Hacking

Hacking is the illegal act of gaining unauthorized access or data and may result in outlaw status reports if observed. Colonists are encouraged to report suspicious activity near matrix relays or monitoring stations.

The HACK command is gained from learning the skill 'Novice Hacking', which has a chain of pre-requisite skills. To use the HACK command, the colonist must have a smartpad equipped in their gadget slot.

Smartpads are powerful hand held computing tools. They can be loaded with various programs and are required for hacking and access to certain information. You can buy several models of smartpad from the Central Complex, accessible via shuttle. All smartpads come with one program pre-loaded, new programs can be found by hacking weaker nodes, or by looting faction bases. A colonist can then LOAD ON to consume the chip and acquire the program on their smartpad.