hooked, open Profile and pick a name and a password: your progress is kept and you can log in from any device. An account is also required to found a crew and to use the shop.

What next? Read hacking other players before your first PvP, then crews and territory to join a team.

Frequently asked questions