DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION

This achievement should come naturally as you play the game. I picked it up when I got to Shanghai in the Alice pods. As you play the game, hack devices anytime you get the chance. A good spot to pick up several is in the police station inside all of the offices, many of which can be reached by sneaking through the air ducts. Another is the main workstation area on the first level. You can hack every employee's computer, which nets you at least 10. I did this with a level 3 hack ability, so you don't need anything higher than that.

As for the actual hacking process, make sure you take a look at what you're facing before starting the first capture. If your first node is pretty high difficulty, maybe you need to use a nuke to take it down. And don't be afraid to use your stop and nukes whenever you feel the need. You will constantly pick up more, especially if you go after the bonuses in each hack. Once you've been detected or are likely going to be detected, start fortifying all of your nodes while you're waiting for the next target to be available for capturing. If you can build up fortified nodes quickly, you will slow down the network from locating you. My hacking upgrades only consisted of the lvl 3 ability and lvl 1 fortify. I do not yet have any analyze or stealth bonuses. Most of the hacking process is just speed and some luck. If you get spotted on the first 40% chance of a long hack, you'll probably have to disconnect and retry no matter how many bonuses you have. Enjoy

OK, so before I get going on my attempt at a hacking tutorial, I just want to mention something I just found... The quick inventory button. I just learned about this and wanted share. Press and hold the Y button. Use left stick (LS) on the radial and when you release Y you will select whatever the radial is on. FYI, press LS to cancel the radial selection. This makes switching weapons so much easier!

Preface: I worked on upgrading my hacking skills pretty early on. On a second playthrough, I did not bother with fortify though, and it really did not matter much. Getting to level 5, and with robots and turrets, and also lowering the percentages was the most helpful upgrades.

So, in the beginning, hacking really bugged me because I just did not get it. Now, as I'm nearing the end of the game, I feel like a pro, a slightly cheesy pro, but a pro all the same. I'm not going to overly re-hash what's covered via the in-game tutorials, but if you want specifics, just ask.

So first off, here's my big tip: Save before every hack. If you don't mind the reload time, this is the best way to learn and execute hacking. Chances are, once you get your upgrades increased, if you get detected and reload, you can hack the whole puzzle undetected.

Tip number two: If the bridges allow, you can hack the diagnostic sub-routine (the stack of red squares that send out the trace). If you can hack the DSR, you not only automatically capture the registry (or registries), but every data store (bonuses) too. So sometimes it just makes more sense to go for the DSR if you can, and this more than justifies the use of nukes.

Which brings me to general tips. Nukes are pretty self-explanatory, they nuke the node with 0% chance of discovery.

Stops slow down the trace process, once started. You can apply the stop directly to a node and/or press the RB to activate a stop. It's takes a bit of practice to get comfortable with, but once you get the hang of fortify (on your entry I/O port), you may or may not need stops. The fact that they can be quickly applied though (RB) does make them VERY useful.

So you should also know that the data stores give you bonuses as credits, XP, stops or nukes. I almost always try to grab them all. If I can, I leave the data stores fore last. I'll make sure I'm one node away from all the data stores, and one node away from the the registry (registries). Then, starting with the node with the highest rating, I'll start the captures. This is a good technique too when there are multiple registries (see below).

Lastly, to be effective, you do need to pay attention to the arrows on the bridges. Sometimes it's quicker to get to the DSR, or maybe to helpful APIs (on-line tutorial covers these), instead of going for the registry. If you can't get to the DSR, sometimes you are required to capture two registries to complete the hack. In this case I like to set up my hack so that I can execute the capture on the last few nodes at the same time. This technique may be less than obvious, but based on the rating of the node, I would try to capture high numbers first and then while they are capturing, quickly grab the lower ratings. In this way multiple nodes are capturing at the same time, and even if you are detected, you will most likely finish before the trace finds you. Just keep an eye on the timer, and if you need to, fortify or pop off a stop (RB).

Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions. This achievement does seem to come pretty easily naturally, but I'm on a stealthy, no kills, no alarms, playthrough, so hacking is crucial for my success (FYI, hacking security hub workstations to get to camera control is definitely worth the effort!).